Tweek
"Now boys, I'm sure you all know why you're here."
Tweek had always thought, privately, that Principal Victoria looked like an owl. That didn't stop the fact that he was sitting in her office right now absolutely terrifying, but he still thought that she looked rather like a nocturnal bird. What with her perpetually pinched mouth and wide eyes and fluffy hair, he'd never been able to look at her without picturing her rotating her head all the way around so she could watch everyone.
Then again, maybe she was an alien because she was another one of those people who acted concernedly inhuman. Perhaps she'd been sent down to watch them so that no one would escape before the Aliens could eat their brains. Maybe every time someone ended up in the office their brain got replaced and that meant that Tweek was next along with all of the other boys there with him! OH JESUS, I CAN'T HAVE MY BRAIN HARVESTED!
"GHA!" Tweek shrieked, yanking on his hair and twitching hard. Almost instantly, he felt Craig's fingers in his hair, reminding him of the taller boy's presence. Oh yeah, Craig's been here lots and there's no way that an alien stole his brain, so I guess it's okay, as long as he's here anyway… Slowly releasing his hair, Tweek shivered and stared up at Principal Victoria. Once he'd calmed down, Craig's hand slipped from his golden mane.
Looking at them, the woman blinked her owlish eyes at them and said, "Your parents should have all received phone calls last night about this, it's actually a very serious matter." Shivering under the condescending tone she was using, Tweek struggled to keep his hands in his lap holding his thermos instead of grabbing for Craig's sleeve like he wanted to. He'd never been in the office for something like this and it was seriously stressing him out.
From beside him, Jesse, who was shifting in his seat, looked up and piped up, "My parents got a call!" as if he thought that Principal Victoria was actually asking the question. From around them, seven other boys gave various forms of agreement. Tweek let out a squawk of fear instead and Craig went to flip the Principal off before stopping and pulling back his hand slowly as if thinking twice.
"Yes, I'm sure they did," the woman agreed, nodding. "So I'm sure you know that we're here to talk about your inappropriate behavior after school yesterday." No one said a word, but several of the boys sat up straighter and from beside Tweek, Craig lifted his chin and fixed the Principal with his most impassible deadpan. The defiance in the room was palpable and it made Tweek cower backward in his seat and shiver violently.
When no one said anything, Principal Victoria let out a tiny sigh and asked in that voice she always used when talking to children, "Mr. Mackey, would you like to tell us about what happened?"
From the corner where he was pouting, arms crossed, head down, bottom lip stuck out, Mr. Mackey mumbled, "I don't want to talk about it, m'kay?" Tweek looked over at the man, but he wouldn't make eye-contact with any of them.
Turning back to the boys, Principal Victoria said, "Well, perhaps one of you would like to tell me what happened then?" There was the distinct air about her that said this would go on all day if it had to. Tweek didn't want to be stuck in this scary office with an owl or possibly an alien staring at him all day. He'd really lose his mind then.
From behind Craig, Ryan crossed his arms loosely and said, "Mr. Mackey locked our Thief in the dungeons so we had to break him out." The fifth-grader made it sound so reasonable, Tweek found himself nodding along with several other boys.
"Okay, those are not the dungeons, m'kay?" Mr. Mackey blurted out, sounding upset. "Craig was in detention because he got into a fight and then he was disrespectful to me on top of all that." As he spoke, his voice kept getting louder, as if this was something he was honestly angry about. "He's not a Thief and I'm tired of your stupid imagination game."
"Now Mr. Mackey, we need to use our indoor voices," the Principal chided, giving him a reproving look. "Let's use our words nicely, there's no need to go throwing any insults around." Huffing, Mr. Mackey went back to staring at the floor, a frown on his face. "Now," the woman said to the boys after the Counselor was calm. "What do you children think of what Mr. Mackey just said?"
From where he sat beside Ryan, Jack flatly said, "It's not a stupid imagination game. We're warriors of Zaron and Craig is a Thief."
"Yup, he's a level four Thief named Feldspar," Russell chimed in, nodding vigorously. Tweek bit his lip but nodded as well. Though he was terrified of the Principal, he would rather stand with his warriors than with her. Jesus, are they still my warriors? We're done with that battle, I guess they're not anymore. But they keep looking to us as leaders so what's that supposed to mean?! Jesus, it's so much pressure!
"What Craig is, is a bad influence," Mr. Mackey butted in again, glaring at Craig, who just stared at the man like he didn't have a care in the world. Tweek didn't know how he could do that when he was still bruised all over and was in the principal's office, but then again, he still didn't understand the Noirette entirely. "He convinced these boys to break into the school, m'kay? And I won't tolerate it."
