After working at familyVideo for the day, and rejecting Dustin's attempt at getting them to play D&D with his Hellfire Club that night, Beverly and Steve drove to the high school to watch the basketball game.

Lucas was on the team and Robin was in the marching band, so of course they wanted to come and support their friends.

Beverly stepped out of the car before she was spooked by someone behind her, causing her to shriek. People gave her weird looks before she spun around, meeting eyes with none other than Alicia Sinclair.

"ALLI!" Beverly squealed, engulfing the girl in a gigantic hug since she hadn't seen her since Winter Break.

"BEV!" Alicia shouted back, allowing the girl to squeeze her. "I missed you!"

"I missed you, too!"

Someone then cleared their throat behind the Crawford girl, making Beverly let go of Alicia and turn around to meet eyes with...Carmen Flores?!

"C-Carmen?" Beverly spluttered out, not expecting Carmen to be there since she had told the girl she wouldn't be able to make it with the amount of work she had.

"Surprise!" Carmen said happily, holding her hands out. Beverly squealed again and practically jumped onto her best friend, hugging her to death.

"I thought you said you weren't gonna make it!" Beverly pointed out as she pulled away, looking in between her two best friends.

"Well...I lied!" Carmen revealed and Beverly's mouth dropped. "I was able to finish my work, since, you know, I'm smart. But I wanted to surprise you so I called up Alicia and she liked the idea. And, I mean, how else was Alicia supposed to get here?"

Beverly let out a shocked laugh at the information, but she definitely wasn't complaining. She missed seeing her best friends everyday. "Wait, so are you guys gonna stay for the whole Spring Break week?"

"That's the plan," Alicia answered, grinning from ear to ear.

"I literally love you guys," Beverly breathed out, slinging her arms around both the girls' shoulders.

"Hey! Did you forget about me or something?" Steve called out, who had been watching the whole ordeal from the other side of the car. He had also seemed to be the only one who noticed Erica Sinclair climb out of Carmen's car, going over towards the high school.

"You already know I love you, Steve," Beverly told him, giving him a look.

"But do I really know that?" Steve teased, wanting some affection from his girlfriend. Beverly laughed, but a hint of blush made its way up to her cheeks even though she was used to Steve's choice of words lately.

"Ugh, you guys are the cutest," Carmen commented as the girls made their way over towards the high school, joined by Steve. "I wish I was here more to see you two."

"Trust me. You'd probably get sick of us quickly," Beverly assured her, letting go of her friends and going over towards her boyfriend, who wrapped his arm around her waist.

Steve let out a low whistle. "Oh, yeah. Robin sure has," he said.

Alicia's stomach did a flip at Robin's name. "Is...Robin here, yet?" she inquired about, earning a look from the two girls. "You know, 'cause she's in band."

"Oh, yeah, she had to be here early to set up and get some extra practice in. I'm sure you'll see her. And hear her," Steve told her and Alicia nodded, grinning lightly. "You should definitely talk to her, too," he added, trying to help Robin out.

"Yeah, it's not like they've been talking on the phone almost every day," Beverly voiced teasingly, giving Alicia a knowing look.

Carmen covered her giggle, not wanting Steve to see. Alicia let out a scoff, trying to play it cool. "B-Because we're friends. Ever since last summer, we've gotten close because of, well, shared trauma to say the least."

"Right," Beverly and Carmen both drawled at the same time, not buying it whatsoever.

"Am I missing something?" Steve questioned as he looked at all the three girls. "Because I feel like I'm missing something."

"Nothing!" they all chirped and Steve narrowed his eyes before they all walked into the gym, hearing the sounds of instruments and people cheering.

"Do you guys wanna sit with us?" Beverly asked her best friends before they headed into the gym where the game would be occurring.

"We'll let you be alone with your boyfriend," Carmen told her, raising a brow. "We'll find our own seats. Preferably close to a certain someone."

"Oh, shut up," Alicia shoved her friend and Beverly laughed, letting Steve take her into the gym since his arm was still wrapped around her waist.

"Oh, hey, Nance," Beverly greeted since Nancy was situated near the entrance of the gym with two other  other people.

"Hey, Bev!" Nancy replied before she gave Steve a little wave, to which he replied with a small nod.

"Is Chris here?" she asked since Beverly felt like she hadn't seen him in ages. The two had been on better terms after last summer, but since he was still in high school, Beverly never really got to see him unless he came into familyVideo.

"I don't think so. I think he's supposed to have a D&D campaign or whatever with Mike," Nancy told her.

