a certain sighting

by ventricosus

Within the unfamiliar town halfway across the world, a new student in South Park Elementary encounters a phenomena familiar to one that happened back home.

note: "a sentence like this," is when a conversation is spoken in bahasa indonesia. if it's only "one word." it's more for emphasis/foreign terms, some terms are listed and explained at the end of this fic. flashbacks will be when a paragraph is aligned to the right and (has this) at the start and end of it.

tw: slight xenophobia, slight religious discrimination, canon typical violence, canon typical character death, misgendering

---

Even with the thick layers of clothes protecting her skin, the cold morning air of South Park made her feel like she was freezing.

The girl was jealous of the fact that her older sister dealt better with the cold. Her sister didn't have to delay introducing herself to her new highschool for a few days because of a stupid fever. Her father had reassured the younger girl that it was normal, seeing as her mom also suffered a cold when she first visited her in-laws in this town. So she didn't need to worry about delaying her foray into a new type of battlefield.

For the whole time she was sick, she was kind of relieved that she didn't need to jump into the cold pool water that is her new school. She had fun spending time with her grandma, even if she spent most of that time measuring her to knit the sweater she was currently wearing.

At least she got to enjoy watching new episodes of the cartoon she had been following, instead of the reruns in the channels back home. She'd rather take that rather than suffering through the hell that was high school homework like Ami was doing in the middle of dinner last night.

Dread started to pool in her stomach as she walked through the dirty pavement in front of South Park Elementary. She knew that there was no point in turning back, as her dad's car already drove off since he was late to work. It explained the lack of students in front of the school too, since he told her the bell already rang for class to start during the drive there.

("They'll let you off for being late today, kiddo." Her dad reassured, ruffling her already messy curls while he kept his eyes on the road.

"Are you sure, Ayah?" She asked for the third time since they took off the garage, her breath felt loud to her own ears. "Because I-"

"-If you're worried, I'll be sure to call your teacher to let them know.")

Her chest was still heaving heavily right now, even though she hadn't even done any running for the whole day. In fact, her two legs stayed frozen in front of the door of the school. Separating a hand from the tight clutch of her backpack felt too hard for her to do.

Steeling her nerves, she willed her hands to reach for the handle of the door. Before her gloved hands got to touch the cold steel, she heard hurried footsteps behind her.

"Move over, kid! I'm late!"

Before she comprehended what that person said, someone's shoulder had collided with hers to the point where she lost balance. She managed to avoid letting her head hit the floor but the contents of her backpack laid across the pavement, some even buried in the snow.

Her words had died in her mouth, any sort of protest or annoyance streamed through her head in her native language. Something she's sure no one would understand here. Her hands subconsciously moved to collect her things.

While doing so, she glanced towards the now open door. She only managed to take in the sight of a boy wearing green ushanka before he rounded the halls. She thought she saw him carrying something, but those thoughts went away as she made eye-contact with a woman who stood near the entrance.

By the time she stood up, the woman had scurried over through the swinging door to where she was, a warm smile on her face.

"Hi there," she greeted. "You must be the new kid, right?"

---

"Uh… my name is," the girl paused. She threw an uncertain glance towards the teacher before staring back at the classroom packed with unfamiliar eyes. "Tia Dwidianti. I came from Indonesia, but my father grew up in Colorado. And... oh, you can call me Tia."

"That's not what's on the blackboard."

Everyone in the room was aware of the longer name being written on the blackboard behind the girl. Still, she grimaced at what the boy in a blue chullo hat had blatantly pointed out. She thought that the uninterested aura of the class would extend as far as the blackboard.

Not only that, but the boy who was sitting in front of him had been the one she had an unfortunate encounter with this morning.

Yet, he only paid little attention to her introduction as he kept tinkering with the miniature diorama he had brought.

At least show a little guilt or something…

She played with her hand to stop it from shaking uncontrollably as she tried to think of an answer that doesn't sound horrible in English.

"Um, that's... Raturatna Setia Dwidianti is my full name," she explained.

"Ratatta Seychay Doodoo," another boy piped in, his shrill voice sticking out from the murmurs of the other students. "What are you, three bootleg Chinpokomons in one body?"

His joke managed to get scattered laughter from some of the students. She couldn't exactly see who it was and if that even mattered, yet she felt sweat build up on the back of the neck despite the cold classroom. Her eyes decided it would be better to look down on the floor to calm her nerves.

"Eric Cartman, behave." The teacher cut in, her sharp voice laced with exasperation. Judging from her words, it didn't seem like it was her first rodeo into the large boy's troublesome personality.

"Ugh, whatever." He scoffed, yellow gloves hiding the sneer plastered on his face.

The longer she stood there, the more she regretted her decision to let the teacher write her full name.

(After her teacher showed no improvement over the pronunciation of her name, even after she spelled it twice, Tia sighed.

"Is it hard to say? Bunda told me to stick with 'Tia Dwidanti' when I introduce myself."

"I'll leave it up to you, sweetie. I'll still write it out for the student to be aware of anyway, alright?")

The girl glanced at the teacher again, feeling a bit helpless about what else she should be talking about in front of the class. All the topics that the teacher had suggested before the two entered the class had disappeared from Tia's mind from the moment she started introducing herself.

And that's going pretty well.

"You can take a seat beside Wendy, now."

...Who's Wendy?!

Tia took a shaky step forward. Her internal question went unanswered by her teacher, who continued to do whatever teachers do when they're seated behind their desk.

Her eyes darted back and forth to see if any student would show themselves as her seat neighbor. Her breath went faster than it did before she entered the class. The room wasn't necessarily small, but she felt her vision made it tunnel into a place that was hard for her to navigate. The deafening silence and the eyes of these very real people made it hard for her to take a second step.

Maybe she shouldn't have gone to school today, either. Fake a flu for a day or two more, or a week, maybe a month. What if she didn't just go to school altogether? Or maybe she shouldn't have moved out of her home at all. At least, everything there didn't feel as foreign as it did in the class that felt unlike any of the classes she knew before.

"Psst."

A muffled voice broke Tia away from her thoughts. Searching for the source of that noise, she made eye contact with a boy in an orange parka with the hood covering most of his face. He gestured vaguely for her to look at his hands, one that held a piece of folded paper.

When he got her attention, his fingers pointed to his right. Following his directions, she saw an empty seat two tables away from the boy's own seat. And further to that empty seat's right was a girl who she assumed to be Wendy.

Quickly nodding to the boy in thanks, Tia hurriedly put her bag under the empty table and got her textbook out. She took one last look to the orange-clad boy, already back to folding his textbook papers like an origami, before she glanced at the busy girl to her right.

The black-haired girl was busy tinkering with a miniature diorama like what the green boy had been doing. Compared to the boy's landmark, her display was for a ship. She didn't know what to say, as the teacher already began her lesson for the day. And in a sense, it was a bit enrapturing to watch her seat neighbor work on her project as it made Tia feel a lot more relaxed than she had been for the entire day.

Eventually, she stopped working on her project though. The girl glanced up to see that Tia was still staring at her.

Caught off-guard, Tia blushed as she tried to string some words that sounded coherent enough to be an introduction.

"U-Um, are you Wendy?" She whispered.

"Yeah," she smiled, "I'm Wendy Testaburger."

She offered her gloved hand to shake. Tia hoped that she couldn't feel how clammy her hands are through the gloves or hear how her heart skipped a beat at the sight of the girl's charming smile.

---

Every new introduction from another kid made Tia's head get heavier.

Unlike her previous class that consisted of simple names - Cantika, Syifa, Karim, Nurul - the names in her new class - Clyde, Stan, Kevin, Nichole - all felt heavy in her tongue whenever she tried to say it in the futile effort of making any name stick in her head.

Most of the names she could remember were of the people that were notable in her head. There was Wendy, the pretty girl who was her seat neighbor. Eric or "Cartman" as was how everyone would call him. And of course, Kyle, a boy that obviously had better things to do than to introduce himself until his friend called him over.

And the boy who also bumped into her without apologizing. He still hadn't noticed that he even collided with another human being like he was the center of the universe.

Okay, maybe she was being too harsh on him.

Wendy explained that the class had group presentations for the miniature dioramas some of the students brought. So there was totally no reason for Tia to feel angry at the ushanka wearing boy. It was a big project for the semester. Yet the task had been given a few days ago, right on the day she was supposed to enter the class.

Whoops.

She felt lucky that Wendy dragged her to the teacher's desk before the first break and asked Tia to be in her group. Spending the rest of the break practicing what she was going to say with her group in the park.

Wendy had to begrudgingly make a diorama about the American Revolution because each group had been assigned the topic they needed to build their diorama on by the teacher. If she had been able to choose, she would have picked a much more nuanced topic for her group to present.

Across from the girl's group, she could hear what Kyle's group was practicing as well. Out of the four boys, the one who had pointed Tia to her seat caught her attention the most. She was surprised to see what looked like a quiet kid be as animated as the rest of his friends.

Though assuming that every quiet kid was going to act like Tia was just going to make her as big headed as Kyle.

She was also caught off by how everyone understood what he was saying through his covered mouth, but the most she could understand when he said his name was: "Mm-mmf."

Yeah, she either needed to get her ears checked or everyone here had telekinetic powers.

