13th July

What day is it?

Wednesday?

Are you serious?

Well, whatever, just gotta go about my day like usual. Right, right. So how about we start things off with a joke?

So there was this girl. Listen closely, okay? This girl had a slight problem with her head, or so they said. This girl goes to Highschool like the rest of the people her age but didn't exactly fit right in.

See, she was average and kind of a nerd, so all the jocks and pretty girls loved mocking her. Most notably, one popular girl was picking on her ever since the first day of school. Trying to live out her life, but she was constantly pestered.

Forever, she thought that she would have a moment when a hot guy came up to her and offered her some help, or she makes an unexpected friend. But but but. Instead, nothing happened. No one tried to step up to help her, she kept getting bullied and the teachers kept sympathising with the bully.

Nothing was going right.

So she sat by her window one night, staring into the sky, praying that something would happen to turn her life around.

Nothing happened.

Life went on.

So she kept quiet. No one listened to her, her family situation wasn't the best either. Her parents noticed so they sent her to a therapist, but it was much too late. She snapped.

Yeah, she snapped spaghetti in half and got slapped by her mom.

What a doofus.

Yeah, so moving on with my day. See, supplementary lessons are extreme pains in the ass, so I can't exactly do much outside of school. I much rather when school wasn't a thing. I could hang out with Chloe and do literally nothing all day. Instead, I gotta sit in class and listen to someone talk for hours.

Dang, maybe I could be a teacher when I grow up.

Nothing's going on on Friday afternoon, so I guess I could go pay Kaster's a visit. I'll probably catch up with Catherine during the weekends, so that's great.

I mean, the fewer friends you have, the more precious they are, aren't they?

"Are you up yet?" I heard Fable's voice.

He was knocking on the door. I know where this is going. I got up from my bed and told him, "Yeah, I'm awake."

"Are you up yet?" He asked, knocking faster and speaking louder.

I went up to the door and knocked back. He stopped knocking. I stepped away from the door before I heard my Mom shout, "ARE YOU UP YET?"

"Geez, didn't expect you to shout," I said, opening the door.

My Mom hugged me and kissed me on my forehead before telling me, "Hurry up, you'll be late for school."

"I'll be on time, at least," I told her, closing the door to my room.

"Don't take too long," She reminded.

"I won't," I said back.

"Breakfast's already on the table, make sure you eat."

"I will."

After getting my routine over and done with as quickly as I could, I left my room to see my parents already ready to set off. Fable was just chilling on the couch without a care in the world.

I went up to him and slapped the back of his head lightly. "Aren't you leaving soon?"

"Mom and Dad ain't dropping me off at school today," He replied.

"That's rare."

I turned back to see my Mom already ready to leave, only needing her shoes. She told me, "We're going to pay a visit to your grandma before going to work. We got the news that she fell down and broke her arm."

"Grandma?" I asked.

My Mom paused and gave me a look. "On your father's side. We've met her a couple of times, remember?"

"Right, her," I nodded.

I actually forgot what her face even looked like.

"Fable, I better not get a call from a teacher saying you're late to class," She warned Fable. "You can't use us going to see your Grandma as an excuse to be tardy."

"I won't be late," He assured her. "Unless the bus breaks down."

"Fable," My Mom said in a warning tone.

He shrugged, a small smile on his face. My Mom let out a sigh before leaving the door with dad. She told us before leaving, "Love you both. Make sure not to cause any more trouble in school, okay?"

Door shuts.

"So…" I started, moving to the dining table. "Have you eaten yet?"

"No," He replied.

Fable was scrolling through his phone, but I noticed that his arm was slightly lower than usual and was also struggling to be kept up. I asked him, "Is there something wrong with your arm? Did you wank or something?"

"I went to the gym yesterday with Yin," He replied nonchalantly.

"How did it go?"

"Fine, I guess? But after we talked it through, we might want to spend more time studying together instead of hitting the gym," He said, not looking away from his phone. "Finals are coming up, we can't spend all our time working out."

