Hawkins, Indiana. September, 1985

Mike's point of view...

"Lucas, come on! Hurry up! You know we have to be at school early today. For Jane," I stressed, knocking on Lucas's door.

Jane was gripping my left hand from behind me while I was using my right to knock on Lucas's door. I could tell she was nervous. She had been all day so far.

Jane is starting school today at Hawkins Middle. She's ready to learn, I can tell. She's incredibly smart, and was easily able to catch up to us as far as her education within the eight months she had. It sounds crazy, I know, but she could almost pass for a child genius. She learns things so quickly. It wouldn't surprise me if I was told she was smarter than I was.

Jane was always ready to take on new information once it was given to her. I guess it's something that has to do with...well...having telekinetic powers, that her brain is different than ours. She can remember and learn easier.

Nevertheless, she was still incredibly nervous about starting school. She would have to meet new people, and considering for so many, about twelve years of her life she didn't have to meet new people, this was all very new and scary for her.

As soon as I was about to knock on the door for the hundredth time in a row, Lucas opened the door and stepped through it.

"I'm here! Don't get your panties in a bunch, Wheeler," Lucas mumbled, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, well, you know we have to be there early today. I'm showing Jane around," I explained before walking towards our bikes, letting go of Jane's hand.

That's another thing that Jane learned how to do. Hopper bought her a bike of her own and taught her to ride it. I'm not going to lie: I was pretty disappointed when I found out she didn't have to ride on my bike with me anymore, but we can't do everything together, I guess. Independence is a good thing.

"We're still going to pick up Will and Dustin, right?" Jane asked as we began to ride along. "Of course. Mike's just paranoid," Lucas said, picking up speed and riding ahead of us. I rolled my eyes. "Up yours, Lucas," I said, causing Jane to laugh.

Lucas continued to stay in front of us, which led Jane to ride up and pedal right next to me, a look of discomfort showed on her face.

"Mike?" she asked.

I'll admit that, as well. Every time she said my name, I felt something - something inside of my chest. It feels like someone igniting a fire in me.

"Yes, Jane?" I asked, glancing over at her for a few seconds, once again. "I'm really nervous. What if people think I'm...a weirdo?" she asked, biting her lip in the process. I sighed, thinking of a good response.

I knew she was thinking of the few times in the past that she was referred to as that by Lucas of Troy, back when she wasn't trusted.

"Jane, no one is going to think you're weird. You'll have Jennifer and her friends to hang out with. Plus, even if someone does think you're weird, which they won't...I mean, who cares? You have friends. We would never think you're weird," I rambled on, trying to find decent words to say. I was never good with these things. This was always Nancy's string suit, not mine.

I looked over and noticed Jane smiling. "Thanks, Mikey," she said. A nickname she has since developed for me. "You're welcome," I said, deciding not to fight her on the nickname. It's weird. If anyone else called me that, I would have said something about it, but whenever Jane calls me that, I rather like it.

I began to feel my cheeks grow warm as I stared at the road below me. No...no, no, no, no, no, don't blush, Michael...

Sooner than I realized it, we were outside of Dustin's house. Luckily for us, unlike wife Lucas, Dustin was ready for us. He sat on his bike outside in his driveway, and rode out when we made it there.

"Come on," he said. "Can't be late, not today." Clearly he remembered what I said. Thanks a lot, Lucas. "Guys, this really isn't a huge deal..we don't have to be there so early," Jane said as we started to take off once again. "You kidding?" asked Dustin. "This is huge! Your first day in a real school. It'll be fun."

"I agree," Lucas chimed in. "especially if you stick with us. You know, or Jen."

"But don't spend all your time with Jennifer. I don't know how Will would react to that," I said teasingly, making he rest of us laugh. "Mike! Be nice to Will," Jane whined. I rolled my eyes, smiling from the joke. "I'm plenty nice to Will. He's my best friend," I countered. "We just like to talk about the fact that the Will Byers has a girlfriend," said Dustin, making me chuckle a little.

"What's wrong with bein- um- I mean, having a girlfriend?" "Nothing!" I responded to Jane, maybe a little too quickly. That's definitely going to get me in trouble later.

