✓ | 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐌 (BYLER)

𝒊𝒊. BULLIES

━━━━  𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 !
𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎

The final bell rang, marking the end of the school day and the official beginning of spring break. El walked out to the courtyard with her diorama in her hands. She was relieved that her nightmare of a school day was finally over.

The courtyard was bustling with students. Some were discussing their plans for spring break while others were doing their homework. El, on the other hand, wanted nothing more than to go home and scream into her pillow. Angela's cruel words replayed in her head like a broken record and she couldn't get them to go away.

Her thoughts were soon brought to a halt when someone deliberately stuck their leg out in front of her, causing her to trip and fall flat onto the concrete. Slowly lifting herself off the ground, El turned to see who had tripped her.

As expected, the devil herself stood there with a malicious grin planted on her face. Angela. God, why couldn't she escape her?

Surrounding Angela were her friends, who always seemed to obey her commands. It was as if she were a puppeteer and her friends were the puppets — every word or action coming from them was actually controlled by her.

"Oh my God! I am so sorry. I hope Mr. Fibbly's okay," The blonde girl chortled, her friends joining in to create an entire chorus of laughter.

Suddenly, without any warning, Jake kicked El's project to the side. Then, his friend, whose name she was unsure of, stomped on it. Not only was her project being crushed — her heart was, too. She had spent weeks perfecting the diorama to the best of her ability, knowing Hopper would've been so proud.

"Whoops!" The boy cackled.

Merely seconds later, Will walked out the doors and immediately took notice of the commotion in the courtyard. At first, he couldn't quite decipher what was going on. That is, until he spotted El standing in the middle of it all. What he noticed next was enough to bring him to the brink of tears.

The bullies were taking turns kicking and stomping on El's project as if it were a worthless piece of garbage. Will's vision grew cloudy. He had to fight back the tears threatening to spill from his eyes. El had worked her ass off on that diorama, and now she was being forced to stand there and watch the bullies destroy it.

El couldn't take it anymore. She wasn't going to let the bullies get away with demolishing something that held so much meaning to her. She stood up and felt a sudden rush of adrenaline pumping through her veins, steam practically shooting out of her ears.

"Angela!" She yelled, a furious expression forming on her face.

Angela and her friends turned around, eager to hear what she had to say. Forgetting about the absence of her powers, El outstretched her arm and screamed to the top of her lungs, expecting the bullies to be slammed onto the ground, or better yet, into a wall.

Nothing. The crowd was dead silent as El slowly brought her arm down, a look of humiliation replacing her angry expression.

"Holy shit!" Angela exclaimed.

"What the hell was that?" Stacy cackled, the entire flock of students roaring with laughter.

At that moment, El wanted nothing more than to completely vanish off the face of the Earth. Being mocked and laughed at by everyone in the courtyard felt like a recurring nightmare that she couldn't escape.

Will watched from afar, his eyes red with tears. He wished he could've done something to stop this from happening, but there was no use. El's project was already destroyed by the time he walked out of the building. He couldn't magically bring it back to life.

Suddenly, Mrs. Gracey dashed out of the building in a frenzy. She must've heard the commotion and wanted to make sure everything was okay.

"Hey, what's going on here?" She panicked, shoving her way through the assembly of students before spotting El, who was standing in the center.

"What's going on? Jane?" Mrs. Gracey put her hand on El's shoulder and noticed the ruined diorama. "Did someone do this?"

"I tripped," El lied, looking at her teacher and then directly at Angela. "It was just an accident."

Mrs. Gracey wasn't stupid — she saw right through El's lies. She glared at Angela and stormed over to where she was standing.

"All right, Angela. You come with me."

"What? Why?" The blonde girl asked, acting as if she hadn't done anything wrong.

"Let's go," Mrs. Gracey huffed, grabbing her shoulder and dragging her inside the building.

"I didn't do anything," Angela whined, turning her head to face El. "Tell her, Jane! Tell her!"

El just stood there in silence, tears dribbling down her reddened cheeks. She lowered herself to the ground, taking a closer look at her ruined diorama.

˗ˏˋ꒰ 🎱 ꒱

"Shit, shit," Will muttered as he forced his way through the crowd. "El! El!"

Her gaze never met his. She refused to look at him. Instead, she picked up the pieces of her project and stared at them with an immense sadness lingering behind her eyes.

"El . . . I'm sorry," Will frowned, helping her gather the broken pieces of her diorama. "It's gonna be okay. It's not that bad."

She continued to stay silent, now staring at the figurine of Hopper that was broken in two. Will almost broke down at the sight of it.

"We'll fix it together, okay?" He said, his voice breaking as he spoke.

El just sobbed even harder, not responding to any of her step-brother's words. There was nothing to say. The only thing she managed to do was cry.

Will didn't know what else to say, so he hesitantly pulled her in for a hug, awkwardly rubbing her back as she cried in his arms. He wasn't great at comforting people, but he hated seeing El in such a broken state. Even though they weren't close, he loved and cared for her as if she were his biological sister. After pulling away from the embrace, Will stood up and held his hand out for her to take.

"Come on, let's get out of here," He whispered.

And with that, she took his hand and helped herself off the ground, feeling readier than ever for spring break.

𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄 !
sorry this chapter is a bit short! it was originally going to be part of the previous chapter but i thought it'd be better if i split them up into two because of how long it was :)