It was the middle of September now and about a month had passed since the start of new school year at South Park High School.
With a lot of students going back to their usual routines that consisted of a lack of good night's sleep, running on litres of caffeinated goodness and binge-watching a fuck ton of shows on Netflix/Hulu (or any other streaming service for that matter), the end results were gruelling piles of homework and assignments that had been growing every day. But also, a lot of students joined the school's surprisingly long list of extracurricular activities and sport teams, thus adding a little bit of productivity and excitement into their otherwise boring school days.
But to Stan Marsh, finding the perfect balance between doing his school work efficiently, playing as a quarterback on the school's football team and having enough time to hang out with his best buddies hadn't been such a difficult task. Definitely not as hard as he first anticipated it would be.
Glancing over to the clock once again, the raven haired teenager huffed out nervously, slumping himself comfortably in his desk chair that was at the back of the classroom. To the right of Stan, Craig was being caught up in a hilariously dumb conversation with his boyfriend Tweek ever since the bell rang for the start of their fourth period that day.
The noisy chatter shared between the Sophomore students abruptly ended when their tenth grade Biology teacher entered inside the classroom and made a direct beeline for her desk.
Mrs. Harvey was a shorter blonde woman in her mid thirties. While upon a first glance she didn't seem to be a strict professor, she had actually been very good at keeping control over twenty or something Sophomores sitting in her class. But more importantly, she was one of those professors that actually knew how to make each lecture more fun and productive, instead of just going over the lecture material for the sake of getting through it. Those were just a couple of reasons why she quickly became one of the tenth grade students' favorite teachers, despite her being occasionally stern towards them.
''Okay students, considering the fact that last week we spent a lot of time dissecting various organisms and learning about their anatomy, this week I decided to mix things up a little by splitting you all into pairs and giving you an assignment to do. Of course, your assignments will be based on a topic you decide to choose with your partner from the list of topics I prepared beforehand. You will also be required to do a short presentation on your assignment, summing up the most important parts.'', Mrs. Harvey explained, gaining the attention of all of her students.
Within a split second of their teacher mentioning the word ''assignment'', almost all of the students groaned in unison and began their noisy chatter again. Of course, their conversations were once again interrupted, and it wasn't their teacher who interrupted their chatter this time, but rather the door of the classroom creaking open.
All the eyes were suddenly focused on the raven haired girl standing in the doorway, clearly being out of breath and in the fear of not being allowed to enter the classroom due to her very unusual tardiness.
''Mrs. Harvey, I'm so sorry for being late!''
''Miss Testaburger...'', the blonde woman began in a slightly agitated tone, instantly catching Stan's attention and making him turn his head towards the door. And he felt a small smile wriggle across his lips as he noticed Wendy standing outside the classroom.
''You are indeed very lucky for not missing out on anything important so far.''
Wendy's excuse was almost immediate. ''I'm sorry, but I got caught up in a conversation with my volleyball coach about the upcoming pre-season game against the Evergreen Eagles. I promise that next time I'll be in class on time.''
''Very well. Please take a seat in the closest empty desk to you. From what I can see, there's an empty seat next to Mr. Marsh.''
Completely disregarding the second part of her teacher's sentence, Wendy's eyes immediately travelled to the front of the classroom, where the majority of her friends were sitting. Much to her dismay, the raven haired beauty's usual seat was occupied by Kyle, who was sitting right next to his girlfriend Bebe.
Deciding that there was absolutely nothing she could do about Kyle occupying her seat today, Wendy shrugged her shoulders in defeat and finally closed the door behind her, scurrying off to take a seat in the empty desk next to her ex-boyfriend's.
When her eyes locked with Stan's charming blue ones, the teenage girl felt her heart flutter slightly in her chest. She gave her ex-boyfriend a small smirk, before scraping out the chair and sitting down in her desk. ''Hi.''
''Hey.'', Stan chuckled, turning his head towards his ex-girlfriend.
''Did I miss out on anything?'', Wendy whispered as she took out her pencil case, Biology textbook and notebook from the depths of her backpack.
''Well, we're all going to be split up into pairs and do the assignment on a specific topic. Mrs. Harvey already made the list, so it's up to us to choose the topic we wanna' talk about. And we have to do a short presentation as well.''
''Oh goodie.'', Wendy sang sarcastically, resting her chin against her hand.
''What, you're not excited about this? I thought you at least would be the one that's happy about doing an assignment from Biology.''
''No, it's not that I'm not excited about doing an assignment on an interesting topic. But, the last time when I was given a Biology assignment to do, I was partnered with Bebe. She did maybe like twenty percent of the whole job, because she spent the majority of time with Kyle instead of doing her part of the assignment!''
''Wasn't that last year? Because Kyle and I decided to do an assignment together and he barely did his half of it.''
''Well, I guess it is. Since Kyle and Bebe began dating right around the time me and her were supposed to start working on our assignment together.''
The rest of the period seemed to stretch on forever, but it was pretty interesting nonetheless - as per usual. It wasn't up until the last five minutes of the class when Mrs. Harvey finally pulled out her topic list and was waiting for the students to be done with their chatter, so that they could pick out their assignment partner and the topic they were going to write about.
Once almost all the students had picked out their partners and the topics they wanted to write about, there were about a handful of topics left to choose from.
''You know, even though I'm familiar with the fact that Bebe isn't exactly the most reliable person to do an assignment with, I'm still kinda baffled by the fact that she chose Kyle over me.''
''Well, Kyle's one of the best students in our class when it comes to science subjects. Can't really blame Bebe for wanting to work with him.'', Stan argued. ''Besides, they're definitely going to use this as an excuse to hang out with each more.''
''True that.'', Wendy replied quickly, flicking through her Biology textbook.
Suddenly, a seemingly weird idea came to the forefront of Stan's mind. The dark haired teenager bit down on his bottom lip tentatively, before glancing over to his ex-girlfriend. He scratched the back of his neck nervously, trying to come up with an ideal way of how to express his offer and not wanting to make Wendy think that the offer would imply them doing something more than just working together on an assignment.
Because he definitely didn't want Wendy to get the wrong impression.
''Hey Wendy...'', Stan began in a slightly nervous tone, catching the teenage girl's attention. She raised a curious eyebrow, prompting her ex-boyfriend to come forward with his friendly idea.
''I know this might seem weird, but do you want to be my partner for this assignment?''
Slightly taken aback by Stan's idea, Wendy quickly allowed that thought to drift across her mind. ''Are you implying that we could do an assignment together?''
''Well, if you want to. I usually get all of my shit done on time, mostly because I don't wanna' deal with it later. That's why I think we could work on this assignment together and finish it in no time.''
''I guess we could?'', the raven haired beauty heaved her shoulders up and down, before smirking at Stan. And just as he was about to respond to Wendy, he was suddenly cut off by their teacher suggesting another topic for the assignment.
''The next topic is about hormones, specifically about their role in the functioning of the human body and how they affect it. Is anyone interested?''
Wanting to claim the assignment idea before anyone else even had the chance to pick it out, Wendy impulsively raised her hand. ''Mrs. Harvey, Stan and I can do an assignment on this theme.''
Mrs. Harvey nodded in approval towards the two raven haired teenagers sitting at the back, before she waited for everyone else to pick out the remaining topics.
''Do not expect me to do all the work and that you're going to sit on your ass and do nothing.'', Wendy sniped in a teasing voice, setting her Biology textbook down on Stan's desk.
''Woah, since when did you get all snappy?'', the dark haired quarterback chuckled in disbelief, before shaking his head playfully at his ex-girlfriend.
''I'm just joking Stan. Relax.'', Wendy smiled softly.
Stan mimicked the smile his ex-girlfriend had on her face, but decided to smirk playfully at her instead. They both decided to make a rough outline for their assignment and to take some quick notes in their respective notebooks, sharing a laugh or two as they went through Wendy's textbook.
From the opposite end of the classroom, Lola could feel herself slowly stewing in agitation, as her deep blue eyes peered over to the pair of raven haired teenagers working together.
She still couldn't get over the fact that her ex-boyfriend was suddenly back on friendly terms with his ravenette counterpart. And what was even more upsetting to the brunette teenage girl, was the fact that Stan still seemed to have that special twinkle form in his dazzling blue eyes whenever Wendy spoke to him.
The twinkle in his dazzling blue eyes that had been concealing one, slightly inescapable certitude.
Whether the dark haired boy wanted to admit it or not, he hadn't been over Wendy quite as much as he wanted everyone to think he was.
•
Gripping the handle of her Michael Kors handbag, Lucy Cantarini couldn't have gotten up from her seat faster in order to finally walk out of her tenth grade History class. She was eager to spend her recess either studying in the library or hanging out with her new girl friends.
However, the sixteen year-old teenage girl hadn't been feeling particularly well throughout the day, getting slightly more annoyed due to the fact that her History teacher nearly kicked her out of class and that she was forced to help out her parents at their family's restaurant after school.
But did the beautiful blonde give two shits about nearly getting kicked out of class and helping out her parents? Definitely not.
Lucia 'Lucy' Cantarini had been living in South Park for nearly a couple of months now. Thanks to her Italian-American parents becoming the new owners of the Italian restaurant Buca di Faggoncini, her family moved from the hustle and bustle of New York City to the small mountain town in the middle of Colorado. Of course, the blonde teenage girl wasn't at all happy with the fact that she had to change her surroundings, but her parents had been trying their best to reassure their daughter that living in a smaller town like South Park would only do favors for her.
Lucy had long platinum blonde hair with choppy, slightly uneven bangs. She wasn't gifted with a particularly great eyesight, so her azure blue eyes were hidden behind a pair of black reading glasses. She was on the slightly thicker side, but she wasn't tall either, standing barely at five foot three inches. She wore a black bomber jacket with a red off the shoulder top underneath it, a pair of dark blue ripped high-waisted skinny jeans and black ankle platform boots.
Sauntering her way through the double door of the school, Lucy made a beeline for the back of the school's gymnasium. It had been one place where she loved to go during the recess and to have some time on her own, but even more importantly, where she could smoke in peace with little to-no chances of getting caught.
The teenage girl sat down on one of the discarded wooden pallets and pulled out a pack of her favorite Marlboro cigarettes from the depths of her handbag. She flicked the lighter a couple of times and lit up her cigarette, taking a long drag of it. She inhaled deeply, instantly feeling a little bit more relaxed.
Why the fuck did my parents have to move us from New York City to this fucking redneck mountain town in the middle of Colorado?
But hey, if moving from such a large city like New York City to a smaller mountain town like South Park meant getting better business opportunities and life opportunities for Lucy and her family, then the blonde teenage girl didn't really have a reason to complain about it.
Groaning out, Lucy took another drag of her cigarette and puffed out small smoke rings in the air. She pulled her phone from the pocket of her jeans and noticed that she had two messages from one of her new school friends, Wendy Testaburger.
'Coming to recess with us?'
Smiling gently to herself, Lucy clacked her matte black manicured fingertips against the wooden pallet, before typing out a quick message to her raven haired friend.
'I might catch up with you guys later. I'm having a little smoke break :)'
Although she wasn't exactly the most sociable person in the world, Lucy felt incredibly relieved with the fact that she had made a few friends ever since moving to South Park. Out of all of them, Wendy was the first one to reach out to her and help her settle more easily in their high school. She had also been on relatively good terms with the rest of Wendy's friends and formed decent friendships with some of her male classmates, predominantly with David, Jimmy, Token, Wendy's ex-boyfriend Stan and Butters.
However, Lucy's ten minutes of solitude came to a sudden halt when she heard some heavy footsteps approaching the back of school's gymnasium. In a fleeting moment of panic, Lucy instantly tossed her cigarette down to the ground and stepped on it, doing her best to put out the thin stick of nicotine.
But much to her surprise, it wasn't one of the school's staff members that showed up, but rather one of the Sophomore students - at least what Lucy presumed them to be.
Noticing that the small alley wasn't empty, the seemingly unknown student raised his hands up in defense and smiled sheepishly at the blonde teenager. ''Oh hey, sorry. Didn't know that someone else was in here.''
The unknown student was a rather tall, pudgy brunette teenager with piercing blue eyes. He wore a red coat that nicely accentuated his colossal waistline, a pair of blue denim jeans and slightly worn out Converse sneakers. His messy brown hair was partially covered by a turquoise blue hat with a yellow poof ball, and he also had a neon green backpack slung lazily against his back.
Chuckling to herself, Lucy replied back almost instantly. ''Why are you excusing yourself? It's not like I'm the only one that's allowed to smoke in here.''
''Well, I usually don't see anyone else coming here during the recess. Not even those Goth fags.''
''I've always assumed that no one else smokes behind the gymnasium, and this is my go-to spot when I want to get away from everyone and smoke in peace.''
''I see.'', the hefty brunette teenager replied back. ''I don't think we've met yet. I'm Eric, but everyone refers to me by my last name, which is Cartman."
Widening her eyes in surprise, Lucy chuckled and cocked a curious eyebrow at the brunette teenager standing opposite of her. ''Cartman? I think I've heard some things about you.''
''Well, South Park is a small town. Everyone knows everyone, so yeah, don't be too surprised with that.''
''Yeah yeah, I get it...'', the blonde teenager droned, getting up from the wooden pallet to shake hands with her new buddy. "I'm Lucia, but you can call me Lucy."
Cartman shook his hand with Lucy's before shoving his hands inside the pockets of his red coat, taking a seat on the wooden pallet adjacent to the one Lucy was sitting on. "Nice to meet you too.''
He sat down on the wooden pallet that quickly got a little bent from all the pressure the fat tub of lard had been putting on it. He unzipped his backpack and took out a packet of cigarettes. He opened the small rectangular package and took out one cigarette, as well the lighter from the pocket of his red coat. Glancing over at Lucy, Cartman offered her to take one another cancer stick for herself, which she happily obliged to. She smirked at her new brunette smoking buddy, before taking one cigarette out of the package and putting it in her mouth.
''What brand are these cigarettes?'', she asked, examining the thin stick of tobacco.
''I don't know, it's some random, cheap and crappy brand of cigarettes that my mom bought for me from the gas station.'', Cartmain explained briefly, taking one drag of his cancer stick. ''I usually stick to Marlboro, but these can make do as well, I suppose.''
The two teenagers were smoking their cigarettes in blissful silence, before Lucy coughed out to clear her throat.
''So...'', she began, blowing the cigarette smoke into the cool September air. ''From what I've gathered and heard from the people in this town about you, you aren't exactly the most liked person in here, am I right?''
"Yeah, I'm not really liked at all. But to be completely honest, I don't give two shits about it.'', Cartman admitted blunty, taking a drag of his own cigarette. ''Most of the things stem from the fact that I've done many, many fucked up things over the years.''
''Oh yeah?'', Lucy spoke cynically, taking another drag of her half-smoked cigarette. ''You did?''
''Well, it's true.''
''I mean, I'm not exactly an angel myself and I did do some shit, but could it be worse than stealing from my parents' family restaurant cash register to buy myself cigarettes? Or getting into numerous fights with other people in my former high school?''
''Damn, that is messed up, but it's extremely miniscule compared to the shit that I've done. Are sure you really wanna' hear about some of the fucked up shit I've done over the years?''
''Well, since we're already at it, you might as well just go ahead and talk about it.'', Lucy conceded. ''But, it's not like I asked you about the fucked up things you've done anyway.''
''Where the hell do I begin?'', Cartman said, taking a long drag of his cigarette. ''Well, I faked being retarded just for the sake of winning the special needs Olympics and completely embarrassed myself during the competition. Then I faked having Tourette's syndrome, used crack-addicted babies for shits and giggles, lead a Neo-Nazi rally and intentionally infected my 'friend' Kahl with HIV.''
''And then I got my biological father and his wife shot at a ranch, got them ground up into chilli and fed them to a guy that later turned out to be my step brother, Scott Tenorman.''
Lucy simply couldn't believe what she was hearing. But then again, she had sort of expected Cartman to be on some level of fucked up. She took another long drag from her cigarette and once she reached the butt of it, she tossed it on the ground.
''Jesus fucking Christ, how the fuck you haven't gotten locked up in a prison yet?'', the blonde teenage girl stepped on her cigarette to put it out with her ankle boot. ''You're really fucked up.''
''Tell me something I don't know.'', Cartman replied sarcastically, locking his ocean blue eyes with azure blue eyes of the blonde teenager sitting next to him.
''And do you at least feel a little bit bad about all the fucked up things you've done?''
''I have definitely felt slightly more remorseful over the past few years.'', Cartman explained, extinguishing his cigarette. ''But, I'm still a giant douchebag whatever way you put it.''
''I'm a big believer that people can eventually change. Maybe someday you will be able to say that you're truly sorry for all the messed up things you did.''
''I might've been quite a fucked up person before, but a turning point in my life was when I turned thirteen and my mom gave birth to my little step-brother. My mom met my now step-father Joey when I was in fifth grade and they got married not even after a year and a half of dating. She also got pregnant and gave birth to my step-brother Danny, whom I love very, very much.''
''So, you can say that having a little brother changed your outlook on life and made you realize that you actually need to be a better person?''
''Yeah, when you put it like that, I can say that Danny made me realize that I've been a very fucked up person before. Also, it did take me a while to warm up to my step-father, but I can say that he's definitely the best father figure I've had in my whole life.''
''Of course you can, because you turned your own biological father into a fucking chili.'', Lucy said sarcastically, crossing her arms over her chest.
''I know that's extremely messed up, I can't go back in time to change it.''
After a few seconds of silence, Cartman spoke up again, catching Lucy's attention. ''You're Italian, right?''
Slightly surprised by Cartman's correct assumption, she smirked at the pudgy teen. ''Well yeah, but I was born and raised in the United States. My parents are a second-generation of Italian immigrants from Naples and Palermo.'', she smiled teasingly. ''How did you guess?''
''I don't know, to be completely honest. Lucia doesn't really sound English to me, so I just assumed that it was either of Italian or of Hispanic origin.''
''Well, you are correct though.''
Lucy pulled out her phone from the pocket of her jeans and unlocked it, but her eyes soon widened in surprise. She hastily got up from the wooden pallet and snatched her bag from the ground. ''Oh shit, recess will be over in a couple of minutes and I have to be in my English classroom soon!''
''Tenth grade English?'', Cartman raised an eyebrow curiously.
''Yeah, how do you know?'', Lucy confirmed.
''Because I have to be there as well. We can walk together to the class, if you want to.'', the brunette teenager replied, putting his cigarette packet inside the pocket of his coat.
Affirming the grip on her expensive handbag, Lucy looked over her shoulder and signalled for Cartman to walk with her to their tenth grade English classroom.
''Teehee...'', an adorable, cute giggle could be heard in the background. ''I'll make sure that Eric falls in love with this Italian beauty.'', Cupid Me gushed adoringly, reaching for an arrow from his quiver and attempting to shoot it right in Cartman's direction.
•
''So, what is the topic of your Biology assignment?''
''Ugh, it's all about the photosynthesis. Very interesting topic.'', Bebe commented sarcastically, spinning around in her desk chair. ''Kyle picked it out for us, though.''
''I think you care more about the fact that you're doing this assignment with your boyfriend than the topic you guys chose to write about.'', Wendy replied back, glancing up for the briefest moment from her best friend's laptop.
It was Saturday night, and Wendy was staying over at Bebe's house for a sleepover and more importantly, for some much needed catch-up and deserved girl time.
Between the two girls being busy with their volleyball practices, cheerleading practice and the seemingly never-ending piles of homework, the two long-time best friends hadn't had much time to catch up on everything they missed out on over the week.
The raven haired beauty had been laying cross-legged in her best friend's bed for the past fifteen minutes, trying to find a good movie for the two of them to watch. And at the same time, Bebe was busy painting her nails with white gel nail polish and pushing the stubborn blonde locks away from her face every few seconds or so.
''You have a rather interesting partner to do the assignment with, hm?'', Bebe looked over her shoulder towards her best friend, who was still looking for a good movie option. But the blonde teenager's comment immediately made Wendy snap her head up.
The dark haired teenage girl snorted. ''What? Stan and me?''
''No Wendy - I'm talking about Romeo and fucking Juliet.'', Bebe rolled her eyes. ''Of course I'm referring to you and Stan.''
''Oh that, it's nothing. Trust me.''
Completely disregarding the whole process of painting her fingernails, Bebe hopped from her desk chair over to her bed swiftly and lifted her hands up in an attempt not to smudge her wet nail polish all over the pink bedspread. ''Bullshit Wendy. You and Stan weren't on speaking terms for a while, and now out of a sudden you guys are assignment buddies?''
''Well, we both came to a conclusion that working together could be a good idea. Do you remember what happened last time you and I had to do an assignment together?'', Wendy pondered, which only made Bebe roll her emerald green eyes in sheer annoyance.
''Maybe Kyle and I spent too much time together when we were supposed to be working with you and Stan on our respective projects. But you also gotta' cut me off some slack, because Kyle and I haven't been together for that long when that happened.''
''Well, it's fine. We still nailed that whole assignment.'', Wendy smirked cheekily, reminding her best friend of how proud both of them felt over getting an excellent grade.
''I also noticed that Lola was glaring at you and Stan the whole time after you said that you guys will work together.'', Bebe said as she got up from her bed and plonked herself in the desk chair again.
Wendy almost immediately rolled her eyes and scoffed out, not giving two shits about her ex-friend's opinion about the state of friendship she had with Stan. ''You really think I care that much about her? Lola was the one who stopped talking to me right after she and Stan got together.''
''Well, she actually thinks she is some hot shit just because her aunt happens to be our principal.'', Bebe said as she grabbed her hair comb and began brushing through her tangled mess of a hair. ''Not to mention that she started acting like a total bitch just because she was dating the school's main quarterback.''
''Luckily for her, nepotism does work in today's fucked up society.'', Wendy commented back sarcastically, before she finally picked out a movie for her and Bebe to watch. ''Hey, do you wanna' watch Mean Girls 2?''
''Are you fucking kidding me? I don't want to watch that lame excuse for a sequel to one of the best movies that was ever made!'', Bebe retorted.
''Alrighty then. We can watch A Star Is Born with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper then?''
''Sure!'', Bebe replied enthusiastically, plopping down on her bed next to Wendy.
After finally deciding on which movie they should watch, Bebe and Wendy made themselves popcorn and pulled out some candy stashed in one of Bebe's closet drawers. They were both enjoying one of their favorite movies, singing to the beautiful soundtracks and simply having a little bit of fun.
''Hey Wendy.'', Bebe suddenly spoke, catching the attention of her best friend.
''Yeah?'', the ravenette replied.
''Do you think that you and Stan working together on this assignment will help you guys, you know, maybe get closer to each other again?''
''Bebe...'', Wendy replied back in a slightly nervous tone, pinching the bridge of her nose as she continued. ''I've been pretty clear about not wanting to be in a relationship. And no, I don't think Stan and I will get closer thanks to us working on an assignment together. We're both perfectly content with the way things are between us - me at least.''
''Good, just checking.''
Wendy glanced over to her best friend once again, before deciding to shake off the annoying thought about her and Stan growing closer again.
But despite her being pretty straightforward towards denying that particular thought, there was one even more prominent emotion tugging at Wendy's heartstrings.
Because more than anything else, the dark haired girl was secretly hoping that Bebe's assumption would actually turn out to be correct.