The Hellfire Club

"Eddie! I swear to God if I'm late one more time because of you, you're dead! And I will be the one to kill you, and it will be a slow, painful death!" Freya Mackey shouts, banging her fist against the Munson trailer door. She'd aleady reached her tardy limit for the semester, and one more would land her in detention the evening spring break starts.

Over her dead body would she start off spring break on such a low note. Especially not with the Hellfire meeting after school.

"EDDI-"

"You seriously need to relax." Eddie Munson opens the door smoothly. He's not nearly as stressed out as his best friend, who by the way is now storming through his front yard to the van.

People who didn't know the boy would assume it was the weed that made him so calm on mornings like these, but Freya Mackey simply put him at ease. With her, nothing could go wrong. Even if she is being a total basket case for no reason.

"Let's go!" The girl yells anxiously as she yanks the driver's side door open for the boy.

The teen chuckles to himself before mock saluting the girl, "yes, ma'am."

"Eddie." The girl pleads, tapping her foot against the asphalt.

"Aren't I supposed to be doing this for you?" Eddie laughs, gesturing towards the open door as he slides into the van. Freya rolls her eyes, forcing a sarcastic smile as she shuts the door behind him. On her way around the car she makes sure to flip him off.

It helps to ease some of the stress.

"You do know that there's an assembly today, right? They probably won't even take attendance." He informs the girl as she struggles to climb into the passenger seat.

"I can't take that risk." Freya simply states with a shrug of her shoulders. Despite not being the most popular or the smartest student at Hawkins High, Freya Mackey had plans. Plans that didn't involve being stuck in Hawkins forever.

Plans of her, Eddie, and a town far away. She would go to school and he would do whatever he could to busy himself, because Lord knows Eddie Munson is not college material.

Plans that she could not complete with a plethora of tardies on her record.

Eddie frowns slightly, placing a hand over his best friend's for comfort, "Reya, I promise that you won't be tardy."

"Yeah?" The girl questions, her nerves at ease now that the van is finally in motion. Her snarky personality finally begins to settle back in. She places her free hand on top on his, leaning over in her seat toward him, "Well you better promise you fucking douchebag, because it'll be your fault if I am."

"You can't hold one civil conversation with me, can you?" The curly headed boy chuckles, purposefully whipping the van around a corner so that his best friend would smack into the door.

The blonde groans, "I wish you were never born, Eddie Munson."

The boy feigns hurt, his hand clutching his chest as if the girl had just stabbed him, "I'm wounded, Reya Mackey. Sincerely and severely wounded."

Freya only rolls her eyes at his dramatics, turning her head to look out the window so the boy can't see her rosey cheeks and stupid smile. She catches herself, shaking the weird feeling away just as quickly as it came.

Gross!

Thankfully, before Eddie could spit out another sarcastic comment the van rolls into the dreaded parking lot of Hawkins High School. With the pep rally before classes, the students gathered around like a herd of wild animals on the black top. Freya took the van slowing down for group of jocks to pass by as an opportunity to grab her bag and jump out the vehicle.

"See you at lunch!" The girl calls, slamming the door shut before Eddie could let the 'What the hell, Reya?' roll out of his parted lips. Like she said, if he made her late again she would kill him, and it was way too early for that.

"Mackey!" A voice calls over the chatter just as Freya slides her second backpack strap onto her shoulder.

"Hey, Robin." The girl greets with a smile. She slows her quick pace to allow her only other real friend to fall into step with her.

"Did you just jump out of a moving car?" Robin inquires, with a slight smirk. "Trouble in paradise?"

"You're ridiculous." Freya shakes her head, glancing across the parking lot to where Eddie slides clumsily out of his van. She chuckles to herself as she watches the boy stumble once his feet hit the ground and then look around to make sure no one else saw. "Eddie is my best friend. Has been since, I don't know- like, forever? Our relationship is strictly platonic so you can stop with the accusations. It's getting old."

The blonde laughs to herself at the thought of her and Eddie ever involved in a relationship that didn't revolve around backhanded compliments and shoulder punches.

"Whatever you say." Robin answers with an unconvinced side eye. "Hey, I gotta go meet up with the rest of band before the pep rally. I'll see you after?"

Freya simply nods, waving her friend off with a sigh.

Alone at last.

"Are you absolutely fucking insane?"

