Work Text:
August 1980
“I’m taller than you! I’m taller than you!”
Will looked up at Mike. He squinted and put his hands between their heads, measuring the height. “Maybe a little bit”, Will said. His eyes fell to their feet. Mike quickly came down from standing on tiptoe. “That is cheating.”
“Sorry”, Mike said and giggled. “But it’s still true, I’m still taller. Lucas, Lucas! I’m taller, right? Right?”
Lucas rolled his eyes and came over to them. He inspected their feet, which stood flat on the ground, and then their heads. “Yes, you definitely are”, Lucas said. “But Will has always been short.”
“Hey!” Will said offended.
“It’s true”, Lucas said. “You are the shortest one.” He stood beside Mike, straightening and making his best to be as tall as possible. “Who’s the tallest out of the two of us?”
“Mike, by far”, Will said.
“Damn it”, Lucas muttered.
“Yes!” Mike said, throwing his fist in the air. “I’m finally the tallest!”
All three of them had grown over summer break, but Mike was the one who had shot in height the most.
“Well, I’m still the oldest”, Will said.
“By two weeks”, Mike said, rolling his eyes. “It’s basically nothing.”
“But I’m always going to be two weeks older, no matter what. This, on the other hand …" He looked Mike up and down. "I could still have a spurt.”
Mike snorted and patted Will on the head. “I doubt that will happen, little Willy”, he said.
Will’s cheeks turned pink. “If you start calling me Willy, I’m gonna call you Mikey.”
Mike looked away from him, feeling a tightness in his chest. “Okay, sorry, William.”
Will furrowed his brows, looking at him seriously. “Apology not accepted, Michael.”
Mike didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or back away when he heard Will say his full name. “Sorry, I meant to say Wills.”
“Mm … M …”
Mike chuckled at Will’s furrowed brows and thoughtful expression. “Hm, interesting, you can’t come up with any more nicknames for me. I could still think of some. Bill. Billy. Liam.”
Will turned pinker for every name that Mike called him. “Well, y-you … Mickey! I’m gonna start calling you Mickey.”
“Okay then, I’m gonna call you …” Mike thought hard. He regretted now that he had uttered three names at the same time, this was starting to get difficult. “Lilli. Wiam. Willi. Iam.”
“Those are not even names!”
“They are now!”
A big sigh made them both turn their heads. “If you girls are done flirting –“ Lucas cut himself off, realization hitting him.
“We’re not flirting!” Mike said irritated, his face burning up.
Lucas wasn’t even looking at him. “I-I didn’t mean it … Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
Mike looked over at Will. He was not blushing like Mike, he had gone completely pale. He wasn’t meeting any of their eyes and Mike suddenly understood why. Mike got the urge to scream something hurtful at Lucas, but the remorse in Lucas’ face stopped him.
“I meant to say”, Lucas said more carefully, “could we go back to the game now? We get it, you’re taller than us, Mike. Can we go back to saving the burning village?”
“Don’t fear, little villagers, we’re coming!” Mike shouted, picking up the stick that he had let fall to the ground. “Will, we need your water powers to extinguish the fire!”
Will looked up at him. He nodded and followed Mike. They continued to play, as if nothing had happened.
***
Mike studied the other boys in class. A few of them seemed to be the same height as before summer break, but some had gained several inches. Mike’s eyes went around them all, trying to see if anyone had grown as much as he had. He felt confident until his eyes fell on Jack. He had always been long, and now he was one head taller than the girls.
Well, Mike had still grown a whole inch over the summer, it was a lot. He must be the third or fourth-tallest boy in class.
The girls hadn’t changed much. Stephanie had gotten bracelets, and Susanne had cut her hair. Emily – a girl whom Mike had never liked – seemed to have spent the whole summer at the beach, her skin had darkened several tones.
“Good morning”, Lucas said, taking his seat behind Mike and Will. He yawned. “I already miss summer break.”
Mike agreed. They had spent most of their summer playing DnD in his basement. It had been amazing and now it was as if he had woken up from dream that he had never wanted to end.
Will nodded absently, sketching in his notebook.
“Good morning, class”, Mrs Barrow said as she entered the classroom. “I hope you’ve all had a great summer break. I have some exciting news for you, we have a new student with us.”
Mike looked away from Will’s scribbling, his eyes meeting those of a short boy with curly, brown hair. It was his shirt, however that Mike’s eyes fell to. It had a dinosaur on it. It looked like a velociraptor, but he was too far away to be sure.
“Why don’t you present yourself to the class?”
“Okay”, the boy said. “Hello, I’m Dustin Henderson and I just moved here to Hawkins.” There was something distinct about his speech; his s and d sounded different.
Some girls laughed and Jack said: “Why are you talking like a baby?”
“Be respectful, Mr Moore”, the teacher said.
