Hey, guys! I'm back from a 4-year hiatus with brand new stuff. Hope you enjoy this! I tend to switch points of view every chapter or so, so hopefully you don't mind that. Also, I'm gonna add the disclaimer that I don't own South Park.

.Kyle's Point of View.

"Look, dudes," I began as the 4 of us arrived at the Denver airport and got out of the car. "Be cool. She's staying the summer with me and I'd really like it if you could be decent. Okay?" I looked pointedly at Kenny, before giving a piercing glare at the fatass sitting right beside him. "I don't want to scare her off."

"We're cool," Kenny said with a smooth grin at me before throwing an arm over my shoulders. "You know I'll treat her right." He laughed when I threw his arm off, getting his meaning.

"No, Kenny," I said with a frown. That guy would sleep with anyone, wouldn't he?

"So, why exactly is she here, dude?" Stan asked.

"She wanted to come visit all of us and meet us in person, so we made plans for her to stay with me the summer," I answered with a shrug. "So I got the okay from my parents and she bought a plane ticket."

"Sweet," Stan said. "I'm surprised they're letting a girl spend the summer with you."

"She's staying in the guest room," I said. "That was the only agreement, even though I don't think my parents really care too much. I don't usually have girls over." I shrugged again. "Still though, you're right-I'm surprised my mom's so cool with it."

"I think they're just glad to finally know for sure you're not queer," Kenny said, nudging me in the side. That little grin on his face was really rubbing me the wrong way.

I glared at him, deciding that I would save myself some embarrassment and not reply to his comment. "Anyways, we should probably head to the terminal. She should be getting her luggage right about now." I snuck a look at Cartman as we began walking into the terminal. He wasn't acting normal, and I vaguely wondered what was going on. He was always ripping on people, 99% of the time, but was strangely-suspiciously-quiet today.

"So, do you know what Dahlia looks like?" Stan asked me, taking off his red-and-blue hat to run his fingers through his black hair. He put the hat back on, looking at me. "She's only got like, one picture on Facebook. And that's not even of her face."

"Yeah," I said, pulling out my phone. Dahlia Manning (the girl I was picking up) and I texted every day, and she'd sent me a few photos so that I'd know what she looked like. She'd confided in me once before about not really trusting her pictures on the internet-she knew a few people personally that had their pictures stolen(and naturally that made her paranoid, not that I blamed her). I flipped through my gallery, to find one of her face to show the guys. "Here, this is what she looks like." I passed my phone around.

"She's a ginger?!" Cartman demanded, holding the phone merely inches from his nose. "You fucking Jew faggot, she's a ginger." He slammed my phone down in my hand, clearly enraged at the fact that the girl that was going to be spending the summer at my house had red hair.

"What the hell is the problem?" I demanded, glaring at him.

"She's a ginger, that's the fucking problem," he said with an equally menacing glare. "We don't need two gingers in the group."

"Quit being so petty, fatass," I ground out through bared teeth. "I thought you grew up." He just flipped me off, flopping down in a seat and taking his phone from his pocket. I rolled my eyes. Even being 18, Cartman still acted like he did when we were kids. He would never change, and we had all pretty much gotten used to him by now. Clearly.

"She's pretty cute," Kenny said with a nod of approval. "For once, the hot voice matches the face."

I chuckled at that, scanning the crowd for someone matching her description. After a long while of not seeing her, I decided to check my messages. Maybe the flight had a delay and I'd missed her message…

"Hey, guys," I heard a familiar voice say, and looked over to see a short redhead making her way over to where we stood. She had multiple piercings (bridge, 3 lip, multiple ear, and was there one in her eyebrow?) and a cute smile on her face. "Stan, right?" She looked up at him and put out her hand to shake. "Nice to meet you. I'm Dahlia. You know, the bitch you play WoW with." She winked at him.

"Hey," he said. "And yeah, I'm Stan."

She looked at Kenny, who grinned at her. "I'm Kenny. And lardo in the chair is Cartman." He pointed at the brunette, making her giggle.

"Gotcha. And Kyle, it's nice to finally meet you in person," she said, throwing her arms around me in a quick hug. "Now I have a face to put with the voice and the texts. Well, a real face. Pictures don't do you justice, my friend."