By the time the bell rang, Tia wasn't sure she could go to the front of the class again without fibbing any of her words, at least not without some more practice between the time that could've been had when she waited for her turn.

Not like she's going to fault Wendy for that, she's been nice to her the most.

"Ms. Anderson, can my group go first for the presentation?"

Then Wendy had the bright idea that the group was prepared enough to immediately go to the front of the room as soon as the bell rang.

Everything went as well as someone with a little under 40 minutes of preparation would do. Sure, she did end up forgetting some of her lines, but the rest of the girls ended up filling in what she forgot. The thing that kept Tia from feeling guilty from forgetting her lines was that she also managed to fill in for someone's forgotten lines.

Didn't compare to the amount of lines she did forget, but she'll take that win.

Her shoulders unwinded for the first time since the lesson started. She felt relieved that she didn't have to spend the rest of the class worried about a presentation she had no hand in making.

That feeling ended when a clap resounded from the teacher, cutting the class' chatter back a notch.

"Okay, everyone. Do you have any questions for Wendy's group? Remember, each question gives extra points for the questioner and the one who answers!"

Then came the Q&A session.

"Who got so mad that they decided to throw away tea?"

"It wasn't some guy, Clyde. They were the Sons of Liberty."

"Why didn't they drink the tea from the ocean?"

"Have you tried drinking tea from the ocean."

"Why didn't they just pee in the ocean instead of throwing out tea?"

Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god.

"Guess we have to repeat that part again, there was a tax on tea because the British wanted a monopoly on the tea trade."

What was she supposed to do?

"What's an ad valorem tax?"

She can't answer any of these questions.

"It's… a tax. That adults had to do back in then. It's a thing, you know, where they have to pay more money for… a lot of things. Like, houses, or the ground!"

The amount of hands that were raised slowly whittled down as more of the commonly asked questions were out of the way. When none of the hands were raised anymore, there was a noticeable lack of answering done by Tia.

The teacher seemed to take note of this as she opened her mouth again, "We have time for one more question. Does anyone want to ask any specific person anything?"

Ugh, as if her intentions on putting Tia in the spotlight wasn't obvious enough.

Of course, that question was met with total silence. Each second of it dragged on long enough that she was sure an entire civilization could rise and fall within it.

That is, until she noticed the boy in orange parka slowly raising his ha-

"Hey, New Kid, what do you call 'ships' in your language?"

-And it was cut off by the sharp contrast on how quickly Kyle Broflovski raised his hand with the question thrown out before it was fully stretched. Not to mention, this was the second time he asked a question for Wendy's group.

That's not even related to the presentation!

"It's called perahu," Tia answered curtly. "My language is called Bahasa Indonesia, by the way."

The boy doesn't even give any regard to her answer, his head already turned away to whisper something to the person next to him. She tried to cool her face in case she looked upset by how dismissive the boy was being.

"Alright, class. Give it up for Wendy's group!" Ms. Anderson said soon after, followed by unenthused applause from the class. The girls walked back to their seat.

Wendy seemed to notice the pout that ended up on Tia's face on their way back to their seats. Before Tia sat down, she felt a hand patting her back.

"You'll get used to it," she whispered.

---

After she exited the janitor's closet, Tia wasn't sure she could get used to praying in the smelly room.

And she was supposed to use it for her Zuhr prayer five days a week, maybe even Asr if she stayed late at school.

Not to mention the awkward waddle from the toilet to the dark and small room in the first place. A waddle that made her shoes wet because of course she forgot to bring sandals. She had to ignore how everyone stared at her. Tia was not explaining this situation to every person that passed by.

How was Wendy not laughing at her ridiculous situation already?

Speaking of the girl, she was still waiting near the room. She was talking to one of the girls that had been in her presentation group, though she couldn't place that person's name. When Wendy noticed that the new girl was headed in her direction, she bid her friend farewell. Said friend immediately walked away to chat with a group of girls further in the corridor.

"Is it fine that you didn't have lunch with everybody else?" Tia asked during the walk from the locker hall to the cafeteria. As much as she appreciated Wendy's presence, no one talked about a "buddy" system here. So she didn't get why the girl took up the role of impromptu tour guide without getting anything in return.

"It's no big deal. I wanted to wait for you," Wendy answered, smiling in a way that made Tia's heart skip a beat. "C'mon, let's get something we can eat."

Unlike the cafeteria back home, lined with stalls full of jajanan to pick and choose with your pocket money, the one here only had one food station. Yet her father reassured that there was definitely something for Tia to eat within the menu. Her grandma still sneaked in a box of sliced bread with strawberry jam. It was something that the girl only found out when she was searching through her bag in class.

It's nice that the old woman still remembered her favorite flavor to go with her bread even though it had been years since she made breakfast for the girl.

The emergency bread had proved to be useful. Most of the food in the cafeteria had been haram or looked less like something edible and more like something you'd see puked out of someone.

"It's too bad you never got to experience Chef's cooking, New Kid," Wendy remarked.

"Chef?" Tia asked, her voice echoed in the cafeteria. There were a few people that sat at tables further than where the two were sitting. "Did he work here?"

She nodded over a mouthful of sandwich, "A year ago, then he passed away."

In other words, he's dead.

And yet...

"I'm sorry." Tia said, though the words felt empty as her guilt was squashed by another feeling. It was the type of feeling that loomed behind her constantly, but she'd never see anything when she'd look behind her.

"By the way, what do you think of this place so far?" Wendy asked after a few minutes of silent eating.

"The school?"

"Well, yeah. And South Park in general, I guess."

The new girl hummed in thought, finding a way to summarize her experience without being too obvious, "It's a quiet town. Sometimes it feels lonely too."

Her company snorted at her comment. "Wait 'til you see some of the weird things this town has. I'm sure you'll change your mind, then."

"Maybe I need to get out more," Tia chuckled awkwardly, "I've been sick for almost the entire time I was here."

To be honest, there was a bit more to what Tia said.

What she meant when she said the town was 'quiet' wasn't the living residents or the events in this town. She knew from her dad's stories of his childhood that this town was far from normal, always inviting chaos and mayhem every other day.

The thing that made this town 'silent' was the lack of things Tia was supposed to see.

Back home, there was more to existence than your regular day to day existence filled with school hours or 9-5 jobs. It was another layer of life that was full of other beings that people would call ghosts, the supernatural, paranormal, ghouls, and many more. Not everyone back home were able to see it, but its existence was acknowledged by a majority of people in all religions and beliefs.

It was common for stories of people who had brief encounters with those creatures to spread. It became something to fill the room with fun chatter and doubles as a precaution to act careful in similar circumstances.

Sometimes it's meeting with the same person twice on the way home from work, yet the person wouldn't remember the first meeting. It would be someone getting possessed during a school excursion. Getting a glimpse of a creature waiting in a class that used to be a morgue when the school was built on a hospital site. Passing through a graveyard and feeling heavier as well as depressed because something got attached to you.

Almost every other person would have some sort of encounter they might want to tell. It was why the knowledge of specific prayers during those circumstances was essential if you wanted to be safe.

Of course, there are people who can sense more than brief encounters with them. Sometimes it's just a bad feeling, but sometimes that person can actually see the entire form of the phenomenon that existed in that other layer.

And Tia was one of those people.

Some people called her an Indigo or someone with a sixth sense. Apparently, her mother's side of the family had recurring relatives with that sight. Her own mother never had that ability and developed a disbelief for that type of thing, but her younger sister did. It was the same thing with Tia and Ami. Although Ami could sense a bit when she was younger, that sense faded away as she grew older. In Tia's case, it never grew weaker.

At least, not until she arrived in South Park.

("Guess you've finally grown up from your silly delusions, kiddo." Her grandfather had said during dinner, her mom nodding along in agreement.

"Doesn't it mean this place is safe for you, dek?" Her father added.

Her grandmother had helped Tia with washing her dishes. The girl had been going at a slow pace compared to how she'd normally do it, a frown plastered on her face throughout her work.

"Don't worry about it, Adek. Those two lived in Colorado long enough that they won't immediately understand your problem." Her grandmother said. Her intentions were clear enough to reassure the young girl and yet…)

Because it was a problem. She didn't feel safe or comfortable in the town. Instead, it felt too quiet for her. It had gone to the point where she had a hard time sleeping because of the unsettling feeling that something was off during the entire time she was here. She suspected that she was sick not because of the temperature, but due to the different way the town and her home existed.

To her, this type of unknown was a lot more frightening than the encounters she had with those creatures.

From the way her own family had reacted to this, Tia was in no hurry on asking about the existence of other beings.

She knew better than to give them more ammo to make fun of how different she was.

---

The last bell of the day rang, and Tia's first day in school had ended.

The weight of her backpack felt lighter than it did when she started the day. It was filled with a few more papers that were the homework for the day as well as the textbook she temporarily borrowed to learn for next week's test. The worn out colors of her old frog keychain was the only thing that stood out among the lime colored backpack.

She had requested to walk to school and from school. Her dad protested, insisting she could hitch a ride with him whenever he went to work and wait at the restaurant to go home. They eventually settled for the occasional ride when she went to school and to always walk back home. She could walk to a bus stop, but there were no stops that made the walk back home closer. At least, none as far as she knew of.

At least it beats the car rides that's usually spent within traffic back home.

Of course, she held the record as the first person who was always out of the gates of her school back home. It helped that school ended after Zhuhr.

