---

Keone's breath stopped for a moment, drawing back as though wounded. He didn't have a retort. He didn't have a response. His mouth opened, but nothing came out. He only gripped his sides with his hands, biting his lip and shutting his eyes as his head turned down, and Kat's footsteps echoed through the empty hallway.

There was a quiet sob.

---

---

Kat's right. Completely right.

I'm not going to make it.

It's already Monday, and I'm falling apart at the seams. I'm just doing my best not to cry when other people are watching. It feels like that's all I can manage right now.
_{my light}
Ever since I lost it, I haven't had any place to go back to. I've been going without the one solace in my life. And I thought that I could just...grin and bear it. Just get through this one week. And then everything would be fine. But that isn't how it works. Even he sees it, plain as day.

I have to get myself back. I have to be myself again. I have to. But...how? And what about Cece...? I can't just abandon her...she said she'd make it up to me. She promised.
_believe
I don't know what to do. It used to all be so clear. Why can't I see anymore?

---

---

The school's gymnasium was an outdoor one - with a large, elliptical track that overlapped with a baseball court to save on space. The basketball and tennis courts, separated by short gates that more than one determined student had climbed in the past, looked ill-maintained. The tennis court, in particular, had the net simply untethered from one post, collecting a puddle on the ground. Moreover, the field hadn't been picked up since at least the last game played, and there were stray baseballs, hurdles, and other equipment simply strewn about.
_{responsibility}
It was nothing short of an absolute mess. Whoever's job it was to keep the fields clean and tidy had clearly not been doing their part. _{it's too much shouldn't have to anyway it's not fair in the first place
guard}
"Alright, so..." A short-haired woman in a red tracksuit stood out in the pouring rain, not even caring that she was getting soaked. Most of the students had brought umbrellas, but many hadn't. There was no forecast for rain, after all - according to all the weather stations, it was supposed to be clear all week. "I'm supposed to give you a physical final, but, uh..." She slowly turned around, glancing at the mess of a rainy track as water dripped from her hair. Her face seemed to physically buckle under the weight of the sight. "...just...whatever."
She threw a clipboard over her shoulder dismissively, not even calling roll. "Here's the deal then, boys and girls. And, you know, whoever else. I'm gonna go crash in the faculty lounge." She brazenly pointed a thumb at the building. The warm, dry, building. "I'm gonna come back in two hours, and if the field isn't clean, you all fail. Someone catch this."

Nonchalantly tossing a keyring into the crowd, expecting someone to be the one to pay attention and grab it, the equipment shed key, as well as numerous other keys to doors that students probably shouldn't have, landed in a pile on the ground.
_disconnected
No one seemed to care.
"See ya, runts." The students looked back and forth amongst each other, as the teacher simply...up and left. A classroom full of students, unattended, in the middle of the rain, and told to do their teacher's job. That was their 'final'.


<sup>"Are you kidding? We have to clean up the field in the rain?"

"I don't really feel like it...I mean, look at it. It's a lot of work."

"It's too much! We shouldn't have to, anyway. It's not fair in the first place."</sup>


One student simply turned around and began walking off, back into the building, raindrops bouncing off of his umbrella. "Where are you going?" A girl turned around, trying to stay under the protection of her friend's umbrella, next to her. The boy didn't stop, looking back only for a moment.
_{someone someone who is someone nobody is someone}
"We all pass as long as someone cleans the field." He states simply, "I don't have to do anything. You want to pass? You clean it."
For a moment, the group of students was silent. But then, one after another, as though seeing the truth of a holy man's sermon, began to follow. One by one, students split off, each going separate ways, or nowhere at all.

_{someone someone}
^{"Yeah, that makes sense. Someone will do it, right?"}
_{who is someone}
^{"It's better if I don't have to do anything."}
_{nobody is someone}
^{"I just don't care enough, let's be real..."}


Among the students leaving was Ceciliane Dulac, who was, as always, uncannily prepared with her own umbrella. She looked back at Keone for a moment, her eyes lacking their usual sharpness. Then, she paused for a moment, and glared - truly glared at Keone, for the first time that anyone had ever seen. Then, she turned on her heel and continued her journey outward, as curtly as ever.

Keone seemed to flinch at Dulac's glare, but didn't move. Not out of stubbornness, or resolve, but merely out of indecision. He didn't seem to know whether to leave or stay. He'd brought an umbrella with him, but hadn't opened it. It sat closed at his side, while the rain poured relentlessly onto him.

Rebecca never brought an umbrella, but was too wrapped up in her own mind to even realize that she was being rained on. It didn't seem like she was even aware of what the teacher had said, or what the students around her were doing - until she momentarily glanced at the keyring on the ground, and then back down at her feet, weighed down by mental exhaustion.

---

'Here's the deal then, boys and girls. And, you know...'

Kat winced up but no one was looking at him. Key-metal clashed and clicked nearby him, and his foot dodged, as if it was going to be hit. He looked back up. She was just getting to the point, wasn't she? He hadn't been listening. _{(Too much effort. Too many things... things.)} There was supposed to be a quiz, right?

