A/N: Ugh, this is getting so confusing! Should I refer to boy Kenny as Kenny? Should I call girl Kenny Amanda? That's not her name... But she's not Kenny! My characters' dilemmas are my own! :P Anyway, I really enjoyed writing this chapter, and I hope you guys like it as well. Please leave a review, 'cause I'm sure I've gone over the top... XP

Chapter 10

Kenny opened his eyes as the sound of someone ringing the doorbell tore him from his sleep. Just his luck, he thought, that the one day he could sleep in because his family wasn't around, he'd be woken up early by a solicitor. He muttered curses under his breath as he slowly got out of bed and pulled his parka on, without bothering pulling up the hood. He didn't want to hide who he was anymore, ever.

"I'm coming, keeps your pants on!" he yelled sleepily as the person on the other side seemed to be involved in a life and death struggle with the doorbell and was striking it down with no mercy.

Kenny slowly turned the doorknob and the door creaked open.

Kenny's half-closed eyes immediately flew open when he saw who was standing outside his house.

It was him. Craig. And there was no use in kidding himself that he'd come to apologize.

"What do you want?" he asked sharply, studying his face for telltale signs of what had brought him here to a poor family's home. But he already knew why he'd come.

Her.

"I'm looking for Kenny" the boy stated flatly.

This sent a surge of rage and loathing shooting through him. How dare he. How DARE he!

"You're standing in front of him." he answered coldly.

"Quit joking around. Where is she?" Craig asked, never flinching.

"I don't know who you're talking about," Kenny said through gritted teeth, anger bubbling up inside him, "The only Kenny McCormick in this town is me, a sixteen year old boy with a poor, dysfunctional family".

Craig frowned and took a step forward, facing the other boy who was now backed against a wall. "You listen to me, butthole." he retorted angrily, " I'm looking for the girl called Kenny who attended South Park High until just a few days ago, and everyone knows it ain't you. You're a little shit who suddenly popped up and ruined all of our lives".

"That is it!" Kenny suddenly screamed. He took hold of Craig's shoulders and pushed him hard against the opposite wall.

"I ruined your lives? I ruined your lives? Do you even know why I'm here? She made everyone a favor by leaving! Especially to herself. She should be relieved that she doesn't need to pretend anymore!".

"Shut up! How could you know how she feels?" Craig yelled back, trying to free himself of the boy's grip.

"How could I know? How could I know?".

There was a sudden, eerie silence.

Then it started, slowly, softly at first, creeping up from deep inside him, until it became uncontrollable.

Kenny threw his head back and abandoned himself to a fit of maniacal laughter.

"Biggest... Joke... Of... The... Century!" he gasped between peals of sinister laughter.

He finally managed to come to a stop and looked at Craig, a crazy glint in his eyes.

"I was her, she was me! Who else would know how she felt when I was pretending to be her?"

Craig was taken aback, and Kenny started laughing again.

"Oh yes! Really, how could I know? I was just forced to pretend to be a girl for the past 8 years, but I'm sure her best friend would know how she feels much better than me! Especially the best friend who was never told her greatest secret! Great best friend, aren't you?".

Kenny paused, gasping for breath, laughter slowly subsiding.

"All worried about how that traitor felt, and then you treat me like shit when I've gone through her exact same situation? Some guy!" he shot, his eyes no bigger than slits.

"Dude... I... I didn't know..." Craig stammered. Anger had faded from his eyes, replaced by puzzled misunderstanding.

"Well what did you think?" Kenny screamed, "Think that I was living it up in Denver and then decided to ruin my old friend's life? She hasn't suffered half as much as me! She lived alongside MY friends and had the time of her life! I gave her everything she has now!". The boy let go of Craig's shoulders and opened his arms in a wide gesture, "I made all this possible!".

With every word, Kenny could feel his anger rising.

"While I was sitting in a corner of an all-girl classroom, too afraid to let anyone approach me! While those... Those 'parents'," he said, spitting out the last word, "Picked me up after school every single day! No chance of escape! No chance of running away! I waited eight whole years for this! And when I come back, she's stolen it all! It's all gone! All my friends, my whole life... Gone! Stolen! Vanished! It's all hers now! And you actually, you actually DARE to come here and ask me to help get her, she who ruined my whole life, get her back? While she has everything she could ever wish for? Why? Why should I? So she can take the last of my life? Why, sure! With pleasure! Let's hand her everything on a silver platter, why don't we?".

Anger reappeared and flickered in Craig's eyes. "What are you talking about?" he said through gritted teeth, "Everything handed to her? She was an orphan!"

"Who, for 8 years, had everything she could ask her, friends, family, people who care for her, and her double-crossed enemy whisked away and unable to come back" Kenny added with a smile. A wide, sinister, insane grin.

"You... You're crazy!" Craig cried, "You're completely insane!"

"No shit Sherlock!" Kenny screamed, insanity glinting in his blue irises, small in his wide eyes, wide unnatural grin still plastered on his face, "It messes you up!" he added, saying every word on a high note, and abandoned himself again to the laughter, covering his face with his hands, his shoulders shaking and his whole body swaying as the sound rolled out from deep inside him.

"Do you know how it feels?" he screamed to a wide-eyed Craig, "No. No. You. DON'T!".

As Craig looked at the boy standing in front of him, whose body was still shaking with suppressed laughter, he felt real terror for the first time of his life. He had never been so scared, had never had such a strong urge to run away in his entire existence.

As silence slowly fell, as the boy's shoulders stopped shaking, Craig took a step towards him.

"Don't touch me," the boy whimpered, holding his head between his hands, "Don't look at me".

Craig stopped dead in his tracks. What had just happened? How had the boy's mood changed so quickly?

"Go away!" the boy screamed, tears evident in his voice, "Why can't you leave me in peace? Why do you always have to make it so hard for me?".

"I... I don't understand..." Craig stammered.

"I just wanted to fit back into my place! Be back where I belonged! Why can't you let me live in peace? After all the pain I've been through!".

"Oh, come on, drama queen! You were just pretending to be a girl! How painful can that be?" Craig exclaimed on impulse. He immediately wished he hadn't spoken as Kenny, the original Kenny, looked up at him with fierce, teary eyes.

"How DARE you." he hissed, "How DARE you.". Kenny took a deep breath.

"Do you think you can even imagine what it feels like? Having to live a lie against your own will for eight whole years? Having to pretend to the point that you can't tell the difference between the lie and the reality? Living in isolation, doing nothing but looking at other people's happiness because you're too scared of the terrible truth being revealed? Never being able to share your burden with anyone? Having to choke down and bottle up everything inside of you? And after eight years of this, you can slowly feel yourself become insane... The pain... You don't know the pain".

"But you're not insane." Craig replied, in awe, "Are you?".

"Not yet, no. But on the verge of a complete mental breakdown? Yes."

Kenny smiled. "That's the way it works!".

The smile was wiped clean off his face as Craig's fist collided with Kenny's jaw.

"You're just a sissy!" he growled, "Unable to get over the past!".

"And whose fault do you think it is?" Kenny screamed, punching Craig's stomach with such force that he was sent careening backwards.

"Who... Keeps... Reminding me... Of... My... Past?" he yelled, kicking Craig repeatedly as he tried to stand back up, "Who... Keeps... Telling...Me...".

" 'YOU'RE NOT KENNY!' ?" he screamed, stepping down hard onto Craig's stomach.

Craig gasped and cried out in pain.

"You have no right to say that," Kenny added, "When you're the one who won't let me get over it! You're the one who will do whatever it takes just so I'll never fit in and get back to my old life!".

Craig stood up, swaying unsteadily.

"If I won't let you..." he said, getting back in position, "Fight for it, sissy!".

Kenny smirked.

"Oh, it's on!"