Warnings: This chapter contains a small section where Eddie and Katherine talk about their childhoods, so there is non-graphic talk of child abuse on Katherine's part and child neglect on Eddie's part.

Chapter Five

The next morning Katherine woke up not feeling rested at all, but she took a quick shower to wake herself up further. She decided on a pink and white striped shirt and blue jeans for her clothes that day. The shirt had long sleeves, which she'd taken to wearing because of the brace on her wrist. It would be coming off next week if all went well.

Her mom could tell that she hadn't slept well because of the darkness beneath her eyes, but she said, "I heard you moving around last night."

"I – sorry. Did I keep you awake?"

"No. I was up late filling out applications. Why couldn't you sleep?"

"I had a nightmare. Some creepy house. I couldn't get it out of my head, so I got up and drew it."

"And after?"

"I slept okay, but only got a couple hours."

"You think you'll be okay going to school?"

"I can't miss school just because I'm tired. I'll be fine. I don't do anything but walk in gym right now because of my wrist, so it's okay."

Katherine ate a quick breakfast of eggs and toast and drink half a glass of orange juice to wash it down before quickly making her way out to the bus stop to wait with Max as had become her habit since starting Hawkins High.

What was different that morning, however, was that Max took her headphones off after they sat down in the bus.

"I saw Munson leaving your place last night."

Katherine tensed at first, but then she realized Max hadn't said those words with any judgement whatsoever. They had been said with curiosity.

"Yeah, Eddie had dinner with me and my mom last night."

"That must have been interesting."

"Well, we were – we were hanging out and he was there when mom started cooking, so . . ."

"No, I just meant that he doesn't really do that. I haven't lived in the trailer park for long, but I've never seen him hang out with someone before. Not outside of his club or band, anyway. And they don't usually come to the trailer park."

"Oh."

Katherine wasn't sure what she was supposed to say to that. She'd had thoughts about not exactly fitting in at the Hellfire table as well. She got along with everyone at the table, but she didn't feel like she was actually a part of the group. Maybe it was because she was new or maybe it was because she really wasn't part of the band or club. It didn't matter, either way. They were nice to her and tried to make her feel included even if she didn't feel like she totally fit in with them yet. When it was just her and Eddie – or even just her and Will – they seemed interested enough to want to get to know her better.

Besides the only other person she would consider sitting with was Robin and she usually sat with her band friends, and Katherine wouldn't really fit in there either.

Katherine sped her way through Typing class and basically slept her way through Literature. She was aware enough to know they were reviewing Pride and Prejudice, would have a test on it the next day, and would also receive their new book, The Iliad, which she was not happy about. She'd never read it, but she knew it was about war and it was a book she had avoided for that reason. At least her knowledge of mythology would come in handy for that assignment.

Calculus was more of the same, her hating the amount of time one problem took but being able to find the solution easily anyway.

Eddie was late, as per usual, and she found out that the reason he was usually late was because he didn't actually have a first period, and he had free periods throughout the day. He was only taking the classes he needed to graduate, which were Calculus, Bio-Chemistry, and Government. He was also in second year Auto Shop, but that was an elective so he chose to take that class.

"What do you do the rest of the time? Between classes?" she asked.

"Mostly go out and chill in the van. Listen to music, take a nap, smoke."

She'd never seen Eddie smoke, but he did always have the residual smell that smokers usually had. It wasn't overwhelming, so it didn't bother her.

"I, uh, noticed that your light was on at, like, two this morning . . ." Eddie said hesitantly, as if he didn't know if he should say anything about it or not. And then more quickly, "My room faces yours. I was up too and saw that it was on."

"Yeah. Um, I couldn't sleep, so I decided to draw. I got like four hours of sleep last night."

"Oh. Hey, so I was thinking, you know how Halloween is coming up . . . ?" Eddie brought his hands up over the desk and began fidgeting with his rings. "Uh, there's this place I've gone to the last couple of years a few towns over. They have a costume party the night of Halloween. Thought maybe you'd want to dress up and come with me?"

