Dirt Lifter | Craig of the Creek High School AU

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"Here." Kit slid Craig the Choco-Rolls when he sat down at their lunch table.

"Thanks." He drew out the 's' as he started getting his books out.

Kit looked over at his papers. "What are you working on?"

"Spanish."

"Oh. Can't help you there."

Kit took French, and was excelling at it, based on how little she complained and how much she bragged. Maybe Craig would be better at French than Spanish, but it was too late in the year to change languages now, or else he would have to catch up on whatever they'd learned in the first semester. "The Choco-Rolls are helping enough," he replied.

He focused his attention on the homework. It was only a vocabulary quiz, but he must have fallen asleep during his last class because he had absolutely no idea what anything on it meant.

Craig was about to bring out his phone to translate some of it when he heard a familiar voice. "Hey, you have my puffs?"

He looked up. A girl with a hoodie and curly red hair was talking to Kit. Craig knew her, a sophomore named Brianna. She was on the track team with him.

"Yeah, hold on." Kit reached into her backpack and rummaged inside for a long time. Finally, she pulled out half a dozen vape cartridges in a ziplock bag, and handed them to the sophomore.

Brianna put the bag in her hoodie pocket and pulled out a thumbs up. "Thanks, Kit." Then, she walked off, as if they didn't just do a borderline drug deal in front of Craig.

"Since when do you sell vapes?" he whispered incredulously.

"I'm not selling them," Kit snapped back, also whispering. "It's just for Brianna. I don't think she knows Nate G sells them."

"I thought Nate M sold them."

"No. Well, maybe." she corrected herself. "I wouldn't put it past him. But Nate G definitely sells."

"Unethical. Both of you. Or all three of you. Vaping is a serious issue affecting the youths." He said the last part as a joke. He's heard the lecture 50 times, from teachers and family members alike, even when he told his mom he wouldn't waste money on that stuff. It's like adults didn't trust him now that he was a teenager, which was contrary to what he thought would happen when he was younger. But did Kit really need to be part of this?

"It's not a business transaction. It's a... friend thing." She didn't sound entirely convinced.

"Really?"

Kit huffed. "Leave me alone. It's complicated." She pointed a finger at him. "If you snitch, I'll-"

He put his hands up in defense. "I'm not a snitch, jeez."

Craig had a feeling there was some kind of extortion going on here. From what he's heard through the grapevine, and his own memory, Brianna wasn't exactly the nicest person.

"If you need me to do anything about it, I can help." He offered, both as a peace offering, and to actually help her if he needed it.

"Not with this," she replied immediately.

It sent a pain through his heart. He knew she was right. He didn't even know what was going on with them two, let alone how to stop it. Why must high schoolers have the smarts of adults, but the morals of 6-year-olds? "Fine," he finally replied, and turned back to his paper.

He looked up again after a different voice said "Yo."

It was Vanessa, and Jason was trailing behind her. They both had their backpacks on them.

"Can we sit here?" she asked.

Jason waved and said "Hey."

Craig looked at Kit, who shrugged and said "Why not?"

"Thanks," Vanessa said, sitting down. "We got booted out of the library."

"Why'd you get kicked out?" Craig asked.

"Oh, just that somebody decided to have his fucking student council meeting where we were, and apparently we can't eat in the library in the first place, and blah blah blah, more bullshit that meant we had to leave."

Jason didn't say anything, but he grimaced.

"That sucks," Kit said.

"It's fine." Vanessa started unpacking her lunch. "It's just for one day, hopefully."

Craig continued to do his homework as the girls talked. He continued to glance at the guests of his table. Both seemed pretty mad, but Jason was especially quiet.

Craig had gotten through a portion of his work, and could afford to cheer him up. Jason looked like he needed it.

"When did you start eating lunch with Vanessa?" Craig asked.

Jason hummed in surprise, looking up from his food. "Uh, about two weeks ago. We started hanging out a bit after that bowling night."

"Oh, cool." Great, maybe his friends could be friends. Well, his school friends. He hadn't been super close with Vanessa since their middle school romance. In his defense, they were both thirteen and stupid, and it's not like the breakup was disastrous, but neither of them liked to talk about it. They didn't hang out much outside of class like they did before.

"Hey, maybe we can go bowling again!" Jason's eyes lit up.

"Maybe. Less people though. Maybe you can come?" Craig glanced at Kit.

"No, thank you," she replied. "I got bowling trauma. One of my braids got stuck in one of the ball return things when I was six."

"Ow, ow, ow!" Vanessa grabbed her own hair. "How did that even happen?"

"I was trying to see if my head could fit in there. Don't look at me like that, I was six!"

"And stupid." Jason mumbled.

Small laughs erupted around the table, and Craig felt himself relax.