An Altered Tale | A Rainbow Quest AU

Chapter 13: Just Act Natural

[Orange Steve's POV]

I try to ignore the sore pain in my chest as I walk up the school's main pathway, wishing I didn't have to come in today. But most of the week has already been canceled, and even though next week is the last week of the year, the school still wants us to have as much time to prep for finals as possible. At least it's Friday.

As I'm internally telling myself to pretend it's not there, Funny suddenly runs up to me with the rest of my friends walking behind him.

"Dude!" He practically yells in my ear.

"Wha-"

I'm interrupted when he backhands my chest, knocking the wind out of me. I stop and just stand there for a moment, while the rest of the group catches up to me and Funny.

"Oh crap, you okay?" Funny asks. "I didn't hit you too hard, did I?"

"Uh, Orange? A wimp slap like that doesn't usually faze you." Jade says, ignoring Funny glaring at him for a second. "You good?"

"Yeah, I just- I did something stupid yesterday and I'm still feeling it." I groan, standing up straight. "I'm good."

"You sure?" LC asks. "You look like you just ran a five-mile."

"Yes, I'm sure. Quit worrying about me." I say, smiling.

I then look over at Funny. As soon as he notices I'm staring at him, I jokingly punch him in the shoulder. However, it looks like I accidentally hit harder than I meant to.

"YEOW- OKAY, CHILL!" Funny exclaims, rubbing his opposite hand over the spot I punched him. "Man, that hurt. Did I really hit you that hard?"

"Whoops, sorry dude." I say.

"Nah, it's fine. I did the same thing first." He chuckles.

"Have any of you seen Sienna yet?" Happy asks the group.

"Nope." I say.

"Uh- Why?" Dark replies.

"Ohhh yeah, he is messed. Up." Funny says. "Happy and I saw him while we were out getting our dad lunch since he was busy running his store."

"What happened to him?" Jade asks. "You're making it sound dramatic."

"Hard not to when his jaw was wired shut!"

We all say a variation of 'what', and Happy starts explaining.

"Yeah, apparently the dislocation thing was pretty bad. He was stuck drinking some sort of blended food with a straw, and he looked miserable." Happy starts. "And his face- Man! He looked like he got hit by a truck! Y'know you gave him a black eye, Orange?"

"Eye for an eye." I laugh.

"That's what I said!" Funny exclaims.

"Hey Loud, you're being surprisingly quiet about this. Something up?" Jade asks Loud, who's been glancing around the whole time.

"You guys are seriously still talking about Sienna when there's a murderer and an undead person walking around?!" Loud says, looking nervous. "Either of them could be walking around town right now! Heck, maybe they're in the school! What if the killer can control the undead and starts the zombie apocalypse right here?!"

"Dude, this isn't s-some cheap zombie flick. We'll be fine." Shy says, rolling his eyes. "Pretty sure i-it'd be obvious if the rogue soul was around."

"Yeah, the few Blue Steves in the area would probably be able to sense him." Nerdy adds. "And there's no such thing as actual necromancy, you've just been playing too many wizard games."