Beverly looked at Steve, who was wearing the same confused look on his face. "Chris is in the Hellfire Club?" Beverly questioned, not knowing that Chris had continued playing the game. She just thought he was being nice by asking Mike to teach him to play.

"Yeah, he's, like, really into it now. I've never seen him and Mike actually bond before," Nancy responded with a shrug. "But, uh, if you don't mind, I actually have to get back to this..." she trailed off, pointing to the clipboard in her hands.

"Oh, of course! I'll see you later," Beverly said before she and Steve continued walking into the gym. "That's so weird, I didn't think Chris would be into that sorta thing."

"Well, he did quit basketball so I guess he had to fill that with something else," Steve pointed out with a shrug. "But I think I do remember Dustin mentioning that he joined the club to me a few times maybe, along with his comments about that Munson guy." Steve rolled his eyes at the thought of Eddie, who had been stealing his thunder with Dustin lately.

"Someone's jealousss," Beverly drawled, poking Steve in the arm a bit.

"Hey, I'm not jealous! I just don't think Eddie Munson is a good influence on the kid, that's all," Steve reasoned.

"And you are?" Beverly argued and Steve gave her a look. "Kidding, kidding." She then looked around the gym, spotting Lucas and giving him a wave, before she saw Chrissy Cunningham, her successor. Beverly gave her an excited wave and Chrissy gave her a large smile back since she couldn't interrupt the routine by waving back.

I taught her well, Beverly thought proudly. She then looked back at Steve. "Does it bother you that we might win a championship right after you graduated?" Beverly teased him, raising her eyebrows.

He scoffed at her. "Well, does it bother you that you won't be the captain of the cheer squad that might be cheering on the winning basketball team?" he shot back and Beverly's mouth dropped at the comeback.

"Touché," she replied before she gave him a smile, finding them some seats.

Carmen practically pushed herself and Alicia into some seats at the end of the row since Robin was across from them on their rights. Alicia quietly protested against it until Robin gave her a silent greeting with her eyes, making Alicia just want to sit there forever.

"Everyone now please rise for our national anthem," the principal spoke into the microphone, making everyone get up from their seats. "Singing for us to tonight, we have a very special guest. All the way from Nashville, our very own...Tammy Thompson!" he announced and everyone began to clap.

Beverly and Steve slowly looked at one another, their eyes widening at the same time before they looked at Robin, who was already looking at them in surprise.

Tammy made her way over to the microphone, wearing some ridiculous outfit accompanied by a lot of makeup and a lot of hairspray. She then grabbed the mic, getting ready to sing into it once everyone had quieted down.

She then started to sing extremely off key, making Beverly and Steve share a glance. They then looked over at Robin, who had a confused look on her face. "Told you," Steve whispered, "Muppet." Beverly held a hand over her mouth, trying not laugh.

"Okay, she does sound like a Muppet," Robin replied back quietly, even though the two had to resort to reading her lips.

Alicia, however, heard Robin say that since standing up made them be a little bit closer. She let out a soft laugh and said, "Oh, my God, you're right. She sounds like — like Kermit, or something." Alicia glanced over at her, sending her a humorous smile. It was so much more surreal seeing Robin in person again ever since winter and hearing her voice, rather than just listening to it over the phone. It felt like Alicia was crushing on her for the first time all over again.

"I was thinking it was more like Miss Piggy," Robin replied back and Alicia quickly covered her mouth, blocking her snort. "I used to think she sounded good 'cause I had this massive cru—" Robin quickly cleared her throat, stopping her word vomit from going any further.

"S-Sorry?" Alicia forced out, not sure if she was about to hear that correctly.

"Um, we — we took a — a massively hard class together. We were — we were, uh, in Mrs. Click's class together. Yeah," Robin quickly explained herself and Alicia nodded slowly. I must have been imagining things, the Sinclair girl thought to herself. "Uh, sorry, were you asking me a question?"

Alicia shook her head. "N-No," she stuttered before she looked forward, wanting to stop her stomach from doing backflips at just the sight of Robin.

"Oh, okay."

"First in person conversation since winter completed," Carmen whispered in Alicia's ear so Robin couldn't hear. Alicia nudged the girl, her lips pursing together.

"Wow. She sounds amazing, doesn't she?" a random girl beside Steve said, seeming to be trying to flirt with him by her eye contact and smile.

Beverly leaned forward, making herself visible to the girl. "Oh, yeah, utterly amazing," she sarcastically agreed and the girl narrowed her eyes at her before she turned back forward, puckering her lips distastefully.

