Author's Note: Sorry. I think I'm a bit late with the update. I just lost track of time, but it's here now!

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"Sweet."

Cartman's grin widened at the sight before him. Butters was standing alone, looking down the hall where Kenny had run off. A look of confusion and hurt was spread like butter all over his face. Ha! He laughed to himself as he thought about it. Butter on Butters.

He made his way to him and tapped the blonde boy on his shoulder.

Butters turned around. He slowly looked up and him and for a second-one complete second- Cartman was blown away by the look in Butters' eyes. It was both sad and breathtakingly beautiful all at once. He shook his head. Oh my. . .Jesus.

"It didn't work," Butters said sadly as he looked down, rubbing his knuckles together. "K-Kenny ran away. He h-h-ha. . ." The word seemed to be too much for him.

"Hates you?" Cartman finished after gathering his composure.

Butters nodded.

"Just wait until ninth period," Cartman replied, the smirk growing on his face. This time, though, it felt a bit awkward for him, but it was still there.

Butters' eyes lit up. "A-are you gonna help me?"

"Sure, sure," Cartman replied. "By ninth period he won't be able to deny it and he'll be crawling back to you for comfort."

"Comfort?"

"Yeah, he'll need reassurance from the one he loves."

"What for? Will he be upset?"

"No, of course not!" Cartman's smile became wide again. "He'll just finally realize his mistake and he'll need you to tell him it was alright."

"Oh," Butter said. He then smiled as he wrapped his arms around Cartman's round body. "Oh, thank you, Eric!"

Cartman cringed and then pulled away. "Yeah, yeah. Just get your gay hands off me!"

"Oh, sorry," Butters apologized as he stepped away. "B-but thanks again." He smiled one last time before he turned away and walked down the hall, whistling a happy tune to himself.

"Heh," Cartman said to himself. "He's so gay."

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"Kenny."

It was like he didn't hear him.

"Kenny!" Stan called again. He pulled at his shoulder and turned Kenny to face him. "What was that all about?"

"Butters is gay!" Kyle interrupted. "He's gay and he li-likes Kenny!"

"Is that who you've been running from?" Stan asked as he looked at him curiously. Kenny's eyes fell away from sight as he lowered his head.

"Dude! Butters is gay!" Kyle informed still not believing it.

"Yeah, Kyle, we now," Stan replied as he looked over his shoulder to his friend.

It had surprised Stan too, but it hadn't hit him nearly as hard as it did Kyle. Stan had been thinking of Kenny. Worrying about him and trying to stay calm and he thought he had done an okay job of that.

Stan took another deep breath as he turned to Kenny again. And again he asked, "Is that who you've been running from?"

Kenny nodded slowly.

But there had to have been more. What more could've upset him? It wasn't just that Butters was gay. It went deeper than that, but what was it!

"What else?"

Kenny looked up. His eyes looked at Stan suspiciously and Stan caught the hurt that he was trying to suppress.

"There has to be more than that," Stan said.

Kenny pulled away from him, his anger reflecting in his eyes. "There is no more than that, but the usual shit," came his muffled reply.

Stan sighed again and shrugged. "Okay," he said simply as he turned. What more could he do? If Kenny didn't want to tell him what was really bothering him, he couldn't force him to tell him. "Should we go to class or. . ."

"It doesn't matter," Kenny replied as he followed him down the hall. Kyle took his time behind them both.

"Butters is gay," he said again.

Kenny rolled his eyes. "Yeah," he replied. "Butters is gay. Can we go now?"

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"Sally."

"Yeah," the girl replied as she turned. "What is it, Cartman?"

"I've got your story right here." Cartman waved a video tape in the air, a huge smirk on his face.

Sally sighed as she rolled his eyes. She could only imagine what he had this week, but his stories always spiced up the school's news show at the end of the day, so why not?

"What story ya got?" Token asked as he stepped toward them.

"It's a surprise," Cartman replied.

"Is it any good?" Token asked.

"Oh, it's good." Cartman looked at him. "It's good."

"Okay," Token said. "After Jimmy over there gives us his 'Joke of the Day' segment, we'll put your tape to play for the school."

Cartman looked over Token's shoulder to Jimmy. He was practicing in a mirror.

"Did you hear the joke about the. . ." He attempted to get the word out, but it was obvious that he was having trouble. "Did you hear the joke about the b-buhh. .hhh. . ."

