Under Water 2: The Red Harren [completed]

XIII

Chara's POV:

I woke up an hour late for school, something preventing my alarm from going off. I internally screamed as I quickly got changed, almost ripping my favorite dress. Sighing, I set off to the kitchen, quickly getting a lunch together, something of which I had procrastinated on the night before due to the essay due today.

"The essay!" I said aloud, running to my room, checking to see if it had saved.

It hadn't.

"Damn it!" I yelled, slamming my hands beside the laptop, shutting it down and slamming the screen down, mumbling curse words as I threw it into my backpack.

I set off to the bus stop, knowing there was a city bus that would arrive as I arrived. It was raining. Of course, it was raining, and I was in a dress with wedges, no coat, slowly getting soaked. What else would the universe throw at me?

I tripped a little bit as I rounded the corner, the bus waiting for the minute to pass. I ran towards the large bus, but it pulled away before I got there, and I cursed even more. I checked where I needed to go on my phone, setting a root, taking off as soon as it loaded.

Everyone had their bad days, right?

Frisk's POV:

I looked around the school hallways, looking for the green and yellow dressed sister of Asriel, but still, could not find her.

"Do you think she overslept?" I suggested.

"She doesn't oversleep," Asriel closed his locker, looking a bit worried that his sister had not yet arrived.

"Do you think it could be. . .?" MK looked over at me, and my face heated up, now worried that it could have been him.

"I would have been made aware I--"

"It doesn't work like that, not anymore, remember?" Asriel painfully reminded me.

I looked back at the doors as the second-period bell sounded, everyone, shuffling to their classes, or listening to music.

I sighed, "I texted her. Maybe something. . . Maybe something has happened. Should I call Sans?"

Just as I finished my sentence Asriel's phone rang, the number labeled Chara.

"Answer it!" I said anxiously after a few seconds of the goat not moving.

Asriel flinched and picked it up, asking, "Chara?"

"I missed the freaking bus!" I could hear her yelling even my distance from Asriel. "And now I'm running to school in the pouring rain! My alarm didn't go off, my paper didn't save, and God knows what else I forgot!"

"How far away are you?" Asriel asked her, putting her on speaker phone.

"I'm just a few minutes away, I'm running there. The teachers are going to kill me. Mom and Dad are going to kill me for sleeping in, getting those absences on my otherwise perfect record!" Chara did sound really out of breath.

"Just hurry, I'll wait for you at the office. We can try and figure out what's wrong with your phone at lunch. Okay? Just try to stay calm. Not that that's really accomplishable, but still."

"Sure!" Chara probably hadn't acknowledged what he had said after telling her to stay calm.

"Okay," Asriel hung up, looking to MK and me.

"It has to have been him. Chara would never be late or forget to save an essay or anything that's happened. It has to be his. . . mind games. . ." I remembered a few nights ago with a pain in my chest.

"He's trying to break one of you guys," MK restated, "And this is one of his ways to do that."

"Then he's got another thing coming for him," Asriel sounded angry, his voice low.

"Are you really going to attempt to start a fight with a supervillain?" I gave him an oh really look.

"If it means I can protect Chara--"

"We need to protect them both," MK shot him a death glare, "We aren't protecting just one of them."

"I know that," Asriel sounded agitated that his friend thought that was his intention, "I just know that I'm the big brother, and that means I have to protect my little sister."

The doors burst open suddenly, a very thoroughly soaked and shivering Chara standing just out of their closing reach. The three of us ran over, Asriel taking her bag and sitting it down, me handing her my sweater from my waist, Asriel then taking her into a side hug.

"I d-didn't know it was r-r-r-raining," Chara laughed between chattering teeth and cold stuttering.

"I can tell," I gently teased her, making her laugh a little bit.

She glanced around at the now empty hallways, "Absent and now late. Kill me now."

The siblings shuffled off to their class, preparing an explanation, while MK and I parted ways too, preparing our own explanations.

What a way to start a Monday.