#aroace el

March 22nd

"Happy Birthday dear Will! Happy Birthday to you!" The mottled choir finishes its song with a swell of emotion. Robin Buckley, co-founder and Co President of Hawkins High Pride, pats a mildly embarrassed Will Byers on the back.

Robin’s insanely cool. She's a loud, talkative senior, and one of Jonathan's friends from drama class. She also seems weirdly bonded with Steve Harrington, which Will finds odd, but Robin assures him Steve is nice. He thinks he'll take Robin’s word for it.

"How can you be 15 baby Byers?" She asks, a nostalgic grin across her freckled face. Robin’s girlfriend, Vickie, ruffles his hair.

"Seems like only yesterday we blackmailed Troy Walsh into leaving you alone in the sandbox. My God, that was back in Elementary School!" 

Vickie grimaces, as if to say, Jesus I'm old. Robin whacks her on the arm.

"You're an old lady!" She teases Vickie, that evil glint in her honey eyes.

"Are you into old ladies Rob?" Asks Will, wiggling his eyebrows up and down in a suggestive fashion. 

Vickie roars with laughter at the sudden flush of colour on her girlfriend's face. Before this interesting situation can escalate any further, Eddie Munson, the slightly intimidating, but hilariously clumsy, other co-president and founder, spills a full 2 litre bottle of Fanta into a bowl of doritos. Everyone in the small group descends into chaos as they attempt to sort out the bowl of soggy corn chips.

"Okay everyone! Stay safe, I hope everyone had a good spring break and–" Robin cuts herself off before she can start rambling. She's not very accustomed to being the centre of attention, she's just starting to gain her confidence. Her autism and adhd can make her a bit rambly sometimes too. Eddie Munson takes over, he's more used to being in the spotlight than Robin.

"We'll see you next week!" He grins and waves as the handful of students file out of the classroom. 

There weren't as many kids at Hawkins Pride today -not that there were usually more than fifteen anyway- but the seniors were only kids back at school today. To be completely honest, Will wouldn't have come today either if Jonathan and El didn't have things on at school this afternoon too. 

Jonathan's photography club won't be finished for another fifteen minutes so Will wanders in the direction of the gym. El's there with the Captain of the Cheer team, Chrissy Cunningham.

Chrissy, despite being popular, seems nice. She's offered her afternoon to give El extra coaching for the cheer team. Will won't lie, he was surprised when El decided to try out for the cheerleading team. But so far, she's loving it. Will keeps finding her practising tumbles and jumps and God knows what other crazy tricks in her room.

He shoves the door to the gym open. El and Chrissy are in the centre of the gym with a gymnastics mat. El holds up a pom-pom and waves at him as Will takes a seat on the bleachers. He'll let them finish off whatever cheer stuff they're doing over there. He pulls out his sketchbook and begins drawing what he sees. El in her cheerleading top and black leggings, her hair pulled back into a bun.

Chrissy does some flippy thing, her blonde ponytail twirling around in the air. Will giggles a bit when El attempts to copy, but ultimately mucks up the landing and falls on her ass. Before he can yell out and ask her if she’s okay, Chrissy’s helping her up once more.

***

“You pair ready for school?” Asks Hop. He surveys the twins. El’s hair isn’t done, and she’s missing a sock. Will only has one shoe on and his backpack seems to have gone walkabouts. Both have scarlet blood dripping from opposite nostrils. There’s cushions hovering next to El and gold sparks flickering around Will’s fingertips.

Jonathan wanders in, ready to leave, his keys dangling in his fingers. El and Will watch as an eyebrow climbs its way up his forehead. The cushions fall to the floor with a soft thud and the sparks disappear with a crackle.

“What on earth are you both doing?”

“Friendly disagreement!” Will quickly supplies, an explanation would send them down a rabbit hole.

“Super friendly!” El agrees, nodding hastily.

Jonathan’s not sure he’ll ever get used to the wacko antics his siblings get up to. It was weird enough gaining a half-sister, let alone one with superpowers. And then, as if that wasn’t enough to process, his little brother can electrocute people with nothing but determination. Yep, it was official, Jonathan Byers was no longer the weirdest in the family. Damn it, he’d loved that title, so typical of the twins to steal it from him!

“Hurry up!” Jonathan threatens as he ushers Hopper outside. Will and El’s nonsense can’t cause the entire household to be late. Some family members have, like, actual jobs that they need to be on time for. 

