Homecoming week.
Not a single combination of two words could mean anything more to a high school senior (except maybe "you passed" or "free food").
Nothing else could elicit as much stress and planning either- besides maybe prom, but most of that is already figured out by the staff. Homecoming committee was a totally different ballgame; and one that Kyle was losing.
"You might as well not ask me for ideas, Wendy, if you're gonna shoot them all down." A sigh of frustration left his lips as he crossed out another idea from the whiteboard.
"Sorry Kyle," Wendy turned, distracted from her thought, to apologize. "I just- I want everything to be perfect! A total knockout, you know? Every other year has fallen flat of the student body's expectations and I don't want to be held responsible for something so...important."
She paced around the empty classroom and Kyle yawned. They had been here since the beginning of lunch and it was now well into their next class. It wasn't planned to stay this late, but Wendy liked to be heard and think for copious amounts of time- so maybe, somewhere in the back of Kyle's mind, he knew he'd be stuck here.
And that's probably why Token wasn't there. Lucky bastard.
Wendy was right though, the past couple of years have left a bad taste in everyone's mouths about the upcoming week. She had a lot on her shoulders as President of the committee, but that all trickled down to rest of the members; aka Token and Kyle. When she wanted to share, that is.
"Listen, Wendy, you'll do great. You just need to let us circulate ideas." The redhead capped the dry erase marker and grabbed his messenger bag, slipping it onto his shoulder. "Too much going on in that head of yours..." The offhanded comment earned him a strange look, but Kyle ignored it. "How about we continue this after school. I'll message you or something and we can figure out a theme. The days are planned, so we don't have to worry about that-"
"And the dance isn't until Saturday, yes I know." Wendy huffed, replacing an out of place hair. "Thanks for the help, Kyle." She waved him off and the Vice President took his leave.
Now that he was late for class, he didn't really have time to go to his locker on the first floor, so he chose a familiar locker and turned the dial. The combination to Stan's locker was relatively easy to remember (49-9-41) and the closest to Kyle's physics class, so his best friend's textbook was going to be loaned with Kyle's calculus book as collateral. Not like it mattered anyway. He couldn't even remember the last time Stan touched anything associated with physics.
Carelessly throwing his best friend's locker shut, Kyle turned to face said owner.
Stan pressed his lips into a firm line. "Kyle. You're planning Homecoming, seriously? All the themes are always shitty. What's it gonna be?"
"Eh, I haven't really given it any thought to be honest." Kyle gestured with his head towards the door at the end of the hall, signaling that he needed to get to class (though it was evident with the textbook) and that they should walk and talk. "Planning the whole week and the homecoming dance kinda take all the 'wow' out of it. Also gee, thanks. You're welcome for that shitty concept."
Feigning mock hurt, Kyle shoved his friend and shifted his bag on his shoulder. It was only slightly noticeable; Stan's mood, that is. With the small shift in attitude and judgement, the light dragging of feet and the fact that he was just plain sulking in general. Whether it was about the dance or not.
"You can tell me all about your shitty speculations after classes. I'll meet you at your car..?" He left the question open waiting for a nod before heading into physics.
Physics had been the same boring class after Kyle explained about the impromptu meeting he had. The teacher let it slide and the redhead finished class on schedule. Filing out of the classroom after the bell and maneuvering his way out of the crowd, Kyle made his way back to Stan's locker. He had the intention of putting the textbook back, but on a random impulse, he decided to keep it. Maybe Stan could use some tutoring or something.
Speak of the devil, he had to meet him out in the parking lot. Grabbing his bag and slinging it onto his shoulder, Kyle headed out the double doors at the back of the school out into the student parking lot.
Stan's car was nothing spectacular, an average car with decent mileage and a lot better than the monster Kyle occasionally drove. Stan's car definitely fit him though and it was a lot safer. Making his way to the vehicle, Kyle made a short wave and frowned when he noticed the two cigarette butts accumulating on the ground, along with the third one dropped from his best friend's mouth and snuffed out with a sneaker.
