Chapter 35: Steps
What are you up to?
Mia writes on a piece of paper from her notebook. She rips it out and folds it. She then goes across the hall and slides it under her cousin's door.
She then goes back to organizing her tutoring books and working out a schedule. Sorting out the days she would need off for big tests or to finish projects and then thinking about what to teach on what days with Jane.
She looks up when she hears the faint sound of paper sliding back under the door. The shadow of Bill is visible. Smiling, she goes over to retrieve it.
Homework is the response. Boring as hell do you know anything about the War of 1812?
Mia smirks and writes her response.
Bill waits until the paper slides back under to his feet.
Besides the fact that the British/Canadians burned down the original White House, not much. Sorry. Take a break if you need to, and go outside.
The teen looks at the Math homework that he'd finished and the stack of science questions next to it. It sucks that he can't ask Stanley anymore whether he got the equations and answers right or not. He figures he can just call Ben about History since he and Mike were their historians of the former Loser's Club.
He then looks at his sketchbook and pencils, deciding he'd been inside long enough.
Slipping out of his room, Bill nods to his cousin as he heads toward the stairs.
"Y-You never saw me," he whispers.
Mia motions that her lips are sealed and then goes on to tackle her own homework by shutting the door.
Bill pulls on a coat and goes out to the curb again. His father was working, and his mother and Georgie were out back finishing raking the leaves... at least his mother was. He had a good twenty minutes or so before she called him back in to complete his homework. Thank God for the yard having a lot of trees out back and Georgie's desire to jump in leaf piles.
He sits down and begins to sort through his drawings. He looks at his Bill the Brave and Will the Wise image of himself as a knight and the kid, Will as a wizard. He smiles, remembering how Will helped him develop this character and the many creatures they might encounter along the way. Maybe it could make a good comic book or graphic novel…
A lightbulb seems to go off in his head and a smile spread across his face. Bill immediately pulls out a blank sheet of paper and begins to make a list of ideas for settings and other characters to be a part of his story.
…
"Sorry Will, you just missed him," Mrs. Wheeler says.
The teen's face falls in disappointment at the news. Again, he'd missed Mike to hang out.
"He finished his homework and then was allowed to go over to Jane's house," she continues.
Of course, Will groans in his mind. Of course, he'd go see her.
"Well thanks anyway Mrs. Wheeler," he says, walking from their front door towards his bike.
However, the disappointment doesn't last long when he sees the Bill kid sitting out with his drawing supplies. He smiles and quickly walks over to meet him.
"Hey!" Will says.
Bill looks up and smiles. "Hey."
"Is this just where you draw now?"
"I g-guess," he says. "I just needed a b-break from homework and to g-get out of the house."
"Been there," Will agrees, coming to sit next to him. "Any progress on your Bill the Brave drawing?"
The kid from Derry immediately shuffles his list of ideas to the bottom of the pole to hide it from anyone else. What if Will thought it was stupid?
"Not-t really," he admits. "I'm not s-sure where to take it from here."
"Well, with any knight he's going to need different armour for different situations, and I think they should have a crest on his shield and bunch of different weapons," the kid from Hawkins says excitedly.
Bill pulls out the drawing they made the last time they'd met.
"My wizard always has different robes and wands," he continues.
Without hesitation, Bill pulls out a blank piece of paper for Will to draw.
"What… what colours do you n-need?" Bill asks.
"Let's go royal blue," he says. "I'm thinking Will the Wise should battle a water hydra and should be able to camouflage to give him an advantage… Where's your hydra from last time? I want to use it as a basis for my design."
Bill shuffles through his papers to find it and Will notices the written list among them.
"What's that?" he asks.
"W-What's what?"
Will goes into the stack without permission and pulls out the list that he'd been making. After speed reading it, he looks at Bill.
"Are you going to write a story?"
Bill turns red to the point that his ears are also flushed and stutters extremely hard. He can barely get the words out, worried about what the response is going to be.
"S-S-S-S-Sort of…" he admits. "I-I like the id-idea of making a c-comic book-k or a graphic-c novel."
"Really? That's so cool! It's such a great idea!"
"It is?"
"Yeah, I mean can you imagine a fantasy story like that? An epic adventure. A knight on a quest to… save those ancient ruins of his kingdom that keep peace and prosperity of the land…"
"And then he seeks the help of a w-wizard to be his guide," Bill suggests.
"Yeah! And the ruins would look like this…!" Will takes a pencil and begins to create different symbols.
Big Bill feels some relief that his idea wasn't a total flop, and a spark has reached his mind, it begins burning with possibilities. Mainly about the plot and some ideas for monsters too.
"D-Do you want to work on it with me?" he offers.
