The Evermore Dissociate(Creek)

0020

Tweek was sat by the window in the art classroom, lazily holding his paint brush against a blank canvas. He had no inspiration for their current project, Native American drawings/paintings. His eyes nervously looked around at the other students who were all busy getting on with their own work, their heads down in concentration. His attention drifted off outside, beyond the white chipped frame of wood, to the snow covered grass that laid just past his reach, where his eyes stared at the distanced tree sheltering one of the school benches. By the time the bell rang, Tweek looked back to his work, taking in the faint red line he'd painted through out an hours lesson. He tiredly collected his things, before his sluggish footsteps lead him to the back of the room, where dividers stored his work.

He walked to Mr Gates class alone, making his way through the crowded halls, where he passed his locker and the music room, which Token was likely still in, packing away his instruments. Craig would be making his way from his Astronomy class at the other end of the school whilst Clyde had gym.

Tweek headed into the classroom behind Stan and Wendy, finding his seat at the far back corner, and waited for the others to arrive. A few students were already seated, filling up more and more as the minutes passed, with both Craig and Token entering around the same time.

Eventually the teacher arrived, his scratchy voice filling the silence of the room as he told them about the Environmental studies assignment that they would be doing in groups. He decided to make it easier on everyone by splitting the groups from the Denvours trip into threes, and to Craig's unpleasant surprise, he ended up with Butters and Kenny. Tweek would've gladly switched places with him though, since he was stuck with Eric. At least Kevin Stoley wasn't so bad.

Mr Gates made the assigned groups sit together for the rest of the lesson, so that they could start a rough plan to follow when they went away. Kenny sat with his back to the window, his feet crossed underneath the table as he slouched down in his chair, chewing on the end of his pen. Craig was opposite him, watching Butters who was doing most of the work by himself.

"McCormick, you know you actually have to help too, right?" Craig folded his arms, watching the pen drop from Kenny's mouth as he turned from staring off into space, dark blue eyes meeting pale blue.

Kenny looked down at the pen on the floor woefully. "I'm brainstorming."

"You're not, you're just hoping we'll do it all for you." Craig accused. Kenny repressed the urge to grin at the truth, his lips hidden behind his hand as he pretended to itch his forehead.

Butters had only been idly paying attention to them, too busy writing notes down, before he'd forget them, whilst his eyebrows creased in concentration. "I-I think we should do ours about air pollution." He rubbed his knuckles together, looking between both Craig and Kenny.

"That's the first thing everyone else is going to be thinking." Said Craig.

Butters looked to his notes. He'd been toying with a few ideas within the time the groups had been set. "Oh, well.. okay so, air pollution and climate change?"

"Sure, whatever."

Butters knew right then, that he was going to be the one carrying his group for this assignment. He listened quietly to everybody complain about who they were teamed up with, but as he looked around the room to all of the groups working and getting involved, he realised he had actually been put in the worst group. He was the one sorted with two of the laziest people in his class, the two who made no effort with their work and who rarely even handed stuff in on time.

He looked around as Kyle, Damion and Clyde talked together, all of them productively planning out their assignment, already half way done. He looked to Stan's group, all with their heads down writing, then he looked back to his own group. Kenny had subtly taken Craig's notebook, doodling in it, until Craig noticed and snatched it away from him, the pair of them arguing about pointless things until they were both worn out. By the end of the lesson, Butters had singlehandedly finished writing out a draft. Reading through his work he nodded to himself, praying that by some miracle, both Kenny and Craig would take this seriously.

-

It was a leaden Tuesday night. Tweek was wandering the streets with his arms hugging his body from the cold. He'd been in such a rush to get out of the house, that he'd forgotten his coat, leaving him in only a thin sweater. He was watching the ground as he walked and had ended up at the towns park, which was pretty much just a couple of swings and a rusty round-about.

The swings eerily creaked in the wind as they swayed back and forth, but still, Tweek shuffled over to one of them, sitting down and holding onto the chains with his feet anchored to the ground. He'd successfully dodged Craig for a couple of days since his intense feelings had risen again. He'd come up with the excuse that he had too much work to do when Craig asked him to hang out, then in the few classes they would have together, Tweek would keep his head down, forcing himself to do his work, instead of conversing with his friends like he usually would.

Hiding his feeling were making him sick. It was making him miserable, only contributing to the endless hours awake at night. He felt isolated, not being able to talk to any of his friends about it. That's all he wanted, to have someone to talk to, and as he scrolled through the contacts on his phone, passing endless names, he came across Kenny's. He wearily sighed remembering the night of the party, remembering how relaxing his presence had been. It had him wanting to find out more about him, find out what made him such a laid back guy.

And so, after minutes of his finger hovering above the name, he convinced himself to send the other blonde a text message. He anxiously chewed his lip when he hit send, staring endlessly at the screen as he waited for a reply. Minutes of torture passed before his phone beeped and when he realised how fast he opened the message, he silently scolded himself. His green eyes skimmed over the short text, his head resting against the cold chain of the swing when the relief washed over him at Kenny's words,

'Sure, on my way.'