The Hellfire Club

After the impromtu trip to the woods, Freya reluctantly decides that she's going to drag herself to her final class for the day. She makes sure to tell Eddie to do the same before the duo go their seperate ways, but she knows he won't. He never listens to her.

"Hey!" The girl calls, stopping Eddie just as he turns to go down the hall.

"What?" Eddie shouts back, mocking the girl's urgency.

Instead of responding, the blonde jogs over to him and pushes his head down so he's staring at the floor.

"Wow, Reya, yeah- I really love your shoes." The boy deadpans, earning a hard smack on the arm. "Ow!"

"Stay still!" Freya hisses, picking tiny pieces of dried up leaves out of his messy hair. "Were you rolling around on the ground out there?"

"I don't have to answer that."

Freya rolls her eyes at this. His reluctance to answer is an answer in itself.

"That explains the thud." The girl mutters to herself, pulling another piece out.

"Thud? I did not thud!" Eddie argues, trying to pick his head up, but the blonde smacks him again to get him to stay still.

"You did!" Freya laughs, "You thudded and then Chrissy was all like "oh no!" and then- and then... I stopped listening after that."

"So you was spying!" The boy shouts, pointing at the girl. In his position though he just ends up poking her knee.

"I wasn't spying!" The blonde insists, pulling the last leaf out of his curls. She pushes his head up by placing her palm on his forehead and shoving him back. Eddie groans, pushing her hands away. "You know I wasn't! Just- shut up!"

He smirks at her, shaking his head to fix his hair, "sure, darling."

He's unconvinced, but he doesn't care. He has nothing to hide, especially not from Freya. So even if she was spying, it was okay with him.

"I'm leaving." Freya says, pointing over her shoulder. "I'm going to class."

"Are you sure you don't want to wait until I disappear around the corner and then follow me to my class?" The curly headed boy can't help but continue to tease her. He likes the way her nose crinkles when she gets frustrated. Kind of like how it is right now.

"Shut up, you bitch." She shoots out the first thing she can think of. "You don't even go to class, that's why you failed senior year twice."

She begins walking backwards away from her bestfriend before he has the oppurtunity to think of a come back. The wheels turn in his head, but he's left speechless for the first time in a very long time.

Freya smiles triumphantly, reaching the end of the hall, "Goodbye, Edwin! I'll see you at Hellfire!"

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me Edwin?" Eddie shouts, but the blonde is already turning down the hall laughing to herself.

"And that is why you should never mix bleach and aluminum."

Freya groans loudly at the stupidity of the student presenting, but quickly shrinks into her seat when the teacher shoots her a warning glare. She couldn't help it. The girl was sure that she was born without a filter. Whatever thought was on her mind she somehow expressed that thought openly. Whether it was by speaking or her body language or her facial expressions, it always just slipped out. Her and Robin were alike in that way.

The boy beside her chuckles, smirking at her and tapping his pencil against his desk. He leans over, whispering to the girl, "what a dumbass."

"I know, right?" Freya giggles, glancing up to make sure Mrs. Cook wasn't still death glaring her. When she sees that the coast is clear she leans over in her seat toward the boy, "I'm Freya, but, uh, I go by Mack."

"I'm Patrick. It's nice to meet you, Mack. Even though I'm pretty sure we've sat next to eachother all year." The boy jokes, smiling at the blonde.

She smiles back, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, "funny how that happens, isn't it?"

"What? You mean how we talk now, and then spring break happens and we never speak to eachother again?"

Freya nods, "exactly. Then, we graduate and never see eachother again."

Patrick chuckles, "sounds about right to me."

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Patrick."

"Oh, man. Ditching me already?" The boy teases, fighting away a smile.

"Well, I mean we kind of are in the middle of class right now." Freya whispers, pointing out the obvious. Her eyes flicker to his varsity jacket and back up to his face, "Plus, it seems to me that we are sworn enemies, Mr. Basketball."

This causes Patrick to let out a loud laugh. Mrs. Cook pauses her lecture to glare at the two. Both teens instantly straighten up in their seats, Freya staring out the window while Patrick opts for drumming his pencil against his desk.

When Mrs. Cook finally goes back to teaching Patrick leans back over, "Mr. Basketball?"

"It was the best I could think of, okay?!" The girl quietly defends, not even bothering to look at the boy.

"Well, Miss Hellfire, how about you come to the game tonight? With me, maybe? We can end the rivalry."

Freya grimaces, crinkling her nose in disgust, "No, thanks."

"Damn, that was a blow to my ego." Patrick tries being cutesy with the girl, but she's over it. She has no interest in flirting with basketball players, or anyone at all at the moment.

"That sucks." She turns back to face the board.

Patrick leans over even more, almost losing his balance, but he catches himself on her desk, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

"I'm not upset." Freya sighs, "I just- I'm sorry. I didn't mean to go so cold, I'm just not interested."

"That's totally fine." Patrick assures the girl, "I'm fine with being friends."

"Ooh, yeah, no." The blonde shakes her head, glancing down at his hand still resting on her desk. "I have enough of those too."

With that, she pushes his hand off of her desk and bends down to pick up her bag off the floor. The bell would ring at any second and she was eager to get the hell out of there.

"Oh." The boy seems disappointed, but he tries his best to hide it. "One more thing?"

The girl groans quietly, turning to face the boy, "what?"

"Your nose is bleeding."

