Dirt Lifter | Craig of the Creek High School AU

Guess We All Get Older

Craig stared at the underside of his bunk bed for too long.

It was far too late to be calling anyone. It was a random weeknight and everyone had to be asleep. He should be asleep, but (obviously) he wasn't.

Craig should be doing schoolwork, if he was being honest with himself. But it had been a long day of AP classes and SAT prep worksheets and working on unfinished projects and he was really, really, tired. Tired enough to let himself off the hook, just this once.

He grabbed his phone from his desk. He didn't use social media much, and he turned to friends whenever he stagnated into boredom. Someone had to be available.

J.P. was over in Baltimore for college classes and wouldn't appreciate anyone calling. He was probably as swamped as Craig was with work, especially with his break coming up. Kelsey was probably asleep, and if she wasn't, then she was talking with Stacks. They were practically inseparable these days. Omar had his phone on Do Not Disturb all the time, so even if he was awake, he wouldn't pick up.

Craig did know someone that would be awake, but didn't know if he would appreciate an "I can't sleep, let's talk about stuff!" call.

He contemplated it for a moment. It wouldn't be that weird, and he doubted their friendship would end over an oddly-timed phone call.

He pressed the "Dial" button.

Jason picked up on the third ring. "Hey, Craig."

Having best friends outside of your grade was hard. Even when they were all attending the same school, completely different classes and 20 minutes of lunch overlap on a good day made it tough to see each other during school. There were a few kids in his grade that he was close with, old Creek kids that funneled into the same high school as him. He and Kit sat together at lunch most days (and she still gave him Choco-Rolls, bless her), and Vanessa and him were working on a geography project together. Jason and Craig shared a freakishly high amount of classes, so it only made sense for them to become closer. Jason also must have had some kind of insomnia, because every time Craig called him after 11 PM, he would pick up. They hated each other in elementary school, but a lot of things had changed since then.

"Hey, Jason."

"Up doing homework?" One of the many things that had changed since elementary school was Jason getting his braces removed, and his lisp left with them. Over the receiver, Craig could hear talking in the background.

"Nah, just couldn't sleep. How about you?"

"Just chilling." The background noise stopped. "Got off work and flopped onto the couch. Been here since then."

Jason had ditched Forest Scouts almost immediately after starting high school in favor of a job at the Gray Deer, a local diner. He told Craig that Scouts was a glorified babysitting service, and he'd rather get paid to stay out of his dad's hair at this point. With the amount of time Jason talked about going camping over weekends and breaks, Craig knew it was only a part of the truth. Still, an excuse was an excuse, and a paycheck was a paycheck, and Jason worked as many hours as he could.

"That was- oh shit, it's past midnight?" He laughed. "Both our sleep schedules are gonna be messed up."

"Yeah," Craig let out a breathy laugh. He'd been trying to sleep for two hours at this point.

Jason hummed, thinking. "Have you done that AP Geo diagram yet?"

"Yeah, but it took me a while." They had to make maps of different types of city structures. Craig should have loved it, but it just felt like work. "The workload is kicking my butt. Bernard said it would be an easy A."