Part 1-The Secret Chapter 2
Cartman glared at Taylor from across the playground, his russet brown eyes containing hate, anger, and a hint of jealousy. As he sat on the steps with Stan, Kyle, and Kenny, he only thought about the complicated relationship that was forming between the two of them. After hours of waiting, Mr. Garrison had finally handed back the graded tests; most of the class sighed in disappointment as they looked at their grades, especially after they had studied so hard. Only a handful had gotten higher grades, but they only averaged in the eighties and low nineties.
"Man, I can't believe how hard that test was," Kyle exclaimed. Kenny nodded his head while Stan looked over at Taylor.
"I can't believe he got a ninety-eight." Cartman balled his hands into fists. This new kid thought he was so much cooler, so much smarter than everyone else. Cartman had offered him two challenges, and Taylor had accomplished them easily without leaving room for the jealous boy to respond. Something had to be done to make sure the new kid knew his place.
"I've got it!" he shouted proudly as an idea popped into his head. The other boys looked at him quizzically. Before giving them a chance to ask anything, Cartman went on to explain. "We need to show Taylor his place since he's the new kid. I propose that we…" He paused for dramatic effect before putting an evil smile on his face. "Beat him up!" Stan rolled his eyes.
"First of all, that wasn't dramatic at all." Cartman only glared at him.
"And second," Kyle finished for him, "why should he get beaten up? He's obviously a smart kid, and there's nothing wrong with that. And face it, Cartman," he said while stifling a laugh, "you probably didn't even study. You had that F coming."
"Fuck you, Kyle," he muttered before casting his eyes back at Taylor. He was sitting under the lone tree in the corner of the playground, obviously not trying to make any friends. He was shy, which left him vulnerable and without any backup. He was listening to his iPod, and anyone could tell he was listening to a rock song. His foot tapped the beat while he played an invisible guitar, but Cartman couldn't help noticing that his fingers moved through the air as if he was actually playing an instrument.
"So, are you going to go fight him?" Kenny asked. "Or are we going to have to bring him to you?" Cartman blew air angrily through his nose before finally getting up and walking towards Taylor. Kenny nudged his friends.
"Come on, let's go get a better seat. I want to see him get his ass kicked!" Stan and Kyle laughed as they stood and followed Cartman, telling people about what was to come as they passed by. By the time Cartman reached the tree, a majority of the kids had gathered around behind him. Taylor noticed this and pulled out his ear buds.
"What do you want?" he asked irritably, sensing that he'd have to do something to the boy standing in front of him.
"Get up," he demanded. "We're going to fight." Taylor raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"Why? Is it some South Park initiation or something?" He stood up and casually wrapped his ear buds around the iPod before shoving it into his pocket and smirking at Cartman. "Or is this just another one of your 'challenges' that I keep plowing over with ease?" The ten-year-old only glared at him, clearly annoyed at Taylor's cockiness towards him. It was as if he was purposefully playing with his nerves just to piss him off.
"Maybe it's both," Cartman responded, hoping that he'd be able to show him that he could play this game too. Taylor crossed his arms and shook his head sadly.
"Trust me, you don't want to fight me," he warned. "It'd be a waste of both our times." As he started walking past the waiting children, Cartman smiled and laughed.
"Oh, I get it!" he shouted victoriously. "You just know that you can't beat me! Because you know that I'd kick your sorry ass!" Kyle looked at him questioningly.
"But Cartman, you got your ass kicked by Wendy that one time," he pointed out, but was silenced as the boy shot him a warning glare. But Taylor had already stopped walking from Cartman's previous comment, and didn't turn around when he spoke.
"If you really want to know why I don't want to fight you," he sighed, "it's because I'm a black belt in martial arts." A chorus of awes flowed through the group of kids; they backed away quickly as Taylor suddenly turned around to glare at his challenger. "But if you still want to fight…"
Cartman immediately lunged for the new student, his right hand raised into a fist. Taylor only stood with a bored expression on his face, and as Cartman approached he took one swift step to the side and stuck out his leg, tripping the boy. Cartman wiped the snow from his face and glared at Taylor, and everyone could clearly see the rage that was directed towards him.
"What the fuck was that?" he shouted angrily as he stood up again.
"One of the most important lessons of martial arts," Taylor barely smirked. "Use your enemy's power against him." Frustrated, and feeling mocked as he noticed everyone's eyes on him, Cartman lunged for Taylor again. Swinging punches left and right, Taylor's only movements consisted of taking steps back and ducking every one of his movements.
"Hold… the… fuck… still…" Cartman said between swings. His eyes widened as Taylor suddenly caught his fist in his right hand, and in one fluid motion Taylor moved to the side while grabbing his arm with his other hand, and flipped Cartman clear over his head.
"Holy shit!" Stan shouted in amazement.
