Chapter Text
It was an early may morning at Hawkins High. School was about to start, and most students had already arrived. The air smelled of that early morning dew and cigarettes. The pavement was cracked and teenagers were chattering.
Steve Harrington was leaning against his BMW E46, his Hollister long sleeve had its sleeves pulled up. Not because he was warm, it was stupidly cold for early may, but because it looked “cool“. Steve was shivering subtly, wearing Oakley sunglasses despite obviously not needing them. Was he trying to impress the passing girls? Perhaps. Nancy Wheeler specifically, but he wasn’t gonna admit that. Right now, he was waiting for his loyal fan club. I mean, he’s Steve Harrington, the guy who uses too much hairspray, runs the school and only wears brand clothing. So yeah, he was used to having the attention on him and him only. And the fact that he currently wasn’t getting that attention already put him in a bad mood.
Suddenly, the sound of plastic wheels on concrete got him to look at the source. Much to his dismay. Eddie Munson, local nu-metal obsessed freak, was skating in front of the school. He was riding the skateboard like he was Tony Hawk’s personal trainer. He wore an outfit that, in Steve’s eyes, looked absolutely like something someone homeless would wear: a Slipknot shirt that was ridiculously oversized, and his long wild black curls spilled out from under a ratty black beanie. And look, Steve would only have thought about how annoying the sight alone was if there wasn’t a group of girls watching Eddie “the freak“ Munson.
They giggled when he pulled a simple ollie, cheered when he popped a kickflip. Eddie, on his part, looked infuriatingly smug. Shit, even Nancy was watching with mild interest. And as a last hit? Eddie maintained eye contact with the jock, his grin deepening. Steve was furious. So furious that he only noticed he had been staring with a furrowed brow and a clenched jaw until Robin Buckley nudged him teasingly. „Getting mad at the freak, are we?“, she asked with a smirk that made Steve want to punch her in the face. His best friend was wearing a fully thrifted outfit, because she wasn’t exactly rich. A faded cotton jacket that she bought because it was $7 and had pockets layered over a white tee did the trick. „Shut up, I’m just.. asserting dominance.“ Steve said with an eye roll, making Robin burst out laughing. „Yeah, and that’s working out just fine. As far as I can tell, he stole all of your little fans.“ Steve scoffed, defensive. „Whatever, he’ll break his arm or something and then they’ll forget about him again in a week.“
Eddie was still enjoying messing Steve up, Limp Bizkit blaring from his cheap iPod headphones as he did so. After a few more basic tricks he ended his performance with a last pop shuv-it and a dramatic bow. It made Steve want to break his stupid skateboard- which, by the way, was a mess of chipped off deck paint and duct tape- in half. The guy wasn’t listening to Robin at all, who had changed the subject abruptly and was now swooning over a “V1cKy“ Scene queen that she had been texting with on MySpace. Some stories of a girl with the best coded profile and flashiest outfits or whatever. How cute of her to assume that Steve was listening even in the slightest.
He couldn’t understand. The metalhead was supposed to be the outcast. The guy who speaks too loud on purpose and makes people scoot away from him with an overwhelmed expression on their faces. So why was he suddenly the coolest person Hawkins High had ever seen? Before Steve could get swallowed by his unnecessary hate (or more likely, jealousy) of Eddie Munson, the bell rang, snapping him out of it. „It was so funny, I giggled at the screen.. A truly concerning amount of times.“ Robin paused, looking at Steve, who was frowning openly now. „Dude, did you even listen?“ she asked, slowly moving towards the school’s entrance, dragging Steve with her. Steve wasn’t, in fact, listening. He ripped off his sunglasses, upset that no girls had noticed them. As he did so, he and Robin walked past Eddie and his skateboard crowd. „Yo Harrington, got a staring problem?“ Eddie asked, eyes glinting with something that made Steve’s blood boil. And like, he would’ve snapped something back if it wasn’t for Robin keeping him moving. Poor dude was gonna sulk all day because of Eddie. Jesus, why was it so easy for him to get Steve worked up?
Mr. Popular didn’t have time to think about that because he couldn’t fail chemistry. Again. „Right, I actually need to pay attention“ he murmured under his breath while Robin loudly complained about how learning Spanish was horrible. Steve wasn’t listening to that either. Instead his mind was already in the chemistry room. He hated the subject, the assignments, the teacher, the students that were in the same course as him.. And with that Steve realized, in absolute horror, that Eddie was in his chem lesson. Oh hell no. Whatever ego Eddie had developed since being noticed was now gonna be Steve’s worst nightmare.