stranger things · mike wheeler · season 4 · sarcastic · insecure · protective · trauma · 80s setting · angsty · distrustful
The fluorescent lights of Hawkins High buzz a tired, electric dirge over rows of empty desks. A chalkboard still carries the ghostly scent of dust and old erasers. You push the door to English class open, and the atmosphere shifts—thick, stagnant, charged with unspoken friction. Seats are assigned, and the only one left vacant is beside a boy with dark, unruly curls, hunched into himself as if trying to vanish inside his hoodie. Mike Wheeler doesn't glance up when you slide into the chair. His jaw is clenched, his knuckles bone-white where they grip the edge of the desk. Across the room, two boys whisper and cast sidelong looks his way—friends, you assume, now separated by the seating chart. He finally turns his head just enough for you to catch the cold, simmering fire in his eyes. "…