Chapter Text
Eddie Munson was twirling around your basement in a half-finished Princess Leia costume, cackling like a maniac. You, of course, were mortified, watching through your fingers as he flipped the lopsided hood of the shimmery white cloak over his head, covering his wild curls. He grinned even wider at your embarrassment, and you cursed to yourself as you watched Hawkins High’s resident freak parade past you, imitating blaster fire, wearing your deepest, darkest secret.
“It's all Miss Duffer’s fault..” you thought to yourself ruefully, replaying the ill-fated week that led up to this frankly horrifying moment of dorkiness in your basement.
A week ago, you were just a cheerleader starting her senior year at Hawkins High. Your best friend, Chrissy, picked you up from your house on Maple Street on a beautiful September morning, and you spent the drive to school chatting about the summer with the windows rolled down. Chrissy, with her beautiful hair and disarming smile, had been your best friend since middle school. It was hard to believe that almost 8 years had passed since you were kids making up silly cheer routines in your backyard. Chrissy would come up with the dance moves, and you would come up with ridiculous outfits to wear while you performed for your parents. You brought this up to Chrissy as she pulled into the school parking lot and she laughed a genuine laugh, eyes sparkling. She put the car in park and gave you a side-hug from the driver's seat, declaring, “We’re going to have the best year ever!”
In the parking lot before the bell rang for first period, you shared a bottle of coke with your boyfriend Andy, who talked your ear off about how this was going to be his year as a star basketball player. You were only half-listening as a van careened into the parking lot, screeching to a halt a few spaces down from you and your friends. Andy kept on talking about his summer workout routine, but you noticed that Chrissy’s boyfriend Jason had stood up fully from where he had been leaning on the bumper. You followed his eyes towards the van, settling on the imposing young man gracelessly jumping down from the driver’s seat. Jason eyed him up and down and suddenly looked like he had tasted something foul. The metalhead didn’t seem to notice, sauntering past the group in his ripped jeans and patched denim vest. He put a cigarette to his mouth and nodded in your group’s direction, saluting in mock-appreciation with his other hand.
“Happy first day of school, Oh captain my captain!” He chided, dropping his salute to light the cigarette. Jason, the proverbial captain of the basketball team, grimaced.
“Can it, freak, you’re stinking up the place.” Jason spat back, causing the metalhead to chuckle as he kept on walking away, curly mullet blowing in the light breeze. You turned to Andy, a bit confused.
“Was that Eddie Munson? I thought he graduated?” you asked between sips of pop.
“A screw-up nerd like that? He’ll be lucky if he isn’t in jail by the end of the school year, let alone walking across the stage with a diploma.” Andy scoffed, fixing his hair in Chrissy’s rearview mirror.
Chrissy chimed in, “He was just making a joke you guys, I don’t see why you have to be so mean to him.” Jason immediately wheeled to face her, face full of indignation and something else you couldn’t quite decipher.
“Chris, guys like that make a mockery of good, righteous people like us. If you ask me, he’s everything that's wrong with the world.”
It looked like Chrissy was about to respond, her eyes watery, but the bell rang and she just shook her head, gathering her bag and walking towards the building. Jason sighed and followed after her, draping a protective arm around her shoulders. Andy laced his hand through yours and you made your way inside. He dropped you off at your first period history class with a quick kiss on your cheek and a promise to meet up for lunch. You grinned and found a desk to sit at, trying to ignore the faint scent of cigarette smoke and leather wafting off the mane of curly hair two seats in front of you.
The first half of the day passed by quickly in a blur of syllabi and introductions, and it was lunch before you knew it. After grabbing your lunch from your locker, you started to weave your way through the full hallways towards the cafeteria. Surprisingly, you bumped into Andy and Jason walking in the opposite direction.
“Sorry babe, I forgot we had to do a bunch of set-up in the gym for basketball tryouts after school. You know, we need to have a really strong team this year.” Andy explained, only looking a little apologetic. You nodded your understanding, walking away as you tried to bite back your disappointment. You hoped it hadn’t shown on your face. The truth was, you had hardly seen Andy all summer. He always said he was busy with working out, or college tours, or practicing with Jason and the boys. You knew how important it was for him to get noticed by college recruiters, but still. He was so different from the goofy guy who barely had the nerve to ask you out at prom last year.
“Oh well” you thought to yourself, “at least I have Chrissy.”
