Chapter 1: Kid From San Diego

"You must be excited for your first day of school, Darcy."

Darcy's uncle spoke from the kitchen table. His face hidden behind the morning newspaper. "I'm not really feeling it, uncle." The young male replied as he played with a spoonful of rice. He never understood why asians had the need to serve rice at every meal. "This town is so much different from San Diego." He added, pushing away the porcelain bowl. "Thank you for the meal." Darcy stood and took the empty bowl into the sink. He let it soak in the water before crossing the kitchen and towards the stairs. "Don't take too long, I'm driving you and Michael to school in five minutes!" His uncle called, voice a little faded from the distance.

The teen opened the door to the shared bedroom, closing it behind him softly. Yet he still received a complaint from his goth cousin. "Ugh, you fucking conformist! Can't you at least knock?" Michael groaned, his back towards the younger. Darcy rolled his dark, brown eyes and replied with silence. He hated the fact that he had to share a bedroom with his fag cousin. It was actually his stupid, parent's fault that he was here. If they didn't flip their shit at each other he wouldn't have to be sent to this damn town in the middle of fucking nowhere. Stupid mother going to Hawaii, and stupid father deciding to travel the world. Fuck those guys.

He accessed the bathroom while ignoring his cousin's complaints about their new living arrangements. "Believe me, if I could change things. I would." Darcy said to himself as he walked towards the front of the mirror. Getting ready for school, he brushed his teeth and hair. He hadn't cut it properly in the past month or so. It had grown into wavy locks ending an inch below his earlobes. 'Mom always told me to keep my hair short, oh well.' He thought bitterly as he twisted a lock between his fingers.

Darcy left the bathroom after splashing some water onto his face. It was difficult to sleep when Michael stayed up all night reading poetry with those lit candles. They were dim but it was difficult not to sleep in pitch darkness. He passed by the older male, muttering "Faggot." On his way out. This earned him a, "Fuck you, conformist bastard!" as he shut the door.

On his way downstairs, he grabbed his jacket. It was a dark green parka, and he wore it over a back shirt. His jeans were faded blue and had rips in the knees. Probably from the times he fell over when he was younger.

"Michael, it's time to leave!" His uncle called as Darcy waited at the door. He slipped on his boots, they seemed appropriate for the snow. He had already made the mistake of walking in the snow with sneakers—they were soaked to the bone after a five minute walk. He could hear Michael from behind the door complaining about the conformists and preps he was soon to face. It was the typical shit he spouted. He was never like that when they were younger, as far as he could remember.

Darcy's uncle locked the door behind them once the two teens were outside. They quickly crept into the car, both seated in the back as the car drove out of the driveway. It was an uneventful drive, filled with silence. Darcy wasn't much of a conversationalist and his cousin was a dick. So it wasn't awkward enough for him to want to speak up. He stared out towards the window as they passed what seemed like endless rows of houses. Every single one of them looked the same, except for their colour schemes.

Eventually they rode out of the neighbourhood and onto the connecting roads. They passed the closest bus stop to the houses. Beside the yellow sign stood four boys around his age. The colours whizzed past him—red, green, blue and orange—he thought idly. Darcy's head was brought back to Earth once his uncle called out to him. "Here we are." He said as he parked in one of the nearby streets. It was too early for anyone to be rushing inside and people seemed to casually catch up to their friends about the weekend and whatnot. What did people do in their free time here, anyway?

Once the car went to halt, Darcy thanked his uncle and hopped out from his seat and slammed the door behind him. "I'll pick you boys up at 3.30 right here." He claimed before backing out and driving away. Darcy turned to speak to his cousin but the black haired boy had already run off. With a belated sigh, he decided to walk off as well. This area was very foreign to him as he had just been dropped off by taxi last night.

He walked along the pavement casually, hands in his jean pockets. He noticed a few girls he passed giggle and wave at him—shyly, he waved back. There must not be a lot of good looking guys if they were waving at him. Once he found the school's front entrance Darcy breathed a sigh of relief. Behind him, the school bus had stopped and a flood of high schoolers poured from the open doors. He had considered taking the bus, but he didn't want to be forced to interact with strangers.

