Monday April 10
Kyle met Stan at his locker the next day. He handed him a little package wrapped in brown paper. "You still look like shit, but I'm sorry for yesterday. A little sorry gift."
Stan turns around, curious. He takes the package. "What is it?" He shakes it slightly.
Kyle grins. "Saw it at comic con, thought of you."
Stan unwraps it quickly and admires the box. "Aww. A Dark Knight Batman figure, and keychain. Thanks, dude." Stan smiles at him as he inspects it. "How much do I owe you?"
"Nothing, it's a gift. Sorry I was so weird at your work. Also, this is from Sophie." Kyle hands Stan a tiny baby Yoda plushie. "She got a whole bunch to give to all our friends."
Stan turns the plushie in his hand, then sighs. "I'm sorry too, Kyle. I know you have the best intentions for me. I don't want you to think I'm purposely neglecting my own health. My mom made an appointment with me to see my doctor Wednesday and the cardiologist next week."
"Good, I'm glad. It's scary to see you like this. I'm sure it's just seasonal allergies but you haven't been looking great. Just want you okay. Kenny and Wendy and even Sophie want that too." Kyle rifled through his locker, putting away a big bag of baby Yoda's he still had to hand out.
The bell rings. Kyle groans. "Ugh AP trig and then I'll see you in gym." He pats Stan on the shoulder before he takes off to his class opposite of the building.
Stan tucks his comic con merch carefully in his locker before walking off to Government class. The subject bored him to tears, but he had the class with Wendy, which made it better.
Wendy smiles as Stan takes the seat next to her, he fiddles with the little baby Yoda to attach to the zipper on his backpack. She holds up her own baby Yoda. "Sophie?" She asks.
"You got one too? Yeah. And some cool Batman stuff from Kyle." Stan pulls out his notebook and pen, already irritated with this class.
"Aw she got me a Chewbacca keychain. She's really sweet. It'll be fun to share a limo and dinner with them before prom. What did you want to eat?" Wendy asked, slipping the little Yoda into her bag.
Stan thinks for a moment. "Hmm. Pizza is always an easy option. A good sit-down pizza place."
"Pizza for prom? Not like steak or Italian?" Wendy made a face.
Stan let out a little laugh. "Pizza is Italian. Okay, we can go to The Olive Garden or something. Or did you want something fancier?"
Wendy sighs. "Olive Garden is fine. I want to get there early enough so we can take nice pictures together. I know my parents will also want pictures when you come pick me up."
"See now I upset you. What is it?" Stan asked, not in the mood to fight with Wendy today.
"I'm not upset!" Wendy turned away from him now.
"Wendy." Stan reaches out and touches her arm. "c'mon, what did I say?"
"Nothing! It's nothing. Pay attention to class, Stan." Wendy opened her notebook and faced forward.
Stan frowns. His heart beats fast again. He feels a little weak as he clutches his chest. He rubs his eyes as he grips his pencil in his sweaty hand, trying to pay attention to Mr. Snelwood drone on and on about exactly what the Bill of Rights was. Stan only knew that it was an important old document or something. Boring old man got the nickname 'Smellwood' for a reason.
Wendy is taking notes furiously, she looks over at Stan. His eyes are closing, and he looks even paler. She takes a little paper and writes "you sick?" on it and hits him in the face with it. She sits up straight and goes back to class notes
"Ah!" Stan angrily rubs the corner of his eye where something poked him. He sees the paper. He rolls his eyes when he looks at it. He looks to Wendy and waits for her to look back.
Her eyes meet his. "Stan you, okay?" She mouths to him. "I'm sorry." She says silently again.
Stan smiles, the flash of the wire of his retainer shows as he gives her a thumbs up.
She reaches over and takes his hand. She squeezes it, he feels clammy to her. She wants to tell him to go to the nurse or something. She just looks over and smiles at him, her own retainer wire showing.
Stan could get through today and the next day and the next until his doctor appointment. He just had to take it easy until then and take a nap when he got home. Maybe sit out of PE next period. but the teacher was bitch and might get on his ass if he didn't participate. The class had been having a dodgeball tournament the past couple days. He really really did not want to participate in that today.
The bell rang and Wendy met him in the hall. "I have AP English. I just want to say I'm sorry and you're not looking so well. You want me to take you to the nurse?" She looks at him with concerned eyes and ran her fingers through his longish hair.
Stan takes a hold of her hand and kisses it. "Naw, I don't want to worry my mom. I'll get through today. Maybe have my mom call me out of school tomorrow. But thanks."
