𝚆𝙷𝙴𝚁𝙴 𝙸𝚂 𝙼𝚈 𝙼𝙸𝙽𝙳? ⇢ ʙʏʟᴇʀ

good at finding

"You were never this smart, Byers."

Had anybody else made such a statement towards him, anybody but Lucas, Will might have taken it as an insult. For some reason, however, as the three boys dragged themselves out of their seats and began stuffing the remnants of that day's work and future homework into their knapsacks, Will, at least somewhat, understood what Lucas was trying to say to him. In some way, and he had been able to tell by the dazed look on his professor's face when he'd turned in that session's in-class assignment, Will understood that before everything had happened, he hadn't been all that great when it came to math.

Maybe he hadn't been all that great at school at all, but he was smart and deep down he knew that, too. Will had expected, fully, that going back to school with fuzzy memories rattling around in your brain might be a little bit more than jarring. He hadn't expected that he would be able to focus at all, whether he could remember the remnants of the beginning of the school year and it's teachings or not.

"Hey! I'm not stupid!" Will had cut in quickly, a startled and over exaggerated smile of disbelief flashing across his face as he leaned into Lucas, giving the boy's shoulder a gentle punch. He had been fully prepared to start entirely fresh when it came to school, and though he had needed to do just that like he'd thought, Will found, strangely he might add, that having an entirely fresh canvas of a brain wasn't all that bad when it came to school.

It was like everything clicked more easily now that there was enough space for the puzzle pieces of his classes to fit together, and when he had passed in his assignment that late afternoon, his professor had been surprised to find that Will had almost gotten every single question correct. His only error had been a miscalculation, and even then, he had done the formula entirely spot on besides that minor step.

He had stuffed the papers into his bag without a second thought about it, however, besides a mild pride lingering in his stomach. Will's thoughts were still preoccupied, but he was doing his best to keep his mind drilled into something other than the conversation he and his brother had shared. He was failing miserably at that, but it was the thought that counts.

How do you even approach something like that, he'd asked himself many times through the span of time between when they'd spoken and the few days afterwards, those of which had been plagued with that thought and variations of it. How do you even consider liking somebody? You just know, Jonathan had told him. As if that made any sense at all. As if that didn't just sound like a teasing joke to the younger Byers boy. You just know. Yeah, maybe, he had thought as he packed himself up and teetered off towards the classroom door, trailing just a few steps behind Lucas and Dustin as they discussed dates for their next D&D campaign. Maybe you do just know, Will had thought to himself. But how do you even approach doing something about it once you know?

Will Byers knew. Deep down, he knew. God, he would block it out for as long as he could. That was what he was supposed to do, right?

Right?

"So we're all good for this weekend, right?" Dustin chimed in as the three of them slid out of the classroom door like three bulls in a china shop, impatiently maneuvering so that the three of them could get out practically all at once. "I'm just asking because I don't want to give you any space to flake out on us" Dustin quipped slyly in Lucas' direction, causing the boy to shoot an unimpressed look back at Dustin.

"As if you didn't flake out on us before!" Lucas snapped back, his tone sharp like a razor but harmless, still. Dustin had taken no time to comment something in response but Will found that he drifted back a bit, verbally, hanging halfway out of the conversation as he continued to spin a tight web of thoughts inside of his brain. He was no longer focused on the two boys standing in front of him, playfully bickering about their ditching habits while Will turned inwards. He didn't want to admit to himself that he had been thinking about, well, thinking about what he'd been thinking about. He could barely think about it directly, always skirting around the idea like blocking out the words in his brain might make him forget about it altogether.