PUNK
"Does this mean I'll get one of those shirts?"
—
THE HARRINGTON GIRL had been following around Dustin, trying to help him find somebody to sub for Lucas. So far they had no luck.
Dustin was currently on the phone with Steve but was too busy kicking the rocks on the floor to hear what Dustin was saying to him. But the sound of a phone slamming was enough to make the girl jump and look up at him.
"I'm going to go with.. he said no." Fiona assumed as she watched the boy stick his middle fingers up at the phone.
"You know, I could've just called him he would probably say yes to me." Fiona shrugged as Dustin looked at her in disbelief.
"Then why didn't you suggest that before I rang him!" The boy exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air as he walked away quickly, going to try and find someone else.
"I tried too but you were too busy rushing us over to the phone!" The girl exclaimed back at him making him groan and continue walking making Fiona quickly catch up to him.
"Let's try Max!" Dustin quietly yelled as he saw the ginger-haired girl before rushing over to her.
"You really think she's gonna say yes?" Fiona mumbled quietly, quickly following behind.
"Hey, Max!" Dustin yelled as he grabbed the girl's shoulder, "Wanna join the Hellfire club?"
"If I play, do I get one of those cool T-shirts?" The ginger girl asked with a smile.
Dustin laughed as he looked down at his shirt, "Yes."
"Really?" Max asked him also laughing, Fiona let out a small laugh noticing that the girl was being sarcastic and wasn't actually serious.
"Everyone gets a T-shirt. We make 'em ourselves, and if you.." The boy trailed off as he watched the girl smile and nod realising she wasn't being serious.
"You're being sarcastic." Dustin stated, now realising that asking Max was a stupid thing to do.
The girl smirked a bit before placing her skateboard onto the ground and skating away. "You being sarcastic?" He asked as he watched her.
"She was being sarcastic." Fiona told the boy as she put her hand on his shoulder. "I mean I did say that she was gonna say no."
"Let's go." Dustin told the brunette with a girl, quickly rushing to find someone else.
"And that's why you should always listen to what I have to say." The magic girl muttered to herself, running after the boy.
—
No. That was all Dustin and Fiona got told all afternoon. The pair sat down on a bench just as Mike came over and sat next to them.
"I hate high school." Mike told the two with a sigh.
Nobody said anything for a couple of seconds before the Henderson boy spoke up, "So screw it."
"Huh?" Fiona spoke as she looked over at Dustin confused as did Mike.
"Screw high school." Dustin quickly got up making both Mike and Fiona look at each other confused before rushing after the boy.
"Dustin, where are you going?" Mike asked the boy as the trio ran away from the school. "Just trust me!" The curly-haired boy yelled back at the two.
"Come on, just talk to us." Mike groaned out, groaning as they continued running. "Tell us things!" Fi yelled at the boy.
"Wear a helmet!" Dustin yelled back making Fiona scoff, "I don't have a helmet."
"What are you talking about?" Mike questioned the boy at the same time as the girl had spoken.
—
Fiona groaned as Dustin was grabbing ahold of her arm. "Why do I need to come? You have Erica!" The girl slightly yelled at the two boys.
Dustin had this great idea to get Erica as the sub for Lucas. She obviously said no. But after a lot of talk about chocolate, the girl gave in. Yet, the two boys still dragged the brunette to go with them besides having Erica.
"Plus I never miss Lucas' games. Ever!" Fi huffed, guilt filling up her senes at the thought of missing out on one of his games, especially the championship.
"If you just stopped your whining, then maybe you will actually have fun." Dustin told the girl with an eye roll. "Well maybe if you let me go to the game I wouldn't be whining." The girl scoffed.
"It's not like I'm needed for the game anyways." The girl continued complaining making Mike groan.
"Well, if Lucas didn't decide to ditch us for some stupid basketball game, none of this would be happening." Mike snapped, making Fiona scoff.
"It's not Lucas' fault that the championship is tonight." Fiona told the boy as they continued walking down the hall.
As soon as the group of four had walked into the room, Eddie was not impressed. He was sitting in a chair with a very unimpressed face, "Absolutely not."
"You asked for a sub. We delivered." Dustin told the older boy who just scoffed. "And why is she here?" Eddie pointed towards the magic girl who just pulled an awkward smile.
"Because... okay... well I don't have an answer for that." Dustin trailed off awkwardly.
"This is Hellfire club. Not babysitting club." Eddie reminded the two boys as he looked between them.
"I'm 11, you long-haired freak." Erica quickly told the boy making him let out a small laugh. "She always goes for the hair." The girl muttered under her breath, remembering the time she said Murray was a 'bald bastard'.
"My, my, the child speaks." Eddie spoke, causing Fi to let out yet another laugh. Eddie abruptly stood up, walking over to Erica.
"So, what's your name, child?" The long-haired man asked the young girl who just scoffed in his face.
"Erica Sinclair." She informed the man who now stood in front of her, making him chuckle, "So this is Sinclair's infamous sister."
Erica rolled her eyes, turning back to face the group of three, "He's sharp." This caused Eddie's friends to laugh a bit, making Eddie snap his head back causing them to immediately stop laughing.
"What's your class and level? Level one dwarf?" Eddie asked the girl, mockingly.
"She is not gonna like that, is she?" Fiona asked Dustin who just shook his head no.
"My name is Lady Applejack. And I'm a chaotic good half-elf rogue, level 14." Erica informed the boy, "And I will sneak behind any monster you throw my way and stab them in the back with my poison-soaked kukri."
"And I'll smile as I watch them die a slow, agonising death. So, we gonna do this, or we gonna keep chitchatting like this is your mommy's book club?" The whole room was silent for a second, everyone looking at each other in pure shock.
