CHAPTER THREE
003. a deal in the woods
PLACEBO - CRAWLERS

ADELADE'S CAR WAS PRETTY beat up when it came into her possession.

Like most things passed down to her from her mother's family, the vehicle was filled with stories instead of working parts, and greatly failed to live up to the American standard. It was a gaudy orange colour to start — a fact which made Addie physically gasp when she first set eyes on it — and came with an unflattering brown rust on the wheels as well as the left tire rims. The leather was ripped in sections and sewn back together; worst of all, Adelade's seat had been perminately altered to include a boost for her aunt, who at the best of times reached a terrifying 5ft tall. This would've been fine if Adelade was the same, but her father had gifted her 5 extra inches that made driving rather uncomfortable.

She remembered Heather cackling when she saw it.

It was typical, Heather squeezed out between bouts of laughter. It was typical that the girl who cared the most about looks, was given the ugliest car to ever grace Hawkin's roads.

But how could Addie say no? With no money of her own, and a prepaid debt from her aunt and uncle who shipped the car all the way from Washington state, she was stuck with the damn thing until graduation at least. There was little hope that Tammy would take it before then ( secretly, Tammy avoided her test, as the car would then be in her name instead ). So until then, she was stuck with the most unflattering ride of her life.

There was only one way her and her sister could maneuver around the problem.

As expected, the car brought attention during the first few weeks as it sat collecting more rust in the car park. She heard whispers about it in the halls — almost everything different was news in Hawkins — and found out through Jason one morning that the damned machine had been given a name of reference in the senior and junior classes. Her car was known fondly as the traffic cone, which up until that point had no claimed driver. Luckily enough, Tammy's early morning piano practice meant the two were in school before anybody could see them exit, and most nights, they were the last car to make their way back home.

The traffic cone became a legend in the corridors after a little time; it became a game of sorts to find the driver, and an even more complex game for Addie to keep the vehicle to herself. Heather was a good sport at keeping it under wraps, and whenever the others graced the Thompson house with a visit, the car was swiftly parked a couple of streets over to avoid being caught. Not even Emma knew the car was their's, which made it even harder at times to keep up with one of Tammy and Addie's only secrets.

On the bright side, it made it easier to keep watch of Emma during her Friday deals with Eddie Munson.

Over their Senior year, Tammy was becoming undone by her sister's influence. Addie knew that while they both had fifteen more minutes of class, neither of them were particularly fond of chemistry. It was the easiest class for Adelade to convince her sister to skip when she wanted to avoid the hustle and bustle at the end of the day, so the two often found themselves sat in their car on a Friday afternoon at least fifteen minutes before the bell. Sometimes they'd speed off to avoid being caught in the dreaded car. Mostly though, the two sat in their seats with music gently filling their silent observation of Hawkins High, until they began to spot the middle school kids escape from their own section of the school. They took this time to do seperate kinds of unwinding; Tammy wrote in her journal, while Addie watched the football field as she became lost in thought.

From their seats, the Thompson sisters had a perfect view of Emma as she ran down the steps towards the football field and beyond. They could see the gentle bounce of her curled hair, and just about spot the pattern embroidered into her oversized denim jacket - that was two seasons out of style - as it hid her back from their view. Even without thinking Addie's eyes followed the girl into the woods for her weekly deal with Eddie; she was in no way a bodyguard to Emma, who was the only one who ever spoke to the boy. But I guess in some kind of sweet tradition, Addie liked seeing her friend exit the woods every week unscratched before she made her way home.

After all, Eddie Munson wasn't a man to be trusted.

Though, Emma thought differently.

She often found herself watching the clock for her weekly excursion behind the school grounds. She found an excitement in it; who would've thought? In class, Emma rolled her eyes at Eddie's antics, and spoke to Penelope quite often about how uncouth he was. Hell, as a girl who was ready to make honours roll, it made complete sense that she was exhuasted by the boy who seemed permiantly stuck in high school. And she was. Mostly.

Until it hit ten past three ( actually ten past, not Addie's version of ten past ). Then she would excitedly walk into the woods towards a picnic table that was well known among Eddie's customers. Then, she would be positively buzzing to meet the same man that infuriated her in class due to his lack of care. In that time frame Emma found herself charmed by the boy, for every reason other than the product he would sell to her.

That particular day, Emma was early.

She was patiently waiting for the boy when she heard his heavy boots make a track in the dirt. His footsteps were very distinctive to her; it was something about the heaviness of his step and lopsided positioning of his feet, which seemed to describe him ever so well. In comparison, her own shoes were pointed at the end to make arrowheads in the dirt, which always tried their best to run parallel to each other.

"You're early today, teach." Eddie's voice was in no way surprised. In fact, Emma turned to see a smile that was all too intelligent for a man who failed maths three times.

Despite herself and her school ranking, she found herself smirking too, so her teeth poked into her bottom lip. If she was seen in this state, Emma was sure her classmates would have the kind of meltdown that only occured in High School. The two had never publicly been seen with each other after all; only Emma's friends knew she spoke to the man.

"Don't get all cocky; Mr. Kennedy let us out early."

That wasn't true, but she knew he wouldn't know that. He'd never stepped foot in an AP class in his life.

"Is that right? Well damn, here I was thinking you AP assholes worked hard."

