After what happened that damn night of 1983, Hayden Maldonado, his family and friends thought that everything was going back normal, maybe play another DnD campaign, hanging out at the arcade, you know, the usual for our Hawkins boy.
But he was wron...
The mornings before school was a little tense on the Maldonado residence.
Elizabeth and Arthur were making breakfast in silence, not usual for the married couple. Their thoughts in their nephew and son, they knew they needed to do something but they didn't want to get Jay in all this stuff again, they didn't want to lose him like everyone lose El last year.
On the table, Jay was reading his book to distract himself of the constant worrying he was feeling, he knew something was going on with Will but he didn't know what to do or how to help, and that made him nervous, angry... He felt fear...
He sighed and shook his head, remembering a phrase from the Dune book, 'I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer' that phrase echoed through his mind, he tried to control it and he did, but again, that same ting on his brain didn't let him relax at all.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
His father dropped him off in school and drove away. Now Jay was walking down the hallway with Max and Lucas, Max had been gathering the courage to ask a question to both boys.
Max cleared her throat and began. "I still don't get why they call him zombie boy."
Zombie boy, that nickname made Jay's blood boil, he subtly rolled his eyes and remained as calm as he could.
"I mean, I get it. He got lost in the woods for a week or something, but why is be a zombie? Because everyone thought he was dead?" finished Max, looking at Lucas and Jay, specially Jay who had a scowl on his face, that worried Max.
"Yeah, I mean, we had a funeral for him and everything." Lucas said calmly much to Max's confusion.
"After a week?"
"Well, see, some other kid drowned at the quarry. We thought it was Will because his body was super decomposed." explained Lucas and Max stopped, making the two boys stop as we'll.
"What? Okay, that's not funny." she said unamused, Jay groaned and ran a hand through his hair, Max and Lucas looked back at him in confused, why was he so moody today?
"Look, Maxine, it's not stupid joke, okay? My father and the chief were the ones that pulled out the body from that stupid lake, believe what you want." Jay said with some annoyance on his tone, then he stormed away from them. He really didn't knew why he said that, but he theorized that it was Max's skepticism plus the knowledge of Will's episodes that made him outburst a little.
All of this hurted Max the slightest, he called her by her full name, his tone was almost as cold as his mother's, all of this made her feel slightly guilty, 'did I do something?' she asked to herself as she slowly walked with Lucas again.
All of the group was on Mr. Clark's class, expect Dustin, nobody knew were he was.
Jay was at the back of the class at the left side of Max, he wasn't really putting attention, he was again, thinking of Will and how would he help him, this made him not notice two things, the fact that Dustin entered the classroom out of the blue, and the eyes of Max that were fully focused on him with.