The instructor left.

Kat tuned back in. There was supposed to be... a quiz...

The student council officer or sports team member or cheerleader or teacher's pet for whom Kat was waiting to pick up the keys never did so, and the chain of events went utterly unpunctuated. The instructor had left. A student had left. Students were leaving, and that was the end of it. Kat eventually came up from the puddle his head was floating in, and realised that that was all that was going to happen.

---

---

WHAT

Kat picked up the keys and pocketed them in his jacket as if they stood to lose from getting wet. The jacket wasn't waterproof. Warm, but not for much longer. He glared around for the friends he didn't have among the classmates that really weren't. All he got was Dulac, which was worse than nothing. Dulac, Keone- why are you hanging on to her? she's HURTING you -and Rebecca.

In six months he hadn't even realised she was in his class.
^cared
Did she need to pass? Did Kat even need to pass? Kind of- not really. She needed to get out of the rain. "...Uh, hey, Rebecca. You should probably..." _{hide. disconnect}

...Probably what? Go with the other students who didn't care? Stay here? With Dulac?

Fnnuuugg.

Disappearing with the rest of the class was definitely the safer option, but Dulac would follow, and- Kat glanced at Keone- there was little he could do. Meaning, there was a lot he could do, none of which he was meant to. So, what? Leave her here? She wasn't moving, and they were all getting wet.

She needs to get out of the rain.

She needs to get OUT of the RAIN

"Hey, a-asshats!" Kat yelled to the disappearing students, with about the confidence of a cardboard box. He might as well have scratched the keys directly on the back of his own cornea as used that word, but there was a way this game was played. "I'm going to the garage to get ponchos. Is anyone else coming? I can't do it on my own," he only half lied, pointing across the fence where the gas station lights flickered, "and- my parents are gonna kill me if I fail anything."

It wasn't his best lie, and it probably wouldn't work, not with the class in this state. But if he could get the excuse to smuggle Rebecca out of the school, out of the rain, for even a few minutes, he was taking it. After that... well, this would keep them busy for a while. And keep him close. At least as close as her.

---

A few of the students turned and looked at Kat - for a brief moment, he was the subject of ten or twenty stares. One of the boys responded, "Knock yourself out," before continuing to walk away.^{"See? I told you Someone else would do it.""Does that kid even go here?"}
Just when it looked like everyone was about to leave Kat by himself, two students suddenly stopped. Chester had grabbed that boy by the arm, holding him in place. "What's your deal?" The boy tried to yank his arm from Chester's, but he held tight. The procession of students stopped for just a moment, watching the altercation.

"He said he needs help." Chester responded in a low growl. The boy reeled back, as though Chester's breath was somehow toxic, grimacing and pulling himself out of the other student's grip. "Help him yourself, then!"

Chester seemed to let him go, after that. But at least a couple of students seemed moved by the gesture. When all was said and done, six students remained in the athletic field - Kat, Rebecca, Keone, Chester, and two boys whom Kat would have seen Chester hanging out with in the past. He'd probably been told their names at some point, but it seemed far away now.


Dulac's blood-freezing glare found its way to Kat for just a moment, before she closed her umbrella and went inside.

Keone blinked for a moment, watching Kat with what seemed, for whatever reason, like wonder. But even so, he lifted his head only slightly. The movement was barely perceptible, especially with the heavy rain.

Rebecca looked up for just a moment, as Kat addressed her. The rain was warm enough that she wasn't shivering, but her hair looked like it would take hours to dry. Raindrops ran down her face like tears, but her face was tired, sagging like a slab of meat hanging from a hook. It somehow seemed like there were dark circles under her eyes that weren't there this morning. but Kat had her attention, if nothing else.

---

Kat didn't need to knock himself out. The sudden attention just about did that for him. It was mostly negative, or at least abrasive, but he stood his ground, for just about long enough. Chester's execution grated on him, but he was more than grateful for his presence. When his 'thanks' went a-mumbled and unheard, Kat raised a fist, which Chester bumped instinctively.

"You lost your phone," he said, spinning it out of his pocket. That seemed to be the only reason he was here, until now.

Kat had never spoken to either of the boys, but he knew they included one Seong, a smug fellow who complained a lot about sportsball for someone that good at it. The other seemed to be his tagalong. Well, the more the merrier.

"Are you coming?" he asked the forlorn girl. Seong, who had a rain jacket, seemed content to stand around 'til whenever. Chester was already over the fence, and halfway across the road. "You should come. We're going to get some rain gear. It's only going to get worse." He looked across to Chester, who was waiting under a sparse tree. "Or you could go inside," he said, hoping she wouldn't. But it was her choice to make, in the end, and better than standing around.

Seong's friend had eloped roadwards. Kat ducked away to the fence. Seong gave him a friendly shove on the butt when his arms were too skinny to throw himself over the wire the way Chester had. Thanks, Seong.