She froze for a second, not really knowing what to say. She hadn't expected him to invite her somewhere. He was already taking her to a pumpkin patch, and she had a feeling that had more to do with him not wanting her to go with Steve than anything else.

She must have taken too long to respond because Eddie seemed to take her hesitation as rejection.

"I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to."

"No, I want to. I just . . . I've never celebrated Halloween before, so I don't know what I would go as." Her voice sounded small, as if she were ashamed of never having done something others would have considered normal.

"Oh, well . . . you'd dress up as whatever you want. There isn't a theme or anything, so you could go as a character from one of your favorite books, if you wanted." He leaned further into the aisle so he could speak even more quietly. "It is at a bar, though. Thought I should mention that before you answered."

That made her pause because she'd never been to a bar before and she wasn't exactly sure how she felt about it.

"Uh . . . I still very much want to dress up and go with you. Just promise not to, you know, abandon me once we get there."

"Of course not. I'll stay by your side so long you'll be begging to get rid of me by the end of the night."

She very much doubted that. She'd found that the more she was around Eddie the more she wanted to be around Eddie. Obviously, he was different and it caused a fascination to rise within her because of it, but that wasn't the main reason she liked being around him.

He didn't know it and others couldn't see it, but he shined just a bit brighter than everyone else because he wasn't like them. He was kind and he paid attention when she talked and she felt safe to try and find herself when he was there. She felt safe because she knew that whoever that self was, he would accept it.

She knew that other people found him intimidating. She also knew it was something he aimed for. He used his love for metal music and the culture that went with it as a sort of armor – his band shirts and his leather jacket, his jean vest with all the patches on it, his ability to be loud and blunt – to produce the affect he wanted.

She wasn't going to lie. He could be intimidating when he had his full metalhead persona going on. The clothes he wore made him appear bigger than he actually was – not that he was skinny or lanky in any way – and it made guys like Jason think twice about picking a fight with him. Not to mention the rings. Once punch from a fist with rings could cause serious damage.

But even when Jason was insulting Eddie, Eddie didn't seem to want to resort to violence. He used his words instead.

She hadn't known him for very long, but she had yet to see him get anything more than a little frustrated, and that was part of the reason why she felt safe around him.

In art, the teacher assigned another Halloween themed project. This time it involved white yarn, glue, and black construction paper. The students were allowed to pick the design they wanted to do as long as it went with the theme of Halloween.

A lot of the students decided to go with a jack o' lantern pattern, but a few were making designs to show off a favorite horror movie – Dracula, the Wolfman, Frankenstein. Will was making what looked like a zombie face, and Katherine decided on a grinning skull.

The project took the whole period to do, but it did get done. They were told to come pick them up at the end of the day, once the glue had time to dry.

Katherine and Will walked to lunch together, as usual, dropped their bags off at the Hellfire table, and then went to pick up their lunch trays. Katherine chose a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a bowl of fruit salad along with a small carton of chocolate milk. Her energy was starting to lag and she felt she needed the sugar to get through the rest of the school day.

Everything was fine when she sat down – even though Mike commented on her shirt, saying he was blinded by the pink - and she was able to eat a little of her lunch, but then the boys around her started fussing at each other. It was mostly Dustin and Mike, and she had no clue what they were arguing about. Will was in on it too, but he wasn't nearly as loud as the other two.

As if the yelling wasn't bad enough, Mike and Dustin started shoving each other around in their seats. It wasn't hard enough to hurt each other, really, but it still made Katherine tense up because the fussing had turned physical quickly and she was scared it would escalate even further.

It got worse when Dustin suddenly slammed his hands on the table and said, "Damn it, Mike, you're not listening to me," and when Eddie shouted for the two to shut up.

Katherine jumped, let out what she was sure sounded like a squeak or a whimper, and then her hands were coming up and clenching into fists in front of her. Even she didn't know if it was because she thought she needed to block someone from hitting her or if she was preparing to hit someone first, but her body froze in that defensive stance.

