Here's the second chapter of Falling Petals, hope you enjoy. I do not own Stranger Things!

By the way Andy wasn't billed with a last name so I've given him one! I also will be introducing issues with homophobia in this fic, and I just wanted to have a warning for those who are sensitive to that. (The attitudes towards it reflect the time period)

Petal

She woke early the next morning almost slipping out of the house for school unnoticed. Almost. "Petal! What are you doing up so early? Jason won't be up to take you to school for another hour!" Came her Aunt Bonnie. Petal turned to her with a hopefully casual smile. "I think I'm more apt to walk to school in the mornings. I think the quiet suits me better." The blonde woman purses her lips and checks the clock on the wall. "Are you at least going to have any breakfast?"

"I have a granola bar in my bag. See you later"

"Wait!" Petal stops, hand on the door handle and closes her eyes. Not again.

"Turn around." Aunt Bonnie was right behind her now, she slowly turns and held her gaze "Yes Ma'am?"

The older woman straightens the collar of her blue button up and gives a playful tug at her loose hair "Gorgeous, you know I heard about a certain basketball player-"

"I think Jason's just got a case of wishful thinking Aunt Bonnie. I'm not very interested in Andy" She says quickly, but quickly regretting it. The woman's made up face darkens slightly, her blue eyes burning into her own grey ones. She plasters on the loving smile again "I think he's just trying to help you, no father around...someone has to make sure you're dating the right type."

She bit back a response, instead looking at her pristine white tennis shoes. "I expect you to be a little bit more appreciative for all Jason does for you."

"I...I appreciate the thought...but I want to focus on my studies...and getting settled." She almost whispers it as a perfectly manicured red fingernail curls underneath her chin, lifting it up to meet their eyes. "Just remember dear, we're family. We just want the best for you."

Petal nods, her jaw clenched as she turns and leaves through the front door. She feels her Aunt's eyes on her as she gets farther down the street, only when she turns the corner out of sight does she let out the breath she'd been holding. She walks all the way, knowing she's at least an hour early so she goes in her first class, theatre. She's sitting at a small table, drawing boredly in her notebook, it was a hand holding a rose, petals falling limply through the air. She's only been there for about 30 minutes when the door opens unexpectedly and three boys come stumbling in. They were the three freshmen from hellfire. Petal smiles slightly "Hey, Dustin right?"

Dustin's mouth spreads into that infectious grin "Hey! What are you doing here so early?"

"Oh, just needed to get out of the house I guess." She shrugs "You?"

"Eddie told us we needed to grab his notes from in here...have you seen them?" She looks around "What do they look like?"

"Black notebook, kinda torn up, has some character sheets sticking out of it" Mike mutters, already moving chairs so he could look beneath the table. She watched them look for a few minutes. "It's not here man, maybe he left it at home or something?" Lucas says while giving Petal a side eye. She raises a brow at him but ultimately goes back to adding color to her drawing. The minutes until school started ticking by seemingly faster as the three boys looked for the notebook. "Why is it so important?" She finally asks when Mike lifted her bag to look under it. "It's got like all of his D&D notes for the campaign we're about to start!" Lucas groans, sitting down in the chair across from her defeatedly.

"Why isn't he looking for it?" She finally asks, though she'd been wondering since Dustin had explained.

"He didn't want- OW" Dustin started but Mike elbowed him hard in the ribs. Hey tries to nod subtly at Petal but she rolled her eyes "It's about me?"

"No! No he's just busy this morning?"

She rolls her eyes, "He seriously wouldn't come in to look for it because I'm in here. Do I look like a troll or something?" She asks incredulously. "You guys can go ahead and bring him in here to look. I'll go to the restroom and not come back until his highness is done looking." She slams her pen down onto her notebook and exits the room, nearly running into the teen in question. She just scoffs and walks in the opposite direction, not particularly caring if he'd gone in to find the notes. She later returned, the school halls now bustling with activity as it filled with sleepy students. When she entered the theatre room her things were still neatly placed on the table and the trio was gone. She sat down and saw a small note sticking out of the pages of her sketchbook. She pulled it out to find the messy handwriting of Dustin.

Don't worry about the guys...they're just mad I got a number from a pretty girl (don't worry, I have a girlfriend) and Eddie's just embarrassed about what he said yesterday. Do you want to talk about D&D at lunch? You could come sit by me and I'll show you the basics if you want!

