Eyes Wide Open
Chapter 3 – Missing in Action
By: CutieAnimeGirl19
It was 7:20 and Eric Cartman was already pissed off. Ten minutes after the bell rang and Kyle still hadn't shown up for class. That rat Jew was never late for school. He hadn't been late for school since the seventh grade when he'd apparently forgotten to set his alarm the night before.
Something was definitely wrong. Cartman was nearly chewing the end of his pencil off trying to figure out what it could be.
Maybe Kyle was sick. Yeah, that was probably it…No; he didn't exactly seem under the weather yesterday. Damnit, he couldn't think of any reason why Kyle wouldn't have shown up for class.
Wait…
It couldn't have had something to do with something that happened the other day, could it?
Of course! How could he forget? He'd found Kyle crying his little Jew eyes out in the boy's bathroom and when he'd tried to get Kyle to tell him what was wrong, he'd ran out of the bathroom and almost ran into Kenny.
Cartman remembered watching Kyle run down the hallway and out the school doors shortly after that happened. He didn't see him for the rest of the day. Eric figured that he'd ditched school and went home to cry to his mommy.
In the middle of trying to figure this situation out, Eric was pulled out of his thoughts by a rough tap on his shoulder. Looking up to see who had interrupted his important thinking process, he was greeted with the sight of Mrs. Chokesondick standing in front of his desk, staring down at him with her flabby arms crossed over her horribly saggy chest.
"Cartman, did you hear a word of what I was saying to you? I've been trying to get your attention for past five minutes," she said in an annoyed tone.
"Well, what did you want, Mrs. C? I wasn't paying attention," he replied, looking up at her questioningly.
Taken off guard by his uncharacteristic response, she momentarily found herself at a loss for words and nearly forgot what she had been saying in the first place. "Uh…"
Both of their heads turned as Butters chimed in saying, "You were, uh, asking him if he'd written the paper you assigned that is due today: The one about, uh, the Indians of the South. And then you said-"
"-Thank you, Butters, for reminding me," she said, swiftly cutting him off before he could continue and bring to Eric's attention that she had finished her sentence with an insult. It was enough that he wasn't paying attention, she didn't need him storming out of the classroom and leaving a slew of curse words behind him as well.
"Eric, did you write the paper?" she asked in a pleasant voice.
Eric then reached into his backpack and pulled out a four page, typed and stapled paper equipped with a cover letter and work cited page. Handing it to Mrs. Chokesondick, he went back to his silent musings, leaving the teacher with her mouth hanging open.
She closed it quickly, looking around to see if anyone had noticed before returning to her desk, completed paper in hand.
If Cartman had looked up right then, he would have seen that the entire class was staring at him, including Mr. Mackie, who was standing in the doorway, waiting to speak to their teacher. The friendly counselor was so dumbfounded that he almost forgot what he'd come in there for.
But he quickly recovered from surprise and made his way over to Mrs. Chokesondick's desk, leaning on it carefully as he attempted to fill her in on the staff meeting that would take place after school that day. However, she was too busy looking over Eric's work to notice. She nodded here and there, muttering soft uh-huh's ever few minutes, making the school counselor believe that he had her attention. But her attention, however, was completely riveted on the contents of the paper in front of her.
Not caring to stay for the rest of the class, since it would most likely consist of them reading and discussing their papers; Eric grabbed up his backpack and made his way out the door, leaving the other students to stare after him.
He didn't want to sit there and deal with being stared at any longer. As if he didn't notice. He could feel their eyes on him the whole time he'd been sitting there. He couldn't really blame them, though, he wasn't known for finishing assignments.
Because most of the time he just didn't care. Before, he didn't see the point of wasting his time on stupid assignments that would never be of any use to him. The only problem was, if he didn't at least attempt to do his homework he would never hope to graduate with the guys next year.
He didn't want to be the only one in their little group to not graduate High School. He would never hear the end of it. And besides, he was starting to like the idea of going to college with them.
If he could manage to get into a university with the others, then their fun of ripping on each other constantly would never have to end. They could be friends forever.
He didn't want to throw that opportunity away.
Because he more than likely would never meet another group of guys who would put up with him the way they did. He wasn't the easiest person to get along with and he knew it. He actually was quite proud of it. Being able to be a total asshole and still manage to have friends. It was completely impressive. So, no way in hell was he going to allow them to leave him behind.
Despite his overall knowledge of what it took to get good grades and to graduate from high school, he still didn't want to be in that classroom right then. More than anything he wanted to pack up his stuff, leave the school, and head on over to Kyle's place to see what the hell was keeping him from class and why he hadn't even bothered to call or text one of them to tell the teachers he wouldn't be in.
His parents were most likely at work already so they wouldn't have been able to call the school. He didn't even understand why they would leave the house knowing that there was something wrong with him. But that's Jews for you. They cared more about money than their own kid's wellbeing. Having a mother who treated him almost exactly the same, he could appreciate just how shitty that must feel.
Well, he had done what he wanted to. His backpack was safely secured over his shoulder and his feet were leading him to the front entrance, almost unable to stay on the ground as he grew more and more anxious to leave. He had to find out what was up with Kyle. He had to make sure he was okay…
As that thought crossed his mind, he stopped dead in his tracks. Why did he care so much? Why was he suddenly so worried? Why the hell should he be worried about a rat Jew bastard like Kyle? He'd always hated that kid, since they were in kindergarten. Well…hate was probably a strong word. He strongly disliked him….but at that moment, he couldn't even think of the reason why he disliked him so much.
He told himself it didn't matter. He didn't need a specific reason…but then why did he feel like there was none…Why was he feeling as if all he wanted to do was to make sure that Kyle was okay…?
Pushing the thought out of his mind, he continued walking towards the door until he had successfully made his way past the front entrance and into the parking lot, where he stood fishing his keys out of his pocket. His Mom had been letting him use the car lately because the new guy she was seeing had been taking her everywhere she needed to go. It wouldn't be long before she moved in with him and left Eric to deal with the house all on his own.
Like it mattered. Since he'd reached the age of fourteen he'd been paying all of the bills by himself, anyway, and making sure the house stayed in at least some kind of order, however unsuccessful that may have been.
After locating his keys, he swiftly unlocked the door and climbed into the driver's seat where he put the key into the ignition and attempted to start it. It took him a few tries before it started, the car making a low rumbling noise as it came to life. Man he loved this car. No matter how old it got, no matter how rusty the paint became, it would never quit. It was probably the only really reliable thing he had in his life, as fucking sad as that was to admit.
Whatever…He didn't need to torture himself with depressing thoughts like that at the moment. He had a mission to complete.
"Mission find out why Jew boy didn't show up for school is a go. Target sequence initiated"
And with those incredibly childish words spoken, Eric Cartman pulled out of the school parking lot and went on his way to one of the most shocking and fucked up situations that his young life would ever be exposed to…
