𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞, 𝖾𝖽𝖽𝗂𝖾 𝗆𝗎𝗇𝗌𝗈𝗇

𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐈.

Sitting at the same table as usual in the lunchroom, Eddie was eating, or rather playing with, the disgusting food he had been given. He didn't even know what it was : mashed peas, spinach, broccoli ? All around him, everyone was chattering loudly ; he wished he had gone deaf so he wouldn't have to hear them anymore.

At his table, Mike Wheeler and Dustin Henderson were missing, and they soon arrived, since Eddie saw them walk through the doors of the room just as he looked up. Following them was a red-haired girl who was obviously annoyed by their slow walk. She pushed them slightly in order to pass in front of them, apparently already knowing which table she should go to. She was nothing special, so much so that the curly-haired boy didn't give her a glance. The truth is, he hadn't even noticed her presence, not more than all the other students who were coming and going in the room.

The two missing teenagers joined the group that had formed at the table, taking the last two empty seats. They were nervous, and everyone could see it. Mike was looking around and Dustin was biting his nails, desperately seeking comfort from his friend. Dustin took a deep breath, as if he wanted to suck all the air out of the room and deprive the others of it.

- Lucas will not be able to be there for the Hellfire tomorrow. But don't worry, we'll find a sub ! he hurried to add.

The taller one stopped turning over the mashed food in his plate with his fork and planted his eyes like stakes in theirs. And strangely enough, while the two youngest expected to die in the seconds before their announcement, they did not. Eddie Muson, usually so eccentric and outspoken when it came to the Hellfire, did nothing.

- Go ahead, you can find me the ugliest of the little ducks in this crowd of young lost sheeps, whether it's Lucas or not, tomorrow it won't count. he said, attracting the surprised looks of his fellow companions.

Eddie jumped to his feet, causing Mike to gasp. He put his hands roughly on the table and leaned in close to his friends, looking them in the eyes. Eddie's eyes were special ; they could look at you so intensely that you felt as if they were reaching every inch of your soul, getting to the very bottom of you.

- I am making the greatest scenario for you, you will never recover from it ! A campaign that is beyond belief ; even the best orgasm of your life will not equal it! I promise you something amazing! Fuck that shitty script! Whether Lucas is playing or not, it's all the same when you know that in three weeks The Cult Of Vecna will offer itself to you! he exclaimed while raising his voice before sitting down quietly as if nothing happened.

It took only a few seconds for the teenagers to process the information before they all turned to Eddie at the same time, showering him with enthusiastic questions. Eddie put on a satisfied expression, crossed his arms and sank into his chair without saying another word, listening with one ear to the questions he was asked that were and will remain unanswered.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Dustin turn around quickly before turning to Mike to whisper something to him. Then both boys turned to their eldest and the curly-haired boy spoke up.

- We were thinking of asking Max Mayfield, Dustin announced.

Mike turned again to the person concerned, and then to his interlocutor.

- But right now she's with her sister, Elizabeth, Wheeler added.

Eddie turned his eyes away from those of his companions and fixed them on the girl next to the said "Max". She was already looking at him. He recognized Maxine Mayfield, Eddie had seen her sometimes chatting with the boys at the beginning of the year, and after her stepbrother, Billy Hargrove, was caught in the mall fire last year, everyone more or less knew who she was. Next to her sat a teenage girl with red hair, the same girl who was behind Mike and Dustin when they entered the lunchroom ; this time he noticed her. This girl, however, he did not recognize.

With an unfocussed ear, he heard Gareth say that she had apparently only been to class about twenty times this year. No one really saw her much so no one knew her, in fact, people didn't even know she was a Mayfield.

For long seconds, her icy blue eyes remained fixated in Eddie's soft chocolate brown ones. The redhead didn't seem to be paying any attention to what her little sister was saying, so much that she grabbed the helmet from around her neck and put it on her head. The old mosses of this one covering her ears must emit an abominable sound. Neither of them looked away, always looking at each other from a distance. A minute passed during which they didn't let go of each other ; Eddie wasn't even bored.

Across the room, his vision cut off by the movement of people going back and forth, his ears invaded by the parasite noises of high school students eating their lunch, he continued to hold the gaze of this stranger for no apparent reason.

She was already looking at him before he did. She was weird. Why was she staring at him?