Butters stared out of the car window as his parents drove him down the highway. He knew where he was going, he didn't like it at all. His parents insisted that he needed to go there, to get better. He didn't think there was anything wrong with him though. He felt absolutely fine, and yet…his parents wanted to take him there. They insisted that he would receive the utmost care, but he knew why they wanted to take him there. They didn't want him. Although he loved his parents (Linda and Stephen Stotch) very much, he felt as though they didn't really want him all that much. Which was understandable as he wasn't a very good kid. He was being grounded all the time because he acted up all the time. Why, just the other day, his dad had gotten sore at him for arranging the dinner table wrong. If only he wasn't so bad…

"We're here, pumpkin." His mother informed him.

He looked ahead and saw that they had parked already. His parents both got out while he took another few seconds to compose himself. He breathed in slowly and then outward to try and calm his nerves. When he got out of the car, he looked up to the massive building simply called: Hell's Pass Psychiatric Center. It was an older building built of bricks with ivy walls and a large fountain up front, which didn't look to be in use. A parking lot in front of the center stretched along the length of it. Their car was currently parked in the front nearest to the door. When Butters got out and looked to the ground, he found the space was for the disabled. He didn't say anything about it though.

"Butters, come on. We're going in. Quit standing around." He heard his father say. Butters looked up to see his dad staring at him sternly from the other side of the car.

"Ah-ok. S-Sorry!" Butters apologized and ran around to where his father was.

"We don't want to waste time. Your mother and I have somewhere to be. We'll sign you in and then we have to leave." His father said to him. They started walking toward the door where his mother was waiting.

"Y-you don't want to stay?" Butters wanted his parents to stay at least for a little while. At least until he was situated.

"No. Like I said Butters, your mother and I have somewhere to be."

"Oh, ok. That's fine I guess." Butters frowned and started to rub his knuckles together.

"Butters, stop slouching." His father reprimanded him. Butters immediately straightened his back.

"Y-yes sir. Sorry sir." Butters followed his father through the door to the front lobby of the center. His mother followed behind him.

His father went straight to the front desk and asked the secretary about signing Butters in. His parents had already made the necessary steps to ensure that Butters gets into the center as quickly as possible the moment they stepped foot into the building. This time has been long coming since his parents started planning weeks beforehand to drop him off here. In fact, they had already moved his clothes into what was going to be his room the day before he got there.

While his dad was signing him in, he looked around at the main lobby. It was a little larger than he had imagined. It was an elongated room with large windows in the front looking over the parking lot. There were couches and chair arranged similarly on each side of the lobby with stacks of magazines on the table. Toward the desk was a long and wide hallway off to the right of Butters. He didn't know what was down that hallway, but he saw a lot of doors. He could only assume that an elevator was down that way since the building was four stories tall.

"And what kind of mental illnesses does your son have? Why is he being emitted here?" He heard the secretary ask. He turned his head toward the voices.

"We actually don't know what is wrong with him but we were hoping you would figure that out." His mother answered. To be honest with himself, Butters didn't know what was wrong with himself either. Although, he didn't really believe anything was wrong with him, if his parents thought something was up, well then gosh, something might be wrong with him.

"Ok then, I'll just omit this part of the form then. I'll page a nurse to come get him. You may say your goodbyes as it may take a couple of minutes." The secretary smiled at them as she started making a call on the shiny, black phone.

His parents turned to him and stared for a second. He smiled as he furrowed his eyebrows. He was a little upset they couldn't stay with him, but he understood they had to leave.

"I'll go start the car." His father said and walked out the front door. Butters frowned and watched his father go. He wanted to say goodbye…

"Oh Butters, don't worry about him," his mother walked over to him and put her arms around him in a loose, but motherly, hug. Butters hugged her back. "He just doesn't know how to say goodbye. He loves you very much, we both do. We want to see you get better. That's why we're leaving you here."

"Oh-I understand. I just…I just don't understand what's wrong with me." Butters' eyes started to get teary. He sniffed and closed his eyes tightly. He didn't want to be here…

"It's ok, Butters. The doctors will tell you." His mother let him go and looked at him. She pushed back some hair that had gotten in his face. " Then, when you get better, we can take you home."

Butters nodded and hugged her again. He was going to miss his mother very much. He didn't know what he would do without her presence around.