"Actually, it wasn't Craig who convinced us to do anything," Daniel commented, tapping his foot against the leg of Brandon's chair, which was in front of him. He was staring at the wall ahead of him as if Mr. Mackey wasn't worth his full attention. "If it's a question of who convinced us to do it, it was Lady McCormick and the Grand Wizard who originally set the whole thing up and planned it out. Craig didn't even know what was going on."
"That's not true, m'kay!" Mr. Mackey insisted heatedly, leaning forward in his chair so he could scowl at them. Oh god, why won't he believe us! It wasn't Craig at all, he shouldn't be in trouble at all! This is so unfair, don't they care about that?! Shivering, Tweek let out a whimper as the Counselor continued, "Craig was all dressed up when he was in detention, and- and he was giving them instructions! So clearly, he was in charge of the whole thing!"
Unable to help himself, Tweek burst out, "Ngh- Craig didn't do anything! H-he got ready because he was told to! And he wasn't giving us instructions at all! Why would he have done that, he w-wasn't even out there with us!" He kept waiting for Principal Victoria to nod or agree or do something, but she kept not saying anything and he couldn't handle it. Twitching hard, Tweek dropped his thermos as he screeched, "WHY WON'T YOU JUST LISTEN T-TO US!?"
"Now boys," the Principal cut in, silencing both Tweek and Mr. Mackey. "Who came up with the idea and who didn't isn't really the issue here, now is it?" Of course it's the issue! But Tweek could do nothing but twitch uncontrollably in his seat as the boys around him grumbled in annoyance. "What's important is that you all decided that the best way to deal with your frustrations was through violence, isn't that right?"
WHO SAID THAT'S WHAT WE WERE DOING?! Letting out a cry of distress, Tweek grabbed fistfuls of his hair and pulled hard, trying to rid his mind of the Principal's stupidly pointed voice. Make it stop! A warm weight knocked against his chest, pressing some of the air out of them. Looking down, Tweek found Craig crouching before him, the principal and, for that matter, everyone else, entirely forgotten in favor of picking the blonde's thermos up and handing it to him.
Shivering, Tweek stared down at Craig, whose eyes were entirely calm. Of course he was calm, he didn't get perturbed or ruffled by anything, not even principals or aliens or sixth-graders. This to him was nothing, he'd probably had worse. And he's here right now, so I guess it doesn't matter if the adults listen to us or not because Craig would do something if it mattered that much. Biting his lip, Tweek slowly pulled his hands out of his hair and grabbed his thermos. As though he was satisfied with this, Craig straightened and turned to face the Principal.
"Maybe we wouldn't have so many frustrations if you guys weren't such shitty people," Craig told Principal Victoria blandly, standing in front of Tweek and stuffing his hands in his pockets like he didn't give a fuck. Though Tweek kind of wanted to scream because Jesus why did he say something like that?! He found himself more comforted by the fact that Craig was defending him.
"Craig Tucker you watch your mouth!" Mr. Mackey snapped, glaring at the Noirette. "You are in trouble, m'kay? And I will not tolerate that kind of language here!" Needing to distract himself from the budding fight, Tweek fumbled with his thermos and manage to gulp down some of it without dropping the thing again. "Now sit down, m'kay, before things get even worse for you."
Though the tall boy tilted his chin up as if in defiance, he still shifted back towards his seat and did as he'd been bid. Clearly getting gradually more and more frazzled by the proceedings, Principal Victoria gave a little shiver like she was ruffling and settling her feathers before saying, "Now boys, I understand that sometimes things don't go your way but you can't go solving your problems with physical violence like this." Turning her attention on Tweek once more, the woman said, "You broke into the school after hours and did quite a bit of damage, not just to Mr. Mackey's communication systems but also to other students. What do you have to say for yourselves?"
"They started it," Brandon said at once, cheeky as ever. Jack and Ryan both laughed, which only seemed to give the boy more courage to continue, "And they're also ginger, so I don't know what you were expecting us to do." Even though most of him was terrified, Tweek couldn't help but let out a little squeaky giggle at that, impressed with the little third-grader's courage.
Principal Victoria opened her mouth to respond, but before she could Mr. Mackey cut her off. "That is no excuse! You clearly started the fight by breaking into the school in the first place!" Clenching the arms of his chair, Mr. Mackey continued, "The hall Monitors were just doing their jobs, m'kay? And you should have been doing your job by not breaking and entering! They had every right to fight back."
"To be fair, we did hit first," William admitted, which provoked a shriek from Tweek because he wasn't about to forget that it had been him who'd taken out the first hall monitor and he doubted that Mr. Mackey was going to forget either. "But your Hall Monitors are way more forceful than they should be."
"Yeah!" Terry agreed from where he sat beside Craig. "Just because they're ginger and hate the world doesn't mean they get to take it out on us." When the other boy's nodded in agreement, Terry continued, "So maybe Principal Victoria, you should be looking into Mr. Mackey's unorthodox methods of monitoring the school after detention."
