The Princess and The Freak: One - September 13th, 1985 (Eddie Munson x OC)
Summary: Eddie is determined to graduate this year, so he seeks help from a tutor. Only the tutor he finds is Princess of Hawkins High, Lydia Gasper.
Pairing: Eddie Munson x OC (Lydia Gasper)
Word Count: 2353
Warnings: hopefully in character eddie, that's it i think
ONE | TWO | THREE
A wrinkled hand set his quiz down on his desk gently. He could see through the red-painted fingernails that he got a D. Large and circled in blue. Shit. He thought he did okay on this one. He reached up to take the paper away, but the hand’s pressure on the desk top only heightened.
“See me after class, Mr. Munson.”
Oh, this was some deep shit.
Eddie sighed as Miss O’Donnel finally walked away from his desk to hand back the next graded quiz. A few of the kids sitting around him looked over, scoffed, muttered something to their friends. Eddie rolled his eyes, crumpling up the quiz and stuffing it into his backpack. He didn’t care what they thought — but did O’Donnel really have to say that with everyone around?
The bell signally the end of the period splintered through his skull. He tried to rush out of the room, backpack hastily tossed over one shoulder and metal lunch pail clutched tightly in hand. Eddie ducked his head down low as he tried to blend in with the small crowd.
“Mr. Munson!” O’Donnel’s frail voice called out.
Eddie winced as he came to a stop just before the classroom’s threshold. He could just keep on walking. No one would be surprised if he did. Not Miss O’Donnel, not the few kids who turned to see what was going on — no one would question if he acted like everyone expected him to. Eddie “The Freak” Munson. Rebellious, scary, loud. No one would think twice if he just ignored the teacher and kept on walking.
So he wasn’t entirely sure what force pulled him to turn around and head back over to Miss O’Donnel’s desk. The older woman even betrayed a look of slight shock as he came to a halt before her with a sigh. But she was quick to brush the look off as she opened up her grade book.
“You do want to graduate this year — don’t you?” she asked.
Eddie ticked his jaw to one side as he tapped his foot. “Yeah.”
“Then why are you deliberately trying to fail my class?”
“I’m not — !” He immediately tried to jump to his own defense, but she wasn’t hearing any of it as she held up a hand.
“You already have an F in this class, Mr. Munson. Maybe if you spent less time playing your little fantasy game with your friends and more time studying for my quizzes…” She trailed off with a lift of her brows as she closed her grade book.
Eddie resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He should have just kept walking. He shouldn’t have come back to hear what she had to say. He knew what she was going to say. Be less of yourself, give up the things you love in order to conform to society's expectations for you. He didn’t want to live up to society's expectations — but God did he just want to graduate and ditch this podunk town.
He hadn’t realized that Miss O’Donnel just kept on lecturing him. “My suggestion? You find yourself a tutor to — at the very least Mr. Munson — keep you accountable about studying. The library has employed the help of some of Hawkin’s best. They have designated tables at the back of the library for students to visit during their free periods. Go there during your time instead of…Whatever it is you occupy yourself with.”
She dismissed him with a curt smile and a wave of her hand.
During his free period, Eddie found himself standing in the threshold of the library with his books tucked under his arm. It wasn’t his first time in the library. Sometimes he checked out books as research for his D&D campaigns. Other times he met kids in the deepest, darkest corners to strike a deal on his product. Either way, he had never felt so uncomfortable in that space than he did now.
He didn’t want to be there, and yet he was walking further inside, on the hunt for the tutoring tables. Embarrassment twisted his insides when he finally spotted them. A set of three tables each marked with a sign that said “Hawkins Tutors: Need help? We’re here for you!” and one of Hawkin’s best and brightest sat at each one. Eddie tried to keep up his confidence, he really did, as he continued his walk towards the tables. But then one of them looked up at him, some guy on the soccer team, and his pretty little face pinched up in disgust at the sight of him.
Eddie instantly swerved into the nearest aisle. Only one bookcase separating him from the Hawkins Tutors. Jesus Christ. None of those chumps were going to help him. What was he thinking? They saw him just like everyone else did. A freak destined to fail. For a moment, arm leaned against the shelves before him, he pondered just forgetting what Miss O’Donnell said. He could fail again. He could drop out — stop trying all together.
But then he heard a familiar bass line.
Eddie picked himself up from the shelving, instead ducking down to look over the tops of the books and through to the other side. Yes — he knew that beat, knew that faint melody that drifted through the library. It sounded like it was coming from a pair of headphones. Eddie looked this way and that to try and find the source.
No way.
She sat at one of the Hawkins Tutors tables, dressed in her usual pink, bright blonde hair done up like Brooke Shields. Her head bopped along as she worked on a bit of her own homework. There was a faint smile on her sparkling glossed lips as she mouthed the words. And in the quietness of the library, Eddie could hear Strutter by KISS filtering through her Walkman headphones.
Lydia Gasper?
Eddie didn’t even care about the other tutors anymore. He was far too intrigued by this discovery to even notice the dirty looks they gave him as he retreated from his hiding spot. He came to a stop in front of her, still amazed at what was happening. Waving his hand in front of her face, she finally looked up at him with a smile — prying her headphones from her ears to hang around her neck.
He never knew that her eyes were brown.
“Hi! Need some help with your homework?” Lydia asked, not a hint of judgement or contempt in her voice.
“Are you listening to KISS?” he questioned back.
She laughed and it sounded like the sweetest guitar solo ever recorded.
“Yes, I am,” she replied.
Eddie scoffed, amused, as she pressed the stop button on her Walkman. He could see the tape through the clear plastic, that familiar logo shining up at him amidst the player that she had painted pink. It didn’t make any sense. Her listening to that kind of music. But there she sat. Listening to KISS from her pink Walkman and pink headphones.
