𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙒𝙊𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙎 𝙒𝙀 𝙎𝙃𝘼𝙍𝙀 ᵉᵈᵈⁱᵉ ᵐᵘⁿˢᵒⁿ

☼ 5

; R U N
sausalito by DANIEL LEGGS

If there was one thing Matilda hated more than Jason's poor attempts at getting to her, it was pep rallies. She had never understood the fascination for sports anyway, but ordering all the students to watch a group of guys with an ego which was far too big anyway was entirely beyond her. If she hadn't quit cheer for personal reasons, she would have quit because of this.

The entire gym had been cramped and while the cheerleading team as well as the band had been good, Jason had turned the entire thing into a distasteful ego-show. In his delusion about success, he had given a completely insensitive speech, exploiting the terrible tragedies that had taken place in Hawkins before for his little game and while Matilda was shocked, she was not surprised. She was surprised though, that no one cared. She'd seen a couple other students roll their eyes or shake their heads, but no one actually said anything. They just let him say whatever he wanted and if anything, that pretty much summed up what probably went wrong in his childhood, causing him to now be a massive piece of—

"But as long as you're into band, or science, or parties, or a game where you toss balls into laundry baskets...", Eddie proclaimed, once again walking over the table. He almost stepped into Matilda's food, what caused her to snatch it away quickly. A couple students yelled something insulting, but only Jason outwardly reacted. Of course.

"You want something, freak?" Eddie proceeded to put his pointers above his ears while snarling with a devil-like expression on his face. Matilda tried her best not to laugh.

Jason mumbled something under his breath and then turned back to his seat as Eddie did the same, not looking nearly as amused as the brown haired boy. Prior to this, he had been reading from an article about the game he and his club played, which didn't hesitate to paint them in the worst light possible. He didn't seem bothered though.

"It's forced conforming", he proceeded climbing back to his seat, "that's what's killing the kids." As he jumped down, he scared a few girls away and the whole table laughed. Matilda shook her head with a smile and put her food back on the table.

"I hope I didn't ruin your meal, Bluford", he grinned as he sat back down. Matilda just gave him a sarcastic look and a thumbs up.

"So, Eddie, we actually have to talk to you about something", one of the club members started and the conversation drifted off to their game again, specifically the end of their current campaign. Matilda had no interest in D&D, never had. While didn't have any strong opinions on the game, it felt rather pointless to her. So when Eddie mentioned looking for a replacement and shot Matilda a daring look, she immediately grabbed her things and left.

°°°

Matilda had spent her entire Friday being anxious about the following day. She had never worked before, let alone in customer service and even though the customers of Hawkins Hardware probably didn't expect world class treatment, it did worry her that she didn't even know her way around the store. On the other hand; Eddie hadn't taken the task serious enough to give the position to someone with more experience, so maybe she didn't even have anything to worry about.