Chapter Text
On Tuesdays, Will always rode his bike alone to school. He had art class first so he liked to get there early to have more time on his artwork.
He sometimes even got there before his teacher, Ms Harper, which happened so frequently that Will began to make it a competition in his head of who could make it to class first. The feeling of winning felt like a huge achievement for Will. It was really stupid, but nothing exciting ever happened to him at school so he was honestly just bored.
Mike always got mad whenever Will left without him because it meant that he was stuck by himself riding with Holly to school. She was a real pain sometimes, to him at least.
Obviously Will didn’t care though, it wasn’t like it was gonna be the end of Mike’s world if he didn’t ride with him. They had bigger problems to deal with, like finding vecna.
That wasn’t on Will’s mind right now though. His mind was focused on getting to his favourite class.
The 10-15 minutes of silence he got during that time was nice. It gave him time to prepare himself for the suffocating storm of crowded Hawkins High halls, that often made him feel dizzy and worn out by the end of the day.
He had his headphones on, listening to The Clash. In his right hand, a grey led pencil rested between his fingertips, making steady movements across the sketchbook in front of him.
Ms Harper walked into the classroom with some paint brushes in her hands.
“Oh, hey Will!” She greets him warmly.
Will pulls his headphones off, “Hey Ms!”
Will really liked his art teacher. She was definitely his favourite teacher out of all of the teachers he has, which may have just been biased since he loves art. She teaches both art and English, unfortunately Will only got her for art but that was okay.
The bell went for the first period. People began walking into class, some appearing rather energetic, some looking like they were just forced to come here. The teacher began giving the class simple instructions before letting them get into their art pieces.
For the past week or so they had been learning about form and how to apply light and dark shading to make their portraits look more three-dimensional. They were using charcoal to create this effect, which Will found the texture of it to be sort of weird, but he didn’t mind. Although it did make his fingers sort of black, he’d have to wash it off later.
About halfway through the class the sound of the wooden door opens, making a loud squeaky noise that deafens the faint hum of music coming from the radio in the corner of the art room.
Will was too focused on his artwork to bother looking up at who was at the door, it was probably just someone from his class coming in late anyways.
He continued with his charcoal drawing, only stopping to scratch his cheek which was itchy.
“Hey Ms,” The voice at the door spoke confidently.
Will doesn’t recall anyone from his class sounding like that.
He lifts his head up to see a boy, who has now entered the class and begun walking to the teacher from across the room. The teacher was about 5 feet away from where Will was sitting, so he was essentially walking over to Will as well.
He was a little over 6ft tall, had brown curtain bangs, very tan, and very muscular. Will recognised him as one of the jocks from the basketball team, he couldn’t remember his name though. He’d also seen him hanging out with the curly haired guy who bullies Dustin all the time.
The boy was holding a couple pieces of paper in his hand, guessing an assignment from English?
“Hey Chance, what are you doing here?” Ms Harper asks, but she clearly already knows the answer.
“Oh, just wanted to see you of course. How have you been?” He makes conversation with her whilst leaning against the table right beside Will.
“I’m good, shouldn’t you be in class though?”
“Nah, I’ve got study right now.” The jock hands over the pieces of paper in his hand, “Here’s my essay, I know it’s late but hear me out, a masterpiece takes time okay. Sometimes even longer than the due date, so just hear me out.”
She looks at him skeptically, “Hmm, it better be a masterpiece or I might have to give you a detention.”
Chance rolls his eyes, “Oh, come on don’t do that. You know I’m your favourite student!”
“My favourite students are the ones who hand in their work on time. Like for instance, Will here.” She directs her hand over to Will, who had already been staring at them like a creep.
His eyes suddenly widened from being unexpectedly called out. Chance looks over to him, staring at him like he was expecting Will to say something.
Out of anxiety, Will quickly turns to focus back on his artwork again.
Chance turns back to Ms Harper, speaking again. “I promise I won’t be late next time, this was just a one off.”
She lets out an accepting sigh, “Alright. Meet me back here after school for some feedback.”
“Will do,” Chance nods his head smiling.
