Chapter 4.

                                    

                                          
After everyone left, I decided to go back to my house. Not like anyone would know if I were home because my parents work super late at night and don't get home till early the next morning. But I'll be 18 in like another month, and they trust me home by myself. It's just me, though; no siblings or anything. Which is fine; it does get a little lonely, though. I could've invited the Hellfire Club to get them some pizza or something, but they all went somewhere together. Which is fine, I'm not officially a Hellfire Club member, so I understand. Still, it would've been nice if Eddie actually spoke to me; I don't know what I did that was so wrong. I wonder if I could get ahold of one of the guys. Tomorrow is Spring Break. There won't be any school. 
I walk into our dining room and dig out the phone book because I don't know anyone's phone number. The first person I look for is Dustin, so I go to the H's for Henderson, and obviously, it would be under his mom's name, but I didn't even know what her name was. Shit. This is going to be more difficult than I thought it would be. What the hell do I do now? Do I just wait for Spring Break to be over, and when I see them again, I'll ask? But I'm curious, and it's going to drive me absolutely insane if I don't know why Eddie didn't want me.
Eddie did say that he wants someone who actually knows the game, and I don't know it. I hoped someone could teach me, but Eddie didn't have it. That's when I knew who to call. I looked under the M's for Munson, and I knew that he lived with his uncle Wayne. They lived at Forest Hills trailer park. They lived there for years. I don't exactly remember what happened to Eddie's parents, I remember Eddie mentioning a few years back that his dad was in jail for auto theft, but he doesn't know what happened to his mom. His theory was she met some rich dude and ran off with him, and he thought she would come back for him. Clearly, that didn't happen, and my heart broke for Eddie. 
I looked at the end of the M's where the W's first names would be, and there was his Uncle Wayne's name, right next to their address. I dialed the number, and it rang a few times, but there was no answer. Dammit!
I tried the number a few more times, but there was still no answer. Who else could I call? There was Mike Wheeler, and I know his mom's name was Karen, but Mike is probably home by now. Mike told everyone last week that he was visiting his girlfriend in California. She moved there because, apparently, her dad died in the Mall fire the previous Summer, and her "foster" mom took her and her foster brothers. I'm not 100% on the details of all of it. I know her name is El, but they call her Jane, which is weird. I look under W for Wheeler and see Karen. It's almost 11 o clock at night, so I'm sure they would be in bed, but I give them a call anyway. The phone rang twice before someone picked up. "Wheeler's residence, this is Nancy." Nancy Wheeler answered; she's Mike's older sister.
Did he ask Nancy if she wanted to join the Hellfire Club? I know that she's part of the Hawkins High newspaper, and she's been doing a great job. "Oh hey Nancy, it's (y/n)." It took her a minute to answer. "Right, hi (y/n)." I don't think she remembers me very well. We weren't necessarily in the same social circle. She was always hanging with Steve Harrington, and there was her friend Barb. Not sure what happened to her? But after dating Steve for about a year or so, they broke up, and she started to date Jonathan Byers, who is actually Mike's girlfriend's "foster" brother or whatever it is. "I'm sorry to be calling so late at night; I was wondering if Mike was there, I have a very important question for him." it wasn't a total lie; I was genuinely curious about why Eddie didn't want me to be in Hellfire. "Oh, um, he's actually in bed right now. He's got an early flight in the morning." Shit. "Okay. Thank you, Nancy." I didn't even let her apologize, so I just hung up.
There was no way I was going to get any answers tonight. I'll have to wait till tomorrow morning and try again, even though I didn't want to wait. I could probably go over to Eddie's place and actually ask him. No, that's too crazy. The trailer park is too far away from me. There was no way I would call the other guys since I didn't know their parent's names. Instead of dwelling on it, I go into my room and climb into my bed and try to fall asleep. I just couldn't seem to, and I thought of Eddie all night long. 
The next day I woke up from dreams of Eddie, I walked into the kitchen, and I saw my dad sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper; he didn't look up to see me walk in. "Hey, Dad," I said as I sat next to him at the table. "Hello (y/n)" he's still not looking at me. What was I going to do today? There's no school, and I couldn't get a hold of Dustin. What the hell do I do? Then it hit me; Dustin doesn't live far away from me; maybe I can go over there and talk to him. My dad still didn't look up from his paper, and my mom was too busy making breakfast. "Um, I got to head out. I'll be back later." I got up from the chair and went off into my room to get dressed for the day. I have a very casual wardrobe; I'm not big on wearing shoulder pads. My hair isn't permed, and I'm not big on makeup. When I finished getting dressed, I headed for the door to leave. It's not like my parents will even notice that I'm gone. 
