Foolin'

Part 14

The alarm clock going off felt like someone taking a sledgehammer to Kat's brain. She groaned as she rolled over, hitting her bedside table multiple times until she finally hit the off button. Even with her room silent her head felt like it was splitting in two. She knew she had to make it through lunch at least, because she had a test in English. Kat was the kind of student that didn't have to really try. As long as she paid attention in class, she could easily pass any test. Learning and absorbing information just came naturally to her. She knew missing the test would only give her more of a headache. Cursing her teacher under her breath for the cruelty to put a test the day after Halloween, she reluctantly got out of bed.

"Jesus Christ..." She mumbled when she walked past her mirror seeing herself in last night's outfit and her makeup completely smudged. Fashion was not on today's top priority. When she peeled off her Halloween outfit, she grabbed a simple pair of black leggings, a Siouxsie and the Banshees tank top, and an oversized gray crewneck Champion sweatshirt. Once she put on slouch socks that matched her sweatshirt and threw on her Reeboks, she went to wash the makeup off her face.

After she gathered her things for school, she popped a couple of Eggos in the toaster, knowing if she didn't eat something, she would never make it through school. After she forced those down, along with some water and Tylenol, she brushed her teeth and headed out.

For her ride to school, she opted to have the radio playing softly. It wasn't until "Take On Me" started did the memories of the night before come flooding back to her. Her comments to Steve, her performance of that song, the girls by the bathroom, her crying to Eddie, the jock "falling" into the bushes, their kiss... "Oh fuck." Kat felt her stomach drop. Dread crept through her entire body as her grip on the steering wheel turned her knuckles white. Of course, of course, she would get drunk and ruin everything good that's happened to her in as long as she could remember.

The only thing going through her mind on loop was why Eddie broke the kiss. Why did he say they couldn't? Or did he say they shouldn't? Kat was too out of it at that point to realize he only did that because she was drunk and not because he didn't have any kind of feelings for her. She immediately assumed it was because she was initially right in not seeing how he felt about her, because they were, in fact, strictly friends. Taking a deep breath, she tried to keep her mind at bay from the self-deprecating assumption a guy like Eddie would be interested in her as more than a friend. How could she have been so foolish to think someone who was actually good for her would want her as anything more? She finished her drive to school in a daze, not even prepared for what she was about to walk into.

Heads turned when she walked through the doors to Hawkins High. Immediately people turned to whisper about her as she passed by. Her grip tightened on her backpack as she realized it wasn't just her that was the focus of everyone. It was her and Eddie.

"Can you believe she's sleeping with that cult leader freak?"

"I heard she slept her way through LA trying to get famous."

"I heard she did so many drugs she got sent here to get clean."

"She does look like a freak. They're probably going to start their own cult together."

The students weren't even trying to be discreet as she walked to her locker. Despite hearing so many different things, she did her best to not give them the satisfaction of getting a rise out of her. That was until she got to her locker. PSYCHO SLUT was written down the length of her locker in marker. She shrugged at the vandalism, giving it a "not bad" look of mild approval. She opened her locker and pieces of paper just fell out around her feet. Freak fucker, slut, groupie, druggie whore, whore, cult queen, and satanist were just some of the things the were written.