He stops back in the kitchen to shepard El away from the Eggos and again in Will’s doorway to remind him that no– he doesn’t have time to get his paints out, not if he wants to bike to school with the rest of his friends. He loves the twins– really, he does, but they do seem to have inherited Joyce’s slightly scattered tendencies. They do manage to get out the door on time though, and Jonathan waves to them from his car. He watches that they meet Max at the end of their street, then makes his own way to Argyle’s place.

Meanwhile El greets Max with her usual running hug, yelling Max’s name from about half a street away. Will just laughs. They’re just so cute, the best of friends. 

Will and Max strike up a conversation as El swaps shoes from her white converse to her favourite purple roller skates.

“So… Mike’s starting today?” Will asks, and really, truly, he’s trying to sound casual. It doesn’t help that he and Mike got along so well at the park the other day. He can’t help it, okay? Mike is the definition of good looking and he’s Will’s estranged best friend. What more could you want?

Unfortunately for Will, Max is blind, not deaf. She hears the excitement in Will’s tone and shoots him a coy, lopsided smile. Will groans internally. Why are girls such scheming little terrors?

“Yeah that’s right! 

El subtly steadies herself with her powers, clutching onto Max's arm and she wobbles about on the stopper of one skate. When she regains composure, and ceases to resemble Bambi on ice, the three race onwards, speeding towards Dustin’s Street.

As Will pedals, they pass Hawkins Laboratory, or at least the skeleton of it. He shudders lightly, remembering his God awful stay there as a twelve year old. The scar on the inside of his wrist tingles as they pass the perimeter quickly. Will steals a brief glance at El to check she's alright, but El seems to have flown ahead on her skates. 

Bother her! Will thinks as he stands up on his bike to accelerate faster. Max enjoys zooming down the road, not too fast, but not slow enough that she'll lose the race to Dustin’s place.

They reach the Henderson's in record time, four minutes from the Hopper/Byers house. El has the most shit eating grin on her face as Will catches up to her, waiting outside Dustin’s house.

"I won!" 

It's then that Will spies the bright red drop threatening to spill from El's nostril. He knew it! She was cheating! El gives him a cheeky wink, which plainly says "welp, you put the idea in my head. No take backs!" 

Dustin’s front door opens and the man himself emerges.

Will takes a moment to assess Dustin’s appearance. His hair is standing on end and the sleeves of his jumper are rather singed. It looks like he's stuck his fingers in a powerpoint. El vocalises this, giving Will a playfully accusational glare.

"You know it wasn't my powers, I was with you the whole morning!"

"I wasn't with you when you lost the race!"

Dustin cackles, almost rolling on the floor. Will honestly wouldn't be surprised if it turned out Dustin was descended from a family of hyenas. He's basically the meme guy of the group. Will's pretty sure Dustin's sent more Tiktoks to the group chat than El has posted pictures of eggos to her instagram. (Half of them aren't even good photos. She usually forgets not to devour half a waffle before she takes the picture.)

"Oh man! Nah I can't– Oh Jesus– El you're hilarious–" Dustin leans himself against a wall trying to breathe. Max rolls her pale white eyes. Her bemused face hasn't changed a bit.

"Ya' know Dustin, this is probably the first time in my life I actually wanna see you!"

After learning that Dustin was attempting to invent a phone charger that ran on potato peels, Dustin had jumped on his bike and they hurried over to Lucas's. 

Lucas is waiting outside his place, already on his bike. His green and orange basketball uniform can be seen poking out of his duffle bag. He greets everyone with a wave and his giant friendly grin. Except Max– She holds her hands out making a grabbing motion. Lucas plops his face into her hands and lets Max feel his face and hair.

"You got a haircut!" She exclaims as they pedal or skate slowly toward Mike's house.

The house looks just like it did in Will’s vague memories. Old, probably built in the seventies, maybe earlier. Two stories and decent size, a home built for a family. 

"It could be a bit of a wait." Dustin warns Will. Everyone dumps their bikes and skateboards to sit on the curb. "His dad's kinda… unhelpful."

Not necessarily a family home anymore, from what he’s been told. Mike doesn’t seem to get on with his dad very well. That’s weirdly relatable to Will. His real dad, Hop, is perfectly fine, he loves Will, El and Jonathan so much it can actually be a little unbearable, but Lonnie? 

Lonnie Byers was an asshole, and Will’s glad he’s pissed off to Indianapolis.  

From somewhere inside the house, loud music’s playing. Will recognises the song as Fight for your Right by The Beastie Boys. He giggles a little– what a random song to be blasting at 8:30 on a Thursday morning. Out of the corner of Will's eye, he notices Dustin sneaking up behind Lucas.

