With an eyebrow raised and a piece of toast hanging out of his mouth, Matthew watched as Mike quickly made his way into the kitchen and over towards a closet that they had in the kitchen.

And while Mike started to look through the closet, Karen said to him, "Michael, I know your D&D club is tonight."

In turn, Mike said to her, "Hellfire."

While Mike started to walk over towards their toaster, Ted asked his youngest son, "Why don't you just call it the High School Dropout Club?"

While Matthew simply snorted to himself and started to pour himself a glass of orange juice, Karen told Mike, "I want you home no later than nine tonight, okay?"

Mike replied, "Yeah, okay, I'll try."

Karen said to him, "No, no trying. You need to go to bed early tonight."

In turn, Mike asked her, "Why?"

As he started to make his way over towards where Mike was standing, Ted said, "It's a six-thirty flight, Michael."

With a nod of his head, Mike replied, "Yeah, I know, but—"

With a shake of her head, Karen said, "No buts. Nine or no California."

Then Ted said, "And no sweetie pie."

It was then that Nancy yelled, "Mike!" Then she raised her car keys and yelled, "Let's go!"

With a shake of his own head, Mike said, "Jesus. How am I gonna survive a whole week without you guys?"

With a snort, Matthew said, "You can barely survive a whole week with us." While Mike grabbed his toast and started to walk over towards Nancy, Matthew told him, "Knowing you, you probably won't even last a day in California, much less a week."

After giving her eldest son a pointed look, Karen took a couple of steps out of the kitchen before she said, "Nine."

As soon as Mike had closed the front door behind himself, Ted asked Karen, "Remind me, when do they become reasonable human beings again?"

In response to Ted's words, Karen only sighed to herself before letting out yet another sigh when she turned her head and saw Matthew throw his backpack over his shoulder and push his way past his parents and then open and close the door behind himself.

It wasn't long after that that both Karen and Ted could hear Mercyful Fate's Evil blasting from Matthew's car before he sped away from the house and towards the Forest Hills Trailer Park, where Valerie was waiting for him to give her a ride to the school.

With a screech of his tires, Matthew's car came to a sudden halt in front of the trailer that Valerie had been living in with her mother and her sister for a while now before he pressed his hand onto his steering wheel.

When Valerie didn't immediately come out of the trailer, he rolled his window down and yelled, "Hey, Val, come on! It's time to get your ass up for the last day of school before spring break, you know?!"

It wasn't long after that that Valerie came stumbling out of the trailer and ran over towards Matthew's car, where he sat in the driver's seat with a grin on his face and Mercyful Fate's Into the Coven playing loudly in his car.

And due to the fact that Matthew had his eyes solely focused on Valerie, who was trying to keep any of her breakfast from falling out of her hands at the same time that she closed the trailer door behind herself, he was unaware of the fact that Eddie Munson was walking out of his own trailer and watching the usual interaction between the two juniors that were almost never away from each other since the disaster that occurred on the Fourth of July and the Mayfields had started to live in the trailer park.

And just like any other time that Matthew would come to the trailer park to give Valerie Mayfield a ride to school, Matthew would be driving super fast and have to avoid hitting anyone because of just how fast he was driving and was blasting at least some form of a metal or hard rock band that he was listening to.

The only difference this time, though, was that Matthew didn't take a quick glance over in the direction of Eddie's trailer and silently hoped that he would catch the repeating senior walking out of his own trailer.

He kept his eyes solely focused on Valerie as she finally reached his car and practically threw her school things in the back of his car before getting into the front passenger seat and simply wincing to herself upon hearing just how loud Mercyful Fate's At the Sound of the Demon Bell was playing.

With a roll of her eyes, she turned down the volume to his radio, which got him to let out a groan as he said to her, "Oh, come on, Val. Why do you always have to turn down the volume to the goddamn radio?"

With a sigh, she replied, "You know why I always have to do it, Matt." When Matt only slowly turned his head to look over at her, she told him, "It's too fucking early to hear your music blasting in my fucking ears."

With a shrug of his shoulders, Matthew maneuvered his car around and made a quick turn before he found himself driving back out of the trailer park and in the direction of the school, leaving himself unaware of the fact that he'd nearly collided his car with Eddie Munson's van, leaving the second-time repeating senior to shake his head to himself with a sigh at the actions of the second eldest Wheeler sibling that had become somewhat of a tradition of his during the months in which Matthew had come by the trailer park to give Valerie a ride to school.

While the cheerleaders had quickly made their way over towards the bleachers in the gym, a man yelled into the microphone, "And let's hear it for your Tigers!"

While both Matthew and Valerie slowly clapped their hands together with a mere roll of their eyes, Jason Carver was the first to run through the banner with a grin on his face as he stared directly at the crowd of mostly cheering people, followed shortly by the rest of the basketball team.

It wasn't until the rest of the team was standing out in the middle of the gym that Jason yelled into the microphone, "Good morning, Hawkins High!" While a majority of the crowd simply broke into yet another cheer, Jason took the microphone out of its place on the microphone stand and started to walk closer to the crowd of people as he said into it, "First off... Hey. First off, I'd like to thank each and every one of you. Without your support, we wouldn't be here. Give yourselves a big hand."

