First off, I apologize for the lateness of May's chapter. A lot of things had happened during May: senior activities, final exams, graduating high school(graduated #3 out of 360), and a big move for college. This didn't leave me with a lot of time to write and writer's block kicked in. In addition, I'm currently going through several rough patches with my home life so updates may be slow but I'll try my best.
8. First It Was a Day, Then It Became a Week
"Are you ready?" she asked, her hand resting on the doorknob.
'Not really.' Chrona wanted to say.
Instead Chrona looked up at Principal Ishiyama, "I think so," they replied with a nervous smile, fidgeting anxiously as Principal Ishiyama twisted the doorknob and pushed it open. She held up a finger, wanting them to stay where they stood. With a nod, they watched the principal strut in, pulled the teacher away from his lesson and began her own conversation with him. Chrona's brown eyes widened in awe when they peered in, watching the students sit in their desks, casually converse with one another. Chrona retreated when they thought a student had seen them, hand gripping the strap of their bookbag tighter.
Principal Ishiyama wiggled her finger in a "come here" motion. The teacher standing next to her flashed Chrona a tired, welcoming smile, as if they actually wanted them to be there. Forcing themself to swallow a lump that had begun to form in their throat, Chrona hesitated, taking a single step in the classroom. Chrona looked up, both the principal and the teacher still wore those welcoming smiles.
It was confusing. Why were they still smiling? Most people would have stopped smiling by now, everyone would have started shouting at them, yelling at them and telling them how terrible they were with disappointed frowns and malcontented grimaces. Maybe it was because there were other students around. It only made sense to do it when it was only them and Chrona.
After another few steps, Chrona stood in front of an entire class of students they knew nothing of.
The teacher, a older man with a bald head, wore a light blue shirt, belly hanging over his pants, stepped forward. Clapping a hand on Chrona's shoulder, he began to speak, "It appears we have a new student who will be joining us today. Everyone please, welcome Chrona and introduce yourself to them when you have the chance." Turning to Chrona, he gave them a gentle smile, "I am, of course, Mr. Lancer and I am glad to be teaching you Honors English. Is there anything you want to tell the class?"
"...No, sir."
"Alright then, take a seat in any empty spot you can find." Mr. Lancer ordered, who watched with curiosity as Chrona sat down, then turned his attention to the principal, "Thanks for bringing them in Dr. Ishiyama."
Ishiyama smirked, "Have fun teaching, Lancer!" she sang, closing the door behind her.
Mr. Lancer inhaled deeply, grabbing the teacher's edition of one of his many textbooks, ordering the class to pull out their own textbook and turn to the page required. He also grabbed a marker, scrawled something on the board and began teaching, calling out students to participate in the lesson. Chrona flipped through the pages of the textbook they received, drowned out the chattering of their rambunctious classmates and plunged themself in the wonders of literature.
Honors English went well for Chrona. It was uneventful for the most part, except for several students poking and prodding them, interrogating the new student to satisfy their curiosity.
Their second class was…interesting to say the least, and the teen wasn't sure if they could ever go into Latin I without ever shouting 'English is stupid.' If they had to be honest with themself, the language itself was the dumbest thing to have ever been invented.
But if Chrona had to be even more honest, they were sure that the foreign language class was beginning to grow on them. From the way the teacher talked to his students like they weren't idiots, integrated classic humor to revive a dead language so it can at least sound interesting to a rowdy bunch of highschoolers.
History was also pretty interesting but Chrona had a feeling that the class wouldn't captivate them like Latin I did.
Lunchtime rolled around the corner and Chrona found themself trudging through the lunch line, brown eyes widened in awe at the food. Eagerly, the teen picked out their lunch consisting of a sandwich stuffed with meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes along with a small chocolate chip cookie and a carton of strawberry milk. Flashing a smile and thanking the lunch lady, Chrona had realized they had only done the easy part.
Now, to find a table to sit at.
Chrona briskly walked through the cafeteria trying to find a table to sit at. So far it seemed that all the tables were already full or they were reserved for certain people such as the band geeks, theater kids, football jocks. They could understand that; it makes sense. Trudging through the cafeteria, they made their way outside and Chrona inhaled deeply, a rush of fresh air whooshing in their chest.
So that's what fresh air felt like.
