Chapter 1 Surprises

"Guys, Steve's going to give me a ride to Pawnee tomorrow. I've got some stuff to finish up with my research project.," said Dustin to Mike and Lucas as they left Kaminski's final.

"So we'll be safe from your potent farts in Nancy's car," Lucas snickered.

"Classic he who smelt it, delt it," said Dustin. "You fart way more than I do."

"He's right, you know," said Max as she walked up behind Lucas, wrapped her arms around him and put her chin on his shoulder.

"Hey, you're supposed to by on my side," Lucas protested.

"I'm on the side of the truth!" said Max with a grin.

"Hey, Mike," said Jennifer Hayes, a girl who had cried at Will's funeral. She was with her friend Julie Mason, a girl Will had danced with a the Snow Ball two years earlier.

"Hey, Jennifer. What's up?" asked Mike.

"You're visiting Will Byers over the break, right?"

"Yep," said Mike.

"Tell him we said 'hi,' okay?"

"Sure, no problem," said Mike. The girls walked away and Mike muttered "If he decides to actually grace us with his presence."

"Is this about Thanksgiving again?" asked Dustin.

"We were all going to see Star Trek IV, and he just bailed at the last minute because he suddenly had plans with his new and cooler friends!" said Mike.

"Maybe coming back to Hawkins brings up a lot of bad memories for him," said Lucas.

"Yeah, people did kind of write him off as a freak here... with the exception of a few girls who seemed to dig that chronically shy routine of his," said Dustin as he indicated Jennifer and Julie who were walking out the doors. "Do you really blame him for not wanting to come back here very often?"

"El had a lot of bad things happen and she still comes back as much as she can," said Mike.

"Yeah, and every time they both come back, you always spend all your time with El," said Dustin.

"So you're saying he's jealous?" asked Mike.

"Not at all," said Dustin. "You pouting about Will hanging with his new friends is jealousy. Will's feeling a little left out and maybe even a bit annoyed. I know because I felt the same way."

"Are you saying it's El's fault?" asked Mike.

"No, Dingus!" said Dustin as he used Robin's favorite insult. "I'm saying that you can't find the balance between your best friend and your girlfriend. And you're mad at Will because he doesn't want to sit and patiently wait his turn to hang out with you. Will doesn't blame El either, by the way. He never did. Unlike you two, he was never a dick to El or Max."

"You're right," said Mike. "It's just..."

"You miss him," said Dustin. "We all do."

"Yeah," said Mike. He remembered the day the Byers family had moved away. Mike had turned to look at the house he had spent so much time in as a kid that he would never enter again. He started wishing that he'd said more to Will before he left. "Do you think you'll get there in time to help us set up that model of Minas Tirith. You could distract him while we set it up."

"I'll try," said Dustin. "Maybe Will would like it better if we all build it together, like the stuff we used to do."

"That would ruin the surprise!" said Lucas.

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"I'm telling you, Will," said Josie as they walked out of their art final. "Graffiti will be considered the great art of our time 100 years from now."

"I think you could be right," said Will. "Mrs. Pillner obviously disagrees, though."

"Mrs. Pillner is part of the fascist conformist society that tried to dictate what everyone's supposed to be. You know, the one that conditioned you to believe that girls couldn't play video games, go to science camp, play D&D or like Lord of the Rings, X-Men, and Star Wars."

"I can admit when I'm wrong," said Will.

"That's why you were able to break free of that conditioning," said Josie.

Will noticed a group of kids he considered to be assholes following El and taunting her. He quickened his pace to confront them. Some of the kids in school made fun of her because she sometime struggled to speak.

"Hey, leave her alone!" said Will.

"Aw, Byers, coming to the rescue of your retarded sister again?" asked Rick Vernon.

"She does better than you in every class, Vernon," said Will. "She actually passes. You have no right to call El or anyone else a retard."

Rick glared at Will before jerking his head at his friends and walking away. El muttered a quick 'thanks' to Will before running into the girls bathroom.

"I'll talk to her," said Josie.

"Thanks," said Will as he began to get his things from his locker. Will had gotten past the point of being bothered by the cruel remarks of other people when he left Hawkins. It helped that he was in a new town where people didn't know his story and weren't staring at him wherever he went. He was trying to help El reach that point as well, but it was something she would have to decide for herself.

