The Key to My Heart.
x-x-x
Stan and Wendy had been dating ever since the start of third grade, when they finally confessed their feelings for each other. Although they experienced a few minor tiffs and three breakups along the way, their relationship had been going relatively smoothly.
However, with them reaching the end of elementary school and developing different interests along the way, they slowly began spending less and less time together.
Whenever Wendy tried to hang out with Stan, he was either busy with his soccer practices or would spend time with his friends. And it was vice versa for the dark haired boy – Wendy's schedule was busier than ever and she didn't have too much time to hang out with her boyfriend.
And it wasn't until another fight between Stan and Wendy that ultimately led to them breaking up for the fourth, and presumably, final time. They both decided to break things off for good, but still wanted to remain on normal, civil terms.
''Friends?'', the dark haired boy extended his hand out to Wendy, offering her a reassuring smile.
''That goddamned, gorgeous smile of his.'', Wendy thought to herself, gazing into his sharp blue eyes.
Trying her damnedest to conceal the hurt and sadness forming in her deep brown eyes, Wendy forced the smallest smirk imaginable and shook hands with Stan. ''Sure, we can be friends.''
Smiling affectionately at her, the raven haired teenage boy patted her on the shoulder before he turned around on the spot and began walking towards their eighth grade classroom. ''I'll see you around Wends.''
Walking up to her locker, Wendy flicked away a tiny, solitary tear that ran down her cheek. Forcing down a sob, she threw her books inside the locker and slammed it shut. Turning around on the spot, she allowed herself to look one more time at the only boy she had loved ever since the third grade. She let out a sad sigh, resting her head against her locker and finally allowing more fresh tears to roll down her cheeks.
Because some things are just meant to end, no matter how much you try to fix them.
Right?
Click, clack.
Click, clack, click, clack.
Click, clack.
Every single tick-tock sound emitting from the small, pink digital clock slowly began to create gaps in Wendy Testaburger's sweet slumber.
She was comfortably wrapped up in her covers, snoozing and snoring peacefully. But of course, all of her pleasant dreams were soon dissipated as her alarm clock hit six-thirty AM sharp. Her chocolate brown eyes slowly fluttered open, as she rolled over to the other side of her queen-sized bed and smacked the alarm shut with her left hand.
Rubbing her eyes, the fifteen year-old girl let out a yawn and stretched herself out as much as she possibly could. She removed the covers off her body and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, letting out another big yawn. She got up and waltzed her way around the bed, grabbing her bathrobe and other necessary things before going to the bathroom to get herself ready for the start of a new day, and more importantly, for the start of her Sophomore year in high school.
After she was done getting ready for the day, Wendy examined herself in the mirror and smiled, feeling satisfied with the way she looked. She chose to wear something comfortable, but cute as well – a simple white polo t-shirt, high-waisted ripped blue skinny jeans and a pair of red Vans sneakers.
Puberty had mostly done wonders for Wendy. Apart from her body developing, she had also gotten taller and was standing just a little bit above five foot five inches. Playing volleyball and being on the volleyball squad throughout elementary school and the Freshman year of high school had helped her to maintain her body in a good, fit shape. Her raven black hair was longer than ever, going all the way down to the small of her back.
Wendy grabbed her schoolbag and sauntered her way downstairs towards the kitchen. Putting her school bag on the dining table, the raven haired girl walked her way around the corner into the kitchen and spotted her mother, Mrs. Testaburger, rinsing off her coffee mug in the sink.
''Morning mom.'', Wendy said, trying to conceal the sleepiness in her voice.
Her mother instantly turned around, smiling sweetly at her only child. ''Good morning hon. Ready for the new school year?''
''Uh, yeah.'', Wendy replied back, swallowing down a yawn. ''I guess I am.''
The teenage girl walked over to one of the kitchen cupboards and grabbed a box of cereal, as well as milk from the fridge. She pulled out a bar stool that was placed underneath the centre island of the kitchen and sat on it, crossing her legs. She made herself breakfast and slowly began eating it, still not feeling quite as awake as she was supposed to.
''You didn't get enough of sleep, did you?'', Mrs. Testaburger asked.