After another several minutes of searching for an empty table, Chrona managed to find one. Sitting down, slinging their backpack on the bench, Chrona took a bite out of their sandwich and began eating, only breaking away to take nibble on the chocolate chip cookie or sip on their strawberry milk. Ten minutes of silence passed and Chrona finished eating. Gathering their things, they stood up, prepared to carry their tray back inside when a slender manicured finger gently pressed the tray back down.
Confused, Chrona looked up from the ground and was immediately met face to face with shining, enthusiastic turquoise eyes, leaning over from the other side of the table, "Hey Mister, did you really think you would go through today without running into the fabulous Star Lewinski?" Star bragged, flashing the teen a thousand watt beam that Chrona is uncertain they'll become accustomed with. Seeing the other frown, Star jutted her bottom lip in what seemed to be a pout, "No need to frown like that! No seriously, you don't need to frown like that, you're too cute for that. Come on! Sit down!"
Guided by Star's hand, Chrona sat down. Not wanting to stir up any trouble, Chrona had decided it was best to remain silent.
Star flamboyantly bounced on the bench, causing the whole bench to wobble and Chrona was so certain that the wooden table would break from such dynamic bodaciousness. Ignoring the table wobbling, Star leaned an arm on the table while resting a hand under her chin. "So," the blonde began, "What have you been up to, Clockwork?"
Chrona's brown eyes widened, froze and began to splutter out nonsense before Star shushed them. "Come on Clockwork," she said simply, "did you really think that after running around with you in Amity Park while you were donning a human disguise, I wouldn't recognize you? Not to mention, you still have that scar on your eye."
They stared at her for several seconds, then hung their head in their hands, and bit back a wince when at the jolt of pain that shot up their wrist. She was right, it would be absolutely be ridiculous for her to not have recognize them after such an exploit like that. But to be honest, Chrona hadn't really expected her to recognize them so quickly, they expected it would take Star much, much longer to recognize Chrona was Clockwork. Bringing their hands from in front of their face, gesturing in the cheerleader's general direction. "To be completely honest, I really didn't."
"So I guess you can say…the tables have been turned?" Star suggested, quirking an eyebrow up in amusement, a smug smirk breaking out. "I guess you could also say, this is the second time I've bested you."
A breathless laugh, "I guess so."
"Why would you guess? Don't you know these things Cogsworth?" She joked, reaching over the table to lightly punch them but had instead lightly tapped their wrist. Star's smile faded when she saw Clockwork go stone still, swiftly bring their arms to their chest and slowly slid them under the table. For a moment, she swore she saw dark colored bruises cover their wrists, however she waved it off as paranoia. "Seriously why are you even here? At a high school of all things Clockwork? A big, bad, all powerful Time Master at Casper High. What's up with that dude?"
"Came here to hold up my part of the deal we made," Chrona said coolly. "Once I handle business, it's back home to my tower."
"Bullshit," Star grounded out, "Honestly I would believe you if you hadn't been introduced as Casper High's new student. This is bigger than honoring a deal we made, Clockwork. I'm not an idiot."
"I never said that you were an idiot, Lewinski," muttered Chrona.
"You don't have to say it, but the way you're acting can imply that," she said, her eyebrows creased in concern. "All I want-"
"I'm on a long-term mission." Chrona spat out, looking away from Star. "That's all you need to know. Nothing more, nothing less." Standing up, the Time Master grabbed their bookbag and lunch tray, began to walk away from the table.
Star shot up out the bench, tempted to shout after her friend but the bell had rang, effectively drowning out anything she wanted to say. Snatching her bookbag, she stomped off to her next class.
Clockwork was hiding something from her and she was going to find out what it was.
Star grumped her way to her next class, lips jutted out in frustration, eyes narrowing in irritation as she mulled over what happened at lunch today. She knows something was going on with the Time Master, she knows it and Clockwork was an idiot for even trying to deny it. Their snappish attitude and overly paranoid behavior just screamed something was wrong.
"Lewinski, why are you following me?"
Repressing a snarl, she immediately spun around to see Chrona behind her sitting in a desk, both arms resting on the desktop with a bored expression that she figured hid their irritation. The corners of her mouth wound up in a tight smile, her eyes carrying a glint of odd amusement. "This is my class, you dolt. I'm just as surprised as you that you're taking psychology."
