Y/N POV
"Bye y/n, see you tomorrow. And don't forget to study!"
"I won't, bye," I waved goodbye to my science teacher as I left class at the sound of the bell.
I was the last one to leave, so the halls were already packed with students ready to get to their next period. I had stopped by my locker to grab my English book when someone came up and slam my locker shut. I sighed, not looking up, and simply reopened my locker. I already knew who it was.
"What do you want, Troy? Don't you have class to get to?" I sighed.
"No, I'm skipping," he joked.
"Wow, so cool," I said sarcastically.
I closed my locker and looked up. Troy was leaning on the locker next to mine with his arms crossed.
"Where's your little goony, James? Has he already ditched you?"
"Nah, he's around somewhere. He's probably taking some kid's lunch money," he said.
"Why do you guys have to be such bullies? These kids never did anything to you," I said with an annoyed look.
Troy just shook his shoulders. I started to walk to my next class and Troy followed me. I sort of hated him, he was such a mouth breather, but I was also stuck with him. My older sister Rachel was dating his older brother Ross. I felt Troy's eyes on me and turned to him.
"Get. To. Class," I point in the other direction, stopping in the middle of the hallway.
"Fine. Later, dork." I just rolled my eyes and kept walking to English.
**Time Skip**
The bell had just rung, and I was lightning bolt fast out that door, trying to avoid seeing Troy. I was moving so fast, I completely knocked down a kid.
"Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! I'm just kind of in a rush," I say helping the small boy to his feet.
"No, it's fine. I'm alright."
He looked vaguely familiar, but I wasn't sure where I knew him from.
"Hey, um, were you always in this period?" I asked him.
"What? Oh, no. My schedule got changed, so I'm in here now," he responded.
"Cool. Well, um I'm y/n. Y/n l/n," I said.
"Oh, ok. My name's Will Byers."
"Nice to meet you, Will Byers," I say with a smile.
I shook his hand.
"Nice to meet you, too," he smiled back.
Will and I kept talking and walked out together. We stopped at each of our lockers to put away our stuff. Surprisingly, his locker wasn't too far from my own. Will was short and seemed shy, and he had a bowl haircut. I could've sworn I'd seen him somewhere before. Will and I were so busy introducing ourselves that I had completely forgotten about Troy.
"Hey, my friends and I are part of the school's AV Club," Will had mentioned.
"Really? That's pretty cool," I said.
"Yeah. Oh, there they are right now," he said, pointing to a group of people standing by the school's entrance.
The closer we got to them the more I could recognize who they were. The "dweebs" Troy and James loved to antagonize.
"Hey, Will! What's up?" the kid with the hat and curly hair said as we walked up.
"Guys this is y/n l/n, they're in my new English class. Uh y/n, these are my friends Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair, and Mike Wheeler," he introduced pointing to each boy.
The curly-haired boy was Dustin. Mike was the one I had previously know as "Frog Face", a nickname given to him courtesy of Troy. Lucas was the one with the tiny sling shot thing.
"Cool, nice to meet you guys!"
Dustin smiled at me and Will. It was only then that I realized he had missing teeth. It kind of it made him look like a baby, but in the cute way. Will just elbowed him in the ribs.
"Ow!"
And as if on cue, all four boys groaned in unison. I turned around and groaned too. It was Troy and James.
"What's up Toothless?" James laughed, pointing to Dustin's mouth.
Troy was too busy laughing along to notice I was standing there and walked straight past me.
"What do you want guys want?" Dustin asked, fear in his voice.
James had shoved Mike to the ground and snapped the band off of Lucas' slingshot.
"Leave them alone!" Dustin defended.
"Leaf wem awone." Troy mocked.
"That's enough, Troy knock it off!" I butted in, my arms crossed.
He turned around to notice me and smiled.
"Hey there, dork," he smirked.
"I thought I told you to stop calling me that."
"Sorry, dork, not gonna happen. I like the name, it suits you."
"Go away you guys. Leave us alone," Mike said standing back up.
Troy spun around quickly and pinned the boy to the brick wall. The rest of the boys groaned again as James and Troy just laughed. I couldn't stand them.
"Guys, I said stop!" I practically yelled.
The lot was nearly vacant, so no one really heard me.
"Or else what?"