Josie entered the bathroom and saw El sitting on the floor. She took a seat next to her.

"Hey, don't listen to Rick, he's an asshole."

"I-I'm not smart like Will or you. You're in all the smart classes and you can draw."

"You may not be smart in the same way that we are, but you're still smart," said Josie. "Will thinks you're really smart."

"He's just saying that because he's nice," said El.

"He's nice, but he's not a liar," said Josie. "He said you're really good at figuring things out. High School doesn't exactly recognize being smart like that. High School sucks because too many guys like Rick have too much power. College will be way better, you'll see. You can be yourself more because people like Rick have way less power there."

"Be myself," said El. "That's what Max always said."

"She sounds awesome," said Josie. "I can't wait to meet her."

"You'll like her and she'll like you."

"Great," said Josie. "Now let's get out of here. Christmas break is starting."

The girls grabbed their stuff from their lockers and met Will at the entrance. He was shaking his head as a couple guys from the track team were trying to talk him into joining. Will had surprised a lot of people by doing well in his gym classes. No one in Pawnee knew how he'd once managed to outrun a demogorgan. No one in the new town even knew what a demogorgan was.

"Sorry, Will," said El as they stood there waiting for Jonathan, who had just returned from college for his own break, to pick them up.

"There's nothing for you to be sorry for," said Will as he squeezed her shoulder.

"I let them get to me again."

"You felt the way you felt, El. I'm not going to try to tell you how to feel, but I will say that guys like Rick suck and they aren't worth your time."

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"If you cooperate, Chief Hopper, the Byers family gets to live," said Dr. Brenner.

"What good is your word?" asked Hopper with a laugh. "You've sold out your entire country. Hell, you've sold out this entire dimension."

"A small mind like yours couldn't possibly understand my work," said Brenner.

"The girl losing her powers is... disappointing... but the boy, the boy could still be of use."

"Leave him alone! Leave both of them alone!" said Hopper as he struggled against his restraints before Brenner nodded to a Russian guard who gave Hopper an injection that knocked him unconscious.

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"El, what are you doing?" asked Will as he walked past her room and saw her concentrating on the clean clothes in her laundry basket.

"Nothing, I just thought if might be cool if I could show everyone I had my powers back when they visit."

"El, your powers were never what made you special," said Will as he walked into her room and sat at her desk.

"Then what makes me special, Will? Because I haven't felt special since I lost them. I've just been helpless and useless like...like.."

"Like me?" asked Will.

"No, no, you're not helpless or useless, Will. That's not what I meant," said El.

"I have felt pretty helpless and useless sometimes, El, and you're the one that showed me I was wrong. You didn't use your powers to get me out of that rut either. There's also the fact that you were tortured and manipulated by a psychotic mad scientist for the first twelve years of your life and still ended up being a good person who wanted to save people. That makes you pretty extraordinary in my book."

"Thanks, Will," said El.

"You have saved my life more than once," said Will. "The least I can do is remind you that you are an awesome person once in a while."

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Mike had asked to see some of Will's most recent drawing while El, Lucas and Max ran out to the station wagon to grab the pieces for the Minas Tirith model to take them to the Rec Room. He noticed that Will was mostly drawing scenes from nature and around town rather than scenes from his own imagination.

"These are really good," said Mike. "I kind of miss the dragons and wizards you used to draw though."

Will shrugged. "Those things just aren't in my head as much as they used to be."

"Oh," said Mike. "Well, El said you've really been there for her since you guys moved her."

"She's been there for me too," said Will. "We got along pretty well once we actually got a chance to know each other."

Mike felt a small sting at Will's words and a bit annoyed. "So you don't think she's some stupid girl that I swap spit with anymore?"

Mike thought he saw Will glare at him for a moment. "I never actually thought that she was stupid, you know. I was just pissed at you and Lucas when I said that. It's too bad Max and El never joined us on the campaigns. That may have been fun."

"You think girls could have played D&D?"

"I do now."

"Maybe we could have a campaign this week," said Mike.

"Do you bring your D&D stuff?"

"No."

"I don't have mine anymore. So we'll have to figure out something else," said Will.

"I'm sure we will," said Mike.

"Hey, Mike," said Lucas as he came into Will's room. "That couples game we were talking about earlier, it's ready for us to start playing."

"Couples game?" asked Will.