No, I never actually asked Jane to be my girlfriend.

Nancy said that she decided to teach Jane all about the romance and 'girly' stuff. She practically begged our mom to let her give Jane her own little class on...whatever girls talk about. Jane knows about relationships now, and ever since she's watched Will and Jennifer's, I bet she probably asks herself why I haven't asked her to be my girlfriend.

And honestly, I'm not totally sure why I haven't, either.

Part of it is because I'm nervous. I mean, I know she'd probably say yes...right? Wouldn't she? Yeah, yeah, of course she would..but I also would have no clue how. Or when. I don't know how Hopper would react. God, how would my parents react. What about Ms. Byers or Nancy? Oh my Lord, what-

"Mike!" Dustin said, waving his hands in front of my face.

Apparently, we were at Will's already. Did I just block out the whole rest of the conversation? Really?

"You ready to go or not?" Dustin asked, walking over to hop back on his bike again. "Yeah! Yeah, I-I'm ready," I said, slowly pedaling, letting the others follow. Good job, Michael. Real smart one, there. I slowly shook my head at myself.

In no time at all, we were outside of Hawkins Middle School for the first day of the year. I think it's pretty safe to say that I've never been nervous about a first day of school until now, and hardly anyone was even here yet.

We got off our our bikes and set them in the bike racks that we always leave our bikes in. Almost instantly, Jane got ran over and grabbed my hand, squeezing it in attempts to calm her nerves. I looked over at her and noticed she didn't show her nervousness on her face, but her body language definitely told me otherwise.

"What do we do first?" she asked, speaking much quieter than normal. "Office," Lucas explained. "We need our class schedules."

"That's right, I forgot about those," I said, mentally scolding myself for forgetting something so obvious. Dustin started walking forward towards the school.

"Right, so we should pro-"

"Out of my way!"

Dustin was interrupted. He jumped backwards just in time to see a wave of fiery red zoom past all five of us.

We all watched what had passed us to see who it was. If I'm honest, I've never seen her before a day in my life.

It was a girl with, like I said, fiery red and slightly wavy hair. She was on a skateboard, and she was obviously headed towards the school. My eyes were widened as I watched her, looking at how she intimidated the ones she passed without any trouble at all. Looking over at the rest of us, I could tell we all had the same reaction.

"Who is she?" Will asked, taken back. "No clue..." Lucas mumbled under his breath, as if his breath was taken from him.

I continued to watch her, and before I moved, I made sure she was in the building so the chances of us having to have any sort of encounter with her was slimmer. I didn't need that today.

"Come on, guys, let's just go to the front office and show Jane around. We probably won't even have any classes with her. Who knows?" I persuaded on. I didn't get a verbal response. Jane and the boys only slightly nodded as the forced themselves forward. Jane was now holding onto my hand as tight as ever. Being she was so nervous, she pulled me with her, forcing to stay behind the rest of our small group. Even after that, her steps were slow and unsure.

"Jane," I whispered, leaning down close to her ear.

I have to admit, I've grown a lot this past year. I'm tall, not only compared to my friends, but especially compared to Jane.

"You're going to be fine. I'm sure Hopper and my mom helped arranged things so you're in either my classes or their classes," I assured, motioning towards the three in front of us. "Nothing bad will happen to you today, okay?" I eased, moving my arm around her waist - something that I really don't do often, not in public anyways. The small action made her cheeks glow pink and a small smile appear on her face.

"Thank you, Mike. So much," said Jane as she leaned into me more.

My heart was practically pounding out of my chest. China could probably hear it.

"You're always welcome," I whispered back to her as we walked into the school.

Like I had imagined, there weren't many people here yet at all. Classes don't actually start for another fifteen minutes or so, but I wanted this time to explain some things to Jane while showing her around. Hopefully without running into anyone we don't want to run into. Maybe luck will be on our side today.

The five of us continued through the school, making our way towards the front office. As we walked in, I noticed only one other person in here.

The red head.

There was serious tension in the room.

"Name?"

"Will Byers."

You heard the sound of paper being flipped through, and then the principal called next. Will went to go wait outside of the office.

