NANCY DREW ━━ steve harrington

015 guidance counselor

"That must have been hard to be reminded of. Have you had any other times recently where she has been brought up?" Eden thought of her nightmare that very morning and nodded. "It, uh, it sounds kind of silly but I had this nightmare last night. It was all about her and I woke up with this splitting headache."

Ms. Kelly wrote that down. "So it seems you'd already been thinking of her when Jason made his speech and the speech just sent you into a spiral?" Eden shrugged. "I don't— I don't know. I... I mean it was a dick move to use their deaths in a speech about a basketball game. He just— he had no right."

"Don't you think we're all trying to heal in our own ways? And that this might just be his?" Ms. Kelly wondered. Eden shook her head no instantly. "Not all of us had something to heal from. And that's not me just invalidating people, it's the truth. Some people never even knew Heather or Billy or anyone else. Some people just use their deaths in a speech and then go on with their day not carrying around the weight of losing that person. Like actually losing them."

"I know people who are healing. Who can't just talk about what happened with a small smile and a few sad looks. Some of us can't just get over it that easily." Eden finished and Ms. Kelly reached her hand across her desk. "Breathe, Eden. I need you to breathe."

Eden focused on breathing, inhaling and exhaling slowly until she was able to do it naturally again. She frowned. "I don't want it to effect me. I want to be able to hear someone say her name without going into a panic because I didn't like the reason they said her name. I just— god I just want her back."

The bell rung indicating lunch was beginning and Eden sighed, lowering herself as she put her hands in her head. Ms. Kelly handed her a note. "I want you to take this lunch period and fifth period to yourself. So, after lunch just give your fifth period teacher this note so you can take the class period to just calm your mind. Okay? And after spring break come talk with me first thing in the morning."

Eden nodded, slowly standing. "Thank you." Ms. Kelly nodded with a smile. "Enjoy your break, Eden." Eden grabbed her bag, nodding. "Yeah, you too." She quickly left the room with her note in hand as she headed down the hall.

Eden made her way back to her car quickly, finding she wanted some alone time before she met with Eddie to hopefully take the edge off. Once inside, Eden sighed, placing her head on her steering wheel.

She didn't even know if she wanted weed anymore, not wanting to deal with the questions from her brother later in the day. She also felt as though she needed to calm down on her own, like she was being sort of stupid for even thinking to resorting to drugs to fix her mental problems in the moment.

No matter how hard Eden tried to hide it, she missed Heather. That much was obvious. She didn't even know why now out of all times it was hitting her like it was. As if these last few months of bliss were just that, bliss. Giving her some time before the true grief and guilt set in.

It was probably the nightmare. Bringing back up the memories and guilt of her tragic friends passing. Without those images playing in her mind the night before this would have probably just been another day. Jason wouldn't have triggered her and she would be going on as if nothing was wrong.

But that wasn't how it was going for her.

After a bit more time, Eden exited her car and began heading back towards the school. Almost immediately, though, Dustin was standing in front of her looking hopeful. "Eden! Just the person I was hoping to run into."