Comparatively, she emerged from the school building to see that there were a lot of students in scattered crowds. A few were walking to the bus stop, some were still hanging around at the building while talking to their friends. A lot of the kids who looked older than her hung around near the abandoned public restrooms. The way they tried to look intimidating made it clear that she was not supposed to step in their territory.

Either way, there were a lot of people.

She would have liked to be the first person to burst out of the door first, but she had to report how her first day went to the teacher before heading out alone. Wendy apparently had to leave because of a "sparkles conference" or whatever meeting she needed to have with the other girls.

Following a crowd of students who were headed on the same way as she is, Tia let herself get lost in her thoughts and take in the surroundings. Noting the students she was able to remember from her own class and the ones she caught glimpses of when she was in the cafeteria.

Blue sweater and hat with red linings, red long-sleeved shirt with brown pants, green buttoned up shirt and black pants, the mess of primary colors Cartman was...

It's interesting how most of the kids can be reduced to several of the colors they wore. She didn't know if it was a themed clothes day or something else, though she might be proved wrong the next day. Or if everyone had a color code that they had to abide by according to some sort of weird school law here or something.

Oh, jeez. Her green sweater was the one and only kind of sweater that her grandmother only finished sewing yesterday! She didn't know if she had that same exact color of clothes for her to wear tomorrow. And not to mention she's sure that she had any other turtleneck and pants of the same color she wore that's not in the laundry or left back home.

Tia noticed how her breath quickened and her palms were sweaty. She tried to calm herself down by taking count of the colors that she saw within the other students.

Red sweater and black pants, Blue shirt and brown pants, purple coat and yellow skirt, green ushanka and-

Ugh.

Not only did she have to see that annoying boy again. She also got shoved from behind, a different angle compared to that morning. Luckily, she managed to take a step to balance herself by taking a few steps before her whole body hit the ground again.

Just when she turned to take note of who decided today was the annual "Push the New Kid Down on the Ground" day, she heard a loud crash from that same way. Along with it, it sounded like someone collided with a heavy object.

It was like when her grandfather bumped on a glass wall because he didn't have his prescription glasses yet, but harder. So loud that it startled a gasp out of her and several other people around her.

A metallic smell wafted through the air.

As her body fully turned, her eyes were greeted by a horrifying sight.

What laid before her was the aftermath of a car crash. She's only seen those in the boring websites that her mom would open on her phone every morning. It was the type of thing that she never thought she'd see in her lifetime.

Ignore the body crushed by the car. Ignore the blood and guts splattered all over the hood and the white, white snow. Ignore the way his ribs are uncomfortably contorted. Ignore the obvious pain in his eyes.

Ignoreitignoreitignoreeverythingrelatedtothatboy'scorp-

-Yet here she was, knowing well that what happened here was that a car swiveled at high speeds to hit one of the students in the school. It must've come from the way behind her, and she had the front view to the spectacle.

She recognized that orange parka.

All sorts of people passed by her to crowd around the car. The car looked fine, if you can ignore the unconscious driver and the wrecked hood that locked the young boy between it and the school's wall.

"We have to get the driver out of the car!"

"Did you see the way he drove? I think he's drunk."

"This early?"

"Why else would he hit the building like that?"

Just like the morning before, she couldn't find the strength within her body to move. Unlike then, when her body was aware of every sensation, she couldn't process anything other than how her feet felt like it had heavy stones on top of it.

Her curiosity didn't need her to move when she could sense the life bleeding out of the boy as young as her. It was a different sense compared to when she saw one of her relatives die. Her relative was surrounded by family and a warm atmosphere as everyone made sure she passed away peacefully.

The body in front of her was surrounded only by unknown onlookers who only went as far as friends and bystanders as well as the chilling air of the town. No signs of family anywhere, no one to reassure him that everything was going to be okay. But his life faded as fast as her relative did.

"Oh my god, you killed K-"

Just as the noises around her started to fade, for the first time since she stepped foot in this town, she saw it.

"You bastard!"

From the way the crowd parted just enough to show a glimpse of the boy's body, she saw what looked to be his spirit slipping out from the bottom of his body. Unlike the first time she saw this process, there were no signs of shock or confusion over what happened to him as he stared at his own lifeless body.

From the way he heaved out a sigh, it looked like he was disappointed?

She wasn't sure she'd ever seen any dead person who were disappointed by their own death.

Disappointed by the way other people reacted to their death? Sure. She didn't have the most experience when it came to dead people, considering her age compared to revered clairvoyants back home. She knew that most ghosts had their own version of the so-called "5 stages of grief" for their own deaths, though.

She's seen some get over within a few days, some never even got past stage 1 for years.

But was the boy really already on the "acceptance" stage within a few seconds?

The crowd started to phase out too. The indifferent way they looked after leaving the site of the incident seemed like they just saw an entertaining show instead of a dead person. Even the driver was already heaved out of the car and brought in to the school.

She wanted to help the boy, but she wasn't sure there was much she could do seeing as she was just a 4th grader.

One who could see ghosts, that's for sure, but that didn't matter when the boy was already turning around from his body to go to who knows where.

Until he froze in place when he locked eyes with someone.

"...!"

That's when she realized she was in a staring contest with the ghost, whose eyes went as wide as saucers.

Thinking about what action she should take, she had a lot of questions going through her head.

What was his name? Why didn't he look surprised over his own death? Why was he the first ghost she can see here?

And most of all, should she do something right now?

Steeling her nerves for the second time that day, she willed herself to raise one of her hands. Tilting it slightly in a wave as an awkward smile passed through her face because it didn't know what else to show.

She was still confused, but she wanted to talk with the boy.

He flinched as he seemed to realize that she was actually looking at him. Not at someone near or beyond him.

His body tensed compared to the slouch that had dominated his body language after he died. The boy looked beyond her only to see nobody else looking at him like she did.

Oh, he was panicking.

Maybe that was a bad move.

Especially since he was running away from her.

Gulping down any inhibitions, the girl tried to find her voice within her dry throat.

"H-hey, wait!" Tia cried out, her legs immediately chased after him like none of the stones from before had mattered.

---

When the ghost slowed down to a stop, clearly not out of breath, they were at a small open road that was between the school and a church.

Well, would you look at that. Her unasked question actually got answered. There was a graveyard somewhere in this town, but there were no other beings dwelling there.

The only other being she could see right now was the boy in front of her. It didn't look like he was tired, though that might be a baseless assumption since she couldn't see his face from the angle she was in. The trees were something she was grateful for, as she could at least support half of her back on it, and drop her bag beside her.

From the heavy way her chest heaved, she couldn't be in any hurry to talk.

Not like she was, since she heard the ghost murmur something after a few moments.

She knew that the first few rules she was given was to keep her prayers close if a spirit was bothering her. Don't feel too many emotions like fear or excitement. Stay calm.

And yet, the feeling of confusion intensified after hearing those muffled words.

"...What?" She spitted out between breaths.

The ghost turned around, and his parka was somehow still intact with all its orange glory. That included the hood that was still up as well as the fact that his mouth was still covered by a piece of his clothing.

"Mmf?" He repeated, the words clearly translated over with the thick fabric covering at least half of his face.

"Your… uh, thing," she stated as one of her hands raised to make a vague gesture in front of her mouth, "I can't hear you."

The boy blinked in astonishment, slowly lowering his hood alongside the fabric that covered his mouth.

Huh, she didn't expect him to look pretty normal.

She remembered that some spirits retained the injuries that killed them and a lot looked like they were still in pain over that. The boy in front of her had nothing in common with the spirits she met before in that aspect. In fact, other than the way she could see the church beyond him, he looked the same as he did the morning she first laid eyes on him.

What she didn't expect was the blonde hair and freckles that adorned his face. Maybe expecting him to be some kind of carrot-hybrid because of his parka was a bit too outlandish to be reality.

"Don't tell me you haven't been able to hear me for the whole day, New Kid." The boy said, disbelief in his voice.

Oh, he had a voice. A bit lower pitched compared to hers, but it was clearer than the muffle she heard in the morning even if his voice sounded a bit scratched.

"I only heard you talk when everyone was introducing themselves. And even that came out as," she covered her mouth with the palm of her hand as she attempted to mimic the muffled voice she heard before.

"...it's Kenny," he said, an incredulous look on his face. "You really didn't hear me say 'Kenny McCormick' this morning?"

"Nope," she stated as she shook her head. "It's Tia Dwidianti, not 'new kid', by the way."

Kenny sighed from his nose, surprise melting into deadpan, "I heard that."

The silence that followed was a given, as awkward as it was, while the two tried to process the nature of their conversation.

Tia wasn't sure what Kenny was thinking, but she wanted to know why this perfectly normal looking boy was the first ghost that she got to see in this town. Someone who just died instead of someone who had been dead for a long time, like that Chef person.

When she stared at the boy longer, she noticed that he looked confused as well. The way he avoided her gaze might be him thinking that she was insane or something. Maybe people like her weren't a common thing in America?

Unlike how weirdly relieved she felt even throughout the confusing mess, Kenny looked like he was going to run away again at any moment.

"No one's supposed to see me like this," he muttered, deep in his own thoughts.

She couldn't be sure, but she might have seen him pouting before he covered the lower part of his face with the hem of his jacket.