"Ah, yeah," I said with a grin, and likely a blush. "How was the flight?"

"Long," she said, rolling her eyes. "It took for-fucking-ever to get here. Probably since I had to get up at 3:00 this morning. I'm pooped."

I laughed as we all headed out of the terminal, to my car. "I'm glad you made it alright. Are you hungry, at all? It's going to take a while to get back home, so if you want to we can stop somewhere to eat."

"Whatever you guys want to do," She said with a grin. "I'm just along for the ride. Besides, you live around here so you know all the best places to stop."

"Let's go to Raisins," Kenny offered from his seat in the back and I could hear the smile in his voice.

"No way dude, there's a girl with us." I shot back at the blond. "And it's about an hour away."

"Yeah Kenny, that's rude," Stan said in my favor. At least he was on my side in this. ...Or maybe that was just because Wendy would bitch him out if she caught wind he was there. Now that I thought about it, I was convinced that was the real reason.

Dahlia looked at me, cocking her head to the side. "What's Raisins?"

I rolled my eyes and looked in the rearview mirror at Kenny (who was, of course, still smiling-he knew he'd won). He nodded with a thumbs up at me and I began to talk. "You don't want to go there Dahlia, it's lame."

His shoulders slumped before he and Cartman let out a moan, clearly wanting to go and didn't giving two shits about courtesy. "It's the best place to get wings around here. God, you stupid Jew," Cartman spat. "You ruin everything."

Dahlia snickered, "Oh, let's go then. I love wings."

A facepalm was never more appropriate. I was going to kill Kenny as soon as we got out of this fucking car. For now all I could do was mentally kick myself and try to get her to change her mind. "You sure? I mean there's burger joints and Chinese too. Wouldn't you rather have something like that?"

"Kyle..." She leaned in, raising her brow at me, a sly look on her face. "All of you are making a big deal about this place so I want to go and check it out. You can try and persuade me all you want, but it's not going to work."

Kenny burst out laughing at my expression. Oh, yeah. He was going to be wearing my foot up his ass. "Well, Dahlia…" I started, chewing my lip a little. "Raisins is just a smaller version of Hooters."

"So the girls have small tits?" She asked, widening her eyes to look innocent. Nevermind that she raised her hands to cup her own breasts and I knew my face had to have been at least a dark pink. Kenny and Cartman roared in laughter, and even Stan had to snort, though he was the only one nice enough to cover it with a cough. "Not that I mind, really, cause whether there's boobs involved or not, I still like wings." She shrugged with a wave of her hand. "I think majority rules in this case." The hands went into the pockets of her hoodie as my own shoulders slumped and I avoided her gaze.

I sighed. "Okay, okay, fine. You win."

Kenny cheered, high-fiving the fatass and reaching over the seat to clap Dahlia on the shoulder.

"Alright!" Cartman crowed as we pulled into the parking lot of Raisins, about an hour or so later. "Spicy 5-sauce wings here I come."

"Don't tell me you're going to do that stupid challenge again, Cartman." Stan rolled his eyes. "You always eat too much and spend the rest of the day bitching."

"Of course I am, Stan. I'm the champion. I have to keep my flawless record." He liked to throw that in everyone's face. He does it every year and has been the title holder for going on 6 years now. He's only been challenged once, and since completely crushing the opponent, hasn't been asked again. Not that anyone in their right mind would.

"Challenge?" Dahlia asked, looking at all of us then settling her eyes on Stan, instead of me this time.

"Yes. They hold a contest every year. It's to see who can eat the most wings in 20 minutes or under, depending on who hurls first. The spicy 5-sauce wings are the hottest ones they have. I can barely eat 3 without getting a runny nose. Cartman here, has the record for eating 50 wings. That's the most anyone's ever eaten and in such a short time. He's the only one brave enough to do that fucking challenge."

"What do you get for breaking the record?" Dahlia asked, seeming truly curious and somewhat interested in said challenge. I looked at her in a little surprise. She wasn't really going to, was she..?

Cartman held his stomach as he burst into laughter. "Why do you care? It's not like you can beat me."

"What makes you think I can't, Cartman?" She furrowed her eyebrows and poked him in the chest.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're a girl. A little one." He completed his statement by opening his thumb and index finger about an inch apart.

"And?" Her words were practically dripping with anger and frustration.