After Matthew had simply snorted to himself in response to Jason's words, Jason said into the microphone, "And of course, of course, I have to give a special shout-out to the best and the prettiest fans of all time, the Tiger Cheer Squad."

In response to Jason's words, Matthew turned to Valerie and pressed one of his thumbs to the front of his neck and proceeded to drag it across the front of his neck and then let his head fall to the side with his tongue sticking out a bit, which did nothing but make Valerie chuckle to herself with a mere shake of her head.

Neither junior was unaware of the fact that Jason was staring right at them and fighting against the urge he had to narrow his eyes at the two juniors that had done nothing but give him shit since the start of the school year.

But because of the image that Jason had built for himself at the school, he thought better of it and only plastered an even wider grin on his face before he looked at one cheerleader in particular and said to her, "Chrissy..." After patting his own chest, he told her, "Chrissy, I love you, babe."

After watching Chrissy only blow him a kiss, Jason grinned to himself and took a couple of steps back from the crowd of people before he said into the microphone, "You know... I think I can speak for all of us when I say it's been a tough year for Hawkins. So much loss. And sometimes I wonder, 'How much loss can one community take'? In dark days like this, we need something to believe in. So, last night, when we were down by ten points at half to Christian Academy, I looked at my team, and I said, 'Think of Jack. Think of Melissa. Think of Heather. Think of Billy. Think about our heroic police chief, Jim Hopper. Think about each and every one of our friends who perished in that fire. What did they die for? For us to lose to some... some crap school? No'."

After glancing over at Valerie and watching how her face had already fallen at the mere mention of her dead stepbrother, Matthew pulled her closer to himself and then turned his head to stare down at Jason with a scowl on his face and his free hand clenched into a fist, while a majority of the crowd yelled, "No!"

Then Jason asked, "'For us to return home with our heads hung low in defeat? No!"

Then, once more, the majority of the crowd yelled, "No!"

Then Jason said, "'No. Let's win this game. Let's win this for them'. And that's exactly what we did!" While a majority of the crowd broke into applause and cheer and Matthew simply raised a single middle finger at Jason, Jason did what he could to ignore the obscene gesture from the violent member of the Wheeler family as he yelled into the microphone, "We embarrassed those candy-asses in their own house, and now tonight, tonight, we're gonna bring home the championship trophy! Let's go!"

While the other basketball players jumped in place and ran around in the gymnasium, Jason looked directly at the temperamental Wheeler and his best friend.

While Valerie's entire body had become tense from Jason's speech alone and she was feeling more than desperate for a good smoke from one of Matthew's many cigarettes, Matthew had a murderous look on his face as he stared down at Jason Carver.

And despite the many encounters in which Jason and Matthew had had prior to that moment, there was not one instance in which Matthew looked like he wanted to kill Jason like he did in that exact moment.

And it was a combination of both the reputation Matthew had for himself and the violent temper he had that made Jason silently vow to keep himself distanced from Matthew Wheeler, who was known to many in the school as Matthew 'The Asshole' Wheeler and had a history of putting those that pissed him off into the hospital from just how violent he could become when he was angry enough about something.

And based on that one and single look that Matthew had on his face, Jason Carver knew very well that if it did come to it that he was face-to-face with Matthew Wheeler that he would end up in the hospital and have to be there a hell of a lot longer than anyone else that ended up inside of it from one of Matthew's fights.

And that was all because– out of all of the people that Matthew was protective of in their school– Matthew was protective of Valerie Mayfield the most and Jason's speech had gotten her to almost revert to how she was only a couple of months after Billy's death.

And if there was one thing that was known about Matthew Wheeler, it was this.

Matthew Wheeler wasn't one to forgive when it came to his loved ones.

And because of his tendency to not forgive others, he knew that– the moment Matthew had gotten a hold of him– he would be put in a whole world of pain that would make it all that much more understandable for why many had avoided the violent Wheeler after they would have one single fight with him.

But of course, what no one in the school– other than Matthew himself and Valerie– knew was that all it took was a mere look at Eddie Munson's face or hearing him talk to his friends or even laugh was enough to simmer down his violent temper.

And it was because of the effect that the repeating senior had on Matthew Wheeler that many should consider themselves lucky that Eddie affected him the way that he did.

Because if it wasn't for Eddie Munson, those that pissed off Matthew would be put through a hell of a lot more pain than they would've been, if Eddie hadn't somehow managed to capture Matthew's attention for a split second.

With a sigh, Matthew put his tray of food down in front of Valerie and watched as she silently picked at the food on her tray before he asked her, "Are you sure you're doing okay, Val?" When she only nodded her head, he quietly said to her, "Look, I don't buy it, okay? You've been off since that speech that that fucking asshole Jason Carver made at the pep assembly."

When she only sighed to herself, he told her, "Look, everything about that fucking speech of his was really fucked up, Val. He didn't have any right to bring him up the way he did. As a matter of fact, he didn't have the right to bring any of them up." After letting out a sigh of his own, he quietly said to her, "He wasn't there the night that that fire fucking happened. He wasn't. We were. I swear to you, Val. I will make him fucking pay for talking about them like he did. Okay?"

