Who Knew - Byler

25

i highkey made up eleven's life story lmao ignore that k 

also for this chapter i was inspired by The Book Thief so yeah

-

That night while everyone slept peacefully in their beds, Jane was in her room, sitting in a chair, wide awake. She chose a book from the shelf, made it levitate in front of her face and tried her best to read it. It was completely useless tho- she only understood a few words.

She sure had learned how to read the signs that were hanging around the lab with the time, but she'd never went to a proper school, she'd never learnt how to read. Until she had left the lab, the only words she ever said were "papa" and "no".

This was another thing that bothered her. Sure, she was smart, but she'd never went to school, so how was she supposed to attend to the same classes as other kids her age? Hopper had told the principal some lies about her having a sickness that made her not be able to go to school and he had fully believed, but they'd still decided it was better for her to go to class with kids her age.

Even though all the teachers were aware of this and knew they had to be patient with her, she still felt like it was going to be like hell, that the other kids wouldn't be as comprensive as the teachers. So she was trying her best to learn how to read by herself in her bedroom at two a.m. and not accomplishing anything at all.

She focused hard on the page she was trying to read right now. She was only able to read danger, a word she'd learned beause of all the signs that had this word on them at the lab. She let the book fall to the ground out of frustration and three seconds later, her bedroom door was wide open and Hopper rushed in.

"Jane! Are you okay? Is everything okay?" he asked, breathless. He paused for a second and saw the book in the ground and the frustrated look on Jane's face.

"What's wrong?" he asked, and sat down in the bed. "I can't read. I'm stupid," Jane replied, and Hopper sighed internally. Turns out he was going to have to be the sensitive parent for once, which sucked, because he was just not good at feelings.

"Don't say that, Jane. You're not stupid. It's not your fault that you couldn't go to school like every other kid your age," Hopper replied, but that didn't convince her.

"Teach me how to read," Jane said, picking up the book from the ground and shoving it in Jim's face. "What? Now?" the man asked, and Jane nodded while crossing her arms. She was not going to be the stupid girl in her class.

Hopper sighed. "This book is too long and hard. Let's start with something easier, okay?" he said, getting up and walking to the shelf. He looked around for a bit until he saw a thin book named "Rita the bat". He grabbed it and opened it. They were a bunch of short stories in comic. 

He went back to the bed and sat down again. "Come here," he said to Jane, and the girl sat down next to him as she was told. The man opened the book.

"Okay, here we go. I will read out loud and you try to associate the words I say with the words written on the book, okay? If you don't know what a word means, tell me." he said in a tired voice, and Jane nodded slowly, already concentrated. "Rita the bat. Chapter one: Rita and her siblings build a snowman."

-

Will was having breakfast, and he was excited to say the least. Today it was not only the first day of school, but the first day he went to school as Mike's boyfriend. He knew they would be hiding it, but he was still happy.

While he was finishing his cereal, he heard some knocks on the door and he got up to open since Jonathan was preparing his breakfast. He opened the door and a smile appeard on his face as soon as he saw his boyfriend's face.

0.1 seconds later, Will's lips were pressed against Mike's, because the black haired boy wasn't able to control himself after seeing his smile. Will quickly separated from him and looked at Jonathan to see if he had seen. Luckily, he was too focused on the frying pan to pay any attention.

Will sighed in relief. He didn't want to hide it from Jonathan, but it was just embarrassing to have his older brother see him do something like that. He quickly pulled Mike outside and closed the door behind them.

Once they were outside and pretty sure no one would see them, Mike grabbed Will by his tiny waist again and pulled him into a deep kiss. The shorter one put his arms around Mike's neck and stood on his toes, trying to be as tall as his boyfriend. Mike couldn't help but smile into the kiss. He was just too adorable.

"Are you ready? Dustin and Lucas will be waiting for us in our usual spot," Mike asked. "Sure. Let me just get my bag and my bike and we can go," Will replied, and went back inside.

-

Jane was nervously sitting in the sofa. She wouldn't stop moving her legs from side to side and moving back and forth. It was her first day of school and she couldn't possibly be more nervous. What if someone made fun of her? What if she used her powers in front of everyone?

Hopper was sitting in the kitchen counter, something he would normally never do, but now he was just too tired to even open his eyes. He was just sitting there, with a cup of coffee in his hands, eyes closed. The only reason he'd woken up was to make sure Jane left safely with her friend for school, he was not planning on going to work today. 

Suddenly, someone started knocking the door like their life depended on it and both Jane and Hopper almost died. The girl got up and literally ran to open the door. Max was there. "Hi, Jane! Get your stuff in five seconds because Billy isn't in the mood for waiting!" she announced, and Jane ran inside to get her bag.

"Bye, dad!" she screamed, before closing the door with a loud sound. "Bye, kid. Have a good day at school..." he replied, talking like a zombie, even tho the girl was already gone. 

A smile appeared on his face as soon as he realized that she'd called him "dad". She had done that before, but very few times, so this was a very special moment. It takes a long time for someone to go from being "Hopper" to being "dad". 

He got up and lazily walked back to his room, letting himself fall on his bed. He fell asleep again.

-

The car entered the school parking, and soon, everyone was watching. Guns n' Roses was playing at an extremely high volume so it was kind of hard not to look. (i have the feeling that Billy wouldn't be a lot into guns n roses but anyway)

The blonde parked in an empty spot with a loud noise and got out of the car, closing the door carefully to not hurt his baby. Max got out and took her skateboard, and then helped Jane out too.

When she came out, they both stood in front of the building without moving. Jane let out a deep sigh. "Your first day of school," Max said, smiling reassuringly, and grabbed her hand.

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this is not proofread so it prolly sucks sorry for that but it is almost midnight and the grammys will be happening in three hours

i am losing my motivation for this ff lol i hope i will get it back soon bc i wanna finish writing it already 

also would y'all like to see more of elmax + jane's first day at school + dustin and the girl, or should i focus more on byler? 

anygay, go read the introduction to my new fanfiction "soft hearts, sharp knives" please, thank u :)