It was a fairly normal day.
They followed their usual daily pattern and met at their usual bus stop in their usual attires. All of them, with the exception of Stan. Kyle hesitantly looked down the street hoping to see the familiar red pompom running toward them but nothing. He shook a little when the wind carried the sound of sirens in the distance. They couldn't see the car but its screams echoed through the streets creating disharmony in the silence of that morning.
"I hope nothing bad happened," Kyle muttered under his breath fiddling with the straps of his backpack.
"I'm sure everything is okay." Kenny tried to calm him.
"Yeah. Whatever." Cartman shrugged next to them. He never really cared until the problem didn't affect him in directly and frankly, Stan's disappearance was nothing unusual. It happened from time to time with everything resolving itself in a few days.
Or when Kyle decided to take a step towards a solution.
"You should show some empathy, fatass. It's not like he is doing this on purpose!" Kyle snapped at him but his opinions found deaf ears. Cartman just kept staring at his phone, occasionally glancing around for the bus. He didn't even take time to answer or annoy Kyle the way he used to.
The bus arrived minutes late, but Stan was still nowhere to be seen. Kyle anxiously looked to the direction his house stood. He anxiously checked his wristwatch.
"We should wait. I have a bad feeling about this."
Kenny stepped back from the stairs, looking at Kyle.
"What's wrong Kenny? Do you want to skip school that badly?" asked Eric.
"Heh. Of course not! But I agree with him. We should wait a bit more."
"Agree with who exactly?" Eric raised a brow questioningly. He was losing Kenny, or vice versa. "Look, Kenny you can stay here and do like those guys from that book we were tricked into reading, but I'll leave you here."
Kenny gave the redhead an apologetic look as if trying to say, everything is going to be okay. Kyle gave an annoyed huff. He was disappointed about his lack of influence over the group's decisions, but still followed them to his usual seat.
Nobody seemed to greet him as he walked to his usual place.
It was a fairly normal day… except nobody seemed to acknowledge his existence.
It seemed that the world had something against him that day. Nobody greeted him, nobody answered his questions or reacted to his parts of the conversation. He went unnoticed by everyone but Kenny, who earned several scornful glances from their classmates.
He tried to keep calm; after all, shitty pranks like this one were not unusual and happened more than often, though not at this scale. He went on, sitting at his seat in the front row, resting his head on the table. The day was already off to a bad start.
Stan was still absent. Kyle could only hope that nothing happened to him on his way to school. he found himself hoping that Stan was at home in his bed, trying to fight off another wave of depression. Not the best scenario he could imagine. But at least, he would know his whereabouts and the state he was in.
However his biggest fears seemed to come true on that very day when PC Principal stepped into the room. Even behind the principal sunglasses, Kyle could feel that the man was not happy. He couldn't hide the rest of his face, after all. Furthermore, he lacked his usual zest.
The principal stood in front of the class and hesitated. In the end, he cleared his throat and uncharacteristically, took off his sunglasses unveiling his concerned expression.
"As much as I hate this, it is my duty to announce that student Kyle Broflovski got into an accident and was hit by a car this morning. Marsh, your classmate, went with him to the hospital. He was not injured. If we can believe what he'd said, you classmate's condition is critical, but stable." he paused, looking around to measure up the reactions to his words. "Right now we have to hope for the best…"
And prepare for the worst, he was about to say, but stopped himself. Several students were already looking at him like he had just announced the death of Broflovski.
Kyle was shaking, trying to progress the information. If this was a prank, then it was a terrible one, especially because it involved Stan, out of all people. No, Stan would never play cruel tricks on him. Which leaves only one option, he is in hospital. A car hit him. He is either dreaming this… No, this can't be a dream. If a car hit him, he wouldn't be dreaming about it. Chances are, he wouldn't even remember the accident.
"But I'm here… I'm sitting right here." he told the principal in strained voice.
Kenny…! Kenny talked to him. He was aware of Kyle's presence!
His eyes immediately searched for Kenny as he turned to the boy. They exchanged terrified glances. Kenny's mouth was open, but he was rendered speechless. Pure terror appeared on his face as he connected the dots, but Kyle jumped out of his seat and ran out of the classroom before Kenny truly understood what just happened.
He pushed back his chair with a creak and rushed after Kyle. Leaving confused classmates in his wake.
It was a fairly normal day, but Kyle was dying.
A/N: And so it begins…!