"Several of the Hall Monitors had severe burns," the Principal told Terry, giving him a pointed look.
"Hey, it's not my fault that I'm a Flame Mage," Terry said, crossing his arms defensively.
"Children, this is not how you should be acting," Principal Victoria said sternly, furrowing her brows. "I do not like getting calls from Mr. Mackey saying that I have to explain to seventeen families why their children are unconscious and injured. You can't solve your problems like this, even if you think that your friend has an unfair detention. We don't assign these things arbitrarily and when you do things like this, you hurt everyone."
"And that's why you're all getting detention for the rest of the week, m'kay?" Mr. Mackey was quick to say, butting into the Principal's speech. "Because this was inappropriate behavior and I'm not going to let it slide." OH JESUS, A WHOLE WEEK!? Tweek let out a screech that was echoed in various forms by the other boys, who all let out cries of protest, all except for Craig, who just rolled his eyes. "No!" Mr. Mackey blustered. "You are going to deal with the consequences of your actions, m'kay?"
Giving the Counselor a reproachful look, which caused Mr. Mackey to return to sulking, Principal Victory turned to the other boys and said, "Yes, you do all have detention, but that's not what I want you to take away from this, boys. I want you to learn that violence is never the answer and being violent only ever hurts you in the long run. Now-" The woman clasped her hands together and smiled at them pleasantly. "I want you to all apologize to Mr. Mackey for hurting his feelings by breaking Craig out of detention."
Apologize?! Jesus, why do we have to apologize? As if sensing the question, Principal Victoria added, "If you don't, it will be two weeks detention." Twitching, Tweek looked around at the other boys, who weren't moving. Oh God, fuck! Why aren't they doing anything?! They're going to make it worse! Looking over at Mr. Mackey, who was still pouting, Tweek jerked hard to one side. It wasn't that big a deal, it was just saying sorry, that was all.
Suddenly, Tweek felt Craig's hand close over the fingers that the blond still had wrapped around the lid of his thermos. Twitchily, Tweek whipped his head around to look at the Noirette, who was already watching him steadily. Even though he couldn't read Craig's mind, Tweek unexpectedly felt a swell of determination within him. That's right, we're the leaders still, so we have to make the first move.
Looking away from Craig and back to Mr. Mackey, Tweek lifted his chin and said, as clearly as he could, "We're s-sorry, Mr. Mackey, for hurting your feelings." Like that had been the right move, Craig's hand tightened over his before the boy cleared his throat.
"Yep," Craig confirmed, popping the 'p'. "Sorry." Following their lead, just as Tweek had realized they would, all the other boys mumbled out their own forms of apologies, some more sincere than others. Shivering, the boy glanced up at Craig, who wasn't looking at him. Though Craig's attention was focused elsewhere, Tweek could see the ghost of pride in those deep blue eyes and it made a warmth bubble up in him that drove away the fear he'd been feeling earlier.
It was okay. Even if they did have detention for a week and even if the Elves took all their territory and even if they ended up as fugitives on the run from headhunters who wanted their blood, it would be okay. Because Craig was there. Tweek had already memorized enough reasons why that meant something.
"That was wonderful children," Principal Victoria said in regards to the apologies, cutting though Tweek's thoughts with her words. "If you could have used your words in the first place, then maybe the rest of this could have been avoided. Now Mr. Mackey, what do you say to them?" When Mr. Mackey continued to sulk, the woman encouraged, "Come on, we were doing so well. They all apologized, what's the right thing to say in response."
Turning his head grudgingly and looking somewhere above their heads, Mr. Mackey muttered, "It's alright… M'kay."
"Good!" Turning back to the boys, the Principal primly said, "I expect all of you to report to detention today after school, otherwise, more severe measures will have to be taken. You're all dismissed to go back to class."
))))-((((
"This fucking blows, man!" Jack exclaimed, throwing his paper wad at the wall and catching it once more as it bounced back.
"At least we weren't suspended," Daniel pointed out, his nose buried once more in his book.
Jesse let out a loud groan. "But the Elves are going to take all of our territories and we're going to be stuck in here, unable to do anything." The paper wad Jack had been playing with hit the side of the third-grader's head.
Picking up the crumpled piece of paper, Ryan said, "If they take our territory then we'll take it back, they won't stand a chance."
"But until then we're stuck in here!" Russell exclaimed, catching the paper ball that Ryan tossed his direction. "Which is boring as hell."
"If we do what they say, we'll be out of detention by the end of the week," William pointed out, plucking the paper wad out of Russell's hands so he could open it and look at what was on it. "It's not as bad as it could be."