There's a loud SLAP noise, then…

"I like ya cut G!"

Lucas turns around to glare at Dustin. He gives him the most deadpan, unamused stare that Will's ever seen.

"I actually hate you." 

Dustin sits down between El and Lucas. His shit eating grin says it all.

"Nah, you actually don't."

There's a shout from somewhere inside the house and the music switches off. Heavy footsteps sound and the front door bangs open and closed. There stands Mike, his hair pulled back into a ponytail. Off his arm hangs a small girl. Her hair is blonde and in two pigtails and she appears to be wearing an Elsa t-shirt. She looks mildly terrified.

Mike stands at his door and quickly raises his middle finger. Then he looks down to the little girl– presumably his sister, Holly –and apologises. Then he joins everyone else at the curb.

"One– Sorry, dad's a dick! Two– hey everyone! Three– Will, Jane, this is my sister Holly." 

Holly waves her hand rapidly at the twins, so fast Will’s half afraid it’ll fly off. She then point to the top of her head.

"Cat!" She exclaims, gesturing to a pair of pink glittery cat ears. Then she runs over to Max, meowing as she trots. Will bites back a chuckle. Kids will be kids.

"Um. Yeah. She's going through a cat phase." Mike explains hastily. He looks really awkward, rubbing the back of his neck. El wraps her arms around Mike's waist and pulls him in for one of her death hugs. Will swears he sees Mike go blue before El finally lets go of him. One of these days she’s going to make someone pass out from a lack of oxygen.

"Hi!" Says Will softly as Mike wheels a fancy looking bike out from the garage.

Mike beams back at Will. His smile could light up this whole town.

"Hi!" He echos.

***

"So Will, tell me: is there anything about Hawkins High that I oughtta know?"

They're walking leisurely down the hall. Will's been instructed to just walk about with Mike, show him around from a student's perspective. He contemplates Mike's question. Hawkins High is pretty standard honestly. Nothing out of the ordinary. There are plenty of assholes, this is Indiana after all.

"Well… There's mean girls and rude jocks. Lucas and Jane could give you a pretty good run down of them." 

"Jane gets bullied? But she seems so… happy?" Mike has a look of utter disbelief on his face.

Will shrugs. That’s El’s way of coping, she balances out the negativity by being super positive and nice to everyone all the time. Not at home though, at home she’s a menace. Still excitable, but she looks a whole lot less innocent when she’s playing pop music obnoxiously loud and wearing Will’s favourite flannel like it’s her own. 

That’s probably just a sibling thing though.

"She's on the cheer team. Most of the girls are nice… Angela Darwin though…" Will trails off.

Mike's eyes widen. He most definitely knows Angela Darwin. Her days as Queen of Hawkins Grammar School still haunt Mike. Her fake nice voice. The way she would casually give Max flack for not having much money. Her stupid walk.

"That bitch? Is she still strutting around like a peacock with a pencil up her ass?" 

Will bursts into a fit of laughter. He pictures Angela’s face atop a peacock's body. This is definitely something he has to draw later. He might even watercolour it! 

"Bro the mental images–" He manages to say between loud sniggers.

Mike, who'd been doing a fairly decent job of keeping a straight face, smirks. When he meets Will's eyes, all composure dissolves and they're basically leaning on each other laughing.

When they finally regain the ability to look at each other without cackling, Will continues to tell Mike about El's experience on the cheer team.

"She joined up last term. I was sceptical, but most of the girls are really nice. Team captain is Chrissy Cunningham, and then there's Jennifer Hayes, Ruby Schwartz, Delilah and Amelia Ashfeild and Trinity Jacobsen."

Mike nods. He can't think of anything else to say right now… his brain's still stuck on Angela the Peacock.

He’s silent for a beat, then Mike's lips part into a mischievous grin. He quietly snickers, stealing glances at Will waiting to make eye contact. When Will catches his eye, he too snickers, correctly guessing that Mike's still picturing a feathered Angela Darwin. Together they erupt into another fit of giggles. (And Will calls Dustin a hyena!)

The boys keep laughing, not hearing a classroom door creak open. They don’t hear the soft thud of footsteps, they keep laughing, leaning against each other until Will catches the sharp “Ahem” coming from possibly the most grumpy teacher in all of Hawkins High School.

He looks up from where he’d buried his face into Mike’s shoulder and straight into the eyes of Mr Durham, the Algebra teacher who reeks of coffee and hates Will’s entire existence for some reason. (Probably because of that one time he made Will cry in class and promptly got a full Hopper family ‘talking to’.) His face, if possible, looks even grumpier than usual.

