Chapter 4

Stan, across the country, now knew exactly where his sister was, or where she was going at least and so he was dialing Kyle Broflovski.

Ring, ring

Pause.

"Stan?"

"Kyle, I need a favor."

"What is it?"

Stan took a deep breath. "We have to go to New York and somehow get my sister back."

There was a long silence. "Uh…" Clearly confused, Kyle asked, "Wait. What? You're sisters in New York? When did that happen?"

"I'm not sure, the point is, are you going to help or not?"

Pause. "You know…your sister scares the crap out of me and everyone, right?"

"…yeah."

"And you've also realized that she probably won't be happy seeing you there, right?"

Stan flinched. Yup, he'd thought about it. Still, "But I have to. She might actually be on her way to kill someone. No matter how much I hate her, she's still my sister and I don't want her to go to jail." At least, that's what he'd been telling himself, over and over again.

Pause and then a sigh. Suicide plan or not, Stan was his best friend and Kyle knew Stan would be doing this with or without his help. "Yeah Stan, I'm in."

Stan grinned. "I knew I could count on you. Let me just call Kenny and we'll be on our way."

"No fatass?" Kyle asked just to make sure.

"No fatass. He'd ruin everything, probably tattle tail on us or use this as some sort of blackmail."

That sounded like something Cartman would do. "When should we leave?"

"Well, we'll have to get ready and leave with no one noticing. How about, you meet me at Stark's Pond tomorrow at midnight."

"Got it." And then they hung up.

Stan threw his cell across his desk, making a clattering nose as it collided with the mess of stuff he had scattered around and flopped back on his bed. He stared at his ceiling, analyzing whether he was a moron or just plain crazy. Amir had given him directions to his home, probably in the hopes that, when Shelly turned up again, Stan could convince his dad and mom to allow Shelly to go visit him in New York so he could explain everything. The problem was that his parents absolutely couldn't know about this. Stan would bring his sister back all on his own and no one would know anything happened. At least, that was the plan.

It was early morning in the Wahab household. Amir's parents were talking amongst themselves, enjoying their food while Amir pretended to be completely engrossed in his meal just so he wouldn't have to join in on their conversation. He knew what they were talking about, it was the only thing they talked about nowadays, and frankly, he didn't want anything to do with it. Unfortunately, his semi peaceful morning wasn't going to last.

"Amir!" a voice squealed and the poor boy froze in mid bite of his breakfast. Before he knew what hit him, he was glommed from behind by a pair of skinny arms and he almost chocked. He looked hopelessly for help from his parents but they were only smiling, happy to see such affection in two young couples whose marriage had been planned and agreed on without their son knowing.

"I've missed you so much!" the girl whispered in his ear and quickly proceeded to tug him along to the living room. "Come on slowpoke. I have to tell you so many things!"

Amir was practically dragged from his seat and he looked back longingly at his food. Resigned, he looked back at Sara, his fiancée, who was all smiles and pure love.

Sara was beautiful, he supposed: small, soft, her skin a rich brown color with long wavy black hair that reached all the way to her back. Her eyes were a warm honey brown and at the moment trained solely on him. Despite her looking like a young teenage girl, Sara was actually twenty. Amir supposed that he would be attracted to her, if he wasn't thinking about Shelly all the time, comparing. Shelly was the complete opposite of Sara: tall, hard, and had the complete and utter body of a full grown woman. Shelly wasn't as beautiful as Sara but to Amir, no one could compare to her.

Sighing, Amir tried to listen to Sara, but she was rambling again. It was something she did quite often. Amir wasn't especially interested in the decorations or the people she'd invited for the wedding seeing as how he wasn't happy about the whole thing.

Sara finished recounting the adventure she had at picking out her dress. "…custom made which reminds me, we have to get you to a tailor and have your suit fitted." She squealed again and reached out to hug him.

Amir just sighed and let her.

Life was hell. If his fiancée wasn't so powerful and rich, he'd probably runaway a long time ago but as it was, he was tied down with chains. His parents wanted it because of the power they were all going to gain, Sara wanted it because she'd honestly just seen him walking through the streets of New York last summer and had fallen in love. Being the rich spoiled brat she was all she had to do was tell her dad that she wanted him and hocus-pocus, Amir was engaged to her.

"Sara," he began and immediately garnered her attention. She leaned into him like a rabbit and pressed her body against his arm. He wanted to shake her off and he completely forgot what he was going to say.

"Yes?" she pressed, her eyelashes fluttering.

"Uh," he started and searched for some excuse to get away from her. "I have…homework. At the library. Yeah, so…I'm going to have to leave you a bit early." Her face fell but she looked like she believed him. She released his arm and Amir had to stop himself from hiding it behind his back. He stood, acting like he wasn't trying desperately to get away from her. "I'll see you later, okay?"

Sara nodded and then perked up as she remembered something. "I'll ask Baba to arrange a dinner at a prestigious restaurant later. Yes?" She didn't wait to hear his answer and just clapped her hands as if everything was settled. She turned to him and picked him on the lips. Amir blushed but she ignored it and instead said, "Well, good luck on your homework and I'll be waiting for you later today."

