Shot In The Dark - An Eddie Munson & Y/N Story

1 ~ Welcome Back, Students...

It's a fairly warm September morning, a cool breeze pushes through the air as the sun beams down on Forest Hills Trailer Park, illuminating against the metal on the cosy trailer homes. On the far right of the park lies the trailer of Wayne Munson and his nephew Eddie. Wayne's a typical middle-aged simplistic man, if he gets to enjoy a smoke and a beer at the end of a long shift at the power plant, then that's perfect enough. He took in his nephew, Eddie, when he was about 8 years old, after his mother bolted from a toxic marriage to Eddie's shitty father. The father that soon ended up in jail for stealing and chopping cars, neither parent ever bothering to reach out to their only child. Wayne had no idea what he was doing when he took the kid in, thankfully though, Eddie's parents set the bar pretty damn low when it came to what makes a "good parent". Wayne got him into music, read him fantasy books and allowed Eddie to be the kid he should have been years ago, but never got to be. This behaviour continued through Eddie's life, now living as a 21-year-old overgrown child. A child who still loves music with such a raw passion, used his love of fantasy to become a pretty decent Dungeon Master and can rarely take a conversation seriously despite his age.

This is the morning Eddie is due to start his third "first day as a senior" at Hawkins High, due to his unique outlook on school keeping him held back repeatedly. Being held back has never been entirely Eddie's fault in a way. Eddie's never been good at asking for help, this comes from having to take care of himself a lot before he moved in with Wayne. Whenever Eddie would start to struggle with school work, he'd find it easier to submit to defeat than to ask for help, meaning his teachers never knew he was struggling or behind, neither did Wayne. Eddie covered for his struggle with humour and fulfilling everyone's pre-conceived opinions that he was just a loser and a freak. Eddie had also heard his parents argue endlessly about how "shitty" their lives got after they left high school, this made Eddie terrified about life beyond high school. High school became a safe place for Eddie in a way, he could largely control the world around him by staying in school. Knowing how far he could push the boundaries to remain in high school and not have to graduate or get expelled.

At the back of the Munson trailer lies the larger of the two bedrooms, the room Wayne gave to Eddie upon his arrival. A room plastered in posters and music paraphernalia, carpet littered with both clean and dirty clothing as well cigarette packets and beer cans, above a dresser hangs a pristinely cared for electric guitar - taking pride of place in the dirty room. In the far corner is a small double bed and buried underneath the messy assortment of blankets and throws lies a sleeping Eddie, drooling and snoring into his balled up pillow. His long brown, curls shielding his face from the cracks of sunlight leaking through the broken blinds that hang over the window. It was his sanctuary, his home. It was peaceful. Peaceful until the small black alarm clock on his bedside table begins to screech, alerting him that it is now time to get up for school. A ring glad hand emerges from the mess of bedding, slamming down on top of the alarm clock, bringing its waking tones to a sudden halt. Eddie groans as he turns over in his bed, rubbing his eyes before slowly sitting up on the edge of the bed. Blinking open his big brown eyes, he glances over to the guitar hanging over the mirror and smiles widely, the dimples on his cheeks now prominent.

Standing up from the bed, he begins shuffling over to his jacket that's been tossed over the dresser, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and lighter. Taking one of the smokes into his plump lips, he lights it and tosses the pack and lighter onto the bed. Pulling one of his many Black Sabbath T-shirts from the floor, he pulls it onto his arms, taking the cigarette into his fingers momentarily whilst the shirt tugs over his thick mane and down his body, soon after finding a clean pair of boxers and jeans across the room of questionable clothing and putting them on too. Heading over to the dresser again, he looks at himself in the mirror, grinning at himself, cigarette still perched between his lips. He tussles his hair and combs his fingers through it until he's satisfied with the placement of his bangs and curls, smiling at himself once more, before adding a sprits of cologne from the grey bottle on the dresser top. Throwing on his leather jacket and cut off jean vest, he kisses his fingers and places them onto the body of the guitar, gazing at it with love and adoration. Turning back to his bed, he grabs his smoke bits, backpack and metal lunch tin - which incidentally contains no lunch, before heading out of his room toward the kitchen and living area, grabbing a bag of pretzels and throwing them into his backpack. He picks his keys up from the coffee table and he's out the door, ready for another senior year at Hawkins High.