Head Over Heels for Eddie Munson

Ch 1: Good Day?

I wake up, 6am...again. Why do I always wake up at exactly 6am everyday? No matter how little sleep I got or what day it is I always wake up when the clock strikes 6. It is the time Dr. Brenner made me wake up for 11 years of my life. For over 10 years everyday, rain or shine, I woke up at 6, it has become a part of my daily schedule."You still manage to ruin my life, even after 7 years," I say with a sigh, Dr. Brenner in mind, as I unwillingly get out of my bed. For the year, the Wheeler's took me in and I had been sleeping in their basement. Preferably, I would have liked to crash with Hopper, but seeing as he is gone and his cabin is pretty messed up, I had no other choice but to beg the Wheeler's for help. I turn to grab my green pleated skirt and the itchy sweater vest and put on my cheerleading outfit, "Another pep rally," I thought to myself, "wonderful!" I hated pep rally's. The constant screaming, the feeling that everyone is judging you, and Jason's stupid speeches— it all made me sick.

It is too early. Too early to feel so horrible. I grab my Walkman and put in my favorite cassette, a mix of rock and roll and older love songs. "I hope this works," I say to myself, thinking that maybe the music can wake up the happy side of my brain this morning. As I walk upstairs, music blasting, I find myself in the middle of an argument Mike was having with his parents. Something about hellfire being the "high school dropout" club, but I ignored their discussion and reminded Mike that I was driving him to school today. Talking to Mike was alway so awkward for me, maybe it was because he was dating El or maybe because he has never really liked me. Nevertheless, I still try to spark conversations with him. I start talking about Spring Break and try to get him excited about seeing El again, but he answers with short and sweet sentences. Before I could say much else, he was already out of the door and walking into the building.

I jump out of my truck and grab my bag from the back. Walking into high school is so nerve wracking, the counselor welcoming kids into the building outside and the kids grouping up into their cliques. As per usual, I'm walking in alone and keeping my head down. Still being labeled as "new", not many people know who I am. They have just seen me swimming or jumping in the air. I'm not surprised that people don't say hello to me in the halls or acknowledge that I'm even there, I'm just a bit hurt.

My stomach churns as the rally approaches, thoughts flood my head telling me I'll mess up, torturing me with unsettling feelings. I flash back to last year, staring right at Billy Hargrove, searching his mind. "It's blocked!" I scream to the rest, "His shield is up, I can't do anything!" Then...silence. I stop and stare at the group around me. Steve, Robin, Nancy, Jonathan, Mike, Will, Lucas, El, Max they all are depending on me to save Billy—to change his mind. I fall to the ground, covering my ears, my head pounds and the blood pours out of my nose. I've failed. Now, a new sound appears, cutting the silence quite suddenly and loudly. "You killed Billy!" Max screams, "You should've saved him!" Mike adds, "You were not strong enough!" Steve shouts, "We should've let El do it!" Says Nancy. "They've never said that before." I thought to myself. "I've never remembered them saying that!" And yet, it all sounds so real. And yet, they were right. El is better than I am, I am not enough for them, and all I do is fail.

I snap out of it as the rally begins and do my regular routine, getting thrown in the air, a few backflips and shaking pom poms. As the rally ends and the students exit the gym, I can't help but think of last year again, how my actions—or more so, my lack of actions—caused suffering to everyone. All throughout Ms. O'Donnell's math class, all I could think about was that night. Not like I needed to pay attention anyway, this class wasn't too hard for the daughter of a scientist to understand. The bell rang and lunch has cursed me once again. Today, I sit with the jocks. It's usually after games or rallies that they are nicest to me and let me sit with them. But as lunch goes on, I wonder what my place is in this school. Where I really want to be. My thoughts were quickly cut off by a loud slam on a table nearby.

