Strange as IT Seems

Chapter 47: Come Together

"Dustin? Dustin?" Mr. Clarke calls out. "Is everything all right?"

The science teacher sticks his head out into the hallway from the teacher's lounge, checking to see if he is there. All he is met with is silence.

He heads back toward his classroom, a warm cup of coffee in his hand. The only sounds are his footsteps echoing off the plain walls painted with the team mascot the Cubs. When he enters his room once more, he sees the keys lying on his desk, confirming that Dustin must have had to run home. Gazing out the window, the teacher couldn't blame him, for not wanting to bike home in the coming storm.

Taking a sip of his coffee, Mr. Clarke goes back to his marking, setting a time limit so he could get home before the rain began.

...

"H-How many p-people should be in the p-party?" Ben asks. "We need to c-consider h-how we introduce them."

He sits at Will's kitchen table, a large stack of white paper in front of him. He's writing a list of story elements while Will is making rough sketches. Balls of crumpled paper litter the floor and are overflowing in the kitchen trash. Two half-drunk glasses of milk and a near-empty plate of cookies lay between them, courtesy of Will's mother. A saving grace. Both boys had agreed that they would only work at the Byer's home because if they were at the Denbrough's, Bill's mother would never leave them alone and Georgie was not always an ideal companion either. Here, Will's brother Johnathan couldn't have cared less what they did, and Joyce knew when to leave the boys be, just happy that Will had met someone new and they shared similar interests.

Joyce had to work a later shift so she fixed the boys a snack before leaving, knowing Johnathan would be home soon to keep an eye on the teens. Even though she trusted her youngest completely, she knew that her eldest would ensure that Will ate something other than cookies and didn't get so wrapped up in his work that he neglected his schoolwork.

"I thought we could make it almost like a recruitment, that our one hero begins his journey and then gathers allies as he goes."

"Good idea," Bill says. "B-but who?"

"Well, we have Bill the Brave, a knight from a distant kingdom. Will the wise, the mighty wizard..."

Bill is writing down the names in a list as his friend continues.

Will thinks back to all those days playing D&D with his friends, back when the Demogorgon was a piece of plastic in the game. He always liked their original character names and he figured they would get a kick out of being included.

"Sundar the Bold," Will suggests. "A noble prince turned rogue knight/outlaw."

"Wh-why an outlaw?"

Will shrugs.

"How about...B-banished from his original k-kingdom, accused of c-corruption?" Bill says. He was already thinking about how to expand his backstory even further.

"I like that!" Will says. He'd never thought of why Sundar would have been rogue or an outlaw. "We could travel to his kingdom in another side quest, how he refused to join the war council and..."

"L-let's focus," his friend reminds him. They needed to start simple and then expand their ideas.

"Tayr, a great master."

"M-master of what? We sh-shouldn't have two magic u-users since we already have a wizard."

Will pauses for a moment.

"Some kind of combat? Archery?"

Bill thinks it over. "L-little too L-Lord of the Rings."

"How about duelling?"