THE FREAKS ~ Eddie Munson

Chapter Four: Heaven's Gate

Veronica POV
In class, I sat down next to Chrissy. Andy followed, but sat next to me instead of in his supposed normal spot.

The whole walk to class I was tempted to ask a few questions about Munson, being he seemed to be an interesting topic here at Hawkins High; but I decided to keep quiet until the time was right so it didn't seem too suspicious.

As the bell rang, Mr. T walked in front of the class and grabbed an expo marker, pulling off the cap then writing on the white board.

"Get into groups of 4." The board read, causing the whole class to immediately jump into chaos.

Everyone began to move around and pick their partners, while Chrissy, Andy, and I had already formed our group. Andy had found another one of his friends, Randy, to join us to make a group of 4.

We all pushed our desks together, as instructed by Mr. T, and talked amongst ourselves as we waited for further instruction.

"Alright students, I need one person from each group to come up to the front of the classroom please. Right now." Mr. T ordered, being the classroom had quieted down. Randy quickly got up from our table, obviously wanting to be our groups pick.

As one person from each group stood in front of the class, Mr. T pulled out a blue and red baseball hat. The hat was flipped over so the inside was facing upwards, and there were tiny folded papers mixed inside of it.

"What's up with the hat, Mr. Talmar?" A boy asked, growing impatient as Mr. T had fiddled with the papers inside.

"I'm glad you asked, Matt. Inside of this baseball cap I have written down 10 different events in recent history on a slip of paper. Each of you standing up here will pick a slip out of this cap and bring it back to your table without opening it. Once everyone has picked their slip, every group will open it up to reveal what their group project topic is for this semester." Mr. T explained, causing everyone to groan.

As everyone in front of the class picked a piece of paper, Chrissy and I talked about how much of a pain Tiffany could be. It was really relieving knowing I wasn't the only one who couldn't stand her constant bullshit.

"Alright, got it." Randy said, sitting back down in his seat abruptly. Randy began opening the slip of paper, revealing our topic to be Heaven's gate.

Ok, maybe history class isn't that bad. This topic was genuinely interesting unlike all that war crap i've had to relearn every year of my life.

"Heaven's gate? Isn't that the one cult that started in the 70s?" Randy asked, obviously annoyed by our topic.

Andy laughed. "Guess we better call Eddie Munson. He could probably give us some inside info." He joked, Randy laughing along.

Eddie. Eddie Munson.

And I was really here thinking Munson was his first name. That's embarrassing.

I quickly spoke up. This was the perfect time to ask some questions...but I had to be sneaky about it. I had to fit in with the crowd.

"What is up with that guy? Always making scenes and shit. Is he always like that?" I asked, hoping I wasn't seeming to overly interested.

"The guy's a freak. He runs that weird Hellfire club thing...Lucas says he heard it's some type of Dungeons and Dragons club- which I know you've heard how crazy that game makes people. The whole club is fucking crazy. They're always acting extra and act like they run the fuckin' place." Andy began before Randy chimed in.

"Yeah, but in reality, Eddie's just a metal head junkie who sells drugs in the woods behind the school. Wouldn't wanna buy from him though, he'd probably poison that grass to lure you in as his cult's next sacrifice." Randy explained, but jumping suddenly in his chair, causing Chrissy and I to gasp at the sudden movement.

The two boys laughed, pleased at Chrissy and I's reaction.

"So y'all actually think he runs a cult?" I asked, genuinely curious. These boys are fucking dumb. D&D isn't a cult, people really just like to make something out of nothing.

"I mean..yeah. You saw how he spoke in tongues to Jason at lunch today. I wouldn't doubt it one bit." Andy said, sitting back in his chair and rolling the small slip of paper into a ball.

I couldn't help but laugh, causing the three of them to look at me. I mean, are you serious? Speaking in tongues? He literally just grabbed spit from the back of his throat and gargled it in his mouth! This was too funny. Is this really how popular people are? Constantly making shit up? But besides that, I had to quickly get myself together...it's a good thing i'm a good manipulator.

"What a freak. It's so embarrassing...like who does that?" I snickered, continuing to laugh. The boys began to laugh with me, still not understanding that I was originally laughing at them. I wanted to tell them how much of idiots they were and how fucking stupid they sounded, but I couldn't, no matter how badly I wanted to.

The rest of class, we discussed who was going to do what for our project. We decided that Andy and I would do research, Chrissy would make the poster, and Randy would write the report. It was fairly simple, and with us doing it this way, we didn't have to meet up after school and try to get around their busy schedules.

Once the bell rang, I said my goodbyes to Chrissy, grabbed my bag, opened it, and tried to find my now crumpled up schedule. I could see Andy in the corner of my eye, working himself up the guts to come talk to me. At this time I really didn't wanna be bothered, but obviously popular people tend to not respect other people's time.

"So uh, Veronica," Andy began, walking up to me. I mentally rolled my eyes and turned to look at him, waiting to hear what he had to say. "since we're...you know...basically research partners, I'm gonna need your number." He finished with a small smirk, leaning up against the desk. He was obviously uncomfortable leaning like that, but seemed to keep doing it for his vision of this conversation.

I decided to have a little fun with this. "Oh do you now? That's the only reason you want my number?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

He licked his lips, looking away as if a little embarrassed. "Well, no, actually. I honestly think we should get to know each other." He said with a hesitant wink.

God damn this was brutal.

I gave an uncomfortable sigh. I thought this would be fun until the cringy winking was involved. What the fuck was he doing? This was just sad.

"Is there a bug in your eye?" I asked, pretending to be worried. I inched closer to his face, inspecting his eye to look for the supposed bug.

"What? No- I- never mind. I'm still gonna need your number though, V...for the uh..for the project." He babbled, his face flushed and his ego lowered.

I shrugged. "Alright."

This was so bad.

I wrote down my number on a piece of paper and gave it to him. He nodded his head a bit then walked out the class, seeming to be in a hurry.

I laughed a little to myself, not even knowing if what the fuck just happened was real. I mean, seriously? Does he really think that his attempt to flirt was how you get a girl? Please. This boy has obviously never touched a woman in his life.

I walked out of the classroom, looking down at my schedule, trying to find where my next class was.

"Veronica!" I heard my name being called. I turned my head to see Tiffany, who walking towards me with a bag of clothes in her hand.

"Hey girl. I got you those clothes out of my locker, but since the day's almost over I feel like its useless. Since the game is tonight, why don't you just come to my house and get ready with me? I will help you pick out an outfit for tomorrow too. Cool? Alright. Meet me in the parking lot after school." She said, dropping the bag into my hands and leaving me in the hallway.

The game? What game?

I sighed. I thought this bitch was supposed to help me find my classes today? I rolled my eyes and walked towards hallway D, finally finding my class and walking in, wishing the day could just be fucking over already.