I'm back!! I missed this story so much and I'm so excited to carry on with season 4!! <3
Hawkins, Indiana, 1986
Y/n's pov
It was the morning before school, and I was sitting in my bedroom on my computer my parents had gifted me for Christmas that year.
The thing was, I was trying to hack into the school system like Edgar had showed me, to change Dustin's Latin grade.
On the other side of my supercom, Dustin had been feeding me passwords that might get us into the school system.
"That's a negative, Dust." I sighed, deleting the failed password.
"Son of a bitch." He said, scratching it off his notepad. "Try Tigers86."
"'Tigers86', copy that." I typed the password into the computer.
"You know, maybe I could help you study Latin and then I wouldn't have to change your grade. It can't be that bad anyways- wait a minute. I'm in." I had started to say, before the password accepted.
"Holy shit." Dustin said, and I could almost hear his eyes widen.
There was a pounding noise on the other side of the line, like someone knocking on his door harshly.
"Dusty, what's going on in there? You're gonna be late." Mrs. Henderson's muffled voice broke through the walkie.
"Don't come in, I'm naked!" Dustin yelled.
The door slammed.
"I'm running out of time here." Dustin was frantic and annoyed.
"Jesus, hold your horses, Dust." I said, typing in his name.
His grades popped, showing he had all A's and B's, except in Latin, he had a D-.
"Do you see it?" Dustin asked.
"Holy shit, Dustin. When you said it was bad I didn't think you meant that bad." I said, staring at the flashing D-.
"Yeah." He sighed.
"Oh shit, we're gonna be late for school!" I said loudly, pressing the A key, changing his Latin grade to an A and slinging my backpack onto my shoulder.
"Don't forget your Hellfire shirt this time!!" He yelled.
"Over and out!" I practically shouted into the walkie.
"Shit shit!"
I dropped my backpack off my back and pulled my Hellfire shirt on.
I ran out the door, hopping on my bike just as Dustin ran out his door and got on his bike.
We peddled as fast as we could to school just in time for the morning basket ball ceremony-thing.
Dustin, Mike, Max and I all stood in the bleachers, watching with little to no interest as the cheerleaders did their thing.
Robin played the trumpet in the band, and I waved to her, earning a head bob back.
We all clapped sort of subconsciously as Dustin got into a conversation with Mike about me changing his grade.
"Look, im not saying my girlfriend is better than yours." Dustin said. "It's just that Y/n is like, a certified genius." He motioned to me.
"You do realize El saved the world twice, right?" Mike asked. "No offence, Y/n." He quickly added.
"And yet you still have a C in Spanish." Dustin said as the two boys looked to each other.
The cheerleaders finished with their routine and the band ceased.
"And let's hear it for your tigers!" The announcer said as the basketball players ripped through a paper banner.
Lucas looked especially excited. It was his first year playing basketball, and even though he was always the benchwarmer, he was trying to get in with the popular crowd.
"GOOD MORNING HAWKINS HIGH!" Jason, the team captain and the new douchebag of Hawkins shouted into the microphone.
The audience cheered loudly for him.
He launched himself into some speech that got everyone pumped up, but I wasn't really listening until he said. "Think of Heather."
"Think of Billy." Lucas looked up to Max.
"Think about our heroic police chief, Jim Hopper."
I looked to Dustin with a sad expression, Mike wearing the same as I held Dustin's hand tightly.
"Think about every one of our friends who perished in that fire. What did they die for? For us to lose to some... some crap school?" He jumped back into his speech but Max, Dustin, Mike and I bore upset expressions, the memories flooding back.
"And now tonight, tonight, we're gonna being home the championship trophy!" Jason shouted.
Oh shit.
"Tonight?" Mike asked as Dustin and I looked up at him with wide eyes.
"How is that possible?" Dustin asked.
"They call it a tournament." Max spoke up from beside Mike. "You win one game, you go on until there's only one team left.
Mike looked extremely frustrated and Dustin groaned.
After all, tonight for the Hellfire club was the Cult of Vecna.
The three of us watched as Lucas high-fives his newfound friends.
——
"I don't get the big deal. Just talk to Eddie." Lucas said.
We were walking away from the gymnasium.
"Get him to move Hellfire to another night." Lucas suggested.
I scoffed. "'Just talk to Eddie'."
"Why don't you just talk to your coach and get him to move the game?" Mike said.
"I think that's a great idea, Mike." Dustin nodded.
"Thank you, Dustin!" Mike said.
"This is the championship game!" Lucas exclaimed.
"And this is the end of Eddie's campaign." I said.
"A semester of adventuring has led to this moment, and we need you!" Dustin said.