She chuckled at his eagerness and told herself she'd decide later as class was starting. About halfway through her class the drama teacher was pulling out some props from a cabinet when a notebook fell to the floor. It was black and certainly well loved. She picks it up and opens it to find Eddie Munson scrawled carelessly in a corner. "I know him, I'll bring it to him at lunch ma'am" Petal says as the teacher continues pulling out the props. She shoves the book in her backpack and continues her day. Unfortunately for her when she next saw her cousin and his friends they were taking up almost the whole hallway between her and her next class. She tries to slip by unnoticed but an arm wraps itself around her shoulders. Andy's smug voice rings out by her ear. "Hey Pet, where were you this morning?"

"I walked to school...please don't call me that." She says quietly, still trying to move through the crowd of teens but his grip stays with her. He's walking alongside her now. "I needed to talk to you"

She bit her lip and continued walking down the hallway and didn't look at him "What about?"

"I wanted to see if you were busy tonight." She stopped dead, he jolted to a stop too and grinned "Don't be so surprised about that...I made it pretty clear yesterday didn't I?"

"I...I'm flattered Andy...but not interested." She shrugged off his arm and started to walk away when his hand caught her shoulder "Oh come on, I'll do the whole nine yards, dinner and a movie. Flowers at the door-"

"Really I'm not interested Andy...I think one of Chrissy's friends would be willing..." She pulls her shoulder out of his grip again and gets to her class before he can catch up to her again. She sits down in her seat and lets out a breath tiredly. The class felt too short and the bell dismissed them to lunch. She walks into lunch and looks around the room, easily spotting her cousin's table just a few tables away from the Hellfire club. She avoided eye contact with anyone from the jock table, instead focusing on Dustin who was talking happily with Mike and Lucas. Unfortunately for her, today Dustin was sitting right beside Eddie. She sighs "Had to give this thing back anyway." She gets to the table and pulls it out of her bag, holding it out to the metalhead. "It got shoved in a prop closet" He eyes her oddly "Thought the princess was mad at me."

"Doesn't mean I want to keep your notebook."

Dustin had turned to her now and grinned "Hey! Did you want to talk D&D"

"Won't her precious boyfriend be pissed?" Eddie counters with a sour tone, flipping through his notes to make sure there was nothing missing.

"I don't have a boyfriend." Petal turns to him as her heart began to beat faster.

"Andy Wilson I think? One of your cousins little friends" He says, waving a hand dismissively. She groans softly and spares a look for the table behind her finding said basketball player to be glaring not at her but at Eddie Munson...she turned back to Dustin and smiles sweetly at him. "I'd love to sit with you today if the offer is still open. She bats her eyelashes just a little and watches as Dustin takes the hint and moves over on the bench so she could sit on the end beside the metalhead. She ignores the odd looks from the rest of the table and turns to Dustin. "Ok, so start with the basics."

Dustin almost completely ignores the fact that he'd been eating before she got there, so excited to start teaching someone how to play. She played with her hair idly as he explained the different character classes and what they could do. She giggled at his tale of his friend Will botching a roll to lie to a guard and making an ass of himself. She'd actually started to enjoy all of the Dungeons and Dragons talk when she felt a presence behind her. She turned to find Andy looking pissed. "Why are you sitting with the freaks?"

She swallows, "I wanted to sit with my friend Dustin here...and frankly I don't see why you should care." She turns back to her lunch only for her wrist to be in his grasp. "I don't think you should sit with people like them"

"You're not my boyfriend" She hisses suddenly, embarrassed that she was now a part of a scene in the lunchroom, drawing nearly all of the eyes nearby. "So you don't have a single say in who I sit with!"

"Get your hands off of her Wilson." She was shocked when she'd heard Eddie speak. He hadn't spoken a word since she sat down and she'd assumed he'd jump at the chance to have her dragged from the table.

"What did you say freak?" He still hadn't let her go but he was no longer gripping so hard. She yanks her wrist from his fingers, rubbing at the slightly red skin as she sees Eddie stand out of the corner of her eye.

"She said she wants to sit with Henderson. Or are you going to tell me that you think she'll choose a freak over you?" Eddie's brown eyes are shining with mirth as he grins at the jock. "I'd bet one of the freshmen freaks could pull her before you could man. So why don't you go fawn over a cheerleader and let Princess here be, kay?" Andy looks at her and if looks could kill she'd have been dust. "You coming or not?"

