WILL POV-

---- 2:10 PM ----

In front of the computer Will rubbed his eyes finishing his assignment placing his head on the rest of the chair smiling bright. Elated, he felt as if this was the best version so far, in a weird way he thanked Mike for telling him to shorten his work removing any words hurting the flow of his message. The length had been stripped by half, now only two instead of four, any shorter and he would be unable to get all his points across. Rereading the work, pressing the print button he ran over to the printer, waiting for the paper to come out jumping up and down eagerly. Receiving the papers, he neatly aligned them stapling them together.

Grabbing the USB from the computer Will placed it in his bag throwing his backpack over his shoulders skipping to the offices excited to present his work, knocking on the door that read 'Michael Wheeler'

KNOCK

KNOCK

He waited for an answer holding his ear close to the door, hearing some muttering from the other side he entered, seeing Mike's face completely drop. Will noticed but didn't say anything in fear of being shouted at again for speaking, clearing his throat scanning the room seeing the ravenette alone.

"Hello Sir!" He said quietly waving, Mike only lifted his head from the screen not batting an eyelid; looking back at his laptop outwardly uninterested

"Umm I just came to give you this" Will placed the papers on the desk, still warm from the printer feeling crisp

"And what is this?" Mike asked in a monotone manner

"I shortened the essay for the competition" The chestnut-haired boy answered

"When did you do this?" Mike questioned honestly surprised

"I did it during the exam... the one you didn't let me do" Will spoke sadly

"Oh" He simply replied

"I took the original, using it as a baseline removing any unnecessary parts" the boy explained the work he handed over, proud of it

"Redo it" Mike spoke not even batting an eye from his computer

"What?" Will asked

"When I said to shorten it, I meant to restart it from scratch" Mike explained standing from his seat towards Will, each step rung in the smaller boy's ear

"I spent a lot of time on it, the least you could do is read it" Will complained, Mike now face to face with him.

"No! Redo this to an acceptable standard" Mike answered, inching closer to him, stepping away with every step closer the taller boy would make, until they reached the doorframe with the ravenette slamming the door in the smaller boy's face. Will stayed quiet knowing there was no use arguing with him, he let out a sharp breath leaving to get to work.

---- Tuesday 10:34 AM ----

Will had spent the entirety of the previous night rewriting the essay, starting from scratch just like the ravenette told him to; keeping it even shorter this time yet exuding confidence; although feeling as if he had written the same things out multiple times becoming fatigued getting a bad back from hunching over his laptop for multiple hours. He sucked it up thinking that Mike would only do what was best for him. After all his teacher wouldn't have any ulterior motives to single him out or pick on him, right?

The chestnut-haired boy sat in the English class next to Max and Dustin smiling, making plans about the weekend as they snuck El into the class. El chirped looking around pretending she belonged, furrowing her brows imitating her girlfriend taking notes instead just drawing holding hands under the table, both whispering to one another periodically.

"Must be nice" Will sighed to Dustin

"Don't you have Mike?" Dustin joked raising an eyebrow

"Don't even! That's completely different" Will defended

"How? Cause it seems like he treats you like a prince" Dustin explained

"Be- because... Focus on your work Dustin" Will stuttered unable to refute that logic, knowing that Mike had been treating his alter ego like a prince. He looked forward analysing the ravenette holding a laser pointer in his hand to point at the board, swaying side to side. Honestly; ever since the first date the chestnut-haired boy thought Mike was extremely hot, he was talking honkerlicious. It made him annoyed how someone could be exactly his type; hot, sweet, smart and with a good personality. Not to mention that the ravenette did like him back, but the only problem was that Will was hiding his true identity from Mike; one that he was terrified of letting him know the truth about. The thought spiralled in his head

Until a hand waved in front of his face

"The lesson is over" Dustin smiled picking his bag from below his seat, Will looked at his watch, it read '11:04'. Did he really just daydream for half an hour? Feeling annoyed he hit his head on the desk again

"Come on Byers, some of us want our lunch" Max joked grabbing Will's arm helping him up

"You just want to eat El's face" Will retorted back with the same amount of spice, slumping his arm away from the redhead

"And you could go eat Mike's Di-" She crossed her arms, Will jumped up knowing how that sentence was going to end.

"I'm up! I'm up!" Waving his hands, Will chanted overpowering Max's voice causing the ravenette to look at them blushing, looking in another direction, his blush was slight, practically unnoticeable to the naked eye. Will awkwardly chuckled flashing a toothy grin toward him, this actually reminded Will that he needed to show Mike his essay. Taking his paper out his bag, rushing over to Mike's desk flying down the stairs

"Mr Wheeler could you please read m-" He tripped, falling on the floor, his head hitting the table flipping over a chair taking it down with him, his friends rushing over to help but stopping a few meters away

"Are- Are you okay?" Mike questioned looking over Will, his eyes widened,

"Umm yeah" Will replied sitting on the floor facing up into the ravenette's eyes wincing in pain covering his head, using the chair to help him up but his grip loosened dropping himself back to the floor.