After letting out yet another sigh, she said to him, "Look, I-I just don't understand why you always have to bring violence into everything you face. I-I mean, yeah, it's some defense mechanism of yours to put everyone else at a distance, but still. You can't always rely on violence, Matt. It won't solve everything, you know?"

He replied, "But it'll solve enough. I mean, if it wasn't for me being known in this town as Matthew 'The Asshole' Wheeler, who knows just what the hell any of these assholes could be doing to you right now? They-They could be making you feel even more like shit than you already do, and you know it."

When she sighed to herself in response to his words, he opened his mouth to say something more to her, only to stop when he heard an all too familiar voice yell from the other side of the cafeteria, "But as long as you're into band or science... or parties or a game where you toss ball into laundry baskets!"

While Valerie continued to mindlessly pick at her food, Matthew turned his head and watched as Jason quickly stood from his chair and said, "You want something, freak?"

In response to Jason's words, Eddie brought his hands up to his head and stuck his tongue out a bit before he turned his back on Jason with a grin on his face and started to walk towards the other end of the table that he sat at with the other members of his club.

After looking away from Eddie, who was in the process of scaring the hell out of some girl and making a face at her, Matthew said to Valerie, "Val, I'm just looking out for you, okay? You're my best friend and I know just how much of a fucking asshole the people in this school can really be, and I know this town a hell of a lot more than you do. I've had to deal with these types of people in this town my whole fucking life, you haven't. You only showed up here in Hawkins, like, two years ago, Val. You don't know them like I do."

With a shake of her head, Valerie only sighed to herself before she hesitantly asked him, "Can-Can we just go out for another smoke, Matt? Like, soon?"

With a nod of his head, Matthew said to her, "Yeah, of course. Whatever you want, Val."

Instead of verbally responding to his words, Valerie only nodded her head at him before she went back to mindlessly picking at her food.

It wasn't long after she went back to doing that that she let out a groan and said, "I can't fucking eat this shit anymore."

Then she pushed the tray away from herself and went to walk away from the table and in the direction of the doors to the cafeteria with her backpack slung over one of her shoulders.

After repeatedly looking between the spot where she just sat and in the direction that she was walking and saw her walking down the path that would take her past the table that Eddie Munson and the other members of the Hellfire Club sat at, Matthew said, "Shit."

Then he slung his own backpack over his shoulder and started to run after her, only to stop and eventually come to an abrupt halt when he felt someone suddenly bump into him, which got him to close his eyes with a sigh and slowly turn around to find himself staring down at Dustin Henderson, who was staring up at him with wide eyes.

While Eddie made his way back towards his chair and seemed to be unaware of just who he'd shoved Dustin into, Mike was quick to try and pull Dustin away from his temperamental brother, only for Matthew to grab Dustin by the collar of his shirt and pull him towards himself.

As soon as Dustin was close enough to Matthew, Matthew said, "What the fuck, Henderson?"

After forcing out a chuckle, Dustin said to him, "Oh, h-hey, Matt. How are you?"

With a tilt of his head, Matthew replied, "How am I?" When Dustin only hesitantly nodded his head, Matthew told him, "Well, Henderson, I'd say that I was doing pretty good until you fucking ran into me like the little dumbass you are. So, do you care to explain just why you chose to fucking run into me of all people, Henderson? Huh?"

With his hands raised, Dustin told him, "I-It was a total accident, Matt, I swear."

After tilting his head to the side a bit more, Matthew asked him, "An accident, huh?"

It was then that Mike said, "Yeah, an accident. I mean, come on, Matt. Do you really think that either of us would be stupid enough to run into you when we know exactly what you're like when someone does run into you? Huh?" After watching Matthew slowly turn his head to look over at him with a raised eyebrow, Mike quietly said to him, "If you want someone to blame, blame Eddie. He's the one that pushed Dustin into you."

In response to Mike's words, Matthew slowly moved only his eyes to see that Eddie and the rest of Hellfire was staring right at him with at least most of their eyebrows furrowed.

But Matthew didn't care about the others.

He could only focus on the fact that Eddie was staring right at him with his hands pressed on the table and looked as if he was about to get up to attempt to break up the inevitable fight at any given moment.

Just from looking at Eddie, Matthew could already feel his anger slipping away from him, which got him to let out a sigh before he looked back at Dustin and shoved him away from himself and then said to Dustin, "Fine. Whatever. Don't let it happen again."

With his eyebrows furrowed, Mike asked him, "Just-Just like that?"

With his arms now crossed over his chest and his head tilted to the side, Matthew asked Mike, "Would you rather I give Henderson a black eye, Michael?" After Mike had quickly shaken his head, Matthew said, "Great."

It was only when Matthew went to turn his back on the two freshmen that he suddenly stopped when Dustin quickly grabbed him by the arm as he said, "Well, Matt, since you're here, I was wondering if you could do us a favor."

With a raise of his head, Matthew asked him, "What kind of a favor, Henderson?"

Dustin told him, "Hellfire. Lucas can't make it tonight because of the championship game and we need someone to fill in for him for Eddie's campaign tonight."