Things Happen | ✓

Chapter Twenty-Six: Absentee's and Duets

The sun shone through the leaves of the tall, billowing trees as I briskly walked into the Language Arts building, easily finding my locker. As I filled up my backpack with textbooks, I was startled by my quirky redhead friend.

"Kendall!", A bubbly voice exclaimed from behind me, causing me to drop my Calculus book on my foot.

I turned to find Q, smiling overly huge, clutching her textbooks across her chest. "Hey, Q.", I said, laughing slightly as I bent to grab my textbook off the ground.

"I haven't seen you in forever! Guess what? I'm not sick anymore!", She said, grinning ear to ear.

I suppressed a chuckle. "That's great."

"So...", Q said slowly, "how was it?"

"How was what?", I asked, shutting my locker and swinging my backpack over my shoulder.

"The Campaign Ball, silly!", She exclaimed.

"It was...", I paused to find the right word, "interesting."

Q sighed. "Could you be more vague?", She asked, raising her eyebrows.

I laughed at her persistence. "Well, there were a lot of snobs there. The food was great, though."

She nodded, skirting around a group of jocks that were barreling down the hallway.

"Will was there.", I added.

I instantly caught her attention. "Will Farnsworth?", She squealed, her eyes wide.

I laughed. "Um, yeah."

"Wow, Kendall. How is it possible that so, so many hot guys know you?", She said, still amazed.

I didn't know if it was a compliment or an unintended insult. I decided not to answer. I had never really had any friends before I moved to Curmouth, and Q, though she may be annoyingly peppy, was all I had. One was better than none.

Luckily, before our conversation could continue, we arrived at English class, and I speedily took my seat. I didn't mean to be rude, but as an introvert, Q could sometimes exhaust me.

As Mr. Goldberg began to drone about the importance of writing, I noticed something that made a pit fill my stomach.

Will's seat was empty.

'Relax, Kendall. He's probably just skipping.', I assured myself. He skipped all the time. I mean, we skipped last Monday. Maybe this is a tradition and he never goes to school on Monday, right? I let out a silent, shaky breath.

Now that I knew about Will's father, and the drug thing, I couldn't help but assume the worst. I just hope the druggies didn't find him. I can't even imagine what would happen if they did. If they were crazy enough to shoot a gun at him, I had no doubt that they would kill him if it came down to it.

Once English class ended, I rushed up to Q. She seemed to know everything about everyone. She had to have at least a guess about Will's whereabouts.

"Do have any guesses about where Will could be?", I asked her questioningly.

She paused, thinking. "Honestly, I'm not sure. I don't think he would skip again, considering if he wants to graduate, he would need a minimum absence per semester. Maybe he's late.", She offered, her eyebrows knit together in confusion.

I nodded, fearing the worst. The last thing Will needed was my bad luck coming into his life.

"I'm sure he's fine. I wouldn't worry too much. I mean, maybe if he doesn't show up tomorrow, then worry, but I'm sure he'll be okay. He's a big boy.", Q assured me.