"Girls can't beat guys. Girls aren't good at anything. And besides, you're a ginger. Gingers suck."

I watched as the two of them fought. Dahlia's face turned bright red, her eyes narrowing, and she was gritting her teeth. There was no mistaking it. She was pissed. I put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it."

"Oh, no, Kyle. I'm past that point. He's going to eat his fucking words," she said, as one of the Raisins girls came to seat us. When we all got settled and ordered our drinks, Dahlia flipped through the menu, her eyes moving non-stop until she found what she wanted. "That's it. I'm gonna challenge you to an eat-off, fatass. I think I can take you."

"Shiiiiit," he said with an arrogant smirk at her. "I'll bet you can't handle 5 of 'em."

"In 20 minutes? You're out of your fucking mind," She said, the challenge definitely showing in her bright green eyes. "No, I'm pretty sure I can beat your stupid ass. You eat 50, I'll eat 51. No matter how much you shove in that big mouth of yours, I am going to one-up you." She grinned then. "I'm good at eating."

"How about this—if you beat me, but you throw up, you lose and have to pay for all our food. And I can rip on you the entire time you're here. If I lose—which I won't, I can't lose to a fucking girl—I'll have to pay for everything," he said. He held out a hand for her to shake. "Deal?"

"You're on, tubby," she said, shaking his hand. "Prepare to lose."

"There's no way in hell I'd lose to you," he snapped back, preparing to attack the waitress with his order. Once she came back, he grinned. "You know what I always order."

"Sure, cutie," she said, flipping her black hair over her shoulder. She looked at me and smiled, putting a hand on my back. "What would you like?" I coughed a bit, before smiling at her and ordering a Chicken sandwich with a side of fries. Stan laughed, ordering the same thing as me. Kenny pretty much echoed our order. "Okay, sweeties. And you, miss?" She smiled cutely at Dahlia, who merely smirked and handed her the menu.

"I think I'll do the challenge as well," she said. "Just give me lots of milk and napkins."

"Are you sure, sweetie?" She asked, eyes wide. "Nobody's ever beat him before, and you don't really look like you could. I mean, it would be amazing if you could but you can't possibly eat that much with the figure you have. 50 wings would make you explode, like, all over the place!" She waved her arms, and Dahlia just laughed, assuring everyone she'd be perfectly fine, she'd done something like this before. "Okay, sweetie, if you're totally sure, then I can bring them out to you."

"Aw, honey, I'm more than sure," she said with a syrupy sweet grin at Cartman. "I've taken on bigger losers where I come from. I won't even break a sweat."

"That's big talk coming from a stupid ginger bitch," Cartman said with a grin of his own. "You can't do it!"

"Oh, bless your heart," She said with a smile, blowing a kiss at him (I still wasn't quite sure what that meant but apparently that was a pretty big insult in the south). She didn't seem as angry now, but I knew that she had something up her sleeve to take on a fatass motherfucker like Cartman. I could only watch and see what happened.

Fifteen minutes later, both Cartman and Dahlia were covered up to their elbows in hot wing sauce, with a pile of wing bones sitting in front of each of them. Dahlia didn't have nearly as much sauce smeared around her mouth, since she wiped it off and took a swig of milk after each wing she ate. Her face nearly matched her hair, and she occasionally sniffled, but continued to eat. I had to give it to her—the girl could definitely pack it away. There was no telling where she was putting it, but she ate a shit ton of hot wings—keeping up with Cartman the entire time. He was only ahead by maybe a half, but she was either catching up fast, or the fatass was slowing down. Either way, he didn't look like he'd be eating much more at all. I noticed that he began to pale a little bit, even though most of his face was as red as Dahlia's.

She paused for a second to look at him. "You're not looking so good, tubby."

"Shut up, bitch," he wheezed, attempting to eat one last one before the time ran out. He raised it to his mouth, wrinkling his nose slightly—just enough for me to notice, I wasn't sure about anyone else—before biting into it. As he did, he gagged, before turning and heaving every single one of the wings he'd eaten into the wastebasket beside him.

"Awww, duuuude," Stan groaned, looking away. His face had a little tinge of green to it, as well. Stan had never done well around sickness, and now was no exception. He would probably have thrown up too, if it hadn't been for the loud cheers of the restaurant covering up the sound of Cartman's vomiting. "Well, I guess Dahlia wins this one."