Will looks at him. "Are you serious?"
Bill nods. "There's no way I c-could do this alone."
"Oh man, that would be so awesome. Yes, I'll help,"
The team smiles and then immediately gets back to work. They start bouncing ideas off each other, Bill suggesting ideas, monsters, and locations while Will draws them out and suggests further detail. The well-oiled machine works until Mrs. Denbrough comes out.
"Bill, come inside and finish your homework…" she then notices that her son is with someone.
"And who are you?"
"I'm Will. Will Byers. Bill and I go to school together."
"Bill why didn't you tell me you made a new friend?" she asks.
The teen's face goes red in embarrassment and simply shrugs. Suddenly, his mother's treating him like he's seven again. While it had been difficult to make friends due to his stutter and the constant bullying, his mother treated him as if he'd just won Olympic gold every time, he hung out with someone. Now the process of her trying to make sure he kept this friend and he knows it will be ten times worse because of the recent implosion of the Loser's Club.
He knows what happens next.
STEP ONE: Praise your son, introduce yourself and cue the mother's nicknames.
"Honey, I'm so happy. Hello Will, I'm Mrs. Denbrough. It's nice to meet you."
"N-Nice to meet you too," Will says politely. He could tell that Bill's mom was embarrassing him because of how red his ears were.
STEP TWO: Offer for the friend to come inside for snacks.
"Would you like to come in for a snack?"
"Uhm… I think I get going. My mom wants me to be home before six."
STEP THREE: Insist and offer to call the mother.
"Oh well, I can't let you leave on an empty stomach, why don't you come inside for a few minutes can call her…"
STEP FOUR: Offer to drive a said friend home.
"And Bill's dad is more than willing to drive you home."
Bill continues to stare at the ground, mortified by this. He wishes his mother would just let his friend go home and not make a big deal out of it.
"Uh…" Will stammers. He doesn't want to go into the house, but at the same time, he doesn't want to be rude. A snack does sound nice and even if it was to grab a cookie or something, he could be gone in less than five minutes.
The Hawkins kid looks at Bill for some approval and the two exchange a look indicating to just go with it, as it will test their newly found partnership and see if it is strong enough to survive mothers.
"Um, sure I'll come in for a few minutes, but don't worry about driving me home. I have my bike and I live outside of town and it's a bit of a drive."
STEP FIVE: Shrug off any possible inconveniences mentioned by the alleged friend
"Well, that won't be a problem, we have a bike wrack on the back, but come in for something to drink. I have fresh cider."
The two boys in absolute silence walk up towards the house, Sharon Denbrough's plastered-on smile a little eerie and her almost robotic movements usher them inside.
Will likes the house, sparsely decorated, but since they moved here from Derry, he did not expect much. He's surprised at how nice the house was. He'd known who had lived here previously and would sometimes see the elderly lady outside gardening, but he also remembers Mike telling him about how crazy the elderly man was. Spending nights on the roof, installing a massive antenna on the roof to strengthen his radio signals, and keeping vigilance with his binoculars. Before the Upside Down, the shy Byers boy always assumed that the man ranting about conspiracies and the government was just talk coming from old age or a way to get people to leave him alone, but now… there was a lot of truth to what he'd said. The lengths the government… or rather Hawkins Lab was willing to go to hide his disappearance and what they'd been doing. And then this past summer with the mayor concealing the fact that Russians had invaded their mall of all places… perhaps they should have listened to this man as his view of the world had been changed and scarred forever.
Georgie is sitting at the table snacking on cheese and crackers while drinking some cider. He has one of his colouring books out. When he sees the new kid, he stops.
"Hi, I'm Georgie!" he says, with a mouth full of crackers. Several crumbs fall from his mouth and cover his colouring book.
"I'm Will," he says. "I think we met before… awhile ago."
"Are you Bill's friend?" the kid asks point-blankly.
Bill turns even redder and just wishes he could sink into the floor. Could his family be any more embarrassing? His mom was worse, but Georgie was a close second. Time for…
STEP SIX: Be overly accommodating as the hostess and cheerful to the point where it's creepy.
"Help yourself to some cheese and crackers, cider's coming right up. Feel free to have a seat with the boys," she says smiling widely. "Georgie, make sure you share the crackers."
"Thank you," is all Will can say before taking a seat, Bill slumping down next to him, head down in mortification.
Georgie pushes the plate of cheese and crackers over, but not before taking a few more for himself. The Hawkins kid takes one before sliding the plate to Bill. He nibbles on the snack quietly, not a big fan of it, but eating the Ritz with cheddar cheese on top to be polite.
Suddenly, two large mugs of cider appear in front of them, startling the teens.