"What's wrong though? You look not pale. You look gray or blue. It's scary." Wendy gets closer to look at him. "Have your mom take you home now. I will take you home, if anything."
"Wendy please. My mom needs to relax. She had an intense day yesterday. She wants to enjoy herself today before she has to go into work." Stan said, pushing back from her as he threw his books in his locker.
Wendy's stomach pricked in fear, but she went to give Stan a long kiss on the lips. "I love you. You know that, right?" The first bell rang. "I have to go. Ask to sit out if possible."
"I will. Promise. Love you- see you at lunch." He hugs her and kisses her back, before Wendy takes off running to her class.
Stan carefully walks the halls down to the gym. He meets Kyle there in the boy's changing room just as the tardy bell rings.
"Hey." Stan goes over to his locker to grab his gym clothes.
Kyle's eyes bug out at Stan. "Dude what the hell? You having an asthma attack or something? You look like shit." Kyle stands over him in his gym clothes.
"Thanks a lot." Stan rolls his eyes as he takes out his retainer and puts it in its protective case and carefully changes into the blue and green South Park Bulls gym uniform.
"Come on, I'm taking you to the nurse." Kyle tries to grab Stan by the arm.
Stan shoves his best friend off him. "Kyle, please stop. The nurse won't be able to do anything. She'll just have me lay on the cot with some ice chips and call my mom who will get worried and pissed off at me at the same time. Then take me to the hospital when I don't feel I need to go. Let's just get today over with. I promise you can play nurse for me when school is out."
"Your skin is the color when you're having an asthma attack. A bad one. Can you breathe? What the hell is going on with you?" Kyle hisses as he follows Stan out onto the gym floor.
"I can breathe. Please Kyle not right now. I'll ask Mrs. Peroltzi if I can sit out. I'll go to the nurse during lunch, okay? Just fuck off." Stan says as he crosses his arms to line up for gym.
Kyle looks around. "Kenny, come here. Doesn't Stan look like shit? I'm worried about him."
Kenny shrugged. "I don't know. Don't worry about it."
Kyle raises his hand trying to get the gym teacher's attention. Mrs. Perolzi, a short but stern looking woman with a bobbed haircut and a rather buff body comes forward. "Boys! Stop chit chatting, we're picking team captains!"
"Mrs. Perolzi. Stan is really sick. He needs to go to the nurse, now." Kyle calls out. The entire class turns to look at Stan, Kyle, and Kenny
Stan feels his cheeks burn with embarrassment. "I'm fine, really." He says through gritted teeth.
Mrs. Perolzi looks him up and down with a hard look, arms crossed. "You do look peckish, Marsh. I want you to sit out of class today. But I want you to give me a current event article on health and nutrition to be handed in tomorrow, understood?"
Stan looks down. "Yeah, understood."
"Two pages typed!" Mrs. Perolzi shouted after him.
Kyle looks at Stan smugly. Stan glared at him, like he needed more homework. He still hadn't done his English homework, he now had to research a stupid article for his government class and studying for his math test is going to suck.
He slowly goes over to the beaches of the gym as the others get ready to play dodgeball. Maybe if he stayed home from school tomorrow, he could do all the homework, but if he was home sick his mom wouldn't let him go to work and he couldn't call in now that he was shift lead.
Kyle starts to run around with Kenny. He keeps an eye on Stan. "Kenny, what do you think is wrong with Stan?"
"I don't know, flu?" Kenny dodges a ball as it flies by his left side. "Ha! You'll have to do better than that Tucker!"
Craig flips him off and hurls another ball at Kenny.
Kyle is just running around the court aimlessly, watching a sullen Stan take a seat in the middle of the bleachers.
"He's so goddamn stupid." Kyle mutters.
Stan meanwhile looks down at his shoes, tapping them together anxiously. His gym shoes were pretty best up at this point. But so, what? It would be pointless to get a new pair if school was about to end. Maybe he could get his backpack from his locker and try and study now. But he couldn't move, his chest hurt. He drew in sharp breaths, starting to feel dizzy. He shakes his left arm as it starts to feel fuzzy.
Kyle jumps and catches a ball, making Cartman go out. He takes his eyes off Stan to laugh at Cartman. "Haha fatass!" He yells.
The coach blows her whistle. "Broflovski! Sportsmanship!"