Spoke too soon.

"Whatever it is, I didn't do it." The seventeen year old defends, her hands flying up from her sides in surrender.

"Can you please tell Mike that my girlfriend is cooler than his?" Dustin groans, pleading for the girl to end the ongoing argument once and for all. The boy seperates himself from his best friend to walk on the girl's right side, while Mike places himself on her left.

"Uh, no?" The blonde chuckles, squinting her eyes at Dustin. "I've never met either of your girlfriends. And to be totally transparent, I think they've both got to be pretty lame if they're with you, nerds."

"Whatever, Mack! You're literally no help at all. And El is not lame!" Mike complains, throwing his hands up in defeat. "She literally saved the world twice, that feels way more important than stupid grades."

Freya's brows furrow in confusion at this, but she's learned better than to ask questions so she simply lets the bickering freshman lead her into the gym.

Climbing the bleachers to find a seat is always the blonde's least favorite part of pep rallies. She feels so awkward shoving inbetween all of the people she's never liked, but is always forced to be around. Especially when Eddie isn't there to clear a path for her with his, and she quotes, "looks so good it's scary".

His words. Not hers. Though she was sure to tell him how much he sounded like Steve Harrington when he said it.

He hated that... which made her happy.

She also didn't particularly like that she had to walk past Chrissy Cunningham and the rest of the Hawkin's cheer squad to get to where Dustin, Mike, and Max had somehow fit into the bleachers. Chrissy seemed nice enough, but how nice could you really be when you were dating one of Hawkin's most notorious assholes? That, and Freya just didn't like the way that Eddie looked at Chrissy.

His big brown eyes would soften anytime the cheerleader walked into the room. It was like nothing could go wrong because perfect Chrissy Cunningham was there. And the most irritating part of it all was the stupid Corroded Coffin memory he brought up every single time the cheerleader's name came up. Every. Single. Time.

Not wanting her negative thoughts to ruin her somewhat good mood, Freya rolls her eyes and puts her head down. She climbs up the steps to her freshman friends and forces herself into the spot next to Max.

"Hey, watch what you're doing." The girl next to Max whines, her face scrunched up in annoyance.

"Shut the fuck up." Freya simply replies, squeezing past Max into the empty spot between the redhead and Mike. There was no way she was standing next to that chick until the pep rally was over.

"Look, I'm not saying that my girlfriend is better than yours." Dustin shouts over the band music and cheering student body, "It's just that Suzie's, like, a certified genius."

Freya catches herself rolling her eyes once again at the two boys beside her still going at it over their girlfriends. She opens her mouth to inform Dustin that he had, in fact, previously stated that his girlfriend is cooler than Mike's, but decides against it. Instead she turns to Max, "Hey, kiddo. You feeling any better today?"

The young girl looks up at Freya and tries her best to force a smile, "Yeah."

The blonde frowns at this, "Are the headaches getting any better? I've been using aspirin for mine and it's been helping better than everything else I've tried. Still doesn't do much though."

"I've just been taking ibuprofen and trying not to think about the pain too much." The redhead admits.

The older teen goes to respond but is cut off by Jason Carver's aggrevating voice booming throughout the gymnasium. She stops herself from rolling her eyes for the third time in five minutes and instead sweeps the room for any sign of her stupid, curly bestfriend.

Eddie never came to these types of things. You would typcially find him out in the woods behind the school or in the bathroom, usually getting high, during school wide events. Freya knew that, obviously. Still, she couldn't help but wish he would come and save her from the agony of Jason's speech.

"Jackass." Freya mutters to herself, plopping down onto the bleachers. She wasn't sure if it was more directed toward her bestfriend for not being there, or Jason for, well, what hasn't Jason Carver done?

It's moments like these that she wishes that she could glue herself to Eddie so that she never has to be without him. As irritating as he is, she needed him. He is a safety blanket in this anxiety inducing high school, and boy is she anxious. Especially with the ticking that sounds so close she could've sworn someone put a clock right next to her in Max's place.

It doesn't help when Jason begins talking about tonight's basketball game. Freya sits back and listens as Dustin, Mike, and Max discuss the tournament. Slowly, her knee begins to bounce and she begins to bite her nails at the thought of Eddie's reaction to Lucas not being at Hellfire. He would not be happy.

Maybe she should avoid her safety blanket... Just for a bit.