hot blooded

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

No matter how many times Alina did presentations, they never got easier. There was just something about going up and showing off to the world, knowing that she would be marked on every little movement—she'd once been docked marks for jiggling her leg—that did not work well with her. Everyone seemed to be judging her, their eyes boring straight into her soul. Often, she struggled to find an even slightly friendly face—that was what happened when you spent the majority of your life without friends. Everyone was a hostile, everyone was searching her for flaws, everyone secretly wished to see her fail.

Of course, that was rarely true, but Alina's stressed-out brain wasn't listening to facts and logic. It was pure panic, pure discomfort, and it only ceased its incessant yammering the moment it was all over. Before and during, though? She was hopeless.

Today, it was only the encouraging looks from Will and El that kept Alina on her feet. She'd been unlucky enough to be one of the first people with her name drawn from Mrs. Gracey's Jar of Terror, and was thus forced to wobble her way to the front of the classroom before either El or Will had gone. There, she'd pinned her poster to the board and begun.

In an unusual act of responsibility, Alina had actually memorized her lines for this assignment. Forcing a smile, she rattled them off, telling herself that this was far easier than helping defeat the Mind Flayer and surviving an extended possession. But as she watched the faces of her white classmates darken as she mentioned the abuse Ruby Bridges faced, she almost wished she was vomiting up the Mind Flayer again.

"Just over twenty years ago, I would not be allowed in this classroom without facing a barrage of slurs, physical violence, and death threats," she finished, trembling a little. "Ruby Bridges' story is an important one to tell because it reminds us that though we have come a long way since then, we have an even longer way to go before we achieve true equality. Thank you."

The class burst into scattered applause, and Alina breathed out a relieved sigh, moving toward her desk. She was only halfway there, however, when Mrs. Gracey called, "Great job, Alina. That was very well said."

"Thanks," Alina said, wrapping her arms around her midsection.

"Can I talk to you after class? It's nothing bad, I promise."

Alina ignored the titters of her classmates. "Sure."

"Perfect."

Alina slid into her usual seat beside El, bracing for the inevitable. Sure enough, it came only seconds later.

"You did so good, Alina," Angela drawled, her blonde hair swept up into a perfect updo. To Alina's complete misfortune, Angela sat right in front of her—which meant that she was forced to stare at her stupid head for most of the class. "Really. It was so moving."

Alina's eye twitched.

"Well, what do you say to that?" Mrs. Gracey asked, shooting her a pointed look. "Angela is being very nice to you, I know."

"Wow," Alina responded dryly. "Thank you, Angela. I really appreciate it."

"No problem." Angela flashed one of her customary smiles. "I just have a question, though... do you mind?"

And there it was.

"Go ahead," Alina bit out, speaking through clenched teeth.

"I was just wondering where you got your sources from? I'd never heard that story before, so I was wondering if it was, you know... real."

"Of course, it's real," Alina snapped. "Why would I make it up?"

"Well, I don't know. It just seems a little unrealistic to me."

Will shot Alina a warning look, noticing the way her hands curled into fists. He'd witnessed enough Alina-Vs-Angela debates to know that there was always a risk when Alina got heated. If she slipped up and let her energy loose, there could be major consequences.

Breathe, Alina. She took in a deep breath through her nose, trying to regain her composure. Once she was fairly certain she wasn't going to put a hole through Angela's head, she responded, "You can find everything on Ruby Bridges at the library, if you're interested in the subject. There are plenty of works about her."

Angela hummed. "All right. Maybe I'll check it out."

"Okay, okay," Mrs. Gracey interrupted. "Enough talking for now, please. I'm going to choose our next presenter."

"Of course. I'm so sorry, Mrs. Gracey."

Alina shoved her hand into the pocket of her jean jacket and raised her middle finger.

As fate would have it, Angela was chosen to go next. Her presentation was on Helen Keller, the blind and deaf activist who eventually became a published author. If Alina was being honest, learning about the woman was interesting, but not when it was coming from Angela, who spoke about her like she was a fascinating specimen instead of a person. Sort of like the way she spoke to El.

Of course, Mrs. Gracey was all for it. When Angela finished, flashing the class a beaming smile, Mrs. Gracey burst into applause. "That was wonderful, Angela. Truly wonderful. What an inspiring story."

