You step back and let the morning sun back in between you. As it squeezes its way back through, the reality of your surroundings and the fact that you really needed to get going suck you back into the here and now in a very unceremonious thud. Acutely aware you were just getting infinitely more late, but also because of the total weight of what just happened, all its possible terrible endings, or worse, the reactions of others, you'd stupidly put Eddie in a difficult position now. Oh, stupid, stupid, stupid!

Logic brain had re-entered the ring and was going a few rounds with Emotional brain. You weren't sure who was winning as you couldn't decide whether this should feel bad or good, but it seemed like it was definitely both.

You shake your head as if coming out of a daze. This was honestly potentially more terrifying than when you thought you were gonna have to try to knock him out moments ago in the van. Unsure what to do next, you focus on solving the problem of lateness.

You nervously rub your neck, your eyes move around, not sure where was the safest place is to look right now, but the tarmac and the sky were turning into two fascinating areas, just avoid Eddie's trained sights, like spaceship tractor beams they might just drag you back in.

"Soooo, I'm like pretty late, ha, um...yeah, so...I better-you know....er", you point a few times at the school, clicking your fingers for assistance as if it's going to help you remember the words for the building. Then, taking another step back into a tiny pothole, the surprise of which makes you flail your arms around for balance, you don't get to complete that sentence.

He gracefully approaches and catches your hand, intertwining his fingers with your own, the other at the small of your back to stop you from tumbling entirely to the ground. Forcing himself back into your line of sight, Emotional Brain sucker punches logic, and you are at his mercy.

"Uh-huh, uh-huh", he nods in a devastatingly charming but at the same time teasing way, "you better get to..." he assists with a raised eyebrow and self-assured smirk,

"Class. Yeah. I better get to class," you finish, pleased with yourself, like a child first learning to talk.

"Well, you know that's too bad," he feigns a look of disappointment before his Cheshire cat-like grin emerges, making his eyes sparkle, "because I'm also going that way too. Wait, wait, wait, don't move" he releases you and scampers back to his van making sure it's all locked up, he places a kiss on his hand and donates it to the door handle.

Before you've even had a chance to drop your hands from where they were last, you are scooped back up in a ballroom-type stance and waltzing, albeit poorly, in circles towards the door. His hair is catching in the breeze with every turn. You would like to say or do something, but it's such a bombardment of amusement, weirdness and enjoyment you just don't. It's not like you could get a word in edge-wise anyway.

"So here is what I think, ok, were gonna go in there, get to class, drag ourselves through to lunch. You are gonna come to sit with us today, right? Of course, yep. That makes the most sense. Then more of that old grey matter flexing, and then for the finale, oh the absolute cherry on top, you're gonna come to hellfire club." He beams at you, "Have you played D&D before? Trust me, you are going to love it. Understand I can't play favourites in there though, but you know, some ingenuity in the game could earn you an inspiration die, which can sometimes be the difference between the sweetness of victory and the bitterness of defeat." He is obviously relaying this information for your benefit, but the discussion is entirely a vocalised train of thought, with no room for argument.

"Eddie..."

"But then, of course, who could you play, hmmm, what are you. I have some NPCs for which I've already drawn out the stats, which is great for beginners. Clearly, you could make a spirited fighter, but I have magic users, too, if you'd prefer that. I kinda set the scene, then it's mostly just telling a story together, and a little bit of math, and you know inventory or spell management."

"Eddie, listen I.."

"Then we can, if you want, hang out for a bit after, listen to some of the albums I picked up last week. I don't have to make any drops at the moment, but someone could ask through the day, I guess."

"EDDIE!" You shout, managing to plant your feet still enough for the dance and monologue to pause.

He refocuses on you, squinting with a faint grimace as if expecting something to hurt. "You don't wanna play D&D?" He looks unsure which part of what he said might have been wrong.

"It's not that. I just don't want you suffering because you are hanging around with me, alright. So don't get involved with any of them today. I can deal with it."

Moving away from you, you hear his leather jacket rustling against itself as he gestures his hands between the two of you and back to the van.

