Chapter Text
1: detention
Great. There goes my almost perfect school record. Despite shouldering the responsibilities of a superhero, Will Byers had maintained a near-flawless academic history. Sure, he had missed a class or two, but never without a valid excuse. Well, at least never without one that would make sense to his teachers and peers. He was always punctual— a shocker, indeed — and consistently did well in his classes. If he were to boast, he’d be considered a star student. And the best part of it all? He still managed to remain invisible.
Before the bite, Will had no qualms admitting that he was in fact a loser. Not the kind who constantly got shoved into lockers, but the kind who went unnoticed even if someone bumped into him. It was a painfully lonely and monotonous existence, but it had its advantages. Besides he wasn’t completely lonely, he always had Dustin.
Will and Dustin had been inseparable since childhood, sharing every significant moment in each other's lives. Dustin provided solace when Will's dad left, offering a safe space for them to vent their frustrations about absent fathers. And when Will came out, Dustin stood by him unwaveringly. Similarly, Will had been there for Dustin, especially when he adopted that peculiar pollywog-like creature from his trash bin, only for it to devour his cat a few days later. Will couldn't keep a secret like being bitten by a genetically altered spider from a friend like Dustin. And he was grateful he hadn't. He practically became his guy in the chair, who wasn’t exclusively in said chair you know? Dustin became his partner in crime, a reliable ally who helped him navigate the world of villains that seemed to emerge with alarming frequency after the spider bite. Being the big nerds they both were defeating villains, utilising their excessive knowledge in maths and physics, was practically a walk in the park. That is, when the villains were your typical villain of the week kinda guys.
All of this brings us to the current predicament – detention in the middle of the week, putting a dent in Will's plans. He had merely attempted to break up a fight, or more accurately, an assault, in the hallway. However, his powers got the best of him, and he accidentally hurled one of the bullies into a row of lockers.
Holy shit could be heard mumbled all around the hallway as a crowd of students gathered to witness the commotion.
"The fuck? Think you’re pretty funny, don’t you?" the bully began, but then hesitated. "Wait a minute, who the fuck even are you?" he chuckled, seeking validation from his peers.
Ha ha, very funny.
"Does anyone even know who this little bitch is?" murmurs and confused stares filled the hall, all directed at Will.
Normally, Will would have effortlessly retaliated with his own brand of biting remarks and delivered some much-deserved comeuppance. However, to protect his secret identity and maintain his persona as "Invisible Boy Byers," he restrained himself.
With a sigh and his head hung low, he responded, "Jason, look, I don't want to fight you."
"Is that right?" Jason retorted. "I wouldn't want to fight me either."
Instantly regretting his decision, Will swiftly intercepted Jason's incoming punch, immobilizing his arm with a deft twist. The sickening sound of a dislocated shoulder filled the air, leaving onlookers staring at Will in disbelief. While it wasn't entirely undeserved, he knew he had potentially injured the boy. The principal was eventually notified, and as a consequence, Will received three weeks of after-school detention instead of a suspension, thanks to the victims of the bullies who confessed that Will had intervened to protect them.
.
“Seriously that is such bullshit!” Dustin argued as he put an apple on both his and Will’s lunch tray.
They moved out of the lunch line, looking around for an empty table to sit at, “Yeah it is but the ignorant ass wipe that is Principal Higgins is the least of my worries right now. How am I supposed to..” He widened his eyes, hinting at what he meant, “you know, do my job if i’m gonna be kept back a whole hour? I mean this totally messes up my schedule.”
“There’s gotta be some way to convince him to reduce your sentence man,” Will chuckled at his dramatic choice of words as they sat down at the only empty table at the end of the hall. “Get him to let you do community service instead or something.” Dustin suggested.
Will deadpanned, “ Hello? Not really gonna fix my problem if my time is being taken up by a different task.”
“That is correct,” Dustin countered, “but also wouldn’t it be like waayyy more convenient if you just had a little something to do then you could leave instead of being monitored in a room where you can’t leave for a whole hour?” Will pondered his friend’s words for a moment.
“Plus, if it's something like cleaning the gym for a few days or something, you can finish that super fast then you’re free to go.”
He did have a point. Even if the community service wasn’t something as easy as cleaning the gym, it’d still give him much more freedom than detention ever could.
“Genius aren’t I?” Dustin proudly grinned, pieces of the barely edible cafeteria pizza lodged between his teeth.
“Shut up, that’s disgusting.”
After lunch Will decided to go talk to Principal Higgins about his detention situation. He rehearsed what he’d say. He was calm, cool, collected. He was ready. He knocked on the door of the office, walked in and to his surprise after presenting his argument, they were able to come to a compromise. Will explained precisely why he couldn't attend the after-school detention for such an extended period due to his "home affairs," suggesting that community service or a school-wide project (since nobody enjoyed those) would be a better fit. He emphasized his pristine school record and lack of previous offenses. Despite Principal Higgins' confusion at Will's unexpected enthusiasm for community service, he eventually warmed up to the idea. Will would have after-school detention for the rest of the week and perform community service on Saturdays for four weeks.