“Well, I don’t have any front teeth so –“ Jack and Adam burst out laughing. Mike cast them an annoyed glance before looking back at Dustin. “I suffer from a condition called cleidocranial dysplasia, my bones and teeth don’t develop normally.”
“What?” Adam said, laughing.
“It means I don’t have collarbones and my front teeth are still coming in”, Dustin explained, annoyed.
“Thank you for sharing, Mr Henderson”, Mrs Barrow said. “You can take a seat. We’re glad to have you here.”
Mike looked over at Lucas, trying to see if he was thinking the same thing as he was. Lucas just met his eyes briefly, not seeming to understand what Mike’s look meant. Mike rolled his eyes, turning instead to Will. Their eyes met and Mike could see the understanding in his eyes. They both had the same idea.
Dustin sat down next to Lucas. “Oh, it’s an allosaurus”, Mike said as he got a closer look at Dustin’s shirt.
“What?” Dustin said.
“Your shirt”, Mike said, making a gesture. “I thought it was a velociraptor first, but I see now that it's an allosaurus.
“Uh, yes. It’s an allosaurus tendagurensis, more specifically, you see the lines here”, Dustin said, making a gesture.
“So the allosaurus ten –“
“Mike, be quiet”, Mrs Barrow said.
“Yes, sorry”, Mike said, giving Dustin a small smile before turning away from him and looking over at the teacher.
When the bell rang for the next period, they picked up their stuff. “I have many dinosaurs at home”, Mike said. “I prefer T-rexes, but I guess allosaurus are cool as well.”
“Ankylosaurus are really the coolest ones”, Dustin said. “I have a shirt with an ankylosaurus at home.”
“If you keep chit-chatting, we’re gonna be late for Mr Perry’s class”, Lucas said.
“We’re coming!” Mike shouted, annoyed. “That’s Lucas, he’s afraid of Mr Perry because he shouted at him once when he had overslept and came late.”
Lucas stuck out his tongue at Mike and hurried ahead.
“Mr Perry can be quite scary”, Will said as the three boys were leaving the classroom. “He’s very strict.”
“He’s just old and bitter”, Mike said. “Just don’t try to get his attention, don’t pose any question and whatever you do, don’t start talking with someone in class. Lucas and I got in big trouble one time.”
“And don’t scribble in your block”, Will said, “if he thinks you’re not paying attention, he’s gonna get mad.”
“He sounds fun”, Dustin said sarcastically.
“Don’t worry about it, it’s just history class so it doesn’t really matter”, Mike said. “It’s boring anyways.”
“I like history.”
They took their seats and Mike tried to find something to say, suddenly feeling awkward.
“I’m Will, by the way”, Will said. “And this is Mike.”
“And I’m Lucas”, Lucas said, already having taken out his books and pencil case. “Where are you from? You said you’d recently moved here.”
“I’m from Minnesota.”
“Minne’ota”, Jack mimicked as he passed them.
“Just forget him”, Mike said in a whisper, “he’s an idiot.”
“It’s fine, I’ve had this condition all my life, I’m kind of used to it.” He shrugged, but there was a flicker of hurt in his eyes. Mike recognized it; it was the same hurt that flickered in Will’s eyes as people called him a fag, the same hurt in Lucas’ as the racists bullied him, the same hurt Mike felt when people made fun of his interests or appearance.
“So you don’t have any teeth?” Lucas said, inspecting his mouth.
“Lucas –“ Mike started, not wanting him to scare away their new friend.
Dustin didn’t seem to care. “I have teeth, I just don’t have any front teeth yet”, he said, showing the gap in his mouth. “And I don’t have collarbones either.”
“Really?” Lucas said interested.
Dustin made a movement with his arms, showing how easily he could bend.
“Whoa”, Lucas said. “That’s pretty cool.”
Dustin smiled with his whole face.
Mr Perry arrived, ending all conversation without speaking a word.
***
As it was finally time for lunch break, all four boys hurried outside to play. Dustin turned out to be as cool as Mike had guessed from the start, he was really smart and seemed to know everything about science and dinosaurs, and he fit nicely with the rest of the group. He and Lucas seemed to have known each other their whole life from how they spoke to each other and Will laughed at all of Dustin’s jokes.
The next day at school, Mike had made up his mind. He biked to school with Lucas and as soon as he found Will, he said to them:
“So I have an idea. I think we should invite this new kid, Dustin, to our party.”
“Do we even know if he likes DnD?” Lucas asked.
“I mean, he seems like the type to like Dnd”, Will said. “You heard what he said about dragons yesterday.”
“If he wants to join us”, Mike said, “are you okay with me inviting him this weekend?”
Will nodded, smiling happily.
“We could really need a fourth member”, Lucas said. “And he seems cool enough.”