"Did you use that cheesy line?"

"What line?" He questioned, this time turning his head.

"The 'Yo babe, you hit the gym? How bout we work things out from there?' line," I told him. "If you wanna break up, you can use the 'We just aren't working out,' line."

"Why would I ever need to use the breakup line?" Fable raised an eyebrow.

I pushed my bowl of cereal aside and pointed at him. "Now, as your older sister-"

"You're barely older than me," He grumbled.

"Ahem. As your older sister, I will fully support you if you end up breaking up with your girlfriend," I continued. "As long as it was on your terms. Or if you were being a pimp. If you're a pimp, please kill yourself."

"The only pimp in the school is that guy from the Volleyball Club," Fable scoffed, returning his gaze to his phone.

"Who?"

"Otto? Pretty sure everyone's heard of him. I'm surprised you aren't a fan of his," Fable commented.

"A fan of his?" I laughed. "You're kidding. The only people interested in him without ever talking to him are people with infatuations or obvious negative intent. It's like staring at a model."

"You seem to talk a lot about him," Fable said.

"Really? I just don't want you to misunderstand, little bro. I ain't interested in anybody from our school. Who knows what might happen in University, but as of right now, that shithole of a school isn't where it's at."

Fable sighed. "Yeah, sure, whatever."

I finished my breakfast quickly, drank some water, and then was ready to leave. Fable, after seeing that I was also getting up, got prepared as well. I stared him dead in the eye. "You can't be seriously thinking of going to school with me."

"I don't know the way there," He argued.

"You make a valid point."

We left the apartment, Fable locking the door behind us. As we walked to the elevator, I started telling Fable, "Now, the most important thing when it comes to going to school by public transport is to never talk to anyone, ever. You never know if they want to scam you, or if they're distracting you so that they can pick your pocket."

"We're going to school. We aren't travelling abroad," Fable stated, deadpan.

"Can't you, like, call your girlfriend to pick you up or something?" I asked him. "Does she go to school by car or by bus?"

"By bus, I think."

"Wait, if you can come home by bus, why can't you go there by bus?" I questioned.

Fable paused to think about it. "Oh yeah… it's just the other way around, isn't it?"

"It's just the other way around, innit?" I repeated after him, slapping my forehead. "You disappoint me, little bro."

"Don't blame me. Would you have thought about it the first time?"

"Obviously, I'm not an idiot," I told him.

"Fine."

"Fine."

We waited for the elevator. I crossed my arms as we waited, tapping with my index finger as we waited. A couple of minutes later, I turned to Fable and commented, "Kinda a long wait, huh?"

"It's only been two minutes," He said, sick of my bullshit.

"Yeah, that's a long wait."

We waited, and ding.

Elevator's here.

We got into the empty elevator. On our way down, I told him, "Y'know, going to school with you is pretty embarrassing. Could we just pretend we don't know each other or something? Just stay three feet away from me at all times."

When he didn't give a response, I continued. "Funny story, the school placed a restraining order on me recently. I can't go near this classmate of mine."

"Yeah, I know that," He said. "It's been the talk of the school since it got around. And also how you kissed that girl at the school fair. Hell, who even spread these rumours?"

"..." I stayed quiet.

He slowly turned to face me. "You didn't spread these rumours yourself, did you?"

"Wellllllll I meaaannnnnn," I shrugged slowly. "It's funny, innit?"

He stared at me before looking away. He just said to me in a very dead voice, "Could you just… not?"

Ding.

"Three feet away," I warned him.

"Whatever, just get going already," He complained. "Why the hell do you even go to school this early?"

"To avoid."

"What does that mean?"

"Whatever I need it to mean," I laughed, quickening my pace.

On the bus, it was pretty uneventful. I mean, unless you consider the person in front of me sleeping while standing eventful. On my way to school, I looked around the place to see if anything has changed since yesterday. Unfortunately for me, nothing.

