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A few months ago, a girl showed up on your aunt's doorstep looking for your mom, claiming to be your sister. You knew your aunt had a lot of responsibilities and it was hard for her to take care of her sister, nephew, and herself all at the same time, so you weren't surprised when she suggested you should go live with your alleged younger sister and her “dad”.
Hopper was nice enough, and even though you had no idea you had a little sister until a few months ago, you loved getting to know her. Your aunt had called her Jane but everyone calls her El, short for eleven (referencing the tattoo on her arm). You thought it was cool she had a tattoo and unfair you couldn't get one, but hopper says when you're 18, if you pay for it, he’ll take you to get a tattoo.
One thing about moving to a new place is you also have to move schools, new school means new people, and new people are scary. What if they don't like the way you dress or act? So you decided it was time for a change. New school, new you. Well, you weren’t changing yourself more as you were changing how you expressed yourself. You used to try to fit in but it only got you bullied. You decided it was time for a change, time to stop giving a shit about what other people thought because it was just so exhausting and something you didn't have time for.
Hopping off your skateboard, you pulled a folded piece of paper out of your right pocket to look for where you were supposed to be, when someone swiped the bandana from your left pocket. “HEY-”
“Gray,” he said with a shit-eating grin on his face. “Haven’t seen that one in Hawkins yet. Eddie” he stated, holding out one hand, hiding the bandana behind his back in the other. “Munson."
You took his hand, nervous. He knows. First day of school and you're gonna get outed to the whole damn town. You can already hear it. “y/n ‘the freak’ l/n”
“Y/n,” you took his hand.
“An honor.” That smile never left his face. “You new here?”
“Uh, yeah. Do you know where-” you look down at your schedule, "room 235 is?”
He stands at your side to look at your schedule with you, breathing down your neck.
“ Math first thing in the morning? Poor thing, it's the second to last class on your left down that hall.”
“Alright, thanks… Munson?”
“Eddie, please. See you 3rd period, pretty boy”
He winks and walks away. *What a shithead*, you think to yourself. What did he mean, see you 3rd period? Referencing your paper once again, ah, Government.
Not only did you have government together, he had the audacity to sit right next to you in government, then at lunch with his little boy band, “Hellfire”. Your last class of the day, you thought you were finally safe until you spotted him walking towards the same classroom as you but from the opposite direction. A giant grin spread across your face when he made eye contact with you, and you both must have had the same thought when you spotted each other because you both immediately sprinted to see who could get to the classroom first. He won, only due to being taller than you, longer legs and everything, but you saw an opportunity with him being in front of you and swiped the bandana from his back pocket.
“HEY-”
You started giggling which turned into you both collapsing into chairs next to each other, laughing your asses off.
“Okay, but in all seriousness,” Eddie starts while you both are settling down (you had started getting weird looks), “can I have that back?”
“Yeah, if you give me mine”
“Only if you're free after school. See that bench there?” We both turned to look out the window to a bench on the edge of the woods. “Meet me there 20 minutes after we leave, not earlier or some kids might pick on you.”
“Pick on me?”
“Yeah, they're a bunch of douchebags, trust me. Here” he said handing me back the bandana as the teacher walked through the door and the bell rang.
The last bell of the day, and you and Eddie parted ways, temporarily.
You ended up going to the library to waste time and to look for a book, hoping to find one on DND. You heard some friends at your old school talking about it once, and Eddie's friends were talking about it today. Thankfully, they had a whole shelf dedicated to the game. The librarian was so nice and even told you some things she knew. After about 15 minutes, you said goodbye and ended up leaving with a handful of books to learn more about Dungeons and Dragons.
He was already sitting on the bench when you got there. “I thought you said not to be here early or id get picked on”
“I'd be the one picking on you for wanting to see me again so badly”
That fucking smile.
He grabbed your hand which took you by surprise and led you around to an opening in the trees. You walked together for almost 10 minutes, getting to know each other better not bothering to let go of each other's hands.
“So… you skate?”
"Yeah, just started. I don't know any tricks or anything yet, but I know how to get around and that's what matters. Do you skate?"
"I've tried but I keep falling on my ass."
"Maybe I could teach you?"
"Yeah," he said, " I'd really like that. Oh, here we are." There was an opening ahead, he let go of your hand, dropped all of his things on the ground, and ran into the opening, you following a bit behind.
Getting to the middle of the opening, you looked around, it was beautiful. There was an opening in the canopy, perfect for watching clouds or stargazing, but you couldn't see Eddie anywhere.
"Eddie? Eddie, come out, I don't like this!"
"BOO!" Eddie came up behind you, grabbing you with his arms around your waist.
"Jesus FUCKING Christ, Eddie. What the fuck!" but you couldn't stay mad at him, he was laughing into your shoulder and it was the cutest thing you have ever seen or heard"
You wrapped your arms around his.
"so, how'd you find this place?"
"honestly? i was looking for a place to smoke, but now i just come here to hang out. don't worry, no one else knows about this place"
You both were rocking side to side holding each other, it was calm, it was sweet, it was safe. I'm glad we found each other.