"This just happened. It did. I was there. You can't have whatever that was, happen.." Eddie puts one hand on his belt buckle, the other still pointing at the van, "...and then expect me to stand idly by, whilst some assholes of epic proportions try to hurt you. Is that what you are asking of me? Because if it is, that is complete bullshit, ok? I'm not afraid of them."

"I'm not asking the impossible here, man. Just...I don't want another person I care about to suffer because groups of locals hate me. It's payback because I fucked up years ago. That is not your battle, ok? It's not fair to shoulder that"

His hands are on his hips now, and he looks a little annoyed, "Unbelievable", he says to the morning air shaking his head. He looks at the ground and kicks at the floor.

He pauses. Something dawns on him. He looks at you coyly from under his hair, "So you care about me, do you?" He motions back towards you with a funny little walk for a few steps and smiles at the ground, rocking back and forth on his feet.

One finger pierces the air, in a Eureka-type moment, the rest of his fingers then splay out, and he shrugs, "What about a compromise? I will not, I promise..." he clasps his hands together and pulls them towards the centre of his chest "I promise not to draw first blood verbally or physically, and I will not intervene, providing.." his finger juts back into the air as he paces around in a little circle, "they keep their distance from you when I'm around, it's not a crime to defend anyone who is around you and being victimised. You also do not get to draw first blood, because Jesus Christ, sometimes you look like you could" he laughs a little and shakes his head, "If there is away, you just get outta there, and come find me, there is no shame in running......aaaaand you come to hellfire...tonight" he looks at you like he's made you an offer you can't possibly refuse, the deal of the century.

You think for a moment and extend your hand to shake on it, "Deal!"

He smiles broadly and shakes your hand vigorously before booping you on the nose and making his way to hold the door open for you and bows deeply. "After you", he directs you inside.

Stepping into the hallway, you can see black and white, a4 copies of your face grimacing, half covered in slush, peppering the walls, lockers and doors. It feels like the hallway doubles in length, and it will take an eternity to get to class.

Eddie swoops into your right side, looking around at them all with you. He wraps his arms around his torso and reverses into your view. The performance begins. Eddie acts out, placing a monocle in his eye and rips a poster from a locker. Then, in his best British documentation voice says, "The exhibition was haphazardly thrown up by some careless individual" he flicked the hand holding the poster towards the other posters and at anyone paying him any attention.

He looks back at the poster holding it up into the light, walking down the hall "Shamefully, the theme was below average, but the Neanderthals had located something...something groundbreaking...something unique. An oasis of pleasantry in an abyss of stupidity. I am, of course, referring to the model, a beauty for the ages. That alone, dear listeners, was enough for this patron of the arts to thank them. Wholeheartedly. Now you can walk these halls and be surrounded by a goddess for your entire journey."

He turns back and gives you a wink before continuing to his class.

It's hard not to be enchanted and grin stupidly to yourself. It was incredible how he managed to turn something intended to harm into a source of amusement in a matter of seconds.

You take a deep breath of resolve and head into class, "Sorry I'm late," you mutter quietly and hurry to your seat at the back. The teacher eyes you but says nothing. They clearly had seen the hallways too. It was kind of unspoken here, but the Tigers could do pretty much whatever they wanted, and complaints from the teachers that were not the coach or principal soon disappeared into the ether. Sometimes if their parents were wealthy enough or they were the MVP that year, even those complaints disappeared too.

"Loser", masked with a cough, rings out as you open your notepad. It's met with a smattering of giggles. You slow blink at the blank lined paper and think about the deal you'd made with Eddie. We are gonna get through until lunch. It's going to be ok, you can get there. Knowing any reaction you had could potentially get Eddie into trouble was enough to bite your tongue and keep focused on the class at hand.

A few more masked insults, some pointing and knowing glances, shortly followed by laughing either directly at you or turning back into their groups and snidely doing it, happen during the morning. They attempted to trip you up several times, either getting to or from your seat. Only one was successful, thankfully. It turns out the person best at embarrassing yourself was, in fact, yourself. Their attempts were sub-par. You smile to yourself, remembering Eddie laughing at your stumbles. This is another battle for the morning. Not falling into daydreams about your new hero was a tough challenge.

