A/N: Hello folks! I hope you enjoy this piece. I really just wanted to give Will some dedicated time for building a romance he deserves, and space to heal from what happened in season 3. In this headcanon, Hopper didn't die, didn't get fired, and Joyce didn't move with Eleven and Will. She and Hopper started dating after the events of season 3, and Eleven didn't lose her powers. Everything else is the same.
I hope you enjoy, and please leave me a review with your feedback!
"Bye!" Will's face fell as he watched his mom and Hopper drive away, leaving him alone at the front of Hawkins High School. High School. It was really here. Will was not sure he was ready, especially after the summer he had just endured, in which both his life and friendships were rattled by the Upside Down.
Thankfully, they were all managing after what happened earlier in the summer. Since they brought down the Mind Flayer, Eleven continued working to control her powers as she prepared to enroll in High School. Max slowly but surely was healing from the loss of her brother. Relationships gradually fell back into place as their normal everyday lives felt a bit more comfortable each day. Even Joyce and Hopper had started officially "going steady" as they put it.
Will wished he had someone of his own to as he healed from the summer. He had his friends, his mom, Jonathan, but he craved something else. Someone else.
Will purposely walked up to the looming, large doors, vigilant of the kids milling around him, watching for a sign of Troy or another mouth breather. All clear. Will's shoulders settled a bit.
"BYERS!" Three bikes whizzed past Will, barely missing him. Will shrieked involuntarily, and Mike, Dustin, and Lucas, who had just nearly flattened him, snickered.
Will loved his friends, but they could really be the worst sometimes. The three of them grinned ear to ear, parking their bikes in the bike rack near the school entrance.
Mike elbowed Will gently, teasing "You scream like a little girl, Byers." Will rolled his eyes and squashed down the tiny burn of butterflies deep in his stomach that had brewed for years before he finally began getting over Mike this summer. He knew there would always be something special about the way he felt about Mike, but he was finally moving on and not jealous of Mike being with El at all anymore.
Speak of the devil, El and Max bounded up, El snaking under Mike's arm immediately and Max punching Lucas on the shoulder. "Hello, friends" El giggled. "First day of school."
Lucas, who was wincing at the loving greeting from his girlfriend, squeaked out "Hey El. How was the sleepover?" Both girls looked at each other and giggled again.
Rolling his eyes, Mike grabbed El's hand. "Yeah yeah yeah, secret girl stuff, okay." They begin migrating to the school, and frenzied small talk erupted amongst the group. Will was happy to have his friends but slowly found himself zoning out a bit. He didn't really belong with them all the time. Lucas was with Max, Dustin was always calling Suzie, Steve and Robin were inseparable best friends, Mike and El were attached at the hip, and even his own brother was always with Nancy, talking about college applications and next year's life plan.
Will just… didn't fit. He felt like the odd one out a lot. This was particularly fueled by the feelings he had been keeping deep inside for years. Feelings that, if he allowed himself to be honest about, might remove him from the group completely. To him, no feelings of relief that his admission would bring were worth losing his family and friends, so he stayed quiet. He would take being slightly on the sidelines over being removed from the game entirely any day.
It was while in this reverie that Will absolutely crashed into someone else, too preoccupied with his own thoughts to notice his friends moving to miss the person. They landed in a tangle of limbs. Will groaned and rolled onto his back, before being hit with a surge of guilt. He scrambled to help the kid gather his stuff, rushing out "Oh my GOD, I am so sorry, are you oka-" Will's words caught in his throat as his hand reached out and touched a comic book at the same time as the mystery person. Will looked up and was taken aback. Across from him was a boy; not just a boy, but the most beautiful boy Will had ever seen. The butterflies normally reserved for Mike and the occasional attractive movie star burst up all the way to his throat, and his jaw dropped. The boy had curly, semi-long dark curls, bright blue eyes, and an elfin face. His button nose and small mouth were scrunched in a smile, though Will could tell he was holding in a groan of pain. The boy was skinny but toned, and he was wearing a fall sweater and clean (well, they were probably clean before) slacks, with light blue laced sneakers to top off the look. He was… stylish. Stylish, in Hawkins, Indiana? Now that was pretty rare.
"Are YOU okay?" Will realized the boy was talking to him.
Embarrassed, he moved his hand (from where it had stayed brushed on the mystery boy's) and scrambled up, dusting himself off. "I'm fine, I am so sorry, I didn't mean to run into you."
The boy chuckled, high and light, like bells chiming for church. Will melted a little bit more. "It's no worry, I survived, and so did my prize copy of the most recent edition of Superman. If that hadn't, then you might have been in trouble, but we are all good." He winked, wiggling the comic book that Will had tried to help him pick up, and held out his free hand. "Name's Elliott Chapman. And you are?"
Will's face flushed and he shakily held out his hand. "Will. Uh, Byers. Will Byers."
They shook hands, and Elliott's eyes softened even more. "Well, it has been nice to meet you, Will Byers. Even if you did attack me before we even spoke." He winked again. Why is that so damned cute? "I'm the official new kid this year. At least I can tell my parents the name of one kid I met when I get home, so they don't get too worried about me." This was meant to be a joke, but Will sensed a tiny shift in Elliott's behavior. Was it sadness? Will couldn't tell.
"Well, if you need someone to sit with at lunch, you can sit with us! And we can test you on your Superman knowledge to see if you are a real fan." Dustin piped in, Will shot to look at his friends, realizing he had been completely absorbed in Elliott since the fall.
"Uh, yeah! If you want to, feel free. Be warned though, we are the loser table." Mike offered, though the ever-protective side of him seemed a little annoyed that Dustin had opened their party to this mystery new kid.
Will turned back to Elliott and nodded, stuttering out "Totally, if you want you can sit with us."
Elliott smiled warmly, and whispered, "The loser table, eh? Sounds like a match made in heaven for me. Count me in. I'll knock your socks off with Superman facts"
"Great! Third one from the back - I have had that claimed since middle school." Dustin smiled, baby teeth peeking in his pink gums. "First lunch bell, we'll meet you there." As if on cue, the warning bell for first period rang, and the party scrambled to get to their lockers with a chorus of "oh shits", leaving Will and Elliott to stand facing one another for one more moment.
"Will Byers," Elliott smiled and gestured toward the doors. "Care to show me where "Mr. Pr-O-letter's classroom is? As repayment for the morning clobber?"
Will flushed again and nodded. "Oh, yeah, of course. By the way, it's Mr. Pr-AH-letter, he hates when people mess it up." The walked through the double doors. "First door on the left at the end of the hall."
"Thank you so much. See you at lunch?" Elliott smiled and clasped Will's shoulder. Will melted into the touch a bit.
"Yeah, of course, see you then." Will's eyes followed Elliott with a dreamy gaze as he sprinted surprisingly quickly down the hall before scanning a door tag and slipping out of view. He is… perf- Will's daydream was broken by the sound of the actual first-period attendance bell. "Fuck!" He sprinted away, mind still reeling over Elliott.