Bootleggers

Kenny lay sprawled across Kyle's bed, staring aimlessly at the ceiling. Kyle was reading silently at his desk across the room. Books on prohibition, alcohol smuggling, and speakeasies were tossed across the desk, while a few lay open on the floor.

Kenny swooped one up, holding it in front of his face. It was one of those books everyone hated to read, and unfortunately for Kenny, it was like every other book Kyle had brought back from the library. The nine-point font was printed on thick construction-like paper that was soft on the corners from years of handling by avid readers and careless students. He held the book up to his nose. It smelled musty, inky and faintly of cigarettes. He flipped through the book, casually scanning the pages. Just as expected, there were no pictures, no maps, nothing that sparked his interest. He had already read books like this today. Kenny let the book fall to the floor with a satisfying thunk.

"Kyle, I'm booooored!"

"Read something," came Kyle's short response.

"I already read a few. But the books are boring, there's no pictures of naked chicks in them." Kenny rolled over onto his stomach, pouting at Kyle's back.

"You picked the topic, Ken."

"Yeah, I know." Kenny sighed. He had hoped that doing a project on the prohibition would be more about the mobsters and less about the rules that caused it. He blamed the movies for getting his hopes up. He should have known better, movies were never that historically accurate anyway. "We have to present this thing right?"

Kyle swiveled around in his chair to face Kenny. "Yeah, we have to present it in a 'creative format that expresses the information in an original way.' It's bullshit. Why can't we write an essay like a normal class?"

"Because we live in South Park and the word normal doesn't apply here." Kenny smirked. "And, if it was an essay, I'd just sit here and look hot while you did all the work."

"Yeah you're right... about me doing all the work." Kyle quickly added before Kenny could turn his comment into something perverted.

Kenny chuckled. "Well, since we wouldn't want poor Mr. Broflovski to do all the work... how about we make a comic book?"

"A comic book?"

"A historically accurate comic book like Hetalia or Achilles and Friends. I'm kicking your ass in art class, I could draw it." Kenny smiled brightly, grabbing his notebook and a blue highlighter off the floor. "Let's see. 'Prohibition Adventures', 'The Story of the Speak-Easy?'"

"What about 'Bootleggers'?" Kyle suggested with a smile.

"Love it." Kenny wrote Bootleggers across the top of the page in bold font. "So it will be about bootleggers during the prohibition. What should we call them?"

"Kirk and Sweeney. It was the name of a rum-running schooner."

"Kyle, you are brilliant." Kenny began to draw the characters underneath the title. Just for kicks, he gave 'Kirk' a thick overcoat and 'Sweeney' curly hair. It was his little way of putting Kyle and himself into the project.

"We'll follow the characters through the prohibition on their little adventures. Maybe we could have little blurbs on the pages with facts and information for the story?"

"I like where this is going." Kenny scribbled across his page, drawing a few other characters, such as a chubby man with a cigar named 'Fatman' who owned the local speakeasy where Kirk and Sweeney brought their loot, and his nervous sidekick Leo Scotch. Kenny chucked as more character ideas popped into his head. This was going to be fun.

Kyle started writing the historical 'blurbs' that would make their way into the story, along with the story line they could have. He had been worried that working with Kenny was going to be difficult, but it seemed that the project would work out perfectly: Kyle would write, Kenny would draw. Comic books were creative, and Kyle could make sure the information that went in was accurate. They were going to ace it.

"Well, I got to get home, here's the sketches, Kyle." Kenny dropped a few sheets of paper covered in highlighter sketches next to Kyle's arm.

"Hey thanks Ken." Kyle started sifting through it, impressed with Kenny's detail. He paused however, at a final picture. "Kenny? What is this picture marked 'xxx' supposed to mean?"

"Oh, that's the start of the sex scene I'm going to draw of Sweeney getting it on with 'Inspector Darsh'."

"Inspector Darsh? Darsh? Marsh? GODDAMMIT KENNY!"

Maybe this project wouldn't be as easy as Kyle thought.

I do not own anything besides Achilles and Friends and the story itself.

Author's Note

This was a gift fic for my friend Taz (astrya02) who gave me the prompts "homework, comic books, blue highlighters, gangsters, and ice cream" I got everything in there except ice cream.

I really hated it when I had to make "creative" projects in class: board games, memory boxes, posters, skits, radio shows, etc. I'd rather write an essay.

And jsyk, Achilles and Friends is my little historically accurate comic I made up in history class one day. It will just pop up in my stories from time to time.

Review if you wish, and thanks for reading.

~A.P.