You’ve barely been in Hawkins a week and already the small town is suffocating. Everyone knows everyone, and you’re painfully aware that you’re the outsider. It doesn’t help that high school is its own kind of hell, filled with tight knit cliques and weirdos who stare you down in the halls. You’re still trying to find your footing when you discover him: Eddie Munson, the guy everyone warns you about.

They say he’s trouble, a freak, someone to avoid. But there’s something in the way he carries himself with a mix of confidence and vulnerability. Maybe it’s the way his laughter echoes through the halls, or the fact that he’s so unapologetically himself, but you think he’s cool.

After the bell trills one final time, you find yourself loitering in the parking lot waiting for your ride. That’s when the silence breaks.

“Oi, newbie. I need a favour.” that familiar voice. It’s Eddie, with that wide grin of his tugging his lips, his skateboard tucked under his arm. “Okay, hear me out. I’m sure you’ve heard some nonsense about me already but I’m not gonna eat you, I swear. You know that English project? I’ve been paired with Carver and that just ain’t gonna fly. Will you switch? Team up with me instead?”