They headed inside and Mike took the opportunity to speak with Dustin as soon as possible. “So do you know what DnD is?”
“Yeah, dungeons and dragons, I’ve heard of it”, Dustin said, his eyes sparkling.
“Have you ever played it?”
“No, I would have liked to, but I’ve never had anyone to play with.”
Mike smiled brightly. “Well”, he said, looking over at Lucas and Will, “we have a party the three of us and we were wondering if you would want to join us.”
“Hell yes!”
“I’m a paladin, Will’s a cleric and Lucas’s a ranger”, Mike said, “so you could pick whatever other character.”
“I would love to be a bard!” Dustin said, as if he had already spent hours thinking about it.
“I could help you design your character”, Will said. Mike remembered when he had helped him choose the characteristics for his paladin, making him several sketches to try out the ideas.
“Great”, Mike said, “so we’ll meet at my house this Saturday and you can join us on your first campaign.”
A bard would really complete their party. Three members weren’t a lot, but with a fourth one, the adventures could expand.
“Aww, that’s so sweet”, Jack said mockingly, “the nerds have got a new friend, a real freak this time.”
“They could start a freak show now”, Adam said, smiling. “The blackface, the yapping bird, the fairy and the alien.”
“The black, the ugly, the gay and the freak”, Jack said and the boys burst out laughing.
Mike looked over at his friends, who had all fallen silent. Mike’s eyes turned to Will. With his dad out of the picture, it wasn’t as often that Mike saw him shrink into himself, his eyes falling to the floor, his shoulders slumping together. At first, Mike didn’t understand why he was so affected this time when they got bullied every day, but then Will carefully looked at Dustin and Mike realized it was the first time Dustin heard the slurs aimed at him.
Dustin wasn’t even looking at Will. “Well, at least I have three friends”, he said, “in comparison with you two.”
Jack and Adam kept on laughing. “He thinks he’s popular because he’s been invited to Mike’s freak show.”
The two boys continued on before Dustin had the time to answer.
***
Mike, Will, Dustin and Lucas became inseparable that week. They hung out between classes and spent their time planning the DnD campaign and talking about superheroes. That weekend, their first DnD game together went perfectly. Dustin was a worthy fourth member to their party, he fit into the group like a missing piece to a puzzle.
When they had defeated all the monsters and toasted with Coca-Cola to their victory, the four of them prepared some popcorn and sat down before the TV, searching through the cassettes for a movie to watch.
“Oh, look, you have The Exorcist!” Lucas said. “I’ve always wanted to watch this!”
“We can’t watch The Exorcist”, Dustin said, “it’s fifteen years and up.”
“Oh, someone’s scared”, Lucas said, pinching Dustin on his cheek, “little Dusty is scared of a movie!”
“Stop it!” Dustin said, hitting Lucas’ arm. “I’m not scared, I’m just saying that it’s fifteen years and up and Mike’s mom would never allow us.”
“You are scared!”
Mike didn’t want to watch The Exorcist either. Nancy had had a friend over some weeks earlier, and Mike had been curious what was making them scream. He had sneaked into the living room and seen that the two girls were hiding under a blanket. Mike had caught a glimpse of the movie, and he had had trouble sleeping for a week after that.
But Lucas was so cool and wanted to see the movie, and Mike didn’t want to be seen as a coward.
“Mike”, Will whispered to him, “do you … do you really want to watch that movie?”
Lucas and Dustin were still arguing and didn’t seem to have noticed the two of them. Mike was about to plaster on a brave smile and tell Will that he didn’t fear anything, but Will looked at him like he was as scared as Mike felt.
“Why do you ask?” he asked in a whisper. “You don’t want to see it?”
Will shook his head. Mike felt relieved.
“Me neither.”
“Fine!” Dustin screamed in Lucas’ face. “If you really want to and Mike’s parents allow us, we can watch it. But I just know you’re going to scream like a girl!”
“His scream is actually quite high-pitched”, Mike said, remembering last Halloween when Nancy had scared them with her costume and Lucas had screamed so squeakily that Mike for a second had thought that his little sister had appeared out of nowhere.
“Mike!” Lucas said as Dustin and Will laughed.
“So, we’ll watch The Exorcist then”, Dustin said. “Are you two guys fine with it?”
Mike’s smile paled on his lips. He remembered the girl from the movie screaming and throwing her body around as if she were possessed by a demon and he felt a sour taste in his mouth. Would Dustin and Lucas notice if he hid beneath a blanket? Would they notice if he screamed? Maybe they wouldn’t, maybe he would survive. But he knew he couldn’t say no, that would label him as a coward.
He swallowed hard, trying to muster up the courage to nod.
“Um, guys …” Will said quietly. “I don’t … I don’t really wanna watch this movie.”
