I start to bawl. I don't like crying out loud like this in front of Craig! I'm embarrassed right now, but mostly I'm scared. I don't want to get beat up by bullies. I'm such a weakling. I'm a coward. I can never stand up for myself.
"C-Craig, m-my name... m-m-my n-name is.. i-is.. o-on the l-list!" I choke as I continue to cry out loud. It's seven o'clock. I'm probably waking up the whole neighborhood or something since I'm crying out loud. I can't even see right now because tears are all over my eyes and it's blurring my vision. All I can think of is the bullies. There's like, six of them.
How can I survive in high school?
"Clyde, don't cry.." I can hear Craig's calm voice over my loud cry. I continue to cry. I can't stop until someone calms me down.
"Waaaaah! I'm such a coward, Craig!" I choke on my tears. I shut my eyes as tears continue to run down on my hot cheeks. I shouldn't be crying anymore. I'm sixteen, I don't want to act like a big baby at this age.
"Clyde." Craig grabs my waist and forcefully pulls a hug. I stop crying, my eyes are wide.
"H-Huh..?" I can feel my face heating up right now. Craig never hugs me when I'm crying or when I'm depressed. Usually he'd slap my face to make me stop, like that one time I started crying because Token hit me hard on the head with a basketball because we lost the game. He thinks it's my fault that we lost. So then I cried in front Craig, who looked so annoyed. I told him what happened, and he replied with a "can you not cry like that?" and slapped my face. It was so hard that the red hand print stayed on my cheek for an hour while everybody laughed at me. But this time, I have no idea what had happened to Craig.
"Clyde, it's alright. Don't cry, okay?" Craig puts a hand on my head and softly strokes my hair. I sniffle, putting my arms over Craig's shoulders to his neck. I rest my head on Craig's chest, it feels so warm. "My name is also on the list, below yours." He says with a sigh, resuming to stroke my hair to calm me down. "We can both avoid those six, okay? We can do this together. I'll make you stay with me the whole time. I promise." He hugs me closer. "I'll be there for you." Craig pulls the hug away, smiling at me. The heat rises more on my face when I looked at Craig. His smile.
I miss his smile.
I nod slowly and smile back. "Sorry about er.. crying out loud like that." I say, scratching the back of my head. Craig shakes his head.
"No, it's okay. I kinda knew you would be scared." He takes the list away from my hand, shoving it in his backpack. "Come on, I have something else to show you." Craig takes my hand and runs to the back of the school. His hand also feels warm. Just the way I like it. I wish I can keep my hand on his forever. Not because it's warm, but because I love him.
"Look, Clyde." Craig points his left hand to Tweek, who is shaking, but looks.. strange? Craig still holds onto my hand, clutching onto it tightly. "That's Tweek over there. He comes to school early because he is trying to defend the whole school from the bullies." He says. I look at Tweek. I wish I can help him.
"Why is he doing this all himself alone?" I ask, with a horrified look on my face. I look at Tweek again.
"You probably didn't hear since you were in detention.." Craig starts off, looking at Tweek, who is still guarding the back of the school. "Kyle overheard the bullies saying that they're gonna set up a death traps around the school one day whoever passes there. They didn't do it yet, but someday." Craig looks at me. "Kyle told everybody during lunch while the bullies eats outside like always. Tweek is guarding the back of the school. Cartman isn't here yet, but he's supposed to guard the cafeteria. Token is guarding the boys' bathroom while Wendy guards the girls' bathroom. Kyle takes the gym."
"How about you?" I ask, my voice is getting weird from getting scared.
"Nothing." He says flatly.
"Nothing? I thought everybody was guarding something!" I sigh while shivering from the cold.
"The teachers don't know about this, and if everybody was guarding the areas in the whole school then it would be very suspicious. Tweek, Kyle, Token, Cartman, and Wendy are supposed to come to school early to do this and during homeroom. Teachers pass by them and they don't ask them about anything. If they find out we're doing things like this we're in trouble. We were told not to do this in the first place anyway.." Craig, with his hands still clasped into mine, took me to the front of the school and we went inside.