"Here!" Mike softly spoke crouching to Will's height moving the strands of hair away from his head holding a cool water bottle on the bump that was appearing, looking over at his friends seeing them smile; evilly snickering leaving the room. Turning his attention back to the taller boy, both of their faces blushed, Mike looked at Will inching closer and closer. But abruptly stopped

"Umm I- I need to go" Mike spoke jumping up to run out the room

"Hey, aren't you going to read my paper?" Will yelled across the room

"REDO IT!" Mike shouted turning his head around

"What? Why?" The chestnut-haired boy threw his hands in the air

"I won't accept it otherwise" Mike answered slamming the door behind him

"What the hell?" Will complained, placing his hands on his head

"Ow!" He whined hitting the bruise on his head

---- Wednesday 8:10 AM ----

It was the dawn of a new day, Will had once again rewritten his essay for Mike, ordinarily by this point he would have submitted the work by himself. But the university first collected all the submissions from the students and the best three would be passed on to the apprenticeship team. Extremely early to university today walking through the halls, he turned the handle of Mike's office, it was locked, sighing he took a seat at the chairs in the hallway. Holding his paper in his hands scanning the area as his knee bobbed up and down; He rested his eyes, falling into a slumber.

...

...

...

"Will! William Byers?" A voice called, feeling a poking sensation in his side, he opened his eyes rubbing them

"Did you enjoy your nap?" The voice added, Will still dazed, rubbed his eyes stretching, fully opening his eyes to the exact person he was waiting for

"Yeah! I mean no... I mean sorry" Will jumped up from his seat feeling woozy as the blood rushed to his head.

"Why are you here?" Mike unamusingly crossed his arms.

"Here is my essay" Will passed the paper into the ravenette's hands.

"Why is it wet?" Mike questioned holding the edge of the paper into the sky; looking disgusted

"I must have drooled on it! I'm so sorry!" Will admitted embarrassed his face blushing a reddish hue, waving his arms around trying to stop his awkwardness but it didn't work. Mike only handed the paper back; shoving it harshly into the smaller boy's chest

"Redo it... Maybe without drool this time" Mike spoke annoyed walking into his office slamming the door behind him. Will was hysterical, putting up both middle fingers facing it toward the door in anger feeling as if he needed to kick over a trash can. He breathed deep knowing anger wouldn't help his situation right now, placing his paper into his bag he walked outside hoping to greet his friends to change his mood.

---- 1:58 PM ----

Will had the whole day to think over his essay; his art lesson being cancelled meant using the free time to think, Richie clung to his side like some sort of overly attached Koala bear. Will enjoyed this to an extent but worried about his essay, every time he had gone to Mike, he was told his work; 'wasn't good enough' and he refused to read it. He needed some actual feedback from Mike one way or another, it was his future on the line after-all.

"And then I was saying that he really needs to just let off some steam" Richie was speaking, probably about something inappropriate again. Although having a massive crush on Richie, Will wished he wasn't so lewd all the time, making indecent jokes about everything. Half-heartedly listening hearing the ending of his sentence

"Let off some steam?" Will muttered to himself, although that probably isn't what Richie meant by that, he took it at face value, launching himself up from his seat spooking the tall boy with glasses

"Thanks, for the advice Richie" Will walked away

"Where are you going?" Richie stood up

"To let off steam" Will answered

"WHAT? Can I come?" Richie shouted across the hall

"No! See you tomorrow" Will signalled to Richie marching around the halls he had a destination in mind, checking his watch to see the time reading '2:04'. He grinned knowing the teaching day would be over; the corridors free as students flooded the exit each more eager than the other to leave for the day. Will however had other plans in mind, marching over to the teachers' offices reaching the door that said 'Michael Wheeler'

Looking through the office window seeing Mike sitting at his desk talking to someone, recognising that person as Lucas, he smirked charging through the doors not even bothering to knock, he had enough he was going to demand Mike read his work or protesting by not leaving.

The door swung open, a large noise enveloped the room as the door attacked the concrete walls, the two men capture their gaze obviously startled by the sound, Will stood in the door frame, to the desk plopping his bag on the desk, rummaging through his bag, pulling out his paper slamming his paper on the table

"Would you please read my essay?" Will asked, but with a demanding tone underlining

"NO!" Mike shouted; Lucas looked between the two not knowing what to do feeling caught in the crossfires

"Why not?" Will asked back, crossing his arms across his chest

"It's not up to my standard" Mike retorted

"How is it not?" Will took a deep breath telling himself not to become overcome with emotions, stepping closer.

"How can I improve the quality of my essay, if you won't even read it" Will added, feeling like a child who couldn't express the reason why they were crying. Inching closer to the ravenette with every word until Mike's back hit the wall, feeling his heartbeat rise watching the smaller boy this close, he didn't want to admit he found Will oddly attractive in the moment, but his betrayed emotions and ego got in the way, he pushed the chestnut-haired boy, almost stumbling.

"I said no! I don't want to read it and if you keep acting like a whiney little bitch no one's going to like you" Mike spoke without thinking

Ouch, that hurt

Will felt the answer in his bones, it angered him, but he didn't show it, instead all this stress made him hysterical. He really didn't understand why Mike was giving him a hard time, it wasn't his fault he was like this, the chestnut-haired boy didn't care that the ravenette just insulted him, it was the words he used. The words 'whiney bitch' rang in his ears bringing flashbacks of his younger days with his father. Mike on the other hand knew what he said was uncalled for, it hurt him to say it as much as it must have hurt Will, feeling like he projected his insecurities onto the chestnut-haired boy, taking them out on the boy who had wronged him, but in a weird way felt as if the smaller boy deserved it for lying to him not feeling remorse as Will had done worst by playing with his feelings.

"Thank you for the criticism Mike" Will sarcastically spoke his voice wavering, turning on his heel toward the door but stopped, holding the essay in his hands ripping it into pieces throwing it into the recycling bin and shuffling out the room. 

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2312 Words

I really hope this chapter makes sense, please tell me if it is confusing

Stay Safe <3