The Girl With the Red Hair

XIII. Eddie the Freak Munson

     Benny arrived at school on his bike. He was now a freshman at Hawkins High school and never dreaded a year of school more than now. Almost everyday, Lucas was at basketball practice, Mike and Dustin were at a D&D campaign, and Max would barely talk to him.   Benny continuously refused to play basketball or hang out with any of the basketball jocks, though he had yet to miss one of Lucas' games.

    The counselor of the school was Ms. Kelley, and she was instructing people to go to the gym. Benny found Mike on his way in and followed him to where Dustin was in the stands. Once Mike was standing next to Dustin, Dustin didn't waste a second to talk about Suzie.

     Now that they both had, confirmed, girlfriends, they wouldn't shut up about it and would try to subtly one-up each other. Benny's eyes caught Max's as she entered the gym and he smiled at her, getting a small one in return before she made her way over to him.

"Come on, cheer up!" Benny yelled over the crowd in the stands. The cheerleaders were doing their routine before the pep rally and the marching band, that Robin was included in, were playing their music.

"I don't want to be here," Max groaned.

"It's Jason Carver giving a speech. Why would anyone want to be here?" Benny watched the cheerleaders skip to their places in front of the stands.

"And let's hear it for your Tigers!" The intercom enthusiastically yelled as the large banner of the team's logo was ripped by Jason running through it with a grin. The rest of the team jogged out behind him as Jason approached the microphone in the middle of the gym. Everyone in the crowd started cheering, but Mike, Dustin, Max, and Benny weren't impressed. Benny's grin only formed when Lucas spotted him and gave him a wave, to which he returned.

"Good morning, Hawkins High!"Jason yelled into the microphone. More cheers came from the crowd and Jason took the microphone off of the stand, "First off... Hey. First off, I'd like to thank each and every one of you. Without your support, we wouldn't be here. Give yourselves a big hand!"

The crowd clapped loudly and cheered and Jason's grin widened, "And of course, of course, I have to give a special shout-out to the best and the prettiest fans of all time, the Tiger Cheer Squad."

"Chrissy, Chrissy I love you, babe," Jason put his hand over his heart and Chrissy blew him a kiss. "You know.. I think I can speak for all of us when I say, it's been a tough year for Hawkins. So much loss. And sometimes I wonder, 'How much loss can one community take?' In dark days like this, we need something to believe in. So, last night, when we were down by ten points at half to Christian Academy, I looked at my team, and I said, 'Think of Jack. Think of Melissa. Think of Heather. Think of Billy."

Max avoided eye contact with everyone that looked her way, and instead took Benny's hand and played with his fingers.

"Think about our heroic police chief, Jim Hopper. Think about each and every one of our friends who perished in that fire. What did they die for? For us to lose to some... some crap school? No. For us to return home with our heads hung low in defeat? No! Lets win this game. Lets win this game for them. And that's exactly what we did!"

"We embarrassed those candy-asses in their own house, and now tonight, tonight, we're gonna bring home the championship trophy!"

"Tonight?" Mike repeated.

"How is that possible?" Dustin complained.

"They call it a tournament. You win one game, you go on to the next until there's only one team left," Max leaned over and explained to the two boys.

—
The pep rally had ended shortly after Jason's speech, and now the halls were filled with students getting ready for their first class. Benny was grabbing his books from his locker when the faint sound of 'Running Up That Hill' made him turn his head.