"We do!" Emma was grinning as she defended herself, which widened Eddie's already infectious smile.

"We actually do the work, unlike some people."

Her jab was swatted away with Eddie's hands. Emma noted his rings in the process, which seemed a little different than the usual collection he wore so devotedly. There were many things about Eddie she found cool in the comfort of her privacy, and his rings were possibly on top of that list.

"New rings?"

Emma tilted her head to get a better look at his collection. She was observant by nature - perhaps a side effect of her nervousness around the man who insisted on making eye contact if he could - which made it hard to miss a morsel of difference in Eddie's routine. For somebody who seemed so very chaotic in nature, he was partial to a ritual or two. Although, rituals weren't entirely out of his character, as Jason liked to comment to Emma whenever he saw the opportunity.

Eddie feigned a swoon, spinning a full 360 degrees before clumsily leaning against the bench to balance himself. When he met Emma's eye again, his hand was pressed against his forehead as his eyes became comically wide.

"You make a habit of remembering my rings? Well well... here I was thinking you despised me as much as the others."

Over the months the two had formed their strange deals, Emma became less and less convinced by his reputation. Sure, he was odd. You could tell that just by the way the man maintained himself, with his hair flying in curls from his head at all angles. He took pride in his outfits, which resembled anything but what was in fashion ( something he often teased Emma about when she showed up in clothes he hadn't seen before ). He was also fairly easy to talk to, and less judgemental than her friends had thought.

The only things that were really true about his reputation, was his fascination with Dungeons and Dragons, and his seemingly unconscious choice to dislike anything mainstream. She made a point to avoid that part of him; as she made a point to avoid asking any questions that would ruin the spectacle that was Eddie Munson. She didn't want to know if his Hellfire Club was a cult, and she absolutely didn't want to ask about his hatrid for her friends.

A topic he seemed to bleed into most of their short conversations.

"They don't hate you." Emma corrected him, smiling at his antics. Although, the smile always weaned when he talked about her friends.

"Most of them just think you're... unusual."

Emma wasn't one to be mean to others, let alone insult them to their face. Not that Eddie was one to be easily insulted.

"Good."

"Good?"

"Your friends suck, I wouldn't want them to like me." Eddie answered honestly.

"I mean, where are they right now? Finishing their own class because you're too nice to tell them to get their own drugs? You? The most school obsessed person I've ever met."

"I'm not school obsessed." Emma defended as her eyebrows creased.

The comparison made her chest pang a little - that was the last thing she wanted Eddie to think of her. His compliment beforehand was drowned by his admittance that she was a nerd to him, as well as a push over. While she knew that she wasn't supposed to want Eddie to think of her at all, she wished he thought of her as something similar to her friends. They were judgy at times, sure. But they were also popular, and admired in Hawkins.

"You're too good to them teach. Let them get their own damn weed." Eddie advised as he sat down by Emma's feet, seemingly aware of the drop in her smile.

The two shared a look for just one moment, as Emma's smile turned into a gentle frown. He'd said these things many times before; each time digging a little further into the love she had for her friendship group. By now there was a decently sized crater that was beginning to feel overly empty, which scared Emma entirely too much.

Her friends were all she knew. They'd all been through so much together.

"It doesn't matter Eddie." Emma dismissed quietly.

She smiled at him, with a joy that didn't quite reach her brown eyes.

"Speaking of... I need a little extra from you; something stronger."

"Shit, you finally letting loose teach?" Eddie asked, electing to fill their unspoken conversation with jokes.

"What? No."

Eddie laughed half heartedly at the woman's reaction to his accusation. She returned the laugh, shaking her head as she realised how defensive she'd been to the man's current side hustle.

"Chrissy isn't doing too great. She wants something that'll make it go away for a little while."

"You sure that's a good idea?"

Emma shrugged, looking between the trees to spot the edge of Hawkins High again.

"I don't know. Honestly, I'm hoping she'll pussy out of it last minute. Maybe give her an experience that'll change her mind? I can give you two biology quizes as a thank you."

Eddie snorted; the girl obviously had never tried one of his products. He wondered if she was even in the room when her friends took it, considering her request and consistent awkwardness around the topic. Maybe it was the fact she was talking to him, who was rather knowledgeable in the subject, that threw her off. It was odd for Eddie to know more between the two.

"What do you mean?"

"Like- I don't know. Take her to your house and present her with coke or something? Make it all seem really... real."

Eddie looked at Emma as she explained her plan. It was obvious she'd only been considering this today, partly because of how vague the plans were. Normally when the two met, she'd have payment and answers ready to go, but today she took out homework that was messily transcribed onto a page of her notebook. The ink was smudged, and the money alongside it was crinkled by her hands, which gripped her offering exceptionally tight.

Even with the little amount of time the two spent together, Eddie could tell that Emma was worried for Chrissy - a girl who Eddie had considered a stuck up bitch.

"You don't need to pay me extra teach." Eddie sighed.

With a smile, he took the answers to an upcoming 'pop quiz' gratefully.

"Just meet me after the game today with Chrissy. I'll take you both to my trailer and freak her out a bit, then you can drive her home. Okay?"

"Okay." Emma agreed with a grateful, but still anxious smile. "Thank you Eddie, really."

"Don't thank me yet."