Alina rolled her eyes.

"Okay," Mrs. Gracey said, moving back to her desk. "Now let's see who has to follow that." She pushed her glasses onto her nose and reached into the Jar of Terror once more, groping around for a moment before seizing onto one of the white slips. Opening it, she read out the name of the next unlucky individual. "Jane."

Beside Alina, El—who was Jane Hopper here, her legal name on her birth certificate—sucked in a breath, looking from Alina to Will. Will gave her an encouraging nod, and Alina flashed her a thumbs-up. "Good luck."

A weak smile spread onto El's face, and she gathered her diorama and made her way to the front of the classroom. Her eyes darted around the room nervously, the beginnings of sweat beading on her forehead. After a moment, she cleared her throat. "Hi."

Angela shifted slightly in her seat, as if she was already bored. Alina flipped off the linings of her jacket with both hands, now.

"For my hero, I... I chose my dad," El began.

Immediately, her classmates blinked, some turning around to whisper to each other. A few snickers were heard throughout the classroom. Alina resisted the urge to slam her head into her desk.

"And for my visual aid..." El continued, turning her project around, "I made a 'direyama' of our cabin."

"More like diarrhea," Angela's boyfriend joked. This sent the class into a fit of laughter, with Angela laughing the hardest of all. El forced a smile, too, as if they were laughing with her instead of at her, and Alina clenched her fists.

"Wow. That's so funny. Oh, my God, I'm laughing so hard. You should be a comedian."

Mrs. Gracey shot them all a look. "Quiet, everyone. Let's be respectful."

When the laughter finally subsided, El lifted the wooden figure of Hopper that she'd painted, showing it to the class. "This is my dad. His name is Hopper. He made the best Eggos, and... we liked to watch Miami Vice on Fridays. This is Mr. Fibbly." She held up the next figure. "He is a squirrel."

The class seemed to find that funny, too, and burst into a new set of giggles. El's face fell a bit, looking to Alina and Will for support. Will silently urged her to continue. Alina mouthed, You've got this."

She returned the wooden Mr. Fibbly to his box. "And this is the alarm that my dad made. I... I was never scared, because..."

El trailed off, noticing Angela's hand in the air. She glanced over at Mrs. Gracey for help.

"Uh, Angela, let's save questions until the end of Jane's presentation."

"Yeah, sorry." Angela lowered her hand. "I'm just, like, confused. I thought this was a presentation about a historical hero."

"My dad was in the newspaper," El defended. Tears were beginning to spring to her eyes, and a rosy blush spread across her cheeks.

"Your local paper?" Angela let out a chuckle. The class followed, as usual. Alina's palms began to sweat. "I just don't think that's what Mrs. Gracey meant by historical. This is supposed to be about famous people."

More tears built in El's eyes. "My dad is famous." Her hands began to shake, rattling the contents of the diorama. "He... he saved lots of lives. In a mall fire. He was a hero for people. And he was my hero, too."

"That's not what I'm saying at all, but it's okay," Angela cooed, pronouncing each word as if she was talking to a five-year-old. Alina narrowed her eyes, wishing lasers could burst free from her pupils. "I am so sorry, Mrs. Gracey. I didn't mean to interrupt. I just wanted clarity on the rules of the assignment."

"El—Jane got permission to do it," Alina blurted.

"What?"

"She didn't just do it out of nowhere. Mrs. Gracey said it was okay. So, how about you just let her get back to it, okay?"

Mrs. Gracey breathed out a sigh. "Miss Byers—"

"Fairgrieves-Byers," Alina corrected.

"Miss Fairgrieves-Byers is right. So, Angela, while, technically, you are correct, Jane has decided to do her father. So, please, continue with your presentation, Jane."

The bottom of El's lip trembled. A tear streaked down her cheek.

Alina wanted to murder each and every person who'd made her feel that way.

When the bell finally rang, everyone but Alina sprung out of their seats. El was one of the first out of the room, wiping her eyes. Will hustled after her, likely to offer his comfort—even six presentations later, El still hadn't stopped trembling—and Alina wished she could follow. Instead, she remained behind, tapping her foot to the beat of Heart of Glass by Blondie, and prayed that whatever Mrs. Gracey wanted to tell her didn't take up too much of her time.

