An Unanticipated Symmetry
Chapter One -- So For Now Your Voice Can Stay

A/N: Here it is, the winner of the poll you voted in! This story is told in Stan's POV, and is mainly Style but it also contains a lot of Stendy (especially in the beginning) which is kind of weird for me. I used to HATE Wendy but I actually kind of like her now o_o There's just so many different ways you can write her character, especially in a Style-centric fic... plus the fact that she's pretty and I like drawing her =) Anyways, there is also going to be a side-pairing of Cryde but that probably won't happen for a while. This fic has been giving me a bit of writer's block so far (I have like three-quarters of the second chapter done already) so updates might be slower. But reviews always inspire me to write more =)

"You're really gonna leave me here all alone?" he asked in a small voice, peering up at me from beneath his lashes. He was sad. I was sad, too, but there really was nothing to be done.

"I have to, dude. I already tried everything. There's no way to get out of it," I sighed, frustrated. "But… it's only six weeks. I'll be back before you know it."

The car horn beeped. "Stanley!" my mother yelled out the open window. "We have to leave! Hurry up!"

Kyle grinned forlornly, but in a goofy way only twelve-year-olds can really manage. "You better not make all sorts of new friends at summer camp and forget about me, Stan."

I rolled my eyes. "Like that'll ever happen. Besides, I doubt anyone from South Park is even going to be there. It'll probably just be a bunch of kids from some other random towns I'll never see again once we leave."

He gave a small nod of agreement, before pulling me in for a tight hug. "Promise," he whispered in my ear.

I snorted. "I promise, Kyle," I said anyways, wrapping my arms around him.

"Stanley!" mom yelled again. Kyle and I let go of each other.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" I screamed back, making a face at Kyle. He laughed. "I gotta go," I muttered. "Look, man… I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you, too," he whispered. "See you when you get home."

"Yeah. See you." I turned and walked away, climbing into the car with my mother. Turning around to look out the back window, I watched Kyle standing alone in my front yard until we went around the corner. He waved until we disappeared.

I didn't talk to my mom the whole way to camp. I was mad at her, and she knew it. I didn't want to go to this camp, to be away from my friends and South Park practically the whole summer. But she and dad thought it would be "good for me" and it would "help me mature." Yeah, sure, whatever. All I knew was that I wouldn't get to see my super best friend for a month and a half and that was not okay with me.

Once we got to the camp finally, mom took me to sign in and then we hauled all my stuff up to the cabin. There were four bunk beds, lined up next to each other. A few of the other boys had gotten there already, as shown by the bags and such on a few of the beds. I selected an empty top bunk. Just as I was about to leave the cabin to go say goodbye to my mom, I heard a very familiar voice saying my name.

"Stan? Stan Marsh?"

I whirled to find the owner of the voice. Sure enough, there stood Craig Tucker himself, at the foot of one of the other beds. "Craig? What are you doing here?"

"My parents made me come," he replied in his usual nasal monotone, rolling his eyes. "Evidently they wanted to get some 'alone time' this summer, so they sent both me and my little sister to camp."

"And we're in the same cabin?" I questioned incredulously. What a coincidence.

"Apparently so," Craig answered, his voice tinged with sarcasm.

"Whatever, dude. I gotta go find my mom. Catch you later." He nodded and I made my exit.

As it turns out, I would be catching quite a bit of Craig later. Apparently it really wasn't a coincidence that Craig and I had ended up in the same cabin. The camp directors, upon seeing that we were from the same town, placed us together because they thought it would be more comfortable for us to have someone we knew. In the end I was kind of thankful for this.

Craig and I found that, despite how different we were, we managed to get along great. We both liked sports and there was plenty of opportunity for playing those, and we both had a bit of a sense of adventure about us. Craig's was significantly less than mine, but he still liked to go exploring. He had chosen the top bunk across from mine and we spent many nights after lights out staying up and whispering to each other.

A camaraderie formed between us that lasted throughout the month and a half of camp. The name Kyle was all but stricken from my vocabulary. I was away for so long, I ended up breaking my promise to him without really intending to.

After camp was over and Craig and I returned to South Park, I was changed. I hadn't realized it, but I really was. Being away from my family and friends and our tiny mountain town for the majority of the summer had managed exactly what my parents had intended. Going into the seventh grade, I felt more grown-up than ever. But everyone else had been left behind, except maybe Craig.