Eddie Munson, the high school freak. A senior who is probably 2 years older than me stands on the table walking down it like an aisle. Making a joke about basketball sparks my interest as he looks at Jason with his fingers creating devil horns on his head. He pulls his hands down to the sides of him smiling right at me, stating almost. I pay little to no attention to him, at least until I catch him staring over at my table again. I send him a nice smile through common courtesy, but he returns it by just looking down at the table in front of him. I think nothing of that weird encounter and continue with the rest of the day, thinking only of the way he stared at me in the cafeteria.
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The championship game, a curse dressed up like a blessing. Crowds flow into the gym and I spot Robin and Steve laughing together. Nancy makes an appearance as well, joined by her short friend who I've never met before. As for the game itself, just the same old thing. One team makes a shot and then the other team makes a shot. I try to act as excited as I could , but what is so exciting about running up and down a court? However as the game comes to a close and there's only seconds left on the clock, I can't help but be dragged to the edge in anticipation of who will win. Then, as the crowd rises in fear, Lucas retrieves the rebound and...Lucas shoots the last shot?! The winning shot? Lucas? I cannot believe it. We won! I do my normal cheering routine and sit back down on the court. And as quick as my excitement had risen, it fell and I walked out of the gym laughing with Steve and Robin about the whole game. You see, I love my friends and they love me. Don't get me wrong, I get along well with them. But something in my life is missing, I can feel it.

I drive home, greeted by Karen asking me to pick Mike up from his club meeting. "Really? I was just there! You couldn't have asked me sooner?" I say to myself exhausted from the game. I walk right back to my truck and drive over to pick Mike up. I turn up the volume in my truck as I hear the song "Highway to Hell" by AC/DC begin. The wind blowing in through the open windows and the moonshine meeting my skin calms me down. I turn off the music as I enter the lot and walk into the building once again. I hear laughter coming from a lowly lit room and walk up to it singing "Oh Mikey! I'm here to pick you up! Your mommy needs you home right now!" As I was publicly embarrassing myself I stop and wonder, "Who even is in this club?" At first, I answer myself thinking of only Dustin, Lucas and Mike. Thinking this makes me feel better, maybe I won't be too embarrassed when I enter the room after what had just exited my mouth. But as I walk in, still humming my song, I stop as Eddie and his clan stare at me. He stares at me, keeping in his laughter, I can't help but feel taunted. By the looks of it, they were still playing their game and nearing the end of it."Well shit!" I think to myself. My eyes widen and my cheeks turn red. "I guess Mike and Dustin aren't the only members of the club," I joke to myself trying to lighten the mood. "Sorry! So sorry," I say walking over to Mike. "Hey Mike, your mom wanted me to pick you up." I look at the floor and hear the chair scratch it as a few disheartened sounds come from the rest of the members. "But!" I say right before he fully gets up, "I can wait in the car until you finish. I don't want to ruin the fun or anything." I chuckle to myself and turn around ready to leave the room. I feel Eddie's eyes on me, I catch a quick glimpse of what he is thinking, "That is nice of her." He seems surprised. Mike looks at me, confused, "Well if my mom wants me home now, it must be for an important reason. I can leave." He starts to get up again and a feeling of guilt rushes over my body as I see the annoyed look on Eddie's face. "Hey! Um it's okay! I really can just stay in the car, take all the time you need," I finish and open the door with my back. "What about my mom and her "curfew","Mike adds putting the word curfew in finger quotes. "Um, yeah! Don't worry about that. I, um, have a feeling she will forget all about your curfew." I shoot him an innocent smile and a wink, suggesting my plan to alter the memory of Mrs. Wheeler. He understands my signals and smiles as I try my best to escape the awkward situation I put myself into. "What should I say?" I think to myself as I am about to leave, "Goodnight? Have a nice day? Have fun?" In the end, I stop thinking and blurt out the first thing that comes to mind, "Good day!" I smile the most empty smile as I replay the last 5 seconds over again, realizing what I had just said. I walk out and into my truck, laying my head on the wheel in front of my, "Good day?! That's all I could think of?" I try to forget about it and focus more of Mrs. Wheeler, as I pluck out her the details of my trip to pick up Mike. Wiping my nose of the blood and feeling proud of what I had accomplished, I see Mike walk from the entrance to my truck and we drive home in complete silence.

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A/N: hey guys! Hope you liked the first chapter! If you have any suggestions, comments, or find anything that doesn't make sense, feel free to let me know. I'm so excited for u to embark on this journey with Lori and I have some great ideas! I will be posting more updates and other things for publicity on my tiktok @noob_master480. Feel free to follow me and comment anything. This chapter was a bit longer than I had planned, but I hope you found it interesting!!