"But I'm seeing you right now," Tia frankly stated. She sheepishly grimaced at the pointed look that Kenny sent, clearly communicating that he knew that.

She guessed that wasn't much of an explanation on why the girl wasn't panicking.

"Some people call me an Indigo. I don't know if that's a thing here-"

"-No, it's not-"

"-U-um, basically, I can see other beings that people don't usually see," she explained hurriedly. She felt like her nerves were higher than before from the way he cut her off especially after slipping into her mother tongue. "Y'know, like ghosts, p-poltergeists… and stuff."

"...Okay," Kenny nodded, gesturing to her to continue.

She took a deep breath before continuing, "I didn't see a lot of them after moving to this country though, you're basically the first one I've encountered here."

"Is that supposed to be an honor?"

"Considering you died for me to be able to see you, I don't think so…" Tia shrugged. Her face twisted in remorse as she remembered how bloody the car crash from a few minutes ago was.

Instead of any strong feelings, she only saw dismissal on his face as he scoffed, "You'll be surprised by the things everyone can see here."

"Okay...? My dad and Wendy said that too," Tia frowned in confusion. She turned her head when the boy passed through her only to stop under the shade of a nearby tree that was closer to the church.

Kenny didn't respond as he stared at the church in silence. Following his stare, a thought formed in her head.

When people die, aren't they supposed to hold the memorial in churches?

Tia didn't have the slightest clue on how funerals worked that didn't use her own religion as a point of reference. She might be wrong for all she knew, and that what some TV shows did were just an exaggerated or inaccurate way to portray it.

Even so, shouldn't a funeral be held as soon as a person has passed away?

Why isn't Kenny trying to peek into what his funeral would look like?

The questions started to weigh heavily on her head, so she decided to continue the conversation.

"Err, either way, you're not the first person I've seen die," she started, "I also saw my Oma's spirit leave her body."

Snapping out of his thoughts, he glanced back at her, "Oma?"

"That's what I call my grandmother from my mother's side."

"...So, your Oma died like me?"

She averted her eyes from the curious stare he gave her.

"She didn't die exactly like you did," she stated. "She was badly sick and passed away while she was in the hospital. The doctors did something and then her spirit just left her body after everyone surrounded her inside the room."

"Uh-huh," Kenny nodded slowly, disbelief written on his face.

Tia's cheeks huffed, the reaction familiar yet the dismissive attitude stung all the same, "I'm serious!"

The outburst must have been unexpected as the boy flinched, his expression shifting into an unreadable one as she continued.

"Her spirit stuck around me for awhile after that. She asked me to pass on a few messages for some... people," she explained.

Of course, she left out who those people were. Especially since "people" actually meant "one person". And that specific person was actually her mother.

("Adek, what are you saying?"

"Oma wanted me to say that to you, Bunda. She would've told you that herself, but since you can't see her-"

The young girl's excited expression quickly wilted as her words were cut off by the sound of her mother's clenched fist meeting the wall.

Tia didn't dare to break the long and eerie silence as fear filled her blood, until she heard her mother utter two words:

"Get out.")

She swallowed that memory down. Pushing back the ever persistent thoughts that her relationship with her mother became strained because of that. Instead, she focused on the boy to see if he had any sort of confusion that wasn't sorted out from her situation.

He looked as fazed as this morning when he introduced himself to her, which was not at all. From the small time she spent with him, his expression always held some sort of apathy that always distanced him from the rest of the class.

She only ever interacted with one person immediately after their death. Even her grandmother needed some time to come with the grips over her passing away.

Meanwhile, Kenny didn't even pick up on the indirect nudge on whether he wanted to do something in relation to his death. Instead he looked like he was still thinking about something else entirely.

Guess I have to do this the hard way.

"Um, anyway," she started, "Kenny, do you have anywhere you want to go?"

"Not really."

"...not even your own funeral?"

The boy scoffed after hearing that, his lips pulled into something that looked like a small, helpless smile. His reaction only added more to her confusion as she attempted to dig more.

"I dunno how funerals work here, but don't they usually take a long time?"

"It's… a bit different," he said. "At least it will be, for me."

What did that mean?

Shrugging off that weird statement, she decided to go about her question in another way.

"How about anyone else you wanna talk with?"

"...I can't talk to anybody else," he frankly stated, missing the point entirely. "Except for you, I guess."

"I didn't mean directly," Tia crossed her arms, feeling a bit impatient, "Isn't there anyone you want to pass a message to?"

"Through you?" He asked after a beat, to which she hurriedly nodded as an answer.

Kenny blinked after hearing that question. His body slouched in a way that made his shoulders look tense. It might be from the way he buried his hands into his pockets deeper. He hummed in thought, mulling over her words.

At least, that's what she thought he did.

"Nope," he said, an easy smile on his face.

It was obvious that he was lying. Still, she couldn't help but feel like the way he forced himself to give out a relaxed aura had hidden intentions. It was like he wanted to silently convey that he didn't want her to pry more into that subject.

Tia sighed, a bit frustrated by that simple answer. She decided that she should take another approach.

"Uh… then, do you want to stick around me for a while?"

---

"Assalamu'alaikum."

"Walaikum'salam, Adek," a warm yet aged voice greeted her from somewhere beyond the house. "Where were you?"

Kenny observed silently from the open doorway as Tia marched to the kitchen, further in the house. The open door closed in on itself, passing through half of his body before shutting itself with a click.

Well, it wasn't like he wasn't unused to that.

He took in the large family photograph that immediately greeted him as he entered the living room, stairs to the right side of it. The circle of sofas and armchair around the TV made it seem more cramped than the living room in his house, which was roughly the same size. Unlike the place he spent his whole life in, though, it was obvious that the house was kept clean by its occupants.

The only mess he could see was the sewing equipment left on one of the sofas alongside an unfinished brown sweater.

Huh, same model as what the New Kid is wearing.

Without realizing it, the ghost glided to the open archway to the kitchen. He observed each little intricate decoration and family pictures that adorned the shelves on top of the TV. Some which might be pretty old considering the faded colors.

He supposed that some of the girl's family lived here for some time, though he wasn't familiar with any of them based on some of the photographs. It's definitely not Tia considering he needed to give some pointers on where her house was. That was particularly fun when she'd walked through the wrong turn or went a bit too far before reaching the house. Which was surprisingly at least 10 minutes away from the McCormick's own humble abode.

The murmurs in a language that he didn't understand increased in volume as he got closer to the two people in the kitchen.

"Aren't you happy that you're able to gain back your sense?" The elderly voice asked. He had to strain his ears to even catch whatever it was she was saying. Even so, he couldn't actually see her mouth moving as most of her body was facing away from him, focused on whatever it was that was boiling on the stove. His new classmate was close to her, intesely observing her grandmother's expression.

The younger girl sighed, "Should I be happy? Considering he-"

As if she sensed something, Tia's head whipped backwards to where Kenny was standing. Who was awkwardly half-hiding behind the door frame as if anyone else but her could notice his existence.

What he didn't expect was her contemplative expression turning into one of guilt. She grimaced at whatever it was she said before turning back towards the older woman.

"I feel bad for him," she continued. "He passed away today, Nek. I don't get how he's taking it all so well..."

Tia's grandmother patted the girl's head as she turned off the stove, whispering something to the girl. After that, she nodded and answered back in a hushed tone that he couldn't hear.

The heavy tone of the conversation shifted back to one that was more warm as Tia's enthusiasm when she entered the house returned.

Her grandmother set the apron she was wearing before heading out to the backyard. Kenny took it as a chance to glide closer to the girl, who was staring at her grandmother's back as if she had something else she wanted to say.

"You know… I don't actually understand what the two of you were talking about," Kenny stated. Half of him felt like he was trying to reassure her to not feel any sort of guilt. Still, he couldn't hide the annoyance over the fact that he wasn't able to understand what she was talking about in the first place.

Tia jolted when she heard him talk for the first time in a while, the same guilt from before back on her face, "I-I know that… but still…"

The girl shifted her eyes left and right as if anyone else were eavesdropping on them, before dropping her voice to a low tone.

"It's not polite to talk about someone behind their back, right?"

...that's adorable.

"No shit, sherlock."

At his deadpan answer, the girl's eyes widened in panic and her shoulders tensed as if she never heard anyone swear before in her life. The fact that she nervously stuttered over her words in a bunch of "Um"s and "Uh"s reminded him of a certain blonde friend of his. These two might actually get along quite well if he didn't hang around Cartman so much.

Tia let out a resigned sigh after a dozen or so false starts, "I just gave out the fact that I was talking about you, huh?"

Well, at least she wasn't as naive as Butters was.

"You don't have to apologize," he replied nonchalantly, hoping that his amusement didn't show on his face. "It was pretty obvious."

The girl looked like she wanted to protest, before huffing out another sigh in defeat as she walked out of the kitchen, "Alright…"

Kenny followed the girl as she trudged up the steps to the next level of the house. The hallways reminded him of the ones in Kyle or Stan's house. This place was decorated with more plants than family portraits compared to downstairs. Was someone in Tia's family a plant-fanatic or something?

"Where are you going?" He piped up, the girl perking up at the sound of his voice as she stopped on her heels.

"My room," she simply answered as she gestured to the backpack she gripped with one of her hands, "I wanted to put away some of my stuff first."

Her eyes held an offer on whether he wanted to welcome himself into that private space.

