veda henderson

Rolling my eyes once again, I look out the open windows of my mum's car. The cold air outside blew my hair from my sweaty forehead. Despite my body producing enough sweat to fill a giant swimming pool, I was shivering underneath my Metalica hoodie and baggy pants. My chuck taylors were securely around my feet as one was placed on the pedals below the steering wheel, the other pressed against the leather of the seat, knee close to my chin as I turned into the school.

My mum told me to borrow her car to drive us to where dustin was meeting his friends to play their little game, she didn't mind as long a we 'had fun'. Sometimes, her optimism killed me inside. 

"You're going to have so much fun, Veda!" Dustin exclaimed, unbuckling his seatbelt the moment I pulled the car into park. I nod, trying to force a smile onto my face but failing miserably. I can't say I was exactly looking forward to sitting in a dark room while a bunch of fourteen year olds play a fantasy game. I felt like a babysitter.

Speaking of babysitters, why did Dustin invite me instead of his 'bestie' Steve Harrington? It was plainly obvious how he much preferred Steve over me, which I wasn't too bummed about considering I can't bring him along to the things I like to do. 

Honestly, I can't say too many bad words about Steve Harrington or Robin Buckley. I think both of them were aware of my 'extra-curricular activites' especially since they were drugged by russians--long story. Yet, neither of them said anything. Steve tried to mention it to me once but I turned him away rather quickly. 

They both tried to be my friend, but i think it was hard for them to be friends with me when I was in my last year of high school and they both had jobs. I was in that awkward position between everyone where I was too old for the younger kids but just that bit too young for the older kids. That's fine by me, easier to get a fix when I have no one to hide it from. Robin and Steve were only just under two years older than me, maybe next year when I'm not in school anymore it'll be easier for us to get along.

I sigh, getting out of the car and locking it behind me. The breeze hit my exposed hands, causing me to pull the sleeves of my black band hoodie down to cover them. 

"Veda, hurry up!" Dustin called from the door of the building. I looked around at the dark high school, wondering how these kids weaseled their way into having their club here after school whenever. I guess when its classified as a school club, there's not much convincing needed. 

I huff, pushing myself to follow after Dustin, entering the door that he held open for me. "Just so you know, I'm not playing the game. But, I will sit and watch,"

"Thank you for your generosity," He snorted sarcastically, leading the way to a room away from most of the school. He pushed against the door, revealing a room with an orange light emitting from it and the scent of smoke wafting through the open entrance as well as men's body spray. 

Well, at least they're not smelly.

"Dustin!" I hear the cheers of Mike Wheeler and Lucas Sinclair as I enter the room, both of them getting up to greet my little brother. To my surprise, I see three boys around my age sitting at the end of a long table, facing me. 

Slowly, the man in the middle with long, brushed out curly hair looks up to make eye contact with me. He stops speaking once he spots me, staring for a moment as his eyebrows slowly furrowed. 

Then, harshly, he rises to a stand. The scraping of his chair gets the attention of the other people in the room as they look between the lion mane of a man and myself. I look down his body, noticing he was wearing a t-shirt with the words 'hellfire club' on it as well as a small little devil cartoon. The same one my brother and his friends were wearing.

"Aw, how cute," I speak out loud before my brain can tell me to stop. Comitting to my slightly condescending comment, I trail my eyes up to meet the gaze of the boy on the other end of the table. "Someone should have told me about the uniform,"

"Veda-"

"Henderson," The long-haired man cuts my brother off, his eyes staying on me as he talks to my brother. "Who's the girl?"

"Eddie, this is my sister, Veda. Veda, this is our campaign leader." Dustin introduces, turning to me with a hardened stare as if to warn me not to make anymore smart ass comments. 

The room falls into silence once again as the campaign leader moves from behind the table and starts to walk towards me, not hiding his stare as he looked me up and down. The closer he gets, the better I can see his face due to the dull lighting in the room. 

He was kinda good-looking, I can't lie.

He looks down at my jumper, noticing the band printed on the front and raises his eyebrows in surprise. "Where'd you get that? Boyfriends closet?"

"Hmm, close. I got it from my own right after ride the lightning came out," I tilt my head, faking a sweet smile up towards the man. He was probably a couple inches taller than me, but not enough so that my head was at an ungodly angle just to look at him. 

"Hmm," He hummed, looking me up and down once again with a smirk stuck to his face as if it were paper machete. With one last look in my eyes, he turns around and begins to walk back to his spot at the head of the table. "Unfortunately there's no more room in our campaign, little lady,"

I scoff at the nickname, holding my arms closer to my chest as I do so. "I wasn't intending on playing. Only here to babysit Dustin,"

That caused all the people in the room to laugh, Dustin sticking his middle finger up at me as his cheeks turned a slight shade of red. 

"In that case," Eddie begins, gaining the room's attention once again as he reached the end of the table and turns, placing his plans firmly on the table and leaning forward as he makes eye contact with me "Feel free to watch, Veda,"

I watch as he winks at me, causing me to shake my head with a smile and turn to a seat that was stuffed away in the dark on the side of the room. Dustin looked less than impressed, muttering something about 'flirting with his sister' as he moved to sit at the big table with the rest of the guys. 

Maybe this isn't so boring, Eddie seems entertaining enough. That matched with the dramatics that I knew Dustin, Mike and Lucas always bring, maybe I could get a good laugh out of this.

I could always look for Teddy Mountain tomorrow. Hopefully, my withdrawal symptoms don't get too noticable.

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a/n

quick chapter, but we are getting there x