"He fucking flipped him!" Kenny added. Cartman moaned as he lay on the ground, and as Taylor crouched down to look at him a flicker of fear entered his eyes, only to quickly be replaced by anger.
"That wasn't a fight!" he objected. Taylor hadn't swung a single punch at him, but he only stared down at him with emotionless chocolate brown eyes.
"You're right, Cartman," he said, barely loud enough for the group around them to hear. "That wasn't a fight. That was me defending myself from a stupid fatass." As he stood up, he unraveled his ear buds and walked away, shoving his hands into his coat pockets.
One could've heard a pin drop on the silent playground. Nobody cheered for Taylor, and nobody laughed at Cartman. Everyone was stunned, half of them staring after the victor while the other half stared at Cartman on the ground. His brown eyes shot daggers after his new enemy, ignoring the stares that now surrounded him.
That's the third time that son of a bitch has made me look foolish, he thought bitterly before mentally smiling to himself. Just you wait until I get my revenge on you after school today, asshole.
I was so happy when the final bell rang at three o' clock. I knew Cartman was furious at me for whupping him at recess, so sitting next to him in class for the rest of the day had me on edge. I'm not scared of him, especially since I know that he acts tough when he's really not, but the last thing I need is to have another person trying to beat me up everyday. While I tried to make it seem like what happened earlier was no big deal, I could see from my side vision that his eyes were aiming daggers at me.
As soon as that bell rang, I was out of the classroom and at my locker with surprising speed. But, of course, it was just my luck that my locker was next to Cartman's. Luckily, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny's lockers were there too, so at least they would be there sometimes. But I didn't want to deal with any of them, so I quickly grabbed my skateboard and made my way to the main entrance. If it wasn't for Cartman's stupidity, I wouldn't be in such a rush to get home, especially since her royal bitch is there, but what choice did I have?
Unfortunately, my luck just seemed to get worse and worse. As soon as I stepped outside, all eyes were on me. How had my entire class made it outside so quickly? I gulped, feeling exposed and trapped, but breathed in a deep sigh and walked towards Stan and Kyle.
"Why is everyone staring at me?" I asked, feeling excruciatingly nervous. Kenny came up behind me suddenly and patted me on the back for some reason.
"Dude, everyone thought that was so cool what you did to Cartman earlier!" Kyle exclaimed happily.
"Yeah, you actually were able to lift him off the ground," Stan chimed in. I admit, it was pretty funny that I was actually able to send him flying over my head, but I had tried to avoid the fight for this exact reason. I wasn't popular at my old school, and I didn't want to be. I'm one of those kids who just likes to sit in the corner and be ignored. Otherwise, shit like this happens and you're all of a sudden the cool kid.
"Trust me, it's no big deal," I said as calmly as possible. I placed my skateboard on the ground and hopped on, before turning back toward my new… I don't really want to say "friends", but I don't really think there's another word for my situation. Maybe acquaintances? Yeah, that'll work.
"Wait," Kenny suddenly said before I pushed off the sidewalk. I turned to him. "Don't you want to hang out with us? We can show you around the town." It sounded welcoming, but like I said, I just wanted to sit in the corner and be ignored.
"No thanks. I have to get home and help my mom unpack. We have a lot of stuff to go through." Kyle and Stan nodded in agreement, saying how we could go tomorrow, but in the half second that I caught Kenny's eye I could see that he knew I was lying through my teeth. I looked away and pushed off, but I could feel his cornflower blue eyes searing after me, knowing that I held my home-life secret from all of them. He was there the night I had moved in, after all.
It felt nice to be on my skateboard again, feeling the rush of the wind in my face. As I gained more momentum, I expertly prepared to do a kick-flip, if it wasn't for the sudden foot that stuck out of the bushes next to me. My skateboard stopped underneath me as I flew forward onto the hard sidewalk, skidding a little and being thankful that my jacket separated my skin from the concrete. It still hurt like hell, though. When I looked up, Cartman was laughing hysterically.
"What the fuck was that for, you asshole?!" I stood up to glare at him, clutching the arm I had landed on.
"My revenge is complete!" he said between laughs.
"Revenge?" I asked incredulously. "For what? Beating your ass earlier? Some revenge. Now you're going to see what it's really like to get beaten up." I threateningly took a step toward him, but when he opened his eyes to look at me I noticed that his laughing had stopped and his jaw dropped slightly.
"Taylor," I heard Kyle call. "Are you…" His voice trailed away, and I could hear the footsteps of the other kids advancing towards us. Great, another crowd.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, still glaring at a dumbstruck fatass. "He just tripped me on my skateboard." When I turned to look at the group behind us, I noticed that they all had the same look that Cartman had. That was when I noticed a strand of my black hair hanging next to my eye. Fear overtook me as I quickly looked down to see that my hat had flown off when I fell.
"Whoa, dude," Stan said just loud enough so everyone could hear. "Taylor is a girl!"