Steve looked at her and gave a look — since he didn't pick up on the girl trying to flirt — to which Beverly returned since they had been thinking the same thing: Damn, she sucks.

With the Hellfire Club at the same time the game was happening, Mike and Dustin introduced Erica to Eddie as their sub for Lucas.

"Absolutely not," Eddie said with a fake smile while he sat down in the Dungeon Master's seat.

"You asked for a sub. We delivered," Dustin told him, gesturing over to Erica.

"This is Hellfire Club. Not Babysitting Club," Eddie replied.

"Yeah, I did enough babysitting last year," Chris muttered under his breath, not wanting to be scrutinized by Eddie for Mike's stupid decision.

"I'm eleven, you long-haired freak," Erica spoke up.

"My, my, the child speaks," Eddie drawled and the other members chuckled. He then abruptly got up from his seat and asked, "So, what's your name, child?"

"Erica Sinclair," she answered as the two went over to each other, keeping eye contact.

Eddie laughed. "So this is Sinclair's other infamous sister."

Erica rolled her eyes and looked over at Mike and Dustin. "He's sharp," she commented, and Gareth and Jeff laughed. Eddie shot them a look and Chris gave Gareth a quick nudge, making the both of them stop laughing immediately.

"What's your class and level?" Eddie questioned Erica. "Level 1 dwarf?" he insulted and the Hellfire Club bursted out laughing, apart from Chris, Mike, and Dustin who know was Erica was capable of.

"My name is Lady Applejack. And I'm a chaotic good half-elf rogue, level 14. And I will sneak behind any monster you throw my way and stab them in the back with my poison-soaked kukri. And I'll smile as I watch them die a slow, agonizing death. So, we gonna do this, or we gonna keep chitchatting like this is your mommy's book club?" Erica went on, making everyone stare at her in disbelief, including Eddie Munson himself.

"Oh, shit," Chris breathed out, hoping Eddie wouldn't kick them all out for allowing Erica to disrespect him like that.

But when Eddie started to smile, Chris forgot about all of his worries and watched Eddie extend his hand toward the eleven-year-old. "Welcome to Hellfire."

She looked down at his hand and took it, shaking it, before Eddie began to bark out instructions for the campaign.

As the Hellfire Club played D&D, the crowd watched the Hawkins basketball team play against the opposing team. It seemed to be a pretty close game, with the opposing team in the lead, before Lucas was brought into the game, making Alicia, along with the others, cheer him on happily.

"Time-out! Time-out!" Jason shouted at the same time as Kevin did during the campaign.

The club quickly circled together, trying to discuss what to do since they were losing against Vecna like the Hawkins basketball team was losing against the other team.

"Guys, I hate to say this, but we've got to flee," Gareth told them all.

"I concur."

"Didn't we just agree 'to the death'?" Erica pointed out.

"That wasn't literal," Gareth said with wide eyes.

"Vecna just decimated us. We can't kill him with two players," Jeff spoke up.

"You too? He only has 15 hit points left. Don't be pussies," Dustin seethed.

"Pussies? Really? 'Cause we're not delusional?" Gareth argued.

"Delusional? How about not cowards?" Erica replied.

"There's nothing wrong with being a coward when we're saving ourselves," Chris said breathlessly, shaking his head.

"Well, then maybe you should change your name from 'Chris the Cryptic' to 'Chris the Coward'!" Erica hissed and Chris glared at her.

"Hey!" Eddie called out, making them get out of their huddle and look over at him. "If I may interject, gentlemen, Lady Applejack. Whilst I respect the passion, you'd be wise to take Gareth the Great and Chris the Cryptic's," Chris gave Erica a smug look, "concern to heart. There is no shame in running. Don't try to be heroes. Not today, 'kay?" Chris nodded, agreeing with his statement as he looked back with the others.

Dustin held up a finger. "One sec." They then returned back to their huddle. "What do you think, Mike?"

"How many hit points do you and Applejack have left?" Mike questioned.

"Twelve," Dustin and Erica both answered before Mike began to think of a way to defeat Vecna as the basketball team thought of a way to counterattack the other team.

After the club and basketball team finished discussing, both games were back on. Jason quickly shot the ball just as Dustin rolled the twenty-sided die...the both of them missing.

"That's...a...miss!" Eddie shouted as he waved his hair around, making the Hellfire Club yell as the crowd in the gym screamed.

Lucas was then able to grab ahold of the ball that bounced away, turning on his heel to face the basket with only three seconds left, the score 69-68.

Lucas shot the ball at the same time as Erica rolled the die, everyone watching on the edge of their seats in both parts of the school.

