Summary:
Tweek meets Mr. Garrison and the rest of his class and realizes there may be more to Craig than he thought...
Beginning Notes:
This chapter is short and there's not really much of a point to it but I needed a filler before the next chapter where we see more of Clyde and Craig's friend dynamic and I also wanted to update this work. So enjoy :)
Finding his homeroom classroom was a bit harder. It felt like he had roamed the entire school as he struggled to figure out how to use the map on the back of his schedule. If he hadn't already known that everyone was already in their classes then he would've thought the school was abandoned. When he had been with Clyde, the hallways were too crowded for him to get a good look at the school but now that they were empty, he saw that there wasn't much to look at, though he wasn't expecting much. All public schools were pretty crappy. The floors were littered with crumpled-up papers which made him cringe and the smell of body odor mixed with sawdust wasn't any better. It's not like he had his hopes up for anything nice.
It must have been 15 minutes after he had left the nurse's office before he found his classroom. The icepack on his eye was practically slush now and he wondered what to do with it. It wasn't like he was going to walk into the classroom with it, that would only draw even more attention to himself. Plus, he didn't want anyone thinking he was a baby. Cartman hadn't even punched him that hard. He removed it from his face and shoved it into his bookbag, hoping it wouldn't ruin any of his belongings.
He really wanted to go home. He didn't belong there in that classroom just like he didn't belong in South Park. Maybe he could run away? No, he couldn't do that, they would find him eventually and he could get into trouble. Could you go to jail for running away? It wasn't like he had committed any crimes. Unless running away was illegal and in that case, he had. Besides, even if he was on the run, where would he go? He had no other family and he didn't know anyone that actually liked him besides the people in South Park and Ms. Grant. And yet, those people were just acting, he knew they were.
He was stuck and he knew he had to go to class. He had already escaped trouble once, he doubted he could do it again even if Mr. Mackey was sympathetic towards him because of his past. That only made him feel worse. Why should he get special treatment just because he had a crappy life? Was everyone worried he would go off the edge and kill himself because he was unhappy? He knew suicide was a serious issue but it wasn't one that affected him.
He took a deep breath. He hoped no one he had already met was in this class. He knew he wasn't lucky enough to be in a class with people who hadn't seen the fight but maybe they would just stay away from him if they had. Maybe they would be scared and then they wouldn't say anything about how much he shook or screamed for no reason.
I can do this, he told himself. He could feel his fight or flight instinct kicking in again but he ignored it and pushed the door open, walking into the classroom. And of course, he wasn't lucky.
The classroom probably had all of Clyde's friends in it, including Clyde. He counted just to make sure he was right. The boy with the sunglasses (which he still had on), Stan he thought his name was, was throwing a ball back and forth with his feet up on his desk with another boy he had never met. The boy was wearing a green hat but he could see some red, curly hair sticking out from underneath it. The boys sat on opposite sides of Butters and Kenny, who sat in the middle of them. Butters' face lit up when he saw him and he waved happily to him. Clyde was also goofing off with Token and Jimmy, the three of them laughing at something one of them said. Jimmy and Clyde sat next to the boy with the green hat, making up one full row and Token sat in front of Clyde in the first row.
Also in the first row, sat Bebe and Wendy who were braiding each other's hair. There were three other girls in the row along with an empty seat. Token sat next to one of the girls who had dark skin and brown, curly hair in poofs, wearing a dark yellow sweater and pink leggings. Next to her was another girl with light brown hair. She was chatting with Bebe and Wendy and he liked her hat, different colors with a flower at the bottom. On Wendy's other side was a girl with red hair who was extremely pretty. He assumed that she was Red who Clyde had mentioned in his rambling, going by her hair. It may be unoriginal but it still suited her. Red was on her phone, listening in on Wendy, Bebe, and the girl with the nice hat's conversation.
In the back row were two empty seats, one that he assumed was Craig's. 5 more boys chatted amongst themselves, none that he had seen before and was pretty sure Clyde had never mentioned. He assumed the other free seat was his which he was happy was in the back, next to a big window. That would be nice to look out of.
In the front of the classroom, there was a chalkboard and a desk where a middle-aged man with balding hair (what was with the balding teachers?) and glasses. He had a light green button-up shirt on along with dark green pants and his face was heavily wrinkled. He had a dopey expression on his face and was looking at his phone, typing away, unaware of the room filled with kids in front of him.
"Tweek!" Clyde exclaimed when he saw him. That made everyone turn their attention on him including his teacher, which was exactly what he didn't want. Leave it to Clyde.
"Hello there." The teacher greeted him. He seemed nice enough. "You must be Tweek. I'm Mr. Garrison."
"Yes, sir." He told Mr. Garrison, feeling naked as everyone continued looking at him. He assumed they knew about the fight.
"Well welcome." Mr. Garrison smiled at him. It wasn't a kind smile though, it was creepy, perverted that made his heart stop and then start again, beating rapidly. "I guess you can take the empty seat in the back, if that's alright."
He nodded and walked to the back of the classroom, thankful for the distance between his teacher as he sat down at the empty desk. What if he was a pervert? Who knew, with the people in this town? What if he got him and tried to kiss him or rape him? What if it was like in one of those student-teacher movies where the girl fell in love with her 40-year-old teacher because he gave her good grades? Damnit, what had he gotten into?