"Yeah, we've been planning it for weeks," said Mike. "Sorry, Will, couples only."

Will's expression was unreadable. "Don't worry about it. I'll just do some reading," he said as he picked up a copy of Different Seasons and sat on his bed.

Mike and Lucas headed down the hall to the entrance of the basement where Max and El stood.

"Seriously?" Max hissed. "Couples only?"

"It worked, didn't it?" said Mike as he closed the door to the basement.

"Look, I just know how I felt when you said 'party members only' and I don't want Will to feel that way," said Max.

"He'll understand when we're finished, don't worry," said Lucas.

"I'm just saying, maybe Dustin was right. Will might like this better if he was building it with us. Isn't the whole point of coming here to spend time with him and El?" asked Max.

"Of course it is, but we've been planning this surprise for months," said Mike. "Shit, this looks more complicated than I thought."

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Will sat on his bed reading his book. He had decided over a year earlier that he wasn't going to let the fact that his friends wanted to spend time with their girlfriends bother him anymore.

Will remembered sitting in the passenger side of Jonathan's car and crying the entire trip. He suddenly stopped when they got to their new home. He had felt a weight lifted off his shoulders when he realized that he was free of Hawkins- a town full of people who saw him as a freak and "Zombie Boy." Sure, he missed his friends, but they had all moved on while he recovered from being trapped in the Upside Down and being possessed by the Mind Flayer (for the last part of 1983 to the earliest part of 1985, Will hadn't even been allowed to ride his bike around town with his friends).

Jonathan and Nancy were out and Dustin was coming in later. Will wished that Mike and Lucas had told him about their couples only game before Jonathan and Nancy left to go to a party at the community college campus. He really missed his brother (who had left for college a few months earlier) and wanted to spend time with him.

Will also wanted to spend time with Max and get to know her better. He and El had become close after leaving Hawkins and Will imagined that he and Max could have become close as well.

Will hadn't gone with El and Jonathan the last couple times they'd gone to Hawkins. He didn't like how the people there stared at him all the time. Mike had always been more interested in spending time with El on their visits. Will had come to accept that, but if it was going to be the case, he just preferred not going back to Hawkins at all.

The phone rang and Will picked it up.

"Hey," said Josie. "I just got talked into a shift of gift wrapping for the Boys and Girls club tonight. Can you help? I know your friends from Hawkins are in town, but I don't know anyone else working that shift. Maybe El and the others'll want to help too."

"I can ask them," said Will. "Hang on." Will placed the phone on his night table and went down the hall to the basement door and knocked. Unfortunately, at that moment, Mike and the others were experiencing some frustration with the model they were building.

"WHAT?" Mike shouted from behind the closed door.

"Sorry," said Will. "I was just seeing if you guys wanted to-"

"We're still in the middle of the game," said Lucas.

"Well, it's just-" said Will.

"Will, can you please let us finish the game," said Mike.

"Yeah, no problem," said Will. "Screw it," he muttered and went back to his room. He picked up the phone. "It's just going to be me, Josie. I'll walk to your place."

"Will, are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I'll see you in a couple minutes." Will scribbled a note for Dustin and taped it to the front door before putting on his jacket and heading over to Josie's house.

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Dustin was dropped off by Steve and Robin, who were on their way to a party in town. He saw a note with his name taped to the front door where Will explained that he had gone to volunteer to wrap Christmas presents and the others were in the basement playing some sort of couples game.

He went to the basement door and knocked.

"We're not done with the game yet, Will," Mike called.

"It's me," said Dustin "And Will isn't here."

Lucas opened the door. Dustin held up the note from Will. "Looks like he got bored or lonely while you guys were playing your couples game and decided to go out."

"What?" said Mike. "Why would he go out while we're visiting?"

"Jesus, Mike, you're oblivious!" said Dustin. "He's doing volunteer work, apparently. How long have you guys been working on this?"

"About four hours," said Lucas.

"Really? You guys just left Will alone all this time and you're surprised he didn't wait?" asked Dustin. He walked over to the table with the model. "I think I can finish this."

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When Will and Josie finished their two hour shift, they decided to go back to his house and see if his Hawkins friends were done with their couples game.

"Byers!" said Dustin happily. He ran to Will and greeted him with a huge hug.

"Good to see you, Dustin," said Will as he returned the hug. "Sorry I wasn't home when you got here."

