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1985
Joan snorted out a laugh as she watched Eddie try to cartwheel at their spot deep in the woods. They had a little argument on their way to their spot about the skill it took to be a cheerleader - someone record this for Brynnyn - and his exact words were.
"It can't be that hard to flail your limbs around and do a jump with a girly little cheer for the boys."
"Yeah? Then why don't you do it?"
After some more antagonizing on Joan's side, Eddie had thrown his hands to the ground in a poor imitation of a cartwheel while throwing his legs over his body, and landed each time on his back with a crooked grin her way.
"Not that hard, huh?" Joan teased as she leant back on her hands and crossed her legs politely. She had just came from practice when they snuck off to meet at their spot, so the green skirt hugged her legs kindly. "You make it look so easy, Munson."
"Yeah, like you could do any better, princess." Eddie teased back as he dusted himself off. The metalhead wiggled his eyebrows and gestured to the open clearing before them. "I could give you a lesson."
Against better judgement, Joan stood up and nearly skipped over to the chain-wearing teen. With hands on her hips she looked up at him expectantly. "Oh great cheerleader, teach me thy ways."
Like a great storyteller, Eddie shot off with words and terms that made no sense nor had any rhyme. He gestured wildly and ran circles, flipping over the ground messily and once again landing on his back before nodding seriously to Joan.
"I think you're ready."
With a snort of disbelief, Joan humored the boy by throwing her arms up and doing a few flips into a cartwheel, finishing up with a Y to the sky and a standing spilt, and sealed the deal with a bright grin to a barely blinking Eddie.
"...how'd I do?" It was smug, but there was an honesty in the question. Somehow his opinion made her nervous because even though she knew she was good - better than Eddie - him acknowledging it would be... stellar. "Eddie?"
"I-oh." Eddie shot up off the ground and nervously brushed the leaves from his hair. "I, that was... beyond anything I've ever seen before."
"Oh shut up." The blush on her face was visible - a curse from her mom's side of the family - and she tried to rub it out. "It's not like you haven't seen this before."
"Well, it's not every day you get your own private cheerleading show." The crooked grin sent her way had her heart lurching in her chest. The closer he got the more she thought her chest might explode until the familiar smell of weed and tobacco wiggled into her nose not unpleasantly. "You do this for all the metalheads?"
"Mmmm, only the ones with long hair and a sick ride."
"So you and Hargrove...?" He was teasing she knew that, there was no way he wasn't, but the name sent the lurch into a painful discomfort at the grim reminder of who she had lost only months ago.