Chrona rolled their eyes, "I didn't ask to be put in this class." Leaning over, they rummaged in their book bag to grab a pencil and spiral notebook, set it on the desk and pointedly looked ahead of them. "Thank god this is the last class of the day."
"I think that's the thought of every highschooler." Star said with a whimsical smile. "But I agree, I can't wait to get home. Nice, warm bed calling my name."
Star glanced over, her curiosity piqued as Chrona smiled weirdly and squirmed uncomfortably. "Right. Home," they forced out. "Can't wait to go."
"You could-" Star shushed by other students around her, preventing her from finishing her statement. "Rude," she muttered crossly as she took her notes and worked on the exercises.
Every so often she would spare the Time Master a glance, her eyebrows creasing in concentration while watching Chrona work. She soaked in the tension that seemed to be ingrained within Chrona, from the way they sat in the desk, one hand tightly gripping their hair while the other held a deathly grip on their pencil. With a sigh, Star turned back to her work, scribbled something on a blank sheet of paper, folded it up and handed it to Chrona.
Chrona eyed the folded piece of paper in scrutiny, before reaching out and tentatively taking it from Star. Unfolding it, their eyes widened as they read the blonde's message.
Hey! I didn't get a chance to ask-well I did but some of the kids shushed me before I could actually ask, but do you wanna hang with me tonight?
No, Chrona wrote down. I'm not one to impose on places where I don't belong.
They handed it back to Star, sighing heavily when the paper landed on their desk once again.
I'm pretty damn sure it ain't imposing if I invited you, you numbskull. Besides! You can have a nice dinner with my mom and dad. So?
Flashing a heated glare at Star, they wrote out, NO. I'm not doing it so don't ask again. They then silently slammed the note on her desk, rigidly turning their attention back to the teacher, their demeanor clearly stating they no longer wanted to be bothered with.
Disenheartned, Star turned away from Chrona, her shoulders slumping as she resumed her work. Thirty minutes later the bell rang, students sluggishly picking up their bags, heading out the door to either home or extracurricular activities. Star watched Chrona gathered their bags, and rushed in to assist them when they were struggling to pick their book bag up.
"You should get that wrist checked out." she said simply. "It seems like it's hurting pretty badly."
Chrona huffed, "That's what Ishiyama said."
"So," Star began, "when are you going to get it checked out?"
"Whenever. Bye Star."
Defeated, Star slumped her shoulders, waving the African-American goodbye. "Bye Clo-Chrona."
'Today was somewhat of a bust,' she thought to herself as she walked out Casper. 'But there's always tomorrow.'
Kwan had informed Star that he saw Chrona walking to Principal Ishiyama's office, and then reemerged around the time football practice had ended yesterday. When she heard it, she had wrote it off as odd since the principal doesn't usually let students hang in her office for extended periods of time and especially not after school, making it all the more odd.
She wanted to ask Chrona about this tomorrow but Tuesday proved to be more interesting than Monday, bringing more questions than answers. Chrona had seemingly grown more snappish and agitated and it was clashing with the benevolent, quirky Time Master she met. She had tried asking whenever she had a chance but was immediately shut off with "Nothing for you to worry about."
'Nothing to worry about' only spiked up her worry.
Another student had saw them walk into Ms. King's office and leave almost twenty minutes later. Several other students said they saw them enter Mr. Lancer's classroom with Principal Ishiyama.
Star remembers trying to catch up with Chrona but they had disappeared without a trace.
Wednesday seemed to go normally. Nothing odd had happened and to be honest, the absence of oddities were just as concerning as when there were oddities. She sat with Chrona at lunch and didn't try to poke and prod as much as she really wanted to. Instead she asked general questions ("Favorite color?" "Purple obviously.") and she had learned a lot about her friend. For instance, Chrona was a big history buff (no surprise there), they hated writing essays with a passion that was arguable stronger than Dash's love for football, and they could draw. She had also learned that Chrona wasn't the best at socializing-she should've picked up on it, she yells at herself.
Thursday was also normal...ish. Aside from the daily ghost attack, it was normal. Star hadn't heard anything odd and she wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or not.
Friday, Friday brought back the oddities.
A student had mentioned within earshot that he saw Chrona fall out of a tree and when he went to check on them, they looked halfway sleep.
"Wait, what did you do?" Another student asked, confused. "Why were they sleeping in a tree? That shit gotta be uncomfortable as hell."