In school now.

"Good morning y'all!" I greeted.

In my class, there were around three people. One of whom was the girl I had briefly talked to yesterday.

Just in case you don't remember who this girl is, she's the one I asked for the name of another guy who was apparently named Jonathan.

I walked up to her and asked her in a hushed tone. "Yo… What's up with the class? There aren't too many people around."

"They're probably late?" She replied, unsure of herself.

I patted her shoulder. "Thanks."

Surprisingly, I did not have any graffiti celebrating my return to school. That's a downer. I wanted to see what kind of colourful language they were going to use and whether they had enough words left to write.

…

I was just minding my own business. Y'know, doing the usual looking around and observing the classroom for no bloody reason. Yeah, so I was doing that and had gotten very into doing dogshit nothing when I noticed someone looking directly at me from right outside the classroom.

"Do you need something?" I asked from where I sat.

She promptly disappeared from sight. Am I being stalked or something? I don't remember seeing her before. Maybe she was just one of Candace's pals from a different class looking for ways to torture me in school.

Not long after, A dude walked into class.

He headed straight in my direction. I recognise him! He's that guy that replied to my greeting yesterday. Jonathan was his name, right?

So Jonathan, a name that I feel is pretty long, came up to me and apologised, "Sorry, I think my girlfriend was staring at you through the front door?"

"That was your girlfriend?" I asked. "She's cute."

"Please don't hit on my girlfriend," He requested. "But yeah, hope you weren't too creeped out by that. She usually isn't this way."

"No probs," I shrugged. "I'm used to a lot meaner looks."

"Yeah… I could tell," He nodded, walking away.

That was… interesting.

Time check, there isn't much time left before lessons continued. Looking around, there were definitely a lot more people in class compared to when I first came in. However, one thing seems very blatantly missing.

Where is Candace?

My oh my oh my…

Dear Candace~

"Where oh where could Candace be this fine morning?" I asked myself out loud.

Her closest group of friends weren't around either, so there was a high chance that they were all skipping school today. Actually, I did not expect this. After what happened yesterday, I thought Candace would get so pissed that she would break the restraining order and attack me.

I would have the first-person experience of it all as I watch her, and maybe the both of us get punished by the school.

But she ain't here.

Halfway through the first period, while I was doodling in my notebook, three girls rushed in. Those three girls were Candace's pals, they looked quite worn out. This day is full of surprises, isn't it? What are they doing here when Candace is nowhere to be seen?

One of them distracted the teacher, another searched around the class. The most aggressive one walked straight up to me. She grabbed my collar and demanded, "What did you do to her?"

"To who?" I returned.

"Candace, you bitch," She growled.

"You really should watch the way you phrase sentences," I told her. "By the way you said it, it makes it seem like you're calling Candace a b-"

Slap.

I let out a laugh and grinned, staring her in the eye. "Were you the one I asked to pass the information down to Candace? Rather than me, what did you do?"

She shook me around by the collar. Luckily, I'm not prone to motion sickness.

I put my hand up with my index finger raised.

She stopped shaking me around. I tilted my head in either direction before finally telling her, "Well, I genuinely don't know what I did. I mean, I know what I did, but I have no idea what Candace did that made her this way. I thought I was going to see her today and we could all joke around."

She raised her hand again, but after a strict word from the teacher, who was being distracted by one of the girls, she put her hand down and stormed off.

I gave the teacher a thumbs up, even if my cheek was still red from the slap.

Unfortunately for me, this became an issue. Mostly on me.

I was summoned by Mr Dohl to his office once again. When I entered and saw him, I pointed at him, telling him jokingly, "You know, I thought I was finally going to avoid you today, but here I am."

"What happened?" He questioned me.

"I was chilling in class when one of Candace's pals attacked me out of the blue," I replied. "She didn't give me much of an explanation on it. Did Candace die?"

"---," He said sternly.

"I'm not apologising," I stated.