Eddie looked back at the girl, immediately smiling he put out his hand. "Welcome to Hellfire."
Eddie turned his head to Fiona who was too busy looking around the place to notice, "You too, Fi."
The girl snapped her attention to the boy, clearly confused by what he just said. "What?" She asked. "Welcome to Hellfire." He smirked.
"Does this mean I'll get one of those shirts?" Fiona pointed to the shirt which the man was wearing. "Absolutely."
—
The dark-haired girl sat at the side of the room, next to where they were busy playing a game. Turns out Eddie had actually given her a Hellfire club shirt. It was a bit oversized but she didn't have a problem with it.
Instead of paying attention to the game like she was supposed to, she thought about Lucas. How guilty she felt. She had never missed a game of his but now she had. It was the championship which made the whole thing worse.
But he would understand why she wasn't there, right? It wasn't her choice. If she did have a choice she would have definitely gone to the boys' game.
But what if he didn't? What if he never spoke to her again? She promised to be there and she wasn't. She told him not to worry because she will definitely be there. What if they aren't friends anymore?
Fiona was too deep in thought to even realise that the lights above had starter flickering. Eddie must have noticed the girl's daze because he made sure she was ok. "Yo, Fi, you good?"
The girl snapped out of it, the lights immediately stopped flickering. "Huh, what? Oh, yeah." She let out an awkward chuckle before the group went back to the game.
Although she felt guilty about the game, she was also kind of happy she did. Not because she made her friend sad, of course not. But because she would be spending some time with a certain long-haired boy.
His eyes. His hair. His voice. His rings. Just everything about him had caught the girl's attention. Every time she saw him, she felt like they were the only two there.
Once again, the girl jumped out of her trance when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Come on, group talk." Dustin told the girl making him look at her confused.
The girl didn't notice how the whole time she was in her trance, a certain long-haired boy had been sending glances at her.
Dustin, Mike, Erica, Fiona and the other boys, minus Eddie, all gathered around in a circle. "Guys, I hate to say this, but we've got to flee." One of the boys spoke.
"Didn't we just say "to the death"?" Erica asked the boys with a dumbfounded expression.
"You guys are killing each other?" Fiona asked in shock, not having a clue what anyone was talking about. "That wasn't literal." One of the boys said.
"Vecna just decimated us. We can't kill him with two players." Another boy told the group. "Who's Vecna?" Fiona asked as she looked around, not getting a response.
"You too? He only has 15 hit points left. Don't be pussies." Dustin told the group, Fiona nodding her head in agreement. "Yeah, don't be pussies."
"You have no idea what we're talking about, do you." Dustin questioned as he looked over at the girl who immediately responded.
"No. Not a single fucking clue."
"Pussies? Really? 'Cause we're not delusional." One of the boys told them making Erica scoff. "Delusional? How about not cowards?"
"Hey!" The sound of Eddie's voice was heard making Fiona quickly turn around to face him, not expecting him to speak. She put her hand over her heart which was beating fast.
"That scared the living shit outta me." The girl muttered quietly, making Dustin chuckle.
"If I may interject, gentlemen, Lady Applejack, Fi." Eddie told the group as he looked at each one of them. "Whilst I respect the passion, you'd be wise to take Gareth the Great's concern to heart."
"There is no shame in running. Don't try to be heroes." He told the group making Fiona look at him weirdly. "Yes, there is. Well, not all the time but there still is."
"Not today, 'kay?" He smiled innocently at the group.
Dustin put his hand up before turning around to face the group. "What do you think?"
"I think there is sometimes shame in running. It is what it is, you know?" Fiona told Dustin as she shrugged her shoulders.
"How many hit points do you and Applejack have left?" Mike questioned. Getting an immediate response.
"Twelve."
"It's risky as hell." Mike told the two. "But you're the ones on the battlefield. So it's your call."
"What do you say, Lady Applejack?" Dustin asked the younger girl who looked at him like it was the stupidest question she had heard. "You really gotta ask?"
"Screw it." Dustin said before the group turned back around to face Eddie.
"Let's kill the son of a bitch."
"The chances of success are 20-1." One of the boys told Dustin, in shock that he was actually doing this.
"Never tell me the odds." Dustin told the boy, sticking his hand up. "Give me the D20." Dustin instructed the long-haired boy.
Eddie handed it to the boy with a big smile. The boy started juggling the dice in his hands, the whole group nervous. He threw it onto the table just for it to land on an 11.
"That's a miss!" Eddie told him, making the whole group yell.
"No!"
"Shit! Shit!"
"No! No! Fuck!"
Erica went to go pick up the dice, looking over at Fiona she spoke. "Tell me when."
"What?" Fiona looked over at her confused as to why the girl wanted her to tell her went to roll the dice.
Erica began juggling the dice in her hand just like Dustin had done before. After a couple of seconds, the girl spoke.
"Now!"
Erica immediately let the dice go from her hands, the whole group looking intensely at the dice as they rolled across the table.
It landed on 20.
"Crit hit!" Erica yelled, making the whole group jump up and down in excitement as Fiona watched with a big grin on her face.
"What? What?" Eddie said as he moved back, not expecting it to land on a 20.
"That's why we play." Eddie told the group as he leaned down, moving his arms across the game and making eye contact with Fi who was grinning.
—
Fiona was panicking. She missed the full game. All of it. She rushed outside only to see Lucas looking at her. Disappointed.
"Lucas!" Fiona yelled as she ran after the boy. Only to be ignored as he walked away, not bothering to look back.
"Hey, Luke!" She yelled hoping to get him to turn back.
But he never did. That's when the girl knew she had probably ruined her friendship.
—
alex speaks
I JUST WOKE UP TO 1K READS??
ALREADY?? thank you all sm. i don't even have words to describe how thankful i am for all of you<33
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