So, we're finally getting back on the road again and getting on with the story. I have my timeline to help me out and it's telling me that a certain big event is coming up soon, so be ready for it!
Also, sorry for not updating this in a long time. I've been going through a lot. Like, a lot. New job, depression, trying to find a publisher for my novel, having new interests, etc. I am planning on finishing all of my works. It may just take a long time.
"You push me back…"
Chapter Nine – Where They Keep Running Into People They Know and It's Awkward
Pretty much everyone woke up early the next morning, eager to continue on with their trip across America. It took a while to load everything up into the RV, but eventually they managed to get everything and everyone packed in and were back on the road by noon.
Stan was not too sad to be leaving Las Vegas. As cool as the city was, it stilled smelled like pee and failure. And there were way too many Elvis impersonators. Randy ran over a few while they were leaving.
It wasn't until Las Vegas was far behind him before Kyle finally decided to give his dad his wallet back. Gerald took it with a grumble, still bitter about "not being able to enjoy the city that much."
"Get over it, Gerald," Randy said eventually. "It was for your own good."
"Where are we going next, dad?" Stan asked, looking up from the game he was playing.
"Well, Wendy insisted that we visit some of the national parks, so I was thinking we could go to Yosemite next," Randy said as Wendy nodded matter-of-factly.
"How long will it be before we get there?" Butters asked. Randy checked his watch.
"About six hours, give or take," he replied. Some of the teens groaned in annoyance.
"What are we supposed to do for six hours?" Craig wondered.
"You've got stuff to entertain yourselves with," Gerald pointed out. "Do some of that stuff." Craig glared at him but didn't say anything as he climbed out of the booth to go over to the mini fridge.
Tweek busied himself by trying out his souvenir mugs while Wendy and Butters talked about what they had seen so far and what they were planning on doing during the trip. Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman entertained themselves with a game of "Would You Rather?"
"Ok Kenny, would you rather shave a stranger's back, or eat two whole jars of mayonnaise?" Stan asked with an evil grin.
"I don't know," Kenny said with a groan. "I mean, I love mayonnaise, but I don't think I really want to eat two whole jars of it…"
"I would," Cartman said wistfully.
"I guess shave a stranger's back," Kenny decided. "Because when you're poor, you already see the most disgusting people imaginable. So, a stranger's hairy back wouldn't disgust me all that much." He turned towards Kyle, giving him a thoughtful look. "Would you rather have sex with the perfect lover, but never be able to masturbate again, or be able to masturbate anywhere you want without fear of getting caught, but never have sex again?"
Kyle gave him an annoyed look.
"Really Ken?" he sighed. "You just had to ask that, didn't you?"
"Answer the question!" Kenny ordered with a grin. Kyle rolled his eyes.
"I don't know, the first one, I guess," he said eventually. Cartman shifted in his seat as he straightened up slightly while Kenny giggled at how clever he thought he was. Kyle thought for a moment before turning to Cartman. "Ok Cartman, would you rather hop on one leg for the rest of your life, or have one hand tied behind your back for the rest of your life?"
"Aw, that's a tough one!" Cartman groaned. "I need my legs for kicking people, but I need my hands for punching people! And other things."
"What 'other things' do you need to do with your hands?" Stan asked.
"That's for me to know and for you to never find out," Cartman stated.
"Well, you gotta pick one," Kenny said. Cartman sighed.
"I guess I'd rather hop around on one leg," he decided. "Because there are some things that need both hands, but I can get around the one leg thing. Maybe I could develop giant muscles in only one leg. That would be cool."
"You have a strange definition of cool," Kyle teased. Cartman grinned at him before turning to a suddenly nervous Stan.
"Stan," Cartman said with the evilest of grins. "Would you rather have to suck the world's grossest dick, or have your dick sucked by the world's grossest mouth?"
"Oh, you are just plain evil!" Stan gasped.
"Thank you," Cartman replied, still grinning evilly.
"What would the world's grossest dick even look like?" Tweek asked, turning around to look at them with wide eyes. "Actually, on second thought, I don't want to know."
"Well Stan?" Cartman asked, wiggling his eyebrows. "What's it gonna be? Grossest dick or grossest mouth?" Stan sighed and rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"I don't know, man," he groaned. "Grossest mouth, I guess. At least I wouldn't have to taste it or anything." The other three "ew!"-ed at that and they continued their game.