Mike felt a weight lift off his shoulder. He didn’t have to say anything, he could remain quiet and brave.
“It’s not that scary, Will”, Lucas said. “I was just messing with Dustin.”
Will shook his head and bravely said: “I don’t want to watch a scary movie. I don’t like it.”
Will’s eyes met Mike’s for a second, and Mike felt himself blush with shame. “I-I don’t wanna watch it either”, he said quickly, before he had time to change his mind. “And my mom wouldn’t allow us. We should pick another movie.”
“Oh, come on –“
“I said no, Lucas”, Mike said. “I don’t want to watch it, Will doesn’t want to watch it and neither does Dustin. Three against one, you lose. We have lots of other great stuff here.” Mike searched through his cassettes. A little yelp escaped his lips as he saw Superman. It had come out last year and Mike must have watched it twenty times since then.
“Let’s watch Superman!” he said, holding up the cassettes.
“We watched it two months ago”, Will reminded him.
“Yeah, a whole two months ago”, Mike said. He looked over at Lucas and Dustin.
“Is it the one from last year?” Dustin asked and Mike nodded. “I haven’t seen it.”
“You haven’t? Then we have to watch it!”
“I have no problem with watching it again”, Lucas said. “Margot Kidder is so pretty.”
“Who the heck is Margot Kidder?” Mike said.
“Yeah, who is Margot Kidder?” Dustin asked.
“You’ll see”, Lucas said to Dustin. He looked over at Mike like he was stupid. “You claim to be the biggest Superman fan, but you don’t even know the actress who plays Lois Lane?”
“Who cares about the actors?” Mike said. “So everyone’s fine with watching this movie?” Mike looked over at Will.
Will nodded, smiling encouragingly at him. “Yeah, let’s watch it.”
The movie started to play and Mike told everyone to be quiet. As his biggest idol appeared on screen, Mike forgot all about the bowl of popcorn that they had prepared. Superman was so cool, he was brave and strong and handsome. Mike wished to be like him someday.
As Lois Lane appeared on screen, Lucas and Dustin glanced over at each other. “I told you”, Lucas said.
“Well, she’s pretty, but not as pretty as –“
“Could you guys be quiet?” Mike said, annoyed, trying to hear what Superman was saying.
Dustin and Lucas started to whisper instead. Mike sighed, trying to ignore their voices. It didn’t work, they distracted him from the movie.
“Could you please talk after the movie?” Mike said.
“You’re no fun”, Lucas said and threw a popcorn at him.
“Yeah, you’re such a joy-killer!” Dustin added.
“Be quiet!” Mike shouted. “It’s this scene! It’s this scene!”
Superman swooped in and saved Lois Lane from a helicopter accident. Even though Mike had seen the scene a hundred times, he felt his heart beat faster.
“I mean, she’s kind of pretty”, Dustin said. “I don’t know … I still prefer Wonder Woman.”
“Guys …” Mike said. Superman was displaying heroic acts, and Mike wanted to watch it in peace.
“Shut up, Mike!”
“You shut up, Lucas!”
“Mike”, a gentle voice said beside him.
For the first time since the movie had started, Mike turned his eyes away from the screen. “Why does it bother you so much if they talk?” Will whispered. “You already know all the lines. Just let them enjoy the movie.”
“Because … because …” Mike couldn’t come up with a good answer. There was no anger in Will’s eyes, just simple confusion. He looked at him so softly that Mike felt his insides melt. He couldn’t remember what he was annoyed about anymore.
“Okay”, Mike said, his eyes turning back to the screen. “Just please, guys, if you want to talk, whisper, I want to hear the dialogue.”
“Yeah, sorry, Mike”, Dustin said.
He and Lucas kept on talking throughout the movie, but they did it as quietly as possible, and Mike tried not to let it bother him. The movie was still great, he managed to hear everything that the characters said, and Superman was no less heroic because Dustin and Lucas kept on chattering.
As the movie reached its climax, Lucas and Dustin started to cheer, and Mike joined them. Even Will started to shout with joy. As the movie ended, the four boys applauded.
“That was a pretty awesome movie”, Dustin said.
“I told you”, Mike said. “And you guys wanted to watch The Exorcist.” He shook his head. He knew there wasn’t anyone as handsome or brave as Superman in The Exorcist.
“It’s getting late, I should go”, Will said, getting up. “It was fun. We should play next weekend as well.”
“I should also head home”, Lucas said.
“Me too”, Dustin said. “But I’m up for playing again next weekend.”
They picked up their stuff and headed for the door.
“Bye, Will”, Mike said, hugging Will tightly. “See you on Monday.”
“See you on Monday”, Will said, letting him go.
Dustin frowned at them but said nothing. Mike patted Lucas on the shoulder and shook Dustin’s hand, waving all three of his friends goodbye as they biked away.