Freak

Chapter 3

The school was almost completely dark as the four of us crept out of the parking lot where we'd been hanging out in Chris's car. Lights were on in one or two offices up front and there was another orangey light shining through the extension off the art room.
"You think that's them?"
"It's gotta be," Tara whispered.
We all nodded at one another and slowly crept up to the doors. We all leaned against it and pressed our ears to the door so we could hear what the club was doing. Though it was muffled, we could hear boys yelling excitedly and I smiled at the others.
"See? Just goofy dudes having a good time."
Chris shook his head.
"Yelling isn't always a good thing. In fact it's usually what you do when something bad happens so forgive me if I'm not convinced."
Kristin pointed to the light under the door and whispered, "Let's look under there."
I nodded and the group all tried their best to get a look under the door at the DND gang on the other side. After a few minutes of struggling to see much other than shoes I stood up.
"Okay this isn't working. We gotta sneak inside somehow."
"Or we just open the door," Tara scoffed, grabbing the handle and yanking. The rest of us widened our eyes and Kristin and Chris backed away from the door to hide. I couldn't hide because Tara had opened it right in front of me and she was conveniently hidden behind the door. I quickly put my hand against the door so it looked like I had opened it and focused my attention on what I was seeing.

A group of boys in matching black and white shirts with devils on the front stood stiffer than mannequins just staring at me. I looked around and saw Eddie sitting in a throne-like chair and raised an eyebrow.
So he's their leader. Interesting.
Most of the boys looked like they had seen a ghost but Gareth and Eddie clearly recognized me.
"You," Eddie pointed slowly, "You're...the new girl."
I smiled and nodded, trying to stay cool and not give away my accomplices.
"Yeah. So uh...whatcha doin in here?"
The boys still stood frozen except for Gareth and Eddie. Suddenly a boy with a dark wolfcut piped up.
"Shouldn't we be asking what you're doing in here?"
"Mike," another boy hissed.
This guy had a Hawaiian shirt on over his devil shirt and a hat that pushed his light brown curls over his eyebrows. This kid stepped forward and extended a hand to me.
"Hi! I'm Dustin. The rude one is Mike. And I guess you guys know each other," he turned to Eddie inquisitively.
Eddie blinked and side-eyed Gareth who shrugged and walked over to me and gestured around the room.
"This is the party. We got Henderson and Wheeler like he said" Gareth pointed at Dustin and Mike.
"We've also got Jeff," he pointed at a nervous looking guy rubbing his hand over his hair.
"Reggie," he pointed at a big guy who had hidden behind Jeff when the door opened.
"Andddd Sinclair," he gestured at a cute guy with a hi-top fade and the guy smiled at me.
"First name Lucas," he added.
I nodded and smiled back at him. Suddenly Eddie sprung out of his chair and waltzed over to me. As he got closer his face was pretty unreadable but when Gareth slowly backed away from me I wondered if I should be concerned.

Eddie stood in front of me and blocked my view of Lucas, staring down at me.
"Alright enough. I'm the dungeon master here so you'll talk to me now. I think perhaps it's time you answer Wheeler's question. What are you doing in here?"
I grinned anxiously and tried to hide any tells that might give my friends away.
"Well...honestly it was an accident. I was looking for a different club and saw the lights so I figured it was them."
"Hmm. So you've been here a day and you've already joined a club. That was fast," Eddie said.
I shrugged.
"If you say so."
Eddie looked me up and down, his face still unreadable. His tone sounded like it was loading up for something and I didn't know what to expect next.
"Right. Well this is definitely not the club you're looking for new girl."
I heard Chris sniff and quickly tried to camouflage the noise with a laugh.
"Why not? Looks like you could use a few more bodies in here," I nodded at the ragtag crew behind him.
Eddie turned his head halfway behind him to look at his group and then back down at me.
"We've got plenty of members. As many as we need."
"But didn't you just ask us to recruit more people?" Dustin spoke up.
Eddie slowly turned to look at Dustin and glared at him.
"Henderson? Shut it."
Dustin looked at me and mouthed "sorry" before Eddie turned back to me again and cut my view of the others off.
"Yeah respectfully a baker's dozen is not what I would describe as 'plenty' if you ask me," I replied.
Eddie tensed as the guys behind him chuckled and suddenly held hard eye contact with me. It was intense and yet I couldn't look away.
"Well luckily I didn't ask you new girl. Why don't you run along now and go find the club you belong in. What is it, Puppies and Rainbows Anonymous?"
The guys laughed behind him and I raised an eyebrow.
"Wow okay 'Dungeon Master'. What club is this? Dorks-R-Us?"
Eddie looked at my lips for a split second before looking back into my eyes with a raised eyebrow.
"Clever. But no. Sorry to disappoint but this is Hellfire. And you," he held a hand towards the door, "cannot handle the heat of this campaign sooo I bid thee farewell."