Just then, I thought of something. I stepped closer to Troy and whispered something into his ear. Troy looked at me in shock for a moment, but let go of Mike.
"Let's go," Troy said to James.
James bucked at Lucas and Will, but left on command. I crossed my arms and waited for them to leave. When they were out of sight, I spun around to the group behind me.
"Guys I am so sorry! Troy is such a tool. Are you okay?"
They all nod and stare at me in confusion. I tilt my head as I started walking down the sidewalk.
"Well, um, I should get going. My parents are expecting me to be home soon," I said.
"Wait!" someone called out from behind me.
It was Lucas.
"Wait up!"
The boys followed suit and walked alongside me.
"What the hell just happened?" Dustin questioned.
"Sorry, guys. Troy can be a real pain in my ass, although I guess there's nothing I can really do about it," I shrugged it off, not really wanting to explain.
"Why not?" Will spoke up.
I sighed softly and paused in my tracks.
"Because Troy's brother is dating my sister."
"What?" Mike asked.
I sighed again. Not really a good conversation starter.
"Um, yeah, and our families have dinner at each other's houses twice a week."
They all stared in disbelief. I let them walk with me some more. I was asked a lot of questions, mostly by Lucas and Dustin.
"Where do you live?"
"Is it far?"
"Why do you walk home?"
"We usually bike, but we got dropped of by Will's mom today."
"Sometimes we carpool with Mike's mom, too."
"How long have you known Troy?"
"Guys stop interrogating them!" Mike chimed in.
"Sorry..." the boys apologized.
I just laughed, which I noticed made Will smile. We briefly made eye contact before he immediately looked away. We had approached a playground and decided stop to talk and get to know each other. They even invited me to Mike's house to play Dungeons and Dragons with them on Saturday.
I agreed.
I came to find out that they never really hung out with anyone outside of their group before. Mostly because they were considered nerds by almost every other stuck up seventh grader at Hawkins Middle School. We talked for so long and hadn't realize how late it had gotten until the sky turned a deep orange. Mike looked at his wrist watch.
"Oh shit! We have to go! I have to be home in five minutes!" he said.
I nodded and agreed. We gathered our things and started on our way again, fast-paced and worried. Suddenly, a little green car pulled up to the playground.
"Come on guys, I've gotta get you home. You were supposed to be at school for an AV Club meeting, but Mr. Clarke said you guys ditched."
I gave the guys confused and worried looks, but they all nodded.
"That's Jonathan, Will's brother," Dustin stated.
I nodded and let the boys go.
"We're sorry. We got, um, occupied..." Will spoke, glancing at me as he approached the car.
Jonathan grinned at him as he climbed in the passenger's seat.
"So sorry again about today you guys," I called out. "Hope you get home on time, bye."
"You sure you don't need a ride?" Jonathan asked me from the car. "I wouldn't want to leave you out here while it's dark."
I pondered the question for a moment. I was skeptical, since I'd only just met them, but I really needed to get home.
"Um, I guess so. Sure."
Will smiled from the front seat and I squeezed in the back with the others, although it was quite an uncomfortable fit. The group told Jonathan about today and about how Troy and I knew each other. We dropped off Mike, Lucas, and Dustin, who surprisingly didn't live far. Will got into the back seat with me, so we could talk some more. Jonathan laughed at us to himself every so often when he looked in his rear view mirror.
"Hey, so what'd you tell Troy for him to back off?" Will asked me, recalling today's events.
"Just that I would tell my sister that his brother slept with her ex best friend when they "broke up" last year," I air quoted. "They got into a fight and temporarily broke it off last year, Ross claiming they were just "on a break". But I guess Ross realized he was super in love with my sister, Rachel, so he apologized, and they got back together."
Will and I laughed hysterically.
"Oh, this is my street!" I pointed for Jonathan to make a right.
"Okie dokie," he said.
I pointed to my house and jumped out of the car. Jonathan rolled down the window to the back seat, and I poked my head in.
"Thank you so much Jonathan. It was nice meeting you!"
"You too," he smiled at me.
"Later, Byers. See you tomorrow," I waved to Will.
"Bye, y/n!" Will waved back.
I walked up to my porch and unlocked the door with my key. I turned around one last time and waved to the guys as they drove off.