Mr Dohl sighed. "We haven't received any word from Candace, and her friends have also failed to contact her. We've managed to contact her household, but according to her parents, she has yet to leave her room. Do you have any idea what might be the cause of this?"

"Would heart pain be an excuse?" I asked.

"Like, a heart problem of sorts?"

"No, like emotional pain," I told him. "You mentioned before that Candace was emotionally challenged, right? Maybe she's facing something herself right now and doesn't want to leave her room?"

Pause.

"Her friends have mentioned that you likely played a part in this, as well as Otto from another class?" He added, raising an eyebrow. "Any idea what this could be about?"

"Nope."

Mr Dohl closed the file he was reading and shrugged. "Alright, thanks for your comments. We'll… see what we can do."

"Please get her back quick," I told him.

He gave me a look.

"What? My time here is short, okay?" I said, holding in my laughter. "I've gotta spend as much quality time with Candace while I still can. By the way, did you know we made out?"

Mr Dohl pointed at the exit.

"Right. Gotcha."

This certainly does pose a problem to my plans…

Is it possible to find out where Candace went and where she lives? No, never mind. If it was that easy to find out where she lives, it would be a problem. Wait a minute… Don't they have a list of addresses for us to look at?

But I'm on a restraining order, so I doubt the school would let me do anything.

So… yeah…

What the frick am I supposed to do in school now? Candace is nowhere to be seen, her friends are probably too worried about her to care much about me. For once, the school felt quiet.

I thought that while having a meal during the break.

Coincidentally, I also thought that while a group of fangirls passed by me. Mr Popular was some distance away, but some of the further fangirls sat near me. Peace and quiet, or so I thought.

Mr Popular himself wanted them gone, but how the hell am I supposed to do that?

Getting rid of one person would be hard enough, but a whole group? Nah, it seems like too much work.

It'll be fine if I just leave them all alone for now.

I'm actually curious. Why had Candace never done anything about these fangirls around Mr Popular? I was told that she would bully the hell out of anyone he dates, but having so many admirers should have gotten on her nerves, no?

Unless she just can't do anything about them.

Meh, whatever happens, happens.

"Wait a minute…" I muttered out loud, looking directly in front of me.

I saw a classmate of mine sitting at a table nearby. I don't really know her, but I do recall her face. She was the girl I approached this morning. I sat and observed her sitting and watching Mr Popular.

I glanced around. Nah, I don't think I'll try anything today.

Back in class, and damn is this kinda boring. Nothing's happening today. All the fun people aren't here. Mr Dohl isn't blasting me about my hair colour because the school's too panicked trying to find out where the frick Candace disappeared to.

After school, for the first time in what felt like years, I left the school feeling pretty bored. Yes, this was after the supplementary classes.

Like any ordinary teenager, I decided to chill in a park by myself instead of going home. I sat by the swing and just stared off to the side, thinking about random stuff. The sun was starting to set.

There isn't enough time to visit Kaster's.

But it has dawned on me that I need to tell Chloe about her parents very soon. The police had long since texted me the information on the funeral. Next Saturday afternoon. It's only a little more than a week away.

Maybe this Friday? Or next week?

I'm not sure, but I trust my future self to be able to find a suitable date.

Sundown, I went home. Nothing happened today, so it felt like a pretty short day. When I reached home, I had dinner with my family. Nothing too fancy, it was just some takeaway food.

Did I mention that my family doesn't cook much? My Mom barely knows how to cook, dad is useless in the kitchen and Fable is just Fable.

I can bake, to an extent, but Nah.

Now, what shall I do tomorrow?

First of all, I hope Candace comes back. I really want her to come back. Seriously, come back. The time we can spend together isn't long, we gotta maximise it. Finals are coming up, we can't play forever.

So dear, dear Candace~

I wish you the speediest of recovery.

So I can break you down again.

Anyways, short day today, huh? I'm just gonna end it right here. Nothing else to say, so…

Peace!