Once the last student had left, following her friends out of the door, Mrs. Gracey folded her hands together. "Alina. Come up here, please."

Alina swung her backpack over her shoulder and obliged.

Once she was standing at Mrs. Gracey's desk, her teacher began to sift through a pile of papers. She didn't speak, leaving Alina to stare at her awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. On the wall, the clock ticked. Her sneakers scuffed against the floor.

Eventually, she couldn't stand the silence. "What do you need to talk to me about?"

Mrs. Gracey finally looked up, procuring three papers from her pile. She set them down in front of her, allowing Alina to get a clear view of them.

"These are the rubrics for your past three assignments," Mrs. Gracey explained. "You got a C+ on the Christopher Columbus research paper you did last month."

"It was a dumb assignment, anyway," Alina muttered. "It's not like he actually discovered America."

Mrs. Gracey stared at her for a moment. Then she cleared her throat.

"Anyway, here are the rubrics for the Declaration of Independence and Second Amendment projects. You ended up with a C- on each of them, with a few marks docked for being late."

"Great," Alina said. "You really wanted me to stay after class to talk about how dumb I am?"

She may have been outwardly blasé, but, if she was being honest, the sight of those Cs made her heart sink. These marks were a far cry from the ones she'd managed to achieve back in Hawkins—even after her dad had just died, she'd managed to stay in the B range. Later, she'd even started getting As.

"That's not it at all," Mrs. Gracey said, shaking her head. "Look. Here's the rubric for the presentation you just did."

She set down a fourth piece of paper. Alina stared.

A bright red A stared back at her.

"A marvellous improvement, Alina. There were a few minor errors, but nothing that would significantly lower your mark. I just wanted to tell you that I'm proud of you. It's clear that you've begun to put more effort into your schoolwork."

An A. Honestly, Alina had been expecting a B- at best.

"Um. Thank you," she said. "That's good to see."

Mrs. Gracey's face softened. "Look, Alina, I know this year has been hard for you."

That's the understatement of the decade.

"Coming to a new school, meeting all new people... that's difficult. And I know it's been affecting your grades. But this is a sign. It's a sign that when you put real work in, you can do well. You can thrive regardless of your circumstances, Alina. I can tell you're a very smart girl."

"Thanks," Alina said again.

"I hope you have a great spring break. You've earned it."

"Thanks."

Honestly, Alina hadn't made a conscious effort to slack off on school. It had just... happened. Moving from one high school to another two months into the semester had been difficult, especially with the inevitable glances that occurred when Alina was introduced as Will and El's sister. Then Angela had come into the equation, and...

And Alina was desperately missing Lucas.

Before she knew it, her marks were beginning to slip. She would take naps instead of doing her homework, go for runs around the city instead of studying for tests. All she wanted was a clear mind, where she wasn't thinking about the Mind Flayer or Billy or Heather or anything that had gone down last summer. Schoolwork just made things worse.

She didn't know why she'd decided to go all in on the Ruby Bridges poster. But going to the library had actually been kind of fun, even if the story itself had justifiably saddened her. The librarian, a Black woman, had been more than willing to help, and actually brought her lemonade when she'd been there for four hours. There had been a sense of home there that Alina hadn't found anywhere else in Lenora Hills.

"Do you have any plans?" Mrs. Gracey asked now.

"Yeah, actually," Alina responded. "I'm flying out to my hometown tomorrow to visit my boyfriend."

"Oh, isn't that sweet. Well, have fun, okay? Try to relax. I hope you can come back here refreshed and ready to continue on the year."

"Yeah, totally. Uh, thank you, Mrs. Gracey."

"Have a good day, Alina."

Alina nodded, then made her way out of the classroom. A part of her did feel lighter after that conversation—at least there was one thing in her life that was improving—but she was still hot as a fire on high. She needed to find El.

And she needed to kick Angela's ass.

. ✧ ・゜. +・o ✧

A/N: let's say it together, everyone: FUCK ANGELA!! 

i hate her so much. she's the worst. i'm GLAD she got a goddamn concussion, and i actually wish it was WORSE. i wish that el killed her. i wish that she had her powers just so she could snap her neck. fuck angela, man.

anyway. eddie content next chapter, as well as a gabe and lucas scene :)) i hope you're excited!!

'till next time!! <333