Kenny hummed as if in thought, although his mind was pretty set on the boundaries he would establish, "I'll stay back."

Tia's mouth formed into a tight line as if she wanted to say something else. The crease between her eyebrows also increased as she stared at him longer. Like she was waiting to see if he'll break and take back his refusal.

If he didn't know any better, it looked like she was trying to emulate the type of puppy eyes Karen would flash at him. Of course, the one he faced was definitely less cute than what his sister was capable of.

So, no, he wasn't going to fall for that.

"Alright," she sighed after a momentary silence.

Turning around, she unlocked the nearest door to the stairs and Kenny caught a glimpse of a room smaller than his. Based on the clutter of toys and clothes that immediately greeted his eyes, he could see that the room had a lot more going on within the confined space.

He even caught sight of a doll he was sure he saw Karen stare longingly at when they passed by a toy fair a few months ago. At least, he thought he did.

As the door clicked itself into the frame, he looked around to see that the corridors held nothing else interesting. He knew that he could technically phase through the walls that separated each room. It was something he learned based on his previous experiences. In the end, he chose to leave the privacy-violation tendencies to people like Cartman.

Heh, if the fatass would even get the chance to become something like Kenny instead of being dragged immediately to hell.

So, despite the fact that he wasn't tethered by the laws of physics or gravity, he leaned against the wall and waited. Carefully listening for any telltale sounds on whether the new kid was about to head out soon through the thin walls.

He wondered that despite the amount of rooms in the house, everything felt quiet and a bit lonely. He was pretty sure she had a big family based on the pictures, but almost all were nowhere in sight.

Afterwards, a few noises that sounded like a crash and what sounded like something being thrown to the bed came out from the room. Tia came out of the room holding a small cyan pencil case and a thick paper that he recognized as today's homework.

He raised an eyebrow at her appearance, considering her frizzy hair was somehow even more messier than before she left him. He didn't even think that was a possible feat.

"What?"

Kenny averted his eyes from her appearance before he replied with forced nonchalance, "Nothing."

Tia hummed as she took a step towards the stairs, but paused before heading down and looked back at him.

"You can come in the next time you want to wander around here. My family wouldn't mind. I guess it'd depend if you don't mind cramped spaces though," she said. Her eyes darted all over his form as if realizing something. "But… I guess that shouldn't be a problem considering… your whole… thing."

As warm as that statement made him feel, he also wouldn't count on her to remember the offer when the next day came. He didn't resist smiling at her thoughtfulness. Although, his feelings soured when he wondered if it would soon extend to pity the moment she learned about his circumstance.

Maybe she already knew that from Wendy considering how much they hung out today. He wouldn't count on it, though. The girl only knew his name after he spelled it out in her face a few moments ago.

"I appreciate it, New Kid."

Although her shoulders unwinded into a less tense posture as she went down the stairs, she still pouted at that nickname, "I told you, call me Tia."

"Yeah," Kenny held back a snort. "And that's not going to stick in this kind of town."

Tia groaned after hearing that after hearing that, realizing that no one had actually called her by her name for the whole day, "I'm still going to try…"

The girl took a turn to the living room downstairs to a small room that connected what he assumed would be the garage and the stairs to the basement.

"By the way, where's the rest of your family?" He asked, the question being on his mind for the entire time after he saw those family pictures.

"Well, my father's working… somewhere, I don't actually know where but it's around here. My mom works outside of town, she said she only comes back on the weekends. My grandmother said my grandfather was meeting some friends. While Kakak is," she paused whispering and leant down in the middle of the stairs to the basement to look through the railings. She pointed at a figure laying down on a sofa in the middle of the basement, "right over there."

Before Kenny got to ask more about who 'Kakak' was, the girl beside him immediately stomped down the rest of the stairs. Her steps were much louder compared to before.

"Kakak, wake up!"

She crossed the distance between the bottom of the stairs and the sofa. As soon as she reached the person sleeping with a book on top of their face, Tia immediately shook them back and forth in the cramped space.

The resounding loud bump that echoed in the dark basement resulted from the person rolling over was a given. As well as the loud shout that followed after.

"Tia, what the hell's wrong with you?!"

"...whoops, sorry," Tia apologized, not sounding remorseful at all.

Once the person got up, Kenny noted the person's much taller stature, short dark hair and leather jacket draped over their body as a make-shift blanket. Which confused him considering there's a perfectly tidy bed across the loveseat. It was nestled on the corner of the non-traditional looking room with a computer desk nestled at one end of it. Everything else looked to be a scattered mess as discarded piles of snack wrappers and a bag thrown half-way across the room decorated the floor.

Considering the familiar way Tia and the person were talking to each other, he could only conclude that the man before them was her older brother.

Ain't that a coincidence.

"What do you need my clipboard for, anyway?" The guy asked, his voice still low and groggy.

"Homework," the younger girl replies nonchalantly, already going to the box files lined up beside the laptop on the desk.

"And you're doing anything outside of your super comfy room because…"

After a grunt, Tia pulled out a wooden clipboard from the box file closest to the end of the desk, "I'm doing homework with a… friend."

"Hmm, you already got friends? That's nice," he said, breaking his gaze from his sister to stretch his head. At least, that's what Kenny thought before he saw the older brother stare at him directly from where he's standing.

What?

The only acknowledgement Kenny got for his confusion was a small, knowing smirk. After that, Tia's brother went back to talking with his sister like nothing happened, "I'm guessing it's the one who's trailing behind you?"

Tia looked at her brother skeptically, "I thought you-"

"Yeah, I can't," her brother briskly said, immediately flopping to his bed face down, "but I heard you talking to him like you talked with Oma."

She kneeled down to his side, lightly slapping his back over and over as she whined, "Kakak, don't go back to sleep again! Nenek told me to get you upstairs to help with dinner…"

A muffled groan resounded from the brown pillow, "In a minute, Ti. And you'll be coming home after dinner, right?"

Tia paused her slaps after hearing his words, taking a moment to contemplate before replying with determination, "I won't, I swear. Just until I get to know he'll be fine."

"Yea, sure," he said, the hand that hung from the bed raised to make a shoo-ing gesture, "now get out there before your friend gets bored."

Tia walked out the house with Kenny in tow, so the ghost took it as an opportunity to ask the question that's been plaguing him ever since he entered the house.

"Can your entire family see ghosts?"

"My father's side of the family can't," Tia said, hugging her brother's clipboard close alongside her pencil case and homework. She hopped down from the porch, "I got it from my mom's family. Although my mom can't since Oma told me it's only for the youngest of the generation."

"But your brother saw me," Kenny stated, frowning over what had happened in the basement.

Tia paused walking as she blinked confusedly at his statement.

"...My older sister that you just met used to be able to see ghosts. That's what she told me, at least."

"That person was your… big sister?" He slowly asked, his head still processing that fact as his eyebrows raised.

The girl nodded nonchalantly and resumed walking, "Uh-huh, something wrong about that?"

"Oh, uh, nothing's wrong with that," he said, apology in his tone, "I just thought she was your brother."

"It's fine. Kak Ami recently cut her hair before we moved, most of the clothes she brought are different compared to the ones back home too. She said that it helped since there's no uniform," Tia sighed, her words clearly hiding something else. "She also started lowering her pitch when she talks."

He didn't know how he should react. From the way she talked about her sister, it sounded like she wanted to know whether her sister's doing the right thing or not.

Sure, he's done some experimenting with how he'd present himself. The Princess outfit laid forgotten in the corners of his closet came to mind. Still, he wouldn't have any idea when it came to the type of change her sister was doing.

"That's a lot of change for one person," he simply said.

Tia nodded though remained silent for a while as if contemplating something. It was when they reached a crossroad that the girl opened her mouth again.

"My father said she's going through a phase."

"Is she?" Kenny blinked, feeling like he's heard those words before.

"I don't think so," she said, an odd look on her face. "Come on, let's find a place where I can do my work and talk without people looking like I'm weird."

Tia immediately jogged ahead after she said that, signalling the end of that topic.

---

Tia decided that it felt weird to let a ghost silently lead her around the town.

She had to walk slower than usual. She almost collided with someone a few times because she needed to pay attention to the faded visage of the orange boy in case she lost him. Any sort of attempt to ask where they're turning next or just small talk gets dismissed with a nod or a hum as the boy focused more on the route they were taking.

Not like she could blame him, considering she got lost during the walk to her house. They had to waste a few minutes retracing their steps and let him take the lead.

A part of her felt like Kenny was trying evade talking about himself though.

At least it gave her the time to think and observe the boy. She thanked god that they were going through a crowded area again and she didn't want to risk opening her mouth to look like a loony.

She always felt like there was something about the boy that pulled her interest the first time they made eye contact. The thing was she didn't get to think about most of the people she met today. Between juggling the new classes she had to keep up as well as generally adapting to the school, it was a bit too hectic to do that.

Not to mention her worries about what she should have been able to see.

Those worries seem so far away from her, even though it had only been a few hours since his death.

And with another worry squashed down, not she had another spurt out in the form of how the boy was so nonchalant about his death. It was like… another day from him, acting like how he did for the whole school day.

Often staying behind the background as his friends took the spotlight. A few words that somehow everybody but her can understand through his covered mouth. His orange parka should make him stick out, but he'd end up blending in the background. Often hiding his hands inside his pockets and observing every single thing that came his way like a bystander.