"Fuck you, fatass, I told you I could do it, and guess what? I'm not the one puking now, am I?!" She laughed in delight. "And on top of not puking, I ate 52 to your 51. So…Fuck." She flipped him off with one hand. "You." She then flipped him off with the other hand. "Kiss. My. Ass." The only response he could manage while throwing up was to flip her off. She merely laughed, chugging the rest of her milk.

"Like, Oh, my God, sweetie, that was so cool! No one has ever beat him before, especially at eating!" our waitress, named Porsche, exclaimed, a grin across her face.

Dahlia laughed again, winking at Porsche. "I told you not to worry, didn't I…?" She then stood, asking Porsche to follow her to the bathroom, so she didn't get sauce all over the place while she washed her hands. Porsche followed, happily chattering to Dahlia along the way.

"Goddamn, she just gets better and better!" Kenny said with a wide grin at me. "She's a beast! And if she's anything like that in bed…" He let the sentence trail, winking slyly at me.

I glared at him and looked down, feeling my face turn hot. Kenny always picked on me for my behavior around females. Not that I was shy, exactly…I just tended to get tongue tied in front of pretty girls and make a complete fool out of myself. The one who really didn't care about that was Bebe Stevens, a girl who had been obsessed with my ass since the fourth grade. "Dude, I am not sleeping with her."

Kenny shrugged innocently. "I never said you had to, now did I?"

I narrowed my eyes at him as I snatched a french fry off my plate. "No, but you're implying that someone is going to. I'm not doing it. I don't care how badly you want me to get laid."

He laughed. "Suit yourself." At that he took a fry off his plate and nodded toward the bathrooms. "Here she comes now."

"I'm not ask—"

"That's much better," Dahlia sighed as she sat down. She stretched her arms out, smiling. "I no longer look like I bathed in hot sauce." She wrinkled her nose. "Even if I do happen to smell like it."

"I don't know how much of a compliment this is but I think you smell pretty damn good," Kenny grinned at her. I have to give it to him. I thought. That was pretty smooth.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "If you say so." Her face cracked into a wide smile and she laughed. "But I'll take the compliment." She leaned her head back against the top of the chair, holding her stomach and taking a deep breath. "I'm so fucking full…If I don't see another chicken wing for the next 6 months, it will be just fine with me."

I chuckled at her and she looked at me. "Dude, I still can't believe you beat him."

She laughed. "I'd flex but I'm afraid that if I move I'll explode," she said, making us laugh.

Stan tossed a disgusted glance at Cartman, who was still leaned over the wastebasket. He wasn't puking anymore, just the occasional spit, but he still didn't look too good. I snickered. Stupid fatass got what was coming to him.

After a few moments of chatting and letting the food settle, Dahlia sighed and smiled at us, stretching. "Well that was certainly fun…"She winked at me. "Promises for a good summer, I suppose."

I nodded, grinning back at her. "Yeah," I said. I couldn't think of anything else to tack on after that, so I paused, cleared my throat, and looked at the rest of the group. "So…got anything else you want to do after we leave here?"

Stan looked like he wanted to say something before being interrupted by his phone vibrating. He looked at it and sighed. "You're gonna have to drop me off at Wendy's, dude. She's pretty insistent that I come over." He gave Dahlia a sheepish look. "Sorry I have to bail so soon."

She held up a hand. "No problem. I'm here all summer, and I doubt your girlfriend would want you blowing her off for another woman." She smiled. "There's plenty of time for us all to get to know each other."

I could almost see Kenny's knowing grin aimed in my direction, along with a sly wink Dahlia was not supposed to see. Get to know each other…right. I knew exactly what was running through the blond's head-I'm not going to say he was always this lecherous, but generally if there was a hot girl in the vicinity, he was hellbent on getting said girl in bed with me. I knew he was going to try doubly hard since she was staying at my place. I nearly grimaced at the thought, but decided against making any faces. I decided to nod in response to her instead.

"You're right," Kenny said, standing from the table as we all got ready to go. Cartman took the longest, slowly getting up from his chair and waddling to the front of the restaurant to pay.

Dahlia leaned close to me, watching Cartman walk away. "I think fat boy overdid it, yeah?"

