"Keep walking, freak cult." Jason spits, watching as Hellfire Club made their way past our friend group, I glanced at Mike who shook his head in disapproval. He's always hated my friends.

"Why? Scared we're gonna put a curse on you?" Eddie stopped dead in his tracks, stepping towards Jason until their faces were only inches apart.

"You're not funny." Jason stands his ground and gives Eddie his infamous death glare.

"Who says I was joking?" Eddie smiles, also standing his ground.

Please not another fight. Please not another fight.

"There's something seriously wrong with you, stay the hell away from me and my friends." Jason says, voice low.

It's kinda refreshing to see someone stand up to Jason, even if it's Eddie Munson.

"Gladly." Eddie nods, and he turns away to walk off but he quickly swivels back towards Jason.

Whatever he's about to say is gonna piss Jason off, and I'm worried for the aftermath.

"Could I have a strand of your hair? I'm gonna need it for the curse I'm preparing." Eddie laughs, and I want to laugh too but I know I can't.

"You little shit." Jason's anger was practically erupting out of him, Chrissy and I instinctively began to hold Jason back before he could go after Eddie.

"Don't, Jason." Chrissy said calmly.

Hellfire Club began to walk away, Mike shook his head at me again and I could tell what he was thinking. I didn't like Jason either, but I also didn't exactly like Mike's friends, especially from what I'd heard about them.

My friends are nice, just not Jason. I don't like how he picks on people all the time, apparently Eddie "deserves it" but I'm not too sure.

...

Arriving home from school every day was a huge relief, forcing a personality every day was extremely exhausting. And I know it's better to "be yourself" but I don't really know who I am apart from Nancy's less smart, less pretty younger sister.

Living in Nancy's shadow is hard, my family treat me as a separate being which is great but school doesn't. Teachers have incredibly high expectations of me because Nancy's a star student, they think stuff like that is genetic, so every time I get a bad grade it's "You should be more like Nancy, she's never had a grade like this before."

I know it sounds dramatic and ungrateful to complain about people thinking highly of me but sometimes I wish the spotlight wasn't always on me, I want to just fade into the background sometimes.

Let's put it this way, Nancy's life is a movie where she's the main character, then my life is the shitty sequel with a less perfect version of Nancy as the main character. I don't mind being in the sequel, I just wish I would've been metaphorically casted as a side character.

That doesn't mean I don't like Nancy, she's my sister and my best friend, I just hate being compared to her all the time.

"Anything fun happen at school today?" Mom asks, trying to make conversation during the incredibly awkward dinner we were having.

"No, not really." I shake my head, eating my spaghetti.

"What about when your friends kept being assholes to my friends? I think that was pretty fun." Mike says sarcastically, smiling at me.

"Language, Mike." Dad says sternly.

"That was only Jason, you know I don't like him anyway." I sigh, already knowing I'm about to get a lecture from my parents about how I should be friends with nicer people.

I glance over at Nancy, she's just silently eating dinner, completely outside of the drama as always.

"Valerie, why are you hanging around with these people? This isn't the first time I've heard about them being mean to your brother." Mom seemed upset.

"It's not my friends, it's one person, Jason. I don't like Jason, he's not my friend." I try to explain, "And while we're on the topic of friends, Mike is friends with a literal drug dealer, Eddie Munson, so maybe you should worry about that instead."

"Wow." Nancy laughs to herself.

Mike's face dropped, he knew he couldn't escape this one. I understand that Jason is a bad person, but being friends with someone who is a little mean sometimes is very different than being friends with a drug dealer who's also rumoured to be a cult leader.

"I mean, as long as Mike's not getting involved with drugs, I don't see an issue." Dad shrugs.

This is ridiculous.

"What?" Nancy's just as surprised as me.

"Are you actually being serious?" I laugh in shock.

"Valerie, he has a point. Eddie's been here a few times and he was very polite, he doesn't seem like a bad kid. He probably has a bad home situation and needs the money, it's not my place to judge. As long as Mike stays far away from that business then I'm fine with him being friends with Eddie." Mom nods, and I see Mike smiling.

"Do you not see how hypocritical that is?" I'm quite literally in shock at this point.

"Val, the difference is that Eddie is respectful and actually pretty cool, Jason is a bully." Mike smiles.

And just like that, Mike has won the argument once again.

☆ ☆ ☆

this chapter was just to help set the scene, hope you guys enjoyed :) '...' represents a time skip btw

feel free to vote if you enjoyed, it helps other people find this story which really helps me out!