Universal Inconstants

Chapter 5

It was forty minutes later when Corey walked through the halls beside Kenny, trying their best to stay behind the taller boy so as to not be seen as much as possible. 

They'd forgotten that crowds weren't something they loved to be around, and the fact that they didn't make a great first impression on Tweek, Craig, or Kyle made them extremely anxious.

Their conversation with Mr. Mackey had been fairly short, a lot of personal questions being asked and random information about the school being tossed around. Kenny had told him that he didn't know how long Corey would be here, but hopefully 'he' would only be here a couple weeks. They had to correct him on their pronouns; Kenny respectfully nodded and changed his wording.

Kenny now walked up to his locker with Corey in tow, twisting the lock and pulling it open. 

Instantly, random clothes spilled out, headed toward the floor, but Kenny caught them in his arms. He confusedly shoved some of them back into the locker as he took one of the sweatshirts and looked at it. 

Corey glanced over Kenny's shoulder at the article of clothing, dying a significant amount inside when they realized what it was. Kenny glanced at Corey as they shoved their head into their hands embarrassedly. 

Kenny glanced back at the South Park merch he held in his hands, silently pulling his backpack down and starting to shove the clothing in.

Corey wheezed at the situation, not even sparing Kenny a glance out of embarrassment as he stuffed the books he needed into the bag with the clothes and zipped it up. He nonchalantly pulled the bag back up onto his shoulder and motioned for Corey to follow him. 

They took a breath in and calmed their embarrassment as they did so, walking behind him and into the classroom. 

Corey stopped in the doorway, sudden panic deciding to rise within them. Kenny stopped and glanced back at them, then at the teacher, before moving to talk to her.

A few seconds later, she motioned for Corey to come in while Kenny sat down in his seat. They stepped into the classroom and glanced around anxiously, spotting plenty of familiar faces, along with one or two new ones. 

They glanced at the teacher as she started.

"Class," she said. "We have a new student who will be visiting us for a few weeks. I hope you will be kind to them while they are with us." She motioned for Corey to take the desk next to Kenny, which they did. 

They were sitting in the corner desk, with Kenny next to them, and Craig sitting in front of them. They glanced at the back of the boy in front of them. Craig glanced back, face emotionless as he stared into Corey's soul. They quickly looked away, eyes scanning the rest of the room instead.

The first thing they noticed was that there were two people not present besides Cartman. 

Clyde and Timmy weren't in the classroom, which made Corey curious. They probably just moved away, right? They decided they'd ask Kenny about it later.

The second thing they noticed was that no one in the room aside from Kenny, Butters, and Jimmy seemed to have any happiness left within them. 

Stan, first of all, looked like death. It seemed like he hadn't slept in nights, as if he would pass out at any moment. Corey didn't know him at the present moment, but he was much paler than any healthy human being should be. 

Kyle wasn't as bad off, but his expression showed extreme boredom, as any decent person's would in a math class. 

Scott, clearly, wasn't doing so well, himself. He looked depressed, as if he would cry at any moment, and although Jimmy was peppier than the others, he was clearly eager to leave the class and do his own thing. 

Tolkien, finally, was a mess. His hair was scrambled as can be, and, like Scott, he looked like he would break into tears at the slightest noise.

As they sat there, they realized that school was just about the most boring option they could have chosen to spend their day doing. The 9th grade class was just now learning algebra I, but Corey had learned it in their class last year. They already knew how to do what was on the board. 

They sighed and set their head on the palm of their hand, elbow placed gently on the desk. They'd somehow forgotten, over the weekend, how incredibly boring school could be.

Thirty minutes later, Corey was completely zoned out as the teacher continued her lesson. They didn't love algebra whatsoever, but they were fairly good at it nonetheless. 

At this point in class, they were leaning back in their chair, boredly playing around with the red string that hung off their navy sweatshirt. 

That is, until the teacher called their name and their head snapped up.

"Do you think you can solve this problem?" She asked, and they glanced at it. It was an easy problem for them now, but they remembered how much they struggled when they were just learning it last year. They looked back at the teacher and nodded, standing up and grabbing the whiteboard marker from her. They went up to the board and started to solve the problem, and within a minute it was already done. They capped the marker and looked back at the teacher, anxiety rising within them in fear that they'd gotten their answer wrong. 

Instead, they received a sweet smile and a nod of approval.

"Very well done. You may take a seat now." 

Nervously they nodded and walked as fast as they could, practically booking it back to their seat. They stared at the ground as they walked, and as they sat down they glanced around. A few of the kids were looking at them; Tweek looked baffled, Kyle looked uninterested, and Kenny was giving them a bright smile and a thumbs up. 

They couldn't help but smile back at him as Butters, who sat on the other side of Kenny, poked him. Corey watched as Butters whispered to him and he bent down, grabbing his backpack and tugging it open. They anxiously watched as Kenny shuffled through their South Park merch in search of something. 

Needless to say, Butters was extremely confused as to why Kenny had shoved a bunch of clothing into his backpack.

***

Lunch arrived faster than Corey had expected, and as they followed Kenny into the crowded lunchroom, they looked around. There were quite a few people that they recognized inside, and after they got food, they followed Kenny and Butters to the table he usually sits at, with a few of the others. 

Kyle was already sitting on the bench when the three of them walked up to the table, Butters sliding onto the bench next to Kyle, followed by Kenny and Corey. They once again realized that they were not comfortable eating in front of people and sat there silently, anxiety ridden.

The other side of the bench filled up a few minutes later, with Tolkien in front of Kyle, followed by Stan and Craig. 

Corey silently sat, awkwardly eating their food, as the rest of the group quietly chatted. They observed the others as they ate. Stan and Tolkien were mostly silent the entire time, and while Craig was a bit more talkative than them, he was still quiet. 

In fact, Corey caught him staring off toward another table a few times. They followed his gaze once and spotted a few more familiar faces at the other table. Scott, Sophie, Jimmy, Wyatt, and a tall girl with shorter navy blue hair that dropped gently into her face, along with... Tweek. 

They glanced back at Craig, and his gaze moved to theirs. They almost choked on their food as he glared at them silently. 

They were uncomfortable, so much so in fact that they couldn't look away.

Kenny cleared his throat a moment later, and they both glanced at him. "How's your rat?" He asked, causing Craig to join in the conversation.

"Guinea pig," Craig corrected.

"Right. How's your guinea pig?" Kenny rephrased.

"Stripe's fine," Craig said in response. He started talking about the small animal as lunch continued on, and Butters and Kyle joined in as the conversation switched from guinea pigs to actual pigs, to bacon, then somehow all the way to discussing the best season. 

Corey stayed silent through it all, just listening and not contributing, all the way until they finished lunch and the group spilled into the school courtyard.