"Yeah and the tigers don't. You've been on the bench all year." Mike reminded as we turned a corner and walked into the building.
"Woah. Harsh, Mike." I said.
"That's not the point." Lucas sighed.
"Please, arrive at the point." Dustin said.
"If I get in good with these guys, I'll be in the popular crowd, and then you guys will be too."
"Has it ever occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, we don't want to be popular?" I shrugged my shoulders up at Lucas suggestively.
"You wanna be stuck with the nerds and freaks for three more years?" Lucas asked, confused.
"We are nerds and freaks!" Dustin exclaimed, offended.
"Yeah, but maybe we don't have to be." Lucas said.
"Look, im tired of being bullied. I'm tired of girls laughing at us. I'm tired of feeling like a loser." Lucas explained. "We came to Highschool wanting things to be different, right?"
We all sort of nodded.
"So now we have that chance. I skip tonight, that's all out the window. So I'm asking you guys as a friend, just talk to Eddie. Get him to move Hellfire. Come to my game. Please." Lucas asked.
The bell rang and Lucas went to his class with a sad, disappointed expression.
"Shit." Dustin said, tapping his foot.
"Mike, when you go to see El, make sure to watch out for Angela." I said to him as we walked away.
"Who?" Mike asked.
I looked back at him, confused as to why he didn't remember anything that El had written to him about.
Maybe she didn't tell him.
——
"The devil has come to America."
It was lunchtime and Club Hellfire sat around a table.
Eddie read from a conspiracy theory magazine in a weird voice.
"Dungeons and Dragons. At first regarded as a harmless game of make-believe, now has both parents and psychologists concerned. Studies have linked violent behaviour to the game, saying it promotes satanic worship, ritual sacrifices, sodomy, suicide and even.." Eddie threw the magazine down with a wild expression. "Murder."
Everyone started to laugh.
"Shit, he seems really revved up today." Dustin said.
The three of us stood in the walkway with our lunch trays, listening.
"He's always revved up." Mike said. "We'll just... act casual."
Dustin and I nodded.
"Casual." Dustin agreed.
"Casual." Mike repeated.
"Casual. Right. Okay." I nodded.
"Totally." Dustin sighed.
"Society has to blame something. We're an easy target." James said.
We sat down, setting our lunch trays on the table in front of us.
"We're the freaks because we like to play a fantasy game." Eddie crossed his arms.
"-But!" Eddie slammed his hand down on the table. "As Long as You're into band, or science, or.." he looked over to the popular kids. "Parties." He said in a mocking tone. "Or a game where you toss balls into laundry baskets!!" He shouted at the basketball team.
"Loser!" A random student shouted.
"You want something, freak?" Jason stood up.
Eddie just freaked him out and he sat right back down.
"It's forced conforming." He walked down along the table.
I quickly pulled my lunch tray out of the way of his feet.
"That's what's KILLING THE KIDS!" He jumped off, scaring a random girl.
Dustin laughed, Mike looked surprised and I rolled my eyes with a smile.
"That's the real monster." Eddie concluded, sitting back down.
"So, uh, speaking of monsters, um, Lucas has to do his, uh, balls in laundry baskets game." Dustin chuckled nervously. "So, he's not gonna be able to make it to Hellfire tonight."
"And... and we know there's no way we can beat your sadistic campaign without him." I added on.
"So me and Y/n and Mike, we were talking, shooting the shit, and we were thinking that maybe we might..." Dustin said, looking for a good word.
"Postpone." Mike said.
Everyone groaned.
"Postpone?!"
"You cant just drop this on us."
"Over my dead body."
"Shut up!" Eddie shouted.
"You saying Sinclair's been taken in by the dark side?" He asked.
"Uh, something like that?" Mike said.
"Something like that?" Eddie repeated, throwing a pretzel in our direction.
"Jesus Christ." Dustin said, blocking the pretzel from hitting me.
"And, rather than find a sub for him, you want... you want to postpone 'The cult of Vecna.'" Eddie questioned.
"I... I don't want to postpone it." Mike objected. "We don't want to postpone it. It's just that, you know, most of the subs will be at the championship game."
"Oh, it's the championship game?" Eddie asked.
"...Yeah?" Mike said nervously.
"Can I level with you?" Eddie asked.
"Jeff graduates this year. Gareth's got, what? A year and a half? Me, I am army crawling my way toward a D in Mrs. O'Donnell's. If I don't blow her final I'm gonna walk the stage next month, I'm gonna look principal Higgins dead in the eye, I'm gonna flip him the bird, I'm gonna snatch that diploma and I'm gonna run like hell outta here." Eddie said, making us all laugh.