"Hell if I know." The first student answered. "Anyways I took the Prince of Nature-"
"Prince of Nature?"
"Yea! They had a bunch of branches and leaves sticking out of their hair, and I couldn't help but think of them being a royal being of nature."
"You're weird man."
The first student dismissed his friend's assertion with a flick of his hand. "Anyways, I managed to take them over to my place and lay them in my bed so they could sleep for the night. What's frightening is that the new kid was pretty light.
"Fast metabolism, that's all."
"Nah, that's not it. They ain't eating properly, like they've been starved or something," said the first kid slowly, his hands gripping the edges of the table. "Something's not quite right with the newbie and to be honest, I'm a little worried about them."
'So am I.' Star thought with conviction.
She continued her normal routine of eating lunch with Chrona, maintaining the friendly atmosphere they had throughout the week.
Star finished her lunch, wiping her face and reapplying her lip gloss and waited for the other to finish eating.
Chrona picked up on her silence, as it was considered abnormal for her to go suddenly silent. "Why so quiet? Cat got your tongue?" They joked.
"No." she said, making sure to keep her voice level. "I just want to ask you a question and I rather wait for you to finish eating before I ask."
They blinked, slightly baffled by her response, "Okay. Well, I'm pretty much done eating, so ask away."
"Well...it's been on my mind all week," Star admitted, wringing her hands together. It's not the time to beat around the bush anymore. 'Be blunt, that's the only way.' "What's going on?"
Chrona froze, "Nothing. It's none of your concern."
She knew that was the immediate response. But it wasn't working anymore. "No, it's not 'nothing,' it's something! A big something and it's affecting you right here and now!"
"I said it's nothing! Why won't you listen to me?!" Chrona snapped out, slamming their hands on the table, too angry to bother with the pain that flared in their wrists. "There's nothing wrong with me! The only thing that's wrong is that you keep asking what's wrong and you're stressing yourself out over a nonexistent issue!"
"You are a goddamn idiot, Chrona," Star spat out, her hands trembling in rage. "So you're telling me that disappearing in Ishiyama's and the nurse's office, constantly snapping out at me when I just want to know what's wrong because I care about you, sleeping and falling out of trees, and not eating properly, that's okay? That it's normal?"
"Normal for me? Yes. Normal for you? No," Chrona deflected, balling their hands up so that they could ignore the pain in their wrists. "Don't be surprised Star, we all have our preference of what is and isn't normal to the individual."
The blond huffed in irritation, her eyes hardening as she bit the corner of her lip. "Preference of what's normal isn't the problem. It's you thinking that it's okay to sleep in trees and falling out of them, that it's okay to not have a somewhat healthy diet. I don't care if you're the ghost of time, you need food, you need energy. This," she made a vague gesture in their direction. "Isnt normal."
"It's normal for me, I'm used to it."
"Just because you're used to it doesn't make it normal," her gaze flickered over to Chrona's hands. "You never got your wrists checked."
"No."
"Why?" Star questioned.
"Never got a chance to get it checked out." They replied softly, Star nodded. Chrona laughed bitterly. "Fine, you win. I'm a fucking mess, alright? There was no long-term mission."
….Wait, what? "Then why are you here?"
"Fresh start, well as fresh of a start I can get.."
"A fresh start from what?"
Chrona shook their head, no longer wanting to continue talking about that. "I don't have a place to stay at either," they held a hand up before she could reply. "My tower is…off-limits."
Star nodded her head in understanding. "Well that explains why you've been sleeping in trees." she said simply. "You know, we need to tell someone about this."
"Do we have to?" They asked and Star had to close her eyes so she wouldn't have to see pleading brown eyes staring at her.
"Yes," she answered, standing up to walk around the table so she could sit on the same side as Chrona. Carefully, she held their arm and rubbed soothing circles. "I know you want this to be between just me and you, but if you want a fresh start then, we need to tell someone about this. I'm not going to leave you to fend yourself, that's not what friends do."
Chrona stared at her long and hard, searching for any signs that she was lying, and slumped in relief when they didn't find any. Too worn down to speak, they slowly nodded their head in agreement.
That's the end. As I've mentioned, I am currently going through some...things in my home life but I will try to write and upload June's chapter before the month ends.
Thanks for reading, please drop a review!