Hawkins, 1987. It had been 18 months since the ‘earthquake’ that shattered Hawkins and split it into 4, so all the boys are back in school like nothing happened. But recently, Will has been facing bullies. Worse than when he was 12. They go out of their way to follow him after school to hurt him—physically—but today was strange… No bullies spoke to him today, no one batted an eye to Will Byers…

When him and Mike walked into the hallway to get to their locker, there was a crowd swarming around their locker area. Mike thought it was Chance again, writing something on Will’s locker he shouldn’t—but when he barged through he found that it wasn’t Will’s locker that had slurs on it…It was his own.