Students from the bus brushed past him and wandered up inside. He recognised the backs of the four boys he drove by this morning—they probably live close to one another, he thought. Darcy headed towards the principals office. It wasn't too hard to find, as it was in the middle of the four different blocks. He knocked on the door and waited for the voice to tell him to come in.

"You must be Darcy, take a seat." The principal smiled warmly at him, gesturing towards the vacant seat in front of her desk. "I am principal Summers." She introduced herself. Principal Summers wasn't an unattractive woman, actually she was quite pretty. Her hair was medium length past her shoulders, face round and youthful and she wore glasses over her large, brown eyes. She dressed modestly, but her clothes showed off her curvy figure. "I'm very happy to have you here at our school—your grades are quite excellent." She mentions, shifting through loose papers.

Darcy twiddled his thumbs, it was true that he had good grades. But they weren't exactly noteworthy. He usually scored B's and sometimes A's. He's never scored any lower than that though. "Thank you." He replied softly, rubbing his arm uncomfortably. "I understand you're from San Diego. Don't worry, the curriculum is pretty much the same and I'm confident that you'll get along with the students just fine here."

"You'll be placed in the tenth grade, your homeroom teacher is Mr. Simmons. You'll have the same class for Mathematics, English, French and P.E. You will have to choose your fifth subject and a extra curricular class, however." She continued, sliding Darcy a sheet of paper. It was grid with different subjects, their teachers, rooms, and in the case of the extra curricular classes they were run by students in his year level. "Number the classes you'd like to take. We'll try and give you you're preferences."

Darcy nodded his eyes slowly casting down onto the paper in front of him. He scanned the fifth subjects—Chemistry, Biology, Home Economics, Physics, Studio Arts, Music, Psychology, American History, World History and Business. He twirled the pen between his fingers thoughtfully. Truthfully, Darcy wasn't a creative student so he didn't particularly enjoy music or arts of any kind. He could hear the clock ticking, soon he would have to leave for class—so on a whim, he numbered the science subjects.

Next were the extra curricular activities. They seemed to be subjects for the students to get to know each other and possibly form friendships. But everyone knew they never worked. It was just another way to force people together so they'd rip on each other more.

Student Government, run by Token Black.

Student Debates, run by Kyle Broflovski.

Football, run by Stan Marsh.

Swimming, run by Sally Darson.

Cheerleading, run by Bebe Stevens.

Home Economics, run by Leopold Stotch.

The bell rang as Darcy finished reading the list. He sighed, writing random numbers in. He didn't care for any of the listed classes so it wouldn't matter where he ended up. "Thank you, we'll let you know during one of your classes." Principal Summers said as she took back the sheets of paper and handed him another set. "This is your school map, each block and room are numbered and here is your current class list. There's also a list of the students in your class; maybe you already know someone." She suggested with another warm smile.

Darcy nodded unsurely, he'd take a look later. Though to be honest he didn't really know anyone in this town. Just his cousin, his friends (other goths) and a few neighbours his uncle mentioned last night. "Well, you have fun in class now. Don't be late on your first day, alright?" She grinned, ushering him away. "Right, thank you miss." The teen nodded slightly, taking his bag from the ground and slinging it over his shoulder. He didn't utter another word to her as he left the small room. Once he left, the halls were bustling. Girls and boys, all around his age group, were chatting about this and that. Mostly about their summer break.

The new student made a sound of annoyance and pulled himself to the edge of the wall. Taking a second to glance over at his class list.

Biggle, Bradley

Black, Token

Broflovski, Kyle

Brown, Lola

Cartman, Eric

Donovan, Clyde

Faulk, Annie

Jackson, Milly

Marsh, Stan

McCormick, Kenny

Park, Darcy

Pirrup, Phillip

Stevens, Bebe

Stoley, Kevin

Stotch, Leopold

Testaburger, Wendy

Thorn, Damien

Tucker, Craig

Tucker, Red

Turner, Sally

Tweak, Tweek

Valmer, Jimmy

Webster, Esther

Young, Nelly

"Oof!" Darcy broke out of his trance as he ran into a hard figure. He looked up tirelessly from his class list, face to face with a male at least four inches taller than him. "Hey, watch it!" He sneered with his nasally voice. The taller boy wore a blue chullo hat and a blue coat of the same shade. His hair hidden behind his hat and his eyes a piercing blue. "Come on Craig, before the new teacher comes!" Another male with a similarly pitched voice called. He had brown hair and wore a red jacket. Neither of them were particularly noteworthy.