"Didn't you say that last year?" Gareth asked.
"And the year before that?" Jeff asked.
"Yeah, yeah, and I was full of shit. This year's different. This year, is my year. I can feel it." Eddie looked off mystically.
"'86, baby. You know what that means?" He looked to the three of us as we shook our heads.
"It means that you kids are the future of Hellfire. I knew it the moment I saw you. You sat on that table over there, looking like... looking like three little lost sheep."
He looked to Dustin. "You were wearing a Weird Al T-shirt, which I though was brave, and you were gripping onto Y/n's hand tightly."
"Y/n, you were wearing a colourful windbreaker, with a periodic table shirt, which made you look smart, yet approachable."
"Thank you." I nodded.
"Mike, you were wearing whatever shit your mommy bought you from the goddamn gap."
We all laughed at Mike's former clothing choices.
Eddie grabbed Mike and Dustin by their shirts and pulled them up from their seats.
I stood up, following them.
"And we showed you that school didn't have to be the worst years of your lives, right?" Eddie asked.
"No." Mike whispered.
"Well I'm here to tell you that there are other little lost sheepies out there who need help. Who need you. And all you guys gotta do, is get your Bo-Peeps on and go and find one." He shoved the three of us forwards.
——
"Just move your date this one time. Come on." Dustin said into the pay phone.
We were currently trying and failing to find a sub.
Mike had gone off on his own and Dustin and I were phoning Steve.
My ear was pressed to the other side of the phone so I could talk and hear.
"What? To hang out with you and Eddie 'the freak' Munson? Uh, yeah, I'll pass." Steve said.
"Y/n's gonna be there too." Dustin tried.
"Oh well I guess if Y/n's there... still a no." Steve said with sarcasm.
"You're Just jealous cause we have another older male friend." Dustin said.
"Ew. Ugh. Whatever. Besides, I mean, I really dig this girl. I think that she could... who knows maybe she could be the one."
The sound of a bell dinging interrupted Steve.
"Oh, I got some customers gotta call you back. Bye." And with that, he hung up the phone.
"No, you can't call me back I'm at-" Dustin tried before the phone line disconnected.
"School." He brought the phone away from his face with a frustrated expression and I sighed at our inevitable defeat.
He hung it up and flipped off the pay phone as we walked away.
——
Dustin had insisted we ask Max, despite me knowing fully well she would say no, so there we were standing in front of her.
"If I play do I get one of those cool T-shirts?" She asked.
Dustin laughed. "Yes!"
"Really?" Max asked with the biggest fakest smile I've ever seen that I almost started laughing.
"Everyone gets a T-shirt. We make 'em ourselves, and if you-" Dustin stopped himself.
"You're being sarcastic." He said.
Max gave a suggestive face and a shrug before she got on her skateboard and waved bye to me, the two of us laughing at Dustin's obliviousness, before she skated away.
"You being sarcastic?" He asked again.
We watched as she skated out of our line of vision.
"She was being sarcastic."
I patted my Boyfriend's arm with some sympathy and a tiny bit of ridicule.
——
It was the end of the day and we still didn't have a sub.
The three of us slumped down on the lunch bench outside.
"I hate highschool." Mike sighed.
"So screw it." Dustin said, looking in the direction of Hawkins middle.
"Screw what?" Mike looked concerned.
"Screw Highschool!" Dustin stood up abruptly and started running in the direction of the middle school.
"Woah! Wait up, Dust!" I called running up to him.
"What?? What?!" Mike ran after us. "Dustin where are you going?!" He shouted.
You'd think with those long spider legs he'd be able to run a bit faster.
"Just trust me!" Dustin yelled back.
"Come on! Talk to me!" Mike shouted. "Tell me things!"
"Wear a helmet!" Dustin yelled at a guy skate boarding down the hill we were running up.
"What are you talking about?!"
——
What he was talking about, was Erica.
When Will had moved, he had given all his D&D stuff to Erica, commencing a new generation of nerds.
Now Erica was super into D&D and great at it too.
The four of us walked through the halls as the star spangled banner played in the gymnasium.
Once we had brought Erica in, Eddie was everything but thrilled.
"Absolutely not." He objected.
"You asked for a sub, we delivered." I placed my hands on my hips, raising my eyebrows.
"This is Hellfire club, not Babysitting club." Eddie said.
"I'm 11 you long haired freak." Erica said.
"My, my. The child speaks." Eddie said, making several club members laugh.
"So. What's your name, child?" Eddie stood up.
"Erica Sinclair." She sassed.
"So this is Sinclair's infamous sister." Eddie chuckled.