The die landed on the twenty just as Lucas's ball went through the basket, making the Hawkins side of the gym cheer loudly.

"Crit hit!" Erica exclaimed as the Hellfire Club shouted happily at their win against Vecna.

"YES, LUCAS!" Alicia cheered her brother on, clapping happily since she was aware her brother hadn't been playing that much the whole season.

Beverly and Steve grabbed each other and jumped up and down excitedly, and proudly, at Lucas being able to win the game, watching as the basketball team and cheerleaders ran over to Lucas to lift him up.

✦ ✧ ✦

After the gym had finally settled down a bit from Hawkins' win, everyone began to leave the school to go and celebrate in whatever way they wanted to.

Alicia hugged Lucas, embarrassing him in front of his new basketball buddies, which were chanting about going to a party; they had also recognized Alicia and Carmen since most were only a year younger. Alicia quickly told her brother to be careful and not to drink anything that he didn't know what it was before Carmen dragged her away, not wanting her to ruin Lucas's night.

"Car — What, come on?! I want to make sure he's safe!" Alicia told the girl as she dragged her away.

"It's Lucas, he's fine. He's smart, you know that," Carmen assured the girl. "And I have to drive you and Erica home anyway, so let's find her."

"Yeah, yeah, you're right." Alicia looked around to see Erica and the Hellfire Club exiting out from another set of the doors, all talking cheerfully. "Oh, I see them over there."

The girls walked over, passing Beverly and Steve and giving them a quick farewell by saying to them that they'll do something to catch up tomorrow. Beverly had also found Chrissy and talked to her a bit with Steve before they had to part ways.

"Erica. Hey, Erica!" Alicia called out since Erica was busy talking to all the boys.

Her younger sister looked over at her. "Oh, hey. How was the game?" Erica asked her, even though she wasn't actually interested.

Alicia's eyes scanned over everyone, seeing Mike and Dustin. Her smile faltered slightly at that since she would have hoped Lucas's friends watched him play, but she quickly ignored the thought. "It was great. Lucas shot the winning ball."

"He played?" Erica queried in shock and Alicia nodded, and Erica's eyes widened slightly. Even though she acted uninterested in Lucas's life most of the time, she was sort of happy to hear that her brother was able to prove himself.

Carmen looked over at all the boys, looking at all their matching Hellfire Club shirts before she noticed Chris, who was dawning some long hair she hadn't seen before. Unlike Alicia, she wasn't able to visit during winter, so she didn't get to the see the length grow. "Christopher Wheeler, is that you?"

"Uh, yeah, Carmen, it's me," he replied, giving the girl a look since he never got along with Beverly's friends after they had broken up.

"Oh, I didn't recognize you with that hair," she told him and he rolled his eyes. "Since when did you play D&D?" Carmen asked the boy, who she noticed was next to another long haired guy that was noticeably attractive.

"Since the end of the summer. Kind of after you left," he told her and she hummed.

Her eyes then trailed over to the other long haired boy, who seemed to already be looking over at her curiously. "And who might you be?" she said to the boy, tilting her head to the side as she softly bit her lower lip.

Chris narrowed his eyes, knowing Carmen's flirting techniques by now. "He's Eddie Munson," Chris introduced for Eddie.

"I was talking to Ed — Hey, wait, Eddie Munson? Oh, my God, I didn't even recognize you with the bangs and the longer hair," she said, remembering him to be in her grade for one year.

Eddie let out kind of a shocked laugh. "You remember me?" he replied since he didn't think Carmen Flores, a cheerleader and one of the most popular girls in school before she graduated, would know who he was.

"Of course. I had to listen to Alicia over here complain about you all of junior year when you two were lab partners," Carmen told him, gesturing over to Alicia who was busy conversing with her sister, Dustin, and Mike.

Eddie looked over at Alicia, remembering that year. "She would complain about me?" he asked and Carmen nodded. "Well, I can't blame her, I was a bad partner."

"Oh, I'm sure you weren't that bad. Alicia can just be dramatic when it comes to schoolwork sometimes, it's what she does," Carmen assured him and Chris looked between the two, his eyes still narrowed. "What are you doing hanging around these kids?"

"Oh, well...I got held back twice. Failed two years in a row. I mean, that's why I was in Alicia's junior year class as a senior," he explained and her eyebrows shot up. "Yeah, I know. Twenty-years-old in high school, how embarrassing. I bet you're off, I don't know, becoming a doctor or something."

"I am, actually," she confirmed and his mouth parted slightly. "Yeah."

