"Get off the table, freak."
Joan hissed out from underneath Patrick's arm, moving to stand up but unfortunately shoved back down by the arm and a cheerleader's hand around her wrist. Eddie sent her a grin followed by a middle finger, Joan's eyes narrowing and once again she struggled for freedom while Jason Carver stood up in defense - devil horns up - and Joan returned the finger with her own before he turned around.
"I still don't understand your problem with the Freak, Jo." Patrick asked in confusion but Joan was feeling similarly to Jason - angry and fueled with a desire to smack the shit eating grin off of his face. "Sure he's a freak but this school year it seems like you've established him as a mortal enemy."
"...Two of my keys are out of tune." Joan grumbled out while messing with her food and trying to ignore the pandemonium going on just tables over. She stiffly moved sideways so that the arm around her fell behind her and Patrick took the hint.
He was weirdly attached to her.
"How the hell are we supposed to know what that means Joan?" Jason butt in with a scoff as he pulled Chrissy in closer under his arm. He didn't really care for her to answer that and Joan just rolled her eyes as he changed the subject. "Anyways, people like Munson distract us from what really matters. We can't let people who participate in devil worship bring us down."
Mmmm, right. Joan nodded with the agreements even though her car radio definitely had a Black Sabbath CD inside of it and kept her face in her food frowning over at Chrissy beside her. "Hey, everything okay with your food?" The two girls were ignored as the table dissolved into laughter and jokes amongst each the basketball team.
Chrissy's eyes widened at the question and Joan frowned here eyes flickering to the captain's untouched lunch box. "You, uh, haven't eaten anything."
"I-I, uh, I ate it during my third block."
"You can have my pudding if you want."
A hand covered the cheer captain's face at the offers as if she was about to vomit right there. Instead Chrissy took a deep breath before smiling at Joan and shaking her head. Joan frowned as Chrissy excused herself from the table in a hurry.
"Woah, woah, Jo. Where are you going?" Jason stopped Joan with a hand on her binder pinning it to the table. Joan stopped her pursuit, looking over at the basketball captain with annoyance all over her face. "Patrick here wanted to ask you something. It'd be rude of you to leave so suddenly, don't you think?"
There was some history between the two and she was drawing a picture that it wasn't the prettiest of relationships.
"No, it's fine Jason." Patrick moved the binder from under her hand and out of Jason's bind, handing it to the girl with a weak smile. "It can wait."
Joan wasn't expecting the kindness that wasn't forced. She blinked and stuttered a quick thanks before heading off in the same direction that Chrissy had ran to.
"Jo!" She spun around in confusion as her brother and Mike Wheeler ran up to her with panic on their faces. "Jo, we need you, like, really bad."
Her heart raced and her mouth went dry because the last time they needed her was-
"We need you to fill in for Lucas at Hellfire."
For a moment her face was blank with the terror eating away at her inside, but it quickly morphed into anger as she realized that there was nothing wrong. In fact, the only thing wrong was them wanting her to be in the same room as that bastard.
"Hell, no." Joan said quietly, turning around and stalking away from the two freshman. She'd rather face that monster again than play D with the jerk. She ignored the two trailing after with all the begs and deals that they could think of but Joan went straight to her locker and shoved her stuff in with a bang. "I said, no you twerps! Now get outta my face or I'm never giving you rides ever again!"
"Mom would be upset with you if you made us bike in the cold, wet snow for any reason so I don-."
"Dusty, if you don't drop it I will post photos of you as a baby on Fac- on all of the lockers in this freaking school." Her face was locked on his and when Mike stride to intervene with one syllable she turned on him like a phantom. "And same goes to you. I've got more photos of you as a baby than you have in your an entire room from being friends with this dumb-dumb."
There was a silence and she narrowed her eyes.
"I'll tell Steve to forbid you from renting Ghost-"
"Okay, okay fine! You don't have to be such a bitch." Dustin relented with his hands up in surrender. He started walking backwards as if she had a gun trained on him and nudged Mike to do the same. Mike merely rolled his eyes and imitated halfassed. "We relent and surrender to your will. We rescind our invite and seek mercy."
"Mercy granted, but you two must make haste and never return to my presence." Joan played along, straightening her back as if she were a royal queen and staring down her nose. She held her glare for a moment before a smirk cracked over her face and she waved them off. "...at least until the end of the day. Now scram, losers."
They walked away with dejected mutters and Joan decided to allow them the mercy of the b-word under their breath, but frowned as Chrissy stepped out of the bathroom. "Chrissy?"
They weren't the closest by any means, in truth ever since Heather and The Accident in September Joan was unable to find the desire to get close to anyone. She tried to tell herself it was because she'd be going home soon, but every now and again the need to prepare for college got to her. It felt insane applying to colleges and hopefully Agatha-Joan wanted to ISU.
