OUTCASTS • Eddie Munson

Chrissy Cunningham

The campaign must've ended at the same time the basketball game did, as people were flooding out of the school doors at the same time as Hellfire club were exiting the other side of the building.

It must've been a successful game as people were cheering the team on as they strolled down the drive, waving their paper flags at them, and clapping their hands.

The Hellfire team were all still on a high from beating the campaign, laughing and chattering with each other, all sporting massive smiles on their faces.

Ellie pulled her cigarettes out of her jacket, standing to the side as the members of the team passed her enthusiastically, still not taking much notice of her, which was hardly surprising as she hadn't even attempted to draw their attention to her. One steadfast rule she's kept to in her life is that she won't approach people first, so if they didn't want to speak to her then she wasn't going to embarrass herself by attempting to strike up a conversation.

That, however, now apparently had one exception with that of Eddie Munson. She had technically been the first of them to start a conversation with the other, not that she minded, he intrigued her.

"You okay?" Dustin asked, his grin still stretched across his face.

Erica and Mike were stood a few feet away from him, waiting for him to continue their journey home.

"Yeah I'm alright!" She responded enthusiastically, lighting her cigarette. "Thank you so much for inviting me tonight, it was a real rollercoaster!"

Dustin's grin for even wider, "it's great, right?!" he was so glad she enjoyed herself, especially as he was the one who asked her to come in the first place, if she hated it, she would have thought he was stupid for liking such things.

"It really is." She told him, honestly, "if you ever do this again I'd love to come!"

"Of course! I'll come find you when we get back from spring break and let you know when our next meeting will be!" Dustin told her, hoping he could get her to actually play at some point.

Ellie smiled at him, her face full of genuine joy, "thank you so much, Dustin. I hope you have an amazing break!"

"I hope you do too! See you, Ellie!" He responded waving at her as he ran over to Mike and Erica. Mike already striding away.

Ellie stood outside the school for a few minutes, waiting for the cars to clear out from the school grounds before hitting the road.

She pulled her cassette player out of her bag, pulling her headphones over her neck.

Eddie - who had stayed behind to pack up the game - walked out of the building, seeing Ellie standing by the door smoking. A white spectre forming in the air around her as she breathed out, reflecting the light from the building and making her look like a silhouette against the clouds.

"Hey." He spoke, causing her to turn and face him.

"Hey!" She replied, once again offering him a cigarette which he gratefully took.

"Did you have a good time?" He asked her, a smirk on his face as he already knew she had done.

"Yes it was a really nice evening! I was just thanking Dustin for inviting me!" She told him, smiling at him once again.

"Oh so it was Dustin, eh?" The smirk remained on his face.

"Oops." She shrugged, "I figured you would've known, Mike didn't seem like he was as friendly as Dustin."

Eddie nodded, "he grows on you I guess, kid seems to have some trust issues."

"Don't we all." She told him, fiddling with her cassette player getting it ready for her walk home.

"What are you listening to?" He asked.

"AC/DC, seems it's the only band I can listen to for the time being." She laughed, knowing there was more truth to that than she'd like to admit.

"Ooh, nice." He complimented, "I'm the same with Metallica at the moment. They just released a song called Master of Puppets, it's quickly becoming a favourite of mine." He told her, appreciative of the fact he could talk to someone other than his band mates about this kind of music. It wasn't the popular choice for high school kids these days.

Ellie nodded her head, the same thoughts going through her head in regards to talking music. "I haven't heard that one yet, I'll have to take a trip down to the store over the break and have a look at the new releases. I'll let you know what I think!"

"You'll probably see me there in that case then, I was planning the same thing. How are you getting home anyway? You want a ride?" He asked, noticing most of the cars had left, and people don't usually wear headphones when driving.

"Oh no that's alright, I don't want you going out of your way, I'm not too far." She told him, smiling yet lying through her teeth.

"How far is not far?" He asked, eyebrow raised quizzically almost as if he knew she was lying.

"Near the trailer park, one of the houses on the road just before you turn in." She told him.

"I thought so!" He snapped, clapping his hands together. "I'm pretty sure I've seen you walking down that stretch of road a few times! I live in the trailer park. Now you've got to let me give you a ride."

Ellie rolled her eyes sarcastically, "Okay then, as long as you're alright with that?" She asked him.

"Of course! We've just got to wait for someone first."

"No problem. Thank you so much." She told him, smiling, taking the last drag of her cigarette before stubbing it out on the ground, him quickly doing the same with his.

"There she is!" He exclaimed, pointing down towards the back entrance of the school gym.

A blonde girl walked towards them, arms wrapped around her body and head down almost as if she was trying to hide herself. She was dressed in a cheerleading uniform, and her hair was tied into a high ponytail.

"Who's that?" Ellie asked, looking her up and down as she approached.

"Chrissy Cunningham, captain of the cheerleading squad." Eddie beamed, still finding it surreal that Chrissy was buying drugs from him, but he wasn't going to tell Ellie that, he didn't know her well enough to know she'd keep quiet about it.

Ellie on the other hand was slightly miffed at the fact that Eddie had a girlfriend.

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Chrissy sat in the passenger seat of the van, almost completely silent, only saying a couple of words to Eddie here and there. Ellie couldn't hear anything she was saying, partially due to the fact that she was in the back seat, but mostly because her one headphone was blasting Shoot to Thrill and Eddie's stereo was playing an assortment of other hard rock music.

The drive wasn't too long, but it was long enough for Ellie to feel painfully stupid for thinking Eddie might have been available. Obviously someone like him had a girlfriend, he was gorgeous and funny, what more could a girl want?

Her house was visible in the distance, so she removed her headphones and leaned forward in her seat, "my house is just there on the left." she told Eddie, close enough to him that he could feel her breath skim the side of his face as he turned to hear her, sending inexplicable shivers down his spine.

The van pulled up outside her uncle's house, lights all off indicating no one was home. This caused her anxiety to shoot sky high, but she'd have to embrace being alone sooner or later, she couldn't exactly spend the whole of the spring break hanging around crowds of people.

"Thanks for letting me come to the club, and for the ride." She told Eddie, moving in her seat to get out of his van "I guess I'll see you when I see you! Have a nice spring break. And you too, Chrissy!" She said, hoping his girlfriend didn't get the wrong idea as to why he gave her a lift home.

"No problem Ell, I'll see you when I see you." He responded, turning in his seat to give her a grin as she departed.

She walked towards the house, her mind shutting itself off again, having relished in the feeling of being around people a bit too much, she now felt more alone than ever.