"Listen to Lisa."
"Okay."
"Be nice to each other."
"Sure."
"Have a safe trip!"
Liane hugged both of her children as the call for the flight to Newark came over the intercom.
"I love you both! Behave!"
"We will, Mom," Kate replied with a smile.
"We will, Mom," Cartman echoed.
"Hurry up!" Stan called, slightly annoyed that they were taking so long.
"We're coming!" Kate shot back. "Bye, Mama. I love you!" She ran off as Cartman rushed after her. They boarded the plane and Kate took her seat by the window. Kenny sat right next to her, with Stan and Kyle across the aisle and Lisa and Cartman in front of Kate and Kenny. It was a normal flight, and when they touched down in New Jersey, they exited the plane without any problems.
Pete was waiting outside with his SUV, one that looked shockingly new and… not riddled with bullet holes. Lisa hugged her brother, and they got into the car. Cartman claimed one of the middle seats, as did Stan, leaving Kate to sit in between Kenny and Kyle. It was warmer in Jersey, so none of them were wearing their typical cold-weather clothing. No, instead, they wore T-shirts and jeans.
"So, this is Jersey," Cartman commented, looking out the window. "It's… less trashy than I'd thought it'd be."
"Yeah, why isn't anybody humping or punching each other?" Stan inquired.
"Those are the poorer and richer parts of Jersey," Pete replied. "This is the middle-class area. We're heading to Mike's house in the richer part." He shuddered, as did Kate. Kenny and Kyle each put an arm around her, glaring at each other.
"The rest of the family will be there tomorrow," Lisa informed them. "My side of the family is already there. Mike's side is the one arriving."
"Oh, joy," muttered Kate. "Time spent with Alli and Nikki and Luci…"
"Be nice," warned her birth mother.
"Only if they will."
"WHAT THE HELL?!" gasped Kyle as they pulled up to the 'house'. Really, a better word for it was 'mansion', given the size and scope.
"This is it," Kate sighed. Pete parked the car and a woman ran out of the house. She had pale brown hair to match Lisa and Pete's, with the same freckles and pale skin.
"LISA! PETE!" she yelled as everyone got out of the car.
"Haley!" Lisa squealed, hugging the woman. Kate landed on the ground and caught the woman's attention.
"KATHERINE!" she wailed, picking up Kate. "OH MY GOODNESS! I'VE MISSED YOU SO MUCH!"
"Hi, Aunt Haley," Kate greeted her.
"Oh, you all have to come inside! Leave the bags to Greg and Lucas!"
"Mom!" whined a boy with dark blonde hair, coming out with a blonde-haired man.
"Take care of their bags, Lucas," Haley instructed. "South Park is a long way from here, and I'm sure they're tired from their flight." She smiled brightly at the visitors. "Come in!"
"S'up, Kate?" Lucas greeted her, giving her a fist bump.
"Glad to see you grew out of that lisp," Kate teased.
"Yep. Glad to see you have your two front teeth."
She stuck out her tongue as she and the others entered the house.
The inside was extremely impressive. There was a chandelier in the entryway, with a grand staircase leading upstairs and other doors leading elsewhere in the house. The boys just stared, completely blindsided by the appearance of the place. Kate let out a sigh of frustration and started pushing.
"Guys, can we get settled before we start admiring the house?" she asked.
"Sure!" stammered Kyle.
"Great. Guest rooms are this way." She walked up the stairs, the boys sticking close since they were afraid of breaking shit. "My guess is Aunt Haley and Uncle Greg took the guest room near the master bedroom and gave one of the other two down there to Lucas."
"Correct!" Haley chirped. "Isn't my niece the smartest cookie in the jar?! That means you boys will be taking the rooms near Kate's, across the hall. The others are for Mike's family."
"Wait, my room hasn't been cleared out?" Kate inquired.
"Nope! It's just the way you left it."
Kate ran down the hall, followed by the boys. She opened the door to reveal a pink-and-purple room, with pictures covered in dust. It looked like it belonged to a five-year-old, complete with a closet that contained at least half a dozen frilly dresses and a mountain of stuffed animals on the bed. Kate smiled as she picked up a bear.
"Uh, where are our rooms?" Stan asked.
"There's one on either side of mine," Kate replied, tucking the bear into her backpack. "Each of them have a set of twin beds, so nobody has to share. Lucas is sharing with Pete, I guess."
