Hello, everyone, I am back with another Carter and Frankie story. This features a lot of their friends, including Carly and a few new characters, so that should be exciting. I hope you enjoy the story!
This is a prompt from Godzilla183.
WARNINGS: INCEST, NON GRAPHIC MENTIONS OF EXECUTION/NON CHARACTER DEATHS (BUT IT'S ONLY LIKE 2 SENTENCES, SO I'M NOT EVEN SURE IF IT COUNTS. IT DEPENDS ON WHO YOU ARE, I GUESS)
Disclaimer: I do not own the movie Benji (2018) or the characters. I only own my OCs, which there are at least twenty-five OCs mentioned in here, but only Carly Torrernts, Emma Torrents, and Mrs. Abbot play active roles.
Big Brother, Little Sister: We Stand Together Or Not At All
Carter hadn't turned in a homework assignment. A single homework assignment worth five points, a penalty that was worth a zero, maybe a mark on his assignment card (it basically keeps track of how many assignments you miss, and if you're missing three or more, you get detention). It was the only assignment he'd forgotten all year, which means it would have been his first mark. However, he got detention anyway, and who else would be so harsh about one measly assignment than Mrs. Abbot?
Mrs. Abbot was primarily a fourth grade English teacher, but she also taught advanced English to the younger grades. To sum it up, any younger kids grades one through three were compiled into a single Advanced class (which wasn't a problem because there were only fourteen kids in the advanced class) and taught fourth grade English. Because of this arrangement, Mrs. Abbot taught both Carter and Frankie with Carter in Regular 4th Grade English, Period 3, and Frankie in Advanced English, Period 5.
You may be asking why that is important. Well, I'll tell you why.
By the end of the day, Frankie was given detention by Mrs. Abbot as well for talking during class when it was really the girl next to her (and seven kids vouched for Frankie, but Mrs. Abbot didn't care).
The whole school knew Mrs. Abbot had it out for Carter and Frankie, and while most of them thought it to be justified because 'the Hughes siblings were the disgusting freaks of the school' (their words, not mine), many others believed it to be a horrible injustice.
Unfortunately, the principal Mr. Rottweiler (yes, like the dog) either didn't notice or didn't care enough to do anything about it (probably the first one. Darryl Rottweiler was a horribly oblivious man, but he was good hearted and genuinely cared for every kid in the school, including Carter and Frankie, which could not be said for most of the teachers).
That is why at three o'clock that afternoon, when the final bell rang and the students hurried out of the doors like there were rabid dogs at their feet, Carter and Frankie remained behind long after the halls were empty.
That day, Carter wore a baggy blue shirt and denim jeans with black sneakers. His brown hair was all over the place, and his black backpack was slung over his left shoulder. He had to constantly swipe his wild locks out of his eyes, and at his side, he carried three books in his arms, loosely holding them in a stack. Maybe if Mrs. Abbot was feeling lenient, they'd be allowed to do their homework in detention...
Oh, who am I kidding? Mrs. Abbot is never lenient.
Anyway, Frankie wore a pink skirt with gray leggings dotted with small yellow dots, like stars, and she wore a gray shirt with pink frills at the bottom and a picture of multicolored sparks on her shirt, reminding Carter of fireworks. Her hair was in a ponytail on the back of her head (a single ponytail was a change from her signature pigtails, but it was not an unpleasant change. In fact, she looked rather pretty, but Carter thought she looked beautiful, no matter what her hair style was), tied with a pink hairband that had ribbons trailing off of it, each one a different shade of pink. She wore gray Sketchers that lit up in purple and blue lights with each step.
Next to her with her exciting, colorful outfit, Carter looked plain boring, but that was fine with him. Carter preferred to blend in, to be all but invisible. On the other hand, Frankie liked to stick out, and Carter wouldn't have her any other way.
Carter and Frankie ran into each other rather unexpectedly with Carter coming down one corridor (the science corridor, to be specific) and Frankie heading down the hallway opposite (the math corridor). Neither were paying a lot of attention, both of them busy texting their mom that they had detention and not looking up from their phones until they came to the center where the hallways merged, branching off in four different directions (English to the left of the math corridor, and history to the right of the math corridor). They didn't look up until they saw movement directly in front them, and clearly not expecting anyone, much less their sibling, to be in the school after the final bell, they glanced up in surprise.
"Carter?" Frankie asked, stepping forward to press a kiss to her boyfriend's lips, glad to see him but confused as to why he was here. "What are you doing here?"
"Detention," Carter answered. "But what about you?"
"I have detention, too," Frankie replied as realization set in. "Let me guess: Mrs. Abbot?" She asked as they turned down the English corridor and began walking towards the room of their least favorite teacher.
"You, too?" Carter's voice gave an almost eerie echo in the silent hallways as their footsteps clacked against the tiled floors of the elementary school in perfect harmony.
"Yep," Frankie responded, adjusting the straps of her tye-dyed bag on her shoulders and swinging her blue lunch box by her side, disgruntled at getting detention for something she didn't even do. "Got detention for talking in class when everyone knew Johanna was the one speaking, not to mention the fact that she was whispering about me. Called me the w word."
"Mrs. Abbot probably applauded her," Carter spat, bitterly. "You tell me if Johanna says another word about you. I'll have a talk with her, and if that doesn't work, I'll sic Carly on her."
Frankie giggled, the light tinkling sound filling the room. "What are you in for?"
