MATILDA, eddie munson.

008.

FEBRUARY 1ST, 1986
📍 hawkins high school
12:32 PM

once 12:30 hit, students began flooding out of classrooms to head to lunch, and matilda had to put her crying session on hold.

thankfully, no one had come down the pe corridor and seen or heard her sat on the floor crying her eyes out. if they had, and she had to explain what was going on, and it would have likely made her feel worse.

pulling herself up off of the floor, tillie wiped her eyes. she hadn't put on any makeup today, so at least she didn't have the worry of having mascara running down her face. she took a deep breath to prepare herself before turning the corner to enter the crowds of teenagers.

keeping her head down, she managed to weave her way through and reach her locker to be able to put some textbooks inside and take some out. she also had a mirror in there, but didn't care to look in it.

meanwhile, eddie munson was roaming the hallways, eyes furiously scanning through the groups of students in order to find her.

he couldn't explain it, but since the first conversation in the bathroom the other week, he'd had this strong urge to protect her, to make sure she was okay. he often found himself wondering about her when they were apart. what was she doing? was she okay? was she happy at that given moment or consumed by the negativity that seemed to surround her?

many people didn't like her, or found her weird, especially in comparison to her younger sister. but he'd always found her intriguing. how she was perfectly comfortable in her own company, happily in her twin's shadow, with her walkman and her notepad as her only real friends.

at first he found it weird — how could someone enjoy being alone? but as he was beginning to discover more about her and her life it made perfect sense as to why she never wanted to be around others.

he saw a flash of short blonde hair, turn the corner, and began pushing through the crowd. getting a clearer look, he realized it was her.

hustling through the crowd he began to follow her out onto the sports field where she was heading.

— 📻🪐🏹 —

whilst he chased after her, chrissy sat at her usual lunch table, her boyfriend by her side as she sipped on a bottle of water.

"hey, chrissy!" the blonde looked up and saw her friend clara heading towards them.

"hey, clara. everything okay?" she asked.

"well," she took a seat opposite her fellow cheerleader. "i was just in physics and tillie was acting weird. like really weird. even weirder than usual."

chrissy's eyebrows scrunched. "what do you mean?"

"she was just like, i don't know. she was zoned out, distracted. and then she just stood up and stormed out,"
clara explained, chrissy listening closely.

"where is she now?" chrissy queried, standing up from the table.

"chrissy, come on, babe," jason whined, pulling his girlfriend back down. "she's probably just crying in the toilet or something."

"whatever she's doing, i'm going to go make sure she's okay," chrissy hissed in response, pushing her boyfriend away. she turned her attention back to clara. "did you see where she went?"