"I call rooming with Kyle!" yelled Stan, running to the left of Kate's room. Kyle shrugged and followed his best friend. Kenny and Cartman headed to the right and Kate closed the door behind them.
I looked around the room I'd left almost five years ago. Like Aunt Haley had said, it was exactly as I'd left it. I sat down in one of the beanbag chairs I'd begged my mother for as a small child. She'd agreed, much to my happiness. Once I was comfortable, I pulled the bear out of my bag and cradled it to my chest.
This bear was the one thing Mike had ever given me that made me feel like he actually cared. I was still a baby when he'd given it to me as a present, and I'd slept with it until I left New Jersey. What happened to that guy? The guy who gave his newborn daughter a teddy bear, who actually gave a damn if she lived or died, who loved his wife?
Aunt Haley used to tell me stories about Mike and my birth mother, how they were the top-dog power couple in high school right after the Meyerchecks moved from South Park to New Jersey. Mike was apparently the most doting father-to-be possible while Lisa was pregnant. Something changed, though, at least that's what Pete told me on the road. It was as if Mike became a completely different person when I was about a year old. I asked Lisa about it, and she confirmed that Mike had always been abusive. It just hadn't gotten physical until after I was born.
What happened?
The difference was me. Maybe Mike got physically abusive after I was born because he'd wanted a boy he could turn into his little clone/soldier/minion and not a girl who looked like his wife. I mean, the only thing we had in common was our dark brown hair. Maybe he hated me because he thought Lisa had cheated on him.
I thought every guy except Uncle Pete was an asshole.
That was before Kyle, Kenny, and Stan came into my life. They made me realize not every guy was a complete asshat, and that I didn't need to follow Lisa and Mike's example of a relationship.
Before I could go deeper into my own thoughts, there was a knock on the door.
"Uh, Kate?" Kyle's voice said on the other side. "Haley says dinner's ready."
"Okay!" I called. "I'll be there in a moment."
Yeah. Not every guy is an asshat.
Dinner was a loud affair. Haley, Greg, and Lucas had come in from New York City, while Chris, his wife, and their kids were still living in the area. Danny, Ethan, and Barrett were their kids, with Arianna, their mom, being pregnant with a fourth. Lucas was nine, and Danny was eleven. Barrett was the oldest kid in attendance, at fourteen. Ethan was just five. While the adults talked after dinner, Kate and the other kids went into the backyard, where Barrett started a fire in the little firepit.
"Are you sure it's okay to do that?" Kate asked.
"What?" Barrett laughed. "Nobody's gonna stop us." He looked at her weirdly. "I still can't believe you're my baby cousin. Last time I saw you was when you were in the hospital after what Uncle Mike did."
"Who are you guys?" Lucas asked Stan.
"We're Kate's friends," Kyle replied. "Except Cartman."
"Shut up, Kyel!" snapped Cartman. "She's my sister!"
"Sister, huh?" Barrett grabbed Kate and started noogieing her. "This kid?!"
"Barrett!" she whined, laughing as she wrenched away from him.
Inside, the adults were talking to Lisa about Kate.
"So, Lis, how has Kate been?" Arianna asked.
"She's been well. She's adjusted well to living in South Park, much better than I'd thought she would."
"I told you when that kid was a toddler," Chris commented. "She's a South Park kid through-and-through, and she was going to end up there eventually. Speaking of South Park, how are our old friends?"
"Well, Liane is fine; she's actually the one who adopted Kate while I was still running from Mike." Chris choked on his beer.
"Whoa, Liane's still around?!" Haley gasped. "I thought she'd have caught an STD by now!"
"Oh, no, she's even a mother. The chubby kid with us is her son, Eric."
"And the other three?"
"Kate's closest friends—Stan, Kenny, and Kyle."
"They seem sweet," Arianna commented.
"Oh, according to Kate, those three are very sweet. Eric is… not."
Later that night, Kate cleared the stuffed animals off her bed and got into it. It was just as comfortable as she remembered, but she wasn't quite able to get to sleep. She was about to see the fully-Jersey side of her family for the first time in almost five years, and she knew how crazy they could get. In a fit of nervousness, she headed downstairs to the kitchen, where she found some ice cream in the freezer. She sat down at the kitchen island and started eating it straight out of the carton. She was so preoccupied in her own thoughts that she didn't notice her South Park family (her brother and her friends) enter the kitchen.