After a couple of rounds, Wendy suddenly squealed with delight at something she was reading on her laptop. She picked it up and squeezed into the booth with the guys to show them what she had found.
"Look! There's a huge musical festival going on not too far from here," she said, pointing to the website. "There's gonna be a whole bunch of different bands and venues! We should go!"
"That does look like fun," Stan agreed, looking it over. "Hey dad! Can we go? Please?"
"You know, why not?" Randy replied after thinking it over for a moment. "After all, this trip is supposed to be all about having fun! We can make a fun detour!"
Then he swerved the RV into a different lane, ignoring the angry honking of the cars he cut off by doing so. Soon, they found themselves surrounded by crowds and cars as they neared the place where the festival was.
After paying an entrance fee and parking, they all hopped out and were bombarded with loud music, people talking and delicious smells. Immediately, Tweek and Craig wandered off towards the food stands because that was the furthest away from the loud music. Randy and Gerald started towards the food stands as well because, unlike the teens, they hadn't had a chance to eat since that morning. Wendy grabbed Stan's hand and started dragging him away towards one of the nearby stages. Kenny, with his hands in his pockets, shuffled off towards the tents that were selling arts and crafts.
"Well gee, fellas, what should we do first?" Butters asked Kyle and Cartman, turning towards them.
"I'm going to go see what they have to sell over there," Kyle told him, pointing. "It looks like they have some cool stuff over there."
"And I'm going to follow him because I have nothing better to do," Cartman added as Kyle started walking away. Then he quickly turned and hurried after him. Butters shrugged.
"Guess I'll go get my groove on," he said to absolutely no one before walking off.
Elsewhere, Craig and Tweek were standing in line for a fried dough stand. Craig only wanted lemonade, but he was more than happy to watch Tweek eat fried dough because he always got the powdered sugar everywhere and it was adorable. As Craig was standing there thinking about it, Tweek suddenly nudged him in the side.
"Hey Craig! Isn't that Clyde over there?" He asked, pointing. Craig followed his gaze to see Clyde standing not too far away, waiting in a different line.
"Oh yeah, it is," Craig replied. "Neat."
Almost like he knew he was being talked about, Clyde suddenly turned his head and spotted them. Frowning, he quickly made his way over to them.
"So, you turn down my offer to come here because you claim you're 'too busy,' and yet you come anyway?" He growled the moment he was close enough. "Were you just too embarrassed to hang out with me, Craig?"
Craig blinked in shock at him, as if he had no idea what Clyde was talking about. Then he suddenly remembered Clyde inviting him to a concert right after Tweek and Kyle had invited him to their road trip. Well, this was awkward.
"Oh yeah, you did invite me to this," he said. "But it's not like that. Tweek and I are just spending the summer on the road. We just happened to stop here. I'd completely forgotten about you asking me to this. I didn't even realize until just now that this was the place you were talking about."
"Ah!" Tweek added. Clyde's expression softened and he let out a sigh.
"Ok, fine," he said. "I believe you. But a little warning next time would be nice. I didn't realize you'd be gone for the whole summer."
"That's because I forgot to tell you," Craig replied with a shrug. Clyde rolled his eyes before turning to Tweek with a smile.
"Hey Tweek," he greeted him. "How's it going?"
"Ah!"
"Good to know."
Meanwhile, Wendy and Stan were standing near one of the stages and listening to a band called "The Rough House." They didn't know what kind of music the band would play, but they certainly weren't expecting slow love ballads.
"I'm enjoying this music, but I was expecting, like, a hard-core metal song," Wendy said thoughtfully. "Something you can bang your head to. Not something you can slow dance to."
"D-Did you maybe want to dance with me?" Stan asked shyly. Wendy smiled sweetly at him, taking his hand.
"Well, if you insist," she said brightly. They moved further from the stage to a small dance floor-like area and Stan nervously put his hands on Wendy's hips while she wrapped her hands around his shoulders. It was nice, and Stan was starting to relax, but they didn't get long into it when there was suddenly a tap on Wendy's shoulder.
Jumping in surprise, Wendy turned around to see Bebe smiling at her.
"Bebe?" Wendy greeted. "What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" Bebe retorted. "I thought you were on a trip or something!"
