3

After English ended, I decided to go outside to find a place to ease my nerves. I never did like eating at lunch, but I miss being there, sometimes. Not because of the food, (though I do miss eating, regardless if it wasn't a choice) but because of Gumball and Darwin. We weren't close or anything, but when I decided to go to the cafeteria, Gumball would at times wave his hand and pat an available seat next to him. I went and would talk to him and Darwin, but then after ten minutes, Penny would come, Gumball's attention would go to her, while I talked to Darwin until the bell rang and we would go our separate ways.

Now, I seem like a dark horse, even when I was on top.

I went to my locker to get my coat and gloves out, when suddenly Masami pops out of nowhere and asked me where I was going. I felt like punching this bitch in the face till her fat-ass dies from blood loss.

"Outside."

"With Gumball?" she said sounding like a smart-ass correcting you and proud.

"No, he's with Darwin."

"Really?" she said. "That's funny, because I heard a lot of strange things going between the two of you. Maybe it has something to do with Penny. I feel like it's my duty to warn her about white trash."

"I bet you it took about a year to say something like that and barely say it right, especially since it's coming from white trash."

"Says you, but they are not speaking to each other. And Penny is sitting in the cafeteria, alone. Gumball went out for some 'fresh air.'"

"And you would know that how?"

"I have my ways."

"Of course, he didn't want to smell your bullshit and get infected with whatever disease your slutty-ass got from the nearest truck driver's dirty dick."

"Harsh-harsh. I would have thought a trashy homewrecker would have more respect than to talk smack to a young lady."

"Why don't you just fuck off or else I'm kicking your ass."

"Oooh, I'm really—"

I punched her in the face with my book, and I saw that she was bleeding heavily from her nose. It all went down her white scarf and went down further to her skin (or whatever you call it). She tried getting up, but kept falling, which begs the question how.

"You—Stupid...God! This hurts!"

I grabbed my coat and locked my locker before she gets any funny ideas. Maybe she will bleed to death.

I decided to go to the library and get a book to read. The library wasn't far; it doesn't even take five minutes to walk there.

I crossed the street from school and got there in less than two minutes.

In the library, the librarians knew me, but I can't say that's all in good faith. I always had some sort of late fee and I was able to pay it off, eventually. If I had to guess how much I paid the library in total, I'd say about $1,500. Back then, movies were expensive to pay for late fees, and I checked out a lot of movies during that time. I kept going to the library since I was five and haven't regretted it since.

I went through the scanners and saw Dolores, or Miss Filcher, some liked to call her. She was nice enough to lay off some fees, and if she didn't I would have paid two grand for all of it. Which is fun to see that coming from a golden retriever, and she looks nice today.

"How's Valentine's Day going for you, Carrie?"

"Single, yet still sassy," I said, even if it's cheesy, I still can enjoy talking that way with her.

"I'll bet," she said, giving me an encouraging smile. I always enjoyed seeing that.

She looked down and saw that my book had blood on it and gasped, "Goodness," she said, like an elderly woman, even though she was in her mid-30s, "what happened to the book?"

"I can't really explain, without getting too embarrassed, if you know what I mean."

Menstrual cycles are bitches, but nobody has to know that I don't get them.

She brought some sanitary wipes and cleaned it. It was mine, but it didn't matter as much, yet even if it wasn't the library's books, she still offered to help clean it.

After that, I went over to the K section to see if any books or authors interested me.

Nothing.

I went out and checked to see if a computer was available, and it was. I logged in my library card number at this computer they still use to appoint future users who wants to place a "reserved spot" for when they want to use a computer later on during their visit. I mean, people can just go onto whatever computer is available and simply put in their library card number and use it till their term runs out. I still use it since I like knowing there's a spot waiting just for me.

A receipt came out and said I had to take CB-241.

I shoved the receipt in my pocket, and I decided to browse again at the K section, but I got bored too quick, so I ended up going to the computer earlier than expected.

When I logged on, I decided to see some videos online, just some stupid shit, and browsed the web—and old saying as time itself—until—

"Hey Carrie," a voice yelling rather than speaking. I knew who it was the minute my ears heard that voice.

It was Lexy, a twelve-year-old pink cat, like Gumball if he were more of a wimp.

She isn't a bad person, far from it, but she can be so goddamn annoying. I'm not saying her voice is annoying (though it can easily be identifiable, like seeing the Mona Lisa). The problem is that she's just everywhere. And I mean everywhere—you turn your head to the left, she's there talking about life is great, you turn to the right, she's there with a helping hand of whatever the fuck you didn't need help on. She's been like this since we freshman year, and immediately I didn't want to get too close. But she always seemed to find a way to get to Gumball and I, but since I wasn't there at the cafeteria, I thought she would just bug Gumball.

Lucky me, I got stuck with her.

"I didn't know you went to the library," she said, leaving her mouth open with a smile, clingy bitch.

"Yeah, surprise-surprise—I just got here because I didn't want to spend time at school."

"So you're ditching?" she said, sounding so shocked and worried, like she found out I was doing drugs or having sex for money.

"No, this is my lunch period."

"Oh thank God!" she started to laugh and say, "For a minute there, I thought I was going to have to tell on you."

"Well, no sense of breaking the rules when you're eventually going to get caught."

"Yes, you get it."

"Yeah, well, how's it going?"

"It's going good. I'm pretty happy today. I got some big news that I didn't even know about, and yet I didn't even expect to figure this out. Do you want to hear it?"

"Blab away, my friend."

"Okay, well, you know Gumball?"

"Yeah, what about him."

"Well," she began, and then closed in to my ear and said softly, "Gumball's my brother."

I backed away when she said that, feeling more horrified than shocked.

"What do you mean he's your brother?"

"My mom told me that my dad cheated on my mom with Gumball's mom, Nicole, but she didn't know he was married and was barely maybe a week in the pregnancy, and he died in a car crash. She said he just couldn't take it anymore and he got drunk one night and…well—drunk driving kills, huh? During that time, when she was she really depressed she hooked up with her high school sweetheart, Richard, and together they raised together Gumball, who they thought was their son. Isn't that a bunch of shit? Funny thing was that I finally told her about Gumball. About how we had a thing going on, way before I knew about his crush on Penny"—What did I tell you? "Everybody knows."—"two years, I think, and she told me the truth today when I found a picture of my dad and Nicole together. I know it was her since I saw her before. And now I have to live with what Gumball and I did together."

I didn't know what to say, and the only thing that came out of my mouth was, "You say it like you did something bad."

She smiled, with tears building up. She just slowly shook her head and said, "You have no idea, Carrie. This has been building up for some time now. And I'm glad I got it off my chest."

I hesitated, but eventually I held up my arms to give her a hug and she quickly went in for it and softly cried onto my shoulder. I said it's okay, but, then again, it's easier said than done.

I decided to walk her back to school, at least giving her some time to cool off, and by the time we got out the library, she seemed better now. Hell, she was already annoying with useless info that made the two minutes back seem like a boring class period.

She stuck her hands out from the sides when we crossed the street, almost as if God was catching her from falling, but I was the one catching her. She had her eyes closed the whole way, but when we reached the end of the street, we were merely just a couple of seconds away from the doors, and all we had to do was pass by the bus stop. It's been there every since students came here from all around town, so a bus now comes to both drop off and pick up people to get them home.

I noticed now that Lexy was on the street while I still maintained my edge of the curb, and I said, "You're not on the sidewalk."

She stopped and faced me, saying, "I know."

"What do you mean you know—?"

The bus ran past, causing some blood to splash on my face, kind of like an old gory horror film.

I didn't say a single thing.

I blacked out for a while.