Chapter Text
The middle school's bell rang for the final time that day. That was the first time that the gang saw the Cleric. She was walking out of the high school slightly behind Nancy, Steve and Jonathan; however she wasn't part of the conversation that was taking place between the three elder group members. It was the first day of winter. The clouds covered the sky with a light grey tinge that made reality seem almost surreal. Exams were coming soon, and Mother Nature attempted to combat the school stress with the lightest, yet most elegant sprinkle of snow atop of the small town of Hawkins. It had dusted just about everything, including Jonathan's car and the gang's bikes attached to the bike rack. The trees, although the last leaf had fallen off of them almost a week ago, had been covered as well with the light dusting that was still continuing making the trees look eerie and beautiful at the same time. The snowflakes that continued as the gang dusted off the snow from their bikes into small mounds on the ground. The middle school doors flooded outwards with children and teachers alike, waiting with anticipation to start their weekend. The high school bell rang not long after the middle school had emptied its contents.
Despite whatever Dustin and Mike recalled, it was actually Will that caught the first glimpse of the Cleric. She wasn't necessarily different from the rest of the crowd and blended in quite nicely. Her wavy light brown hair and long dark eyelashes were sprinkled with snowflakes the moment she stepped out of the high school. Her burgundy sweater covered the top of her warm coloured plaid skirt; her knee high socks were thicker than what she usually would wear as the weather that morning wasn't calling for snow. Her Mary-Jane shoes complimented her outfit, nicely -- even if they were just 'plain Mary-Jane' shoes. She readjusted the dark brown knapsack that was situated on her back and picked up her pace, eventually passing Nancy, Jonathan and Steve. None of them acknowledged her presence. She kept walking.
It was at this time, Will had locked his gaze on the Cleric and her movements. Will and the Cleric locked eyes for only part of a second before she looked away. It wasn't until Dustin asked Will a question and received no response did anyone know that Will had separated himself from the conversation and was lost within his own world.
"Will!" Mike called, shaking Will's shoulder to try and shake his friend back into existence. Mike's reasoning for this was that he had already lost his friend once, almost lost him again after that and he refused to believe that there was going to be a third time when he would have to see his friend suffer.
"Yeah?" Will called back a little absent-mindedly. He turned around to meet the gazes of the rest of the gang for a quick moment. There were looks of curiosity, concern and slight discontent from Lucas as he was cold. Will turned around once more, trying to find the Cleric. She had disappeared.
"We wanted to know if you had a preference of the arcade over playing DnD in Mike's basement...?" Lucas let his sentence trail off at the end, leaving the question open for slight interpretation.
"Dustin thinks we should all go to the arcade," Max started. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, like usual; however there was one wisp of hair that danced in the wind and Will found it slightly amusing. "But I'm against that idea because I don't have any quarters."
"But I need to make sure that my score is still the top score on Dig Dug!" Dustin exclaimed a little exasperated. They had to clean the snow off of their bikes once more, as the snow had accumulated.
"So what do you think, Will?" Lucas posed the question once more, rephrasing it this time around. "Should we go to the arcade or to Mike's house."
For Will, this decision was almost a no-brainer. It was the first day of winter and it was snowing outside. There were extra comfy blankets sitting in Mike's basement and if the heater was on -- which it was-- then it would have been like sitting in a private ski chalet. Will already knew that Mrs. Wheeler would bring them hot cocao, and he really enjoyed that.
"I'd like to cast my vote for DnD, if that's alright." Will stated. Secretly, everyone but Dustin was relieved. They started to unlock their bikes from the rack and headed over to the Wheeler residence.