I nodded. "Serves him right," I muttered to her, making her laugh.

"He'll be alright," Kenny said, casually draping an arm over her shoulders. His blue eyes twinkled as he looked at her. "It's not the first time he's done this, and it sure as hell won't be the last." He laughed. "Don't worry about him."

"If you say so," she said, looking up at him, since he had quite a few inches on her. "Even though it doesn't look like we'll be the best of friends, I do feel kind of sorry for him." She snickered then. "Then again, it did get us free food, so I guess I don't feel that bad. Maybe if he was less of a dick."

Kenny and I laughed. "Good point," he said to her as Cartman came back. I didn't miss the dirty look he shot both the blond and the redhead as he headed toward the door we came in, and neither did they, judging by the way Dahlia snickered again. We followed him out, Stan right behind us. From his silence, he was either texting Wendy or getting ready to.

We piled in the car, Kenny and Cartman in the backseat, with Stan, Dahlia and I up front—part of me dared to think she wanted to stay close to me because she liked me, but the other, more rational part of me thought that was a silly thing to think and it was merely because I had talked to her more than the others and of course she'd feel better closer to me because we were friends and she knew me-nothing more. That was it. It was better to think that I was friendzoned already so I wouldn't accidentally crush on her and get hurt… God, I wanted to punch myself in the face. This was so goddamn pathetic.

After a moment of silent driving as I pulled out of the restaurant parking lot, I searched for something to say. I felt a little awkward, even though this was Dahlia we were chilling with, the same girl I'd played World of Warcraft with for the past couple of years. The only difference between this and playing online is that her toon's attractiveness could not hold a candle to the real thing, sitting right beside me, lightly brushing my arm with hers…Whoa, dude, calm down, I told myself. This is not the time to embarrass yourself. Not on the first day.

Cartman let out a pitiful groan, which we all ignored.

I could see Dahlia fiddling with something out of the corner of my eye and snuck a peek. It was the strings to her black and pink hoodie. Maybe she felt as awkward as the rest of us? I looked at Kenny in the rearview, just to discover that he was looking thoughtfully out the window.

"Dude, you gonna be okay?" asked Kenny softly, and my eyes flicked upwards once more. He was looking at Cartman in concern. The only response was another groan and Kenny made a face. "Yo, Kyle…you may need to stop by the store. He's not lookin' so hot."

I saw Stan's face pale slightly, noticing he looked a little green in the face. He looked at me and nodded, and I knew what he was thinking. If Cartman didn't get any meds, there would be two messes for me to clean out of my car, possibly more if Dahlia was a sympathy puker. I flipped the blinker on, pulling into the grocery store parking lot, and we got out of the car quickly. Cartman took a few deep breaths, and Dahlia went to him, her hand on his arm. She talked to him quietly—I wasn't able to hear anything she said, but I figured everything was alright when she smiled and patted his shoulder, and he didn't make an attempt to push her away. She looked up at me. "So. We gonna go in?"

I nodded. "Yeah." My eyes searched the parking lot for a split second, and finding the car I was searching for, I grinned. "Butters is working today. You wanted to meet him too, didn't you?"

She grinned widely. "Of course!"

Her smile was infectious, so I grinned with her and led her in the store. She searched a moment or two, and upon hearing his voice, looked at me in question. I merely nodded at her before she took off at full speed and nearly launched herself at him. "Hey!" I heard her say cheerily.

"W-well, hiya," he stuttered as I walked up. His face was bright red and he was staring at her in confusion. "D-Do I know you?"

"Well…" She began. "I'm Dahlia, from WoW. So technically, yes, you do know me but this is the first time we're meeting in person." She smiled at him, running her fingers through her hair before holding her hand out to shake. "It's nice to finally meet you. I like being able to put you guys' faces with your voices now."

"Oh!" He said, shaking her hand. "Nice to meet you too, Dahlia! I didn't know you were comin' to visit!" His face was starting to return to the normal color but it was still red. I wanted to laugh at him, knowing exactly how he felt just now. "How long are you stayin'?"

"I'll be here for the summer," she said. "College n' shit…you know how it is. I have to be back home the first of August."