The shouting and the hitting of the table took her back to all of the times she would hear her mom and dad arguing while she was hiding away in her room.

Her heart felt as if it were trying to beat its way out of her chest and her breath was coming in short, shallow pants. It was only when she realized that pretty much everyone at the table was looking at her, though, that she felt the need to get up and leave.

So that was what she did. She got up, grabbed her bag and sprinted to the exit of the cafeteria, leaving her lunch behind.

"What the hell was that about?" Dustin asked.

"You freaked her out," Mike said, shoving him once again.

"I think we all did," Will said quietly.

Eddie thought Will was right. They had all freaked her out. Once one of the members of his group started yelling, almost everyone else did. Katherine had been fine when she'd first sat at the table; she'd only sort of withdrawn into herself when Mike and Dustin had started arguing about whatever they were arguing about.

It was typical teenage boy stuff. They did it all the time, yelling and shoving but never really meaning anything by it.

Suddenly, Gareth was punching Eddie in the shoulder.

"Ow! What?" he asked, embracing the part of his arm that had been hit.

"Dude, go after her!"

Eddie looked at the others at the table. Was it really a good idea for him to be the one to go after her when he had been one of the ones to make her upset in the first place?

"Go!"

"A'right, a'right. Jesus! I'll be right back."

He left his stuff at the table, knowing it would be safe with the others and quickly walked out the same door Katherine had. The hallway outside was mostly vacant, so it wasn't hard to see where she was headed: the girl's bathroom.

He needed to catch up with her before she got there, because he definitely didn't need 'sneaking into the girl's bathroom' under his list of offences.

"Hey, Katherine, wait up!" he called after her, figuring if she wanted him to catch up, she would stop and if she didn't then she wouldn't.

Katherine stopped walking, but she didn't turn around. Eddie still took it as a win.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. I'm –"

"You don't like loud noises," Eddie said.

She did turn then. Eddie was grateful that she hadn't been crying and didn't seem like she was going to.

"I don't like arguing," she corrected. "Or yelling. It makes me think of all the times my parents would fight before my mom and I left."

It probably hadn't helped when he'd shouted for everyone to shut up.

"I hope we didn't scare you."

She sighed, moved to the side of the hall, and dropped her bag on the floor before she plopped to sit and lean against the wall.

"No, you – you didn't. Honestly, I –" she broke off and looked up. "Can you sit? You're gonna give me a neck ache if I have to keep looking up to talk."

Eddie scoffed in amusement but sat down anyway. He had just been waiting for an invitation.

"Thanks. Anyway, no, you guys didn't scare me. I never like arguing or fighting, but it doesn't usually bother me like that. I've been feeling off all day anyway, since I didn't get much sleep last night. My mom offered to let me stay home today. I probably should have. I feel like I've been sleepwalking through school today."

"You could always go to the nurse. If you fake feeling sick, she usually lets you take a nap for about half-an-hour."

"Really? That never would have happened at my old school." She shook her head. "I can't skip gym. I like hearing Robin complain about hating it too much to miss it."

Eddie grinned. "Ah, a fellow music aficionado and non-athlete."

"Music aficionado? I thought you only liked metal."

"Nah. Uncle Wayne brought me up on country and southern rock, so I'm familiar with those genres. I even know a few pop songs that would sound okay if they weren't so . . . poppy."

Kathrine laughed a little and Eddie felt something loosen in his chest at the sound.

"There you are," he said, nudging her shoulder with his own. "For real, though, I'll try and remember to tone it down when the guys get like that. Okay?"

Her mood dropped a bit and she looked at her lap. "They shouldn't have to do that, though. I know they were just messing around, and I hate that I reacted that way."

Eddie watched as her shoulders grew tense enough to start drawing up before she sighed to try and release the tension.