“Okay, see you then.” The teacher begins to walk off to check on other students.
Chance stands up straight again and turns back to Will.
“Hey, Byers.”
Will immediately panics again, what could this boy possibly want to say to him?
He looks at Chance, who is gazing at him with an unreadable expression.
“Yeah?” He responds quietly.
Was this the part where the jock threatens to beat up the nerd? I mean maybe he had a reason to, Will was friends with Dustin and now the teacher had used him as an example to absolutely humiliate Chance.
Well shit.
The jock speaks politely, “You’ve got something on your face.”
This took Will by surprise, causing him to stutter, “Uh, I-I do?”
“Yeah, just on this side of your face,” Chance points out to Will’s cheek.
“Oh, okay wait,” Will attempts to rub it off with the back of his hand.
The jock laughs at him, “You just made it worse.”
“Oh shit, did I?” He tries to rub it off again but it doesn’t seem to work.
Ugh, this was so embarrassing.
“Here, let me get you a paper towel.” Chance walks over to the sink and wets the paper towel with a bit of water.
He walks back to Will, who is sitting with his hands in his lap nervously.
Chance crouches down slightly, gently patting the wet towel over Will’s cheek. Will stared at the boy who was helping him, rather confused.
What the hell was going on? Why was this guy willingly helping him? Couldn’t he wipe it off himself?
Chance finally rubbed off the charcoal that was on his face and carefully used the sleeve of his jacket to dry the excess water off Will’s face.
“There, you’re all good.” He smiled at Will, it was a genuine smile, not mocking or sarcastic.
“Uh… thanks.” Will smiled back weakly, he could feel something warm and fuzzy rising on his cheeks. He couldn’t work out why, perhaps it was just from the embarrassment of someone cleaning up mess on his face. I mean, there couldn’t be any other reason obviously?
“No worries.” Chance replies, beginning to walk off out of the classroom.
—
The rest of the school day was pretty usual and boring. Boring classes, teachers constantly telling students off for talking, Mike whining on about something that’s annoying him at the lunch table, Lucas being the one who pretends to care so that Mike doesn’t get more annoyed. It was pretty much what happened on a daily basis.
By the end of the day, all Will wanted to do was head back to the art room and continue drawing in his sketchbook. That’s what he did most days, it was a nice place to hang out before heading home to the chaos at the Wheeler house. Some days he obviously couldn’t go to the artroom though because he was busy with the others focusing on vecna and the upside down.
It was absolutely frustrating not being able to locate him or even predict when he’ll make his next move. He’d been MIA since the earthquake last year.
Will sat in the same spot that he had been in earlier today, with his headphones wrapped around his neck. Ms Harper was in the classroom cleaning up palettes of paint that hadn't been packed up by the students using it last.
She wiped her paint soaked hands on her apron then took it off.
“Hey Will, I’m off to quickly get Chance’s essay. Can you let him know I'll be back soon if he comes in while I'm gone?” She asks him kindly, heading towards the door.
Will straightens himself up to look at her, “Sure.” He had forgotten that Chance was coming in, maybe he shouldn’t have come here. Not after that strange interaction they had earlier this morning.
“Okay, thank you!” She heads out the door and into the distance.
Two minutes later the door squeaks open carefully, almost like the person outside had seen Will from in the classroom and was cautious about interrupting him from his peace.
“Uh, hey,” Chance peaks through the door gently.
There was something in his voice now that sounded a little more hesitant and nervous compared to the loud and confident voice he had this morning.
“Hey,” Will replies, not looking up from his page.
Chance walks a few steps into the class towards the direction of Will’s table. “Uhm, is Ms here?”
Will’s head jumps up suddenly, “Oh, she went to her office to get your essay. She’ll be back soon.”
“Oh, okay…” Chance slowly walks over to the seat across from where Will was sitting.
Will continues his sketchbook drawing, trying to ignore the handsome boy in front of him. However it was impossible not to notice Chance staring so gently at him when the image of him close to his face, focused, helping wipe his face with the wet paper towel was stuck in the back, replaying in his mind.
“What are you drawing?” Chance suddenly asks, interrupting Will’s train of thought.