Cartman looked away and shook his head. "What about before Jimmy's segment?" he suggested. He wanted to show off his tape as soon as possible. "Why not before Pip's weather thing?"

Token and Sally looked at one another. "No," Sally said. "Craig is on with sports before Pip."

"Then put be in between," Cartman replied angrily. "Better yet," he began. "Put me in before everyone else, so you can just get it out of the way."

"We made room for you after Jimmy," Token said. "If you don't-"

"No one cares about Jimmy's worthless jokes or Craig's gay sports! Not even Pip's fucking weather report!"

There was silence in the entire room and it was the supervisor, Mr. Clive, who broke the silence when he walked up to him and took him by the shoulder. "If you can't talk nicely to your peers and come up with a good compromise while doing so, then get out," the man said as he dragged Cartman out the door.

"Hey!" Cartman shouted, trying to pull himself away from the man's grip.

Sally and Token watched as the man dragged Cartman out of the room and then as soon as they were out of sight, people began working and preparing around them and both Token and Sally walked away, discussing who'd report what and who'd introduce who for what.

"Listen, Cartman," Mr. Clive began. "Everyone involved in the news is important no matter how small their role in it is. And they all work just as hard to run everything so the school can take out 15 minutes in the last period for kids to just relax. Never again bring down a student by saying the things you said in there!"

Cartman narrowed his eyes not even looking at the man.

"Now," Mr. Clive began again. "As punishment, I will not be allowing you to air the tape you worked on today or any other day."

Cartman looked up. "What!"

"That's right," Mr. Clive said. "And I hope this teaches you to be nicer to your classmates." With that the man walked back into the room without looking back once.

Cartman grunted. He looked down at his tape as the eighth period bell rang. Students began to pour out of their classes. Many of them were relieved. There was one more period left.

"Alicia Peterson, to the main office," came the secretary's voice above him. "Alicia Peterson."

He looked up and smiled to himself.

By the end of the day. . .everyone would know about Kenny and Butters. He'd make sure of it.

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Stan, Kyle, and Kenny entered their ninth period class. Butters sat alone at one of the computers, looking up at them as they walked in. He raised his hand to waved them over with a smile on his face. But he lowered his hand as he remembered Kenny's reaction and he lowered his head.

Kenny sighed and walked to the other side of the room.

Stan looked over at Butters.

Butters met his eyes and offered a small, awkward smile to which Stan attempted to return as he followed Kenny in the room.

Kyle walked behind Stan staring at Butters, his eyes wide. He smiled a little when Butters caught him looking and then Kyle turned away. He rushed to Stan's side and whispered something in his ear.

Stan shrugged.

Butters watched as they sat down, the three of them. He wondered what it was that Kyle said to Stan, but turned away toward his computer screen when the teacher came into the room seconds before the late bell rang.

She quickly went to the t.v. and turned it on. In seconds, Token and Sally's smiling faces lit up the screen.

"Good afternoon, fellow classmates," Sally greeted sweetly. "I'm Sally Turner."

"And I'm Token Williams."

"And we're coming to you live," Sally began.

"From the video tech room to give you," Token added.

"The school news," Sally finished.

Butters watched the screen. His elbow sat on the desk as he rested his chin in his open palm. His eyes strayed from the t.v. screen to Kenny and he sighed. He hoped whatever Cartman was doing would really help him out. He didn't think he'd be able to go on much further without Kenny.

"Today-"

"Attention, attention," came a familiar voice over the speaker.

"Cartman?" Stan and Kyle asked aloud as every head in the room turned to the speaker.

"What the-"

"Hey, what's going on?" Sally asked on the screen.

"I have some important news to show you all."

Butters wondered if this was what would help him with Kenny. He scratched his head.

"Kenny?" Stan asked.

"You okay, dude?" Kyle asked.

Butters turned to them. Kenny's eyes were wide open. He was staring at the floor, horror reflecting in his eyes and in a quick, swift motion he pulled the strings from his hood as if it would shield him from whatever it was Cartman had to say.

"May I direct your attention to the screens in your rooms, please?" Cartman said over the loud speaker.

Seconds later the screen went black right after Token and Sally called to Mr. Clive.

"This, I'm sure, you'd all like to see." There was a pause and then Cartman spoke again. "And the show begins. . .now. . ."

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Please don't hate me for leaving it like that! But the last chapter will be up soon, so don't hate me!

Jess