𝚆𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴 𝙸𝚂 𝙼𝚈 𝙼𝙸𝙽𝙳? ⇢ ʙʏʟᴇʀ

the length of imagination

"Blue?"

Hawkins Middle School, situated politely in the Roane County School District, seemed like a rather simple place to navigate if you had any semblance of an idea as to where you were going. The halls were covered in polished green paint, floors tiled in colours that didn't clash. The school wasn't even overly large, if anything, it was a bit undersized for the amount of students that attended it. The classrooms were pretty straightforward, and the washrooms were even easier to discover. The only problem Will found, and the most significant problem that he could face in such a situation, was that he was entering the school as though he had never seen it before in his entire life.

"That's what you're gonna call him?"

In reality, the school board hadn't expected Will to return to his studies for at least another week, presuming that he was on bed rest, or not even released from the hospital yet. There had been nobody telling the boy that he had to be at school that morning except himself, something he was sure he would never have done before his accident. He didn't know where else he could preoccupy himself however, that wasn't his home.

He didn't hate being at his house, rather, he hated feeling trapped there. If anything, Will took a bit of comfort in the fact that the things he was surrounded with in his own bedroom were traits, facts and signals of the boy he was before everything turned blank inside his brain. He could look at his race car sheets and know that he found that cool, that the designs had caught him. He could look at his sketchbook and understand that he liked to draw, liked to colour even more than draw. He'd even thrown a sketchbook and several coloured pencils in his bag that morning to keep himself busy at school before he escaped out the front door. Jonathan had been waiting patiently in the driver's seat of their dark green Ford Pinto, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel to the soft hum of music coming from the car's built in radio.

Will found that Jonathan looked strikingly similar to Joyce already in his facial features, but the drowsiness that seemed to swarm over their entire household only enhanced this. They were both tired, both in need of a solid sleep and a load off of their chests. It made them look almost identical, if only briefly in Will's eyes.

Will was handling the pain of everything in a different way, taking it with pursed lips and a firm grip and not letting it destroy him yet. He had hope. Whether it was pointless or not to cling to it, he hadn't decided yet. But he wanted to remember, wanted so desperately to remember that he wouldn't mind if it was the last thing he did. If it would take the pain out of his mother's eyes, he wouldn't mind at all.

"Earth to Will?"

-

Lifting his head from the small Tupperware container in front of him, Will Byers tore his gaze away from the crust of his sandwich that he had hastily been picking apart. He had been spacing, he knew this, and he took a moment to glance around the heavily crowded cafeteria as he regained his sense of where he was. The students hadn't been on lunch break very long, maybe fifteen minutes at best. He'd been so lost in thought about that morning that he had completely zoned out Lucas and Dustin as they sat before him.

"Sorry" Will mumbled in an embarrassed half-apology.

"I mean, I personally don't get it" Dustin spoke up as though he'd been waiting silently to comment, resting an elbow on the table as he watched Will pick at his food. In front of Dustin was a juice pack, open and half empty, but he didn't seem to have anything to snack on. He didn't appear to be too bothered by this. "Then again, I can remember what his name is" Dustin carried on, shooting a distasteful look at Lucas as the boy gave him a solid kick underneath the table.