Their Year (Eddie Munson)

Chapter Three

The more time Marley spent with the group members of the Hellfire Club, the more she found herself enjoying every single minute. Having seen how the group interacted with each other at school, now with her in the mix, she couldn't wait for the campaign later that day. She had already asked for the where and the time, all she needed to do was create a character that suited the campaign's demands and let her aunt and uncle know that she was going out later than night. By the end of lunch, Marley was a little sad that she had to be separated from her newfound friends. Back to where she was at the beginning of lunch.

As much as she didn't want to, she told herself that she had the campaign to look forward to later. That gave her motivation to get up from her seat and make her way towards her next class with her friends walking directly beside her. Though they were going to their own classes. With a small smile on her face, Marley first walked to her locker to get her note books and the writing utensils she needed. Unlocking the little lock, she opened her locker and got out two notebooks, one for English and one for maths, and her pencil case. The moment she had everything she needed, she closed it and locked it, instantly making her way to her maths class.

Still with the small smile on her face, Marley walked to her maths class, ignoring anyone that she walked passed. For the first time in a while, she was happy to have decided to go to school for the day instead of skipping it. To think she had thought of skipping out on the school day. But now, having made some new friends with Dungeons and Dragons as the common ground, today was not a day worth skipping. She entered her maths classroom and sat at her assigned seat, at the very back of the classroom. Just two more classes for the day and she would be free to do what she wanted.

*** (time skip) ***

"Class dismissed," the teacher said. Instantly, Marley got up from her seat and packed away everything she had. Like with the rest of the class, she walked out of the room and made her way off the school grounds. With the campaign later tonight in her mind, she walked at a faster pace than she normally did. Excitement filled her and every step she took closer she took home. At the pace she was walking, Marley made it to her aunt's and uncle's place in no time. Through the front door, she was greeted by the familiar friendly smiles of her aunt and uncle, who sat on the couch in the living room.

"Hey Mar," auntie Justine said, "How was school today?"

"It started off as usual," Marley replied, "But then it got much better at lunch. I made some friends."

"Really?" uncle Brandon asked, enthusiasm in his voice. "What are their names?"

"Yeah really," she answered, the biggest smile on her face, "There's Dustin, Jeff, Mike and Eddie. Eddie was the one that introduced me to the friend group. Which reminds me, they invited me to play their campaign tonight. Is it ok if I go?" Even though Marley was able to make her own decisions of what she could do after school, she still liked to ask her auntie and uncle for permission since they had raised her since she was a little kid. She waited for them to respond, looking between them as the two of them whispered about something.

"Do you feel like you can trust these boys?" auntie Justine asked.

"Yeah," Marley answered. She liked to believe she had a good sense of if someone had bad intentions.

"Well," auntie Justine replied, "If you feel like you can trust these boys, then yes, you can go. What do you say Brandon?"

"I agree," he said, "If you trust these boys, Marley, then yeah you can go. The only thing I will say though is when you go out to hang out with these boys, no doing anything that we would disapprove of."

"There will be none of that," she replied, "It's just a dungeon and dragons game, nothing more, nothing less." With the permission from her auntie and uncle, Marley excitedly ran into her bedroom and looked through the pages upon pages of paper she used to create her dnd characters. The amount she had, she had lost count at five. She remembered uncle Brandon teaching her how to play dungeons and dragons at a young age, maybe around ten or eleven years old. She had been obsessed with the game since then. Now, in her hopefully last year of high school, she and her uncle played every now and then when he wasn't busy with work. Amongst the characters she had created since she was ten or eleven, she tried to think which one would be perfect for the night's campaign, or if she had to create a new one.

She looked through the endless pages of characters she had, none of them in the beginning seeming to be a good fit for the campaign. That was until, she had come across the final page of the stack. The very first character she had created by herself without any help from her uncle. One she had so creatively named 'Marley the Dragonborn'. The perfect character she could use. Placing other papers back in their original spot, she placed her 'Marley the Dragonborn' character in her school bag, prepared for later that night. As much as she wanted to go back to play the campaign this group had come up with, she knew they wouldn't be meeting up yet.

To pass the time, Marley got out some worksheets that some of her teachers had given her to do. While it wasn't going to be marked, she did it anyway because she wanted to pass the time for the campaign. With the pencil from her nightstand, she begun to work on the worksheet for her history class. There were a total four worksheets she could do to pass the time. History, maths, English and science. As much as she didn't want to do them, if they passed the time, then it was what she had to do. Having taken her shoes off, Marley sat down on her bed with a hardcover book and her worksheets, she had officially began her worksheets. Both back and front were filled with five questions related to the topics she and the rest of the class.

Every once in a while, auntie Justine or uncle Brandon would come in and check to see how she was doing, occasionally helping out if there was a question she was confused about. From front to back, Marley had completed her history worksheet and she moved onto the maths worksheet. She had to admit, she wasn't the best at maths. But as bad as she was at maths, she wanted to get the worksheet out of the way. Just needed to stick her mind to it.