''Yeah, not really.'', Wendy confirmed, trying to resist the urge to rub her eyes again. ''I was talking to Bebe on the phone up until one-thirty AM or something. I haven't seen her ever since she went on a family vacation to California, so we were mostly catching up.''
A teasing smile popped in the corners of the older raven haired woman's lips. ''Bebe, huh? Or were you maybe talking to some boy, hm?''
Wriggling her nose in sheer annoyance, Wendy emitted a slight groan. She rolled her eyes at her mom, before she continued to eat her breakfast. ''Mom, c'mon. Don't be silly.''
''I'm just kidding hon.''
''I know, but I really don't wanna' talk about it, ugh.'', Wendy said as she got up from the stool and put the dirty dishes in the sink. ''Hey, where's dad? Did he have to go to work a little bit earlier today or what?''
''Yeah, unfortunately he had to. But, he will probably come home earlier than he usually does.'', Mrs. Testaburger explained. ''If you want to, I can drop you and Bebe off to school today. I have a day off from work, so I can use that as an opportunity to get out of the house.''
''No mom, you don't have to. We're going to meet up at the bus stop instead.'', Wendy replied with a chuckle. ''Knowing Bebe, something tells me I'll probably have to wait for her a little bit longer than usual.''
''Oh, okay then sweetie.''
After saying goodbye to her mother, Wendy snatched her school bag from the dining table and her black leather jacket from the coat hanger. Hastily putting on her leather jacket and swinging her backpack over the shoulder, Wendy grabbed the spare house keys from a small table next to the front door and made a direct beeline for the bus stop, eager to see her best friend after three long weeks.
After walking for five minutes or so, the raven haired girl felt her smile forming wide as she spotted her best friend sitting at the bus stop. That only brought Wendy an extra pep in her step, as she began walking faster towards the bus stop and called out for her best friend.
''Bebe!''
''Hey girl!'', the curly blonde glanced away from her phone and beamed at Wendy, whisking away a loose blonde ringlet out of her face and getting up to collect her best friend into a tight hug.
''I missed you so much!'', Wendy cried out, hugging the slightly taller blonde.
''I missed you too!'', Bebe hugged her best friend back just as snugly.
After spending the first part of summer break with her boyfriend and closest girlfriends, Bebe went on a three week vacation to visit her mother's side of the family in Santa Monica, California. The gorgeous blonde spent some well-deserved time with her favorite cousins, learned how to surf for the first time and allowed herself to simply relax for a few weeks before returning back to Colorado for the start of new school year.
''Damn, the Santa Monica sun surely did wonders for you! You're like, really tanned.'', Wendy said, pulling away from Bebe and eyeing her from head to toe.
The curly blonde was wearing a white and black striped blouse, black skinny jeans and a pair of white sneakers. A red leather jacket was draped around her shoulders and she held her handbag in her right hand.
''Hehe, thanks girl. You don't look too bad yourself.'', Bebe said, noticing that her best friend was in a slightly more fit shape since they had last seen each other.
''Oh really? Thanks, I've been working out a bit.'', Wendy responded back.
"I can tell! You're looking good."
"Well, there's only so much volunteer work you can do over the summer. I was just bored one day and started working out, that's all.", the teenage girl stated, smiling sweetly at her oldest friend.
The two long time best friends spent a few more minutes catching up on everything they had missed out on over the three weeks Bebe spent in California with her family. The school bus soon appeared and the two girls climbed on, eventually sitting down in their usual spot – the backseat of the bus.
''I honestly can't wait to see Kyle. I've missed him so fucking much when I was in California.", Bebe said, letting out a faint sigh.
Wendy snorted teasingly, folding her arms across her chest. "Didn't you guys facetime each other like every, single day?''
"Well yeah, but trust me – no facetiming or instant messaging beats seeing your boyfriend in person.", Bebe explained, running her manicured fingertips through her frizzy blonde curls.
Pressing her back against the bus seat and listening to her best friend's ramblings, the raven haired girl briefly forgot that on the next bus stop, the everlasting foursome consisting of Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh, Kenny McCormick and Eric Cartman would climb on. ''Yeah, I can only imagine it.''