"You were helping the needy," said Dustin. "It's what people are supposed to do around Christmas."

"Why did you just leave like that?" asked Mike as he came up the stairs followed by Lucas, El, and Max.

"I tried to ask you guys if you wanted to go, but you were still playing whatever game you were playing," said Will.

"We were working on a surprise for you, Will," said Mike. "And you just ditched us!"

"Mike!" said El.

"No, I'm tired of this. You never come to Hawkins anymore and you just run off to hang out with your new friends when we come here!"

"You left me alone for over two hours," said Will.

"It's not just tonight," said Mike. "You've moved on without us."

"I MOVED!" said Will. "Moved to a new town and made new friends. And while we're talking about moving on, I'll point out that you moved on without me before I even left Hawkins, Mike. We're not kids anymore. That's what you told me."

"Of course we're not kids anymore," said Mike. "But we're still supposed to be friends. We're supposed to make an effort. You've stopped making any kind of effort just because you haven't been getting your way!"

"Haven't been getting my way, Mike? Really? Can you think of any time I ever got my way when I lived in Hawkins? Or when I visited or you visited here? One time?"

"What about that time you dragged me and Lucas into that stupid campaign when we'd told you a million times we didn't want to play?"

Will was silent for a few moments. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright, Will," said Lucas. "Why don't you come see your present."

"No, I'm sorry I forgot my place in the party," said Will. "I'm supposed to just wait around for everyone else and be grateful to be included at all. Isn't that right?"

Mike felt the color drain from his face. He wanted to kick himself for going off on Will. He remembered the day everyone got into the station wagon to investigate the Flayed. Mike had grumbled about having to get into the back of the car and Will had simply said 'Welcome to my world.' Will was right, he had never really gotten his way as far as the party was concerned.

"Will, I'm sorry," said Mike. "I was cranky from trying to put together your present and I was just an asshole. I shouldn't have said that. Let's go see it, alright?"

Will shook his head. "You know what? Whatever it is, I don't want it."

"What? C'mon, Will," said Lucas. "We worked really hard on it, all for you."

"Yeah? Well, you made me feel like shit-like you didn't want me around," said Will.

"That's not true. Of course we want you around, we miss you," said Mike. "We were just trying to surprise you and came up with a really shitty excuse."

"Yeah, well it's pretty much been like this for the past couple of years," said Will. "You make me feel shitty, I get upset, you feel bad and apologize then we start the whole thing over again. It's wearing me out."

Will turned around and headed for the front door.

El ran over to him and grabbed his arm. "Where are you going, Will?"

"I need to get some air," said Will.

Mike remembered the day that Will had ridden off in the rain after he and Lucas had mocked Will's campaign. He remembered the sudden fear that had gripped him as he remember Will leaving his house on November 6, 1983 and not showing up at school the next day. When Mike and Lucas had reached the Byers home to find it empty, Mike had felt another wave of terror as he recalled all times Will had disappeared in 1984 because of episodes.

Mike ran to the front door and stood between Will and it. He held up his hands.

"Will, please don't leave. Let's talk about this," Mike begged.

"I don't want to talk about it right now," said Will. "I want to go for a walk. I waited for two hours while you guys had your couples game. And I've been looking forward to spending time with everyone for weeks- and whatever you were building, maybe I would have liked to help. It would have meant spending time with you, but you guys left me out of things again because you were doing things on your terms. Well, now I'm going to do things on my terms and go for a damn walk."

"You're right, Will," said Mike. "You should be able to do things on your own terms. Just... don't go out alone, please!"

"We're not kids anymore, Mike. And I'm not a baby. I used to think that you were the one person who understood that."

"I'll go with you," said Josie.

"I'll be fine, Josie," said Will.

"You're not really going to leave me alone with your Hawkins friends, are you. They seem cool and all, but I barely know them."

Will rolled his eyes. "Fine, let's go."

Mike slumped into a chair at the kitchen table as the door closed behind Will and Josie. He buried his face in his hands. El sat next to him and put her hand on his arm.

"He just needs to cool off, Mike," said El.

"Well, Dustin and Max, you were both right. We should have just had Will build the model with us. Instead we just reinforced why he never wants to visit us in Hawkins anymore," said Mike.

"We have to do something to make this up to him," said Lucas as he took a seat at the table.