“Byers! What the HELL do you think you’re doing?” 

Will swallows hard. Usually he’d just mumble an apology and be on his way, but Eddie’s been bugging him to stand up for himself more, and Jonathan’s given him plenty of pep talks about this guy. He takes a deep breath and tries to find some confidence within him.

“Leave him alone! He was just showing me around!” Mike spits, before Will can think of something to say. Mike’s eyes are narrowed and his hands are on his hips. He looks like he means business. Will gets a strange feeling of deja vu, he’s definitely seen this look on Mike before, somewhere inside his fractured memories of kindergarten.

“Well, well, well, Michael Wheeler! Didn’t think I’d be seeing you here!” Mr Durham spits. 

Why on earth does he sound like a cartoon villain? Will can picture him in a mask and elaborate black costume, actually. (Now he’s got another caricature to draw!)

“I didn't think you were still allowed to teach, after what you said to me and Will, but here we are!" Mike retorts.

Mr Durham's face contorts to look even more angry. Will hadn't thought it was possible to get that mad, honestly. He's surprised there isn't a scribbled cloud over the teacher's head. He seems to take Mike's words as a challenge.

"Well, it looks like I was right! Look at the two of you, cutting class together. You pair of f–"

"Finish that sentence and I'll make sure you get fired!" 

"Yeah! Homophobia ain't cool brochacho!" 

Mike and Will whip around to see Jonathan and his strange friend Argyle standing just outside the opened classroom door. Jonathan's angry face strongly resembles Joyce's, to the point where Will's almost certain it is his Mom standing there. Argyle looks high as a kite, but still protective, in his own quirky way.

"Ah! Jonathan Byers–"

"Don't call me that name. I've told you a million times it's Hopper now."

Mr Durham closes his eyes and sighs in frustration. Will really hates this teacher. He acts like it's a personal attack that he and Jonathan don't want to have anything to do with Lonnie Byers.

"Okay then Hopper, why don't we all just go back to where we should be." The sarcasm that drips from Mr Durham's voice sends chills down Will’s spine. He's so–

Will doesn't even know what!

"That," Jonathan says, his tone low and warning, "sounds like the best idea you've had all day!" 

Mr Durham gives Will and Mike one last awful scowl, then marches back into his classroom. Jonathan shoots Will a wink and reluctantly follows his grumpy teacher back inside. Argyle waves his whole arm at Will and Mike, yelling:

"See ya, my dudes!" 

Will chuckles and waves back. That's Argyle for ya. He then turns back to Mike, who looks pretty frustrated still.

"We should probably get out of here." 

"No arguments from me!" Mike agrees.

Will runs down the hall, to the staircase, gesturing for Mike to follow him. Mike's rather un-athletic run is pretty amusing to be honest. When Mike catches up to him, Will perches on the handrail and slides down.

Mike lets out a laugh, some of his anger fading. He slides down in a similar manner, then follows Will outside into the school yard.

***

Will covers his ears when the school bell clangs at recess. (It’s so noisy, and for what?) He shows Mike a spot under a shady tree. It’s in close proximity to the assisted learning block, which is useful for Max, it means she doesn’t have to walk too far, and can just use her cane and not have to have someone guide her. 

El likes being outside in nature, to feel the sun and hear the birds, she missed out on a lot of that, being trapped in the lab. Sometimes she’ll just lie there under the shade of the tree and rest. It’s probably the only time she’s not moving. She loves the feel of the grass on her skin, even if it makes her itchy afterwards. 

Dustin likes that it’s secluded enough that he can show everyone tiktoks without getting into trouble for the volume or language. He can sing to himself and nerd out about his current fandoms without getting heaps of negative attention. Mostly he tells a bunch of horrible puns. Only El laughs at them, Will’s a little concerned that Dustin’s corrupting her sense of humour.

Lucas likes that there’s space for him to run around the tree without stepping on anyone. He’s the most sporty out of the group, with Max at a close second. Lucas never could sit still, in the entire time Will’s known him, Lucas has always wanted to just run. That was part of what made his parents suspect he had ADHD. Now he’s on medication the urge to run isn’t as strong, but he likes having the freedom to do so anyway.

And Will? He loves the beauty of the spot. In the fall when the leaves turn orange and red. In the winter when snowflakes fall soft on the exposed branches of the tree. And now in spring, when the tree is covered in flower buds and the sun shines its golden rays through the gaps, bathing everything in warmth. He loves to sit and sketch the landscape, or his friends in the aesthetic lighting.