The process continued, and I let Jane go before me to get her schedule so that she wouldn't have to be in the office alone with whoever that girl was. No matter if it was only for two seconds, I know Jane wouldn't like it. At all.

"Name?"

I couldn't help but pay attention to the new girl, though.

She observed so much, and with everything she looked at, she looked at it like she didn't care about it at all.

"Jane Hopper."

That's another thing, too. Her eyes. They were a pale blue, but blue enough to where you did know they were blue and not grey.

Not only was her hair as orange as a basketball, but it looked like it hadn't been combed since when she went to bed last night. Her freckles just about matched her hair in color. Maybe a little darker.

Her skateboard that she was riding on earlier was leaned up against her leg as she sat down in one of the office chairs, looking at her schedule intently. Her-

Wait,

Jane's walking away from the counter.

"I'll meet you out there," I whispered to her as she walked by.

"Name?"

"Michael Wheeler."

Papers were examined before-

"Here you are."

I walked out of the room, paying no more attention to the new girl who almost ran over my best friend, but instead, looking at my classes.

"Please tell me that you guys have second period biology with me," I said in a hopeful tone. I looked around the small group and noticed a smile plastered on each one of their faces.

At the same time, almost as if it were scripted, they all lifted up their schedules and showed me. We matched classes. All of them.

"Hell yes," I explained, walking up to high-five my friends.

Except Jane.

I hugged Jane.

But of course, with everything that could even possibly be described as public display of affection, 'awes' and kissing noises quickly followed our small interaction.

"Screw off," I mumbled at them, feeling Jane laugh in my arms, causing me to smile.

"Shouldn't you be off finding Jennifer, Will?" Lucas said. I looked over at him and noticed he was smirking, and Dustin began punching his arm lightly, in the kind of 'go get 'em, boy' way.

I took the time that the distraction to slowly let go of Jane while I rolled my eyes at the teasing of Lucas and Dustin. I was about to tell them to give Will a break, until I saw Jen walking over to us.

"Speak of the devil! Come on guys, we should get going," I said as Jennifer was approaching. They all looked confused at first, but then Jennifer started speaking.

"Hey, guys! Hey Will," she said, holding out his name for longer. "Come on," I said again, and we all quickly scurried away from Will and Jennifer, leaving them all alone outside the office doors.

----------

"Oh, how I love the first day of school," Dustin sighed, sitting down at our table for lunch.

"I have to agree with you on that, my friend," Lucas agreed, taking out his homemade sandwich.

"Honestly, it feels weird not having Jane sit by me," I said, looking over at where Jane was. She was sitting with Jennifer and her other friends. I can't complain about that. I'm happy that she's making friends. It's just the fact that I'm with her so much, that when we separate, it feels weird.

"You're going to survive, dude. You can still see her," Lucas said with a smile, clearly trying to mock me. "Yeah, ha ha, Lucas," I said, rolling my eyes.

"If it's any consolation, I felt the same way at first when I asked Jennifer to be my girlfriend, but it's cool to just hang out with my friends instead of just with my girlfriend," Will said, which did help, and it did make me consider the fact that I do have friends that I need my time with, too.

"Well...Jane's not my girlfriend," I said truthfully. "Oh, whatever! She pretty much is. Why haven't you asked her to be your girlfriend?" Lucas retorted. I shrugged, allowing my bottom lip to slide through my teeth. "Nerves. Rejection," I went on.

"Rejection? Seriously? Jane wouldn't reject you in a million years," Dustin said, shaking his head. That did put a lot of confidence in me. "Thanks, man," I said with a smile.

"Oh, and speaking of relationships," Will spoke up again.

He started shifting a little in his seat. I noticed his fingers were tapping on the table - something he has a habit of doing when he's anxious.

"Hopper asked my mom to marry him."

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a/n: i've read that the kids were supposed to be twelve in s1, which is sixth grade...yeah? so now, they are entering seventh grade?¿ please correct me if i'm wrong, but that's my understanding right now, which is why i didn't say the grade in this chapter. i wasn't actually sure. but yo, cliffhanger. sorry for such a time skip, but things are gon get interesting ;) anyways, i love to love you all! thanks for your constant love and support! D