"Enjoy," Mrs. Denbrough says in a very enthusiastic tone.
"T-Thank you," Will says politely. "You're very nice to do this."
"It's no trouble at all."
STEP SEVEN: Offer further hospitality such as dinner.
"Are you sure you don't want to stay for dinner?"
"N-No thank you," he declines. "I have to get home to get ready for school tomorrow."
"Ah, all right…"
STEP EIGHT: (if declined) Offer invitation for another day
"Maybe we can do it another time,"
"Maybe…"
"Now, I need to go do some laundry if you need anything Will, just holler."
"Thank you, Mrs. Denbrough."
"You're welcome," she smiles again before leaving the room but keeping her eyes on them until she's out of sight.
The trio of boys are now alone and sit in complete silence. Bill's head is still on the table, Georgie is munching on his crackers and Will takes a sip of cider. It is good cider, but he's not sure he can drink this huge mug.
Eventually, the littlest leaves the room with his colour supplies to go colour by the fireplace, which would be lit as soon as his father came home. Will takes some long sips of cider and says nothing.
Finally, away from it all, Bill removes his head from the table and looks apologetically at his friend.
"S-S-S-S-Sorry about my mom," Bill stammers under his breath. "And my brother. Sh-Sh-She goes-s a little crazy sometimes. Es-specially when friends-s are over."
"It's okay, all moms are a little crazy," Will jokes. "My mom embarrasses me all the time, even when she doesn't mean to."
"Why do they do that?" he moans.
"My mom likes to say that it's her right as a mother."
"More like their duty," Bill mutters. "Y-You don't have to drink all the cider."
"It's okay, it is really good," Will offers to take away some of Bill's embarrassment. "You have a nice family."
"Th-Thanks."
"Is it just your parents and your brother?"
"N-No, my cousin is living with us while her mom travels."
The lie comes smoothly as it was for Mia's protection.
"That's cool."
"What about y-you?"
"It's just me, my brother and my mom. My dad's an asshole who cheated on my mom."
Bill is surprised that he's sharing something that is usually kept private.
"That s-sucks."
"Yeah it does, but I don't miss him. He only really liked my brother Johnathan because I didn't like the things that he did like cars and baseball."
"I d-don't like that stuff either. My dad l-likes gardening and a lot of hydro s-stuff because he worked at a hydropower plant in Derry. He and I b-build things sometimes, b-but that's it."
"He sounds like a good dad," Will says. "You're lucky."
Bill just nods, feeling bad about his friend having such a bad relationship with his dad.
"N-Now is the time to escape in t-to not end up staying for dinner."
The two boys get up from the table. Will leaves his half-finished mug on the table. As he walks past the fridge, something makes him freeze in his tracks. A kid's drawing scribbled out in crayon hung from it. Drawn by Bill's younger brother, it seems as normal as can be, except that the figure in the picture has no face and instead rounded pieces of flesh that fan out almost like a flower. It also has long gangly arms that hang down to the ground, a hunched-over appearance and is gray, brown, and black. To tie it all together it had the word Shadow Monster on the bottom of the page.
His heart drops and flashes enter his mind taking him back to that night in November and then running in a place so cold and dark. Also the mention of shadows… like the entity that possessed him.
"W-What's that?" he stammers.
"What?" Bill says. " Oh that, it's s-something Georgie drew. He says it's the monster living in his closet. For some reason, my mom thinks it's a good idea for his drawing to s-stay here, so he be-comes less afraid of it."
Will swallows a large lump in his throat and continues to stare at it.
It can't be…It's dead! Eleven killed it. It has to be a coincidence! he thinks.
"Pretty c-creepy huh?" Bill says. "But my parents think he accidentally s-saw a scary movie and had nightmares. They ch-checked his closet, there's nothing there."
The boy exhales in relief, thankful that it was all in the mind of a child.
"Yeah, creepy," is all he can say.
The two teens walk to the door and Will retrieves his bike.
"Should we meet tomorrow after school to talk about the graphic novel?" he asks.
"S-Sure," Bill agrees. He had nothing better to do.
"Cool, see you in school," he calls out before beginning to bike away.
Bill waits until his new friend exits the cul-de-sac before shutting the door.
He had fortunately avoided STEP NINE: Embarrass son until he either loses or gains a new friend.
…
Will bikes home, wishing he could unsee Georgie's drawing. It had to be a coincidence. He shudders knowing he's not going to sleep well tonight.
A/N: Please follow and review. Hope everyone is looking forward to Season 4.
Glaring Eyes: Thanks for the reviews as always. Yeah, it is a nice bonding moment for Mia and Steve. Georgie's drawing has caught someone's eye now.