F. 1

"HELLO? IS ANYONE HERE? HELP!!!!" Mike yelled, banging hard on the front door of the school.

"Please!!!!! anybody?" He tried again, raising his voice once again."For fuck's sake!" He called in anger, turning away and kicking the row of lockers behind him. Dustin and Lucas were such idiots. And now, because of them, he was stuck all alone in school for the night. 

Mike walked around the school, his foot steps echoing in the dark and empty hallway.

Mike hated the silence.

He hated that he was here.

He couldn't believe he had been that stupid!

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"Wheeler, coach told me to tell you to put the uniforms in Mr. Clark's classroom," Dustin had told him after football practice. Mike barley understood the weird choice of words, and was about to explain to Dustin how he could make his sentence clearer, but he stopped himself. Even after three years of being "popular", it was hard for him to hide the nerd in him sometimes.

"Why?" Mike asked, gulping down half a water bottle and pouring the rest on his sweaty face.

God, he hated sports.

"I don't know, it's coach's decision, man! just quit whining and throw them in there!" Lucas said, pushing the pile of stinky uniforms at him aggressively.

Mike sighed. He really didn't want to... And didn't each person take their uniform home to wash? but he didn't argue. It was nice, having people who bullied him all through elementary school calling him "man". 

Mike liked going through the halls with Dustin and Lucas and the other guys from the football team, his arm around Jane Hopper, the most popular girl in school.

He felt so powerful, he knew everyone knew who he was, everyone would want to be his friend. It was an addictive feeling, the feeling of being adored.

He wouldn't risk it for something as stupid as not putting uniforms in the right place.

So he did, running to Mr. Clarke's classroom and putting the stack on the desk. After a moment of thought he removed his own shirt, placing it on the pile with the other ones. His bag was right outside, he could wear his regular shirt then.

The other upside of playing football? It was the first time ever Mike felt comfortable enough to walk without his shirt on. Proud, even. So that's how he had strolled the halls, confidant and happy.

That's when he found out Dustin and Lucas had been playing one of their "hilarious" pranks on him, letting him go into the school building right when the janitor was about to close the building for the night.

It was too perfect to not be intentional.

Mike had tried breaking the locks, the windows and screaming for help. All to no avail.

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This wasn't the first time the guys from the football team had played a prank on him; once they had taken his clothes when he was showering, once locked him outside in the freezing snow at a meet up at Troy's house, and countless other incidents.

Mike always laughed with them, like he knew he would tomorrow at school, but he was so humiliated it hurt.

How come they never did anything like this to any of the other guys?

why was he always the one to be laughed at? He kept wondering the halls, empty classroom to empty classrooms, feeling ashamed and angry at the same time. Also, he was really freezing just walking around shirtless.

Finally, at the very edge of the hall, he saw a light in one of the classrooms, shinning slightly  through the door. He walked towards it, hoping that maybe a teacher was still at school, someone who could let him out.

He opened the door and stepped in, but the classroom was empty.

Or at least, so he thought upon first viewing. When he scanned the classroom again, he saw a small figure sitting on the floor at the furthest end of the class.

It was a petite boy, his face only half visible over a huge drawing pad.

The boy had light brown hair and huge hazel eyes (or at least, eye, as that was all Mike could see of his face), so big they made him look very Innocent and young.

His face was very pretty, and there was a focused light in his eye as he stared at whatever he was drawing.

He was extremely skinny, his legs curled up so the sketching notebook could lay on them. At first glance he looked to be very young, maybe fourteen or fifteen.

but Mike knew better.

The boy sitting in front of him was William Byers, known at school as the "fairy queen".

He was one of the least popular kids in the 11th grade, constantly bullied for his shyness and slightly feminine behavior.He had exactly one friend, a girl with fiery red hair named Max Mayfield. She had moved to Hawkins just two years prior, and always tried to protect him from the bullies, yelling at everyone who called him an insulting name.

She also wasn't the most popular girl in school, but she seemed to have enough friends to not be a complete social Pariah, unlike her best friend.

Why did Mike know so much about this random boy? It's not like he knew so many things about every kid in his grade, but Will and him...

Well, long ago, before he started dating Jane, before he joined the football team and the world of popularity, Will was his best friend in the whole world.

Their friendship hadn't exactly ended smoothly. No, screw that, it ended TERRIBLY.

This was going to be an interesting night.

[AUTHOR SAYS]

Hey, thanks for choosing to read my story! if you haven't, check out my other books "addicted", "like we used to be" and "starstruck" (also Byler).♡

I have a bunch of things planned for this, but you know how it is exposition and shit. Hopefully I'll get everything out of the way next chapter so I can start with the interesting stuff. Anyway, promise It'll get better. I'm really excited for this one! I really like it ngl

I'll update this every other day, check out my profile for the exact posting schedule:)

enjoy♡