"Is this what you did all class, dude?" Kyle gave his friend a knowing look, rolling his eyes when Stan pantomimed his nagging.
They settled themselves into the car, Kyle throwing his bag into the back and buckling his seat belt. Still pressing the issue, he shifted in his seat to face Stan who was fastening his seatbelt.
"You know, Wendy isn't gonna want to kiss you after that shit."
Stan wasn't sure what it was, but his apathy had driven his thoughts to the point of insanity. He stared at Kyle for a long time before answering him, baggy eyes shooting back at his own emerald ones. He couldn't even figure out what he was feeling, but everything had just suddenly hit him in the head and right now the least things he wanted to be talking about were class and Wendy.
He took a drag from his cigarette, forcing himself to make eye contact up at his best friend, but he still had that glossy-look in his eyes. He didn't know who he was anymore. He just wasn't feeling the emotion that he wanted to. He wasn't depressed or cynical like he used to be. He was just apathetic.
Once they had gotten into the car, it took Stan a while to fasten his seatbelt, the car door still open as he slouched back further against the seat. "Have you ever even smoked before, Kyle?" He glanced over at him, staring through the front mirror again. "I'm not in the mood to kiss Wendy anyway." He turned on the ignition, soon driving onto the road with his best friend in the seat next to him.
"When did you start becoming such a lame best friend?" He instantly bit his lip harshly straight after that comment, not sure where it came from as he shook his head softly and kept his eyes on the road in front of him. He sighed rather noticeably. "Just, whatever, Kyle. Where the hell are we going again?" His mind had been pretty sparse lately.
He still didn't know what had gotten into him, why he had the sudden altered change in his attitude. Maybe it was just because it was high school, but he wasn't exactly sure if that was the only thing. He drove slowly, not even making one glance at his best friend through the aimless drive.
At Stan's comment, Kyle angrily rested his chin into his hand, which was now perched on the handle of the door.
"I could ask you the same thing." He said under his breath.
The drive was awkward to say the least and the redhead honestly couldn't remember the last time it wasn't. Now he remembered why he took the bus most of the time. Kyle stuck to staring out the window, watching as everyone seemed to be going about their daily lives with no concern to anyone else. It was weird to think that every single human being had their own problems when you were so immersed in your own. Maybe that's why he hadn't understood any of Stan's moods lately. Then again, maybe he was better off not understanding.
A sudden twinge of anger hit him as soon as Stan opened his mouth. "Are you kidding me right now?" Kyle had to fully turn in to face his best friend in order to show his disbelief. "Uh, hello, earth to Stanley. Your lame best friend has a home." A little passive aggressiveness never hurt anyone, right?
Kyle lurched forward and rested his head on his side of the dash board, a muffled 'whatever' escaping his lips. Hopefully the whole week wouldn't be like this. It was hard enough dealing with Wendy and all the planning for the upcoming week, he didn't need his best friend acting like a giant douche too.
Kyle used most of the drive home to think of how to fix this...this thing Stan had. What do friends even do to cheer each other up? Raisins didn't work then and Kyle highly doubted it would work now. Then again, that was because of girl problems. Maybe that's what this was.
Chancing it, Kyle lifted his head from the dash and spoke quieter than he intended. "Is this about Wendy?"
As much as Kyle probably felt it, Stan didn't feel the awkwardness. He was too consumed by his thoughts to even notice it, and he was too perturbed by his thoughts to even know that his best friend was sitting in the car right next to him.
He kept his back slouched back, and he wanted to tune out all the voices he heard around him but knew his best friend wouldn't like it if he ignored him. He was still his best friend, he knew that, but he just didn't know what suddenly drove him to so much agitation all at once.
He didn't want him to mention Wendy either. Wendy wasn't even on his mind at all, and that's all that used to be on his mind. He just couldn't let his thoughts function properly, and he hated that. He wasn't even focusing on getting to Kyle's house. He was just driving..aimlessly.
He shrugged unnoticeably. "No, Kyle. It's not about Wendy, okay? Why'd you even have to bring her up? Why do you think all my problems ever involve are Wendy?"