Darcy realised that he had already reached his classroom, just by walking in a straight line from the Principal's office. He shuffled at the back of the line of students. He saw those boys again, the ones with the coloured coats. But everyone seemed to have their own scheme here. It was weird. He stood behind a girl at the end. She wore a brown Gatsby cap over her chin length blond hair and a red pea coat. The girl noticed Darcy in the corner of her greyish blue eyes and smiled at him. "Why hello there!" She greeted in a thick, British accent.

"Uh, hey." Darcy replied, rubbing his arm awkwardly. It was a habit when he spoke to new people. "What's up?" He asked after a second of silence between the two. She wasn't half bad looking—somewhat thin, but that was alright. "Oh nothing but the usual. Hello, my name is Philip, but everyone calls me Pip, because they hate me." She, now apparently he spoke. Darcy's face fell just a little bit, and Pip seemed to notice it. "Everything alright there?" He asked, tilting his head to the side.

Darcy just shook his head. "No, nothing. My name's Darcy, just moved here from San Diego." He introduced, extending his hand to shake it. Pip brightened up, shaking his hand enthusiastically. "It is very nice to meet you, Darcy!" He exclaimed. His smile seemed to be pure bliss—what a strange kid. Though foreigners were weird. "Yeah, you too, Philip." He responded coolly, eyes somewhere else. But this seemed to garner a good reaction from the boy.

The line began to move into the classroom. The teacher must have arrived. Darcy adjusted the sling on his backpack and walked over inside. They weren't allowed to sit down just yet and stood in front of the desks and chairs.

"Good morning students, I am Mr. Simmons." The teacher announced. He wasn't too old, maybe in his late twenties or early thirties. He had brown hair and green eyes, with the slightest hint of stubble adorning his cheeks and chin. "I'm going to be your home room and core subjects teacher." He announced, walking towards the front of the class. Mr. Simmons wore a blue dress shirt and dark trousers, not casual but not too formal either. "Well, let's get started with the seating plan, shall we?"

There was a brief silence, filled with shuffling papers and the scuttle of shoes on the ground. The front row was filled up slowly and soon the second two were completely filled with students. It was apparent that it was done in alphabetical order, to avoid any sort of bias. Though there some complaints here and there, and few people were happy with their seating. Darcy was placed between Pip and a blond haired girl named Bebe.

"Just a moment before we all get comfortable." Mr. Simmons called from the front of his desk. "We have a new student in our class this year. Will you come up, Darcy?" He announced, eyes on the new student. Darcy looked up from his desk and sighed—did they really have to do this? Begrudgingly, he stood up from his chair. It made a loud, squeaking sound as he walked up to the front of the class. "Go ahead and introduce yourself."

Darcy glanced to the side towards his teacher, his shoulders stiff and unwilling. "Uh. My name is Darcy Park, and I'm from San Diego." He began slowly, there wasn't much to say about himself. "My parents are going away for a while, so I'm staying at my cousin's house in South Park." He continued, there appeared to be only a few eyes on him. Everyone else seemed to be bored or uncaring, so he stopped there. "Yeah, thanks." He grumbled out as he made his way back to his seat. "Fucking Japs." There was a small voice, laced with laughter as Darcy walked past.

The teacher coughed, hearing the snide comment as well. "Thank you, now let's get on to our first lesson of the year. We'll be having a pop quiz to see what you guys remember from last year's studies and what you know about the future ones." There was a resounding groan amongst the class, but Darcy remained silent. He had moved directly from his final classes, so hopefully it would be at least somewhat similar here.

