HAWKINS BLEEDING , will byers

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HAWKINS BLEEDING! CHAPTER FOURTY:
JUST TIRED

At lunch Stephenie usually was invited to sit with the cheerleaders, but Mike and Dustin had told her they needed her at lunch to try and convince Eddie to move Hellfire to another night. They said she was 'the only key to crack Eddie' or whatever that meant. She walked through the cafeteria with her food on her tray. Immediately when she walked in she didn't have to look for Eddie's table— when he was simply standing on top of it, giving some sort of speech to the table around him and even others in the cafeteria.

"or parties" she heard Eddie exclaim "or a game where you toss balls into laundry baskets." He shouted towards Jason Carvers table

"You want something, freak?" Jason yelled back before Eddie stuck his tongue out and put his fingers on his head to make horns before chuckling at Jason's no response. Stephenie shook her head as she snickered slightly and slowly started to walk to the table of boys as Eddie's yelled down from the table and jumped down.

"That's what's... killing the kids!" He yelled, startling a girl and he turned to face Stephenie "That's the real monster." He muttered, before putting out a hand for Stephenie and she put out her hand to his

"Your majesty" he spoke in a slightly British accent making Stephenie giggle. Dustin moved down for Stephenie to sit.

"So, uh, speaking of monsters, uh, Lucas has to do his, uh, balls-in-laundry-baskets-game. So... he's not gonna be able to make it to Hellfire tonight. And I know there's no way we can beat your sadistic campaign without him. So, me and Mike, we were talking, shooting the shit, and we were thinking that maybe we might. Postpone" Dustin told Eddie hesitantly and the energy at the table shifted

"Postpone?"

"Can't just drop this!"

"Over my dead body"

"Shut up!" Eddie exclaimed, taking a moment to think before speaking "You saying Sinclair's been taken in by the dark side?"

"Uh, something like that"

"Something like that?" Eddie mocked, throwing some of his food towards Mike "Jesus Christ... And rather than find a sub for him, you want.. you want to postpone The Cult of Vecna?" He asked

"I-I don't want to postpone it. 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?"

"Yeah."

"Can I level with you?" Eddie asked and they nodded "Jeff graduates this year Garth's got, what? A year and a half? Me, I am army-crawling my way toward a D in Ms. O'Donnell's. If I don't blow her final, I'm gonna walk that 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. I'm gonna run like hell outta here"

"Didn't you say that last year?" Garth asked

"And the year before?" Jeff added

"Yeah, yeah, and I was full of shit This year's different. This year is my year. I can feel it. '86, baby." He said "You know what that means?" He turned to Dustin, Mike and Stephenie, going to wrap his arms around the two boys "It means you boys, are the future of Hellfire. I knew it the moment I saw you. You sat on that table right over there, looking like.. looking like two little lost sheep" he looked to Dustin "You were wearing a Weird Al T-shirt which I thought was brave"