The redhead sighed and rested his head back down on the dashboard, this time facing Stan rather than face down. "Because, dude. Most of the time it is." He watched with a condescending look as Stan made a face.
"At least for the last few times you've been like this anyway." When his best friend didn't answer, Kyle took to playing with the dials on the car radio, not exactly turning anything on- just turning the knobs. "If it's not her then what is it?"
About halfway through the drive, Kyle noticed that they had passed his street, but chose to say nothing. It was moreso an attempt to find out what was wrong than to embarrass him for completely disregarding his best friend. Stan said nothing.
Kyle's room hadn't really changed since they were kids, sans a few more posters and books littering the place. It was still set up the same way and a new laptop sat on his desk in place of his desktop.
"So...dinner won't be for a half hour." Awkward wasn't normally something used to describe the redhead, but this was awkward. And it was because of Stan's moody composure- not to point fingers or anything. When Stan raised an eyebrow waiting for Kyle to continue, he set down his bag and pulled out a folder stuffed with papers.
"Don't give me that look, just tell me if these themes are good." He shoved the papers into Stan's hands as the latter plopped onto Kyle's bed.
"Take into consideration that the entire student body does in fact have emotions." Kyle took a seat in his computer chair opposite of Stan and opened his laptop, leaving his best friend to traipse through his rejected ideas.
Stan didn't even think he would argue back at him. His words were just coming out carelessly, so it wasn't like he wanted to keep up with his bitter attitude. He just didn't really know how to stop it when he was already going with it for so long.
He dropped the papers when Kyle had handed them to him, sighing loudly. "Why do I have to do the work?" He groaned. "I'm not the one who's planning homecoming, Kyle. Besides, why do you want opinions from me if I have such a shitty attitude?"
He stood on the floor still, glancing over at him with a raised eyebrow before keeping his gaze away from his. He didn't want to do anything related to school right now, even if it were to be for prom.
Kyle swiveled violently in his chair, a look of seriousness on his face. "Because, dude, I need to know what the people like." This time, he grabbed a pencil from his desk and tapped it against his lip. "You," The pencil was pointed at Stan for emphasis, "are the people. So I need your opinion. Not my fault that you have a shitty attitude."
Turning back around, Kyle dropped the pencil at his feet and began to type. "Look, you aren't even doing any work. Just look at the list of goddamn themes and tell me what sucks and what doesn't suck." He thought briefly for a moment, if Stan would actually put some thought into this, at least enough to distract himself from such an apathetic mindset. It was starting to bum the redhead out.
"Just, you know...pick something that you would like to see at homecoming. If the dress up days for the week had a theme, then this would have already been done, but they don't. So cut me some slack, dude."
Stan sighed loudly. "No, dude. I'm not one of the people when I could hardly care less about the prom, especially when I'm not even gonna bother to go. Besides, do you even have a date? Why are you so hung up about this? I don't have a shitty attitude, okay? I just don't wanna pick something for the lame ass dress up days. You want me to put some thought into this?" He glanced down at the papers, looking away from them again. "It all sucks. There. I did my part. And I didn't even wanna be dragged into this in the first place."
He couldn't seem to get himself out of that apathetic mindset, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to get out of it, but maybe that was just his apathetic side talking. Truth is, he had been looking forward to homecoming, but that was way before right now. Now he just didn't even have the motivation. He didn't really have the motivation to do anything. Not really. Besides hanging out with his best friend, but it didn't really feel much like hanging out. It felt more like work, and he wasn't really engaged into doing that as much as Kyle was.
Kyle swiveled back in his chair, sighing over dramatically.
"First of all, the dress up days are already planned. I'm asking you to just look over the themes for the dance. My personal favorite is 'A night in Paris'." He finished sarcastically, making a gagging gesture with his fingers.
"Second of all, I don't really have time to go out looking for dates right now. I'm not asking you to do my job, I'm simply asking you to look over my goddamn theme ideas because if I don't get at least one of them approved by Wendy, I'm going to go insane!" Frustrated, Kyle pulled at his curly mess of hair and slumped down in his seat.
This would be a lot easier if Stan wasn't so...ugh lately. He needed someone to cheer him up and Kyle needed someone to keep him from losing it. This whole fucking week was going to be the death of him and if the dance wasn't perfect for Wendy, then all hell would break loose. And no one wants to see that. No doubt she'd also take it out on either Kyle- because he was supposed to be her trusted confident, or Stan- because he was her...whatever they are.
All this dating or hooking up or whatever it was called, was too complicated for Kyle to follow. He never had time for any of that shit. Sure, he found girls attractive and he has had his first kiss, but having an actual relationship was sort of an unattainable idea. Not something he particularly put on the top of his worry list.
Then again, it would be nice to have someone who he could trust to actually help him out in times of need, but that seemed too similar to a best friend to be considered a potential girlfriend. The thought of best friend forced the redhead to glance at Stan, who in turn was glaring at the paper of ideas as if to will it to spontaneously combust. Can people be best friends and still date? Or would that make things weird? Were girls weirded out by that? Kyle was pretty good friends with Bebe and even Red, but would dating them even be an option because of that? (Well, maybe first step would be as a date to the dance...)
Kyle ran a hand through his course hair, ignoring that he was using Stan as a reference for his sudden barrage of thoughts, and swiveled around aimlessly. "Can you at least tell me which one sucks the least? Like, if you weren't feeling like a sack of shit right now, what would be the theme you'd like to see at the dance?"
Stan cringed at the theme title, laughing a bit at his gagging gesture as he went make to his apathetic expression. He hated getting lectures from his best friend. He knew that he was right, and that Stan hadn't been in the best of moods lately, but he really wasn't too interested in the whole idea of Homecoming.
"You're already starting to go insane. Listen, it's just a dance. It's just Homecoming. And I can't even dance!" He groaned, rubbing at his temples as he let out another slightly louder sigh.
He knew Kyle was losing it. He usually got way too ahead of himself during projects, and he was especially becoming way too ahead of himself now. He knew the dance was going to suck, but he didn't use those exact words to Kyle. Homecoming dances always sucked, and they were always lame. That was pretty much how most of them were anyway, and he wasn't willing to give this one a chance. He knew Wendy would probably want him to go, but he still didn't wanna be pushed into going.
He didn't really know what his status was with Wendy right now. She was too caught up in trying to make Homecoming perfect that she was starting to be around Kyle more than him, but he wasn't jealous about it. He actually needed the space. He needed to clear his head, and just think through everything without being hoarded by his...girlfriend. Well, whatever they are anyway.
He didn't want to be worrying about projects right now, and he didn't want Kyle to be worrying about them either, but they were in high school. Things had changed. Kyle was starting to focus more on his studies, leaving them to hardly have time to hang out with each other anymore. He glanced up at him, biting down on his lower lip as he nodded briefly. "A night in Paris. I like that one, okay? I can be in a good mood if I try. I just don't want us to constantly be wasting our time on projects this whole school year. It's just stupid."
After typing for a few minutes and listening to Stan, the redhead swiveled in his chair and smiled. "Wait...you actually like A Night in Paris?"
Although he would never admit it, A Night in Paris was probably the better idea and his guilty pleasure. He had wanted to visit France after all. Besides being a corny theme, it was the epitome of romance. And high schools are teeming with romance...or a variation thereof.
Standing up, Kyle went to his dresser that had a mirror on it. It was basically a vanity, but his mother insisted it wasn't. Oh well, it was useful. Rubbing at his eyes and throwing off his hat to ruffle his hair, Kyle turned back towards his best friend.
"Dude, dancing is literally just a bunch of white kids and Token flopping around to whatever crap the DJ is gonna play. The slow dances are just two kids hugging and swaying side to side- not that complicated." While talking, he mimicked the kinds of dances and then sat back on his chair. "Plus it's dark so no one can see how bad everyone else looks."
Stan took a deep breath and tried to quell his anger. "If the DJ is Cartman, count me out."