When The Last Leaves Fall ~Creek~

Chapter 31: School's In

Tweek had watched Craig walk away mournfully. ‘How am I supposed to do this without you?’ As the group started walking again, a knot began to form in his stomach. Not having Craig by his side was not what he was looking for. God, he was probably in so much trouble. While one side of his head argued that, the other side was fighting back. ‘Well, if this is my last day in class anyways, then I guess it really wouldn’t matter too much.’

The three walked up to the entrance door and rang the buzzer to alert the office to let them in. Once in, they headed straight to class. Maybe it was just the eerie stillness of the halls, but everything just felt wrong. His feelings of uneasiness must have been displayed since he felt a gentle hand rub his head

“It’s okay, Tweek. We’ll just talk to her and be on our way.” Token smiled and reassured him.

Hooking a left, they slowly opened the large, wooden door. Tweek wasn’t sure if it was her usual voice or if she was angry about something, but Mrs.Nelson seemed to talk in a louder, more agitated voice than how he thought that she sounded. On the board were what looked like fractions and different methods of solving them. 

Mrs.Nelson looked over towards them, as did the other students. He wasn’t sure whether he preferred the deafening quiet of the hallway behind him, or the sickening horror of an entire class looking at him. Tweek could feel himself begin to shake and twitch.

Wait. How long has it been since he last did that?

“Well, so glad that you three have decided to join us. Go take a seat and listen up.”

“Actually, Mrs.Nelson, we were wondering if-”

“I said, “go take a seat.” If you need to talk, do it after class.” She interrupted Token with a harsh tone that made sure no one would talk back again. Visibly upset, Token gestured with his head for them to go sit. The whole walk, though, was accompanied by stares until he sat down, which Tweek did not like one bit.

Mrs.Nelson began to re-introduce what she was talking about. Tweek tried his hardest to listen to whatever the teacher was talking about. During the lecture though, he could feel his eyelids starting to droop and daring to close. It had been a little bit since he had gotten real sleep. Propping his chin on his hand, he let himself fall asleep.

It was unclear just how much time had passed before he had come to, but it certainly didn't feel like enough. Tweek wasn’t too sure what had woken him up until he felt someone poking his shoulder. Looking over with half-open eyes, he saw Jimmy glancing at him when the teacher wasn't watching.

"Hmm?" Tweek said sleepily. His eyes were still trying to stay closed as he stretched. "S-sorry to wa-wake you. Just won-wondering if you w-were o-okay." Jimmy whispered back. It was hardly a whisper, but it sufficed. With as much energy as he could muster, Tweek nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." 

There was something in the way Jimmy was acting that made Tweek feel that something was up. A few seconds later he turned back. "C-Craig told me w-wh-what was going o-on". This sparked Tweek's interest. When did Craig have the chance to do that?  It dawned on him that it must have been when they were at Kenny’s when he was refusing to go inside.

Jimmy had started whispering something else to him when his mind had begun to wander and space out. Tweek was trying to imagine what would happen after class. Once he went back to get his stuff and headed back to the police station...was that gonna be it?

Tweek looked back over at Jimmy, who had turned to face the teacher again. ‘Guess he realized I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying, oops’. Tweek felt bad and did the same, trying to latch on to something about test scores being low.

Before he knew it, the bell had rung to dismiss the students to lunch. At some point during a talk about angles, Tweek had fallen back asleep. The ring jolted him awake. Tweek looked around as kids got up, put their stuff away, and left class. The only kids that stayed behind were Jimmy, Token, Clyde, and him.

Tweek took a deep breath and got up to join the others.
Hey, Tweekers! Were you awake at any point during class?" Clyde teased. Tweek gave a small sarcastic laugh in reply. "Maybe for about 8 minutes at most. Are you trying to tell me you were awake for the entire class period?" The five boys turned around as the teacher called.
“So, what was earlier all about?"

The group looked at each other. "We wanted to talk to you about something". She nodded and sat down at her desk.
The next little while was spent explaining in scrutinizing detail about their entire morning, starting from the incident of last night.

Hearing everything out loud made it feel as if they did so much, but also that they didn't do a lot either. It also made him feel so small and awkward. As Token explained everything, it felt like hours had passed, but Tweek knew that it was only a few minutes. Every now and then, he could feel Token or Clyde look at him. It was gradually unsettling, yeah, but he could just feel the pity that he didn't want.

So~ yeah, that's pretty much been our day. As I said, I’m sorry we missed a bunch of class time and all, but we had some stuff that needed to be taken care of. It's not like we had much of a choice for about half of the morning." Token took a deep breath as he finished. 

The teacher slowly nodded her head, almost as if she was still trying to process everything she was just told. "Okay. Well. I guess there's nothing much for me to say. I’ll excuse you from the missing class time as long as you can keep up with what we went over today. As for Tweek." She looked at him. "There doesn't seem to be anything I can do for you. I'm sorry."

He knew there were probably a few different layers to her "I'm sorry", but he just responded with, "It's okay." She seems to be content with that as an answer since she moved on. 

"As much as I want to say “just stay here”, you need to make sure you have everything ready for when you leave. Although I don’t want to send all of you around town, especially since we have Craig still out missing, I’ll let you guys go. That being said, Tweek.." He perked up at his name. "Go see if you have anything in your locker that you need." Tweek gave a small nod and began to walk towards the door.

The halls were still with an eerie silence as he walked out of the classroom. There were distant sounds of the cafeteria that gave off a quiet echo, which didn't help as much as you might think. Luckily his locker wasn't too far from here. 

Tweek turned the corner and read the locker numbers. Which was his? He could never remember the number. Was it this one, or this one? Argh!

For some reason, Tweek thought he was in the wrong area until he finally found it. How did he know it was his? Why it had lovely writing all over it. Eventually, Tweek began to block out whatever it said, not paying attention. Then, when it got so bad, his friends would bring something in and repaint the locker, purposely splattering everyone and everything around.

He thought of all of the fond memories he had thanks to his friends. Clyde. Token. Jimmy. Craig. Each one of them made his life worth living. A sharp pain shot through him. It was only a day or so ago when he was in his bathroom. The razor blade in his quivering hand. Blood all over the floor. The fear of someone finding out.

Craig coming just in time to stop him.

Tweek held back tears as he opened his locker, remembering the day perfectly. Everything about that day was awful, he just wanted something to relieve the stress. Something. Anything. Perhaps even that very someone who-

A hand quickly slammed the locker shut, which came dangerously close to having Tweek's fingers in it. Another hand flipped him so his back was up against the locker. No. Please no. 

Well well well. Look who we have here."