wanted - Eddie Munson

freaks of a feather

October 8th, 1984

We moved into our new 'home' in Hawkins five days ago. And no matter how much I begged and pleaded with my mother, she wouldn't let me stay out of school another day. This was the part that I always hated the most. The first day at a new school. There are very few similar feelings, but the best way to describe it would be 'lost in the woods in the middle of the day, every tree looks the same and you can never find any way out.' although, in my case, that's not necessarily true. I love trees, and I love the woods. But school? fuck that. This is my senior year, and here I am a new student once again. I had tried to just drop out, but after two and a half hours' worth of an argument with my mother, it wasn't happening. So here I am, walking through the halls with my headphones on in an attempt to drown out the noise around me with Metallica.

Max wasn't exactly stoked to be moving schools either but she's always been great at making friends so I'm not all that worried about her. My step-brother, billy, is your stereotypical bad-boy jackass. He'll likely have a full clique and a band of groupies by the end of the second period. On the other hand, Max has always been my only friend. How pathetic is that? My little sister is my best friend. It wouldn't be so bad if we were closer in age, but I'm five years older than her. I should have friends and hobbies and exciting life. But I don't. The most excitement I have in my life is sneaking out of the house to go smoke at one a.m. or hiding the new stick-n-poke tattoos I gave myself.

I walked into my first class of the day, history. Honestly, who wants to start their day learning about old dead guys for an hour?

"Alright class, we got a new student today. let's all try and make her feel welcome here at Hawkins high, m'kay?" The teacher, whose name I can't remember, announced to the class after everyone was there. "Why don't you go ahead and stand up to introduce yourself, miss Mayfield."

"I'd rather not, but thanks anyway." There's not a chance in hell I'm standing up just to say my name and sit back down.

"Okay, well. everyone, this is Elizabeth Mayfield." I was thankful I had chosen a seat towards the back, hopefully, the teacher hadn't seen me roll my eyes. "Now let's get started, shall we. Today we will be continuing the movie that we started on Friday. I want everyone to be paying attention, so that means no sleeping."

He started the tape and sat down in his chair, not ten minutes later soft snores came from him. So much for not sleeping. I tried my best to focus but it was becoming harder by the second. My eyelids were feeling heavy and the movie was becoming white noise. I had almost fallen asleep when I heard someone's desk scrape against the floor nearby. I turned my head and saw a man looking up at the teacher with cautious eyes. When he saw the teacher hadn't woken up from his nap, he gently grabbed his bag from the floor and turned slightly to lift it onto his shoulder. When he did, I got a good look at his face.

He was handsome in the odd, garage-band, kind of way. His dark, curly, hair was just barely touching his shoulders. He had fair skin and a prominent face. His clothes are what stuck out to me the most though. In this predominantly preppy high school, he was wearing a Megadeth t-shirt, ripped black jeans, and a leather jacket. He had rings on both hands and a chain hooked to his jeans. He stood out, to say the least. When our eyes finally met he smiled and brought a finger up to his mouth to say 'shh'. I nodded in response and he walked out of the classroom as quietly as possible.

It was almost refreshing to see someone who looked just as out of place as I was.

The day carried on until it was finally lunchtime. The bell had rung and students were filling the halls, finding friends and talking on their way to the cafeteria. I may not be able to get out of going to school, but I can at least get out of sitting at a lunch table by myself. I walked out of the school and across the football field, leading to the woods. I walked until I found an old wooden picnic table. It was far enough away from the school that I doubted anyone would catch me, so it would be the perfect place to smoke. Gotta have something to last the rest of the day. I had just sat down with my joint, about to light it, when I heard a branch snap behind me. I snapped my head around to look and to my surprise, it was the same guy from earlier.

"Woah, didn't mean to scare you." His voice matched him perfectly. I quickly hid the joint I had in my hand before speaking.

"You're fine, just didn't think anyone would be out here."

"Yeah, there's usually not." Shit. I'm hanging out in this guy's space. He walked around to the other side of the table before sitting down.

"Oh, shit. My bad," I started grabbing my things before he stopped me.

"Don't sweat it, you're welcome to stay. On one condition."

"And what would that be?"

"Don't tell anyone that this is my smoke spot." Wait...

I laughed to myself as I set my stuff back down.

"What's so funny, princess?" princess?!

"First off, I'm no princess. And second," I pulled the joint back out of my pocket to show him, he looked between me and the joint before chuckling.

"So she has excellent taste in clothes, and she smokes. A princess." I looked down at my faded black Metallica t-shirt and smiled. "Elizabeth Mayfield, right?"

"That's me, but please call me Beth. Elizabeth just sounds too... pretty."

"A pretty name for a pretty girl. But hey, Beth works just as great."

"So, what's your name? oh, flirtatious one?" He snickered in response.

"Eddie Munson." he stopped for a second, holding his head down. "But if you ask the general population of Hawkins High, my name is 'the freak'."

"The freak, huh? How'd you get bestowed such an honor, you don't look like a freak to me." He looked up through his lashes at me with his deep chocolate-colored eyes. He almost looked like he was waiting for me to take it back.

"Well you are the first, princess," he said while holding eye contact. I may have only just met him, but the intense staring contest was causing a blush to rise to my cheeks. I couldn't keep it going.

"So, are we gonna continue this little staring contest or are we gonna smoke?" he chuckled just loud enough for me to hear before pulling out his stuff.

We sat, smoked, and talked for over an hour. Lunch had long since ended and we were skipping class, but it was worth it. I found out that he loves D&D and started a club for it called 'Hellfire', he also loves metal music, and horror films. He hates guns n' roses. Plays guitar and vocals in his band. His favorite food is tacos and his favorite drink is beer. And when he graduates, he doesn't want to go to college. He just wants to leave Hawkins.

As we were walking back to the school grounds he spoke up, "Same time next week, princess?"

"Same time next week, Munson."

And so our friendship started. At first, it was just weekly hang-outs in the woods to smoke, but then it became movie showings of the nightmare on elm street and drives around Hawkins in his van. By Christmas, we were best friends. The athlete clique would still bully Eddie and me when they saw us in the halls, saying 'look, the freaks got a girlfriend!' but we didn't care. I was okay being a freak and soon enough, so was Eddie.

{1,358 words}

hi, so I've decided that I'm gonna start eddie & beth's friendship in 1984/85. basically when st2 and st3 take place but the two won't interact with anything pertaining to the upside-down till 1986 when st4 takes place. there will be a few time jumps but when st4 takes place there won't be anymore. 

this is basically my first published story (I had one a while back that was a hp fanfic but I unpublished it bc it kinda sucked) so please comment on how I can make it better! 

uhm so yeah, thx 4 reading!