"I have to go Butters, but we'll visit you this weekend. Stop crying now. Act like a big boy, ok? You're seventeen now. You shouldn't be crying." His mother scolded him and wiped his tears away with her fingers.

"O-ok. Sorry. I'll try." Butters sniffed some more and wiped at his own eyes to get what remained after his mother. "I-I'll be ok." Butters smiled despite his internal despair.

"That's my boy. I'll see you this weekend." She kissed his forehead and, before Butters knew it, she was gone.

After she left, he sighed and went to one of the couches off to the side of the lobby. He sat down and put his head in his hands. He only waited a few minutes, but a lot of thoughts went through his head at the time. What was it like inside the actual center? What were the people like? Were they like him, not knowing why they were there? Or did they all know what was wrong with them and he was the only one who didn't? Were the people there nice? Would be make friends? Gosh, he didn't know anything about psychiatric centers. The only kind he had seen were on movies, and those only showed that craziest of people. People that talked to themselves, or people that screamed. Murderers, even. He shivered. He didn't want to come across any of those kinds of people. He could only hope that it was relatively normal inside.

After the few minutes of waiting, he heard another person enter the lobby. He looked up and saw a tall man with dark hair. He was wearing light blue scrubs which, to be honest, didn't look very flattering. Butters thought the man looked nice otherwise.

"He's over there, Stan." The secretary pointed to Butters. He didn't notice it before but the woman had black hair also.

The man, Stan he was called, looked over to him and smiled. He looked back to the secretary, "Thanks, Wendy." He said to her, and then walked over to Butters. Butters didn't get up but watched, wide-eyed, as Stan came over.

"Hello. Are you Butters?" Stan asked him. Butter simply nodded, still staring widely at him. "Ah, that's good. Do you want to come with me to get you settled in? We have your room ready for you on the second floor."

"Uh, ok." Butters looked to the floor shyly and stood up to follow Stan.

"It's alright Butters. Come on, I'll take you." Stan made a move to put his hand on Butters' back. When he didn't react to the movement, Stan followed through. He guided Butters out of the lobby down the wide hallway. Stan looked down to Butters, who still had his head down. He looked really nervous. So Stan, being one of the kinder nurses, decided to try and talk to him. "So Butters, what do you think of this place?" They turned left down a narrower hallway.

"Huh? Oh, um. It's nice. The floors are really shiny. I can see myself in them!" Butters smiled up to the nice man. At least, Butters thought he was nice.

Stan smiled and looked down to the floor, "Look at that, you can! That's cool." He looked back at Butters' smiling face before he turned back forward to watch where they were going. "Was this what you were expecting when you got here?" Stan asked.

"Maybe the shiny floors, b-but I don't know what I was expecting. I thought it would be more…like a-a hospital?" By this time, they had stopped in front of an elevator. Stan pressed the 'Up' button.

"Yeah, we get that a lot. Although this is kind of a hospital, we don't look much like it do we? We would rather our patients feel comfortable here. Like a home." Stan smiled at Butters again.

Butters looked up toward the elevator number screen. He saw the numbers descend as the elevator came to pick them up. "Oh, I hope it feels that way to me. I'll be here for a while." Butters frowned slightly, "But h-hopefully not too long. I don't t-think there's anything wrong with me to tell the truth." Butters saw the elevator number descend to two.

Stan sighed. He heard that all the time with the other patients. More than likely, there was always something wrong with them, otherwise they wouldn't be there. Stan thought that the little Butters kid (his actual name being Leopold, but his parents insisted on them calling him Butters) might be normal, but then again a lot of crazy people looked normal at first glance. Then the next thing you know, you were cleaning shit from the walls. He loved his job but…there was only so much shit cleaning one could do.

Finally the elevator stopped at their level. When the doors opened, it was revealed to be empty. They walked in with Stan still guiding Butters by the back. He pressed on the '2' button, making the elevator take them up a floor. The ride only took a second, so they didn't speak for the duration of the lift.

When the doors opened, Butters could tell the floor was different. It looked less shiny, more walked on. Worn down, as if this was the floor that was used most often. They walked off the elevator and went down a relatively short hallway. When they went a few feet down, the hallway opened up to a large area with people all around. They were sitting in chairs and talking, some watching T.V. Others seemed to be playing board games. Butters stared at the scene curiously. Some even stared back at him.

