Don't Panic - B. Hargrove

FOUR

High school was a strange place. The students were too old to come in costumes but old enough to throw a house party with their parent's blessing. The closer the event came, the more people started to talk about Tina's Halloween bash, and while they were all excited, David already regretted having agreed to come.

So he had made it his primary mission to convince his brother to take him so they could suffer together. Jonathan hated parties just as much as his brother did. But he was a boy with easy buttons to push. And David fondly found himself not even having to do that himself as the button, Nancy Wheeler herself, whined for Jonathan to come.

David watched his brother's residence crumble as they walked down the hall. His twin squirmed under her sweet, brown gaze, and the desire to do everything to please her kicked in with a quiet: "Okay, I'll go."

And Nancy beamed like sunshine, wrapping the boy tighter around her finger. And then mercilessly crushed his hopes when Steve surprised her by her locker, pulling her into a cheesy kiss. The other two boys walked on, and David asked himself if he should say something to cheer up his brother, yet chose to better not.

So they parted ways for the next course, and when David entered the chem lab, he found the usually empty seat at his table taken by the new boy. He looked bored and out of place, clearly not the type for an advanced course. David hated the class himself. It was loud, smelly, and dangerous. So he got the disgusted look on Billy Hargrove's face that turned into annoyance when David seated himself.

Billy eyed him, and the other boy just pretended not to notice to avoid any awkward conversation that didn't need to take place. Still, he felt the gaze wander over his face and down to where he had placed his hands on the table. The older boy even leaned to the side to check for his skateboard that leaned against his backpack.

" You're a junior, aren't you?" Billy asked harshly, confused as to why that tiny boy was in this course. David nodded, a hand running up and rubbing his slender neck in nervousness.

"How are you allowed to take this class?" Billy's gaze wandered to the slender fingers that softly, almost unnoticeably, tapped against the tabletop.

"I'm good at chemistry," David answered, still not looking at him. Billy hummed. That perfectly fitted the idea he had of the strange boy. Of course, he was a geek. What else should he be with that scrawny frame and weird attitude?

At least that meant he could let him do all the experimenting while still earning the grades for teamwork. David would never share to say anything against that. But as soon as the teacher entered and handed out papers, he had to come to terms with the fact that this course was more theoretical than he was used to. And to further firing  his distaste, the paper turned out to be a pop quiz. And he couldn't answer a single question.

Close to throwing something, his gaze flickered from his sheet to David's, who busily wrote down so many words so quickly, he couldn't read them to copy.

What a shame. So he made a few educated guesses not to give back the paper blank and returned it to the teacher with a frown. That would be his first fail of the year. On his second day of school. A new record for himself.

He looked back at David, who was now happily bouncing on his chair as if he had just received a treat. To his weird mind, a pop quiz was probably the day's event. His watery blue eyes briefly glanced back at him but averted it just as quickly. Billy huffed at that. Weird boy. Yet, he hadn't met anyone in Hawkins who wasn't at least bit odd.

There must be something about this town, but none seemed to have a fucking spine. The boy who used to rule the school had chickened out to hang with boys like David, his former friends now glued to Billy's side without even knowing them just to maintain their popularity. Nothing like that would have ever taken place in California.

It irritated him just as much as the tiny boy in front of him who just buried his face in his book for the rest of the lesson just to jump back up with the bell as if he had just read the most amazing story. But it was just chemistry; how interesting could that be? Unless he was into taking drugs.
That would be a completely different situation, then.

He eyed the boy once again. No, he didn't look like someone who would do that—a bummer.

Everything in Hawkins was just so dull. He sighed as he stood up from his chair, following the other students into the hallway, raising an eyebrow as the weirdo passed him by, both hands holding onto the straps of his bag. At the same time, he darted toward the former king of the school and basketball captain, who padded the boy on the back.

What a strange couple. But Billy couldn't wonder long about them as Tommy C, the most obnoxious boy he had ever met, slung an arm around his shoulders.

"Listen, the list is out," he told him with a smirk on his lips.

"The list?" Billy responded, already annoyed.

"For the basketball team. You should write your name down."
Billy huffed.

"I don't do tryouts." He shrugged off the arm. Tommy immediately turned back into the submissive little when he was.

"Of course not. No tryouts. But you have to be on that list. It's just a formality."  The other boy looked at him, a frown on his face. He really didn't like shit like that.

"Come on. I'll take you. It's just a signature." Tommy gestured down the hall. With a heavy side glance, Billy strutted towards the notification board he was referring to. Indeed, their was a list hanging out for everyone who wanted to join the team. But there had been only a few signatures yet. So Billy grabbed the pencil dangling from the board and put his name down.

Meanwhile, David was listening to Steve complaining about their math teacher while standing in line for lunch.

"It's unbelievable! It's like it goes in one ear and out the other. Why do we even calculate random blobs in space anyway?"

"Because the random blobs can be used for computer science," David answered. Steve looked at him funnily.

"I know, man! But why have I to do it?" David shrugged.

"Maybe they think it sparks something in you"

"Oh, it definitely does. Hatred." Steve huffed at that, running a hand through his hair.

"Funny, that's exactly what the party sparks in me" David grinned at his friend devilishly.

"Yeah, you'll get over it," Steve smirked right back. "Ey, why don't you go as Luke Skywalker?"

David eyed him. "I don't think that's a good idea"

"Why not?" Steve responded, taking a lunch tray.

"Because I'm already sticking out enough. Not everyone is like you, Steve."

"Bullshit. You can wear anything." Steve argued, nodding at the lunch lady with a smile as she handed over his plate.

"Yeah? Luke Skywalker is wearing robes. You think that's the look for me?" David muttered a thank you as he got his meal and followed Steve to their table.

"Yeah, that would be weird," Steve finally agreed while opening his bottle of  his favorite soda. The other boy watched as he took a sip, slightly jealous of how he even looked cool doing simple things like that. Steve Harrington was just a different level of the boy.

Sometimes, that made communication complicated, though, as Steve could hardly relate to most of his problems. He had never been anything but popular. David had never been anything but an outcast, so he wouldn't be stupid and dress up as his favorite character. That would equal a price on his head, and he didn't want to be used to wipe the floor of a party.

"Jonathan is coming too by the way," he remembered, and Steve briefly glanced at him.

"Yeah? Cool. Look, you won't be alone." With that, Steve was done with the topic and turned his attention to his food, that didn't look appealing, but the boy had the stomach and appetite of a starvation victim and started spooning it into his mouth regardless. David just shook his head at that view. That was so Steve.