The bell finally rings for lunch. You slowly pack your things away, letting the room empty before you leave. The teacher stops you, "I saw the posters, I took down quite a few, but they kept reappearing. Is everything ok?"

You nod, looking at the ground. "It's fine. I'm already halfway there. Somehow, I've just managed to upset the wrong people". The teacher reaches into their draw, "I hope you don't mind, but I was reading this interesting book, and I thought you might like to take a look."

You take the book from them and read the title "Healing with mind power? Erm thanks. When do you need this back?" They wave you away from a little, "You can keep it. I just thought it might help" You slide the book into your backpack for later, "It might help her poor parents get some closure at least" their tone is a little more pointed that time.

You realise this wasn't meant to help you. It was meant to help the others drowning in the fallout of Connie's disappearance. You felt a tinge of the same rage your felt in the van earlier for a few seconds, but if you could use it to remember something, anything extra, it could be helpful.

You were a bit later to the cafeteria than you wanted, but luckily the Tigers hadn't arrived in full force just yet. There were just a few of them.

You grab a tray and join the queue. You didn't feel especially hungry, but maybe forcing something down might whet your appetite. Reaching for a juice box, you get jostled from the side. You smile to yourself, fully expecting it to be an Eddie-shaped tornado of chaos, comfortably letting Eddie become part of your personal space. On the other hand, you don't want to make it blindingly obvious to the entire school how absolutely smitten you are. You keep your head down and try to resist grinning from ear to ear and looking at him.

That is until you turn the corner and see the entire hellfire club already seated at their table, they seem deep in negotiations of some kind until Eddie screeches, "Shut up", at them and slaps the table, and your stomach sinks.

But if Eddie is over there, who was next to you? You turn your head a little and catch a glimpse of green and white, your stomach churns, and your body recoils immediately.

You begrudgingly assess which of the goon squad this is. It's him. You thoroughly lose your appetite and just begin unloading your tray and try to get out of the queue, only to force back into it by another jock behind you. Your brain is just a space for the word no now. It's all it wants you to hear, over and over again. You gulp and put on the mask, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm just trying to leave, sorry for bumping into you. May I just squeeze past?"

He looms over you, like Frankenstein's Monster, "No, you may fuckin' not", he replies, mimicking your voice.

"Haven't you had your fun for today?" You say, folding your arms. Outwardly you are hoping you are looking intimidating because inside, you were mostly made of jelly right now.

"You don't get to decide that", he sneers and, through gritted teeth, spitefully whispers, "I just wanted to get in first, that way, if you tried to spread anything about me or make up any lies about us. Let's face it, they would be lies because what would someone like me ever see in a killer, a loser like you?"

Like a dumbass movie villain, he revealed his whole mission and motive to you in a monologue. What had you ever seen in this guy?

"So, as you can see, you don't stand a chance, so just deal with what you get dished out and keep quiet. Everyone knows you deserve it" you nod and are just about to agree wholeheartedly, but the following line that comes out of his vicious pie hole is in slow motion.

"I'm sure poor Connie would agree with me, you know, if she were here and not murdered at the bottom of the quarry or something where you left her and conveniently forgot about"

Logic brain shuts the door to its private office and puts the do not disturb sign on the handle before closing the door softly.

All you can hear is your pulse racing, nails are digging into the tray, your lips pursed, and you breathing heavily. You turn to make solid eye contact with your tormentor and glare into his eyes. Your grip tightens around the lip of the tray. You desperately want to decapitate this fool, spinning his empty skull rolling into next week. How dare he even say her name? He invited you to that damn party in the first place, practically begged you, in fact! Even though when you got there, he was nowhere to be seen, but like the naive little idiot you were, you had waited. Waited and not picked up Connie, waited and did not even make an attempt to contact Connie or her parents to tell them plans had changed. Waited longer than 10 fucking minutes. Your grip on the tray grows more substantial. You reposition your grip, ready to take a swing.

"Next", the lunch lady croaks, and the rest of the cafeteria noise comes rushing back into your ears and mind at a violent speed. You release the grip on your tray, eyes welled up with tears of regret, or maybe just from unflinchingly glaring at this bastard for however long it had been. You turn around, squeeze your way past the next non-jocks in the queue, and head over to hellfire's table.