"Oh, okay," he said, nodding. I could feel the awkwardness coming from him, and I knew why. He hadn't yet decided what he wanted to do and sometimes talking about college could be a touchy subject for him due to his parents. His parents were dicks. "Oh, hey Kyle. I didn't see ya there. Are the rest of the fellers with you?"

"Yeah, they have to go get fatass some meds—he ate too much at Raisins again and is puking all over the place." I rolled my eyes. "Dahlia challenged him to an eat off, and he lost."

Butters looked impressed. "Oh wow! Nobody's ever beat him before! How'd ya do it?"

She laughed. "Very carefully, but I definitely won't be doing that again for a while. I haven't eaten that much in years."

"You're not gonna be sick too, are you?" I asked, looking at her. At her look, I laughed. "I was just wondering."

"I'm perfectly fine, thank you," she said haughtily, sticking her nose up in the air. "I'm no lightweight when it comes to food." She looked down at her flat stomach and made a face. "Though I'm sure that I've packed on a few pounds with that little stunt. Ugh."

Kenny walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, leaning down beside her ear. "You are perfect," he said, and I noticed the look in his blue eyes. I could only describe it as a hunger, and he looked like he'd devour her if provided the opportunity. "I wouldn't worry about your weight right now."

Dahlia's eyes got wide as she turned around to look at him. She gasped, coming face to face with him, her nose nearly touching his. "Oh, hi, Kenny," she said, her face nearly as red as her hair. "You scared me."

He laughed, letting her go and running his fingers through his messy blonde hair. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." He flashed a smile at her before looking at Butters. "Hey, dude."

"Hey, Kenny," Butters said back, looking between the two of them. I could tell he was wondering about the familiarity between them but knowing his personality, he wouldn't ask. Or...he'd ask one of us later on, if he thought about it.

"Wendy's about to get on my last fucking nerve," I heard Stan mutter as he and Cartman walked up behind Kenny. He kept looking at his phone and I could see the look in his dark eyes. Wendy had been especially clingy and whiny for the past couple of months, which is about as long as they'd known about Dahlia coming (I'd known sooner than that but hadn't yet wanted to share). It was almost like she was afraid Stan would leave her for the redhead—even after being assured that Dahlia was no threat at all. She wasn't interested in Stan (well, to be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure she was interested in any of us), but Wendy didn't seem to get that. I had to admit, I felt bad for Stan. "I'm about to tell her to fuck off and leave me be…"

"Do it," Cartman urged. It was always very plain to see how much Cartman disliked Wendy. (I think some of it stemmed from back in the fourth grade when Wendy beat the shit out of him for making fun of a report she did, if I remember correctly. And probably some unreciprocated feelings in there at some point as well.)

Stan looked torn. On one hand, I could see him telling Wendy no, because she'd known about us picking up Dahlia for so long, and on the other I could see him wanting to avoid the inevitable fight that would ensue if he did tell her no. He finally sighed heavily before shoving his phone in his pocket and looking at me. "Don't worry about taking me to Wendy's."

"You sure, dude?" I asked.

"She's bugging the shit out of me. I'm tired of hearing it—all she's going to do if I go over there is ask me stupid questions because she's fucking jealous," he said with a shrug. "So I'm not doing it today."

I nodded. Butters looked around, and upon seeing who I assume was a manager, excused himself to go back to work before he got into trouble. Cartman, Stan and Kenny had already picked up anti-nausea pills, and we went to check out. Dahlia picked a soda up out of the cooler, then looked at the rest of us. "Want one? It's on me." The rest of us took advantage of her offer (though I felt a little guilty doing so, she assured me it was the least she could do and didn't mind at all), and we finished checking out, making our way to the parking lot.

Stan's phone rang loudly, the ringtone obviously belonging to Wendy. He ignored it the first time, but when the second, third time rolled around, he answered it. The rest of us decided to go to the arcade to waste time and money while Stan pretty much argued with his girlfriend. Dahlia looked like she wanted to make a comment but decided against it. It wasn't like Stan never vented about Wendy over TeamSpeak while playing WoW, and she'd had different things to say about Wendy's attitude, but I supposed it was a little different when we were actually in person.

"You're totally sure about blowing her off, Stan?" Dahlia finally asked him. She was quiet about it, a concerned look on her face. "You really don't have to do it on my account."

He nodded. "Yeah."