He looked lonely.

She could see him being made to audition as a singular tree in a school play. And then put on a performance where people would actually believe that a real tree was on the stage. A few people might even forget to unzip his costume, with him ending up stuck in front of the stage even after the whole auditorium is empty.

"You know, New Kid, I didn't think you'd be the chatty type."

The girl's thoughts broke off as Kenny spoke up, breaking the silence once they were walking in a less populated area. Like to the ones near the school, this area had a lot more bushes and trees surrounding the snow-covered ground.

"Am I?" Tia asked skeptically.

"You're not as bad as some people, I guess, but you've been talking more than you did the entire time you were in school," he explained.

"Well, it'd help if everyone didn't look at me like I was some sort of zoo attraction," she said. Her eyes found the ground and the sound of snow crunching against her shoes to be more interesting.

"...oh."

Based on how astonished he sounded, she wasn't sure if it was because he didn't expect that type of reply or if he didn't think she'd know about it.

It was obvious. Even she knew that most of them didn't care about her when it came to their own free time. Yet, there were certain moments when she knew that every little thing she did was being scrutinized. It was why she didn't push back too much on Wendy's decision to eat lunch later compared to the rest of the class.

"Are you fine with that?" Kenny asked.

"No," she frankly said, she looked back in time to see his eyebrows raise, "I don't want people to look at me like I'm weird… but I get it. It's not like they're bullying me."

It's not like she could fault them, either. Back home, she remembered a transfer student from Singapore from a few months ago getting the same treatment as she did now. Not to mention everyone making fun of everything about him behind his back.

Back then, her father always reassured her that most of them will stop making fun of him in a few months.

They didn't.

Kenny looked like he had a frog stuck in his throat. His words almost spilling out yet chewing his lips as if it couldn't get out. The moment he opened his mouth, a high-pitched shriek resounded from beyond the thick bushes and trees, making them pause in their tracks.

"...C'mon," he beckoned, taking the chance to change the topic as he permeated through the leaves and branches, "you just gotta get through these."

Tia passed through them only to be treated to the sight of a big ship with a few kindergartens having the time of their lives.

"We're going to a park," she simply stated. Her head was still processing the scenery.

"Yep."

"That's going to be crowded, right?"

"Not where we're headed."

After he said that nonchalantly, Kenny's non-existent legs marched ahead of her. Tia was torn between trying to catch up or processing through the new sights she was seeing.

It shouldn't be much, but the neighborhood she lived in before didn't have those types of big playground equipment in its park. The ones there were so old that she could see the rust that made the metal decay, making it unappealing to play in.

Actually, the only resemblance to a jungle gym she's ever had back home were smaller in scale and usually placed within the confines of a mall. Another time she's seen it is within the complex of a very well off friend of hers, and her house took at least one and a half hours of car ride to get to.

To see it within walking distance…

"Hey, New Kid?" Kenny's voice so close to her snapped her out of her thoughts. He didn't look unamused over the fact that he had to walk back from whatever destination they're going to so he could snap her out of her thoughts. In fact, he looked curious, like he was trying to read of her expression.

"O-oh, yeah, I'm coming."

Walking further into the park made way to a caged in basketball court. She could see a bunch of empty benches as well as a public restroom across from it. Outside from a group of poorly dressed adults sleeping near that facility, she didn't see a lot of people.

Unlike the jungle gym, she didn't see a lot of differences between the basketball court than the ones she'd see back home. Of course, most of them used to be covered in the school field's grass but the recent renovation two years ago separated it into a whole new court of its own.

Not like she spent a lot of time there, though. It still didn't stop her from walking towards the court, crouching to look closer at the dormant basketball laying near the hoop.

"Careful, that might be dirty," Kenny piped up.

Tia looked up just in time to see him cringe over his own words, as she raised an eyebrow after hearing his caution.

"How do you know that?"

"We used to put dirt all over the ball if we wanted to have dibs on it," he admitted with a sigh. It didn't take a scientist to figure out who he meant when talking about "we".

It didn't hurt to ask, though.

"The guys you were sticking around all day, right?"

He nodded, closing his eyes in resignation as Tia realized the implications behind those words. The immediate pity and apology in her words were immediately squashed when he saw how bitter he looked. It mirrored the way her mother looked after hearing someone expressing their sorry for her loss for the umpteenth time.

So she let him have his moment of silence, poking the ball with her pen. Lo and behold, mud and dirt did cover underneath it.

"Did you play basketball?" She heard Kenny ask from behind her.

Tia stood up, turning to the boy to see his usual aloof expression on his face, "I used to play softball."

"Not planning on picking it up again?"

She shook her head, "...some stuff happened."

He didn't prod deeper than that, humming as he took a once-over of the area. "Yep, we got lucky," he said, nodding to himself.

"Why's that?"

"There's usually a lot more hobos around here, but I think most of them's around my place."

"Hobos…" Tia tested those words. Her eyes darted to see who he meant before landing on the scruffy looking guy turning in his sleep while he lied against the walls of the public restroom.

"Like them?" She pointed out, getting a small nod in response. She stared at them long enough before she realized something else implied within his words, "...your place?! Are your family okay with that?"

"Eh, Mom hangs out with them from time to time," Kenny reassured, causing her to feel even more disconcerted.

"I… see…?" Tia said. Her head was still shrouded in confusion. Her voice drifted off before the subject of parents made an idea pop into her head, "uh, are you sure you don't want me to pass anything along to your parents?"

"My parents?" He repeated, his head rolling to the side in thought before immediately snapping back in place. "Nope," he stated.

"A sibling…? Like maybe an older sister… or a younger brother… you'd gotta have that, right?"

"I'd 'gotta have' what?"

"I mean, you look like the type of person who has a younger sibling, at the very least."

Kenny snorted, "New Kid, you know your attempt to get me to spill about my family isn't going to work."

"It's not?"

"Nah. Besides, they'll be fine without me."

"Okay, then…" For the first time in a while, Tia's spirits deflated as she slumped towards the nearest bench and sat down, tucking her legs close on top of it. Before long, she started scribbling down the paper that was supposed to be the homework. Might as well start on it right if Kenny was going to be an unreadable wall.

…

She didn't exactly remember what the instructions for it were. Thus, what ended up on the margin of the paper were a bunch of uneven lines and curves. Specifically, she drew something she remembered from her time in arts and crafts in her old school.

"That's a nice house."

Of course, the orange-clad boy didn't see it as that. It wasn't a rare occurrence, really, she always failed to convey what she was drawing to anyone who's seen her attempt in art.

"Thanks. It's a mountain, though."

"Huh," Kenny let out, his words stopped like he was pondering whether he wanted to say something else. He sighed after a moment of silence, his body sagging as he sat down beside the girl.

"Fine, I do have a younger sister and an older brother," he said with a resigned tone, his back leaning against the rails of the bench.

The girl brightened up after hearing that, "Kevin, Kenny, Karen…" she ponders, "oh! It's like KK-"

Kenny immediately shushed her, just in time before she pronounced the third letter of that abbreviation. His eyes widen in panic as his hands scramble to (futilely) close her mouth.

Taking the hint, Tia stopped herself from saying the last initial. Although her face was colored in confusion. "What's wrong with what I said?" She asked, her head tilting to get a better look of the boy's panicked face.

"It's better if you don't say that," he quickly explained, voice dropping into a low volume despite only having one person able to hear him.

Her brows only furrowed even more with that explanation, her lips pursed in thought.

"Is it one of those things that'll make people angry if you say it out loud?"

"...sort of."

"'Kay, I kinda get it. It's kinda like how Bunda gets angry when Kakek calls her 'Indon'," she thought out loud before sighing. "I wish my mom thought about something cool like that for me and Kakak…"

"You'd think that," Kenny mused, his mouth quirked up a bit in a grimace, "at least until your mom mixes up all your names when she's drunk."

Tia winced in sympathy. "Jeez, that's not so cool of her."

He nodded in response, letting the topic drop as Tia went back to her paper. The silence didn't last as long as their previous one, since her feet tapped to an unheard beat in a display of antsiness.

"Hey, about what you said earlier," the girl started, "how do you know for sure that they're going to be alright without you?"

"Who?"

"Y'know, your mom, Kevin, Karen…"

"Because it'll be better for them that way," Kenny stated, looking away from the girl, "I can't do a lot to make things better for them as I am right now. They wouldn't even miss me, anyway."

How can he say that so easily? She knew better than to make assumptions… but from the way he talked, it sounded like he had a lot of 'issues'. In the finger quotes way her dad would talk to her when she needed to mind her own business.

Despite that, she knew she took up the metaphorical arms in regards to Kenny's business. At least so she could make it easier for him to proceed to the afterlife, she's going to heed all caution against the wind.

"...If it were me, I'd miss her if Kakak died," she said, careful to not sound too imposing. "I might have more time if I get to see her as a ghost but… she'll be gone when she's done with her business here."

"And that makes you sad?"

"More than that, I'd be afraid of what will change when she's gone," Tia explained, setting her eyes on the sky slowly being tinted orange, "I told you about Oma, right?"

Kenny hummed, looking back at the girl with an unreadable look.

"Bunda changed a lot after she died. And I didn't even know her as long as she did, so, how is everyone going to change if Kakak is gone?"