As soon as the words leave the boys mouth the bell rings, dismissing class for the rest of the day. Freya remains in her seat as everyone else packs up and practically run out of the room. She carefully brings her hand to her nose, wiping her upper lip with the back of her hand.

Sure enough, crimson red stains her skin.

Without even thinking, she throws her bag over her shoulders and races out of the room to the nearest bathroom.

How hadn't she noticed that? And why didn't he say anything sooner?

As soon as the bathroom door is in her sight, Freya breaks into a sprint down the hall. She pushes the bathroom door open with her shoulder and makes a beeline for the papertowel dispenser.

When she finally catches her reflection in the mirror, she can't believe how much blood had poured from her nose in such a short amount of time. Blood was smudged on her cheek from her wiping it on her hand, and two trails fell towards her mouth.

Freya sighs heavily, wetting the paper towel and wiping the blood away. She stays hidden in the bathroom for a few minutes until the bleeding finally stops. This had given her time to think, which was never good.

She had concluded that from the worsening headaches, hallucinations, and now nose bleeds: she was probably dying. She then concluded that she was way too dramatic and she would be fine... probably.

"Mackey!"

"Dustin! My favorite child!" Freya smiles, turning on her heel to see Dustin, Mike, and who she can only assume is the sub for tonight's game.

"Hey!" Mike whines childishly, crossing his arms.

"Don't be mad, Michael. I've always been her favorite." Dustin brags.

The boy isn't wrong, but in order to prevent yet another quarrel between the boys Freya stays silent.

"This is Erica." Dustin introduces the two girls once they meet in the doorway to the Hellfire meeting. He does so, while ignoring Mike, who continues to whine like a child about who the blonde's favorite is. If only he realized that it was this kind of behavior that made him her least favorite of the freshman.

"Hi, Erica." Freya smiles, "I'm Mack or Mackey, whichever tickles your brain the best."

"Your name is Mackey?" Erica questions.

"No, uh- it's Freya. But I don't really like hearing my full name so everyone just calls me Mack."

"Yeah," Mike nods along, "everyone except Eddie. He calls her Reya, but don't even try calling her that 'cause he'll probably murder you."

"Why?" The amount of attitude that pours out of each question makes Freya happy. She already liked this girl.

"That's his nickname for her." Dustin shrugs, "When it comes to Mack Eddie is just different. That's all there is to it."

The group push back a curtain, fully entering the room. Eddie sits with Gareth, Jeff, and the other members chatting about who knows what. Freya immediately detaches herself from the young teens and flings herself into Eddie's lap.

She sits sideways on his "throne", which was just a left over prop from whatever play the drama club put on last winter, with her legs hanging over the armrests.

Eddie doesn't even acknowledge the girl, he just lets out a small grunt from the sudden weight. Gareth continues talking about whatever he was talking about while Freya tries to sneak into Eddie's D&D books.

"No." His breath hits her neck, sending a shiver down her spine. He places his hand over hers, preventing her from opening anything.

"Bitch." The girl mutters, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Behave." Eddie whispers, wrapping an arm around the girls waist and turning her so that she's facing forward.

"Behave." Freya mimics, but Eddie's focus leaves her the second he spots Dustin and Mike with the younger girl.

"Absolutely not."

"Uh oh." Freya murmurs, getting off the boy's lap and taking her spot in her usual seat next to him.

"You asked for a sub." Dustin defends, "We delivered."

"This is Hellfire Club, not Babysitting Club." He gets up out of his seat, walking around the table.

Erica doesn't take too kindly to the disrespect and steps up to him, "I'm eleven, you long haired freak."

Freya bursts into laughter at this, leaning back in her seat and kicking her feet in the air, "oh, man. I love this kid already!"

Eddie fights off a smile at his friend's outburst, "my, my the child speaks. So, what's your name, child?"

"Erica Sinclair."

"Sinclair?" Freya questions, now confused. "Since when does Lucas have a sister?"

"Since eleven years ago, genius." Erica sasses, placing a hand on her hip as she addresses the older girl.

"Damn, okay." The blonde mutters, leaning back into her seat.

"What's your class and level?" Eddie interrogates, "Level one dwarf?"

"You might want to watch your mou-"

Freya is cut off by Erica responding firmly, "my name is Lady Applejack, and I'm a chaotic, good, half-elf level 14. I will sneak behind any monster you throw my way and stab them in the back with my poison-soaked kukri."

"Damn." The blonde mutters quietly.

"And I'll smile as I watch them die a slow, agonizing death." Erica continues.

Eddie and Freya share an impressed look before Erica speaks again.

"So we gonna do this? Or we gonna keep chit-chatting like this is your mommy's book club?"

"Damn." Freya can't help but be amused by the child infront of her.

Eddie grins, glancing over one last time at his best friend before making eye contact with the girl infront of him.

"Welcome to Hellfire."

AUTHOR'S NOTE !

hey guys!! first a/n of this book :)))

i had the best, most emotional chapter written up in place of this one but then i realized it's literally only chapter three so i wanted to take it down a few notches for now.

also, i just wanted to put a note here that while freya doesn't like chrissy, this is not my personal views! i absolutely love grace and her portrayal of the character, it's just for plot purposes that freya doesn't like her. i just wanted to make everyone aware of that with all of the hate being sent towards grace right now.

okay, that's all! vote, comment, and be a good person :)