"Maybe we should just sneak out or something," Brandon suggested, leaning over William's shoulder so he could see what was on the paper as well. "I mean, if Mr. Mackey is going to spend any more time out in the hall talking to those Hall Monitors, I'm pretty sure detention will be over before he gets back anyway."
"Actually that doesn't sound like a half bad idea," Terry admitted, tipping backward in his chair so he could take the piece of paper and crumple it back up into a ball again. "What do you think Craig?"
Craig, who'd been staring at the front of the room while he rolled his pencil between his teeth, reached out a hand and caught the paper wad before it hit Tweek in the side of the head. "I think both of you are fucking stupid," Craig told Terry and Brandon, tossing the paper ball back at Jack, who caught it and went back to throwing it at the wall. "But that's just me."
Tweek wasn't exactly sure what he'd expected detention to be like, but this certainly wasn't half as terrifying as his mind had told him it would be. With his chair pressed up against Craig's and his freshly filled thermos, courtesy of the teacher's lounge, next to him, Tweek had to admit that it wasn't the worst thing in the world. Of course, Mr. Mackey wasn't in the room so it felt a whole lot more relaxed than it probably would later, but so far, Tweek was pretty sure he'd make it through the week.
The other boys went back to talking to each other, but Tweek kept silent, not wanting to get roped into anything. His attention was currently fixed on the piece of paper in front of him which he'd been doodling on. He wasn't very good at art, everything he did looked shaky and horrible, but he was still trying his best to draw a face. Pencil scratching away, Tweek made a sound of distress as he jerked, leaving the face looking like it was bored instead of happy.
"Alright!" Turning around sharply, Tweek shivered as Mr. Mackey walked in, his steps purposeful. "Now I want no more talking for the rest of the hour, m'kay? I had to talk to the Hall Monitors, but I expect silence! This is detention, which means you are here because you've done something wrong. That means no talking, got it?" When no one said anything, Mr. Mackey crossed his arms and said, "M'kay, glad we understand each other."
Looking back down at his paper, Tweek found Craig had stolen it from him and was doodling on it. Letting out a squeak, Tweek tightened his grip on his pencil as Craig passed back the paper. There was the rough outline of another head next to the one Tweek had been drawing, but what drew the boy's eyes was the words written on the top of the paper.
Do you think Mr. Mackey's head will explode if he gets angry enough?
Slapping a hand over his mouth to hold back the laugh that almost escaped from him at the idea, Tweek twitched and quickly scribbled back That would be really messy if it did! Think about all the flies and rats and stuff, they carry diseases man! Before looking back at the face he'd been starting to draw. Shivering, Tweek tried to draw eyes and ended up with a pair of bored orbs that sort of matched the hat. Growling in frustration, the blond quickly reached for his thermos and drank several large sips of coffee to calm himself down.
By the time he'd looked back at the table, Craig was already sliding the piece of paper back towards him. I don't think the school has rats, dude. Just kids who act like them.Giggling, Tweek glanced down at Craig's doodle. It had sprouted some eyes too, but the ones he'd drawn were almost comically wide and the mouth below them was a squiggly line.
Switching his focus to his own drawing, Tweek chanced a look up at Craig to find the boy disinterestedly staring at the wall, clearly bored. Eyes widening, Tweek let out a yelp and quickly returned to scrawling. Because if you looked at it right, his smiley face almost looked like Craig. After he'd finished drawing a terrible rendition of Craig's hat, Tweek answered Craig's message.
Not everyone in this school is that bad!
Sliding the paper over to Craig, a tad nervous, Tweek waited with bated breath as Craig looked down and furrowed his brows at the drawing of him that Tweek had done. Sucking in his cheeks, the boy stooped to add his own additions to the drawing. Impatient, Tweek shifted back and forth in his seat before peeking up at Mr. Mackey. The man was watching him with a glare. OH JESUS! Squawking, Tweek tangled one of his hands in Craig's coat hem and tugged at it insistently, shaking. HE'S WATCHING US WE'RE GONNA GET IN TROUBLE.
Looking over at Tweek, Craig briefly flicked his eyes up to Mr. Mackey before turning back to the blond and ruffling his hair lightly and pushing the paper back to him. Feeling better, Tweek looked back down at the paper and found a grin pulling at his mouth, despite himself. Though it was terrible, Craig had added a spiky halo of hair to his doodle, making the thing look like a ridiculous image of Tweek.
Remembering that they'd been having a conversation Tweek looked up at Craig's words and felt his chest get tight at the words he found. You're right. You and Clyde and Token are the only reasons I still bother with this shitty place.
Yeah, Token and Clyde are great, but you're the one who makes me look forward to coming to school every day, Tweek wrote in response before shoving the paper back to Craig.
To Tweek, the smile on Craig's face when he read the blonde's words made every moment of detention worth it.
