𝐦𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞~𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬

𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄, 𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐄 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄

𝒂/𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕 𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒄. 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔? 𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒆. 𝒐𝒌 𝒔𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓. 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒚𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒏𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒚𝒍𝒆. 𝒊 𝒅𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒐. 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝒊𝒎𝒎𝒂 𝒔𝒉𝒖𝒕 𝒖𝒑 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒐𝒏 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 :𝑰
𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸

𝐖𝐄 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐀 𝐑𝐎𝐆𝐔𝐄 𝐘𝐄𝐓
ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴍʏ ʜᴏᴜsᴇ, ʟᴇᴛ's ᴅɪᴇ ᴛᴏɢᴇᴛʜᴇʀ
ғʀɪᴇɴᴅsʜɪᴘ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʟᴀsᴛ ғᴏʀᴇᴠᴇʀ

𝑨𝒔𝒉𝒍𝒆𝒚'𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒗
The watch that Will had given her read 9:47. She had been studying it for a few hours and noticed that every time the 59 changes, the number on the left went up, apart from after 23:59, when it changed to 00:00. She figured that the number after 9:59 would be 10:00, when Will told her to be at Mike's.
Ashley decided she wanted to get to Mike's a little bit early, it's not like she has anywhere else to be anyways. The house looked huge, and comfortable. She stepped up to the door, took in a breath to calm her nerves, and exhaled as she knocked on the door. The door opened quickly to reveal a pretty woman with dark blond, wavy hair.
"See Mike. D-and-D" Ashley said, emphasising the D's because she wanted to make sure the woman heard.
"Oh! Well come in, dear. Mike is in the basement, i'm his mom, Mrs Wheeler." She ushered Ashley in and looked down at the girl "Mike never has girls over, that's why i may have looked a little surprised."
Ashley looked up at Mrs Wheeler, listening to her thoughts. A girl? Talking to Mike? Ted will love the sound of this.
Mrs Wheeler pointed the way to the basement and Ashley followed. Mike was sitting at the table, setting up the game.
"Hi Mike" Mike looked up with a start.
"Oh um hey Ash. You startled me, i didn't hear you come in." He put the game pieces down and pulled out the seat next to him, indicating her to sit down.
"Ash?" She asked once she had sat down. Wasn't ash something that you got when you burned something? At least that what's Papa said it was.
"Yeah, Ash. Short for Ashley. It's a nickname, like Mike. My real name is Michael, but the guys call me Mike for short" Mike said, turning around to give her his full attention.
"Nickname" Ashley repeated.
"Yeah. If you don't like it, we'll just call you Ashley, i just thought-"
"Perfect" Ashley told him, grabbing his shoulders to make sure he understood. Before he could reply, she turned her attention to the game. There were lots of different pieces, but a couple caught her eye immediately. The first was a monster, and it looked worryingly similar to the monster she had seen during those experiments back in the lab, but she brushed it off, assuming that it could only be a coincidence, right?
The second was a little character that looked like Will's drawing. She still had that in her pocket. Will must've known she had it, but had turned a blind eye. She picked up the figurine to get a closer look, what had Will called it? Oh yeah
"Will the wise" Ashley murmured.
"Yeah, that's who Will plays as" Mike answered, taking the piece from her hands and putting it in place.
Ashley pulled an exasperated face, causing both of them to burst into fits of laughter.  Ashley hadn't laughed like that since her and her sisters figured out that Ashley could manipulate people's minds and make them dance funny.
"Who is Mike?" She asked once she had caught her breath.
"My character?" she nodded.
"Oh. Mine is the paladin" Mike answered, picking up the figurine to show her. Ashley leaned in to get a better look, but her chair leaned too, toppling over. She grabbed Mike's arm, trying to keep herself up, but he was surprised and she ended up bringing him down with her. They landed on the floor with a thud, and Mike rolled off of Ashley as she let go of his arm. They were shocked, but completely unharmed. They slowly looked over to each other, and couldn't hold their gaze for more than a second before laughing so hard Ashley thought her lungs would burst. They were interrupted when a girl walked in, calling Mike's name.
"Hey Mike, your moron friends are h-. What happened? And who's that?" The girl asked, pointing a finger at Ashley.
"Oh this is Ashley, she's new in school. We fell off our chairs. Well actually Ashley fell off her chair, she grabbed my arm and accidentally pulled me down too." Mike explained. He then turned to Ashley. "Ash, this is my sister, Nancy"
"Ok. I don't really care. I was just surprised that you were hanging out with a girl." Nancy remarked.
"You would know if you weren't always talking to your new boyfriend" Mike scoffed, glaring daggers at Nancy as she swiftly turned on her heel and left the basement.
As she left, Ashley noticed Will, Dustin and Lucas standing at the bottom of the stairs. Ashley immediately got up to greet them, waving to Dustin and Lucas before approaching Will, poking him on the nose because he was still staring at Mike. He blinked a few times before turning his attention to Ashley and smiling at her.
"You came!" He said, excitement evident in his voice. Ashley patted herself down, checking that she was there, sending Dustin and Lucas into a fit of giggles, before replying.
"Yep. Knew the time." she stated simply, pointing at the watch on her wrist.
𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍'𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒗
Will, Dustin and Lucas had all agreed to meet up on the way to Mike's so they could go together. The whole ride there though, Will was thinking about Ashley, and how much he hoped she would be there.

