With an eyebrow raised, Matthew silently watched as Mike shoved something into his jacket before putting two waffles onto his own plate and then made his way over towards the kitchen table.
And while each member of the Wheeler family ate their breakfast, Matthew simply drank some orange juice out of the glass he grabbed and watched as Mike had rather quickly eaten his waffles without any syrup on them.
After looking between her two brothers, one of whom was staring at the youngest brother with an eyebrow raised, Nancy said to Mike, "Slow down, Mike. That's disgusting."
It was then that Mike turned to Nancy and asked her, "Do a lot of studying last night?"
After quickly glancing over at Matthew, who was doing nothing but shaking his head to himself with a smirk on his face, Nancy said with a nod of her head, "Yeah, actually, I did."
Mike replied, "What was your test on again? Human anatomy?"
After watching two of her children move around in their seats, Karen asked them, "Hey, what's going on?"
Simultaneously, the both of them said, "Nothing."
Then Karen turned her attention over towards Matthew, who was covering the entirety of his plate and his waffles with syrup.
It wasn't until she cleared her throat that Matthew slowly looked over at her to see that she was staring at him with an eyebrow raised.
He silently eyed her before he said, "What?"
When Karen only glanced down at his plate that was filled with syrup, he scoffed to himself before he started to eat his last remaining waffle and chose to ignore the look that Karen had on her face.
* * *
With his headphones on and the tape on his walkman playing, Matthew quickly walked through the school and in the direction of where his locker was.
And while he walked through the school, he caught sight of his sister Nancy talking to Jonathan Byers— the older brother of the boy that had recently gone missing.
After taking his eyes off of them, he could see Nancy's friend Barbara Holland standing near Steve Harrington and his two friends, Tommy H and Carol.
And while he walked past the four of them, Steve and his two friends quickly glanced over at Matthew and watched as Matthew had walked past them with a scowl on his face.
And despite not being able to hear whatever it was that Tommy H was saying to him over the sound of Highway to Hell loudly playing on his walkman, Matthew still made a point of raising a middle finger up at Tommy and completely ignoring Steve and Carol, who were silently eyeing him before bringing their attention back over to Jonathan and Nancy.
It wasn't until Matthew had reached his locker that he found himself shoved against it with his face pressed up against his own locker.
Due to the fact that he couldn't hear anything over the sound of Highway to Hell still playing on his walkman, he couldn't make out anything that the person was saying to him.
The only thing he knew about the person was that they had to have been physically stronger than him, due to the fact that he couldn't break himself free of the grip that they now had on him.
It wasn't until Girls Got Rhythm started to play on his walkman and he had actually grown tired of the fact that his face was pressed up against his own locker that he quickly threw an arm back and elbowed the person that was holding him in their chest.
As soon as they had loosened the grip they had on him, he quickly turned around to see that it was none other than Tommy H's younger cousin, Stephen— someone that had been giving Matthew grief for as long as he could remember.
After shrugging his backpack off of his shoulder, he threw a punch into Stephen's face before narrowly dodging a punch that Stephen had sent his way.
Stephen had stumbled forward after failing to land a hit on Matthew before he found himself being shoved into a wall and finding himself at the mercy of Matthew, who was repeatedly punching him in the face with an enraged look on his face.
And while Matthew continued to punch him in the face, Stephen's own group of friends quickly made their way over towards them and grabbed Matthew by his arms and forcefully pulled him away from Stephen.
And because of them doing this, Matthew waited until they were close enough to the wall of lockers before he pushed his back into them, which resulted in them letting out groans when the backs of their heads had hit the lockers.
And while they groaned to themselves, Matthew quickly stomped onto their shoes before he threw his elbows into their chests and then turned around to give each of them a kick to the balls.
While the two boys doubled over in pain and clutched onto their covered balls, Stephen tightly wrapped an arm around Matthew's neck and watched as the middle child to the Wheeler family attempted to break free of the grip that Stephen had on him.
When it was deemed quite obvious to Matthew that he couldn't break free of the grip that Stephen had on him, Matthew took it upon himself to throw the back of his head into Stephen's face before throwing an elbow back into Stephen's chest and then turning around and shoving Stephen away from himself.
