The Ballad of Eddie Munson

The Tutor

The cool Spring air taunts the anticipated end of the school year. Lissa took a deep breath, inhaling the stagnant scent of chalk dust. She checked her watch again and sighed.

Lissa shifted in her absent teacher's chair and glossed over her tutoring notes. Where do I even start - if he ever shows up. She tugged at the color of her button up blouse, regretting wearing it on such a long day.

Eddie rushed through the doorway, "Sorry I'm late Ms. O'Do-oooh, you're not Ms. O'Donnell."

"Sharp, Eddie."

"Lissa Brady. And what do I have the pleasure of spending detention in your company today?"

"You're not sitting around in Detention anymore. Principal Higgins asked me to tutor you to make sure you pass."

Eddie cringed. "Tutor?"

"Yeah." Exasperated. "You're barely to a D in this class and if you don't get there you won't graduate."

Eddie straightened his back. "All this effort for little ol' me?"

"Well, to be honest, everyone's sick of your shit and wants you out of their hair."

Eddie's eyes widened and he pressed his lips together stifling a smirk. "I didn't think that was in the vocabulary of honor students."

"I'm surprised you even know that word."

"Shit? Of course I know that word! I say it all the time!"

Lissa rolled her eyes and put her palms on the desk. "You should take this seriously. Unless you want to be a 21 year old high school student."

Dramatically looking forward and nodding his head in earnest, he sat at the desk closest to the teacher's, his wallet chain clanging loudly against the chair. "Yes, ma'am."

Lissa stood, grabbing a small packet of stapled papers. She walked towards Eddie, and laid the papers before him. "This is a practice test so I know where we need to focus. She walked away, lightly pulling her collar away from her skin.

Eddie took notice, then glanced down her curvy figure. I don't remember that ass around school.

Lissa looked back quickly to comment on the test. She watched Eddie's eyes dart to hers, his cheeks lightly flushing with guilt. Was he just staring at my ass? "Um," she lost her thought, nervous from the potential attention. "Don't worry about trying to get every answer, just go as quickly as you can." She made up, then took her seat back at Mrs. O'Donnell desk to wait for the awkwardness to pass as she stared at her book.

Eddie whipped a pen from his pocket. She definitely caught that. This is weird. He looked at the questions, already bored, and signed his name. But he decided to take it seriously and began to answer each question.

He was quiet. Lissa kept her head down, but sneaked a peak at Eddie. She was surprised to see Eddie moving his pen across the quiz. He's probably drawing dicks. She noticed the way his wavy hair fell around his face. He's almost cute when he isn't talking.
I guess I can see why the grungy girls would be into him. As she continued to watch him, the tip of Eddie's tongue poked out of the corner of his mouth. Her eyes widened and she tried not to giggle. Okay, that's one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

Eddie looked up thinking he heard Lissa make a noise. She quickly faced her book in full. He shook his head and smirked as he looked back at the test. Oh yeah, she's into it.

"Done!" He slapped his pen on the desk.

Thank god. Lissa was beginning to sweat. She went to retrieve it but before she could stand, Eddie jumped up.

"Allow me." He towered over the desk and looked down at Lissa. She looked up, their eyes meeting. He slid the paper across the desk towards her, the afternoon sun glinting off of his rings. She looked down at his hand, her cheeks reddened from intrusive thoughts.

"Um, okay." She grabbed the paper and a red pen, refusing to look at him further.

"Okay." He leaned a shoulder back slightly, his hips remaining forward.

Fucking peripheral vision. "Let me just review this real quick."

Ooh, something's here. I'm not crazy. He paced in front of the desk. Trying not to be obvious in his observation of her. Her neck was slightly red from the collar, her dark blonde hair pulled into a messy bun to keep off of her neck, but thin strands of hair fell to frame her face. He could see she had finally gotten to the last question. He dropped to a crouch, placed his elbows on the desk and rested his sharp jaw against fists. "How'd I do, teach?"

She looked over the paper. "You play Dungeons and Dragons right?"

His raised his head from his hands, eyes lighting up. "Yeah."

"How can you remember all of those rules and all of those characters but can't remember when to use whom vs who?"

He scoffed and straightened up. "Because people don't talk like that. It's not like I'm actually going to need it in life so I don't care."

She looked up with a grimace, offended by his nonchalance of education. "Maybe you should care so you're not some Hawkins lifer that had to drop out of school because he thought he was too cool to learn what a fucking preposition was."

"Hey! I am not some loser that's gonna get stuck here. And I do care about things, a lot of things. I'm a very passionate man."

She rose from her seat, her neck itchy, her attitude diminishing. "Then why don't you direct some of that passion to something worthwhile before you end up a loser like your uncle." too far.

Lissa twitched as Eddie slammed his palms into the desk between them and leaned towards her. "He is not a loser. And neither am I. You're all gonna see what I'm capable of when I leave this fucking miserable, backwater town." He reached forward in a quick motion, Lissa gasped as his finger nimbly pulled her collar button from its loop. "At least I'm smart enough to wear comfortable clothes."

Flustered, she watched him walk towards the door. "Same time tomorrow!"

Eddie slapped the doorframe in acknowledgment as he exited into the hall.