______________

Once they had arrived at the Wheeler's house, they parked their bikes (𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒂 𝒃𝒊𝒌𝒆? 𝒊 𝒅𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒐) and knocked at the door. It was Nancy, Mike's sister who opened it, which was unusual because, in all the years Will had been coming over to Mike's, she had only opened the door to him maybe once or twice.
She led them through the house when they heard a loud thud come from the basement. They all rushed down the stairs, where they saw something that Will was not expecting.
Ashley and Mike were lying next to each other on the floor, their hair and clothes a mess, and faces red as if they had been laughing. A strange feeling began brewing inside Will, one that made his stomach churn and his face flush red. It couldn't be what Will thought it was, he'd only known Ashley for two days. He must've spaced out in his annoyance, because he saw Nancy leave the basement in a hurry, a frown plastered across her face.
Will then turned to Mike, trying to understand what had just happened, but to no avail. His gaze was stopped when he felt something poke him on the nose and noticed that Ashley was standing right in front of him, her faces only a couple of inches from his. She was so close he couldn't stand it but he didn't want to create a scene, so he smiled at her
"You came!" He was actually really happy that she had come, this meant that maybe she was interested in D&D. She patted herself down, as if checking that she was actually there before replying
"Yep. Knew the time." She pointed at the watch that Will had given her only Friday. That felt so long ago.
"Great! Well, shall we get started?" Lucas asked, pushing past Will and Ashley to take his place at the table. Mike put the chairs that had fallen over back up. That was when Will noticed that there were only four spaces around the table. He was about to ask Ashley if she wanted him to get her a chair, but Mike beat him to it.
"Hey Ash, do you want me to get you a chair? You can sit where you like"
Ashley nodded and Mike disappeared upstairs. Will turned to her
"Ash?" he remarked.
"Nickname. Will has nickname?" Oh. Mike had given her a nickname too.
"Well yeah. Will is short for William." She scunched her nose before mumbling 'Will' and 'William' a few times. Mike came back down with the chair.
"So, where do you wanna sit?" Will was so sure she was going to say with Mike to be polite, but instead she said
"With Will", looking up at Will as if to ask if that was ok with him. He smiled back and took his seat. Mike put her chair down next to it and took his own seat, Dustin taking his place too.They were about to start the game when Will called out
"Wait. Ashley needs a character."
Mike nodded before pulling out another box with the other characters in it. Will watched as she looked over each character, before stopping on a smaller figurine all dressed in dark colors with short daggers in each hand (𝒏𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒎𝒐 𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒊 𝒘𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔) and a mask covering the bottom half of their face. She picked it up and showed it to Mike, who told her
"That is a rogue, it's stealthy and good at sneaking around and usually plans its attacks. They are also good at disappearing into the shadows and are great pickpockets. We don't have a rogue yet."
"Rogue" Ashley repeated, showing the figurine to Will.
"Awesome. You ready to start? We'll teach you the rules as we go."
★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎☆︎★︎
𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕: 1557 シ︎
𝒊 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏𝒕 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒐𝒉 𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍. 𝒊 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒂 𝒃𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒅𝒐𝒏𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒚, 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒃𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒍, 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒂 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒙𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓. 𝒔𝒐 𝒊𝒎 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒂 𝒈𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒏𝒐𝒘, 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒅𝒍𝒚 𝒊 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒑𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒚 𝒆𝒎𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒚.
𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒍 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒔
𓃱︎< 𝒊𝒎 𝒂 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒇𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒉𝒆