Chapter Five

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Tuesday

I finally saw Kenny at school today! He was by his locker, so I stopped and talked to him.

I asked him if his cold was better. He just looked at me and said, 'What co…oh, yeah, I feel a lot better now, thanks.' So I guess Kenny's okay now, which is good because I was starting to worry. I noticed something different about him though, and I asked him, 'Kenny, how did you get that bruise on your face?' He had a black eye, and a real dark purple bruise on his cheek; the skin along his jaw was all scraped and red, like someone scratched it or something. (And for some reason, he was wearing a long-sleeved turtleneck shirt, which was really weird, since I've never seen him dress that way before. Maybe he borrowed a shirt from Kyle or something. I've heard him complaining before about how his parka was always covered in stains.)

'…Baseball accident,' Kenny told me after a while. 'Oh.' I didn't know baseball could be so dangerous. I wanted to talk to him some more, but then the bell rang and Kenny left real quickly. I guess he was in a hurry to get to his class.

I didn't see him again for the rest of school; he wasn't in the cafeteria during lunch, and the only class I had with him wasn't till tomorrow. I did see that one guy again, though.

He walked into my science class right before the bell rang, and at first I didn't recognize him without the cigarette and shovel. The teacher announced to us that he was a new student who just transferred to this school, called Christophe. So at least I know his name now, even though I still don't really know anything else about him.

I guess he saw me too, because he looked right at me. When the teacher told him to pick a seat, he sat down in the chair right next to mine! Then he asked me if I saw Kenny today, and I told him I did, right before class. He got this real surprised expression on his face, as if he hadn't expected Kenny to be at school today. I asked him why he was so surprised, but he didn't get to tell me, because our science teacher turned around and yelled at us to stop talking.

I wanted to stop by Kenny's house to see if he was there, but Mom said I had to go with Dad to get some groceries. He was supposed to do that yesterday, but I guess he got sidetracked and went to a different store instead. Yesterday, he came home carrying a bag of stuff that wasn't food, making Mom awful mad; now she's making me come with him to make sure Dad gets the right stuff this time. So I guess I better get ready now.

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Wednesday

Today is a holiday, so I stayed home helping Mom around the house, since I didn't have school. Dad left a while ago; I think he said he was meeting with some friends. I was cleaning the living room, so I went upstairs to get the vacuum from Mom and Dad's room. It was in their closet, and when I got it out, I saw a box that was just behind the vacuum.

I know I probably shouldn't have opened it, but I wanted to know what it was. When I looked inside, there were a bunch of magazines and DVDs in it. I didn't think it was so bad at first, but then when I looked at it some more, I finally recognized what it was! Craig (one of my friends) showed me something like that the other day! He called it 'porn' or something. I think that's what's in the box. I'm not exactly sure what 'porn' is, but the two guys on the cover looked like they were doing the same thing that was in Craig's magazine.

Kyle had been sitting behind us at the time, and he made a weird choking noise when he saw it, and turned away looking a little sick (I thought Stan was supposed to be the one with the weak stomach?). When I asked Craig what it was, he gaped at me, 'You don't know? How do you not know what porn is? It's-'

'Ugh, Craig, just put it away. Butters, porn is sick, okay? Especially the gay porn that he's showing you. Don't look at it,' Kyle had said from behind us. Craig had glared at him, but he put the magazine away in his backpack. Kyle's usually always right, so now I'm sorry I looked in that box, since he'd probably say it was sick, too…but why? ...And I wonder if the box of magazines and DVD's belonged to Mom, or Dad?

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