“Actually Mr… remind me of your name again son?”
Are you kidding me?
“Will Byers.”
“Yes, Mr. Byers, you’ve given me a great idea for the other students who’ve caught themselves in detention this week.”
Fuck. The convenience of this was that he could go unnoticed again. If other students were gonna be involved, he couldn’t Spiderman from the school as swiftly.
“Plus it’d be great to put you kids’ troublesome hands to work on something other than another student.” He really could have worded that better but, he had the right idea. He dismissed Will, mentioning that he would reveal this “project” during detention that evening and instructed Will to maintain his enthusiasm. As if Will could genuinely be enthused by the prospect of having to be in the shit hole that was Hawkins High for longer than he needed to.
The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly with just a few intrigued looks thrown his way, most students still fascinated by the midday event. Will strived to be in the gym— Principal Higgins announced over the P.A system that all students for detention were to meet there after school— as early as he possibly could after his last class. Everything was already going haywire, might as well keep up the punctuality. What he hadn’t expected was for someone to already be there.
In the bleachers sat another 12th grader staring out the gymnasium windows. She had fiery red hair that was tossed into a messy low ponytail, as if she hadn’t even thought about it. The oversized olive green corduroy jacket she wore over her plain navy t-shirt and evidently wide legged jeans made her hair pop even more than it already did. She looked cool. Will only wished he could be that cool in his lifetime. Not counting being Spiderman.
She held her phone in hand with a wired headset connected, movements conveying she was listening to something with a lively beat.Even with the loud creak of the heavy doors as Will stepped into the room, she remained unbothered. He walked towards the bleachers, sitting not too far from where the girl had been sitting, a few steps higher.
The room possessed an air of discomfort so thick a knife could cut it. Unsure why the atmosphere had suddenly turned tense, Will sought out to change this. Uncharacteristic of “Invisible Boy Byers” but someone’s gotta fix this room’s aura. Guess you could say, Spiderman was coming to the rescue once more.
“Ah, detention. Perfect place for some quality introspection wouldn’t you say?” He was almost certain she could hear him with the way her head turned from looking out the window to look at her bag to the left of her.
The red head seemingly paused her music and huffed, clearly uninterested.
“Look, i’m not here to make friends or conversation so— wait, are you the guy who broke Jason’s shoulder?” She took a look at his face and her interest was suddenly peaked now knowing exactly wy he had been in detention. She thought it’s just be some other lame-o who skipped class or something. Its not a big deal, everyone skips whether it be to smoke weed or have sex or just to get out of being stuck in a room with other insufferable teenagers.
He cringed at her choice of words and quick corrected, “I did not break his shoulder,” She raised he eyebrows at him, “Its probably just dislocated, they can set it back.”
Now fully turned around sitting criss-cross applesauce on the bleachers steps, the ginger started again with a grin on her face, “It felt good didn’t it?” Will quizzically looked at her with wide eyes. He stammered before she cut him off continuing, “Gosh i’ve been wanting to mess him up for a while now. It must've felt good after all those years of bullying, huh?”
“What? No, Jason never bullied me. I was trying to stop him from beating down one of the freshmen.” Will corrected her again. Where did she even get the idea that Jason had been bullying him.
“So you broke—”
“ Dislocated. ”
“his shoulder even though he didn’t do anything to you? What, the freshman your brother or something?” she was becoming more and more interested in Will’s story.
“Uh, no…i just…he was being a dick. Plus he was gonna punch me so i just stopped him.” He tried his best to seem convincing. He wasn’t gonna tell this random girl whose name he hadn’t gotten yet, how the kid reminded him of himself and Dustin when they were still going to Hawkins Middle. That was a little too much information for a first meeting.
She hummed and narrowed her eyes at him, her gaze piercing. He shifted under her eyes until she spoke up again, “I’m gonna choose to believe that you did it on purpose for some reason or the other because it’s more fun that way.” She motioned to take the headset out of her ears and put away her phone. Attention fully on Will.
He didn’t want to talk about this anymore, “So, what are you in here for then? Skipped class to go vandalize Principal Higgins’ car or something?”
"No, but that's a great idea i will take into consideration," she smiled putting her chin in the palms of her hands, "some girls were being literally every -phobic and -ism to exist so i shut them up " she stated calmly
"I'm guessing with a couple punches? Kicks?"
"Damn, do I look that violent?" she asked with a chuckle looking down at her knuckles which she hadn't realised were flushed red and bruised.
"I dunno, you just don't seem like the type to care for intellectual takedowns," she raised her eyebrows at him in faux offence, " I didn't mean that to sound like i'm calling you stupid because i'm not, i don't even know you so i couldn't be calling you stupid and even if i did i wouldn't do that because that's not cool….sorry "
She held her head as she laughed at Will fumbling over his words. He soon joined her and they both laughed at his temporary insanity moments before, unintentionally insinuating that the unknown girl was an idiot
"I'm Max, by the way."
"Will."
Gradually more students filtered into the gymnasium for detention, soon followed by Principal Higgins who wore a larger than necessary smile.