Straight after Mathematics was English, and it was just as boring. The curriculum was the same, if not extremely similar. He remembered most of their work from last year and it was just so boring. He managed to chat to Pip throughout the class without much hassle from the teacher. He even slipped in some good words to Bebe. Apparently she was pretty popular and if you wanted good in with the girls, she was the one to talk to. She also tried to convince him to join the cheerleading team. Darcy didn't want to try too hard to get people on his good side—but he didn't want to be that new kid everyone hated.

The first bell rang and everyone happily leapt out of their seats. The atmosphere became loud and light and the class began to talk and chatter like they did before school. He didn't have much to talk about, so he just walked beside Pip as they left. Pip was a strange character and Darcy liked to listen to his accent. It was pretty thick and he stood out a lot because of it. The way he dressed was strange too, but despite all that he was pretty feminine.

"So you guys just eat out at the cafeteria?" Darcy finally asked as he shuffled through his locker. He was in between Pip and Bebe, again, it must have been sorted the same way. "Why yes, but I eat by myself. No one likes me here." Pip responded with another one of his smiles. Darcy shot him a worried glance. Did people really not like this kid? He thought that was pretty strange, considering he was nice to look at and he wasn't an asshole. He couldn't say the same for the fat tub of lard in their class.

"By the way, Pip." Darcy had gotten in the habit of calling him that now. But he made it clear that he didn't hate him. "Who's the jerk who keeps shouting slurs in class?" He asked, closing his locker and locking it. He had taken out a drink and decided to leave his food for later lunch. "Oh, well." Pip began, eyes straying to stare above thoughtfully. "No one likes him, really. He's just a real bastard!" He said after a moment. "I mean.. I'm not one to use this word strongly, but I really, really hate him." Pip decided, looking down.

Darcy frowned, following his friend's gaze. "Oh well. I guess I'll watch out, huh?" He said lightly. The blond looked back up to smile at him, but he was shaken by a shove. The Damien kid in their class had brushed past him, glancing over his shoulder to send a deep, menacing glare his way. Pip shuddered visibly, the energy that boy gave off wasn't cool. "Hey—!" Pip touched Darcy's shoulder. "Please, don't." He pleaded, eyes filled with concern.

The teen simmered down and let it go. He trusted Pip's judgement to not follow through. He didn't want to start anything on the first day. ".. Fine, let's just get to the cafeteria before there's nowhere to sit." He breathed, allowing his friend to show him the way down the halls.

They walked in through the large double doors. There were dozens of tables and seats to accommodate the students. There were few that weren't used and many that were overflowing with people seated at them. He could pick up where the older kids sat and where the younger ones did. The older kids sat near the back, taking up the further wall. And the younger, newer kids to the school took up the area closer to the front entrance. Everyone in the middle took up the middle rows—this wasn't too surprising. He and Pip decided to follow in where their classmates were sitting.

"Hey, Darcy, over here!" Bebe called as he walked by. He glanced over for just a moment, and then back to Pip. His friend just smiled at him and went to go sit down. "I'll be back." He offered his friend a trustworthy smile and left him to go speak with the other blond. The arguably more pretty one. "You haven't met any of the other girls, have you?" She asked as he stood by at the end of the table, next to her. "Er, no. I haven't." He admitted.

Bebe grinned, her lips coated in a faint, pink gloss. "This is Wendy." She nudged towards the girl sitting beside her. Darcy scratched the back of his head sheepishly, nodding in her direction. "Single, as of recent, and probably the smartest girl in class." Bebe claimed, and most of the other girls at the table seemed to agree with her. He got the hint, but said nothing of it. She then continued to list off the other girls in class; Lola, Annie, Milly, Red, Sally, Esther and Nelly. He thought he got all of them down correctly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you ladies—I look forward to spending the rest of the year with you." Darcy said at the end of their introductions. He managed to get a few giggles out of them. "Well, I'll catch you later then. I'm keeping a friend waiting." He announced, glancing over at Pip, eating by himself. He noticed some of the boys from their table were teasing him and flinging food at him. "That's fine. I'll talk to you later, Darcy!" Bebe called, allowing him to leave.