As any child knows, these pre-teen years are an extremely important time for making friends. Most of the friends I made these years were ones I kept for the rest of middle and high school. Conversely, my old friends and I began to grow apart. Cartman had moved on to bigger and better things; he no longer cared about any of us. Kenny was still around some, but more and more often he would mysteriously vanish for days at a time. Even Kyle and I hardly talked when I got home.

I had worried that after camp, Craig and I would go back to not being friends again. Fortunately for me, this was almost immediately disproved. One of Craig's other friends, Token Black, had moved to Boston the past school year. The only other close friend he had was a boy by the name of Clyde Donovan. I had never talked to Clyde much, but once Craig and I started hanging out, Clyde and I were pretty much automatic friends.

And, four years later, it's basically the same. The Saturday before our first day of eleventh grade, and the three of us were sitting in the bed of my pick-up truck, parked near Stark's Pond. Our stomachs were warm and our breath smelled like the liquor Craig had somehow gotten his hands on.

"Look," I said, my voice slow and slightly slurred as I lifted my arm to point at the sky. "That's the big dipper."

"That's not the big dipper, dumbass," Craig replied. "That's Orion's Belt."

"Who cares about constellations?" Clyde drawled. "This is our last real night of freedom! We're supposed to be having fun!"

"This is fun," Craig insisted. "You, me, Marsh, and some liquor. Add in a beautiful summer night and Stan's hunk-a-junk truck, and it sounds pretty close to perfection to me." He raised the bottle in a silent toast before taking another swig out of it, passing it on to me.

"Hey, don't diss the truck. I may not give you a ride home," I growled. My truck may be a piece of crap, but I love it. And I will always stand up for it against those jackasses I call friends.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Craig grumbled, falling to rest against the side of the truck bed next to me, leaning his head on my shoulder. "Fuck school. This sucks. I don't wanna go."

"Dude, no one wants to go," Clyde replied, grabbing the bottle out of my hand and swallowing a mouthful. "Just something we gotta deal with."

We sat in silence for a while, staring at the stars and passing around the bottle. "Hey, uh, Craig," I said after a while. "Hate to break it to you, but my arm fell asleep. Mind moving your head?"

Just to spite me, he pushed it further onto my shoulder. "Nah, I'm good."

"Wow, I'm kind of turned on right now," I replied, grinning at Clyde. He grinned back as Craig quickly sat up straight again.

"Dude, not cool," Craig growled. I snickered.

"Come on, you know I was kidding. Besides, I don't need to resort to you. I've already got a girlfriend, in case you forgot."

"How could we forget, you only talk about her every five seconds."

Laughing, I replied, "Aw, Craig, don't be jealous. You've got a girlfriend too, remember?" I gestured towards Clyde.

Then they both glared at me and I knew I was a dead man. I was simultaneously punched in both the stomach and the arm.

"Kidding!" I yelled. Fortunately for me, they both backed off, Craig deciding instead to take another swallow of alcohol. "Violence," I muttered accusingly.

"Hate to say it, Stan, but you had every bit of that coming to you," Clyde told me. I knew this, of course, but it didn't mean I wasn't pissed.

Another typical night out with the guys.

We finally decided to head home around one. Clyde had drank the least out of the three of us, so he drove. We dropped Craig off first, before stopping at Clyde's house. He made sure I was okay to make it the rest of the way home on my own before going inside. He's definitely the most responsible out of all of us.

Quietly entering my already dark home, I started up the stairs. My dad emerged from my parents' room just as I got to the top.

"Stan," he said, yawning. "Are you just getting in?"

I nodded, breathing through my nose and hoping he wouldn't smell the alcoholic scent that followed me like a cloud.

"Alright. Well, get some sleep. You'll need it. And some aspirin."

I grinned. "Thanks, dad," I mumbled, moving past him into my room. I didn't even bother changing out of my clothes before collapsing onto the bed, way more tired than I had previously thought.

Three-quarters of the way through the first day of school, and we were finally given a reprieve for lunch. I stared around the bustling cafeteria, trying to spot my friends. Finally, my eyes landed on a girl with long black hair, similarly scanning the room. Her back was to me. I grinned as I silently made my way over to her.

"Looking for someone?" I whispered in her ear. She whirled around, sapphire eyes widened, before letting out a sigh of relief.

"Jesus, Stan, you scared me half to death," she muttered. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

I grinned. "Sorry, Wends," I apologized softly. She returned my smile before leaning up to press her lips to mine. "Now come on, let's find a table."

I felt like I had hardly seen Wendy all summer. It really had only been since July, but still. She had gone on vacation with her parents for three weeks in August, and since she was taking so many advanced classes she had a lot of summer work to do. I kept trying to get together with her but she was always too busy. It kind of sucked. And now that football season was starting we would get even less time together.