"You probably already guessed since my mom and I moved here by ourselves, but . . . my dad was not a great guy. He, uh, had a temper when things didn't go his way. He yelled a lot and . . . and he's the reason my wrist was sprained."

"Jesus," Eddie muttered.

"Yeah. It's the reason my mom decided to finally leave. She didn't want to risk him hurting me like that again."

Eddie really didn't know what to say for a few seconds because saying he was sorry for something like that sounded lame to him, so they both sat there in companionable silence. She played with her hands in her lap and Eddie played with his hair, bringing a strand up to cover his mouth before letting it go. It was a habit he'd picked up once his hair was long enough to mess with like that.

Finally, Eddie decided on what to say.

"My childhood wasn't great either. My mom was sick for most of it and my dad did some not so honorable things that landed him in prison. My mom wasn't able to take care of me, so I was sent to live with Wayne before I started middle school. She, uh . . . she passed away not long after."

She looked at him then. "I'm sorry."

"Thanks. Wayne is great, though. He looks out for me, but I basically have the freedom to do what I want. He's also the reason I haven't just given up on high school completely."

"Hm." She fiddled with her fingers for a second before starting to speak again. "Why haven't you graduated? I mean . . . I don't know how to say it any other way, but . . . you seem smart enough to have already."

Eddie let out a huff of laughter. "Thanks, but I'm also a little lazy and I can't focus on anything math and science related to save my life. Doesn't help the grades when I only get about half the work done."

"Ah. Yeah, that – that'll do it."

"Yup. There was also a problem of me missing a lot the second time around. Wayne was working the early shift then and he wasn't always around to make sure I was up and out of bed."

Technically he had been old enough to make sure he was up on his own, but he had also stopped caring after a while.

"I'm glad I don't have a first period this year. I get, like, an extra hour of sleep."

"Or . . . you could just go to sleep earlier," Katherine suggested.

"Oh, but that would be sensible and responsible and I –" he placed a hand over his heart – "am still too young for either of those things."

Katherine laughed again but shook her head at his antics.

"Feeling a little better?" he asked.

"Yeah. Thanks, Eddie."

"You're welcome." He stood up and held his hand out to help her up as well. She didn't hesitate to take his hand. "Let's go see what we can salvage of lunch time."

The rest of lunch went by smoothly. The others apologized once Katherine sat back down and she could tell that they meant it and she made sure they knew that she wasn't upset with them at all.

She went to gym, as she'd said she would, and still got a kick out of Robin complaining, though she didn't do as much because Katherine could participate that day as most of the time would be spent running. They were going to practice drills, running back and forth across the gym.

They spent a few minutes stretching before the teacher gave them the go ahead to start and Katherine began to see why Robin hated athletics. She was tall, so her long legs should have given her an advantage. Instead, her long legs actually got in the way of each other and made her movements awkward.

Katherine was actually a fair runner, but due to being tired and not wanting to run alone she kept pace with Robin. She let Robin know that her mom was fine with meeting her on Friday and that she wanted to meet Steve too, since he was going to be there.

The rest of the day dragged by until, finally, she was able to leave her last class about five minutes early so she could go pick up her project from the art class. Other people were there as well when she arrived, students from her class and from the others.

She picked up her project and ran into Will and his friends outside the room. They acted normally, as if she hadn't had a freak out at lunch that day. Mike and Dustin complimented the artwork she and Will had done once they saw the horror theme they had gone with. Dustin even suggested that she should show Eddie what she'd created, and she made a mental note to do that once she got home, if he was already at home as well.

They went their separate ways since she had to catch the bus and the boys rode their bikes to school. She took her usual seat next to Max when she got on the bus. Max was gazing out the window, headphones in place, music light enough that Katherine couldn't tell what she was listening to.

Max glanced her way when Katherine sat down and pushed one of the headphones behind an ear long enough to tell her that the skull design on her project was cool and then the rest of the ride was spent in comfortable silence between them.

She just wished the rest of the bus riders would learn how to be comfortably silent as well.