"You wouldn't know until you get there."

Tia turned back to Kenny, giving him a weak smile.

"You're not wrong," she said.

"What about the afterlife?" He asked, "since it's about getting to see your loved ones after you die. You wouldn't need to worry about being separated after you both die, right?"

She blinked, "I guess we're supposed to believe they exist, but… there's like a certain set of things you can or can't do to see if you'd get to go to heaven or hell. At least, that's what my teacher said."

"'Sides, we're not talking about what comes after. I'm talking about right now," the girl continued. her face looking seriously concerned to the point where Kenny flinched a bit from the sheer intensity.

"Wouldn't you be sad if any of your siblings were in your position?"

Almost immediately after Tia let out that question, Kenny's expression darkened in a way she's never seen before. His head bowed down to hide the expression, but she could hear him breathing heavily as he processed her words. What she could see was his body noticeably tensing, with his hands clenching tightly on nothing.

If she felt a shiver go down her spine after seeing that, she wouldn't dare to admit it.

"I'd never let them go through what I did," he gritted out. His voice was small but sounded even more deeper with conviction - a mix of morbid anger and resilient determination.

"Uhuh..."

Compared to the nonchalant way he treated his own death, he treated any harm against his family in a totally opposite manner. Her concern for him only increased when she thought about that, but she felt too intimidated to do anything about it.

There's also the fact that he pushed her out of the way during the car crash.

It didn't occur to her immediately, the excitement of seeing the ghost had squashed any sort of mortification she felt about the tragedy. When she recounted the events of that day to her grandmother, she came to the staggering conclusion that Kenny died in her place.

The amount of gratefulness she should feel was replaced with guilt. He talked about his family in a protective way, yet he also protected someone like her… someone he only knew for less than a day. A life thrown away for some transfer student who couldn't hear him say his name.

Why would he do that?

Without realizing, the conversation had tapered off back into another awkward silence. This day was so full of awkward silences. She was sure she could drive her father mad with how silent it was, considering he needed some sort of music to play to be productive.

The boy's face shifted back to normal, staring at the view in front of him with somewhat of a longing look. It was a clear indicator for her that she shouldn't breach more into the previous topic.

It was a good thing she had something else in mind to end the silence.

"Were you supposed to come here with your friends today?"

Her words jolted him out of his thoughts, relaxing a bit after processing her words. "Eh, they're probably already off playing X-Box at Kyle's place or something," he dismissively said.

...how is he so sure of that?

Shouldn't his first assumption be that they're attending his funeral?

God, how is it possible that all the topics she brought up just made her feel more concerned for this guy's view of his own self worth?!

Kenny was probably good at reading people or she's just really bad at hiding the concern on her face. Because he immediately followed up his words with something else.

"What do you think about them?"

"Hmm," she blinked, "who?"

"The guys," Kenny said, "y'know, Kyle, Stan, Cartman…"

Oh, he's referring to the bunch who he stuck around with. It wasn't hard to notice them considering their prominent personalities compared to him. Especially since that guy was also around…

Tia hummed in thought, "I don't really know much about Stan, but Wendy talked about him."

"Yeah, that's because they're dating," Kenny explained, "kinda an on-and-off thing, but it gets pretty annoying after a while. He's pretty chill, though."

The disappointment that sunk in her stomach was quickly lifted by the second half of the explanation. She wasn't sure why she felt dismayed in the first place, but at least it left her in a better mood for some reason.

"What about Cartman and Kyle?" He continued, looking engaged for once as his eyes lit up. Tia heard him snort from the groan she unwittingly let out after hearing those names.

"They exist," she curtly answered, which pulls out a chuckle from Kenny, "...what?"

"Do you have a crush on one of them or something?" He joked, obviously holding back his laughter.

She only felt a bit more annoyance from the teasing, not enough for her to stand up and walk away. So she just let out a huff of breath, "I don't know if that's even possible. It's more like the opposite of a crush at first sight."

Kenny's amusement grew as he covered his mouth to muffle up his snickers, "I'm betting it's Kyle."

"I'm not saying…!"

"Yeah, sure. You haven't even spoken more than three words with Fatass, while you kept glaring at Kyle like he stole your baby or something."

Tia groaned, annoyed that he narrowed it down so easily. "Alright, alright! He's a bit annoying," she conceded.

Kenny doesn't look convinced.

"Fine. He's such an annoying little prick, thinking he's the center of the world to the point where he couldn't even bother to remember and apologize to the kid he bumped this morning because his school project and scores are much more important!"

The easily came out, the words forming and taking shape much easier compared to the times she had to do her English homework back home. Even Kenny looked surprised by how much she could talk, to the point where she could hear baffled laughter from his palms.

"I get it, I get it, he has an ego," the boy cut in, "Kyle's kinda… stuck in his own head."

Tia nodded furiously at that statement. Finally, someone understood!

"Don't get me wrong, he's a really clever and passionate guy. Kinda like a diamond in the rough," he explained, an easy smile on his face to soothe her.

It got the girl to turn the grit of her teeth into something more akin to a small pout. Although she still had a hard time believing the boy's defense of the ginger-haired boy.

"What, like, Aladdin?" The shrug from Kenny only made her groan, "he's the furthest thing from Aladdin!"

The boy chuckled nervously, "just… give him a bit of time and you'll learn to warm up to him eventually."

"Fine…" she groaned.

"It's not just Kyle, New Kid, even Stan gets annoying when he gets all dramatic about breaking up with Wendy for the umpteenth time. Fatass is a headache to be around too, but he's entertaining," Kenny explained. His teasing smile was replaced with a small one as he recounted his friends' qualities.

His words slowly calmed the girl down, but hearing him talk about his friends only made melancholy settle in her heart. Especially considering he wouldn't be able to interact with them anymore. She now knew better than to prod more about his death, though.

"No wonder you fit well in the group, huh…" she let out instead, not being able to avoid the forlorn look on her face.

Kenny only nodded with a hum, before moving his legs back and forth on the bench in thought. "What about you?" He piped up.

"Me?"

"Yeah, what's your school back home like?"

Don't think about it, he wouldn't know about th-

Nobody here is supposed to know-

But what if…?

"Nothing different, just that class is usually more packed. and some kuntilanak haunted the garden near the pool," she explained instead, tilting her head as she recalled some of the safest memories.

"...Kuntilanak?" Kenny asked, deadpan expression on his face.

Tia hummed in thought, "it's a thing… well, she's another being entirely. Kinda like you, I guess. You know how a mom can die when they give birth?"

The boy recoiled a bit at the blatant imagery she threw out, but nodded nonetheless.

"Well, they become a kuntilanak. They're not as bad as pocong, though," she explained, although the ghost didn't seem to understand even better from his astonished face.

Kenny grimaced, "do I want to know what that other thing is? I don't even know what both of them would look like..."

"It depends," she said, amusement laced in her tone as she picked up her pencil again.

"On what?"

"Since you told me that the things everyone can see here is pretty weird. You might have seen a long, dark-haired woman with white dresses or a dead person wrapped in kafan fabric," she explained. The wide smile on her face made it obvious that she was joking.

Kenny let out a small chuckle in response, "...I'll let you know."

Anyone else would see the girl laugh to herself while sitting alone near the basketball court, but the Indigo didn't mind. She thought it was nice to hear the ghost laugh alongside her.

---

"It's getting dark," Kenny remarked, his eyes never tore away from the staring contest against whatever the girl couldn't see in the sky.

Tia nodded, her homework already laid forgotten beside her on the bench after she finished it a few minutes ago. Turns out, getting a ghost to help her with understanding her homework actually made her finish it quickly. It helped that any sort of awkwardness between them had melted somewhere along the way.

She knew this moment between them wouldn't last long, "I might have to go home soon."

"Yeah," the orange-clad boy didn't seem surprised by the statement.

The sky had darkened to the point where she could see his jacket dissolve within the sky. Actually, she didn't realize it until now but… doesn't he look a bit more transparent than before?

"What about you, what are you going to do?"

"Eh," Kenny shrugged, he stood up and stretched even though it wasn't necessary, "probably wonder around somewhere, it's not going to be a big deal."

"My offer from before still stands," she immediately cut in, "you can stay around my place if you have nowhere to go..."

"It'll be fine, don't worry," he replied, his words sounding a lot more lax compared to the girl's fast paced words.

Those words made her draw her breath entirely, her eyebrows slowly forming a frown. She could feel the feelings she held back skyrocket the more he dismissed her concerns. She knew that there was no point to her getting angry. Many therapist appointments told her that she needed to calm down in these types of situations before it became worse!

But...

It was frustrating.

"I don't get it," she snapped, "why are you acting like what happened earlier wasn't a big deal? How are you able to talk like you didn't just get killed this morning?!"

His easy-going smile melted back into his usual aloof look, it was obvious to her that he was putting his walls back up.

"It was just an unlucky break," he said, tone still the same as his words from before, "it's nothing unusual for this town."

"That's for this town," she interjected, "what about you? You'll have to either be stuck without anyone else able to see you or leave everyone you know for the rest of your existence! Aren't you scared of going away?"

Kenny blinked after hearing her question, processing her words. Even though he didn't look scared, she couldn't guess what he's actually thinking inside.

"Was your Oma scared?" He asked in return.

"My Oma?"

