I’ve recently gotten back into Stranger Things through Ao3, TikTok, and gacha reaction videos which has inspired me to create my very own AU!!  This is the basic info, the need to know;
It starts with the fact that El does NOT die!!  She never sacrificed herself and was never arrested by the military due to Dr. Owens (omg no way) still being alive and calling in so favors
Max and El didn’t graduated high school, and didn’t go to college (at least not yet, they might go to a community or get a GED)
Lucas gets a basketball scholarship for half a tuition, Dustin a full ride scholarship, while Mike and Will don’t — but!  Everyone involved in the upside down gain a lot of hush money so they’re fine
A week after graduation, Mike gets the hell out of town and goes to Connecticut.  Why? He got accepted into Yale
Slowly, he starts to cut the party out of his life.  It’s both his fault and theirs— they don’t reach out enough, and Mikes slowly falls into the pits of depression
Soon the rest of the party (minus Max and El) go to collage: Dustin to Harvard, Will to UPenn, and Lucas to Duke (might change that later)
They keep better contact with each other than Mike
The first semester for Mike is literal isolation.  He got lucky and doest have a roommate and he doesn’t have it in him to make friends.  He still talks to people but he doesn’t linger more than he needs to
He doesn’t even head home for Christmas break
But when the second semester hits he meets a girl named Chelsea.  They get along well and he tries to do the same routine he’s been doing but come to find they share almost every class
so eventually they become friends and Chelsea starts dragging him along with her friends
None of them make him feel like he’s back with the Party, but it fills a whole in his heart and he slowly starts to open up and feel more comfortable in his skin
He lets his hair grow to his shoulders and keeps the curls.  He experiments with his style and learns how to play the guitar again
He gets better mentally and, because Chelsea and her friends are woke, starts to come to terms with his sexuality (spoiler gay ass)
Specifically after he gets dragged to a drag club
Then the school years over and he decides to go back home for the summer, as do the rest of the Party
That’s all I got rn, but don’t worry Mike and Will DO end up together (yall should I write this fan fic?)
This is what they look like in my head tw blurry and gacha cause I can’t draw for shit