Head Over Heels

I. Team Matt

"It was crazy!" Dustin exclaimed from the passenger seat of Matthew Cunningham's car. "We almost killed the Demogorgon with a fireball, but then Will rolled a 7 and the Demogorgon got him. Except Mike didn't see it, so it didn't count. We played for ten hours!"

"How can you play for ten hours? Doesn't it get boring?" Matt quickly removed his eyes from the road to glance at Dustin.

"Of course not!" Dustin looked at the teen in disbelief. "You wouldn't know because you never play with us."

  "I'm not playing D&D with you."

"Why not?" Dustin whined.

  "Because you guys are, like, eight," Matt teased as pulled up to the Hawkins Middle School.

"Mr. Clarke thinks it's cool," Dustin grumbled before exiting the car and meeting up his friends.

Dustin and Matt had been friends for only two years, but that was enough time for them to build an almost brother-like bond. Dustin was in the middle of cussing out his unstable bike when they met. Matt's father was a mechanic, so naturally, he knew a thing or two about fixing up forms of transport, especially bikes.

After multiple minutes of convincing Dustin that he wasn't a kidnapper, Matt managed to bring Dustin's bike to his garage in order to repair it. Before Dustin left, Matt gifted him a red, white, and blue hat that he would wear every time he went biking when he was Dustin's age.

To say that Dustin liked it would be a bit of an understatement, and from that point on, Dustin would invite himself to hang out with Matt every single time that he saw him. Now, somehow, Dustin would get a ride to school from Matt every time he complained about not wanting to ride his bike.

After dropping Dustin off, Matt's least favorite part of his day would come; his school. Ever since middle school, Matt hated it. As one of the smartest kids in his class, the amount of jocks in the school didn't work very well in his favor.

  When he entered the school, he went straight towards his locker, but was beyond surprised to see someone waiting there.

Nancy had only noticed Matt a few times, mostly from the times that he sat near her friends in class, yet she still stood at his locker this morning.

"Hey," Nancy beamed as she hugged her books closer to her chest.

"Oh, um, h-hi," Matt smiled back nervously as he felt the hallway suddenly become hotter.

  "You have Kaminsky, too, right?" Nancy sparked conversation.

"Yeah, yeah, I do. I think I might have the worst grades in his class. His tests are, like, impossible. I mean, how does he expect us to ace the test if he doesn't provide enough information? It's so-" Matt cut himself off when he realized that he was rambling. "Sorry."

  "It's fine," Nancy dismissed. "Well, there's that test tomorrow, and I was just wondering if you'd maybe want to.. study with me?"

  Matt was incredibly taken aback by the offer, Nancy wanted to study with him? Of course there was always a possibility that she just wanted a good grade and could use him for one, but would Nancy really do that? Maybe Steve's friends' behavior was rubbing off on her, she was hanging out with them a lot recently.

  "Of course-" Matt's smile faded when Steve came around the corner and placed his hand right on Matt's locker, leaning on it while he grinned cockily.

  "Hey, Nance," he began, not caring to spare Matt a glance. "I just... needed help finding the bathroom," he sent her a suggestive look.

"Yeah, one second, Steve," she replied with, what looked like to Matt, a forced smile.