58} Hellfire Club

                                    

                                          
"I don't get the big deal. Just talk to Eddie. Get him to move Hellfire to another night." Lucas was telling Dustin and Mike as they walked to class from the assembly.
"'Just talk to Eddie'," Dustin mimicked.
"Why don't you just talk to your coach and get him to move the game?" Mike asked.
"I think that's a great idea, Mike," Dustin smiled over at him.
"Thank you, Dustin."
"This is the championship game!" Lucas pointed out.
"And this is the end of Eddie's campaign," Dustin whined, "A semester of adventuring has led to this moment, and we need you."
"Yeah," Mike added in, "and the Tigers don't. You've been on the bench all year."
"That's not the point," Lucas defended.
"Please, arrive at the point," Dustin rolled his eyes.
"If I get in good with these guys, I'll be in the popular crowd, and then you guys will be too," Lucas said.
"Has it ever occurred to you that we don't want to be popular?" Mike told him.
"So, you wanna be stuck with the nerds and freaks for three more years?" Lucas asked.
"We are nerds and freaks!" Dustin exclaimed.
"Yeah, but maybe we don't have to be," Lucas argued.
"Just look at Steve and Jenna, Lucas," Dustin sighed, "Who really had it better? The popular jock who had no real friends or the nerdy girl who built a family? Huh?"
"That is different, Dustin. Jenna was just different. The exception."
"We both know she was not, Lucas."
"Look," Lucas stopped Dustin, "I'm just tired of being bullied. I'm tired of girls laughing at us. I'm tired of feeling like a loser. We came to high school wanting things to be different, right?" Mike and Dustin nodded slightly, "So now we have that chance. I skip tonight, that's all out the window. So I'm asking you guys, as a friend, just talk to Eddie. Get him to move Hellfire. Come to my game. Please."
Before any more words could be exchanged, the bell rang, sending everyone to their classes, and leaving Dustin pissed off and thinking about just how much he missed his sister.
~
"The Devil has come to America," Eddie started to read aloud an article from a magazine about how dangerous D&D is for children at the lunch table. "Dungeons and Dragons, at first regarded as a harmless game of make-believe, now has both parents and psychologists concerned. Studies have linked violent behavior to the game, saying it promotes satanic worship, ritual sacrifice, sodomy, suicide, and even... murder!"
Dustin and Mike were observing this from afar as they tried to figure out how to tell Eddie about Lucas.
"Shit, he seems really revved up today," Dustin sighed.
"He's always revved up," Mike pointed out, "We'll just act casual."
"Society has to blame something," One of the other members told Eddie as Mike and Dustin plopped their lunch trays down. "We're an easy target."
"Exactly," Eddie was pissed off already, "We're the freaks because we like to play a fantasy game. But as long as you're into band," He hopped up on the table and started to talk louder, "or science... or parties," He said the last bit in a whiny voice, "Or a game where you toss balls into laundry basket..."
This caught Jason's attention, "You want something, freak!?"
To retaliate, Eddie put his hands to his head in a way that looked like devil horns and stuck his tongue out. Jason remained silent and just glared, cueing Eddie to continue on.
"It's forced conforming. That's what's killing the kids!" He jumped down off the table and screamed in a teacher's face. "That's the real monster," He toned his voice down a bit and just spoke to the rest of Hellfire.
"So," Dustin, for some reason, thought it was now time to bring up Lucas, "uh, speaking of monsters, uh, Lucas has to do his, uh, balls-in-laundry-baskets game. So... he's not gonna be able to make it to Hellfire tonight. And I know there's no way we can beat your sadistic campaign without him. So, me and Mike, we were talking, shooting the shit, and we were thinking that maybe we might..."
"Postpone," Mike finished for him.