"Oh that reminds me – Kyle told me that he's taking the bus to school today, along with the guys."
Allowing that thought to carelessly drift across her mind, Wendy was suddenly snapped out of her daydream as she saw four best friends climbing onboard and sitting down relatively close to her and Bebe.
Of course, Kyle and Bebe instantly threw their hands around one another, kissing and snuggling up to each other, but also not caring too much about their P.D.A. causing the other three teenage boys to groan out annoyingly. Wendy didn't really budge for the rest of the bus ride to school, but she did allow herself to glance over to a particular boy in the red poof ball hat.
And damn, did he still look handsome to Wendy.
As expected, Stan had gotten taller over his Freshman year in high school, standing at almost six foot zero inches. Not to mention that he had gotten more buffed as well, since he started playing as a quarterback again and had been enjoying every single moment of it. His raven black hair was slightly longer than before, with a few longer strands poking through his trusty red poof ball hat.
But one thing that hadn't changed about Stan at all was his teasing and cheeky personality.
Kenny and Stan were laughing their ears off, presumably poking fun at Cartman and the fact that he had still been a fat tub of lard, though slightly less fatter than the one he used to be in elementary school. The pudgy brunette teenager didn't miss out on an opportunity to poke fun at Kenny and his low family income, and of course, he made about fifteen Jew jokes by the time they had arrived at the parking lot of South Park High School, earning himself a couple of slaps from Kyle's feisty blonde girlfriend.
''Another school year, another nine months I'll have to deal with that fat tub of lard.'', the raven haired beauty muttered to herself, getting up from her bus seat. Wendy swung her backpack over her shoulders and accidentally brushed past her ex-boyfriend, gaining his attention. That made her heart skip a shy beat, but she did allow herself to smirk at Stan.
And of course, the raven haired teenage boy could only smirk back at her.
Climbing off the bus, Wendy immediately made a beeline for the double door of the school. Once she marched over to her locker, she took her backpack off her shoulders and began placing her new school books and textbooks inside the locker. She pulled her blue binder out of her backpack and began flicking through it, trying to find her schedule for the new school year.
''Wendy!'', the ravenette turned around on the spot upon hearing a familiar female voice call her name out. She smiled as she saw Bebe and Heidi approaching her and holding their textbooks in their arms.
''Hey girls!'', Wendy chirped happily, pulling Heidi into a gentle hug.
''Hey Wends, we were looking for you.'', the brunette teenage girl said, adjusting her handbag over her shoulder as she pulled away from one of her best friends. ''Aren't you coming to Math class with us?''
Wendy instantly raised an eyebrow in confusion and looked down at her binder. ''Huh? Wait what?''
''Don't you have Maths with us this year?'', Bebe replied back, chuckling in slight confusion.
''Well, I just saw that I have Maths in the classroom two hundred and four. Do we all have it together this year or what?''
''Yeah! That's good, because we can catch up on everything with the girls and also get good seats close to each other.'', Heidi confirmed. ''Come on, we should really get going. We don't want to be late for our first math class in the Sophomore year.''
''Ugh, I hate Maths so fucking much. Can someone explain to me why it has to be our very first period on Mondays?'', Bebe commented cynically, hanging her head back with a slight groan and following her two friends towards their first class of the Sophomore year.
It had seemed to Wendy as if someone purposely put together all of her former elementary school classmates in nearly all of her classes, except for the Advanced Placement Chemistry class. And unsurprisingly to the raven haired girl, the rest of her classes seemed to drag on endlessly up until the bell rang for the start of lunch break.
Wendy and Bebe walked to their respective lockers, before the blonde teenager stuffed all of her books inside the locker and zipped across the hall over to her best friend.
''Oh come on Wends, I promised Kyle I would meet up with him before the lunch break starts.'', Bebe droned, leaning herself against the cool metal surface of the lockers.
''I don't get it, why should I come with you?'', Wendy scoffed slightly, turning towards her best friend and cocking a rather unimpressed eyebrow at her.
''Well, he said he wanted to talk to you about the student body council and that shit.'', Bebe explained briefly.