Everyone talks about Wendy and I like we're the perfect couple. She's top of our class, I'm supposedly this big football star (I'm really not all that good). We dated when we were in elementary school, but then kind of forgot about each other after we broke up in sixth grade. It was one of those stupid kid relationships that doesn't really mean anything. But then, back in freshman year, we started talking again, and discovered that we really did like each other.

We have our problems. We're only human. We argue, we'll go for weeks without talking sometimes. We've even broken up twice only to get back together a month or two later. But I think that we're able to get past all this because, deep down, we really love each other. I often finding myself wondering what I did to deserve a girl as smart and beautiful and awesome as Wendy.

Even though we didn't have any classes together this year, it was nice that we had lunch. And we could see each other after school, so long as we didn't have anything else going on.

After lunch we parted ways and I went off to English class. I actually tended to kind of like English. I liked to write, even though most of my stuff was bad and I didn't let people read it. But it was still interesting to learn about other writers.

The teacher stood at her desk in the front of the room. "Name?" she asked as I entered.

"Stan Marsh," I replied. She scanned her seating chart.

"Marsh?" she repeated. I nodded. She scribbled a little note on the paper and looked back up at me. "Your seat is back there, next to Mr. Broflovski."

"Thanks," I mumbled, turning around. Sure enough, there sat Kyle, next to the empty desk that was apparently designated for me. Well. This should be an interesting year.

"Hey, Stan," Kyle greeted as I took my place. He smiled.

"Hey," I replied quietly. Kyle and I hardly ever talked anymore. It wasn't that we had a grudge against each other or anything. We had just both gone our separate ways. We were different people than we had been back in elementary school.

Let me explain just how much Kyle has changed. He wears his hair longer, the springy red curls falling around his face and almost to his shoulders. Apparently he'd gotten one of his eyebrows pierced, something I hadn't noticed until just now. Maybe it was new. I hadn't seen him since last school year. He wears band shirts and ripped jeans and Chucks. He still does pretty well in school, but that's because he's naturally smart and doesn't need to study.

And then there are the rumors. He has a ton of girl friends, but never a girlfriend. He actually hardly has any guy friends. He still hangs out with Kenny some, but other than that, I don't really think there is anyone. He never talks about dating, or anything of that nature. There's never been any solid proof either way for him. But a lot of people talk. And they don't always say such nice things.

So as you can imagine, it's just a little bit awkward for me to be forced to sit next to Kyle now.

"So, Stan, what were you up to this summer?" He watched me out of the corner of his eyes, his head only slightly turned towards me. His hands absently toyed with his pen.

"Eh, not much. Mostly just hung out with Craig and Clyde… and Wendy, when she was around. What about you?"

"Mom went on one of her protesting rampages and dragged me all around the country with her," he replied, rolling his eyes and grinning. "It was pretty cool, I guess. She was annoying. But we saw some awesome places. And when we were out in California I learned how to surf."

"Sweet," I said, slightly jealous. I had always wanted to learn to surf, and it sucked for me to be stuck in a place that was nowhere near an ocean of any sort. "Sounds like you had a way more exciting summer than I did."

He shrugged one shoulder. "I suppose. I wouldn't have minded just hanging around here, though."

I scoffed. "Why would you ever willingly hang out in South Park? There's nothing to do here."

"Yeah, but at least I could see my friends. And it's not like there's much to do other places when you've been ditched by your mom and you don't know anyone and can't go do anything," he reasoned.

I shrugged one shoulder. "I suppose," I replied, still unconvinced.

Kyle chuckled. "Maybe we can just agree to disagree," he said.

The teacher finally decided to make us settle down so she could start class then, therefore causing my conversation with Kyle to discontinue. I had forgotten just how easy it was to talk with him. He was just one of those people that could keep the words going no matter what. We had a few hushed side-conversations as the teacher was going over the class syllabus, but she kept shooting us dirty looks, so we tried to keep quiet.

Once class was over, Kyle turned to look at me again, grinning. "See you later," he said.

"Yeah," I replied. It was impossibly effortless for me to return his smile. Talking to him was reminding me about why we had been such good friends for so long. Something about our personalities just matched. It was one of those things in life where it just works, no questions asked.

A/N: Sorry Kyle wasn't in this chapter much, I had a lot of backstory and I didn't want to skimp too much on it. He'll be in it much more from now on, I promise =)

Please review! ^_^