Chapter Text
Not that it’s surprising, but Steve Harrington, Hawkins golden boy, hates history class. ‘Who cares if George Washington was the first president of the United States?’ He thinks. Those thoughts cloud his mind, causing Steve to not even pay attention in class. The words coming out in pieces and not coming all together.
Steve looks out the window for five seconds. Five seconds, and when he looks back to the chalkboard, the words ‘PROJECT DUE FRIDAY, NEXT WEEK’ are written on it. He straightens his posture, hoping it’ll be a partner project, considering Steve doesn’t even pay attention to whatever the teacher rants about everyday.
The teacher begins to write more,
‘PROJECT DUE FRIDAY, NEXT WEEK.
PARTNERS:
TOMMY HAGAN-TINA WHITE
CASEY THOMPSON-CAROL PERKINS
STEVE HARRINGTON-EDDIE MUNSON’ Steve grimaces when he notices he has to work with the Freak. The teacher continues to write down names, Steve not even paying attention anymore.
Steve looks around the classroom, trying to spot the mass of dark curls Eddie carries. When he finally spots the metalhead, he notices that Eddie is in one of the backseats, his face showing nothing but the same grimace Steve was holding earlier, except softer.
Eddie notices Steve was staring and he shrinks in himself. Steve wonders why, but then he looks at his reflection in the window and sees he looked like he was glaring at Eddie.
When he tries to mouth an apology toward Eddie, the man just looks out of the window. Leaving Steve out of his view.
“Steve! Face forward unless you want to miss out on the rules of the project.” The teacher scolds. Steve faces forward, looking at the directions the teacher wrote down.
‘MUST BE ABOUT ONE HISTORICAL FIGURE OF THE UNITED STATES
MUST WORK TOGETHER
MUST BE TURNED IN ON THE DUE DATE’ Steve doesn’t bother to read the rest, knowing it’ll be the same rules as any other project they’ve done.
“Now, go sit with your partner and discuss how you will be working on this project as you won’t have time to do so later.” The teacher orders. The seniors begin to scatter around the room, except for Eddie. He just stays there, looking out the window.
Steve decides he’ll be the one approaching. So we walks toward the metalhead and taps the guy’s shoulder. Taking note of the way he flinches back.
“Oh, hey.” Eddie greets.
“Hey. So we’re partners for the project and I was wondering who we should make it about.” Steve whispers. Eddie lightens up, appearing to already have an idea on what to do.
“Alright, so I was thinking maybe we could make out project based off of Alexander Hamilton.” Eddie suggests.
“Oh…” Steve mumbles, dumbfounded.
“Do you.. do you know who that is?” Eddie asks.
“Um.. no..?” Steve says, sounding unsure.
“That’s okay. We can read about him in some books I have. He was one of the founding fathers, George Washington’s right hand man, but died at the age of 47 in a duel against Aaron Burr.” Eddie explains excitedly, seeming to adore the man he’s speaking about.
“But um- one concern.. whose house will we work on the project at?” Steve questions.
“Well, my house is pretty small. But we can work on it there if you want.”
“Okay, great. Now we just need to discuss who’s doing what.” Steve reminds.
“Yeah, of course. I can draw, I’m pretty average at drawing and my handwriting sucks, either way.” Eddie volunteers.
“Alright, my handwriting is pretty good, so I can write and you just tell me what to write.” Steve says.
“Okay.” Eddie mutters, not taking his eyes off of the notebook he’s currently drawing on. Steve wonders what Eddie could be drawing. Eddie’s eyes widen, Steve can practically see the light bulb above him.
“I was thinking maybe I could do a detailed drawing or sculpture that looks like this.” Eddie voices, showing Steve the notebook paper with excited eyes.
Steve admires the artwork in front of him, the drawing looking better than anything he could’ve came up with. ‘The guy is holding a gun, probably the one he used to duel the one guy.’ Steve thinks.
“Is that the gun he used to fight the air burn guy?” Steve asks dumbly. Eddie breaks out into laughs, looking at Steve like he grew another head.
“Did-did you just call… him ‘air burn’?!” Eddie exclaims. “His name is Aaron Burr, dumbass!”
Steve lets out a few chuckles, realizing he got the name wrong.
“Well, it’s close enough.” Steve shrugs.
“You’re right, it kinda is.” Eddie agrees.
The bell rings, startling Eddie. Not knowing it was already time to go home.
“Should we work on it tonight?” Eddie asks.
“Sure.”
“Alright, but do you have practice? If you do, it’s fine, I’ll just wait outside.”
“I do.”
“Okay, bye, Harrington!”
“Bye, Munson.”