Inside the school, it doesn't look as bright as it usually does. Probably because it's too early and nobody really goes to school this early. I see Token and Wendy protecting the bathrooms. But they're also using their phones. Token looks at us.
"Why are you guys holding hands?" He asks, smirking. I totally forgot that we were still holding hands. Craig immediately lets go of my hand and blushes. I blush as well, and stuff my hands in my jacket pockets. Craig looks away, "It's nothing." Token snickers.
"I assumed you guys are together." Token looks back at his phone. The blush on my cheeks spread more.
"Th-That'll never happen.." I mutter softly. Token looks at me, smirking.
"Or maybe it will happen, since Craig told me he likes yo-"
"SHUT THE HECK UP, TOKEN." Craig runs up to him and jump kicks Token on the forehead.
Wait, what?
I was spaced out until I saw Craig jump kicking Token. What the heck just happened?
"Sorry, Craig." Token gets up, rubbing his forehead. Craig glares at him.
"You better be sorry." Craig smirks and walks toward me. I blink twice.
"Craig, what just happened?" I ask. I want to know what Token just said to him. Craig sighs in relief and pats my head.
"It's nothing, Clyde. You don't need to worry about it." He pulls a small smile on his face. Now I really want to know what happened.
"But Craig-"
"I said 'you don't need to worry about it', right?" He repeats himself, glaring at me. Okay, I think I'm making him mad. Craig, please, don't be angry at me..
"... Sorry." I say, worriedly. Craig looks at the clock in the hallway.
"Anyways, we should be getting to homeroom. Come on." He leads himself to homeroom, and I follow him.
"Alright class.." Our homeroom teacher, Mr. February, stand in front of the chalk board and makes an announcement, "We have some news."
Mr. February is a 24 year-old man, blue eyes, blonde hair, deep voice, and his hairstyle is pretty messy. Most girls seem to like him. And what I mean by 'like' is they have feelings for him. He isn't married yet, so I guess that's a good thing for the ladies. I have to say, he's the nicest teacher I've ever had than all the teachers in South Park Elementary and South Park Middle. He doesn't give out a lot homework, and that's a good thing. Craig hates homework more than everybody in this class and he doesn't do them. I hate homework too, but I do them so I can get a good grade, like my parents want me to. I let Craig copy my homework and everything, not because he doesn't do them.
That's what best friends do, right?
And also, Mr. February doesn't yell at us. When he's mad, he just takes a minute to calm down. He doesn't like giving out detention, though. But when Mr. February isn't here, we get a crappy substitute. She's really strict and she gave me detention before just for getting up the middle of class to sharpen my pencil.
I got a freaking detention for sharpening my pencil in the middle of class. How lame is that.
"Tomorrow, we'll be taking a math test." All of us made a loud groan, and some kid falls out of the chair. Mr February nods his head, looking casual. "Yes, I know. You all hate tests, I hate 'em too, but remember. We should all feel relieved after we finish the test. Plus, the test only has twenty questions. Don't stress." He smiles warmly, making some girls giggle. "Now, study for you math test tomorrow. I'll be disappointed if you guys bomb this test!" He says, smiling again.
I look to the seat next to the left of me; Craig. He's sleeping in the middle of math class. Should I wake him up, or let him sleep? I stare at him for a moment and I realized something. I move my head slightly closer t Craig's face, and I can hear him breathe softly.
Oh my flipping gosh, he's so cute when he sleeps in class.
Maybe I shouldn't wake him up. He would probably get mad at me if I wake him up at this moment. I back away from him and smile because heck, he's so cute when he's sleeping.. I pull out my notes for math and study over them.
After an hour, I start to get tired of all this studying. My eyes hurt right now because I've been looking at notes for forty minutes and I haven't been looking away.
"Clyde.." I hear muttering from someone next to me. I look over, and I notice that Craig is muttering in his sleep.