''Oh yeah, he's perhaps going to run for the student body president again. And I'm hoping that he doesn't win this year.'', Wendy smirked cheekily.
''Look Wends, you're my best friend and everything, but I think I'm gonna' vote for Kyle this year. Or maybe both of you will have to battle for my vote.'', Bebe stuck her tongue out, laughing at her best friend. ''Also, I've heard that Red is apparently throwing a party this weekend!''
And just the sole mention of the word 'party' made Wendy roll her eyes.
Although Freshman year was very successful for Wendy in terms of her academic life, her social life hadn't been exactly on par with that. Even though she was active in the student body council as its vice-president and was the captain of the school's volleyball team, Wendy rarely went to parties with her girl friends, especially knowing there was a high probability of bumping into Stan and whatever arm-candy he had invited to come with him.
And besides, she had never been a party person to begin with. She would've always stayed home and curled up with a good book, rather than go to the parties with her friends.
''Ugh Bebe, you know how I feel about parties.'', she droned, shutting her own locker and making a beeline for the school cafeteria.
''Come on Wends, you can't be like this forever. One party isn't gonna' kill you, and besides, you might meet someone cute there."
Wendy rolled her eyes in slight disgust and groaned out. "Ugh, after I wasted six months on dating that asshole Lucas, I'm perfectly fine being single.''
Shrugging her shoulders in response, Bebe rolled her eyes at her best friend's attitude towards the opposite sex, but decided to cheer her up instead and not argue over something so trivial. However, the raven haired beauty seemed to be less than thrilled once they reached the big double door of the school cafeteria.
"Do we really need to sit with Kyle and the guys?"
"It's not that bad, trust me. Well, Cartman's still a piece of shit, but Stan and Kenny are pretty okay."
While Kenny's perverted nature would often clash with Wendy's feminist attitude on so many different things, they were actually on pretty okay terms, since she would occasionally give advice to the middle McCormick whenever he had troubles with the neglectful antics of his parents or needed someone to explain him the Algebra he hated with every single cell of his body.
But of course, there hadn't been any positive developments when it came to Wendy's dealings with Eric Cartman. She would usually just ignore the brunette tub of lard whenever he tried to provoke her, because frankly, the raven haired beauty had much better things to do than to waste her time on his lame attempts at trying to piss her off.
Wendy glanced over at the table where the inseparable quartet of teenage boys was sitting. She huffed out nervously, feeling her heart race in her chest as she laid her eyes on one particular person sitting in between Kenny and Kyle.
Wendy and Stan hadn't exactly been on speaking terms with each other for much of the eighth grade and their Freshman year.
However, as their respective best friends began dating, the two raven haired teenagers were sort of forced to talk to each other again. Small talk was the most they would do when it came to their interactions, but it wasn't until Stan suddenly began to completely avoid Wendy. And she couldn't exactly wrap her head around why he had started ignoring her, but it wasn't like she was completely taken aback by it.
But several months later, it had seemed pretty weird to their friends that she and Stan were back on civil terms out of a sudden. And it definitely didn't have anything to do with her dumping her ex-boyfriend Lucas. Right?
Grabbing her lunch tray, Wendy was dragging herself behind her best friend, who happily skipped over to her boyfriend's lunch table and joined his group of friends. The dark haired teenage girl waltzed around the table and took a seat on the bench next to Bebe.
But of course, the short lasting moment of quietness was disrupted when Cartman let out a loud groan and glared absolute daggers at his long-time female rival.
"Ay! Who the hell invited you here? This isn't a table for hippies like you!"
Choosing to ignore Cartman's thunderous and obnoxious rambling, Wendy tried to eat her lunch peacefully and didn't allow the overweight sixteen year-old to interrupt her very first lunch of the Sophomore year.
"In case you really wanna' know, Kyle and Bebe invited me.'', Wendy explained politely.
"Yeah, I don't see the big deal with Wendy eating lunch at our table. But of course, it's you who always has to complain about something.", Kyle replied back to his frenemy, inconspicuously fishing down for Bebe's hand and linking their fingers together.