"Hey, you're the kid who beat up Cartman." The boy with the green hat told him, turning around to face him. He seemed really intrigued by him and he assumed he was Kyle, the other boy who had fought Cartman.
"Yeah, Tweek." He said simply.
"I'm Kyle." The boy smiled at him. "I heard it was really cool, what you did. I wish I could've seen it myself."
"Dude, Bebe got a video of it." Stan told Kyle, throwing the ball at him. "Hey, Tweek."
"Hi." He greeted Stan.
"I've gotta see this." Kyle exclaimed excitedly. "Do you know where he is?"
"He's in the nurse's office." Tweek told him. "I kinda⦠hurt-ngh-his nose."
"Serves that asshole right." Kenny caught the ball in mid-air when Kyle threw it back to Stan.
"You broke it Tweek." Clyde reminded him.
"You gotta give yourself some credit for that." Toke added.
"You broke his nose?" The girl with the flower hat asked him from the front row. He guessed that was Cartman's girlfriend, Heidi and he wondered why she was dating him as well. She was too pretty for him.
"I d-didn't mean to." He told Heidi, feeling bad for her. It wasn't her fault her boyfriend was an ass. "I'm s-sorry."
"You shouldn't apologize, Tweek." Bebe rolled her eyes. "Your boyfriend's a jerk, Heidi. He made fun of Tweek and Tweek put the tub of lard in his place. Besides, look at his eye, Cartman got some hits in."
"Oh, I'm not mad." Heidi assured everyone. "I mean I know how he can be, you guys. I'm not blind."
"I have trouble believing that." Red sighed, scrolling through her phone.
"I'm not!" Heidi defended herself. "I can just see the good in him as well. But I'm sorry he did that, Tweek. I know he won't apologize so I'll do it for him."
"That doesn't count Heidi." The girl next to Token told her. "You can't take the blame for all his bullshit."
"I just sent you the video Kyle." Bebe told him.
"Awesome." Kyle grinned, getting out his phone.
He sighed to himself and got out one of his notebooks. He didn't know what they were supposed to be doing at the moment but judging by all the chatter, it wasn't anything important. He just wanted to forget about the fight and Mr. Mackey and the bus driver and his new house but it seemed like all anyone wanted to do was keep reminding him about it. The only thing that seemed to be going right was that he hadn't gotten on anyone's bad side besides Cartman who had no one on his side.
"Well, well, well, look whos' back." Mr. Garrison said sarcastically as the door opened and Craig walked in. "Have you decided to change your attitude now Craig?"
"For now." Craig sighed, not having dropped his attitude at all.
"Just take a seat." Mr. Garrison huffed and Craig smirked at him as he made his way to the back of the classroom and took his seat.
"I see you get the pleasure of sitting next to me all year." Craig pointed out.
"Oh no, not all year." Tweek rolled his eyes, keeping his eyes on his paper. "I'll never make it out alive now."
"You're so funny." Craig said, maliciously.
"I could say the same for you." Tweek told him before a question popped into his head and he looked up at Craig. "Do you get into trouble-ngh-often?"
"Yeah." Craig answered, seeming smug.
"Well no need to be so proud of yourself." Tweek said.
"Why do you ask?" Craig asked him.
"No reason." Tweek sighed to himself. "Just curious. Mr. Mckey seemed like you were in his office often."
"I am." Craig nodded, seeming like he was thinking that over. "I guess I should behave more."
"Oh w-w-whatever." Tweek mumbled.
"Well, it's not like I want to be in that office every damn day." Craig knitted his eyebrows together, frowning. "I've just been seen as a douchebag my entire life. People just don't understand."
"Understand what?" Tweek scribbled in his notebook. He was trying to seem as disinterested as possible but Craig actually intrigued him. He knew what it felt like to be labeled as a troublemaker. Whether he was actually one or not, he thought he was the only one that had been perceived that way. They were in the same boat.
"That I don't mean to get into trouble." Craig replied. "I can't help it if someone gets on my nerves, I'm not going to spare them an attitude just because they think they have some authority over me. They can go screw themselves for all I care. Sometimes I swear they just want me to be in trouble."
"That's a little bit of a s-s-stretch, don't you think?" Tweek asked.
"No." Craig told him. "It's literally these people's jobs to try and shape us into the people society wants us to be. They want us to think what they think. They probably think if they label me as the bad guy then I'll see myself that way as well. They'll be the good guys who changed me and my dad will praise them for setting me straight but I'm not going to give them that satisfaction. I'm fine the way I am. They just want me to be-"
"Someone that you're not." Tweek finished for him. Craig gawked at him and Tweek knew they felt the same way. It was a little eerily if he was being honest, he felt a connection with Craig. He had never felt this close to anyone before, as if he could tell Craig anything. But that was crazy, they had only met that day, hadn't even known each other for 2 hours. It was impossible to feel so connected with someone when you barely knew them.
"You're alright Tweek." Craig smiled. It wasn't even a smirk but was an actual smile.
"S-Sure." He shrugged nonchalantly but he couldn't help but smile back.
Ending Notes:
Please leave any comments. questions or feedback in the comment section, it would mean a lot to me! If you have any ideas for me, I'd love to hear them! ππ
Everyone have a great day/night and I hope you keep reading!
-Lis ππ