But right now Chrissy looked more devastated than when Brynnyn broke her wrist and couldn't cheer for months. She held herself close as if she could make herself small enough to disappear solely using the cheer jacket that was a size too big for her.
"...Joan can I ask a favor?"
And that was how Joan got roped into walking into the woods behind the school instead of driving home that afternoon wishing she also had a nice jacket around her shoulders.
"Why can't you just tell me what's going on?"
"I-I just can't, okay? You're the only person who won't freak out, so just... stay here while I go... talk to someone."
Joan's face scrunched up and she grabbed Chrissy by the wrist to stop her. "You're not... you're not cheating on Jason are you?" The words tumbled out and immediately she regretted them, but what's would Chrissy be doing that prevented anyone knowing what was going on besides Joan Henderson?
"What? No! No, I just... I'm..." Chrissy swallowed thickly in distress and Joan's heart crashed at the absolute despair on the girls face immediately letting her go. "Okay, I'm... I'm buying some weed."
"Buying some...?!" Joan whispered out in horror and to be fair if wasn't the fact that Chrissy was buying weed more so than the implied who that was on his way right now but how would the cheer captain be able to see the difference. "Wait, Chrissy stop. I'm not- I'm not judging you. It-it's just, well that means... he's coming."
"Joan, please. I don't want to be alone and I know you don't like Eddie, but I-I-!" Chrissy took a deep breath and looked down at the ground, fixing the jacket over her torso once again. "...I used to go with Heather o-or Melissa when they needed someone and w-well..."
Joan swallowed thickly at the reminder of Heather and even further not knowing that Heather may have smoked weed on occasion without her. She felt ashamed because admittedly Joan had thought she was the only one affected by Heather's death but... no.
She was loved by others.
"Y-you don't have to come with me. Just stay out in the trees and face the school for deniability... or you don't have to come if you aren't comfortable, I-I just-"
Joan looped her elbow with Chrissy's, a new determination on her face as she set her sights on the picnic bench in the woods. The leaves crunched under their feet hiding the soft heavy breathing of a girl trying to keep her woes in. Whatever Chrissy was going through Joan understood in a way that many others might not because trauma... trauma built sisters out of thin air.
Chrissy sat down first and Joan took a moment to gaze around the woods. It was a problem she had developed after the Fourth where she no longer trusted open surroundings to get comfortable. So she walked around the edge of the space appearing to be scouting for authorities when in reality she was searching for flesh monsters and a more depressing version of her.
It was a very pretty time of year for Hawkins, certainly her favorite. The air that was just cold enough to leave kisses of goosebumps and the crunchy leaves providing coverage for the smallest of creatures preparing for winter. It wasn't the wet sticky rain of the summer nor the freezing snowy winter, it was a little slice of heaven:
She was familiar with the spot behind the school, yet thirty years seemed to change so much because she recognized none of the trees or overgrowth. Joan had gotten so caught up with her thoughts and comparisons that she had gone farther than anticipated, the only thing being her back to the now was a sharp scream of fear that sent her spine crawling.
Her gut reaction was a step away from the scream then a few more before her brain caught up with her fear and she realized it was Chrissy and Chrissy was alone in a world where monsters weren't only of the human variety. Joan turned around, sprinting to the bench and froze right outside the clearing.
At the bench sat Chrissy and Eddie staring at each other with a softness that left her breathless and it wasn't from her running. Her muscles were tired, a burning in her lungs that made her simultaneously want to walk away and scream profanities because that was once her look. Those eyes and that soft smile, body unable to be still and wild hair blocking his eyes, were once a gift to her.
But more importantly, there was no monster made of human flesh or creepy crying Joan walking around.
"What the hell are you doing here?!"
Well, maybe there was a monster made of human flesh.
"Protecting Chrissy from the likes of you." Joan sneered, stalking over and smacking herself next to Chrissy. There was only a little guilt bleeding through the rage because now Chrissy was back to being shy when before her grin was the most genuine smile she had seen. "Alright, chop chop. Hand over the weed so we can go."
Eddie glared over at Joan and Chrissy placed her hand on his own to prevent and further insults.
His eyes softened and he only spared a sneer before sliding his lunch box in front of him, happily explaining his wares and discount to the cheer captain.
"Do you... have anything stronger?"
In their disbelief Joan and Eddie made eye contact and Joan lifted her shoulders to convey her I don't know what the fuck is going on before either of them realized they were being nice and turned away in a huffs.
"I, uh, don't really carry anything..." Eddie started out slowly, his conscience fighting with his brain about giving Chrissy harder drugs. "But... come by tonight and I'll hook you up, discount included."
Joan swallowed and wanted to scream out a no, but Chrissy... she nodded and only smiled when she looked at Eddie and Eddie...
Eddie was smiling too.