"I got detention for missing my first assignment of the year," Carter muttered, annoyed by receiving such a harsh punishment for a minor offense. "Ready for the next two hours of heck?"
Frankie sighed. "Nope. What do you think she'll have us do? Erase the answers out of textbooks? Write I will not do this or that a hundred times?"
Carter's lips quirked. "Nah, she'll probably have us scrape the bunions off her feet."
Frankie laughed, the cheerful sound breaking the tense atmosphere as they arrived at Room 193. Mrs. Abbot's room.
The siblings shared one last kiss before opening the door, and the two students filed into the room to see Mrs. Abbot sitting stiffly at her desk with a book open in her lap, her ice blue eyes darting up at their entrance.
"About time," she grumbled. "Carter, sit in the third seat from the door. Francine, opposite side of the room, first seat from the wall."
The siblings sighed, reluctantly allowing their locked hands to separate as Carter took the seat in the first row, third seat from the door just as he was instructed to do (ordered to do, he mentally corrected). Frankie crossed the room and took the seat beside the wall, first row, and she sulked a little more when she noticed Mrs. Abbot had closed the blinds, so she couldn't even look out the window beside her. It's hard to be in a bad mood when there's sunlight involved. It's easy to be miserable in a dark, bleak classroom with the worst teacher you've ever had.
"Okay, I've decided you will be watching a movie," Mrs. Abbot stated, placing her book on her desk and standing up.
The siblings glanced each other. A movie? They couldn't have heard that right.
"It is a tragedy about two siblings that engaged in an incestuous relationship. Hopefully, seeing how they ended up will encourage you to reevaluate some of the decisions in your life."
And there it is.
The siblings exhaled, loudly, as Frankie leaned her head on her hand in exasperation, and Carter rolled his eyes, allowing them to linger on the ceiling as if asking the universe why us?
However, before Mrs. Abbot could start the movie, the door opened. To the siblings' disbelief, twenty three students filed inside.
Carly Torrents, Emma Torrents (Carly's sister), Leo Moore, Drew Blake, Drake Griffin, Raven Corrigan, Catherine Doorelis (pronounced Door-el-iss), Steven Montague, Yasmine Gonzales, Zoey Roberts, Nigel Terrants, Jason Jackson, Hazel McLean, Bella Boris, Morgan Seer, Cory Thomas, Henry Gallows, Isabella Illeo, Cleo Young, Jasper Creeke, Eddie Mill, Owen Xavier, and Fredrick Ericson strolled into the classroom, and each of them took a seat.
"Excuse me," Mrs. Abbot began, simmering, offended that her punishment of two innocent children was being interrupted. "I believe you have the wrong room."
"No, I don't think we do," Carly replied as all of the students took a seat, Carly sitting beside Frankie and Emma claiming the desk to the right of Carter (second from the door).
"Since you don't seem to have a problem with giving two innocent students detention," Emma explained, "You shouldn't have a problem with giving twenty five innocent students detention."
"We will gladly take whatever punishment you are giving Carter and Frankie. If you refuse not to punish them, you will have to punish all of us," Drake continued.
"Guys, you don't have to-" Carter began.
"We know," Zoey stated.
"We stand together or not at all," Jasper told them.
Efficiently miffed, Mrs. Abbot tried to regain some semblance of control as she turned back to the front of the room and hit play on the movie, commanding Morgan to turn off the lights.
The movie actually wasn't that bad. Obviously, Mrs. Abbot had either never seen the movie for herself or only cared about the ending because it actually portrayed incest in a positive light with the two siblings Barbra and Bobby falling in love in the 1600s and not allowing anyone to pull them apart. Unfortunately, they died in the end, executed for their love, but they died together, just as they had done everything together.
And as Carter looked around at his girlfriend and their friends, he truly understood the saying we stand together or not at all.
The people in this room… they weren't just his friends. They were his family. Family stands by each other, no matter what, and while it scared him to think that one day, Carter and Frankie may end up like Barbra and Bobby (not executed, obviously, but stuck between a rock and a hard place, or more accurately, with an angry mob on both sides of them), it also comforted him to know that if that day ever came, they would have people to protect them.
We Stand Together Or Not At All.
Two Days Later…
Darryl Rottweiler glanced up as a knock sounded on his door, and a woman he knew well stepped inside.
"Whitney, what can I do for you?" he said with a bright smile on his face.
Whitney grinned at the friendly man as she stopped before his desk before turning serious once again. "Mr. Rottweiler, I'm afraid I have some concerns about one of your staff members."
A file labeled The Lyle Case landed on his desk.
Regina Abbot was fired by the end of the week.
I purposefully listed the name of each student/friend because you will see almost all of the names, if not every one of the names, pop up again at some point. I'll probably do their Character Files at some point, but that is for another day.
Also, the movie about Barbara and Bobby is not a real movie. I made that up for this story.
All reviews are amazing; constructive criticism is appreciated; and all flames will be ignored and reported if necessary. Basically, just remember to be kind. Try to be as accepting as possible, and if incest really bothers you, just hit the back button. It takes less time to hit the back button than to type out a hateful comment, so please keep this in mind and make kind decisions (man, I sound like a teacher. Oh, well, it still needed to be said).
Thank you for reading. Please leave a review, and please follow me if you have not already, so you don't miss any more of my Carter and Frankie stories. Have a nice day!