And of course, it didn't take Cartman too long to snipe back at the redhead sitting at the opposite end of their lunch table and fire his usual arsenal of anti-semitic insults. "Shut your fucking mouth, you dirty Jew!"
But a third voice suddenly made the dark haired teenage girl snap her head up and allow a small smirk to creep across her face.
"Can both of you just shut the hell up and let us eat in peace? I don't mind either Bebe or Wendy at our lunch table. If anything, at least the lunch will be a little bit more fun than usual.", Stan shook his head in disbelief and focused back on eating his lunch.
''This is going to be one long school year.'', Wendy thought to herself quietly.
The rest of the day seemed to zoom by in a blink of an eye.
Wendy spent her recess catching up on everything with her closest girlfriends, which definitely made her first day of school much more fun and helped her momentarily forget about all the extracurricular activities she had chosen to take in her Sophomore year.
After coming home from school, Wendy spent the rest of the day going over her school schedule and some Advanced Placement Chemistry exercises she was already given as an assignment to do. She later facetimed Bebe and played some Mario Kart up until dinner time.
And even after her mother made dinner, Wendy was mostly picking at her food, still not feeling hungry after what had felt like a busy first day of school for the teenage girl.
''So sweetie, how was your first day of school?'', Mr. Testaburger asked, gaining the attention of his only child.
"Oh well, it was good for the first day.'' Wendy admitted, taking a sip from her can of Pepsi. ''But I will be busier than ever, that's for sure.''
"Really? How come?"
''Well, I'm thinking about joining the cheer squad. Bebe's been convincing me to join ever since the Freshman year, but I never went to the cheer tryouts.", the teenage girl explained.
''That's awesome sweetie, but don't you think all of those extracurricular activities will be a little bit too much for you?'', Mrs. Testaburger chimed in, giving her daughter a worrisome look.
''I don't think it actually will.'', Wendy responded. ''I'm still the vice-president of the student body council, but I only have to show up when it's something important on the agenda. Volleyball practice will be two times a week and cheerleading will probably be once or twice a week. I think I can pull it all off, and of course, the extracurricular activities can only give me more credits."
"Alright then sweetie, but your mom and I are just worried about you getting burned out from all the pressure you're potentially going to put on yourself.", Mr. Testaburger replied.
"Well look, it hasn't caused me problems so far and I still don't think it will. Don't worry about it dad.'', Wendy smiled, trying to reassure her father. "Speaking of my classes, I'm in the majority of classes with almost all of my elementary school classmates. I only have AP Chemistry with Heidi, Token and Esther though."
"Oh sweetie, that's good.", the older raven haired woman said.
"Well, I did go to the same elementary school with all of my classmates, but it's not like I ever paid too much attention to some of them. I'm just glad that my closest friends are at least in half of my classes."
"What about that boy you used to be crazy about? Stan Marsh, right?"
"Well he is, but it's not like I pay too much attention to him either. We broke up nearly a year and a half ago, but we are still on okay terms.'', Wendy explained briefly, not exactly being in the mood to talk about her ex-boyfriend.
After she was done eating her dinner and doing the dishes, the teenage girl took a shower and decided to binge-watch one of her favorite Netflix shows, Never Have I Ever.
However, Wendy fell asleep somewhere during the last three episodes of the show and woke up a couple of hours later. She flinched as the light from her phone screen hit her eyeballs, but she unlocked it and saw that it was a little bit past twelve-thirty AM.
But what instantly caught her attention was the message she had received not even fifteen minutes before that.
And her mouth went agape as she realized from whom exactly the message was.
'You up?'
Hello dear readers!
So, I finally decided to take the plunge and start writing my very first multi-chaptered Stendy story. I've had this idea in my head for quite a while, but I just never got an inspiration to start working on it.
Just like all the stories I've written so far about my favorite South Park couple, this story will be very fluffy and sort of a slow burn between Stan and Wendy.
I don't know how many chapters I will write, but I definitely won't do more than ten chapters. I have planned out about fifty percent of the story already, but it's very possible I will do some changes along the way.
As for the updates, I will try to update it at least every other week or maybe even sooner. :)