#but eddie brought a thimble and a hammer and he is prepared to do whatever it takes

[atmilliways]

What if an AU where Steve actually didn’t graduate, but he’s pretending he did and that he just didn’t get into any colleges because if his parents find out he’ll be out on his ass. He’s eighteen, able to intercept any messages the school does happen to send home, and after Starcourt he changes his emergency contact to Robin’s parents or something.

But it starts with being called into the principal’s office to receive the news. He’s an athlete and the school’s golden boy, so the principal tries to give him an out. He’s a good kid, just obviously got derailed in his studies sometime during junior year… maybe by drugs. Is he *sure* he wasn’t pressured into buying anything by Eddie Munson?

At some point the principal tells Steve point blank that if he sells The Freak out, he can graduate and not have to repeat. All of this can just go away.

Steve still says no, he didn’t get anything from Munson. He’s barely ever talked to the guy. (He’s not even lying—Tommy always took care of that stuff back when Steve still threw parties, albeit with Steve’s money.)

He doesn’t know that Eddie is in a chair just outside the door waiting for his own special “you flunked” audience.

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Eddie is chewing rabidly on his hair because he knows that if he were offered this deal he would’ve sold King Steve out in a second, and it’s making him feel like a complete shitstain.

He is not offered that deal, which is why he uses his longest sewing needle to puncture a sloooow leak into all four of Principal Higgins’ tires less than an hour later. But this means… he only has a few months of summer break to decide if and how he should thank Steve for not throwing him under the bus.