Amir managed a weak smile. "Yeah." He was dreading this fancy restaurant. Grabbing his jacket, he exited the apartment without alerting his parents. He quickly made his way down the flight of stairs, ignoring the elevator because he always hated those things. Outside, the sounds of a typical New York day greeted his ears and he quickly stuffed his hands in his jean pockets and began to stroll towards Central Park Zoo. He wanted something to take his mind away from everything and since he loved animals, the zoo was the perfect place.

"Amir!" a voice called and the olive skinned boy glanced up only to half smile at the familiar face of his friend Mr. Chesham. He was an old man with graying hair and thick glasses but the brightest blue eyes of any old person Amir had ever seen. He was the zoo's security. He'd been security for thirty years and no one seemed to want to fire him even though he could barely see and he kept falling asleep during his shift.

The old security guard hobbled over and patted Amir's shoulder. He was grinning and glancing at something behind him. "Got that son-of-a-bitch real good," he mumbled.

Amir raised an eyebrow.

Seeing the questioning look, Mr. Chesham proudly admitted, "I finally caught the no good monkey that's been stealing my coffee!" And sure enough, behind him Amir could see a stuffed monkey lying flat on its face in the mud. It looked like it had gotten a real good beating and its stuffing was lying scattered around. Amir could picture the sight of Mr. Chesham beating the stuffing of a toy monkey and he couldn't help but laugh.

"No good…got what was coming to him…"

Amir left the old man spitting his fury at the toy and strolled towards the birdcage. His lifted mood mellowed down into soft nostalgia the closer he got to his destination. A small child bumped into his shoulder as he ran ahead of his parents. The place was crowded but he knew the birdcage was going to be empty. It was always empty. He supposed it was the fact that people just weren't interested in seeing birds because they could see them everyday outside, their noises annoying the hell out of them every morning. Either that or they just didn't want to get pooped on.

Seeing the sign for the birdcage, Amir drifted towards it, lifting the latch and slipping in. The door closed behind him as he opened the other door and finally stepped into the cage.

It really was a tropical rainforest and it looked like it had rained recently. The dew drops were hanging off of leaves like crystals and there were some turtles from the ponds crawling across the dirt walkway. The sound of the many different species of birds filled his ears and Amir found himself closing his eyes. Yes, he loved this. Walking over to a wooden bench, he sat down and rested his chin on his palms, his dark eyes gazing out at the scenery before him. It was like a postcard. He suddenly wished Shelly was beside him, criticizing the gay birds and calling them turds.

Oh boy, he had it bad if he could think about Shelly and not mind getting pushed around by her.

"Jeez, Stan! It's freezing out here."

Stan looked at his skinny best friend and saw his frame shivering all over. He lifted his face to the air and frowned realizing that, yeah, it was colder than normal. Glancing up at the sky, he grimaced. It might storm. Dammit, if it stormed, they'd have to postpone their trip and they'd didn't have time for that. They had to leave now so they could get to Amir before Shelly.

"We can't back down now," he said glancing worriedly at Kyle.

The shivering Jew just looked at his friend's pleading eyes and sighed. "I was just saying." Lifting his face he wondered aloud, "Hey, where's Kenny?"

"Can't come," Stan said. He wasn't going to add that he'd called Kenny's house only for Kenny to answer while he was 'getting it on' with someone. Honestly, Kenny was such a whore sometimes. To make matters even worse, Stan was pretty sure Kenny had had his orgasm over the phone. Sick, he had not wanted to hear that. Before hanging up on him, he was pretty sure he recognized the other person's voice but he hadn't stuck long enough to figure out whose it was. Whatever, not that Stan wanted to know. Clearing his throat after noticing Kyle's amused smile, Stan pulled out a wad of money. "Alright, I got money so we can book a flight to New York."

Kyle stared at the money and reached out to count it. "Dude, where did you get this?"

Stan shrugged. "My dad. He hides his gambling money in the stupid clown vase in our living room. He thinks no one knows about it but I found out about it like three years ago. Ever since, I've been sneaking a five dollar here and there. He never notices."

Not the Kyle approved but he couldn't help but smile. "Cool man."

Stan nodded in total agreement and then grabbed Kyle's elbow. "Let's get going. The Colorado Airport should open up soon. I mean, it is," he glanced down at his watch, "5…something." He squinted. "Can't really see in the dark."

Kyle stuffed the money in his pockets hurriedly and the two friends started trekking across the snow, thinking about hitchhiking to the airport. The busses weren't in service yet and they were freezing their asses off.

"So are you going to tell me what exactly happened?" Kyle asked after fifteen minutes of walking in silence.

Stan sighed long and loud. "It's a long story."

"Well, we've got plenty of time."

A/N: Hey man, I just had to add Stan and Kyle in there somewhere. And even though I love Kenny too, he just wouldn't fit in because this story is about Shelly and Amir. Sorry it's super late but I just haven't felt in the mood. No excuse really. I just hope someone will drop a review.