Chapter Text
The day of the talent show arrived; Eddie and his friends had practiced hard and would bring a cover from Aerosmith with their band Corroded Coffin. They had wanted to play something from Black Sabbath, but the organizer wouldn’t allow it, the old-fashioned hag, but Aerosmith was a reasonable compromise. The band itself was fairly young; it existed for only a couple of months, and the talent show would be their first public debut, and it would also be their last performance on middle school as they were in their 8th grade and would go to high school next year.
He stroke the neck of the guitar before looking at the other four members of the band; who seemed equally excited to do this. They were in the same class as Eddie and they had talked a lot about music since they met in 6th grade. Eddie and his friends sat in the back, watching the talent show. Another friend of Eddie had joined them in the back and read the program. Rupert also played electric guitar – it was through him Eddie had been able to use this second-hand electric guitar – but despite playing guitar, Rupert didn’t participate in the talent show, nor did he want to be in Corroded Coffin; he was too shy to perform in public, and just wanted to jam in his room. Which was valid, Eddie thought. Everyone had to enjoy music in their own way.
Rupert was better off than Eddie and got a decent allowance and usually several presents on his birthday or for Christmas. Not that Eddie complained, he knew his uncle couldn’t spare much so any present he got was one he treasured, but Rupert had received the most exciting board game ever: Dungeons and Dragons, a fairly new game, just three years old. None of the other band member liked it, but during spring break Eddie had stayed over at Rupert’s place one night, and they had played a campaign with his older brothers. The oldest had taken the role of Dungeon Master and they had a lot of fun.
The downside of participating at a talent show was that they had to watch the rest of it as well. Not all performances were bad though. One black kid played My Sweet Lord by George Harrison on his acoustic guitar and while Eddie had gravitated heavily towards hardrock, it was nice. The kid had skill.
“Who is he?” Eddie asked Rupert, who had the program in his hand.
“His name is Jeff,” Rupert replied. “6th grader.”
“And when can we finally perform?”
“If you’d read the program you’d know.”
“I thought I’d, uh, leave the reading to you tonight,” Eddie said with a wink.
Rupert shook his head and sighed, but checked the program for Eddie. “Three more after this and then it’s your turn.”
“And then we will rock this place!” Eddie shouted, getting immediate “wooo!” from the other bandmembers, and a “shhhh” from the parents in the area and a glare from the old-fashioned hag at the stage.
The next act was ventriloquist act; Eddie watched with a little interest how the student control the puppet. Not the best ventriloquist he had ever seen, last year there was one who was a true puppet master and this one needed to practice more.
Then a blonde girl entered the stage; she seemed nervous, but once the spotlight was on her and the music started she had shaken it off and did a cheerleader routine. He had seen her before, of course, when they all got together for rehearsal and stuff, but this was the first time he could see her act from this side. Eddie caught himself staring at the fluid movements and the joy she displayed, and when she was done he applauded loudly.
They didn’t watch the next act, as they had to get ready. The speakers and drums were already on stage, after this act they had to quickly plug in their guitars and they could start. The song they played was Chip away the stone and they rocked. While Eddie played lead guitar, and he rocked on the guitar solo, the lead singer was the bass-player and Eddie was the second voice; it was an arrangement that worked for both. The other two played second guitar and drums.
“Thank you Hawkins!” Eddie shouted at the end and they left the stage. Once they were behind the stage they gave each other shoulder bumps with their fists and Eddie let out a “Whoo that was amazing!”, only to get another “shhhh” from the organiser.
“Oh shut up,” Eddie said. “Come, let’s get out of here.”
They collected Rupert and left the school, going straight to a White Tower fastfood restaurant for a hamburger, a big coke, and taking turns on the pinball machine.
Wayne picked them up, as Eddie had told him where they’d be after the talent show, and brought them all back to their places. All kids sat together in the back of the pick-up and talked about the great evening they had. They had bicycles, of course, but Wayne had insisted to drop them off and pick them up, because they had to bring their guitars as well.
The next few days Eddie noticed the girl who had done the cheerleading routine, Chrissy Cunningham according to Rupert. He watched her laugh at the remark of one of her friends. She seemed so classy, and way out of his reach. It was obvious she belonged to the popular kids, something he would never be, nor did he want to be in the popular kids group.
“Up for a game this weekend?” Rupert asked.
“Hm? Yeah, yeah. Who’s DMing?”
