Busses and handsome strangers
“Shit!” Was the first thing Will Byers said when he woke up. He was gonna be late. again. He jumped out of bed, put on his glasses, and looked around for some clothes. He checked the time, he had 15 minutes until his bus would leave. He ran downstairs and quickly ate breakfast, brushed his teeth, and left. The bus driver, who is usually a bit late, decided that it would be fun to be early this time, so when Will stepped out of the door, he saw his bus drive away. “Wait!” He yelled while he ran after the bus. “Please wait for me!” One thing you should know about Will is that he isn’t fast, he also isn’t strong. He’s small and not very muscular. He also really wasn’t in shape. “Hello! Please stop the bus!” He yelled again, still running. The bus did not stop. He looked up and saw that everyone on the bus was laughing at him. Great. Just as he was about to stop running the bus stopped and the doors opened. “Thank you,” Will said to the bus driver as he stepped into the bus, out of breath. His eyes scanned the bus, looking for an empty seat. He saw one, next to this girl with pretty black hair and perfect make-up. He walked over to her, but as he wanted to sit she said “No way new boy, go find another seat.” Yeah, that was another thing you should probably know about Will Byers, he was new. He and his mom, stepdad, and stepsister moved to New York two weeks ago and he was not used to the big city yet. He was from Hawkins, a small town. In Hawkins, he biked to school, instead of taking the bus. In Hawkins, he didn’t get lost every five minutes. Well, at least people don’t call him zombie boy here, that’s a win. He finally found a spot in the back of the bus and looked out of the window the entire ride to school.
School was shit. Okay maybe he was exaggerating a bit, but let’s just say Will did not like school. While he was walking through the hallway he saw his sister Jane. He waved and she walked over with a bright smile on her face. “Hey Will,” she greeted him, “Heard you almost missed your bus this morning.” Will sighted. “I’m just not used to taking the bus, Jane.” He answered. Jane gave him a sympathetic look and said “Don’t worry Will, you’ll get used to it.” “You also said that last week, and I still get lost.” Jane rolled her eyes and smiled. “We’ll take the bus home together, so you don’t have to worry.” Will was about to answer her but got interrupted by a voice behind him. “Jane, come on we gotta go to class!” Will turned around and saw a girl standing behind him, she had flaming red hair and a face filled with freckles. “Oh, hello,” the redhead said, “you must be Will. Nice to meet you.” “Hi,” Will answered, “I’m sorry, but I don’t know who you are.” He continued with an apologetic smile. The redhead laughed. “Will, this is Max, my friend from my science class, remember?” Jane said. Will vaguely remembered Jane telling him about this cool girl in her class and he nodded. “Nice to meet you, Max,” He pointed to her T-Shirt, “I like your Shirt.” Max looked at her shirt and looked back at Will with a huge grin plastered on her face, “You like the Cure?” She asked. Will nodded. “I already like you,” Max decided, “Well, I’d love to talk to you longer but we really got to get to class. Bye, Will.” Jane and Max walked away. Will walked to class feeling a bit better than before, at least he made a friend.
Friends, that was also a thing Will was struggling with. He had tried to approach multiple people for the last few weeks, but he didn’t make a single friend. It kind of sucked.
He walked into art class and sat down at one of the tables filled with art supplies. Art class was one of the only classes that he actually paid attention to, it was his favorite subject actually. “Okay listen up everyone,” his art teacher Miss Brown said, “We are going to start a new project today. A group project. Everyone go pick out a partner.” Shit, Will thought. He looked around and saw that everyone in his class was already pairing up. He was about to think of a way to find a partner when he felt someone tap his shoulder, he turned his head and saw a guy standing behind him. He had brown curly hair and a bright smile. “Hi,” the boy said, “wanna be my partner?” Well, that was easy, Will thought. “Sure,” Will said with a smile, “I’m Will.” “I know, my name is Dustin,” Dustin said, still smiling. “Cool,” Will said, and then “I like your shirt.” Because he didn’t know what else to say and complementing Max her shirt had helped. “Thank you. Are you a Ghostbusters fan?” “I am actually, when I was 13 I went to school in a Ghostbusters costume.” “No way!” Dustin said, “Dude that is so cool!”
After class Will and Dustin walked through the hallway together, they had chemistry together too. “So, you’re Jane her brother right?” Dustin asked. “You know Jane?” “Yeah, she’s friends with Max.” “Wait, you know Max?” Dustin laughed. “We’re all friends, me, Max, Lucas, Mike and I guess you and Jane are part of the party too now,” Dustin explained. “The party?” “That’s what we call our friend group.” “And you’re sure I’m allowed to join, is the rest okay with that?” Will asked a bit uncertain. “Of course they are, they’re going to love you! You can sit next to me on the bus tomorrow because I think Max will sit next to Jane, so Lucas will probably sit next to Mike.” Will was relieved that Dustin wanted him as a friend, even though he didn’t understand the bus part of Dustin’s speech. “Wait, what about the bus?” He asked. Dustin looked at him as if he was dumb, “The bus to Brennercorp tomorrow.” Dustin said as if it was obvious. “Wait, that’s tomorrow?” Will asked, how on earth did he miss that. “Yeah, I’ve been looking forward to it for months now. I love science and technology you know.” Will was also a bit excited to go to Brennercorp, he was pretty interested in all kinds of science and technology, even though art was more his thing.
Chemistry class went by very quickly. Will said goodbye to Dustin and walked down the hallway towards his locker. Will took off his glasses to clean it with his shirt. He was so focused on cleaning his glasses that he didn’t see that the guy who was walking in front of him suddenly stopped. Will walked straight into him and dropped his glasses. The guy turned around and wow, he was handsome will could see that without his glasses. “Shit, I am so sorry,” Will apologized, “I wasn’t paying attention.” He bent down to pick up his glasses from the floor and put them on. He looked back up to the guy and it turned out that he was even more handsome than Will had thought. Will blushed a bit and thought about what he should say. He settled with: “I’m Will, sorry again for bumping into you.” the handsome stranger didn’t look impressed. “Watch where you’re going next time, new boy.” He said. Will was taken aback by that. “Sorry,” he laughed, because he thought the situation was really awkward, “I was cleaning my glasses so I didn’t really see you.” He laughed again because he really didn’t know what else to do. Handsome stranger clearly wasn’t amused. “What’s so funny?” He asked angrily. “Nothing, sorry” Will said quickly, Jesus what was up with this guy. Suddenly he noticed that the handsome stranger’s eyes were red, it looked like he’d been trying. “Are you okay?” Will asked him. “I’m fine, why?” Handsome stranger answered a bit aggressively. “Oh, nothing. It’s just that you look a bit upset.” “It’s none of your business.” Handsome stranger looked really pissed. “Sorry, I was just concerned.” Will apologized. “Well, next time mind your own business and leave me alone.” Handsome stranger walked away. Well, that was weird, Will thought. And he continued walking towards his locker.
Jane sat next to Will on the bus. The entire time she talked about this guy from her math class. “And he helped me with my math homework! I finally understand it now! He was so nice to me!” She said. “Wait, who were we talking about again?” Will asked, his mind was still with the handsome angry stranger who definitely had been crying. “Mike from math class!” Jane exclaimed, “Honestly Will, pay attention! Anyway, you’ll meet him tomorrow! He’s also going to Brennercorp! I think you two will get along.”