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The halls of Hawkings high were filled, as they always were, with the sound of hormones and fuckery.
Students, piled against each other, moved as if they were on a play and each knew their role.
Some were trying to get to their lockers before first period, others were just trying to go by unnoticed, and others seemed to have been tasked with making the rest of their existences unbearable.
Harrington and his army of plebs were already making their presence known, taking up as much space as they could, and making everyone else's Monday morning that much more annoying.
If you asked him, Eddie would say he was more than used to their antics by now, and that, frankly?, they were getting a little predictable.
But Eddie knew, even though he wouldn't like to admit it, he didn't have a say in how this play went and thus, he just sticks to his role and squishes past the jocks keeping his head down.
'Watch it creep!' Tommy Hayes said even though Eddie had made every attempt not to bump even slightly into him.
It was no use, of course, since it was good ol' Tommy who crashed into him looking for a fight or, better yet, a flinch. A signal that would show that Eddie was afraid of him, that he had power over him, just as he had over most of Hawking High.
Eddie, for how much of a coward he believed himself to be, wasn't willing to give him that satisfaction.
He kept his head low, eyes looking forward, and he focused on keeping his expression neutral. It wasn't much of a stance, but at least he hadn't completely bent to their whims, or that is what he liked to tell himself.
As he entered his first period class, he once again noticed the rigid structure everyone of them were under.
Back of the class? Empty seats, reserved for the always late royalty made up of the rich and popular kids in town.
The middle section was a mix of, average dweebs, loners, or depending on how closely seated you were, royalty suck-ups.
Front rows were already filled, reserved only for true nerds.
As was his rank, Eddie went to the corner of the middle section, next to the window and close to the front.
He wasn't that much of a genius, but he did like to read and the farther he was from the Kings and his buffon's the best.
Besides, a fellow weirdo was sitting right behind him, head resting on the table.
'Hey Jonny-boy, how's it going?'
'Not in the mood, Eddie'
Eddie had known Jonathan Byers for most of his life and even though they had been closer in the past, they were still good friends.
They usually just talked during classes and lunch now, helping each other survive their tedious lectures and even more depressing social standing.
"Jeez man, good morning to you too"
"I-" he exhaled an exasperated breath while rubbing his eyes "Look, I'm sorry man, I just haven't rested a lot"
In all the years he had known him, Eddie didn't think he had seen Jonathan Byers well rested in his life.
When they were younger, Jonathan's father had made it his mission to torture him, his little brother and his mother as much as he could.
When he had eventually left a couple of years back, Jonathan was left with the responsibility to help provide for his family even though he was only 13 years old.
He'd gotten a job at the hawkings newspaper as a helper to the photographer and since then, he and Eddie had grown apart.
Eddie knew his friend was working his ass off just to help keep himself and brother at school and even though he felt awful that Jonathan could never just be a normal kid, at least it was better than finding him alone in a bathroom stall, trying to heal a bruise or a wound every other day.
Even so, Eddie missed hanging out with who he would consider to be his best friend.
"Naa dont worry dude, you can't hurt my feelings anymore" said Eddie, continuing with a dramatic flare "But if you truly want to make me feel better, you could come to CC practice after class?"
Jonathan scoffed trying to hide a smile, "You know I cant"
Eddie did know.
He had tried to convince Jonathan to join his band multiple times, but he had never had an affinity for playing music, his artistic capabilities laying elsewhere.
He tried to convince him to work with him and Wayne at the garage, but he had declined multiple times, saying he was useless at anything motor related.
He even tried getting him into DND but it never seemed to click for him.
He had tried every way he could think of to maintain his friendship with such a solitary being as Jonathan Byers and he had failed miserably at every turn.
Even then, he knew Jonathan did appreciate his efforts and, for his part, he went out of his way to hang out with Eddie whenever he could.
He went to most of Corroded Coffins concerts, he burned tapes of the latest rock hits for Eddie, he would wait for him at lunch and he would always seat in the exact same spot in class, where they would talk, and critique their classmates, how none of them had anything close to a personality and how they would all end up exactly like their parents before them, and they would laugh at how pathetic their own lives were, because in those moments, those classes in which they should be paying attention, they could be just that, two kids hanging out.
At that point, Eddie was in the middle of a melodramatic rant about Jonathan being a horrible friend, which always seemed to amuse him the most, when he noticed the other boy's attention pulling away from him.
Following his gaze, he found the soon to be queen of Hawkings High herself: Nancy Wheeler.
Eddie didn't really know much about the girl, she had mostly been in the neerdier groups all her life and had always been decently nice, but lately she had started sitting further back in the classroom.
Eddie wasn't one to judge based on looks, but Nancy was the picture perfect image of what any teenage girl in a little town of Indiana aspired to be, pretty, proper, and, if what the rumors said was true, dating the king himself, Steve 'The Hair' Harrington aka Eddie's unreciprocated arch-nemesis.
On another note, she was also his best friend's brother's best friend's older sister, and that meant Jonathan and her had history.
"Hey!" he said "I see how it is. Don't have time to talk to your buddy because you're too busy drooling over the princess"
"I-What? No!" Jonathan said with a stutter,"I don't even know what you are talking about! I was just thinking that your speech was getting so boring I could go back to sleep"
Eddie gave him an innocent nod, which just seemed to further infuriate him.
"I am being serious!"
Jonathan had had a crush on Nancy before, but he was adamant he had gotten over her ages ago.
Whenever Eddie poked at him, he always said that she was too much of a princess for him, too stereotypically pretty and perfect to truly fall for.
He liked to say he wasn't that predictable as to be the classic cliche guy in high school, who falls for a girl way out of his league and spends the rest of his life pathetically craving her approval.
"And I believe you!" said throwing his arms up defensively.
It truly was fun messing with him, but the man did seem about to jump at him at any moment, so he decided to relent.
There was also another thing he wanted to talk to him about, before class started.
"So, how are young Byers' adventures going?"
A few years back, one of the times Eddie had tried to convince Jonathan to give DND a try, his little brother, Will had started asking him questions about the game.
At first Eddie hadn't given it much thought, but the next time he went to the Byers home, the boy had even more questions for him, saying that his best friend had told him he also wanted to know more about it.
Eddie already had a few sets of the game, so he decided to gift one of them to the boys and, as far as he'd heard, the boys had had their fun.
"Fine" said Jonathan, just relieved to be changing subjects"More than fine really," he said laughing a bit,"It's nearly the only thing he talks about, well, all of them. Did you know that they've been playing their latest, what is it called..."
"A campaign you ignorant buffon"
Jonathan sneered at him "Thanks asshole. Anyway, they have been playing their latest campaign for like eight hours".
Eddie would have lied if he said that he wasn't a little impressed.
DND required a commitment that most boys weren't willing to put into it, even more if it was a longer campaign.
He himself hadn't been able to hold his players' attention for weeks spanning campaigns more than a couple of times, so those little nerds had already earned his respect, even though he had never even met all of them.
All he knew was that the future generation of freaks and weirdos of Hawkings High was sure to be in good hands with them.