She let it drop then, and nothing else was said until we arrived at the arcade.

"Oh, hi, Kyle," my mom said as we walked in the front door. She was in the kitchen fixing dinner, and had the house smelling really great. "And you must be Dahlia."

Dahlia smiled and nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Thank you for letting me stay with you some this summer." Her face was pink, and she hung back a little bit. "I appreciate it so much."

"Well, you're very welcome," my mom said back. "I'm Sheila."

"Nice to meet you," Dahlia bit her lip and inched a little closer to me. We walked to the guest bedroom, carrying her belongings. "Your mom seems nice."

"She has her moments," I said back with a grin. "She's usually okay though."

"I'm really nervous," she said as we got in the bedroom and plopped her bags down in a corner. She sat on the bed and bit her lip. She looked at me, twirling her hair around her finger.

"Why? Nothing to be nervous about," I tried to reassure her. I managed to get a smile out of her. "Besides, if you're scared of my mom, there's no need to be. We probably won't be spending a lot of time here anyways."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I just…I dunno. I just want to make a good impression, ya know?" She pointed to her bridge and lip piercings. "Also, these."

I nodded. "I know," I said. "Don't worry about it. If my mom doesn't like you, she can kiss my ass." I smiled at her then, and was glad to hear her giggle. "Believe me, I've let her know about those and she promised not to say anything."

"Thanks, Kyle," she said with a brilliant grin. "You always seem to know the right things to say."

I felt my face redden. "I don't know about that…"

Time passed by quickly as we waited on dinner to get fixed, chatting amongst ourselves. She mainly asked about the guys, and I answered, but it was nice to get a one on one conversation with her. It wasn't as if we hadn't talked like this before, but it was so much different in person. I could actually see her face, and watch her body language as she spoke. It probably wasn't a good idea. I like her so damn much, I thought before I caught myself. I was almost relieved to hear my mom call us for dinner…almost.

Dinner that night was a little awkward (at least for me it was), with my parents all but interrogating Dahlia about anything and everything they could think of. I felt sorry for her, but judging by the lighthearted way she laughed and answered everything they wanted to know, I assumed it didn't bother her. After a while, my parents seemed pleased with her responses and they stopped with the invasive questions…or so I had thought. "So, Dahlia," my mom began. "How long have you and my Kyle been dating?"

I could tell the question threw her off—it did me, anyway. She blushed so hard her face looked like a fire engine and I could imagine mine didn't look much different. "Um…well..." She swallowed, looking at me. "We're not exactly dating…just friends."

"Friends with benefits?" My brother Ike asked, raising an eyebrow at me. He had a knowing grin on his face.

"What, what, what?!"Mom's face turned red then, and I'm sure the three of us matched in terms of face color.

"Shut up, Ike," I snapped, kicking my brother under the table. "No, mom, we're just friends. The regular kind of friends."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I'm just one of the guys. I promise." She bit her lip.

"Well, we're not worried about our Kyle starting anything," my mother said, and I wanted to smack her. Did she really think Dahlia would…? After telling me she would try not to say anything embarrassing? Good fucking job, Mom.

"I can assure you that you don't have to worry about me, Mrs. Broflovski," Dahlia said politely. "I have way too much respect for you guys to do anything that you wouldn't approve of. After all, you are nice enough to let me stay in your house for the duration of my visit."

My mom seemed pretty happy with that response, and the genuine way Dahlia said it, and let the subject drop. After a few more moments of friendly chatting, Dahlia finished her food and excused herself to take a shower. I noticed Ike appreciating her rear as she walked off and I kicked him as hard as I could under the table. He yelped, causing my parents both to give me dirty looks and expecting me to explain myself. Typical Ike, getting me into trouble…

Once the ruckus was settled, I went up to my room to change clothes and find something to do to kill time until I was tired, since I didn't plan to go anywhere else, and I'm sure Dahlia had had her fill of sightseeing and travelling today. It had been a better day than I had expected, especially with Cartman and his sorry-ass attitude. If this was any indication of how the summer was going to go, I was looking forward to whatever it threw our way.

This story's pretty much complete. I'm adding stuff on the end, but don't worry-I have plenty more before you have to worry about whether or not you'll see the ending. Also, a part 2 is in the works with brand new OC's and brand new ideas. Hope you enjoy!