WILDFIRE ↝ E. MUNSON

[1]

Seven Months Later 

                        

The yellow school bus came to a halt in front of Hawkins High School with a loud screech, just audible over the music playing in Lily's ears through her Walkman. As the bus stopped, Lily pulled off her headphones, wrapping them around the device and shoving it into her backpack as she rose from her seat, smoothing down her green and yellow pleated skirt and making her way down the aisle with Max right behind her.

The Mayfield girls stepped onto the blacktop outside Hawkins High only to be met with a mob of students all moving towards the front doors, the noisy anticipation over the Tigers' impending championship basketball game that night as the school guidance counselor, Ms. Kelley, ushered students towards the gym.

"Max!" Ms. Kelley called out as she took notice of the two redheads, though Max still had her headphones blasting music and Lily nudged her with her elbow, gesturing back in the woman's direction as she ran to meet up with them. "Max, where were you yesterday?"

"Oh," Max said, and Lily's eyebrows furrowed together slightly in confusion. "Yeah, sorry, I forgot it was Thursday."

"Well, I'd like to see you today." Ms. Kelley said. "Come straight after lunch, okay? And Lily, I'll see you first thing on Monday after break."

The girls nodded as they turned to leave, and Lily instantly noticed Max rolling her eyes the second she was out of Ms. Kelley's line of sight.

"You skipped your meeting with Ms. Kelley yesterday?" Lily asked, pulling her backpack tighter over her shoulders.

"I just forgot, that's all." Max said, though Lily knew her sister all too well to know when she wasn't telling the truth.

"She's just trying to help us, Max." she reminded her. "It's not like this last year's been particularly easy for either of us."

"Yeah, I remember." Max said shortly, pulling her headphones back over her ears as soon as they were inside the building and taking the path towards the freshmen lockers, separating the two.

Lily found her locker, quickly stuffing her backpack inside along with her Tiger Cheer Squad cardigan and pulling out her pom-poms. She looked in the mirror hanging inside her locker, quickly fixing her ponytail and rushing towards the gym so as not to be late for the assembly.

Already, the stands were beginning to fill with Hawkins High students as the marching band began to warm up, the other members of the cheer squad stretching in the corner. Lily jogged across the hardwood floor of the gymnasium to reach the rest of her team, standing next to Chrissy Cunningham, Hawkins' head cheerleader.

"There you are," Chrissy said with a teasing smile. "Was beginning to think you ditched for break a day early."

"And miss all of this?" Lily asked, looking around at where everyone was beginning to finish their warm up, and the cheer squad began to take their places. "Not likely."

As the routine began, Lily forced a peppy smile on her face as she began to move, shaking the pom-poms as she danced in time to the beat. She let her eyes wander through the stands, where she found her sister standing next to Mike Wheeler and Dustin Henderson, both wearing matching Hellfire Club shirts in preparation for Eddie's famous end of the term campaign. She found the rest of Hellfire up in the top corner, staying in their seats instead of on their feet with the rest of the crowd, though she hadn't let her eyes linger in their direction for too long before moving back to the cheerleaders surrounding her.

As the marching band's song came to an end, she shook her pom-poms one final time before sitting on the floor in front of the bleachers with the rest of the cheer squad, where Lily took a seat next to Chrissy. As the students in the stands began to applaud, a voice came over the microphone, beginning the rally.

"And let's hear it for your Tigers!"

Lily began to cheer as the basketball team made their entrance from the corner closest to the locker rooms, all jogging in a line until they were in the center of the gym. Jason Carver, the captain of the team, ran for where a microphone waited for him on a stand just in front of where the rest of the team waited. Not far behind him, Lily's eyes met that of Patrick McKinney, who shot her a smile, which she quickly returned.

"Good morning, Hawkins High!" Jason yelled into the microphone, his face lighting up at the excited reaction from the crowd. "First off," he continues, grabbing the microphone from the stand and beginning to slowly walk closer to the crowd. "I'd like to thank each and every one of you. Without your support, we wouldn't be here. Give yourselves a big hand!"

In return, the stands went wild, full of students and faculty alike cheering on Jason's words.

"And of course, of course I have to give a special shoutout to the best, and the prettiest fans of all time, the Tiger Cheer Squad!" Jason continued, and Lily's smile grew as this time, the applause was directed to the team sitting on the floor. "Chrissy," Jason said then, and Lily nudged her friend, a teasing grin on the redhead's face. "Chrissy, I love you babe."

The crowd began to aww as Chrissy blew a kiss back in Jason's direction, and he slowly pulled his eyes away from his girlfriend, focusing his attention back to the crowd in front of him as the smile faded from his face, his expression instead morphing into something more serious.

"You know," Jason said, "I think I can speak for all of us when I say it's been a tough year for Hawkins. So much loss. And sometimes I wonder, how much loss can one community take? In dark days like this, we need something to believe in. So last night, when we were down by ten points at half to Christian Academy, I looked at my team, and I said, 'Think of Jack. Think of Melissa. Think of Heather. Think of Billy.'"

At the mention of her step-brother's name, Lily instinctively let her eyes hit the floor. She knew she could feel Patrick's eyes on her, but she avoided his gaze, instead blocking out any images of Starcourt Mall on the fourth of July that threatened to cloud her vision. It was only when she felt a gentle squeeze of her hand that she looked over to see Chrissy holding onto it, giving her friend a reassuring nod. Lily returned the nod with a shaky breath before her gaze turned back to Jason.

"Think about our heroic police chief, Jim Hopper." Jason continued. "Think about every one of our friends who perished in that fire. What did they die for? For us to lose to some... some crap school?"

"No!" the crowd yelled back in response.

"For us to return home with our heads hung low in defeat?" Jason asked.

"No!"

"No!" Jason echoed. "Let's win this game! Let's win this game for them, and that's exactly what we did!" as he yelled, the crowd began to cheer louder and louder. "We embarrassed those candy-asses in their own house, and now tonight, tonight, we're going to bring home the championship trophy!"

As his speech finished, the cheer squad and the fans in the bleachers began to cheer louder, Lily forcing all thoughts of Billy from her head as she plastered the peppy smile back onto her face. When she finally looked back over at Chrissy, she saw her friend still watching her with a worried look.

"Are you okay?" Chrissy asked, and Lily nodded.

"Of course I am," she said. "I'm just fine."