Quick News

Word spread.

And word spread fast.

They told each other during challenges, in the morning or at night, and in about 3 days, most of them knew what would happen.

"Hey, guys- oh wow are you guys okay?" Eraser asked noticing Puffball crying, being hugged close to Fries chest.

"You haven't heard?" Fries asked, Eraser rubbed his arm.

"No? Is it bad?" Marker came up behind him and whispered in his ear.

"They're killing all the defectives."

Eraser's hands shot up to cover his mouth. He hardly knew what death meant, but he knew enough to be upset about this news. He had five defectives in his group. Puffball was crying, Bell was loudly sobbing in the corner, Yellow Face seemed quite content, Stapler was angry, yelling endlessly about how unfair this was, and Origami sat beside him, her knees drawn to her chest as she sat silently, a blank expression on her face.

"What do we do? They can't do that!" Fries scoffed at his question.

"There's nothing we can do! It's just because they're defective. And we can't fix that." Fries was trying to be angry, but Eraser could hear the sadness in his voice.

"B-But they can't- they can't do that! They didn't do anything wrong!" He yelled angrily. Fries sighed.

"You think we don't know that?! We know it's unfair! Now will you be quieter, I need all the time I can get." Eraser watched Fries pull a book from behind him. He began reading it with her, who's cries had died down to sniffles. They read silently, both knowing how to read. But he knew someone who didn't know.

"Hey, Bell? Do you know how to read?" She looked down at him quietly.

"You know I don't." Her throat was hoarse. Eraser cringed, he must've sounded rude.

"Well... would you want to know how?" Bell perked up, her eyes more curious than sad. He continued,

"I think it's a nice thing to know, so you can read more. Before... y'know..." Bell's eyes widened at the mention, but she still managed a small smile.

"I think I would like that a lot Eraser, thank you." She said softly. Eraser sat on the grass with picture books, the words on the pages big and easy to read. A beginner's book. And he began teaching.

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry." Paper Bag apologized profusely to Donut, who had just told her what's going to happen to him.

"It's...it's not anything I should focus on. I just need to be able to pretend it's okay." He said holding the sides of his head. She looked past Donut to Gelatin.

"You don't look too upset Gelatin..." Gelatin also held the sides of his head, seemingly in pain.

"Um...what's going on? I'm a little distracted." He said quietly, eyes pressed tightly shut.

"Donuts gonna die! And Nail! And Sponge!" Paper Bag yelled, panicked.

"...That um... sure yeah that's cool." Gelatin didn't acknowledge a thing. But Nail did.

"Wait what'd you say?" She asked in her usual high pitched voice.

"About... y'know! The defectives getting killed!" Nail looked at Paper Bag quietly.

"...I'm gonna die?" She asked quietly, brinking on tears.

"Wait! You didn't know? I'm sorry!" But it was too late, Nail was crying.

"I don't- I can't die!" She yelled erratically.

"No Nail it's okay!" Paper Bag tried to start.

"No, it's not okay! I'm gonna die!" Donut quickly went to comfort her.

"It's okay Nail! We're gonna be fine!" He said softly.

"But we're gonna-" he cut Nail off.

"No, no calm down. It's okay! We're not gonna die." He was lying. But the more he said it the more she seemed to calm down.

"You okay now?" Naily looked at the ground then back at Donut. She sniffled.

"Yeah." She said, her voice quiet.

"That's good. Now go on and do what you were doing." He used his arms to motion her back to the drawing she was doing. He let out a long sigh.

"Hopefully it happens while we're sleeping so she doesn't have to know." He said mostly to himself.

"I don't get how you're so calm!" She said sporadically, she was horrified and she wasn't even going to die.

"I'm just kinda... pretending it's not happening. Better to not panic and waste what little time I have left right?" He explained, a somber look in his eyes. It hurt her to hear him accept his fate.

Basketball sat quietly next to 8-Ball in the big and mostly empty room. Tennis Ball got in trouble today for messing with Robot Flower, Grass came back yesterday after being isolated for a day, and Block had just come back after two days. Robot Flower was back up and working, so they had the quiet hum of her mechanisms to listen to. Block looked rightfully guilty. She decided to approach him.

"And who'd you hang out with to make you defective?" She asked smiling. He huffed.

"You were right okay! Is that what you wanted?!" He yelled.

"Yes! That's all I wanted! Finally, you admit it!" She yelled back, actually quite happy she got her way.

"Will you both not start with this again! I'm trying to plan here!" She yelled, shakily drawing on a sheet of paper.

"Are you okay? You look a little anxious..." Basketball asked, walking away from Block.

"Of course I'm not okay! I need to figure out how to get Tennis Ball and I out of here! You're on your own!" She yelled frantically, drawing what seemed to be a map on the paper.

"Why would you need to get out of here? Did something happen?" Golfball nervously shot up from the ground.

"Fosters killing the defectives! This whole rooms due to die and I don't think Xaviers gonna stop him! So I need to protect TB and I so let me plan!" She screamed. Basketball stumbled back, shaking.

"What? We're gonna- no! I-I didn't-" Basketballs eyes shot to Block and Grass. Was that her fault? If she hadn't kept fighting Block would he and Grass be defective? She felt herself begin to cry. And she couldn't stop it. She didn't want Grass to die! And even if she wasn't the biggest fan of Block, she also didn't want him to die. And now that she thought about it, she didn't want to die either.

"Yes. It's happening. Now leave me alone." Golfball said calmly this time. Basketball turned to 8-Ball.

"Did you know?!" She asked loudly. He looked around awkwardly.

"Um...yeah. I thought everyone did." Even with his monotone voice, it scared Basketball.

"I didn't!" She felt entirely broken. She fell to the ground and lied on her side, weeping loudly. Everyone was staring at her. She was barely focused enough to hear the small footsteps approach.

"Are you okay? Why are you crying?" Grass asked quietly. Basketball stopped crying and stared at Grass with terror. Standing straight up she pulled Grass in for a hug.

"I'm so sorry!" She cried shakily. He pat her head.

"Why? What's wrong?" He asked naively. She thought he would've known too.

"I'm sorry that... that you're defective now. That seems bad." Grass giggled.

"It's okay! Now that we're all defective it's okay to hang out together! I'm happy about it!" The happiness in his voice made her smile.

"That's good Grass. I'm happy too." She felt horrible. She was happy, but he was gonna die. And she felt like it was her fault.

Well this one took a bit

MY BAD HAHA

I'm more excited for the next chapter!!!!!

But don't get your hopes too high haha

Please <33

:•)