"I am," Wendy said. "With my boyfriend. We just happened to stop here on a whim."
"Hey," Stan greeted, nodding.
"A bunch of the girls and I decided to come," Bebe said after nodding her own greeting. "We're camping out that way since this is a three day event. I was just surprised to see you here."
"We won't be staying for that long, I think," Wendy replied. "We just decided, you know, since we were passing by we'd see what was up."
"So, you and Stan, huh?" Bebe said, giving Wendy a sly look. "Is it just the two of you on a romantic getaway?" Wendy and Stan exchanged glances before Wendy looked away and awkwardly shuffled her feet.
"Sort of," she muttered eventually.
"There's also, um, eight other guys with us," Stan added. Bebe blinked at him.
"You're joking!" She gasped. "Does your parents know, Wendy?"
"Of course not," Wendy said quickly. "And you're not going to tell them! It's no big deal, really. It's just a bunch of friends travelling the country together. All the friends just happen to be one girl and nine guys. That's all."
Bebe didn't look convinced, but she muttered an "ok," anyway and Wendy let out a sigh of relief. Bebe told her to make sure that she came to say good-bye before they left before stalking off. She wasn't gone for long before Kyle and Cartman came hurrying up to them.
"Hey guys," Cartman said. "You'll never guess who we ran into!"
"Chuck Norris?" Stan guessed.
"The Obamas?" Guessed Wendy.
"Crazy Hat Guy?"
"Bebe?"
"That guy you pantsed in public one time because you wanted to see what would happen?"
"Michael Jackson back from the dead?"
"Ok, let me give you a hint," Cartman growled with annoyance. "It was someone I dated."
"Heidi's here too?" Wendy gasped. "She must have come with Bebe."
"Geez, was it really awkward, Cartman?" Stan asked. Cartman scoffed.
"Nah, it was fine," he replied. "In fact, I played it rather cool. She just came up and greeted me, and I was all like, 'Hey, kiddo!'"
"Ok Cartman," Kyle said suddenly. "Because, see, from where I was standing…"
Kyle then went on to describe how the moment Cartman noticed Heidi, he flew into a panic, dropping everything, grabbing a drink from a random passerby, downing it, then trying to hide behind everything and everyone. By the time Heidi noticed them and came over, Cartman was trying and failing to hide behind Kyle, who had just been standing there. When she had greeted him, he had let out a very awkward "Heeeyyy…"
"Kyle," Cartman growled, interrupting his friend. "I'm telling the story!" Kyle just grinned at him in response.
Cartman and Heidi were in a weird place after Heidi finally ended things with Cartman for good. That is, Heidi had completely forgiven Cartman and was happy to move on and just be friendly, while Cartman had a paranoid fear that Heidi was secretly plotting to kill him. Even though his friends kept telling him that he was being crazy, that's what Cartman believed.
"Are you ever going to get over her, Cartman?" Stan asked with a smirk.
"What are you talking about?" Cartman said with a scoff. "I got over her a long time ago!"
"Sure you did," he replied.
Before any of them could say anything more, however, Kenny came hurrying up to them, doubling over to catch his breath when he reached them.
"Guys, we have a real problem," he panted. "A certain You-Know-Who is here!"
"Voldemort isn't real, Kenny," Stan pointed out, rolling his eyes. Kenny glared at him.
"Not that You-Know-Who," he growled. "A red-headed, female, not fictional You-Know-Who!" The four of them thought for a moment before realization suddenly dawned on them. Their faces paled, sweat appeared on Cartman's brow, and Stan's jaw dropped.
"You don't mean-?"
"Well, well! If it isn't Kyle, Eric, Kenny, Wendy, and my dear ex, Stan!" A cheerful voice made the question die in Stan's mouth. Kyle flinched and Wendy stiffened with shock. Then they all slowly turned to find Angela Begara skipping towards them with a care-free smile on her face.
She's baaaaaaack!
Holy shit, it's been almost a year since I last updated this fic! I am so sorry! As I said before, it's been difficult with everything that's been going on. But, I'm posting a new chapter now, so that's good, right?
If y'all don't remember Angela, she was the driving conflict in the first story, Valentine's Day Frenzy. I don't blame you if you don't remember that one since it's been such a long time. But, she's back. What has she got to say? Well, hopefully you'll get to find out sooner rather than later.