L'amour

Summary: The new student at South Park High is strangely familiar…
Fandom: South Park
Pairings: Christophe/Kyle, Stan/Wendy, Damien/Pip, Kenny/Various (He's such a slut)
Warnings: Slash, bad language
Disclaimer: I'd sell my soul to own them (Especially Christophe – damn that sexy French accent!). However, since no-one seems to want to buy my soul, I'll settle for slashing them. I do own Michelle and Caroline.
Author's Note: If there's any other pairings you'd like to see, tell me. Ask and you shall receive…provided they don't interfere too badly with my plot (such as it is). I can pair Kenny up with more or less anyone and I have no problems about having Stan and Wendy break up, but I am not splitting up Pip and Damien. And I'm flexible on the subject of pairing Kyle and Christophe up with others, but remember – that means it'll take longer to get to the C/K action

Chapter 3 - Tout le même

The four boys waited at the bus stop every morning, much as they had since third grade. When Kyle arrived at the bus stop the next morning, events didn't deviate from their established pattern. Cartman made some obnoxious comment that triggered an argument with Kyle, Stan tried vainly to keep the peace, and Kenny's perverted commentary twisted everything any of them said. The bus trundled to a halt at the bus stop, and they climbed aboard.

"Take a seat quickly, please!" the bus driver said cheerfully. She had taken over three years earlier when Ms Crabtree retired.

"It's just not the same," Stan said morosely as they sat down. The other boys nodded – they had never imagined before that they would miss Ms Crabtree's foul-tempered screeches.

They took their usual seats, much as they had for years before. Cartman took up an entire seat by himself. Kyle and Kenny, being the smallest of the four, fitted onto the seat behind him with plenty of room to spare. Stan sat across the aisle from them, keeping the window seat for Wendy. Kyle spoke to Stan while he could, knowing his friend would be distracted when Wendy got on.

The bus filled up as they drew closer to the school. Most of the older students drove to school, but the boys had become so used to getting the bus that it hadn't occurred to them to stop. Kyle sighed in resignation as Wendy got on and turned his attention to Kenny, who was staring gloomily out of the window.

"What's wrong?" Kyle asked.
"I split up with Michelle last night."
Ah, so that was her name: "Sorry."
"It's okay," Kenny shrugged. Sometimes Kyle envied Kenny's outlook on life. Perhaps it was because of his unfortunate circumstances that Kenny didn't waste time worrying about things he couldn't change. He took life as it came and coped as best he could.

Things had been better for Kenny's family since his father died of alcohol poisoning three years earlier. His older brother left home shortly afterwards, and with two less mouths to feed and the majority of their money no longer going on booze, they had a lot more money to spend on things like food. Mrs McKormick had sworn off alcohol after her husband's death and finally gotten a job – leaving Kenny to try to keep the house in order and look after his little sister Caroline, who had been three years old at the time. Kyle smiled. Carrie was six now, and very cute. She had the same bright blue eyes as Kenny, but had inherited their mother's red hair. She smiled a lot – especially around Kenny, who loved the little girl and spoiled her outrageously.

"Hello? Earth calling Kyle!"

Kyle blinked at Kenny, who was waving a hand in front of his face; "What?"
"You spaced out, man. Again. Who's this week's crush? Frenchy?"
"Kenny, you have an unspeakably filthy mind. Of course not."
"What were you thinking about, then?"
Kyle hesitated, aware of how incredibly wrong it would sound to say 'your sister'; "Um…nothing," he said eventually.
"Thought so," Kenny smirked.
"Oh, shut up."

It took an hour for the bus to get to the school, but no-one really minded. Most people talked to their friends, did their homework, or caught up on their sleep. In their group, it was a combination of the three: Stan was desperately trying to finish his history homework, while Wendy and Cartman bickered over his head. Kenny had dozed off with his head on Kyle's shoulder. There were none of the cries of 'fag' anyone else would have got; because Kyle was too used to Cartman's taunts to even notice, and Kenny would cheerfully agree, leaving them completely bewildered.

Kyle prodded Kenny awake as the clapped-out old bus rattled to a halt outside the school, and Stan finished his homework with a flourish before stuffing it into his bag. Wendy and Cartman continued their argument all the way up to the school and along the corridor.

Their first class that day was math, and their distribution throughout the various classes followed its usual pattern. Kyle and Wendy were in the top class, as they were for just about everything else. Kenny was in the bottom class - not because he was stupid, but because of his tendency to sleep through lessons, not do his homework, and skip school when he got bored. Cartman was in the same class for similar reasons…with a dose of common stupidity thrown in. Stan, as in just about everything else, was average - floating somewhere in the middle.

Kenny could have been in a higher class than Stan if he tried. He found this funny.

This pattern persisted in almost all of their subjects (With the exception of history, which Cartman inexplicably excelled at). As such, it was only really at lunch they got the chance to talk.

Sometimes Kyle thought that life in South Park was far too predictable. He could always say with a fair degree of accuracy what he would be doing at any given time in the next week…which was rather depressing. Setting aside a day or two for their periodic misadventures, of course. Before he even entered the lunch hall, he knew exactly what his friends would be doing. Stan and Wendy would be doing 'cute' couple-y things. Kenny was single again, so he would be keeping up a running commentary on any hot people that passed their table. Cartman would be waiting for Kyle, preparing his insults.

As he sat down and exactly that happened, Kyle prodded at his lunch and prayed for change.

Tout le même – All the same