"sometimes an angel,
sometimes a hell raiser."
clara wheeler had no intentions of involving herself in her twin brothers little clan of misfits.
that all changed when the one boy she genuinely liked went missing, and clara would help get him ba...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
°
In the uttermost silence, the waiting room had somehow lulled Clara Wheeler to sleep.
She sat next to her brother and Lucas, Dustin on Lucas's other side. Her head laid on the boys shoulder, eyes closed in exhaustion.
It was entirely odd, at least the group of people huddled in that tiny room. Clara had a small laugh at that long before she'd passed out.
"Guys, guys! Will's up!"
Clara shot up at her brothers jolt, a shiver running down her spine.
It would be like this for a while, she supposed. Constant worry.
Clara followed after the excited trio of boys, the clothes Nancy had brought for her to change in to clinging to her body uncomfortably.
"Will!" Mike shouted in glee, reaching on to the bed and embracing the boy, Lucas doing the same.
Clara, however, leaned against the doorway. She knew the Byers boy would want to see his closest friends first, however much she'd helped to find him didn't matter.
"You missed so much!" Dustin exclaimed.
"Jennifer Hayes was crying at your funeral!"
"Troy peed himself!"
Will laughed, a sound Clara hadn't realized she missed.
A coughing fit took over him, Clara frowning slightly.
Of course there would be side effects of being trapped in a toxic alternate dimension.
"We made a new friend, she saved us!" Dustin announced, showing a toothless smile.
"But, she's gone now," Mike explained sadly, before immediately jumping into the stories of Eleven.
Nancy had appeared in the doorway next to her, glancing down at the girl. "Aren't you going to say hi?"
Clara pursed her lips, "let them have their time, Nance."
After the stories of El, Mike had paused yet again.
"We had more help, too. It wasnt just us and El."
Mike turned to his twin, nodding for her to come over there. Clara shook herself from her thoughts, forcing her feet to slowly walk to the bedside.
"Clara?" Will murmured, knitting his brows together.
"Hi, Will," she whispered below her breath, moving to sit on the side of the bed.
"You helped them?" He grinned, and the girl only laughed, reaching and pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Of course I did, Will. I wasn't going to just accept you were-" she gulped, "gone.."
The three boys behind Clara all exchanged similar glances. They'd suspected Will's crush on Clara Wheeler for years, it was only a matter of time now.
With the five each chatting animatedly, the world seemed to be back to how it should be, how they worked for it to be.
____
In the weeks that followed, Christmas approached quicker than it had in years.
Clara busied herself in the kitchen, fitting the stereotype she hated, with her mom a lot.
Now, they were baking cookies. Karen would take them from the oven, and Clara would frost them.
The low tune of Holly Jolly Christmas in the backround brought a smile to Clara's face as she washed her hands, flicking water from them.
"Tell your mom merry Christmas for me, Jonathan!" Karen asked with a smile.
Clara whipped around, drying her hands before motioning for Will to wait a second as she sprinted up the stairs.
Reaching under her bed and grabbing a bright red wrapped box, Clara rushed back down the stairs, noticing Will off to the side as Nancy and Jonathan talked.
"So, I got you a little something," Clara grinned, relaxing her shoulders before handing the box to him.
"O-Oh. Thanks, Clarie," he mumbled, a red blush creeping on to his cheeks. The boy used the nickname people close to her always used.
She smiled, genuinely, for the first time in awhile.
In the box was some kind of science-y book Mike helped her pick out, as well as an entire box of colored pencils and a sketch book with blank paper.
"Yeah," she felt her cheeks heating as well as she looked down at her feet, the Christmas tree socks seeming even more cheesy.
"Have a nice Christmas, Clara," Will smiled softly, turning to walk away.
Clara thanked him, grinning to herself as she trudged her way up the stairs and into her room.
Clara laid in her bed, staring up at the plastic glow in the dark stars that had been stuck to her ceiling for as long as she could remember.
