Secrets

002: Where's Will?

It was a bright and early morning at Chief Hopper's house. Outside, birds were chirping and the day was already in motion, but for Jim Hopper, he was just about to wake up. His house was completely messy, pills were laid out, the news was playing on his TV overnight, newspapers scattered around. He laid shirtless, slumped on his couch, only waking up to a dog barking. He picked up his hand and groaned as he checked the time. Before showering and brushing his teeth, he stared out into the distance and smoked a cigarette on his balcony. He was trying to prepare himself for the day ahead. After his usual morning routine, he threw on his police uniform and his hat. The news was still left on after he left.

At the Byers' house, it was a mess, but not nearly as bad as Hoppers'. Joyce was looking for her keys as Jonathan made breakfast for him and his brother. "Okay, sweetie, I will see you tonight." Joyce said before turning to the dinner table to say goodbye to Will, just for him to not be there. "Where's Will?"

"Oh, I didn't get him up yet. He's probably still sleeping." Jonathan responded as he finished up pouring the eggs he had made onto two plates.

Joyce headed over to Will's room, knocking on the door and clapping to get him up, except that Will wasn't in his bed. He actually wasn't in the house.

"He came home last night, right?" Joyce asked loudly as she rushed back to the kitchen where Jonathan was.

"He's not in his room?" Jonathan asked as he continued to set up the plates.

"Did he come home or not?"
"I don't know." Jonathan said. Joyce wanted an answer out of him because she wasn't home, but it turns out he wasn't either.

"You don't know?"

"No, I-I got home late, I was working."

"You were working?!"

"Eric asked if I could cover and I said yeah, I just thought we could use the extra cash."

"Jonathan, we've talked about this."

"I know, I know."
"You can't take shifts when I'm working." Joyce was very worried about her youngest but also annoyed with her oldest. She went over to the phone to dial the last place Will was: The Wheeler's.

Karen went over to the phone during family breakfast.

"That's disgusting." Nancy said to Mike as he poured syrup all over his food.

"You're disgusting!" Mike snapped back. Since Nancy didn't like the syrup, Mike decided to pour it all over her food.

"What the hell, Mike!" Nancy yelled. Her dad was very calm about the whole situation, in fact he didn't care. Only about the fact that she was cursing.

Hayley didn't like when her siblings fought, she always found it quite annoying and always tried to mediate the situation. "Wanna switch?" Was her response to trying to mediate the situation, but she was only making one sibling happy.

Nancy smiled and thanked her but Mike was annoyed that his plan didn't work, "You're such a goodie two-shoes!"

"You're such a goodie two-shoes." Hayley mocked as she shook her head.

Later on, three out of the four boys out of the group, rode over to Hawkins Middle on their bikes. After parking their bikes, they looked around for Will and assumed he was already in class. They headed over to class to meet Will there but were stopped by Troy and James, their bullies.

"Step right up, ladies and gentlemen. Step right up and get your tickets for the freak show." All the boys turned around to see Troy with his arms stretched out. "Who do you think would make more money in a freak show? Midnight, frog-face, or toothless?" He made fun of Lucas for his skin color, Mike for his face shape, and Dustin for his teeth.