"This is the main lobby of the first patient floor. This is where you guys all can hang out until dinner, which is at seven." Stan started to explain. Butters looked to him, "First floor patients can even go to the courtyard which is down the hallway we just came from, past the elevators." Stan pointed down the hallway, "They're big glass doors, so you can't miss it." Stan smiled at Butters and pointed down the hall in front of them, "This is the way to the rooms. I'll take you to yours and then you can do whatever until dinner. Come on." Stan started guiding Butters again. Butters continued looking at the lobby until it was out of view. One of the things that stuck in his mind was the fiery redhead sitting on one of the couches and reading.

When they got further down the hallway, Stan started to speak again, "See these big double doors?" Butters looked over to where Stan was pointing and he did indeed see big doors. He nodded, "That's where meals are served; The cafeteria. It's open all day and closed at night after dinner. If you feel up to snacking on something, you can get some chips or whatever there throughout the day. Only level one patients, that's patients on the second floor, are allowed this freedom so you should feel pretty lucky." Stan smiled at Butters.

Butters blinked and looked ahead. He wondered why that was. There were patients on the other floors? They weren't allowed snacks? Why not? Of course, Butters didn't ask any of this. They continued walking down the hallway until they came to another door.

"Here is where Mr. Mackey, the counselor, is. You can go to him anytime you'd like, but usually patients are required to go at least twice a week. Don't worry, he's really nice." Stan reassured him.

This was a lot to take in, Butters thought. He was never allowed this much freedom at home. It was such a big change from being grounded all the time to getting to do whatever you wanted. Or, almost whatever you wanted. It just felt like a lot. They started walking again, this time taking a sharp left. The area seemed to be laid out in a giant square wrapping around the floor. There were many more doors placed throughout the floor, but these doors had numbers on them. Some of them were open with people inside. They looked like they were patient rooms. They continued walking down the hall until they stopped at a door labeled '212'.

"Well, this is your room. Everything that you're allowed to have here is inside. Your clothes, bathroom stuff, all that jazz." Stan said to him as he pulled out a key and unlocked the door. When it opened, the light was off so Stan switched it on.

Inside was rather dull as it hadn't been decorated like the other rooms, it also had a plush beige carpet. Butters stepped inside to investigate further. The bed was pure white and pushed against the wall to the left. To the right was a giant wardrobe with, what he assumed was, his clothes inside. To the right of that was a door which, when he opened it, was a small bathroom. On the far wall, in the middle, was a decently sized window. There weren't any curtains covering it so a lot of sunlight was let through. Butters thought he'd have to decorate the room immediately.

"Well, this is where I'll have to leave you. If you have any more questions, I'll be happy to help. Or you can find another nurse to answer them." Butters turned to Stan as he started talking, "They're usually all over the place."

"Oh well, uh, t-thank you very much. I-I appreciate the tour!" Butters smiled up at Stan, who returned it immediately.

"You're very welcome, Butters. Remember that dinner is at seven. It ends around eight-thirty so you'll have time to eat and chat."

"Ok, I'll r-remember that."

"Alright then, I'll see you." At that, Stan turned around and left Butters to his own devices.

Butters sighed and turned around to look at his dull looking room. He looked toward the bed and contemplated taking a nap. Dinner was in about an hour or two and he was rather famished, so he decided that a nap wouldn't be too smart as he'd probably sleep too long. He walked to the window to see what was outside. He saw what he thought to be the courtyard. There was a bunch of benches scattered throughout the yard and a track leading through it. Trees were gathered in the back, making a kind of pseudo-forest.

Butters hummed at his choices. There wasn't anybody in the courtyard so he thought it'd be rather boring to walk around by himself; not to mention depressing.

So, with that in mind, Butters smiled and turned around to head to the lobby where all the people were.

So, first of all, this is my first fanfiction. I've written things before, just not fanfics. So this will be an experience. I also want to point out that this story is all written spontaneously. Meaning, it's not THAT thought out but I'll make it as good as it can possibly get. I'll try to make this a longer story since this particular fandom is seriously lacking in longer plots. I just WANT MORE STUFF TO READ DAMMIT.

That'll be all for now. Authors notes aren't going to be on every chapter so you know. If it's important, I'll make a note but I won't make it a habit.