"Back when she had to leave, after you passed on her message, was she scared?" He elaborated, putting his hands on his pocket, "because that's what made her able to move on, right?"

"She was," Tia answered solemnly. "She accepted that she was going to disappear, but even I could see that she was scared…"

She tried to look him in the eye, just to convey that she'd be there if he's scared, only for him to avert his gaze.

"...I'll be fine, I swear, you don't have to feel worried about me," he said instead.

How is he still so insistent on this stance?

"It's…. It's not like I'm worried because I'm forcing myself to feel it," Tia said, her voice wobbling because she was holding back from screaming in frustration.

He didn't answer. She didn't know if it was because he wanted her to continue or if he didn't want to open up even more.

She didn't care.

"Kenny… you…" Tia started, standing up so she could have an equal playing field against the ghost, "you're the one who pushed me away from the car, right?"

"I don't kn-"

"Don't lie!" Even she didn't realize the sheer volume of her shout, only jerking in surprise when she heard her voice echo. She continued in a lower volume, almost a whisper, "you pushed me away so I didn't get hit and… you died."

"...I thought you didn't notice," Kenny stated, his lips thinned as if he felt guilty.

"Well, I did."

"Are you mad?"

"Mad…? I'm not mad at you," she answered, her voice increasing its pitch in a desperate effort to get him to understand. "Kenny, I… I feel guilty. How can I ever make up for that? You lost your life because you tried to save mine, a total stranger."

"..."

"I stayed around because I thought that if I passed your dying message to somebody... I thought I might be able to repay your actions, but I'm worried that you're just too kind to even want to trouble me with that."

"Wait," he cut in, genuine surprise and astonishment on his face, "you think I'm kind?"

Tia blinked incredulously at his question, "...of course you are. You could've just walked away and hid from me this whole time, but you didn't."

"That's-" Kenny sighed after he cut himself off, a tired smile on his face, "...y'know, you remind me a bit of Karen."

"Your younger sister?"

"Yeah, she's a nice kid. Cares too much about people to the point where she'd tend to stick her nose where she doesn't belong. She means well, though, and she's got some good friends around her," he explained, a proud smile on his face.

Tia would have to disagree with the friend part, but she couldn't let anything else out other than a weak and resigned, "...oh." She felt tired from her initial outburst as well as the events of the day catching up to her.

There was also the fact that Kenny's visage started to fade a lot more quickly. He had less time than they both thought, but the two of them couldn't bring themselves to comment about it.

"You really have no one else you want to pass your message to?" Tia asked one more time.

She thought his silence was a him refusing her offer yet again, but was surprised to hear him speak up after a while, "I think I do have something to say, actually."

The girl couldn't help but gasp in surprise, a mix of anticipation and excitement swirling in her stomach.

"Well, what are you waiting for? I'm all ears," she said, leaning closer in case she wouldn't be able to hear it.

What she didn't expect was to see him reach his hand towards her head. It felt awkward to see him pat her head, considering she wouldn't be able to feel any sort of form. Yet, she couldn't stop the warmth that flooded her from that action even amongst the confusion.

There was something about how it was easier to see the sky than Kenny's face that made her eyes water. Not to mention how his body started to fade out faster. There was no way she could miss the warm and kind smile on his face, though.

"Thanks for accompanying me, Tia," he said, "...what are you crying for?"

His voice was small compared to the sound of her own sniffling, holding back her sobbing even when she could feel the tears running down her face.

"Sh-shut up… Jeez, I'm the one who's supposed to thank you," she managed to get out, her lips stretching out in an attempt to smile, "...thanks for saving me, Kenny."

And after a sigh of relief, Kenny was gone.

There was nothing that stopped her from crying out after that, letting herself wail as she wiped her tears with the end of her sweater. There wasn't even a feeling of his presence. Just like that, he somehow managed to move on?

What a strange boy…

One that she would never try to forget about.

---

For the first time since she arrived in South Park, Tia actually slept through the night.

The reward for that good night's sleep was being able to experience the escalating rowdiness of the class' students.

It was too bad that as much as she tried to use the crowd's sound to drown her thoughts, her head was still stuck on the nightmare that plagued her rest.

She shouldn't dream about the feeling of stones that numbed her body as well when she saw Kenny's dead body. She shouldn't remember every single detail of the dead boy's corpse. She shouldn't remember how pale the boy's ghost had looked. She shouldn't think about how young he had been compared to her Oma. She shouldn't think about how he shouldn't have been as content as her grandma to die.

...it would help her to move on from those thoughts if she stopped staring at the boy's empty chair.

Even Ami could tell there was something going on with her when she offered her little sister to walk to school.

(And was definitely not requested by her grandmother to do so)

Tia could only nod mindlessly at her sister's words as her mind could still picture how fast the boy's tether to the world fade.

They ended up walking in silence before her sister hugged her tightly after dropping her off at the school's doors. The very same doors that she had a hard time walking through yesterday, now opened without any semblance of a doubt. She trudged to her class and collapsed on her seat, head tucked under her arms as she tried to blink away the events that happened yesterday from her head.

When she got back home yesterday, her family knew better than to pry. At least, Kak Ami and Nenek shut any attempts from Ayah and grandfather from asking about why she bursted into tears in the middle of dinner. She was glad that everyone in the house let her use the shower first and let her sleep early.

It was nice to see that her classmates also left her to sulk. She could see that the few ones who arrived as early as she did were chatting amongst themselves. She turned her head, mindlessly staring at the chair a few ways from her own. A part of her was amazed at how fast the class had moved on from the boy's death, seeing as the atmosphere of the room was the opposite to how gloomy she felt.

No one's going to be mad if she spent the rest of the morning staring at the empty seat that previously belonged to him, right?

She only stopped spacing out when she heard the telltale rumble of a large vehicle reverberated through the window. She was sure that the sound of the bus arriving was going to be a daily occurrence as long as her family's routine stayed the same as it had today.

The girl felt a small amount of dread over the students that will definitely pile into the class, making the already rowdy class a lot louder.

Not like she needed more noise considering the restless way her head has been flickering through yesterday's events.

Tia decided that she should start getting out her books and stationary, hoping that moving around a bit would help clear her head. Of course, she didn't expect that she'd have a hard time searching for her pencil case and the book for the first period. Didn't help that her backpack decided that its insides would become an endless void of nothingness.

After a few minutes of rummaging, the girl emerged out of the underside of the table with all the right equipment. Only to see that the class was flooded with a bunch more students and that the time was getting closer for class to start.

Looking to her left, she was greeted by the familiar sight of Wendy. The black-haired girl was talking to a group of girls Tia mostly didn't recognize. A few she caught glimpse of she did remember from yesterday's presentation.

Catching the new kid's eye, she gave her a small wave and smiled. Tia waved back, with a wobbly smile that she hoped matched the one as bright as the one her seatmate had.

She glanced away to look at the rest of the class, only to see someone on a seat she thought wouldn't be occupied.

A certain someone who looked much more alive than he did during the latter part of yesterday.

Listening in to a conversation with his friends and physically seated on his chair.

The same orange parka as yesterday.

Somehow able to be understood by the rest of his friends even if his jacket covered half of his face.

It was him, wasn't it?

She didn't care if the way she gaped like a fish out of water attracted attention as she stood up abruptly and loudly pushed back her chair. Meeting the eyes of the blonde boy as he turned to the direction of the noise.

Clearly, this wasn't a dream.

"Kenny…?!"

---

Terms

Ayah: The shorter term for "Ayahanda". A pretty formal way for someone to call their father in Indonesian.
Bunda: The shorter term for Ibunda. Alongside Ibu, it's a formal way to refer to someone's mother in Indonesian.
Oma: A dutch word that refers to someone's grandmother.
Kak: The shorter term for "Kakak", which is the gender neutral term for older siblings.
Adek: A gender neutral term for younger siblings. People also shorten it to "'dek".
Nek: The shorter term for "Nenek", a word that refers to someone's grandmother.
Zuhr: The early afternoon prayer.
Asr: The late afternoon prayer.
Jajanan: Light bite snacks that are usually sold for a cheap price.
Haram: Forbidden according to Islam law dictated by the Al-Qur'an.
Indon: A slur commonly used against Indonesians. In Pontianak's Melayu language, it means "prostitute".

.

A.N.

My experience with going to school abroad had only been the brief time I had during my student exchange program back in middle school and high school. So it might not be as accurate when it came to students who are staying in the school for a long period of time/permanently. I also don't know a single thing about the curriculum for USA students and my knowledge of The American Revolution is taken from my brief research as well as the brief period I listened to Hamilton the Musical nonstop.

I settled with this as a oneshot that sets up the plot even though there was supposed to be more that breaches into SOT and TFBW (even their teen years I think). This setting was something heavily inspired by redstarz97's Time is Relative series. Give it a read!

Who knows, maybe I'll write more of this setting in the future but I'm currently working on an OC insert fic for another fandom (which is totally not Danganronpa V3). So the rest of Tia's story will remain unrevealed for now.

There is a supplementary chapter in an OC-focused fic that focuses on Tia and Ami's bond set a bit into the future if you want to read it. I also drew a lot of art for Tia on my tumblr ( asamlambung) and on my instagram ( papparafin).

(Oh, and if anyone remembers the name of the current teacher in the 4th grade's class, please let me know and I'll change the placeholder name immediately!)

Thank you for reading!