After glancing back at Stephen's two friends, who were now on their knees and on the floor, Matthew turned his attention back over to Stephen, only to get a punch to the face.
In response to the punch that he just received, Matthew had stumbled back and blinked to himself a couple of times before he went to throw himself at Stephen, only to stop when he felt someone grab the back of his jacket.
Because of his immediate assumption that it was just Tommy H or someone else for that matter that was choosing to stick up for Stephen, he was about to throw an elbow into their chest again, only to stop when the headphones were ripped from his head, and he could hear the sound of his math teacher talking to him.
With a roll of his eyes, Matthew attempted to break himself free of the teacher's grip, only to let out a groan when he couldn't.
And just like that, both himself and Stephen Hagan were practically dragged down to the principal's office.
* * *
While waiting for his mother to get in the principal's office, Matthew only rolled his eyes when he heard the principal give him the same exact speech he'd been given since he first got into a fight during his second week at the school just two months prior to this.
It wasn't exactly a surprise for him that the blame was put onto him, instead of Stephen Hagan, who was the one that actually started messing with him when Matthew was just trying to get to his locker.
Although, in Stephen's defense, he did throw the first punch, so he kind of understood why the blame was being put on him and not Stephen.
But he chose to ignore the understanding he had on the matter, since Stephen was the one that shoved him against his locker.
And despite how much he was annoyed by the fact that the blame was being put on him yet again, he didn't bother to tell the principal what actually happened.
Because just like what happened the past few times that he got into a fight with someone on school grounds, the principal would turn to Stephen and his friends and would believe their word over his, so he saw no point in trying.
So, the most he did was cross his arms over his chest and rest his head on the back of the chair, only to stop and turn his head when he heard the door open and saw his mother walk into the office.
With a sigh, she said, "Again, Matthew?" When Matthew only shrugged in response to her words, she let out a sigh and asked the principal, "How long is his suspension this time?"
Instead of answering her question, the principal merely waved his hand towards the only other empty chair in the room, which got Karen to let out yet another sigh before she made her way over towards the empty chair and sat down.
* * *
While they both went to get out of the car, Karen said with a sigh, "Honestly, Matthew. How many more times are you going to be getting into these fights? I mean, really. You're not even halfway through the school year, and you've already been suspended five times. You're lucky that you haven't been expelled." When Matthew only shrugged his shoulders, she asked him, "Do you really have nothing to say about this?"
When he only shrugged his shoulders yet again, she shook her head with a sigh before she quickly walked ahead towards the front door with Holly in her arms.
While Matthew slowly walked behind her with his hands shoved into his front pants pockets, Karen started to open the front door as she said to Holly, "I bought pizza and macaroni." After Holly had simply said 'okay', Karen had also said, "Okay."
When she turned her head to see that Matthew wasn't even close to the front door, she quickly waved her hand, which got him to roll his eyes as he continued to walk in that same exact pace.
With a sigh, she shifted the bag that she was holding in her free hand before she turned her head when she heard rapid movements up the stairs, which got her to ask, "Ted? Is that you?"
In turn, she heard Mike yell, "Just me, Mom!"
Karen replied, "Mike? What are you doing home?"
Mike yelled, "One second!"
And after the sound of his bedroom door being slammed shut was heard, Karen turned her attention over towards Matthew, who had finally made his way into the house and was shrugging off his backpack and started to take off his jacket.
While Karen only closed the front door with a shake of her head, Matthew headed up the stairs and towards his bedroom shortly before his mother said, "Michael?"
* * *
Ever since his mother had walked back out of the house with Holly in her arms, Matthew was lying on his bed and looking through a couple of his notebooks that were only filled with drawings of people he'd seen since he started to go to Hawkins High School.
Most of the people he drew were the popular pieces of shit like Tommy H, Carol Perkins, Steve Harrington and Stephen Hagan.
Some were the group that the popular people would consider to be nerds.
And then there were the few people that were labeled as freaks that Matthew himself had never personally interacted with but had simply kept a close eye on whenever he happened to be in the same room as them or were walking past one of them in the hallways of the school.