"Not." Petal says quietly. Andy storms off, ignoring the snickering at the table beside him as he took his seat next to Jason again. Petal locked eyes with Eddie and let herself smile a little. "Thank you for that..."

"Consider it an apology" Eddie says, looking back down at his notebook nonchalantly "Your wrist ok?" She nods, still rubbing it gently with her fingers. "Apology accepted..." She mutters quietly, missing the small smile that came to his lips when she spoke.

"Back to D&D" She smiled, turning toward Dustin who'd been very quiet since the altercation.

Dustin happily talked her ear off for the rest of lunch, even starting a character sheet for her and promising her another lesson in D&D soon. The bell rang dismissing them and Eddie seemed to sense her nerves over what had happened. "Need company to your next class princess?"

"Um...if you don't mind..." He shrugged and walked with her out of the lunchroom and down the hallway "So...you actually interested in D&D?"

She blushes a little "My ex back home was really into it and always talked about the funny bits...so I'm interested in seeing if I like it I guess. Dustin will probably be crushed if I don't..." He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly "Probably...so your ex boyfriend was into it?"

"Not boyfriend" She says very quietly, almost expecting him to have thought she just sighed, but when she felt his hand on her shoulder she met his shocked eyes "Girlfriend?" He whispers, she thanked her lucky stars that they'd gotten away from the crowds. She nods mutely and he chuckles "That explains a lot-"

"IT DOES NOT" She hisses

"Well you won't date the conventionally attractive dickhead of the school...so it makes a little bit of sense-"

"I am not a lesbian...I just...I like both you dick" She whispers, looking around to find that they'd wandered into a small section of hallway dedicated to morning classes. "I...shit" She groans

"Hey,...no judgement" He holds up his hands defensively. "So...you're bisexual?"

"Yep."

"Do your parents know?"

"My dad does...but my aunt, uncle, and cousin don't. So don't go spreading rumors." She says as they walked quietly through the hall together. A thought suddenly occurs to her. "Want to skip?"

He looks at her surprised, "Yeah...why not?" He leads her out one of the side doors and out towards the woods, "So...princess, you really think tattoos are hot?"

Hours later

She hadn't thought she'd skip the rest of the classes that day but she did. She'd spent the rest of the afternoon in the clearing with Eddie Munson. He still hadn't stopped calling her princess but she was minding less and less the more he said it. "So why are you here?" He'd finally asked as they could hear the bell dismissing the rest of the school distantly.

"I...I don't want to lie..." She mumbles, she'd gotten very comfortable with the metalhead in the past few hours, but didn't want to ruin it.

"What? Are you still worried I'll judge?" He laughs almost incredulously. "I'm repeating my senior year again there's no way I can really judge too much."

She bites her lip "I lived with my dad before I lived with Jason and his parents...I didn't really talk to them at all when I lived with dad. The last time I saw Jason before now was when we were 13 at my grandmother's funeral."

"Your dad ok?"

"My dad...my dad is ok...for now. I know they're not giving me his letters because they think they can fix me if he's not around." She sighs "My dad's in jail for battery for the next 6 months. I was staying in a foster home and was supposed to stay till I was 18...it wasn't that bad. The people were nice enough. But then my Uncle heard that my dad was in jail and decided 'Family is Family' so he filed for custody of me." She sniffles slightly "It sucks if I'm honest."

Eddie runs a hand through his hair "That's pretty heavy..."

"Yep." She drums her fingers on the table. "I should probably go...Dustin said you've got Hellfire tonight" She moves to stand but he stops her with a small grin on his face. "How about you come?"

"Shouldn't I know how to play first?" she laughs

"You won't be playing princess, just watching and learning the ropes...but if you don't want to-"

"What time does it start?"

"An hour? Enough time for me to pick up a couple pizzas and the boys to get their shit ready for me to annihilate" His wolfish grin sends a shiver down her spine. "Sure, I'll come...it'll be interesting." She sits back down as he grabs his things "You just going to kill time here princess?"

"Probably, walking home and walking back would just take up a lot of time for nothing." She shrugs.

"Let's go." He holds out his elbow for her to take "May I escort you to the van M'Lady?"

She giggles, taking his arm and enjoying the closeness of him as he walks her out of the woods and towards the parking lot.