The bell echoed through the halls as students began to spill out of classrooms. Will, with his thoughts a million miles away, accidentally bumped into Mike. Papers from Mike's hands fluttered like snowflakes to the floor.
"Sorry, Mike," Will muttered, bending down to help gather the scattered sheets.
"It's cool, don't worry about it," Mike replied, his eyes meeting Will's with a friendly spark. "Actually, this is perfect timing. We're paired up for the history project, remember? Maybe it's fate," he added with a playful grin.
Will couldn't help but smile back, despite the butterflies in his stomach. "Yeah, I remember. What's our plan?"
"I could meet up at your house," Mike suggested as they started walking again through the hallways.
Will shook his head. "I don't think that's a good idea. How about your house?"
Mike shook his head as well. "Hawkins Library?" Mike said. Will nodded. "How does fifteen hundred hours sound?"
Will's eyebrows furrowed. "What?"
Mike sighed. "Three pm."
"That sounds fine," Will replied. "This is my class, bye." Will waved to Mike as he walked into his biomed class. Mike waved back at Will before starting to run as the bell rang signaling to Mike that he was late. Will laughed quietly when he saw Mike sprint in the halls. He walked over to his seat, next to Max who was currently drawing a spider on herself.
Will sat down and noticed her nose was bleeding. "You okay?" Will whispered to Max. Max nodded before wiping her nose with a tissue from a pile of tissues on her desk.
"Yeah, my allergies are just bothering me," Max answered Will as she got up to throw the tissue away. Will's eyes followed her with a confused look, before shrugging it off. Max came back to her seat. "So... how are you?"
"I'm good," Will replied with a half smile. "How are you?"
"I'm alright." Max shrugged. "My allergies are bothering me and my pet fish died last night but other than that I'm fine."
A ruler was slammed on their desk by everyone in the school's least favourite substitute. "Quiet." The substitute whispered-yelled. Will rolled his eyes before leaning back in his chair.
The substitute went on about math, even though this was an English class. No one told her though because they were supposed to be writing an essay today.
When the bell rang at two-thirty, Will was the first one out of his seat. He was also the first out the door. He wouldn't be able to head home before going to the library to meet up with Mike at three because he wouldn't even get home until three. Will found El at their usual meet-up spot. He ran to her once he saw her.
"I'm not going on the bus today," Will told El as they started walking outside to the bus loop.
El pulled Will over to the side. "What do you mean? Are you staying after?" El asked. Will shook his head. "Is someone picking you up?"
"No," Will started, shaking his head again. "I'm walking to the library to meet up with Mike for our history project." He explained. Students behind Will kept running into him so El pulled him even further off to the side.
"Does mom know?" El questioned. "Because I'd be surpris-"
"She doesn't" Will interrupted El. He sighed as El started shaking her head in disappointment. "I don't have time to head home or else I would."
"Whatever, just don't be surprised if she's mad." El then walked away from Will, joining the crowd of students walking towards their buses. Will turned the other way, heading towards the sidewalk next to the street outside of the school. Will knew his way to the library because his mom used to take him every day after school when he was thirteen. And it wasn't far, he might even get there before Mike giving him time to get ahead on the project.
On his way to the library though, the back of his neck felt cold. He looked around for any danger, but all he saw was an old lady on her porch feeding her two cats. One white with black spots and one orange. The lady smiled and waved, Will awkwardly smiled and waved back. He searched the area again but there was nothing. Not even cars on the street. But the feeling grew stronger. The buses from the school started driving past Will, but nothing happened. And the feeling went away.
But not for long because as soon as the air conditioning from the library hit his face, it came back. Right as he saw Mike sitting in a chair at the cafe though, it went away again. And it was replaced by a feeling of warmth on his face, specifically his cheeks. Mike hadn't noticed Will yet, he was too busy reading some novel while drinking coffee.
Will grabbed a few books on their topic, World War Two, before heading over to where Mike was seated. He tapped his shoulder twice and Mike turned around and closed his book. "Hey." Mike smiled. The smile that now drove Will crazy.
"Hey." Will smiled back and sat down. " I grabbed some books for the project. Do you have the checklist?"
Mike nodded and pulled it out of his black school bag. The checklist was small, it would probably only take them two or three days to complete the project. "First we need background information on the great depression." Will took a book from the stack that was about the Great Depression and World War Two. "I'll do that, you pick something else from the checklist."
Mike nodded and looked through the checklist until he found something.