You spotted your friend’s dirty-blonde ponytail at a lunch table near the middle of the cafeteria. As you approached to sit down, several more perky, pretty faces turned to smile a greeting. You fell into easy conversation with your fellow cheerleaders about how their summers had been and started to forget about Andy bailing on you. A new concern formed in your mind, however, while you were chatting with Marcia about collegiate cheerleading recruiters. Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed Anne-Marie giving you a smug look over Marcia’s shoulder. Anne-Marie was a sophomore with the kind of blonde, voluminous perm most teen girls would die for. Her striking brown eyes kept looking you up and down, as if she were sizing you up. You coughed and tried to turn your attention back to Marcia, who was asking where the boys were. You were about to answer when Anne-Marie let out a short, haughty laugh and stood, gathering her things.
“They’re getting ready for basketball tryouts, of course! I actually told them I would bring them some lunch and give them some moral support. Anything for the tigers!” Anne-Marie explained with a glowing, movie-star smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. Marcia murmured her approval and Anne-Marie practically skipped away, but not before giving you a satisfied smile. Thoroughly confused, you gave Chrissy a look. Thankfully, Chrissy seemed to also sense something was off and looked at Anne-Marie’s retreating back suspiciously. Then, she shrugged and took a long sip of her pop. You would ask her more about what she thought later, you decided silently.
The bell rang and you parted ways with most of the cheer squad, making your way to the home economics classroom. You were relieved and excited when you realized Chrissy was also in this class with you. Home economics, taught by the eccentric Miss Duffer, was known for group projects, and you felt more comfortable knowing you could work with Chrissy. The classroom had about a dozen lab-style tables with two seats each; you took a seat at one near the middle of the room and Chrissy grabbed the chair next to you. The tables had a variety of sewing materials scattered across them, and there was a row of sewing machines lined up on a table near the windowsill. You found yourself gazing at the machines affectionately, and Chrissy gave you a knowing look. You giggled and remembered all the haphazard costumes you would make together on your mother’s electric sewing machine in the corner of your basement. A wave of comfort washed over you; if this unit was about sewing, maybe you could get through it without much embarrassment.
That is, unless you did too good of a job, you realized with a bit of a start. It was sweet that Chrissy remembered all the silly outfits you would make when you were 11, but she didn’t know about your more recent projects. If she, or worse, the general student body, ever found out…
You shook your head to get the thought out of your mind. “I’ll do just well enough to get a B in the class” you decided resolutely. The classroom had filled up since you had been lost in thought, so you scanned over the room out of curiosity. The class was filled with other seniors from all different cliques, and everyone seemed to be sitting with someone they knew already. You even noticed Eddie again towards the back of the room sitting with a guy from their gaming club, whatever it was called. You must have been turned around in your seat just a moment too long, because Eddie caught your eye and quirked an amused eyebrow at you. Trying to disguise your gasp as a sneeze, you turned back around just as Miss Duffer walked in. She waved her hands to get the class’s attention, and then dove into her introduction. You zoned out a bit, still a bit distracted from lunch, so you only caught bits and pieces of what the various units would be. You started to pay more attention when she started describing the first project of the semester.
“As seniors, I’m sure it is very important to all of you to find a way to leave your mark on this school. Some of you have already done so through sport, academics, shenanigans…”, her eyes darted over the boys at the back table when she said that bit, “but I want to give all of you an opportunity to leave a mark through the practical arts!” she said with conviction, as if she genuinely believed every teenager in the room wanted to be remembered by an arts and crafts project.
“So, this year I am assigning two group projects, one due before winter break and the next due right before graduation. I’ll leave the second one as a surprise, but I won’t leave you all in suspense about the first one!” Miss Duffer was really getting into it now. “You will be working in pairs to make… quilts!!” She was practically vibrating with excitement, and did not seem to notice that no one else in class shared her enthusiasm. A quick glance around the room revealed that everyone looked mildly horrified. This horror only grew as Miss Duffer continued.
“To make sure that each and every quilt reveals a unique and diverse perspective on Hawkins, I will be picking the groups randomly. Everyone please take out a scrap of paper and write your name on it, then bring it up here and place it in this jar.”
It was as if someone had pulled all the air from the room as everyone shuffled to the front of the room and placed their names in the jar. You looked at Chrissy in shock, but she just gave a soft smile and whispered, “Maybe we’ll get lucky?”
Once everyone’s name was in the jar, Miss Duffer began dramatically reaching in and pulling them out, one by one as if she were reading the million dollar lottery numbers. Some people looked relieved by their partners, while others looked indifferent. Chrissy ended up partnered with some girl named Robin, who you vaguely recognized from the video store a few miles from your house. Your heart sank knowing that now you would be with a random person. The amount of names in the jar dwindled and dwindled until there were only a few left. Finally, Miss Duffer called your name, followed by…
“Who on earth wrote the ‘King of Metalheads and Nerds’ on their paper?” Miss Duffer demanded. You couldn’t even manage a groan as all eyes in the room turned towards the last table in the back, where Eddie Munson sat staring at you, smiling like an absolute idiot.