Chapter Text
*RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING*
The bell rang, signaling the dismissal of English. Most people who were sleeping jumped up, and quickly walked out of the room in a haze. Steven laughed, still surprised on how anyone could sleep in class. There’s too much information given to them each day, and he had grades to keep up! His dad only let him go to public school because he’s been asking for years to try to go to school. For not going to school, he was surprisingly very smart academically, and was able to skip straight into the 6th grade, the same grade his best friend Connie was in. Sure, he was excited for that first day, but because he didn’t have any other friends, he was glad he at least Connie. They had math and lunch together, and then later they had orchestra together. Connie played violin, and if you never heard anything for soothing and beautiful, well grab and chair and listen to her play. On stressful days, she was the only way for Steven to calm down, and feel better. He appreciated her so much, and in return, she promised to stick with him till the end. Steven played ukulele, but sadly he wasn’t able to play that in the orchestra class, so he switched over to playing the cello. It was also a string instrument, and Steven loved playing it so much, he became very talented at it, and landed a lot of solo’s for it in their orchestra concerts. It made him surprisingly known then, and so he easily was able to make friends, though he already was a sweet, kind guy to become friends with easily. There was always a couple kids though, who got annoyed by how fast he was known around the school, and would knock his books on the ground, but steven didn’t care. He knew what they thought didn’t matter, and he wasn’t going to let it get him down throughout the year.
Walking towards the lunchroom, he saw a lot of people he knew, and waved to many kids. In this school, they even had 9th grader’s in the school, and so he was able to see Lars, a friend he made while Lars was working at Big Donut, an all famous Doughnut shop in Beach City. “Lars! HEY, LARS!!!” Steven yelled, waving his arm in the air.
Lars’ stopped talking to his friends to look at Steven, but once realizing it was Steven, he looked away with an eye roll, and turned back to his friends. Steven smiled, pulled his cheeseburger backpack up on his shoulders more, and made his way towards the lunchroom.
…………………………....
Steven saw Connie sitting in their usual spot, her lunch packed and sandwich cut into 2 perfect triangles. “Steven!” Connie called, delighted to see him. “How’s your day been?”
“Hey Connie, it’s been pretty cool. In Art class, guess what I drew?.......A CRYING BREAKFAST FRIEND!” Steven exclaimed.
“Oh Steven, haha of course you would draw that. Oh my gosh, look at your backpack!” Connie laughed, while Steven pulled his backpack on the table.
“It’s a new one that I begged my dad for. Pretty cool, isn’t it?” Steven said, a sly smirk coming across his face. Connie laughed some more, making Steven laugh along. After laughing so hard their stomach screamed with pain, they took some deep breaths, and talked about their day.
“Ok, so I was sitting in Science, and guess what we’re gonna be able to do later this year? We’re going to be dissecting an animal!!”
“What’s…..dissecting mean?”
“Dissecting is to methodically cut up (a body, part, or plant) in order to study its internal parts. In other words, we’re going to cut this animal most likely straight down the middle of it’s stomach, and we’re going to examine it’s internal parts. The stomach, the heart, everything!” Connie exclaimes, stars gleaming brightly in her eyes.
Steven smiled, thinking of how cute she looked when she got so excited. “That sounds pretty cool, but kinda gross, don’t you think?”
“My mom works at a hospital, trust me, she comes home with some amazing stories of her own. Like this one time, she had this patient named Rose-” and she continued her story, either intriguing Steven to hear more, or causing him to zone out into his own little universe, a “steven” universe, if you would.
…………………………….
Lunch ended, and Connie and Steven parted their ways, each going into the opposite end of the hallways. Steven breezed through Math and Choir class, ready to go straight across the hallway to hang out with Connie just a bit more before she’d have to go home. They walked together to school, by meeting up at the big donut, and they walked home together until they parted ways.
Steven loved to sing, he always sang with such a passion. He loved the time he was able to sing with Connie, she had a beautiful voice. She didn’t join choir though, because she was really shy, and couldn’t sing with the group of kids. The class was working on the school’s musical that year, The Little Mermaid. As auditions were finished, and parts were given out, the rest of the choir was the chorus and still needed to be able to fill in the background singer parts. Steven enjoyed this musical though, because if someone in the class wasn’t at school to sing their part, the whole class got to sing it! They loved singing Ursula’s part, they all could be so sassy with it! No real work ever got done, but in the end, everyone bonded and had fun together.