"I'm bored." Mike put a book down on the table about an hour later.
Will put his book down as well. "Me too." He agreed. "Do you wanna start heading out now?"
"Well, I was thinking that we could maybe just talk if you're down because we don't really know each other all that well," Mike suggested to Will. Will nodded.
"Sure." Will got up to put the books away, but first, he wrote down all the names of the books so he could look for them again tomorrow. Will came back and saw Mike with another coffee and two donuts. Mike handed Will one of the donuts, a glazed one.
"You said you liked these in a conversation with Lucas at lunch once, so I got you one," Mike said
Will's eyes widened as he grabbed it. "Here I'll pay you back." Will reached into his pocket and pulled out a five-dollar bill.
"It's fine." Mike rejected it, but Will still reached his hand out in front of Mike. "I'm not taking it."
"But-"
"I'm not taking it."
Will huffed. "Fine." He put the money back in his pocket and he ate the donut, feeling guilty. "You like these too?" Will asked, noticing another glazed donut in Mike's hand.
"Yeah." He replied. "Were you born in Hawkins or did you live somewhere else at one point?"
"I was born in Rhode Island, though I don't remember it because I was only three when I moved here," Will answered
"I'm from Florida. Orlando, specifically." Mike told Will. "Until my family made me and Max move here."
"Why did they make you guys move here?" Will asked, tilting his head slightly. The faint feeling on his neck was back again like something bad was about to happen.
"I don't know," Mike responded as Will looked around the library nervously. "Are you okay?"
"Huh?" Will looked at Mike again. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. I just thought someone called my name." WIll lied. He looked around a little more, but he didn't see any possible danger. His powers have been acting weird lately.
"I definitely didn't hear anything," Mike said. "So, do you visit Rhode Island at all? You know, since you're from there."
"Not really." Will shrugged. "The only family I have there is my dad who I have a restraining order against so I don't have any reason to go there."
"Oh. Sorry for bringing that up." Mike broke eye contact with Will, trying to survive the awkward moment between them.
"It's fine," Will mumbled. "Did you live anywhere else besides Florida or is that it?"
"I was born in California, then moved to North Dakota, then Texas, then New York City, then Upstate New York, then Washington, then British Columbia, then Russia, then France, then Georgia, then Florida and now I'm here," Mike answered Will. Will's mouth was slightly open and his eyes were widened. Mike laughed at Will's face. The laugh made Will's cheeks warm yet his neck cold, weird.
"How the hell is that even possible?" Will asked slowly, his face still in a shocked position.
"Mine and Max's family move every year together." Mike replied. "We used to live in separate homes until we bought a mansion in Florida where our families decided to move in together. And we still own that mansion and now we own one here too."
"But I thought you lived at those apartments?"
Mike sighed. "All of our really valuable items burned down and we got like two million dollars from it." He took a sip of the coffee that he had forgotten he had.
"What kind of coffee is that?" Will wondered, looking at the white cup with the logo for the coffee shop on it.
"It's the milk chocolate marshmallow-" Mike got interrupted by Will's watch beeping, telling Will to go home. "What's that?"
"Oh, I-" Will thought of an excuse he could use. "I set an alarm on my watch for when I needed to go home. I'll see you at school tomorrow?"
Mike nodded and waved. Will waved back and then sprinted out of the library.
When he got home, He saw El on the couch and the president of the Heroes Association on a chair.
"What's...?"
"You guys let two villains getaway at the bank." The president stated. "I am very unhappy about that."
"But you have to understand, they weren't easy to defeat. I think they were messing with El's powers." Will argued.
The president glared at Will. "That doesn't matter." She said. "If you guys screw up two more times you two are officially out of the Heroes Association. Understand?" Will and El nodded. "Alright, I'll help myself out." The president stood up and walked out of the house. Will and El looked at each other with nothing but fear in their eyes.
———
Mike entered his house and went to his room where he saw his pet cat on the bed waiting for him. The day was white with black spots and green eyes, and she was missing her two back legs. Except her green eyes weren't looking at him, she wasn't racing to the door because she was excited he was home. Her food bowl wasn't empty like it usually was by the time Mike got home. In fact, it was full.
Mike went up to his cat. "Harley?" He called out, shaking her slightly. He then noticed she wasn't breathing. "MOM! HARLEY ISN'T BREATHING" Mike called out to his mom. Mike didn't go to school for a week even though he recovered in only three days. It gave him an excuse to be absent from school and...