Will glances up at Chance, who is staring with a shy smile.
God, he looks so beautiful now in this dim afternoon lighting. The way his hair falls loosely to the side, almost covering his deep brown eyes. It looked so perfect, in a kind of way that somehow never needed to be styled. His skin radiates like gold amongst the slimmest part of sunlight peaking through the blinds in the classroom. His smile, so soft and so pretty. And his lips, my goodness. They looked so full and rosy, and they looked so, so lonely-
Wait, no… What the hell was Will thinking? This is a bully we were talking about. Someone who is absolutely okay with innocent teenagers getting called names and shoved against lockers.
Has he ever seen this boy bully Dustin? No, but that’s not the point. The point is that he is friends with people who bully Dustin. That automatically makes him a bully too, right? He couldn’t like him, or feel… whatever he was feeling right now. That’s just wrong.
Will finally responds back, “Uh, nothing really. Just practicing drawing.”
Chance leans over the table to get a better look at Will’s page, a curious expression arises on his face.
“Is that a hand?”
Will suddenly feels self-conscious, he’s not used to people looking at him while he’s drawing.
“Yeah, does it look bad?” He asks anxiously.
Chance shakes his head, “No, it looks cool. I just noticed that it’s really detailed, like it has rather long nails and weird marks on it. Is it based on a hand you’ve seen before?”
Will tilts his head confused at Chance’s question, “No, I don’t think so. I kind of just drew what came to my mind.”
The jock nods his head, “Oh, well that’s cool too.”
Will continues to draw, expecting the conversation to end like that.
Chance shifts in his chair uncomfortably, “Uhm… do you come here after school often?”
“Yeah, most days I do,” Will replies, keeping his head down. “How come?”
“No reason, just wondering…” Chance drifts his eyes away from Will and around the classroom.
The door opens up abruptly and the voice of Ms Harper echoes through the room.
“Hey, I’m back! Sorry for keeping you waiting, let's sit down and talk.” She directs Chance to sit at one of the other tables, away from Will.
“Okay.” Chance gets up from his seat and follows her to the table.
They begin talking about Chance’s essay, which Will obviously wasn’t paying attention to. He had something else on his mind.
The words played through his head, “Is it based on a hand you’ve seen before?”
Was it?
Will looked down at his drawing, something about it had a strangely familiar vibe to it, he couldn’t work it out though.
Will directed his eyes over to Chance, who was sitting up straight with his broad shoulders. He nodded his head attentively as the teacher gave him feedback on his piece. He seemed to be very serious about it, even though he’d turned the assignment in late. Will thought it was strange, he hadn’t pictured Chance to be the kind of guy who takes school seriously. He thought that all jocks cared about was sports and women, but I guess he was wrong to assume that.
Chance must’ve sensed Will staring at him because he then turned his head towards him, making direct eye contact. He raised his eyebrow at Will.
Shit. Look away, just focus on drawing, pretend that didn’t just happen.
Blush filled Will’s cheeks again for the second time today. Maybe he should just leave, he can draw another time. He had seen this jock enough times already, too much for Will to handle.
The message mustn’t have communicated to his legs though, because he remained glued to his seat.
They finished up with the feedback and got up from their seats.
“Thanks Ms, this really helps.” Chance grabbed his essay back from the teacher.
“No worries, keep working hard!” She replies, patting him on the arm. “I’ll see you guys later.”
She heads out of the classroom.
I guess this would be it, Chance would leave now too. He’d forget about ever interacting with Will and go on with his life how he always did. Will wouldn’t forget though, not that he cared that a jock was nice to him, it was just that he rarely ever spoke to people at school outside his friend group.
Chance walked over and sat down in the seat directly next to Will. Unexpected.
Will shifted his body to face the boy, who was staring at him with dark, tender eyes.
“Uh. hey,” Will nervously says to him.
“Hey,” Chance continues gazing at him, with hesitant eyes.
There’s a short beat of silence between the two of them.
Will still was insanely confused on why Chance kept on coming back to talk to him. He’d never spoken to him before until today and yet somehow, Will felt this strange tightening in his stomach, like little knots that were forming. What was this strange feeling?