Stan smiles weakly, shaking his head at Cartman and Kyle now arguing with Mrs. Perolzi. He draws in another sharp breath, finding it hard to breathe. He feels his heart practically thundering against his chest. He now puts a hand to his neck like he used to after his surgery four years ago.
Kyle gets up in Cartman's face as the two get into a squabble over if that out counted or if Kyle was too cocky or something. Of course, Kyle was arguing that Cartman is trying to talk his way out of being out.
Stan bites his lip, chest paining him like nothing else. Oh god. Was this what an actual heart attack felt like? He closes his eyes. "Guys...? Guys?" He barely gets out before he slumps over to his right side and passes out, slipping off his seat and between the bleachers.
"Cartman just take the out!" Kyle was screaming at him. "You always whine and ruin the game!"
"Coach, I need to go to the nurse...my knee hurts." Cartman whined.
"Your knees only hurt because you're a big fat ass if anyone should go to the nurse." Kyle looks up at the bleachers now. "Kenny? You see Stan leave?"
Kenny stood by chatting with Craig. "No, why? He's still in the bleachers, right?" Kenny's eyes go up and his mouth drops. "Oh shit." Kenny starts to run up the bleachers.
"What, Kenny!" Kyle yells. He chases him up the bleachers. He sees a bit of black hair and a pale hand sticking out. "God fucking dammit Stan!" Kyle screams.
Kenny lifts Stan up from his armpits. "Get his legs- let's bring him down!"
Kyle grabs his legs; he can get a look at Stan's ghostly white face and open eyes staring at nothing. His stomach drops. "Hey, someone call 911. Please?"
Mrs. Perolzi steps forward. "What the hell happened? Stevens! Call for an ambulance!"
He and Kenny lay Stan carefully down on the floor. Kyle puts an ear to his mouth. "He's not fucking breathing. What the fuck." He starts to cry before he slaps Stan across the face. Kyle wipes his eyes and puts fingers to Stan's neck. "There's...nothing there. Dude what the fuck? Kenny Kenny!" Kyle screams again.
Kenny looks horrified as he also kneels across Stan. "I'm right fucking across from you!"
"Go get the nurse and tell her he's not breathing, no pulse, if she has any equipment and call fucking 911. Fuck." Kyle screams at him.
"I think Bebe is calling them. But yeah, I'll run there." Kenny jumps up and takes off.
"Okay Kyle you can do this." Kyle put his hands in the middle of Stan's chest, fingers interlaced and started to press down. He couldn't believe this; he pushes harder and harder anger taking over as he counts out thirty chest compressions. Kyle reaches down and pinches Stan's nose and blows in his mouth. It's hard to get air in. He tries again a few more times before wiping his eyes to try again. "Oh god you stubborn fuck." He breathes in his mouth two more times.
Stan's chest rises slightly but he's still unconscious.
Kyle's fingers go to Stan's neck again, flashbacks to their arguments at thirteen over Stan obsessively checking his own pulse after his heart surgery. Kyle felt nothing from Stan now. He starts to count out thirty more compressions. He pinches Stan's nose again to give more breaths. He should've made Stan leave work and go to the ER yesterday. He should've made him go this morning at the locker. He should've picked his stupid ass up and called 911 as soon as he saw him. Fucking stupid stubborn ass Stan. Always waiting until the last minute. Kyle put all his anger and despair as he pressed down on Stan's heart, he would not lose his best friend. No way in hell, he would never forgive himself if Stan didn't make it. At this realization Kyle noticed his face was wet with tears.
The room was dead silent, except for Kyle counting out and Bebe talking to 911. The rest of the class stood around in uncomfortable shock. Mrs. Perolzi blew her whistle and got the rest of the class to step back and onto the bleachers. The students avoided the place where Stan had collapsed. "Okay give the kid some space. Broflovski, it's best to wait until the ambulance gets here. They'll know what to do."
"No if he goes without oxygen, he's going to fucking die." Kyle counts out thirty more compressions. Checks Stan's pulse, nothing, he breathes in his mouth again, ignoring a few snickers from his classmates. "Did he have a bad asthma attack? What the fuck?" He breathes again.
The gym door slams open as Kenny returns with the school nurse. She has a little red kit in her hands.
Nurse Marion kneels across from Kyle over Stan. Starting to unwrap the little kit. "Can you tell me what happened?"
"He's been sick, looked pale and sat out, found him like this. Hasn't been breathing, no pulse." Kyle finishes his cycle of compressions and leans down to breathe into Stan's mouth once more.
