The summer had come to an end, the fresh snow laid on the ground and for fifteen year old Stan Marsh this was the start of a new and exciting chapter of his life, he and his friends had decided to spend the last month of summer vacation to decide what study options they wanted to take, this was their chance to get some experience in an area they wanted to work with. Now with his mind made up he eagerly awaits seeing his friends again!
Stan had everything packed in his backpack, now all he needed was to put on his shoes, he swiftly grabbed them from the shoe rack and quickly slid into them, just as he finished tying his shoes he noticed his dad coming down the stairs carrying a bunch of papers, it appeared as though Randy was struggling a bit, mostly because he couldn't see in front of him due to the height of the stack.
"Ah, Dad! Let me give you a hand with those!" Stan said as he quickly sprinted halfway up the staircase and grabbing roughly half the stack off his dad. He then quickly got down stairs and sprinted into the kitchen putting the stack of paper down on the kitchen table, and within a few seconds Randy followed who, as he put his stack of papers next to the other on the table let out sigh of relief as he said thanks to Stan.
"Now Stan, you do know that these study options you pick are very important they will most likely decide how your studies shape in the future, so I'm sure I don't have to remind you to make sure you pick something you REALLY enjoy doing." Said Randy has he grabbed the cup of coffee that Sharon passed him.
"Yeah, I know dad. You don't need to worry, I'm not a little kid anymo-" Said Stan who had been interrupted by his mother before he had a chance to finish his sentence.
"Now Randy… Both you and I know Stanley has spent the past month going through his options and I'm sure he has decided on the right ones for him, and besides he's right… He's not a little kid anymore, we have to allow him to make his own decisions and let him follow them through." Said Sharon packing and passing Stan his lunch.
Stan put the bagged lunch into his backpack then proceeded to fling his backpack over his shoulder, he then turned to his parents and smiled and said "I'll see you later, I don't wanna be late on the first day." And with that his parents nodded at him, and he made his way to the front door, putting his keys in his jeans pocket and saying to himself "This is it, this is gonna be awesome!", and with that he was out of his house and headed towards the more then familiar bus stop.
As he walked down the street, he enjoyed the cool air against his face. He took a second to turn on his iPod, but before he could put his headphones around his head he heard someone shouting his name, he quickly looked up and noticed Kyle was stood waving at him from the bus stop.
"S-Stan, hey Stan!" shouted Kyle enthusiastically, with a huge grin on his face. Stan proceeded to run the up the rest of the hill to the bus stop, as he reached the top of the hill he took a second to catch his breath before looking at his friend, it was easy to tell he was really looking forward to seeing Kyle again.
"Hey dude! It's been a whole month since we've last talked or even seen each other, how you doin'?" Said Stan eagerly wanting to catch up with his friend before the bus arrived.
Kyle smirked at Stan, then shrugged as he pointed to his hair which was long, straight and running down from the back of his hat. "Last week my dad and I went fishing, and after some talking I decided I wanted to go for a new look. At first I was not too sure on the changes, but now I like them." Said Kyle in a happy tone.
"That's awesome dude! How you've got your hair now really does suit you well." Said Stan, feeling proud for his best friend for being more confident in himself.
Stan and Kyle then just talked about random things including video games and music, but neither had thought about asking about what study options the other had picked. The bus pulled up just a few minutes into the conversation. The boys got on the bus and made their way to the back of bus, waving to their friends as they walked past. As they reached their usual seats at the back of the bus they put their backpacks on the available rack above the seats and then proceeded to sit down next to each other.
After a few seconds it had hit Kyle that he forgot to ask Stan about his study options whilst they were waiting at the bus stop, he was curious as to what Stan had picked. "Oh yeah! Stan, what did you pick for your study option? I'm so curious!" Said Kyle, very excited.
Stan looked at Kyle for a second and laughed before saying in a teasing manor "Oh no you don't Kyle! what did YOU pick? if you want to know mine now, then you'll have to tell me YOURS first." Kyle looked Stan, raised an eye brow and said "Oh so that's how you're playing, IS IT?!" Kyle reached into his pocket and grabbed what appeared to be a notepad, curious as to what its pages contained Stan learned forward towards the notepad. Kyle flipped open the cover and then flipped through some of the pages before letting out an "Ah-Ha!" and turning the notepad around to show Stan. Stan grabbed the notepad to get a closer look and flipped through some of the pages seeing page after page of drawings of mythical creatures and extracts of Kyle's imagination, inspired by their many adventures over the years. "After all our adventures we've had over the years and all the things we've seen, I came to a conclusion that I wanted to study art and design, I mean with all experiences to pull from there is NOTHING that my imagination can't come up with, and the possibilities of where I can go with this are ENDLESS!" Said Kyle, who then took his notepad back, slipped it back into his pocket then looked at Stan and said "Your turn now, Stan." Kyle then learnt back into his seat looking at Stan and awaiting his answer.
Stan sat for a second, and rubbed the back of his neck before turning to Kyle and saying "Well… Believe it or not, I actually came to the same conclusion myself." Kyle's eyes widened and he sat up "Dude… Dude, no freakin' way! This is awesome." Said Kyle in both shock and excitement. Stan nodded and said "Yeah! We get to be in most of our classes together, this is going to be so awesome!" Both Stan and Kyle high-fived, the sound of the hands slapping caused a few heads to turn from other students on the bus.
Now the bus was pulling into the bus space just outside South Park High School, everyone started pouring off the bus, with Stan and Kyle being the last ones off the bus, as the buses doors closed behind them they looked forward and noticed two familiar faces, there stood two boys leaning on the flag pole near the school doors...