𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐞𝐬 ── eddie munson

001

Hawkins High School was not for the weak. It followed a strict code of conduct - conform, and you were free to make friends, go to parties, roam the halls untouched... but naturally, there were always a few that refused. Those who did were weeded out, shunned, forced out of the community and into the shadows. You could find them, the loners, in the corners of every room, bathing in the sombre light. Common spots they decided to fester included: underneath the bleachers, the disabled toilet stall, the outside west-wing stairs and the most shameful - Hellfire Club.

Lola Hargrove was a loner, however, she was no nerd. She wouldn't be seen dead near the Hellfire Club. That was next level loner. Instead, she favoured the dilapidated janitor's closet on the east wing. Since it had become her favourite haunt, which just so happed to coincide with the death of her brother, not a single person (or janitor) had breathed in its direction. It was a maverick's wet dream, an abandoned closet she could smoke her pot in when Mrs. Click was getting too vexing. It was a shame really, people liked Lola. She wasn't too popular with the teachers, but her peers liked her, just not enough to explore what was going on inside her. It was nothing like last year, being the new girl and Billy Hargrove's little sister brought her a fair deal of popularity, she had been a cheerleader and even made appearances at a few parties, if Billy let her. But now, she had somewhat faded into the background. In fact, half the student body, upon asking, would say she had moved away with her father.

She hadn't always been this way, in fact, she had become the type of person she used to despise. Back in California, burnouts were a lot more common, and Lola had certainly not been one of them. She had been merely a freshman, a rather popular one, who would hold her breath when walking past Billy, who smoked a lot of cigarettes.  Despite their odd relationship with their step mother and sister, life was better back then. Since Billy had died in that mall fire, Lola had not only lost him, but her father too. When he left, she decided to stay in Hawkins with Max and Susan. Losing Billy left behind a huge wreckage. Her father had become even more ill-considered and leaving with him would be like physically locking herself in a cage and taking Billy's place as his punching bag. Plus, she didn't want to leave him behind. His body was within Hawkins soil and she couldn't bare to leave his memories and livelihood behind. She visited him every day, a mere slither of the extent of her grief.

It wasn't so bad. The fire at Starcourt Mall seemed to bring the community closer together, including Lola and Max. Now, they actually talked sometimes, never about Billy, or the fire, or their parents, and especially not how they felt. They had both lost their big brother, and Lola wondered when she would have to step in as the eldest sibling, as Susan was drifting further and further out of reach. Lola would clean the trailer, do the dishes and sometimes the washing. Nobody else was around to do it. But it was nice for Lola, to have someone else still mourning Billy's loss. It seemed like the rest of the town had forgotten since. Well, it had been a year after all.

Now, Lola Hargrove was a junior. Sometimes she spoke with Max's weird nerd friends, who would ask how she was doing from time to time. They wanted an insight from Lola, the raw honest truth about how Max felt and how she was dealing, but the truth was, Lola didn't know any more than they did. She would smile, give them some half-arsed answer about giving her time and most definitely leave them disappointed. Nobody ever really seemed to care about Lola, and how she felt about everything. She grew up with that boy, yet everybody kind of seemed to forget. It was her fault, she wasn't exactly open to making friends. It was stupid, she knew, hoping that despite the barrier she put up for herself, maybe someday one person would want to know her enough to try to break it down. But that was never going to happen.

It was just a regular day, or so she thought. The munchies had kicked in from her 3rd period toilet break and by the time lunch rolled around, Lola was ravenous. She made the brave decision to infiltrate the cafeteria and gate-crash the vending machines. High as a kite, Lola cavorted over to the glass box of heaven, dodging her classmates.

"But as long as you're into band, science or parties, or a game where you toss balls into laundry baskets!" A familiar voice hung in the air...like the plague.

Lola stopped in her tracks and spun around. Eddie Munson stood doughtily atop of a table, prancing up and down it, giving his two pennies worth to nobody who asked for it. Her skin turned cold. The sour memory paired with her bad high sent her system haywire. She put her stupid dollar into the machine and it spat out a deflated bag of cool ranch Doritos.

"You want something, freak?" Jason Carver shouted back at him.

Lola made a beeline for the door, but was stopped in her tracks.

"It's forced conformity. That's what's killing the kids!" Eddie screeched, hopping down from his pedestal, or table, to scream in some poor girls face. Lola just happened to be walking by next, grabbing the attention of the Munson boy. They hadn't dare speak to each other since that night, but that was mainly Lola's strong will to avoid him at all costs. Their eyes connected, his brown boring into her blue, as he stepped back and let her pass, almost gentlemanly.

His cronies on the table all quirked an eyebrow. His over the top outburst had been stopped in its tracks, all by Max Mayfield's strange older sister. Now that was strange. She gave him a small, half-hearted smile before going to languish back where she came from, the janitor's closet. Her endeavour to the cafeteria had been enough for the whole year, all for some stupid Doritos that weren't even a nice flavour. She scoffed, ripping open the bag and feeding her high. She just couldn't bare to face him yet, not after what happened that night. One day she would, maybe she would wait until he forgot. Anyway, what did it matter? Eddie Munson was a freak, even for Lola's standards. It wasn't a big deal.

She shrugged it off and waited out the rest of lunch in her closet, before having to venture back out for math class. "Fuck," she whispered. Eddie was in her math class.