The rest of the day passes by pretty quickly and soon enough, classes have ended.

Making my way back to my locker to put my things away, I cross path with Lucas.

"Oh, hey Lucas!" I smile to the young boy.

"Hey Avery" he smiles back, "Are you doing anything tonight? There's my basketball game if you want to come watch"

"Sure, I can come for a bit when it's about to end, but I promised Eddie to hang out after school so I can't stay long" I don't say that his friends were still doing the campaign without him. They could deal with the consequences afterwards.

"Sure that's okay, see you later!" he says before heading back to his initial destination. Before going to Eddie's campaign game, I finish packing my bag and go to the restroom.

Entering the dimmed lit room of the club, I notice some players were missing. More specifically Mike and Dustin. Eddie is still placing the table for the game when he hears the door open as I walk in. He looks up and smiled as he see's me enter.

"You came"

"Of course I did, I promised didn't I?" I walk to him and stand on my toes to kiss his cheek. "So, where are the other kids?" I look around and smile at the boys who were already seated.

"Hopefully finding someone to replace Sinclair" he rolls his eyes, "Kid ditched us at the last minute"

I pich his arm at his comment.

"Be nice, basketball is important to him"

The tall boy groans and goes back to his seat at the end of the table. As I'm coming to watch their games more and more, Eddie has gotten the habit of getting an extra chair that he places next to his, so I can sit back and enjoy the game.

I sit beside him, when Dustin and Mike finally enter with no other than Erica Sinclair. I smile to myself, knowing she would be perfect for this.

"Absolutely not" Eddie concludes when he sees the young girl.

"You asked for a sub. We delivered" Dustin explains.

"This is Hellfire Club. Not Babysitting club" Eddie points out.

"I'm eleven you long-haired freak" Erica bite's back.

"My, my, the child speaks" Eddie says and his friends chuckle. "Erica, right? We met last year I believe" he gets up from his seat and meets the girl halfway.

"Yeah, pleasure is not mine"

"Still got that infamous attitude as I can see"

Erica turns to the two boys who brought her in, "He's sharp", which made everyone in the room chuckle, apart from Eddie who shoots us all a glare.

"What's your class and level? Level one dwarf?" Eddie gets back to her.

However, Erica wasn't going to let him win that easily, "My name is Lady Applejack, and I'm a chaotic good half-elf rogue, level 14. I will sneak behind any monster your throw my way and stab them in the back with my poison-soaked kukri. And I'll smile as I watch them die a slow, agonizing death"

I honestly have to hold back my laughter at the sight of Eddie not even able to place one word against the young girl.

"So, we gonna do this, or we gonna keep chitchatting like this is your mommy's book club?"

The room falls silent at her last words, but soon enough, Eddie likes her determination and smiles down at her. He extends his hand for her to take, "Welcome to Hellfire" his voice rasped.

❀⊱┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄⊰❀

"The hooded cultists chant, "Hail Lord Vecna", "Hail Lord Vecna"... They turn to you, remove their hoods. You recognize most of them from Makbar. But there is one you do not recognize, his skin shriveled, desiccated." Eddie says in a somber voice to his friends. 

I have to admit, he is very good at putting everyone in the ambiance of the game. He's completely absorbed in it and I love it. 

"And something else", he continues, "He's not only missing his left arm..." he begins to slowly get up from his seat, an arm behind his back, "But his left eye!" he smiles and hides is eye with his right hand. 

The group before him groans at the gesture, knowing they had come accross another vilain they had thought to be dead.

"Vecna's dead!" 

"He was killed by Kas" Mike points out. 

"So it was thought my friends, so it was thought. But Vecna... lives!" he exclaims as he place Vecna's piece on the table. "You are scared, you are tired and injured. Do you flee Vecna and his cultists, or do you stand your ground and fight him?" 

After a very short period of reflexion, Dustin speaks up, "I say we fight. To the death" 

"To the death" Mike repeats his friends words. Erica nods, "To the death". It made me laugh that they were that determined about a game. Soon, all the other boys around the table started chanting the words that were just spoken. 

Eddie laughed at the enthusiasm that his club members had. He falls back in his chair with the birghtest smile he rarely lets out. It's beautiful sight to see, I wish I had my camera to snap a quick picture. 

As the game went on, more and more players kept losing their points. Apparently, Vecna was way to powerful for them to take on, but none of them gave up. It was kind of a weird sight to see them work so hard, in a team, to simply beat a fictionnal character, but it was endearing as well. 

I wanted deep down to see how the game would finish, but I had promised to Lucas to pop up at the end of his game. I had to stay true to my words.

While the kids were discussing their next move of attack, I turned to Eddie and tapped his thigh. He looked down at my hand and then up to meet my eyes.

"Yes sweetheart?" he softly smiles, tilting his head. 

"I promised Lucas I would go see how his game ended, I'll see you later okay?"

"You sure? You'll miss the best part" he furrowed his brows and tilted his head.

"Yeah, I'll meet you in the parking lot, kay?" I smiled once more and gave him a quick kiss on the lips, slipping out of the room before he had a change to reply. I marched quickly back to the gym and found Steve in the bleachers, making my way to him and his date he decided to bring.

"Are you even allowed in the school anymore?" I asked my brother who had graduated last year.

"Shut up, no one knows I'm here" he rolled his eyes, "Not with that little boyfriend of yours?" 

"I was, but I promised Lucas to come watch the end of the game" I said while looking at the players run accross the court. "Who's this girl by the way?" I pointed to the blonde he had brought with him.

"No one you know" he quickly said and resumed watching the school game. 

The other team was currently winning and Jason had made a shot at the last second, trying to beat them. The ball bounced back down and Lucas was quick to catch it and run back to where no one was in his way.

The buzzer hit one second after he shot towards the net. Everyone was up and excited to see if he would be able to score. The ball bounced on the hoop but somehow made its way back into the net. Making the Tigers win the tournament. 

We all cheered and I was so proud of Lucas for winning for his team. 

Me and Steve went to congradulate him and then I made my way out the door with the young boy, as my brother went to his car along with his date. Everyone was congratulating Lucas when a burst of laughter came from further away. It was the boys from the D&D Club. I saw in Lucas eyes the disappointement ; they didn't wait for him to finish the campaign and they never showed up to his match. I quickly said goodbye to Lucas before leaving him with his team.

I scanned the group of boys but didn't see Eddie. I told him I'd wait for him in the parking lot, so I made my way over there, not wanting to make him wait more. I was finally going to spend some time alone with him after a whole day of being mostly apart. 

But when I made my way to his usual parking spot, his van wasn't there. I looked around but the remaining cars were owned by the people that came over for the baketball match and they all left one by one, soon there was none left. Did he forget about me? 

My heart stung lightly, but I had no time to dwell on it. I needed to head home. Hopefully Steve hadn't left yet. I went around to the other parking lot, but his car wasn't there either and the lots were all empty. He had left too. 

Looks like I'll have to walk home tonight.

❀⊱┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄⊰❀

Unedited. 1537 words.

Bye because why do I feel so sad that she got left there alone