“What have you got on there?” He asks, pointing to the headphones wrapped around Will’s neck.
Will takes the headphones off his neck and holds it out to Chance, “You can have a listen, if you want.”
He wasn’t sure why he offered Chance his headphones but something about it felt right.“Okay.” Chance pulled his chair closer to Will, making their knees brush against each other’s.
He picked up the headphones from him and put them on.
Will looked down at his Walkman, pressing play. The song that played out of it was ‘Space Age Love Song’ by A Flock of Seagulls.
Chance placed a hand on the side of his ear, bopping his head subtly to the beat of the song.
Will watched him as he hummed along to the song. Something about Chance enjoying a song that Will listened to made his face light up with joy. He couldn’t help but giggle softly.
Then after 20 seconds, Chance took the headphones off and rested it on the table.
“Damn Byers, I hadn’t pictured you being a loverboy.” He speaks flirtatiously with a slight tone of surprise.
Will let out an automatic laugh, “What are you talking about?”
Chance rolled his eyes, “Oh come on, don’t act clueless! Who’s the lucky girl?”
Girl. Right, that’s just great. Did Chance seriously not know about the rumors?
Will’s voice goes quiet, “It’s no one, okay.”
“Alright, I get it. I wouldn’t tell me either if I were you.” Chance laughs teasing. “Well, I like that song anyways. I heard it on the radio the other day.”
“Really? What station did you hear it on?” Will asks curiously.
“Oh, the obvious. From the Rockin’ Robin station,” He replies lightly, like it was common knowledge.
A surprised look appears on Will’s face, “You listen to that station?”
“Yeah, it’s like the best station. I'm pretty sure lots of people in Hawkins listen to it,” Chance mentions. “I mean, do you not?”
Will giggles, rolling his eyes, “I listen to that almost 24/7.”
“Wow, you must really love Rockin’ Robin then,” he teases Will in a playful tone.
“Uhhh, well Robin’s kind of my friend so I guess I sort of have to listen.” Will says, scratching the back of his head lightly.
“Wait, you know the Rockin’ Robin?” Chance asks, leaning slightly forward out of fascination.
“Yeah, we’ve done a lot of things together. She used to go to this school, you know.” Will answers proudly.
“Oh shit, really?” Chance tilts his head, confused.
Will nods his head in a smile, “Mhm, she was in the school’s band, she’s kind of tall, short wavy hair, strange sense of humor.”
The details click into Chance’s mind, “Ohhh, I know who you’re talking about. I think I talked to her once before a basketball game, she seems cool.”
“Yeah, she’s pretty cool.” Will agreed with Chance’s comment, placing his headphones back around his neck.
There’s another beat of silence after that, it felt comfortable though.
Chance looks up at the clock on the wall, letting out a huge sigh, “Well, I guess I better get going now. I’ve got family coming over.”
“Oh okay, have fun then.” Will smiles at him, although a little part of him felt slightly disappointed he had to leave. “Also, thanks for helping me out this morning.”
Chance gets up from his seat, “All good, if you ever need help again, you know who to call.” He slings his bag onto one of his shoulders.
Will laughs at his stupid comment, “Yeah, totally.”
Chance heads to the door, turning around at the frame. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Byers.”
“Sure thing, player 22.” Will calls out, picking up his pencil again.
Chance giggles softly as he turns to exit the classroom.
Holy shit. Did a jock from the basketball team really just say he’d see Will again? What did he mean by that though? Did he just mean around school, or did he mean alone in the art room after school?
An uncontrollable smile arises on Will’s rosy face.
It was probably better for Will to assume the worst, that Chance only meant seeing him around the halls. But Will couldn’t help it, a part of him hopes that Chance will come visit him again after school. He actually seemed nice, even though his friends were quite literally the opposite. But maybe Chance is different.
Plus, if Will can manage to be friends with Chance, then maybe his friends might finally stop bullying Dustin. It wouldn’t hurt to give it a try, right?
There was obviously no other reason why Will wanted to be Chance’s friend…