Chapter Text
When Craig Tucker was ten years old, his imagination seemed to be larger than the whole universe. He had all sorts of wacky dreams for his future. His most prominent dream was being an astronaut- he even had an alter ego named Spaceman Craig! Spaceman Craig would travel all throughout the galaxy and go on all sorts of fun adventures. It was a great distraction from being the same, regular Craig. He never felt particularly excited while going to school and going through the same monotonous routine every single day. He wouldn’t mind it nearly as much if it wasn’t so boring.
Spaceman Craig became apart of him. Well, until he turned twelve. All his dreams came crashing down, like a building being hit by a wrecking ball. He no longer thought about his future with the same excitement he did when he was younger. He just wanted to grow up and get out of South Park to start anew.
Now, sixteen year old Craig was unhappy as ever. He no longer beheld the title of Spaceman Craig. It was something he’d left in the past; he no longer felt the need to indulge in such silly dreams. They were never going to happen, anyway. He now found his old dreams rather amusing. They emerged from a child’s mind, and they died as the mind became more mature.
Craig began his junior year of high school in a few hours. His alarm had been blaring off for a minute now, but Craig couldn’t summon the energy to turn it off. He let the music play for a few more seconds until he reached his arm over to his desk to hit the snooze button. He didn’t want to get up just yet.
Craig was very worn out from the night before. He had almost pulled an all nighter till he realized what time it was. He stayed up until 4:00 a.m. reading. Cliché, right?
Craig really loved reading. He didn’t love it in the nerdy way where he read to learn- no, not at all. He read because it was an aberration from reality. He didn’t have to think about his stupid life for a few hours and indulge in someone else’s instead. He could read about anything and everything, and he wouldn’t have to pay any attention to the real world for a little bit. Oddly enough,it seemed to heal the part of him that never got the exciting life that everyone else got. It made him feel included.
Craig pulled his blanket over his head, trapping the warmth in his cove. He couldn’t stand the cold temperatures that coated his bedroom. He hugged his knees to his chest and curled up into a big ball. His foot hit something as he adjusted to the small space. He kicked it closer to his arm to pick it up.
A book laid out in his hand, half of the cover bent from being mixed up in his blankets. He had probably fallen asleep while reading and couldn’t have put it away.
Just as Craig curled back up with the book cradled in his arms, his alarm set off again. Craig immediately sat up and turned it off.
It read 6:05 a.m. He had only slept for two hours. Craig groaned as he kicked his legs to the side of the floor and stood up. He would have to make do with it.
He painstakingly walked through the hallway to get to the bathroom. His room was the farthest from it. It wasn’t the most convenient thing ever, but then again, he’d have to make do with it. He slammed the bathroom door shut, praying that nobody had heard it. He took a towel and began shedding all his clothes off to shower.
As soon as he stepped into the freezing shower, he could feel his body slowly awakening. He liked to take cold showers in the morning, it helped with his usual drowsiness.
“Shit!” he whisper-yelled as a shampoo bottle fell on his foot. He hastily picked it up and ignored the pain erupting from his foot. He decided to just deal with it so he wouldn’t miss the bus. It arrived at 7:00 a.m. sharp every day without fail. If you were late, you were late. Craig wasn’t really in the mood to be walking to school yet again. It was a thirty minute walk without any interventions. Craig would usually be too exhausted to be able to focus in class. South Park was usually pretty cold, so that just made the experience worse.
Craig stepped out of the shower and dried his body with the towel he grabbed earlier. When he finally brought it up to his hair, he gazed at his reflection in the mirror. Craig had natural eye bags that were pretty bad, but they looked even worse than usual. Luckily, no one would be able to notice them because nobody had ever mentioned his worsening eye bags before. Either that or they just didn’t tell him out of embarrassment. After all, he had been told his stoic expression often led people to think that he was cold and rude. It wasn’t necessarily a lie, but he at least attempted to be nice to those who didn’t deserve it. It really just depended on his mood.
He shrugged his thoughts off and wrapped his towel around his waist. He brushed his teeth as quickly as he could and finally left the bathroom to dress himself.
Craig never thought too hard about his appearance. He usually wore his “iconic” hat (that’s what Clyde called it), a jacket, and some jeans. It was boring, sure, but it was comfortable and that was all that mattered to Craig. The girls at school were picky about it, but he didn’t mind. Not like he liked any of them enough to impress them.
Craig quickly grabbed his backpack and tapped on his phone that lay upon his desk. It read 6:39 a.m. Almost time to leave. He pulled the charger out of it and stuffed it in his pocket.
Craig ushered himself to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and scoured the box for something good to eat. After succeeding in finding nothing, he took a mug from the cupboard and set the tea kettle on the stove.
Craig was never big on coffee, so he took a cappuccino packet out of the cupboard and spilled out the contents into the mug. He picked the tea kettle up from the stove and poured the hot water into the mug. He stirred it with a spoon he found lying on the counter and drank.
He took his phone out of his pocket to check the time.
6:47 a.m. I still have some time left, he thought.
He sighed as he tipped the mug to his lips. He hissed as the hot liquid filled his mouth.
Craig swiftly unlocked his phone and loaded up Instagram. He was never one for casually scrolling through social media every second of the day, but he didn’t mind scrolling every once in a while. He didn’t care much for what his friends posted, but he enjoyed seeing their familiar faces. He liked seeing them happy. It was good to know at least his friends were living excitedly.
Craig once more checked the time to make sure he wouldn’t be late. It read 6:54.
Crap, he thought.
He gulped down the rest of his cappuccino and put his backpack over his shoulder. He reached for the other strap across his back and opened the door to leave. He just hoped that the first day would be decent.