Finally, the bell rang, and Steven grabbed his backpack and zoomed over to the orchestra room. He threw his cheeseburger onto his seat, ran to grabbed his cello, and sat in his seat and waited for Connie. A couple of kids came in, and Steven greeted them all. Time went by, but Connie still hadn’t come in. ‘Where could she be’ he thought, as she only had a couple seconds let to make it or else she’d be late. Steven’s cheerful mood was starting to fall, worry starting to fall over him. Connie was never late in her life, she always had to keep a perfect impression to her teachers and her classmates. If she wasn’t the first to arrive in class, she’d be the second. The class filled up, all seats around Connie’s seat were completed filled.
*RIIIIIIIIIIING* the bell sounded.
Their teacher, Mrs. Dupee, walked to the front of the room, and they started to play. Steven was worried, and could not focus on playing his rhythms very well. Mrs. Dupee could her him messing up, as he was one of three cello players. He clearly wasn’t in the mood, and his playing was extremely affected by this. “Everyone, take a moment to practice measures 86-110. Steven, can you come to my office for a sec?”. Steven got up, and followed Mrs. Dupee out to her office, which wasn’t extremely private as it was covered with open glass window panes, but at least it was close to being sound proof from the inside.
“Steven, you usually are more ecstatic and happy, I can tell something’s wrong. Can you tell me what’s wrong?” This is what Steven liked about Mrs. Dupee, she was a caring teacher and was everyone’s favorite. She made everything fun, and when something was wrong, she always tried to make you feel better.
“Well, you see Mrs. Dupee, Connie is my best friend. She didn’t come to class today, and I was just a bit worried about where she is. We have lunch together, and she was at lunch, but now I don’t know where she is. She would’ve told me if she had a dentist appointment or a doctor appointment. She alway tells me…..” he chuckled quietly “I’m just worried about her, I care about her a lot”.
Mrs. Dupee gave Steven a small laugh and a smile. “Steven, I like that you care about Connie a lot, but there’s nothing to worry about. I was told already that she needed to just speak to Guidance and get a message from her mom. There’s nothing to worry about, so take a deep breath, and come back and be my cello superstar!”.
Steven smiled, feeling much more relieved. He close his eyes and put his head down, took a deep breath, and looked up at Mrs. Dupee with stars in his eyes and a smile on his face. “Alright! Let’s go Mrs. Dupee” and both went off back in the main room.
The orchestra sounded great, their concert being in 2 days, and their pieces were sounding really good. Steven’s solo sounded sounded great as always, and the class clapped for him when they finished up for the day. Steven smiled and waved, laughing at all his classmates. Connie never showed up in class, so Steven went on his way home. It was a beautiful day outside, and Steven sang to himself. The breeze felt great to him, and he wished he had his ukulele with him. On his way towards the boardwalk, Steven decided to stop and get some fry bits, which to him, were the best kind of fries to get. He ran, got his fries, and decided to walk along the beach to get home. He had just a couple more feet to be home, but something caught his attention a little bit closer to the boat dock. He ran over there, and he saw Connie sitting there, no smile on her face, but her hair flowing with the breeze. Steven smiled, and ran over to join Connie. Connie heard footsteps, and turned towards him.
“Connie! Gosh, I was so worried. Where were you in orchestra today?” Connie eyes searched his face, her mouth open but no words coming out. Suddenly, tears fell down her face, and she started to sob. Steven dropped his bag, and embraced Connie into a hug. She buried her face in his shoulder, and they sat there for awhile. Steven held her tightly, his heart racing as he tried not to cry with her. He hated to see he cry, and she never cried this hard before. Once calming down, Connie took a deep breath.
“Thanks Steven. I needed that. Sorry, I had to leave school to go home and pack”.
“Pack, like, for a vacation?” Steven asked with a small smile.
“No……..for moving.”
Steven shook his head. “....what?”