It only took half an hour to walk over to Dustin's house. A car was in the driveway, so I assumed his mom was home. I'm just hoping that Dustin will be. I walked over to the door and rang the doorbell. "Dusty, can you answer the door." I heard a woman yell. "I'm busy." I heard Dustin yell back. "Please, Dusty, get the door." I stood there for a few minutes until Dustin opened the door. "What are you doing here?" He looked shocked to see me. "Hi, um, I need to ask you something." Dustin still looked very confused as to why I was at his house. "Is it a science question?" I lied and told him that it was. "Come on in." He opened the door some more to let me in. "Mom, this is (y/n), (y/n), this is my mom." When I walked into the living room, I saw a woman sitting in a chair, cuddling up with a cat. "Hello, how are you?" She asked, smiling up at me. "Hi, Mrs. Henderson, I'm good, thank you." I smiled back. "Oh, please call me Claudia." At least I know her name now.  "You have a lovely home, Claudia" It was a simple looking home; there were pictures of her and her cat and some of Dustin. It wasn't too big but not too small. "Dusty, be a good boy, be nice to your friend." Dustin smiled at his mom, but it looked a bit forced. "Come on in my room." I followed Dustin into his room. There was a turtle tank on one side of his room, and there was a radio on another side, but it was one of those radios that people install into the cars, kind of like what truck drivers use. "What's that for?" I point over to the radio. "Oh." He smiled. "That's how I get a hold of my girlfriend, Suzie."
 I didn't know that Dustin had a girlfriend. "Why don't you just call her?" Wouldn't it be easier if he just used his landline phone to call? "It's more fun this way, and she lives all the way in Salt Lake City." A long-distance girlfriend, of course. "I know you didn't come here to ask about my radio. What's up?"  I sat down on a chair that was in his room, "Dustin, why did Eddie not want me to be a part of Hellfire?" Dustin's eyes widened for a moment, and it seemed like he wanted to avoid the question. "Please, Dustin." He looked back over at me, "Other than you don't know how to play D&D. He thinks you're a weirdo." 
Excuse me? "What do you mean he thinks I'm a weirdo." Dustin was a little apprehensive. "I..." he looked away. "He told Mike and me you were weird because you talk to yourself." He slowly opened his eyes; I wasn't mad, though; instead of yelling, I laughed. "Wait, seriously? He thinks I'm a weirdo because I was talking to myself." Dustin didn't know what to do; he stood there laughing nervously. "Yeah." This was too good. "First of all, I was talking to myself because I didn't know how to introduce myself to Eddie, and I was kind of scared to go in." I stopped laughing, and Dustin sat down on his bed. "Eddie was wondering what you were doing, so he headed out to the hallway and saw you talking to yourself. He told Mike and me that he didn't want "that freaking weirdo in Hellfire Club." But Mike and I tried to convince him to give you a chance, but you know how that all went." 
Eddie Munson thought I was a weirdo; he does know what people think of him, right? "That's so ridiculous." I shook my head. "I know." Dustin agreed. "So there's no chance?" I looked at Dustin, hoping there was a way he could convince Eddie to give me another chance. 
"Maybe?" he shrugged. "Could you call him?" I asked. "I can do you one better; we can go over to his place." Dustin was proud of his answer, and he got up, smiling ear to ear. "He lives far from here." Dustin made sure I knew that, and I already did know. "So, we're going to take my bike up there." He grabbed my hand, we entered the living room. His mom was still on her chair, cuddling with her cat. Dustin still had my hand rushing out of the house, "Hi mom, bye mom," I waved at her, "It was nice to meet you." And before she had a chance to ask Dustin where we were going, he slammed the door shut. 
Dustin walked over to his bike that was sitting in front of the house; weird that I didn't even see it when I got here. "Get on." He climbed onto the bike and patted on the seat. "Are you sure?" I didn't think it was a good idea. "Yeah, come on." This was going to be very interesting.