Sighing, he sat down next to Pip. "Well, glad that's over. To be honest I just want to sit down and relax." He said to his blond friend, who just nibbled on his biscuits. "By golly, I never got that sort of attention when I moved here." He claimed, dusting his hands on his coat. "But I suppose that was a long time ago—third grade I believe." Darcy nodded, listening. "So that was some time ago, wasn't it?" He asked, and Pip just nodded.

They spent the rest of their lunch in silence. Darcy stared idly towards the wall. They were painted grey and chipping at the corners. This room was dreary, and not many people wanted to go outside. There were obscure posters lining the walls. He didn't understand most of them. It was snowing but not terribly cold at that. Just chilly—but he himself didn't want to go outside either. It was warm here.

The bell rang some minutes later and himself and Pip dragged themselves up from their seats. "We have P.E now, don't we?" Darcy asked, and his friend nodded in affirmative. He sighed, that was his one class that he didn't do too greatly in. By all means he wasn't overweight or physically unfit. He was quite lean and could do most of the tasks—but was quite lazy. Running, moving and doing all of those things.. it was pretty boring. He wasn't a competitive person and often faltered in that scene.

Reaching the gym took no time at all and they found their way into the boy's changing room. Though not with a few hollers from the girls as he passed through. He wondered absent-mindedly why they were on his case like that—hopefully it would pass in a few days. Pip and himself walked into the private room and settled themselves near the end to get changed. The guys from their class were already there, chatting about who knows what.

"Hey, new kid!" Darcy was just about ready to remove his shirt when he was approached by a male with black hair—similar to the one he ran into this morning. But he gave off a much nicer demeanour. "Yeah?" He replied, arching his brow slightly. He then proceeded to remove his shirt over his head. Replacing it with his sport uniform. "Come here." He gestured, already in his gym uniform. Though he could see through it that he was reasonably toned and well built. Must like sports.

Darcy unwillingly walked towards the boy and his group. He didn't remember their names too well. "Name's Stan." Stan greeted, stretching his hand out. Darcy took it and shook, "Right. Darcy." He nodded, proceeding with the manly exchange. "So he's it going?" He began, his friends hovering around him. Darcy noted the particular look he was receiving from the fat one. "Uh, fine." Darcy responded unsurely. He didn't believe one of the popular guys would approach him for no reason. "Is there something you need?" Darcy finally asked.

The red haired boy chimed in, "Well, yeah! You know how you're the new guy in school." He brought up, Darcy thought his name was Kyle-something-ski. "You need to do your initiation to become one of us." He claimed, looking towards one of the other guys in his group. Kenny said something muffled but it seemed to be him agreeing.

".. I'm not doing anything illegal." Darcy said slowly, eyeing Stan curiously. He didn't want to be led into stupid traps boys set up for each other to get them into trouble. Popularity wasn't worth the cost of jail. "No, no it isn't anything like that." Stan spoke up again, shaking his head. "Look." He began again, sliding his arm around Darcy's shoulder, pulling him close. "You're pretty cosy with Bebe, aren't you?" He asked, earning another stare from the boy. "I guess." He answered.

"Well, Bebe and the girls keep a list." Clyde spoke up from the group, eyes narrowed towards Darcy. "It's a list that numbers the boys in class, from cutest to ugliest." He continued. There was a soft murmur amongst the group, clearly this issue had been raised before. "N-N-None of us have been close enough to the girls to take a look at this list. E-Especially since what happened l-last time." Jimmy barely spoke out.

"Darcy—we need that list. And you are going to get it for us." Stan said, poking him in the chest.

A/N: Thanks for reading :)

Name: Darcy Park

Origin: Asian-American

Age: 16

Height: 5'6"

Hair: Black

Eyes: Brown

Here are the class rows:

Bradley, Token, Kyle, Lola, Eric, Clyde, Annie, Milly.

Stan, Kenny, Darcy, Pip, Bebe, Kevin, Butters, Wendy

Damien, Craig, Red, Sally, Tweek, Jimmy, Esther, Nelly