"Hey, leave some for the rest of us!" Cartman whined. She jumped and covered her mouth with a squeal.
"What the fuck?!" she hissed. "Why did you scare me like that?"
"What are you doing in the kitchen at two in the morning?" Stan asked.
"…"
"Are you okay?" Kyle inquired.
"…no. I'm not. I'm scared."
"What are you scared of?"
"My fully-Jersey side of the family. I just know they're going to blame me and Mother for what happened to Mike, and I'm scared of my cousins on that side of the family. If you thought Quinn was bitchy, she's got nothing on those girls."
"We're here for you," Kenny assured her, hopping up on the stool next to her with a spoon.
"Fuck that; I'm here for the ice cream," Cartman sneered.
Kate let out a little chuckle at that.
"I wouldn't expect anything else from you," she told her brother.
The next day, Kate was in the game room with the boys, playing on the old arcade machines Mike had collected before he died. Lucas was playing head-to-head air hockey against Stan while Kenny and Kyle were watching Kate. Cartman just took advantage of the unlimited plays on the Dragon's Lair machine. That was before they heard the doorbell ring.
"Kate!" Lisa called. "Your other cousins are here!"
"Let's get this over with," Kate sighed, taking a deep breath. Cartman went to move onto her machine as she hopped off the stool and headed out of the room.
In the entryway, Kate saw three girls her age—the triplets, Alli, Nikki, and Luci. All three of them were dressed to the nines, but not too much tan or makeup yet. She gave them a gentle smile.
"Kati!" shrieked the one in pink, hugging Kate.
"Ugh… hi, Nikki," Kate gasped. "You're—oof—crushing my ribcage!"
"Sorry, babe!" Luci, the triplet in blue, giggled, pulling Nikki off Kate. Alli, who wore green, stared at the ground. "It's just been so long!"
"Be nice to Kate," warned the triplets' mother, Rosie. "She hasn't been in Jersey for a while, so don't overwhelm her."
"I'm going to the game room!" Kate announced, remembering how much her cousins hated video games.
"We'll go with you!" Luci replied, pulling Alli along as Nikki walked behind Kate.
In the game room, the triplets stared, open-mouthed, at the South Park boys (naturally, excluding Cartman). Alli covered her face and hid behind Kate, who gave her an odd look.
"Uh…" Kyle said, looking at the triplets. "Hi?" Nikki blushed and looked away.
Kate, of course, facepalmed.
Kate's oldest cousin out of all of them, Anne-Maria (who was sixteen), was the last to arrive with her twelve-year-old brother, Xavier. Anne-Maria was definitely the stereotypical Jersey girl to the core, from her hairsprayed-till-diamond-solid hair to the orange-ass tan. It was easy to see why Kate didn't like that side of her family, especially when Luci started flirting with Stan, who gently turned her down.
All throughout the trip, Kate was either giving her old possessions to family members (Arianna was having a girl, Pete's second niece) or packing away the ones she wanted to take back to South Park with her. The boys were forced to entertain her female cousins if Kate was busy doing that, and on the last day, they were glad to be leaving that side of Kate's family behind.
"I'll see you in a few days," Pete told Kate. "I'm driving your stuff to South Park and Haley will take you all to the airport on their way back to New York."
"Thanks, Uncle Pete."
"Be good for your mom."
"Which one?"
"Ha, ha!" He gave her a hug. "Love you, Rin!"
"Bye, Uncle Pete!"
That afternoon, Kate said goodbye to the rest of her family, including Lisa, who'd decided to stay in New Jersey.
"Aw, that trip was sweet!" Cartman commented on the flight. "I got Luci, Nikki, and Alli's phone numbers!"
"You know they're technically your cousins too, right?" Kyle asked.
"Dammit!" Cartman had a sour look on his face. "Well, maybe I can sell them to Clyde or Butters when we get home."
"You do that," Kate sighed, shaking her head. She looked out the window and blinked.
Was someone just… standing on a cloud?! No… that's impossible…
And so they flew back to Denver.
Okay, so I know I said I would add a new character… and I did. Never mind. Anyway, lots of Kate stuff this chapter, and next chapter will be my twentieth. I'm planning to do a special for that, one that was actually slightly set up in the end of this chapter.
So long and thanks for all the fish!