11 July 1985
Hawkins, Indiana
They got about a third of the way through the piano keys before Joan had to stop the adventure earlier than she admittedly want to. Her mom would be home before her book club and she needed to go pick up Dustin which meant she needed to clear the house of the town's pariah asap.
She had thanked Eddie multiple times, making a date to continue on Friday, and Eddie just shrugged the thanks off.
"I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"
"R-right. I have no idea what you want me for but-."
"Like I said, lady bits and vocals. Drunks from all over will wanna hear you."
"...Thanks?"
The day of practice, Joan watched the neighborhood go by her slowly with butterflies rioting in her stomach and the sound of her brownies rustling next to her. Couldn't show up empty handed, right? She had arrived just in time to watch Gareth open up the garage door and she parked behind the familiar van, blocking the mail box.
"Prissy pants!" Eddie exclaimed happily from inside the garage, watching with excitement as the girl walked up the driveway nervously holding onto a Tupperware full of brownies in between both hands. Joan smiled nervously back as Eddie ran over towards her.
He shoved an arm around her shoulders, nearly dragging her towards the unfamiliar teens who eyed her equally as wearily as she did them. The only person who seemed okay with everything was the crazy super-senior holding her from running away. They were a familiar crowd to Joan, but over the past few months they had become an outlier in her life.
For the first time that summer Joan felt out of place, as if she was the freak of the town. She wore pristine denim shorts with a tucked in button-down and a clean denim jacket over her blouse. Compared to the leather, chains, and ripped jeans in front of her Joan felt simultaneously under and over dressed.
"U-uh, hello." Joan swallowed with a wave and smile to match. When the band only gave small head nods back to acknowledge her existence, she sighed and thrusted out the plastic in front of her. "I made brownies."
Immediately there was a change in personality. Not a complete 180, but enough to where the three boys were willing to come near her for a piece of chocolate goodness while mumbling out a quiet thanks when Eddie narrowed his eyes. Eddie cleared his throat and waved his free hand over to each of the boys in front of him in introduction.
"Prissy pants, this is Gareth, Jeff, and Mike." Joan scowled at the nickname, but smiled at each of the boys if not a little weakly. "Freaks, this is Joan. I've successfully blackmailed her into singing for us."
"Is that the only way you can get girls to hang out with you, Ed's?" Gareth snorted and Eddie mocked his words, sending over a middle finger in response with a fake smile.
Joan ducked from under Eddie's arm with a side eye, but the metalhead took it in stride, picking up his guitar to finish with tuning it. "Two songs. Maybe three."
"Right, right." Eddie said dismissively and Joan was quickly ignored by the instrumentalists making adjustments to their instruments slowly but surely.
A real garage band - Joan was feeling giddy just thinking about it. The small band her and her friends had once attempted to do in 2021 had been so much fun to her, but it became unrealistic to keep up with. Between Brynnyn's cheer practice, Ryan's weird hobbies, and Bryan's job... there was no way to keep it alive.
"Do you know any bands?" Joan blinked at the questing, staring back at a bored if not accusing gaze of Mike with his bass slung over his shoulders. "You know, someone other than Madonna, Blondie, Dolly Parton."
"Uh, yeah. I.. I think so." It felt otherworldly to be questioned on if she listened to the music she was known to listen to back home. It may not have been exactly Motörhead or Deep Purple, but the riffs and beats had been inspired by the early masters of the craft. She realized she came off as a poser and tried to sound more firm, but still failed. "Yeah."
Mike only scoffed, moving over to his amp with an unheard grumble and Joan was left feeling like a giant purple elephant in a crowd of lions. Unexpectedly, Eddie raced up behind Joan, throwing his arm around her shoulders once more almost violently and leading her to the front.
"So, I was thinking-."
"Didn't know you could do such a thing, Munson."
"-about your first song with us." Eddie ignored Joan's scoff and positioned her in front of the microphone, let her go, and helped move the stand until it was down towards her face. Once finished, he leaned in with a smirk while Joan looked to the left with a red face. "Ace of Spades."
Joan looked over at Eddie like he was an idiot. "No, absolutely not."
"Why?! You love that band!"