"No," said Dustin. "Trying to make things up to Will is just going to push him away again. He's afraid you'll just start doing the things that make him feel left out once he's smiling again."

"How do you know that?" asked Lucas.

"Because he basically just said it, Dingus!" said Dustin. "We should try just hanging out with him."

"Yeah," said Mike. "It shouldn't be that hard unless I screw it up again."

"You won't screw it up, Mike," said El.

Mike silently prayed that she was right. There had been a large hole in his life since Will had moved. Mike had spent a lot of time wishing that he could spend more time with Will, but always seemed to screw it up when he got the chance.

Mike remembered telling Will they'd go crazy together. He had meant it. Will was the one person he could always tell anything. That had always meant the world to Mike. Then El had come into his life and she became that person... And Will eventually decided he didn't need Mike anymore and felt it was stupid to rely on him.

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"I can walk you home," said Will to Josie.

"Then what?" asked Josie. "You walk around the city and freeze to death?"

"I'm not gonna freeze to death," said Will.

"And I'm not gonna let you walk around by yourself..." Josie became quiet and stared blankly ahead for a moment.

"Josie?" She blinked and shook her head then fiddled with her silver locket.

"Sorry, my mind just went blank for a moment. Let's walk over to Ramsett Park. They have some nice lights up right now."

Will considered objecting as he didn't really want to go to a park full of lights, but he was already in a neighborhood full of lights and he decided he wasn't going to spend his life fearing things. "Yeah, let's go."

He followed Josie to a back path and stopped at the edge. "What's wrong?" asked Josie.

"There's almost no light on this path," said Will. "And those weird Zorp followers are out in this area sometimes."

"They're harmless," said Josie. "And this path is a shortcut. Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Alright, fine," said Will. He started to follow her down the path when suddenly a vine shot out, wrapped itself around Will's leg and started pulling him into the forest.

"WILL!" Josie screamed. She reacted quickly grabbed his arms.

"Josie, matches!" Will grunted. He reached over and grabbed the trunk of a small tree. Josie pulled some matches from her pocket, lit it and threw it at the vine. It released Will as he felt a familiar sensation on the back of his neck. "We have to get out of here right now!"

A vine suddenly reached out and grabbed Josie's leg. Will grabbed her arms. He would feel the anger of the Mind Flayer.

Suddenly a group of men arrived and used flame throwers on the vines. They released Josie who quickly hugged Will.

"It's alright," said and eerily calm voice. "We were never going to let those vines get you."

Will looked up to see someone he only recognized from pictures: Dr. Martin Brenner.

"What do you want?" asked Will.

"Just some help," said Brenner.

"Why would we want to help you, creep?" asked Josie.

"The diamonds cut the glass," replied Brenner calmly.

"What?" said Will. He suddenly felt Josie's arms drop from around his neck. She stood up and stared blankly. "Josie? What did you do to her?" Will asked Brenner.

"Just put her to sleep for a little while," said Brenner. Will was suddenly seized by several strong pairs of hands. He was tied up, gagged, blind folded, and thrown into the back of a truck.

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Hopper say in a cell with a think plastic door. It was much cleaner than the one he was held in while in Russia, but he still wasn't free. Across from him the demogorgan than had eaten so many of his fellow prisoners was contained. They had thrown him into the cage a couple times, but it had never touched him.

Brenner and his men arrived with a girl about the same age as El, Will, and Mike who appeared to be in a trance. Then, to his horror, Hopper realized the Will himself was with them.

Hopper ran to the plastic door and started frantically banging. "No! Not the kid!"

Will looked to the noise and his eyes widened with recognition as he saw Hopper. The men untied Will and took off the gag. "HOPPER!" Will shouted.

The men opened the door to the Demogorgan's enclosure and shoved Will inside, closing the door behind him and Hopper continued to desperately pound on the door of his cell.

The demogorgan leaped at Will, but stopped short and started to sniff him. Will backed against the wall of the cell. He wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go and he felt frozen. The demogorgan suddenly slammed Will's head into the wall and he fell to the floor unconscious.

The creature placed a clawed hand on Will's shoulder and the lights in the underground lab began to flicker rapidly as a crack formed in the wall.

"It's happening," said Brenner.

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AN: I'm going to try to make this eight chapters like a season of Stranger things. This is a different - but not completely different continuity of my pre-season 3 fics.