“I prepared a short campaign.” Rupert chucked. “Short for a D&D game, that is. It’ll probably take most of the weekend, so if you can stay over…”
“Okay, sure, uncle Wayne won’t mind.”
His uncle didn’t mind – he often let him do as he pleased as long as he knew where he was, only berating him when it was dangerous or harmful to him or someone else. While his uncle didn’t understand the fascination for D&D, he knew it was important for him, and had bought him the D&D novel Quag Keep for his birthday. This kind of support hadn’t existed when Eddie lived with his father, and he was grateful to be living with his uncle now. He tried his best to earn some money by doing chores around Hawkins so he could help out.
***
Eddie moved to high school the next year and started embracing the rock culture more and more. He let his hair grow; after Wayne asked on two different days if it wasn’t time for a haircut and Eddie replied that he didn’t want one, Wayne had stopped asking.
Corroded coffin scored a place where they could perform, but the second guitarist dropped out. With the three of them they continued the band; drums, bass and main guitar was still enough for a band.
Eddie had picked up a habit of smoking, like his friends. Wayne didn’t forbid it, as he too had started smoking around that age and considered it hypocritical to say his nephew wasn’t allowed to do it, but he had a talk with Eddie about it to make sure his nephew could make an informed decision and not just smoke because others did it.
During the summer break between their sophomore and junior years, Eddie met Jeff, who walked around in a KISS t-shirt. They chatted for a while; Eddie recalled his performance at the middle school talent show and they talked about their favourite bands. Jeff said he had seen their band play and asked if he could join them, which Eddie immediately accepted and invited him to come to the next rehearsal, so he could meet the others. Now they were back at two guitarists and throughout their junior year they often got together to play. He also acquired his new guitar: a real Warlock NJ Series electric guitar, with a black and red panther motive. It looked like it was baked in hell, burned and red-hot, and he had fallen in love with it when he had first seen it in the window of the store. To pay for it had done lots of chores around the neighborhood, and his uncle Wayne had also contributed what he could spare.
Junior year went by and senior year came. While Rupert and the two other members of Corroder Coffin were doing their best to graduate, Eddie preferred to hang out with Jeff, who was now in his sophomore year, and someone called Rick Lipton, also called Reefer, who was doing his second senior year. Eddie still played Dungeons and Dragons with Rupert and two of his friends, but he quickly realised that would end soon as Rupert would go to a fancy college somewhere far away.
At the end of the senior year, Rupert, Reefer and the two senior band members all graduated, but Eddie was held back due to his low grades. After the graduation ceremony he discussed Corroded Coffin with the graduated members, but both said it would be difficult to continue, as the drummer was going off to college and the bass guitarist had to help his father at the restaurant. Jeff said he knew some guys for the bass and drums; he and Eddie could take vocals and they’d be settled. The next day Jeff introduced the curly-haired Gareth and a fat guy called Dwight. They spent most of the summer getting to know each other and practice songs together.
Eddie started dealing drugs to make money, mostly weed at school. Reefer helped him get the stuff he needed. Most of the money he made went into D&D figurines, but he also used to it to help his uncle pay for groceries, school supplies, the bills. It was the least he could do after what his uncle had done for him, and selling weed was good money.
Much to Eddie’s delight, the current members of Corroded Coffin were all interested in playing Dungeons and Dragons. Eddie founded his Hellfire club in he second try of his senior year, but the teachers and classes bored him. There was so much more to do in life and he was stuck at school, where they were forced to abide to a clock and follow a ton of rules.
He failed to graduate again.
In 1986, his third and last attempt at senior year, Eddie recruited four more members into the Hellfire Club: Dustin, Mike and Lucas, all in their freshman year, who had seemed lost in the jungle that was high school – words a doctor had once used to describe middle and high school and it had remained accurate.
He loved it, being the Dungeon Master for the Hellfire club, especially with the new high-schoolers joining them. This was probably the best part of high school. He knew he’d have to make an effort to graduate this time; his uncle had also brought up the subject and because his uncle rarely interfered with his life unless he was about to really screw up, he agreed to study harder this year.
Spring break was approaching, and their Cult of Vecna campaign was coming to an end. After this he had to focus on school, so this would be the last campaign of the year, as much as he hated to admit it. And then, at lunch, Dustin and Mike had the nerve to ask to postpone it, because Lucas, the traitor, the defector, couldn’t make it. How he loathed the sports guys, more than any of the other groups in school. He sent Mike and Dustin to get a replacement; there was no way he would let the sports guys determine when he could play D&D.