"O-Oh, wow, kinda on the nose there, yeah. Well, that's great. Great for you, obviously."

She hummed in agreement. "Well, maybe you can make a career out of playing the guitar. You still play, right? Corroded Coffin was really good in middle school, I can only imagine how it is now."

Eddie gave her a dumbfounded look, not expecting her to remember that exact piece of information about him. "Yeah, uh, how'd you remember that? We never talked in, like, middle school or — or high school either," he stammered since he was completely in shock. He wasn't usually like this, but Carmen just had that alluring charm that seemed to make all the boys nervous.

"It's kind of hard to forget about things that were good," Carmen replied, tilting her head yet again. "But you do still play, right?"

"Uh, yeah. We have gigs at The Hideout on Tuesdays. You — you should come stop by this Tuesday. You know, before you have to go back to col—"

"Oh, you know what? Carmen is pretty busy with stuff, probably with, like, Alicia and Beverly and all of them, I don't know if she could make it," Chris quickly cut Eddie off, wanting an end to the conversation immediately.

Carmen let out a forced laugh, trying to stop herself from glaring at the Wheeler boy. "Uh, no, I don't have anything planned on Tuesday right now," she said, looking back at Eddie.

"But Alicia was just telling me she had something in mind on Tuesday. Right, Alicia?" Chris said to Alicia, who wasn't even paying attention to the conversation before Chris had said her name directly to her.

"Uh, what?" Alicia said in confusion, furrowing her brows.

"Haha, yeah, um, but Eddie, don't you have that, uh, you know...thing to do?" Chris said to him, trying to remind him of the drug deal he had.

Eddie seemed to forget what he was referring to for a second before he remembered he told Chrissy he would drive her to his trailer to get her the drugs she wanted. "Oh, shit, yeah, you're right," Eddie breathed out and Chris rapidly nodded, wanting to get the hell out of there. "Sorry everyone, but I got to get back to my castle." He then looked at Carmen, who was pursing her lips at Chris before she made eye contact with the Munson boy. "I'll see you around."

"Yeah," Carmen said with a smile before Eddie turned around, leaving them all. She then turned towards Chris, seething. "What the hell, Chris? Are you trying to get punched out? You know, I have some unresolved anger from two years ago from when you vomited on me!"

The Hellfire Club all sent each other looks before they bursted out laughing, making Chris turn red out of embarrassment. But he was glad Eddie had already left so he couldn't hear the Flores girl say that.

"Hey, okay, I-I was drunk and I don't even remember that happening so..." Chris trailed off to try and play it cool, and Carmen rolled her eyes. "But I was trying to help you out, believe it or not."

"Help me out? What?" Carmen said, giving him a look.

"I know what you were trying to do, okay? And I was saving yourself from the embarrassment of getting rejected," Chris explained and Carmen's eyes danced around to everyone listening, although she wasn't embarrassed by it. She just didn't want them to go back and tell Eddie to try and embarrass her. "You're not his type. By a long shot."

Carmen let out a sardonic laugh. "I'm everyone's type," she responded before she leaned in close to Chris's face, making his brows knit together. "Even you, Wheeler." Mike grimaced as he watched that interaction, giving Dustin a look as the Henderson boy's raised.

Chris blinked at that, not used to be so close with the girl. He couldn't deny that she attractive and that the perfume she was wearing smelled amazing — but he had to stop falling for every person that gave him attention; it was becoming a problem. "Okay, yeah, you're gross. Come on, guys, let's go," Chris told his friends, backing away from Carmen and leaving the girls, along with Erica.

Carmen rolled her eyes, "Asshole."

"You were trying to flirt with Eddie? Seriously?" Alicia asked her friend, giving her a look as they began to walk back to the car.

"Damn, you lost a lot of my respect," Erica commented, arching a brow.

"Erica!" Alicia chastised before she thought about Erica's words for a moment. "Actually, no, wait, she's got a point."

"I always speak the facts."

Carmen groaned. "Remember how I said he would be hot if he grew out his hair? Well...he did, in fact, grow out his hair," she said and Alicia rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, so what if he's twenty-years-old in high school and plays D&D with a bunch of teens? It's not like I'm actually gonna date him, I'm just looking for another hookup since most of the guys in my classes are all too nerdy and weird."

Alicia sighed. "Yeah, okay, whatever, do what you want. No judgment."

"Thank you."

authors note
i always like the normal moments
in the show before everything turns
to shit LMAO everything is so chill
and nice. also, i published an eddie
munson fic so go check that out on
my profile if any of u are interested!
(i also just realized how long this was
and im so sorry)