hanging out at the village green
South Park High School was home to a lot of strange people and weird things, just like South Park Middle School was a hotbed of hormones and testosterone, just like South Park Elementary was a soup of maladjusted prepubescent brats. No one was getting a good education, book-wise, at any institution, no matter what their grades said. The South Park, Colorado schools, however, were a pretty good place to learn about life.
Everyone had their moment in the South Park school system when they realized there was something about their life that was lacking. Some of these epiphanies had to do with love, as most epiphanies in high school were wont to deal with. Some involved future careers, which were likely to be fully out of reach, but there was nothing to stop a dream. And all of the children that passed through eventually came to the conclusion that, no matter what they did, they were ultimately fucked, bound to be crushed by the crippling weirdness of the town they called home.
After a while, they got used to it. They could look at Stanley Marsh and Wendy Testaburger and feel confident that they were the only two leaving. They might add Kyle Broflovski, but there was the issue of his mother and his rebellious adopted brother, two diametrically opposed ends tugging on him. There were a few question marks, though. Maybe Eric Cartman, depending on what ended up happening with Kyle. It was hard for anyone in South Park to imagine the two of them not yelling at each other, embodying their parody of friendship, so if Kyle managed to escape, Eric would probably follow the gangly redhead to wherever he fled. Creepy as that was. Maybe Bebe Stevens, too. Her beauty would either propel her to becoming a famous actress or South Park's hottest trophy wife.
And then there was those two weird Canadian kids. Phillip Argyle had lived in South Park since he was ten, always distinctly separated from the strangeness around him. While people had increasingly violent freak-outs over minor incidents, Phillip could usually be found watching or listening to old comedy specials, not even aware of the chaos outside. He didn't have many friends outside of Ike and Kyle Broflovski, despite growing into an absolutely gorgeous teenager with perfect blonde hair and the kind of slim, muscular physique that girls went crazy for. In contrast, Terrance Stoot moved to South Park during his sophomore year of high school, a scattered, mentally shaken teen who mentioned that he'd just suffered through his parents' divorce and didn't really want to talk about… anything. He was friendly but quiet, easily rattled, giving Leopold Stotch a run for his money early on in terms of being a human doormat.
But about two weeks into Terrance's start of the new school year at South Park High, hiding, as usual, behind his long brown hair and a dark-colored beanie and a rather large book about serial killers, his life changed. So did Phillip's. Phillip and Terrance didn't operate in the same circles, mostly because neither of them were particularly social people. Phillip spent most of his sophomore year of high school before this point desperately running away from smitten teenage girls. Terrance spent the past two weeks looking very brooding and loner-like underneath bleachers and in hallways.
But they shared the same homeroom. And on the fateful day of November 10, at 8:35 AM, The Event happened.
Phillip farted. Terrance, from his seat only a few spots up from Phillip in the classroom, awkwardly hiding behind his disheveled appearance and another morbid book of morbidity, glanced at him for a few seconds before he burst out laughing.
The two of them were largely inseparable after that. They bonded over many things – their mutual irritation with school (shown by their less than brilliant grades), their love of comedy and Schadenfreude, being Canadian, their assertion that Celine Dion was easily the most beautiful woman on earth, a shared hate for Facebook, the tendency to not get involved in most of the craziness of their classmates… they had a lot in common, those two. After a month or so, they managed to buy up some time on South Park Public Access and began work on a hyperkinetic mess of pranks and juvenile comedy that they ever-so-creatively called 'The Terrance and Phillip Show', which benefitted from being in the slot after the ratings juggernaut that was 'Huntin and Killin with Jimbo and Ned'.
The boys themselves began to change noticeably. Terrance was still nice, but he was drawing out of his shell, more willing to talk to those around him, which got Phillip to stop being so pretentious around his classmates. They slowly began to gain popularity for things other than Phillip's striking blue eyes, and people at the high school were watching their show. Girls were interested in Terrance, something that really confused him. By the time the end of their junior year of high school rolled around, the two of them were inseparable, well-liked, definitely not as neurotic, and deemed worthy enough of being invited to Bebe's huge end of the year bash.
Maybe they were making it out of South Park.