“Now this is interesting.” Eddie’s grin was wide as he lowered himself into the chair across from her. “The Princess of Hawkins High is a metalhead.”
Lydia cocked her head to one side, a lock of blonde hair falling over her face as she said, “I’m the Princess of Hawkins High? I’ve always wanted to be a princess!”
Eddie couldn’t tell if she was joking or not, but he laughed anyway. Who knew that someone like Lydia Gasper could be such an enigma all the sudden. She was maybe the most cliche person in Hawkins. She dressed in bubblegum pink nearly every day and had the personality to match it — always bubbly, always nice, always happy. She was a good girl, hung around with the popular crowd, was on the cheerleading squad. His brain itched to figure her out. Why would a girl like that listen to music about rebellion and angst and nonconformity? She didn’t rebel, she was the closest thing to a ray of sunshine, and she obeyed the rules of society in nearly every single way. He was going to figure this out, then he would leave her alone. He was sure of it.
“I feel like you should be listening to…Madonna or something,” he said.
Lydia shrugged. “Madonna’s alright. But she’s no Joan Jett.”
Swallowing thick, Eddie set down his books. This was the longest conversation he had ever had with someone from the popular crowd. He didn’t really know what else to say. But Lydia seemed different — and not just because she confusingly listened to metal. But she didn’t judge him, didn’t dismiss him. She talked with him like he was an actual person with feelings and smiled at him with a sweetness that should be reserved for others of her kind. Yet she bestowed that kind smile on him without a hint of distaste in those big brown eyes.
“So, did you need help with something or did you just wanna talk about music with me?” she asked after a beat, pointing with her pencil at his stack of books.
Eddie placed a ringed hand on top of the stack. “Uh…Maybe a bit of both — now that I know we have similar tastes.”
“Sounds good to me!” She grinned, showing off a dimple in her right cheek as she pulled out a notebook. “Who’s your favorite artist?”
“Uh, Black Sabbath probably. Ozzy is like my hero so…” He watched, somehow feeling worried, as she scanned over his stack of books — she grinned when she spotted a certain small novel hidden between the thick textbooks.
“Oh, O’Donnel’s class, huh? I’m in that class too. Different period than you I think, though. What do you need help with?” She went on as Eddie dug through his backpack looking for that dreaded, thick packet, “I read in Rolling Stone that he bit the head off a bat on stage — “
Eddie perked up at that. “So metal right?”
“I guess. I thought it was disgusting and unsanitary but…Also metal. They’re definitely in my top five though.”
He made a noise of triumph when he finally found the thick packet. Pulling the folded and wrinkled thing from his bag, he slapped it onto the table with a smile and a flourish. Lydia sat up a bit to see what the packet looked like, then she leveled Eddie with a look. He would call it amused disappointment, which felt better than the regular kind.
“You haven’t even started the packet yet?”
“I haven’t even started the book yet.”
“Oh, dear.” Lydia started writing something in her notebook. “Well, you have until the end of the semester to finish both — with quizzes at Miss O’Donnel’s leisure — so if you read a chapter a day and fill out the pages about it in the packet…You should be done in time.”
Eddie picked up the small book and began flipping through it. Beowulf. An epic poem about vikings or something. It would have been an interesting read for fun — but for school, it sounded awful. He watched as Lydia scribbled down a schedule for him to adhere to, what sections of the packet he should have filled out when. Her handwriting was neat and tidy, Is dotted with little hearts. Of course, she dotted her Is with hearts.
“Who’s your favorite artist, princess?” he asked as he set down the book.
“Oh, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts — easily,” Lydia answered quickly.
But he noticed, with a slight quirk of his lips, as a pink blush overtook her cheeks at the nickname he used.
He picked at the peeling spines of his textbooks. “Never really listened to them much. They good?”
“You haven’t listened to — ? Joan Jett & The Blackhearts?” she floundered, looking comically mortified, “She’s the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll!”
The other tutors shushed them loudly. Lydia turned with an apologetic look thrown their way. When she turned back, she shook her head at Eddie with a smile. Like they were in on some joke together. Like it was the two of them against the rest of the popular crowd instead of Eddie by himself. He had to admit, he liked feeling like he was with someone else.
“Sorry, princess,” he chuckled softly.
“Unbelievable.” She shook her head again as she handed over the schedule she had made him. “Do you think you’ll need any more help with this?”
Eddie skimmed over the schedule and could already feel that overwhelming bubble forming in the pit of his gut. He didn’t like doing things he didn’t want to do. But maybe if someone could keep him accountable, shame him when he didn’t do his work, he could keep up with it. He was determined to graduate this year. He was determined to pass this class.
“Do you think…We could…?”
He may have been determined, but he was also too proud to voice that he needed more help. And maybe, somewhere deep inside, this wasn’t even about her assisting him with questions that he hated. Maybe he just wanted to see her again. Lydia Gasper was like a bright pink hook on a line and he had gotten caught with the needle in his cheek. He still wanted to know more — even if it killed him.
“How about on Wednesdays we get together to compare answers. That sound good?” she questioned as she began to pack up her things.
Right. The bell was about to ring. Free period was almost over.
“Yeah — Yeah. That’d be great.”
This time, Eddie barely registered the bell when it went off. Lydia got up from the table with another smile, smoothing out her skirt. Then she reached into her backpack and pulled out a cassette. She set it on the table and slid it over to him.
“For your listening pleasure, Eddie Munson.”
She walked away before he could say anything else, catching up with the other tutors and talking animatedly with them. Eddie picked up the tape. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts — Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth. He chuckled as he slipped it into his bag.
Gladly, Lydia Gasper.
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