Eddie was in the middle of packing up his van with his guitar and a couple of amps when Katherine and the girl he had named Red – even though her real name was Max - came walking up the road. The bus didn't go trailer to trailer; it dropped people off at the entrance to the trailer park, to the students who rode the bus had to walk to rest of the way

Max had her headphones down around her neck and was talking to Katherine – or at least was listening to what Katherine was talking about. Max broke away from Katherine when she reached the driveway of her trailer, and Katherine stayed at the end of it until Max made it safely inside. Eddie found that sweet but odd, as it was broad daylight outside.

He expected her to go on to her own trailer, but she ended up looking his way and decided to make her way over to him instead. He noticed then that she had a 16X20 black poster board in her hands.

"Hey," she said, taking in the stuff in the back of the van. "You're getting ready to leave already?"

"I have to pick the other guys up and we have to pack their stuff in here too. Takes a few minutes. Then we gotta make a twenty-minute drive, unload when we get there, set everything up, and do a small soundcheck."

"Oh . . . makes sense." She seemed a bit nervous. "Uh . . . Dustin said I should show you this."

This obviously being the posterboard, since she ended up turning it around to let him see the design on it. The black board was filled with white yarn, crafted to look like a skeleton, only the teeth weren't made to look like human teeth; they were all sharp, as if she'd given them fangs.

"More scary art?"

"The pumpkin ones weren't scary," she said, smiling slightly. And then, "Why would Dustin tell me to show this to you?"

"Probably because he's seen the things I draw for the band."

"You mean you draw things other than the doodles you do in class?"

"Yeah, I – there's a banner I made for the band – white sheet with red paint. It's just the name, but I made it look like it had been sliced into with a blade, uh . . . I draw a bit for D&D, maps, characters, sometimes a rough outline of what a place would look like so the guys can get into it a bit more."

"Oh, that's – that's actually really cool."

"So is this. It has a Nosferatu feel to it."

"Right." She began kicking her toe back and forth against the gravel. "Do you want it?"

"What?"

"Do you want it? It's – it's not going to match the other stuff in my room. My mom doesn't like stuff like this, so if you don't take it, it'll probably just end up in a drawer somewhere."

"I – I think I can find a place for it," Eddie said, surprised that she wanted to give him anything, let alone something she had spent time on.

The smile she gave him and the way her blue eyes sparkled made him think he'd made the right choice.

"Cool. Let me know where you decide to put it." She handed it over to him and said, "Good luck with the show and all."

"Thanks. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yup, hopefully both of us well-rested."

Katherine turned to walk to her own trailer and Eddie went inside his to take the posterboard to his room so he wouldn't accidentally damage it if he put it in his van.

"What d'you got there?" Wayne asked from his place on the love seat. He was watching some old western on their small TV.

"Uh, just something Katherine gave me."

He showed his uncle the art work, feeling kind of shy for some reason, and Wayne studied it for a minute.

"She wouldn't happen to be makin' fun of your taste in music, would she? Or the game you like to play?"

"No, she actually likes some of the bands I like, and she's also into fantasy. She just said that this doesn't fit with the other stuff in her room. Her room is . . . a lot more colorful than mine."

"Ah . . . that's okay then."

Eddie smiled and made his way to his room. He knew Wayne was looking out for him because of how small-minded most of Hawkins was and how they treated him for the things he liked and the way he dressed. Maybe it was because Katherine and her mom were from the city or maybe it was because of how their lives had been up until they had moved to Hawkins, but they hadn't once made him feel different just because he liked different things.

He wished other people would take a page from their book and stop judging before they got to know him.

Protective Uncle Wayne is my favorite Uncle Wayne.

Anyway, I hope Eddie didn't come off as out of character in the scene where he and Katherine are bonding. Also my last week of Junior year is this coming week so my update might start coming up faster during the summer break. I just haven't been able to write anything but school stuff this semester, I've literally had a paper to do almost every week.