But no matter the stereotype in which the groups of people were a part of, he never interacted with any of them unless it was completely and utterly necessary.
And the instances in which he interacted with them either involved him fighting them or yelling insults or threats at whoever pissed him off.
And as he looked at each person he'd made a drawing of in his notebooks, he couldn't help but start to feel angry at the mere faces of those that pissed him off before tilting his head and furrowing his eyebrows when he looked at the most recent drawing he made, which was about a week ago when he was in the cafeteria and eating lunch by himself.
It was this one particular drawing in which he was worried that he didn't do it correctly, so he would have to keep himself from re-doing it repeatedly every time he saw that very same person walking around the halls and talking with his own group of friends.
He only looked away from the drawing of the classmate that had caught his interest as of the first week of his freshman year at the high school when he heard two loud slams coming from Mike's room.
With a sigh, he swung his legs off of his bed and quickly made his way out of the room with his eyes narrowed and a scowl on his face.
It wasn't until he was out of the room that he yelled, "Mike, you fucking piece of shit! What did I tell you about slamming that damn door of yours?!"
After quickly walking towards Mike's room, Matthew's anger had only increased when he found that the bedroom door to Mike's room was locked.
As he started to repeatedly hit his hand against the door, he yelled, "Mike, you better open this fucking door right now, or I swear that you'll regret it!"
In turn, Mike yelled, "I-I'm naked!"
With a scoff, Matthew yelled, "We've got the same fucking shit, dumbass!"
It was then that he heard Dustin say through the door, "I-It's true. He's totally naked and he doesn't wanna flash you, so if you could come back some other time, that'd be great!"
With a snort, Matthew asked his brother, "Seriously, Mike? You really expect me to believe that you're fucking naked with Henderson in there with you?"
Then Lucas yelled, "It's true! He's totally and a hundred percent naked!"
With a sigh, Matthew closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose as he said, "You've got to be fucking kidding me." After letting out yet another sigh, he said, "Fine. Whatever. Do whatever the hell you want, but I swear, Mike, if you slam that fucking door shut ever again, it's your ass!"
* * *
With a tilt of her head, Karen asked, "Something wrong with the meatloaf?"
Dustin told her, "Oh, no, I had two bologna sandwiches for lunch." After a couple seconds of silence, he said to her, "I don't know why."
With a chuckle, Lucas said to her, "Me, too."
While looking at Karen, Nancy told her, "It's delicious, Mommy."
Karen replied, "Thank you, sweetie."
While Matthew only rolled his eyes at them, Nancy said to her, "So, there's this... special assembly thing tonight... for Will at the school field. Barb's driving."
With a shake of her head, Karen asked her, "Why am I just hearing about this?"
After looking over at Matthew, Nancy asked her, "Matt didn't tell you?" When Karen only shook her head, Nancy said to her, "I thought you knew."
Karen replied, "I told you, I don't want you out after dark until Will is found."
Nancy told her, "I know, I know, but it'd be super weird if I'm not there. I mean, everyone's going."
While Matthew only snorted to himself at the emphasis that Nancy had put on the word 'everyone', to which Nancy responded by kicking him in the leg, Karen said with a sigh, "Just... be back by ten." While Matthew kicked Nancy rather harshly in the leg, Karen asked her, "Why don't you take the boys, too?"
It was then that Mike, Lucas and Dustin had simultaneously said 'no'.
While Matthew only shook his head to himself and took a bite out of the meatloaf that was on his fork, Karen asked the three middle-schoolers, "Don't you think you should be there? For Will?"
It was then that Mike's eyes had widened and accidentally spit out some of the milk he was drinking, while Dustin had hit both of his hands twice on the table.
While Matthew only rolled his eyes at Mike and Dustin, Dustin said to Karen, "Sorry. Spasm."
Not long after he said that, Holly started to sink down into her chair and let out a whimper, which got Karen to turn to her and say to her, "It's okay, Holly. It's just a loud noise."
Then Nancy turned to Dustin and said to him in a whisper, "Nice."
Matthew, on the other hand, only chuckled to himself with a mere shake of his head.