"Um.." I didn't know what to say, it'll be weird if anyone notices that I'm talking to a sleeping Craig. But I don't think anyone will notice because the whole class is so loud.
"Clyde.." Craig mutters again in his sleep, and I look at him.
"Craig?" I answer back. I feel so weird talking to someone who is asleep. It's like I'm talking to myself.
"..." Craig doesn't reply to me. I wonder what he's dreaming about. Wait.
Was he just dreaming about me?
I can already feel the heat spreading on my cheeks as I think about how Craig is just dreaming about me. I feel embarrassed. I slowly poke Craig's arm to just wake him up. Class is almost over, and lunch is coming up.
"Hnng.." Craig moves his head to the other side where he isn't facing me anymore. I frown and shake his arm to wake him up. "Hnn.." Craig wakes up and moves his head up. "What time is it?" Craig asked drowsily. I smile.
"It's almost time for lunch." I say, chuckling. Craig yawns.
"Already? How long have I been asleep..?" Craig looks at the clock on the wall.
"You've been asleep for an hour, sleepy head.." I laugh. Craig looks at me, tiredly.
"You were in my dream." He says flatly. I look back at him. What was I doing in his dream?
"Um.." I start to look away, blushing. Was I making out with him? I probably shouldn't ask..
"Clyde?" Craig looks at me with a confused look. I continue to blush and I put my head down on my desk. "Clyde, your face is red." He points out. I look back at him.
"I'm fine, Craig." I say stubbornly. Craig gives me a weird look.
"Um.. Okay?" He tilts his head, scratching his head.
"Alright class.." Mr. February announces. Everybody stops what they were doing and looks at him. "It's time to go to lunch." He says, smiling. Everybody but Craig and I were happy and yelled in happiness. Sometimes I think they're weird.
"Oh my god, Craig! Is it really true?" Butters suddenly ran up to Craig with his tray filled with food and sat next to him. Craig puts his pizza down and gave Butters a look.
"What?" Craig asks.
"Token told me that you and Clyde were holding hands!" Butters says it out loud, that everybody in the cafeteria heard him. Craig immediately blushes. "Is it really true!?" Butters asks eagerly. Craig face palms. I look away, blushing madly.
"That idiot.." He mutters silently. Kyle, Stan, Kenny, Tweek, and Cartman were sitting on the same as Craig, Butters and I. Kyle and Stan looks surprised, Kenny just looks at us, Tweek gives us a confusing look, and Cartman laughs his butt out yelling out, "Haha! Gaaay!"
"Shut up, Cartman! I bet you're gay for Butters!" Kyle points out, glaring at Cartman. Cartman glares back at Kyle.
"No, I'm not!" He yells at him. "You're probably gay for Stan!" He snaps. Kyle backs away immediately.
"Am not!" Kyle yells at Cartman back.
"You are!"
"No, I'm not!" Kyle and Cartman argues back and forth about who they're gay for. There were rumors from Tweek that Stan and Kyle were dating, and rumors from Kevin that Butters kissed Cartman's cheek. I'm not sure if that's true, though. Craig slams his hand on the table and glares at both Kyle and Cartman. They both stop arguing and look at Craig, wide-eyed. Everybody else in the cafeteria look at Craig with a confused look.
"Can you guys stop arguing for once?!" Craig snaps. I look at him worriedly. What has gotten him in a bad mood? "What's so bad about being gay for someone?!" Craig yells in front of both Cartman and Kyle.
"It makes them look dumb, Craig! I bet you're gay for someone, too!" Cartman snaps at Craig. Craig glares at him.
"... I am." He admits, and everybody in the lunch room gasps. I look at Craig, wide-eyed.
.. What? Who is he gay for..?
"Hah! That's why you look so dumb, with those dumb braces on!" Cartman laughs. "It's so gay!" Craig flips him off, and Cartman suddenly glares at him. "Hey, don't flip me off, you gaywad!"
I can hear muttering in the lunch room about Craig. What he just said. He's gay for someone. What if it's not me? What if it's Tweek? Or Kenny?
Should I hurry and tell him my feelings?