"It's my favorite band of this decade." Joan admitted but furrowed her eyebrows, hand reaching over her throat in memory, trying not to be sent back. "My voice does not belong anywhere near that kind of song"
"Then what do you think?"
"...Enter Sandman? Metallica?" Joan suggested, she had a great cover she listened to by First to Eleven over and over again, so she was confident that she could sing that one. She frowned at the look of confusion on the boys faces and felt her heart drop.
Oh.
Was that one of their later songs?
She had no idea.
"Haha, just kidding. That was a song I, uh, wrote and got confused." Joan laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head with a wince. They didn't look convinced and while mentally kicking herself, Joan licked her lips and looked over at Eddie. "You know, uh, Queen?"
"That's a little basic." Mike called out with a roll of his eyes, his fingers were twitching out a smooth rhythm on his E string while he looked over impatiently. "Everyone knows them."
"We Will Rock You." Joan tried, but even Eddie looked a little hesitant considering his step back. She tried to roll around in her brain for what she had just bought at the record store while the boys looked between each other with restlessness. "...O-or Scorpians? German metal band, came out last year, uh Rock You Like a Hurricane."
"Oh, shit! Is that the one that goes like, uh," Eddie started to play the guitar solo on his guitar, fumbling around before he picked it up and Joan nodded enthusiastically, pointing with a yes! "Hell, yeah. That I can do."
"Think you could pick up rhythm guitar, Mike?" Eddie asked Mike, who only nodded and switched out his bass for a guitar. "Alright, prissy pants. Think you can rock us like a hurricane?"
"Ha ha." Joan responded dryly, trying to hide her shaky hand. She grabbed the microphone and spoke some tests into it while Eddie fiddled with her speaker. "Alright, well. I guess it's on you, Munson."
Eddie didn't respond to that comment, instead taking a moment to figure out the notes along with Mike who nodded along to whatever Eddie was saying and followed the boys fingers on his own fret board. Behind her Gareth was trying to get the beat down and that was when Joan realized she should definitely be going over the lyrics. A few minutes later, Joan had the lyric sheet from her cassette box in front of her and she sang under her breath.
Twenty minutes later and they group was formed up, Eddie staring intently and Joan who hesitated, but nodded that she was good to go. After confirmation from the other guys Eddie took his own deep breath in, before beginning the song and Gareth followed seamlessly, then Mike started shredding after.
She missed the entrance and winced. "S-sorry, loop it, I-I'm sorry-"
"Don't apologize, just fucking sing, Henderson!" Mike shouted angrily after she missed the entrance for a third times. They brought it back to Mike's opening and this time Joan closed her eyes, listened to the music and tried to think about being back with her friends. "Come on! One, two, three-!"
"It's early mornin', the sun comes up."
"Fuck yeah, Henderson!" Munson screamed out during the first voice. Joan continued through, opening her eyes and darting to the lyric sheet every few seconds to memorize her hat came next. Sometimes she'd here Eddie behind her joining in with an insane harmony, but during the guitar solo he was another man.
It was like nothing else mattered but the music to Eddie. His hair waved into his face as he jumped around and twisted next to Mike with eyes filled with glee and nearly glazed over as if the music was hypnotizing him. Her eyes met his and Eddie's lips twisted into a near sensual smirk as he caught her staring in awe at his movements.
She stuttered into the next first, the only indication of her entrance was a small nod from Eddie before she started it a little to flat from embarrassment. She could hear Eddie let out a low come on! come on! come on! in accompaniment in the background while they played through the last verse.
They didn't need her.
Eddie was magnificent on his own.
But the song closed on a sharper than desired note and Joan was left holding her breath in shock at the sight before her.
Joan watched with wide eyes at herself staring at her with messy hair, tears down her face, standing just outside of the garage on the driveway like a victim. Her doppelgänger held so much sadness in her face that Joan was hypnotized by the untold stories that haunted her twin's gaze.
It felt like Joan was trapped under her gaze for a whole day before a large hand gave her a large whack on the back and the muffled noise turned into loud cheers and laughter. Back to reality, Joan turned around to watch Eddie babble about how fucking metal that was while Mike tried to keep the excitement off his face and Gareth shook his head with a happy daze.
Joan tried to match the intensity but she couldn't shake off the feeling of something being... off.