Erica rolled her eyes. "He's sharp." She said sarcastically, earning a few laughs, to which Eddie silenced.
"What's your class and level? Level one dwarf?" Eddie asked, earning even more laughs.
Oh, no, Eddie.
You stepped over the line.
"My name is Lady Applejack. And I'm a chaotic good half-elf rogue, level 14. 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, agonizing death. So, we gonna do this? Or we gonna keep chitchatting like it's your mommy's book club?" Erica said.
To be honest, she's probably the coolest 11 year old I've ever met.
Everyone looked to each other in shock and surprise.
Eddie stared down at her before his mouth curved up in a smile and he extended his hand. "Welcome to Hellfire."
Erica shook his hand and then it began.
"The hooded cultists chant, Hail lord Vecna. Hail lord Vecna. They turn to you, remove their hoods. You recognize most of them from Makbar. But there is one you do not recognize." Eddie said in a hushed tone as we all sat alert with anticipation.
"His skin shriveled, desiccated, and something else. He is not only missing his left arm, but his left eye!" Eddie demonstrated.
We all clamoured.
"What?!"
"No! No!"
"Vecna's dead."
"He was killed by Kas!"
"So it was thought, my friends, so it was thought." Eddie stood, pulling a figure from behind his dungeon masters board. "But Vecna lives!"
"You are scared. You're tired. You are injured. Do you flee Vecna and his cultists? Or do you stand your ground and fight?" Eddie asked.
"Come on." He persuaded.
Dustin held his hand up to think.
"I say we fight." Dustin said. "To the death."
"To the death." I agreed.
"To the death." Mike nodded.
"To the death." Erica said.
"To the death! To the death!" We all began to chant, slamming our hands on the table.
Erica rolled the dice, getting a high score as we all screamed in excitement.
We knocked more and more figures off the board, killing monsters left front and center.
"Time out! Time out!"
We all huddled into a group to talk.
"Guys, I hate to say this but we've got to flee." Gareth said.
"I concur." Jeff said.
"Didn't we just agree 'to the death'?" Erica asked.
"That wasn't literal!" Gareth whisper shouted.
"Vecna just decimated us. We can't kill him with two players!" Jeff agreed.
"You too?" Dustin asked. "He only has 15 hit points left."
"Don't be pussies." I said.
"Pussies? Really? Cause we're not delusional?" Gareth said.
"Delusional? How about not cowards?" Erica corrected.
"Hey!" Eddie called our attention back to the game.
"If I may interject, gentlemen, (your dnd name), Lady Applejack. 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. Not today, 'Kay?" Eddie said.
"One sec." Dustin out a finger up, huddling us back up.
"What do you think Mike?" Dustin asked.
"How many hit points do you and Applejack have?" Mike asked.
"Twelve." Erica and Dustin said in unison.
"It's risky as hell." I said.
"But you're the ones on the battlefield." Mike added. "So it's your call."
"What do you say, Lady Applejack?" Dustin asked.
"You really gotta ask?" Erica sassed.
Dustin shook his head.
"Screw it." He concluded, and we unhuddled. "Let's kill the son of a bitch."
"The chances of success are 20 to 1." Jeff interjected.
"Never tell me the odds." Dustin said. "Give me the D20."
Eddie chucked the die at him.
Dustin shook the die feverishly, letting it go soon after.
It rolled until it landed on 11.
"That's a miss!" Eddie said.
"No!"
"Shit! Shit!"
It was Erica's turn to roll the die, and she did so all the while the rest of us were muttering please or even praying.
She launched the die onto the table and it rolled.
And rolled.
And rolled.
Until it landed.
And it landed on a 20.
we all cheered.
"Crit hit!!" Erica exclaimed.
"Yeah!! That's my Lady Applejack! Show him!" I praised, tackling her into a hug.
I grabbed Dustin's face and kissed him.
"That's why we play!" Eddie said.
We all ran out of school, jumping and laughing and cheering.
I was so happy until I saw the basketball team.
Lucas stared at us, disappointed and maybe even a little jealous.
So, without making a single sound, I slipped away from my friends and sprinted to Lucas.
"I'm sorry we couldn't be there. I'm sure you did amazing." I hugged him tightly. " have fun at your party." I beamed up at him.
"Thanks for caring, Y/n." He smiled.
"Of course, I love you, man." I placed my hands on his table top hair like I usually did, earning a laugh from Lucas, glancing back at Dustin. "We'll I've got to go. I'll se you tomorrow."
And with that, I ran back to the celebrating group.
Word count: 3374 (holy shit that's a lot)
I love you all so so much I really hope you enjoy season four of this book<33