On approach from the head of the table, Eddie notices you and immediately grabs the back of the heads of the two flanking him, forcing them into a huddle. You can hear his frustrated little goblin voice but can't make out what he's saying to them. One of the others moves down a seat to make a space next to Eddie for you. You sit down, and all of them Hi, hello, how are you, long time no see, at you with open arms, and pleasant smiles, as if you'd just walked into a family reunion. It was a little over the top, but it was the best reception you'd had for a long time.

You sit down and offer a small "Hey, it's nice to meet you all" with a little wave. It's met with a union of minor agreeable grumbles but then quickly falls to silence. Eddie fidgets for a moment and suddenly puts his hand on yours, giving it a squeeze. Then, he widens his eyes at the others as if giving them a cue....nothing happens.

With his unoccupied hand, he pinches the bridge of his nose, closes his eyes and speaks to some unknown deity above him. "Why do they test me like this? Why? Fine."

He turns to you and scans your face. He knew all was not well in the shire. Before he could ask, you blurt out, "Allergies, yep, you know, achoo and all that" you pull the same face your dad does when he knowingly tells a lame joke.

Someone across from you replies, "In autumn? I thought-"

Eddie's hand slaps the table, "Yes, allergies, and yes, you must have thought wrong, ok?" He speaks through his teeth at them.

Another patch of silence.

"So your like together now? you and Eddie?" Another tries. It was a bold question, you had to give them that, but from the look on Eddie's face, it was not one of the right questions.

You start to answer, without actually knowing what the answer is yourself but more trying to ease the tension, "Well, I mean...I don't know..." You look back at Eddie for guidance in answering, but he is too busy dragging his hand down his face, utterly exasperated.

"You know what, guys, I pour hours into making the most exciting tales of heroism and intrigue for you every week. Hours and hours. Map making, plotting, creating well-rounded characters, painting tiny little figures and reading tomes of lore. I do that for hellfire, and I never complain. Never"

One of them makes a face, which you interpret as Eddie has definitely complained about this before. Thankfully Eddie hasn't noticed.

"And all I humbly asked of you today was to just be cool for like 20 minutes, max, maybe not even that, 10, 5, something whatever you could manage, and then you know, go on your merry way and turn that nerd level back up to max."

He leans back on his chair, "Well, it doesn't matter now, does it?"

"What's the matter, Freak? Did you make the dragon Lord of your Ring?"

In unison, the group and, to your surprise, you say, "The dragon is in The Hobbit."

Eddie stands up from his chair and stalks around the source of the insult silently for a bit before pulling one of his grotesque monster faces at them.

"Wait, you know the Hobbit and Lord of the rings?" A hellfire member asks. You look confused at them.

"Of course, doesn't everyone? It's a pretty famous work. I thought the animations were a nice addition to the fold."

A smile infects the member questioning you, "Shes a nerd", he says excitedly, and his smile quickly spreads via eye contact between the rest of them. You feel like you've just passed a test you didn't know was coming and smile back and wiggle in your seat with pride.

Eddie returns to his seat and looks around at you all, "Erm...I was gone for like 2 seconds. What did you do to them?" He looks over at you, grabs your hand again, and kisses the back of it like a gentleman of time gone by, "Did you have to uppercut yourself this time to charm them or ...."

Your eyes widen with embarrassment initially, but you smile and roll your eyes and playfully shove him. His laughter booms around the cafeteria. You did good, kid.

"How did you uppercut yourself?" One asks perplexed

You mimic Eddie by steepling your fingers together, taking a mock serious tone, "Well, you see, it's an ancient art form, used to lull your opponent into a false sense of security, so you can infiltrate their base of operations and destroy them from within"

There is a moment of silence, maybe a hint of worry, until Eddie playfully pinches your face like your grandma would, "Oh, she's a funny one, this one", he smiles radiantly at you and the others.

"Shall we vote? All those in favour say aye."

There is a resounding "Aye!" From the entire club

"Keep it down, nerds", a voice from somewhere else yells. Eddie mocks them by using his hand like a puppet, mouthing along with their words.

He then extends a hand for you to shake, which you clasp, "Welcome to Hellfire", he says excitedly.