WILDFIRE ↝ E. MUNSON [1]

[38]

"What are you writing?" Eddie asked, craning his neck in an attempt to see Lily's notebook, which she kept hidden behind a book wrapped in a makeshift brown paper book cover as she leaned away from him, keeping it shielded from his view.

"Just working on my final essay for Click's class." she lied swiftly, pointing to where she'd written 'Honors History' on the book cover for show, to avert Eddie's prying eyes.

"Oh, cool," he said, leaning his head back on his pillow, focusing on the worn copy of The Fellowship of the Ring that rested in his lap as the two fell back into a comfortable silence, disrupted only by the scratch of Lily's pencil against the paper, or Eddie turning a page in his book.

The scratching of pencil against paper continued on the page as the hours went on, and eventually the next couple of days, longer than any essay would feasibly take to be written, though every time Eddie asked, her answer remained the same: she was simply writing her essay about the history of the United States Constitution. Each time, she was met with a glance that grew more and more disbelieving, but he simply shrugged, turning back to his book. Eddie wasn't aware of the world going on on the other side of the book's binding, or the way she glanced up every so often to make sure he didn't see the words on the notebook pages.

When she finally walked into the hospital room that morning, the chairs and tables still placed on the other side of the room to mimic the Hellfire Club's lunch table, she donned a brand new club shirt, the stark white replacing the grime and blood stains of her tattered old one. When Eddie glanced up at her, he studied the new shirt with an approving smile before his gaze moved to the backpack slung around her shoulders, causing him to sigh.

"Let me guess," he said, "More work on your essay for Click's class?"

"Not quite," she said, trying to hide her smile, though failing greatly. "Now that you've been officially cleared by the town, I wanted to do something to celebrate. So I called in a few friends..." she trailed off as the others began to file into the room one by one.

In came the members of the Hellfire Club, all wearing their club shirts as they filed into the room, including Erica, who sported a brand new one, as well as Steve, who followed Cameron inside, with Will not far behind. Everybody carried a notebook and pen with them, as well as their own bags of dice, along with cans of Mountain Dew tucked under their arms.

"Gareth the Great here to call this meeting of the Hellfire Club to order," Gareth announced proudly, beaming in Eddie's direction.

"What's all this?" Eddie asked, smiling as he set the book on the table next to his bed, reaching for his crutches to pull himself into a standing position.

"We're celebrating," Lily said as Eddie made his way over to their table, but stopped him short just before his usual spot at the head of the table. "Sorry babe, that's the dungeon master's chair. You know the rules."

"Yeah," he said, furrowing his eyebrows together. "That's me, remember?"

"Not today it's not," she insisted, giving him a smug smile as she began to unpack her backpack, including the notebook she'd been writing in and the book still covered with the brown paper bag.

"Yes it is," he said. "I don't even have a character sheet to play with, I'm always DM."

"You know, I thought you might say that." she said, reaching for the notebook and taking out a piece of paper tucked neatly inside before passing him a sheet for a Fighter class, the character already filled out and ready to go. "Meet Eddie the Hero." she said, a proud smile on her face as she handed it to him.

Eddie grinned as he looked the sheet over, his eyes beginning to glass up at the term hero before quickly blinking them away and looking back at Lily. "Shit, Lily Mayfield the DM. Let's see what you've got," he said proudly, sitting down in the chair next to hers as she took his usual seat at the end of the table, putting up her screen and finally uncovering the book, the title now reading Dungeons and Dragons: White Plume Mountain.