"Okay, step back while I attach him to the AED, and we'll see what it says." The nurse grabs a pair of scissors and cuts down Stan's gym shirt, revealing the old scar from his previous heart surgery. She hands over a smaller kit to Kyle, he sees a little pocket mask and gloves and nods numbly as he pulls the items out to slip them on.
The nurse pulls out two large pads, she pulls off the sticky backing, putting one higher on the right side of Stan's chest and the left ones lower. She turns on the machine. Its mechanical voice calling out it was analyzing and to not touch the patient.
"Analyzing rhythm…shock advised, do not touch the patient." The AED spat out in its monotone voice.
"Get back." Nurse Marion said, waiting for the AED to charge up. When the machine was ready, she pushed the button, sending a shock into Stan's body.
Stan jerks violently, painfully before he's still once again. "Continue CPR." The AED says again.
"No!" Kyle says sharply. He makes a move to start again but the nurse is already in position, starting compressions again. "Give breaths when I tell you." She says to him.
"Okay, just tell me when" Kyle wipes his eyes as he lets the nurse work on him. Looking Stan in the face. "He has a deadly coconut allergy and asthma and a heart condition. Fuck." Kyle wipes his eyes again
"Do you know if he was exposed to any allergens?" The nurse stops pumping and nods to Kyle. "Now!"
Kyle puts the little mask over Stan's mouth and nose, breathing twice and looks at her. "Don't think so."
The nurse pumps again, the two-minute timer on the AED goes off again. "Analyzing, do not touch the patient."
Kyle breathes twice for Stan again. He looks at the clock, after four minutes they get brain damage. Kyle had tried something in the meantime.
"Bebe!" He screams. "What does 911 say?"
Bebe is pacing back and forth, nervously. "Keep up with CPR! They're on their way!"
"Shock advised…. charging. Everyone stand clear." The AED droned out.
With great effort Kyle pulled back, his eyes meeting the nurses who reminded calm, her finger over the button and waiting for the machine. He looked down at Stan. His best friend's pale face had gone from white to blue, eyes far away and looking into nothing. Kyle wiped his eyes as another shock was sent into Stan. He twitched again violently. Kyle held his breath, trying to grasp at hope until the machine told them to resume CPR.
Kyle let's out a rage filled growl and started to push back on Stan's chest. "No, fuck you. You're coming back. So, help me you stupid fucking asshole." He starts to count out compressions again. "Now." He says to the nurse as she breathes into the mask over Stan's face.
Far away from Kyle's concentration, the gym door slams open again as Wendy runs in. She feels sick to her stomach seeing that familiar black hair attached to a body splayed on the ground being worked on with lifesaving measures.
Wendy kneels at Stan's head, looking at Kyle's face red, tears streaming down as he performed CPR on her boyfriend. She looks down into Stan's eyes, beautiful as ever but lifeless. "No, Stan please. You should've gone to the doctor."
"Tell me about it. fucking stupid fucker." Kyle huffs, moving back as the nurse breathes for Stan a few more times.
Wendy tucks her hair behind her ears and leans down, planting a kiss on Stan's pale forehead. "Please, come back. I love you." She cries.
Kyle finishes his second round of compressions as the nurse breathes twice more.
"Analyzing rhythm." The AED calls out.
Wendy takes Stan's hand gently, "come on, come back. We need you."
"Shock advised." The AED says.
Kyle grabs Wendy and pulls her back as the AED charges up again. She sobs into Kyle's chest, one eye out to watch Stan get shocked a third time.
Stan jumps again and lays still. "No Shock advised." The AED drones out. The school nurse puts her fingers to the side of Stan's neck and feels for a moment before grabbing a stethoscope. "He has a pulse again." She calls out, double checking if he was breathing again.
Suddenly the sound of an ambulance is heard outside the gym. Bebe goes over to open the back door to let them in.
Kyle moves to the other side of Stan as the nurse keeps checking his vitals. "Hey don't move, don't worry. We got you." Kyle's sobbing hysterically now. "Just relax, keep breathing. Holy shit dude."
Stan's eyes open up, fear on his face. His chest hurts so much as he moves his hand slightly.
"Hey there Stan, are you coming to?" Wendy asks gently. She grabs Stan's hand; he's taking deeper breaths now as his color starts to come back. She gives him a kiss on the cheek and takes two fingers to Stan's wrist. His pulse seems thready and feels like it's climbing again to a bad level. "Just breathe, the paramedics are almost here."