Carly

Carly observed everything as she continued her first day at Midtown High. Aside from all the teachers seeming to collectively be having a bad day, nothing seemed too far out of the ordinary. Her next destination was the lunchroom. She's never been the new kid before. Going in to lunch with no friends was almost intimidating. If she new where the library was, she would rather go there.

She trailed behind two other students so she wouldn't look by herself. They reached four sets of doors that lead to the cafeteria. The two students took the right doors, and Carly went in from the left to lessen the appeal of following them.

She looked around before she decided where she was going. She noticed groups of students at lunch tables. Some were in the lunch lines. Some were loitering around the vending machine.

If she had to guess, there were less than three hundred students. Midtown high was about the same size as her old school. They have around fifteen hundred students. It was no wonder the place seemed like a ghost town if that was it.

Carly started looking for a place she could sit without sticking out. That's when she noticed the boy who helped her find her class that morning. He stood against the opposite side of the cafeteria wall. He didn't move. It seemed like he was doing his own observation.

"Hey, Carly!" She was a little startled not expecting anyone to call her name. She looked over and saw it was Nathen sitting at a table with some others. "Come over here." he motioned to her. She figured that was her best option, so she did.

"You look a little lost."

"No, not exactly. I was just seeing where I could go. Then I noticed the kid over there just standing around watching the place." She pointed to him. He was motioning to a girl that dropped her napkin on the floor.

"You talking about KP? You know him?" Nathen asked.

"KP?"

"Yeah, his name is literally the letter K. He doesn't like that, and he didn't want to go by his last name, so he prefers using his initials."

"I still say his mother was drunk when she had him." Tom said under his breath. A couple of the other kids snickered.

"He helped me get to class earlier. Does he like, work here and is not actually a student or something?" She asked. He was wearing all black like he was security, but looked to be their age.

"He's a student. He also helps manage the school so he goes around making sure no one is doing something they shouldn't." Nathen explained.

"A student can do security here?"

"I don't know exactly how that happened but yeah, he can get you written up if you don't follow rules."

They both looked back over to him when she noticed KP was looking their way. He seemed to be fixed on someone specifically. She looked down to the table and saw Tom glaring at him. She looked back to KP who had turned to her. Once they made eye contact, he pushed off the wall and finally walked away.

"Do you two not like each other?" She asked Tom.

"KP and Tom seem to have something between them that they should just let go of." Nathen said in Tom's direction. He glanced to Nathen and changed his facial expression.

That made things sort of awkward. Tom didn't seem like a trouble maker. It wasn't exactly the best time to ask seeing as she needed a place to sit and didn't want to make it even more awkward. She sat down at the table stealing one last glace to KP, but he was already gone out of the cafeteria.

Getting through lunch wasn't as bad once Carly had a place to sit. She managed to get through it and the rest of the day with no problems. She was almost starting to feel a little disappointed because her day was going better than she had thought it would.

When it was time for her to go home, she thought to venture down a different road than the one she took there. It was still a risk to walk the streets of Midtown alone. That didn't stop her from doing it anyway. There was still daylight. If anything were to happen, someone would hopefully see it.

"KP?" She didn't mean to say his name out loud. But as she turned the corner of her new route, there he was walking in her direction with his shirt ripped, burned, and a line of blood coming from his head. She was taken by complete surprise.

"Are you okay? What happened?" Carly went up to him.

"I'm fine. I was just—chased by a dog." He said.

"School just let out. How did you get attacked that quickly? And your shirt is burned. How did that happen from a dog chase?"

"I was told there was suspicious activity outside. I went to check to see if it were kids ditching. Next thing I know a dog was after me. I confiscated some matches earlier and thought to try using them to scare off the dog, but I got clumsy and dropped one."

"You should go and get that checked out." She pointed to his head.

"Yeah, I was going to." He was holding his side as he walked by.

"I could help you there if you need it."

"Thanks, but I couldn't have you do that." KP looked past her when a sound came from behind them. She glance over her shoulder and saw Tom was walking their way.

"Hey Carly, what are you doing out here?"

"I was headed home when I saw him here. He got injured by a wild dog."

"A wild dog? You got to be careful now a days. You never know what you'll run into." Tom looked him up and down then looked over to Carly. He fixed his eyes back on KP.

"You should get that check out. It looks a bit serious. The hospital is all the way north. I got my car parked around the corner, I could give you a lift there." Tom offered. Carly looked to make sure this was the same Tom that gave KP a death glare at lunch today. Why would he offer him a ride?

"I think I can make it." KP told him. He kept his hand on his side where there was a bruise that showed through the hole in his shirt and tried to walk.

"If the hospital is far I think you should take the ride. I'll go too to make sure you're okay. If that's alright with you." Carly offered. This was going completely against her take caution approach. But seeing KP's condition, she couldn't just leave him like they left the girl at the mall the other day. He also help her find her class. It was the least she could do.

"That's fine with me. If Nathen likes you, then I can trust you." Tom told her. Carly hasn't even gotten used to Nathen yet. Tom was even newer to her. Her dad would go crazy if he knew she was doing this. She needed to come up with a good lie for this one.

Despite being hurt, KP looked a bit distressed instead of pained. He hesitated before he sighed and spoke. "I guess it's not a problem. Sorry for the trouble."

"It's cool. I'll bring my car around. Make sure this guy doesn't pass out."

They both watched him round the corner. She noticed as he left the block he pulled out his phone and either made a call or answered one. She turned to look at KP who hadn't taken his eyes off him yet. That's when she really started doubting if this was a good idea or not.

"Are you really okay with going?"

"I don't have any forms of transportation at the moment. Getting a ride there should be fine." He sighed. Then he stood straight and tried to walk. "Maybe we could meet him half way. The quicker the better right?" he suggested. She agreed and slowly walked in the direction Tom went.

She said she was going to wait before she tried to play hero. According to the rumors of Midtown, there was always danger. Waiting didn't seem like an option. She really didn't know what to expect. From the list of things she thought would happen, taking a student to the hospital on her first day of school definitely wasn't one of them.