Chapter Three - Harder Than You Thought.

Kyle trudged along the pavement with his head directed sharply down to his feet. One of his hands was stuffed deep in his jacket pocket, and his other arm was wrapped firmly around a pile of books and notes that he was carrying. He sighed. Even if he wanted to snap his head up and walk along like the happy, carefree fifteen year old that he usually was, he knew that he just wouldn't be able to will himself to do so. These past two weeks or so had been the fortnight from hell.

As he rounded the corner onto the all too familiar residential street, the young teenager dared to glance up at the house that he was quickly approaching. It had been a few days now since he had last visited the dark green bricked family home, or seen any of his close family friends who resided in it. But Kyle had been asked to deliver just about a week's worth of homework to his fellow ninth grade classmate who had been absent from school for all that time.

And if the last time he had seen his friend had been anything to go by, Kyle had absolutely no idea what to expect out of Stan today.

Just as Kyle had gathered enough courage to start on his way up the Marsh's driveway, he was surprised when he heard the front door click open. Immediately this was followed by the appearance of Randy, Sharon and Shelly. But, of course, there was no Stan. It wasn't that particularly surprising.

As the nineteen year old, brace-free, brunette girl flicked her hair out of her face, she narrowed her eyes at Kyle for a short moment, "Hey, turd," she spoke, catching the attention of both her mother and father.

Randy had just climbed into his family's car when he noticed Kyle standing at the foot of their driveway, and he turned around and waved through the backseat window while Sharon smiled softly at him, "Hi there, Kyle."

The pain in her voice was blatantly evident when she spoke. It had been a long, upsetting couple of weeks for everybody.

"Are you here to see Stan?" she asked.

Kyle slowly nodded his head, "Yeah, I've got some work for him to try and catch up on. But if you guys are just headed out, or something – "

"Oh, no, that's okay," Sharon cut back in, "The three of us are going out for dinner but, um, Stanley... uh..."

Kyle felt his heart sink at the sadness in Sharon's tone, "He just didn't feel like it?"

Exchanging a knowing glance with the teenage boy, Sharon stifled a heavy sigh, "You can go in and see him. It might do him some good. He's been in a really bad mood all day."

"Yeah, I'll bet he has," Kyle grumbled under his breath. Looking away from the Marsh family, he rolled his eyes.

Kyle couldn't imagine the pain that Stan was going through. It was all something that he wouldn't even dare to think about. But the arrogant, grumpy and straight up bad attitude that Stan had been projecting on all of his family and friends was beginning to become completely inexcusable. There had to be some sort of line drawn in the sand somewhere.

As Shelly finally jumped into the back seat of her parents' car and Sharon opened up the passenger door, Kyle bounded up the front steps of the house, turning back to her before he stepped through the door, "Mrs. Marsh?"

Spinning around at the sound of her name, Sharon gazed back at Kyle as he opened his mouth to speak again, "I dunno' if it'll make you feel any better, but it's not just you guys. He's being a jerk to everybody."

Allowing a small chuckle to escape from the back of her throat, Sharon smirked, watching the mist float from between her lips as she laughed into the cold air, "You're a good friend, Kyle. We'll cya' next time."

Soon after, the car backed out from the driveway and vanished up the street, leaving Kyle feeling abnormally nervous standing on the front steps of his best friend's house. Adjusting the pile of papers he held under his arms and taking a deep breath, Kyle eventually pushed open the front door and stepped into the living room.

Stan was nowhere in sight – he was most probably up in his bedroom. It was the one place that he had pretty much refused to abandon since Wendy left town two weeks ago.

The story that had been recounted from the distraught fifteen year old had been vague at best. Stan hadn't really gone into many details with anybody – all that he could muster to explain was that Wendy and her parents had abruptly moved away to California to be with the rest of her family. And that she didn't want to see or talk to him anymore.

The immense concern that exploded across Kyle's mind had been instant. He had been there six years ago when Wendy had broken up with Stan the first time, and the red-headed teen couldn't even begin to fathom the capabilities that a second time could possibly have on his friend. But when Stan's wardrobe had remained exactly the same and no traces of gothic, black clothing ever appeared on his person, Kyle thought that maybe things would be okay this time. That was until Stan started staying home from school. And blocking out just about everybody in his life.

Shaking his head to try and erase these worrying thoughts, Kyle heaved another breath as he made it to the top of the staircase and walked over to Stan's bedroom door.

What Wendy had done was terrible. So, completely horrible – and much worse than anything that had happened the first time when they were nine. But all that Kyle could do was put on a brave face and help his best friend through this difficult period. Besides, Stan seemed to be managing well enough by staying quiet and keeping to himself, anyway. How bad could the whole thing actually be?

Gently knocking on the wooden door, Kyle cleared his throat, "Stan?"

The couple of seconds that he waited seemed to drag on for a lifetime as Kyle was met with nothing but silence. Frowning to himself, he used his free hand to twist the knob and push the door open, taking a step into the darkened bedroom, "Stan?"

As soon as he eyes adjusted to the dark, Kyle glanced down to where his best friend was sitting on the floor. And almost immediately, he gasped, dropping the pile of books cold onto the ground beneath him, "Stan!"

Flicking on the light switch, Kyle prayed to Abraham that what he had seen was just the dark playing tricks on him. But yet, as he shot his infuriated vision back over to Stan, a distressed yell instantly choked out from the back of his throat,

"What the fuck, man?!" ...

Stan's eyes slowly fluttered open. He stared sleepily up at the ceiling of his bedroom for a moment before his vision quickly glazed over the rest of the room. Had he really just had a solid night's sleep? Despite everything that had happened yesterday?

Well, that's a plus...

As a yawn exploded from between his lips, Stan reluctantly sat up and swung his legs over the side of his bed. He groggily rubbed his eyes before leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, yawning again. He felt like his head was spinning. All the various memories from the previous day were still dancing throughout his mind at an extremely excessive rate. He hadn't done any seriously overwhelming thinking like this in a long time. A very long time.

A moment of stillness drifted by as all of Stan's thoughts channelled themselves into one over-powering notion. The teenager daringly allowed his eyes to creep downwards and gaze at his left forearm. The few red, blistered marks that hauntingly glared back at him made his skin crawl as he blinked and quickly shook his head.

Jumping up from his bed he shifted his concentration on getting ready for school. He got changed, sprayed some deodorant, put on his football jacket and pulled his red poof ball beanie over his head. Turning around and facing the full length mirror that hung on his wardrobe door, he breathed out a heavy sigh and rubbed his face, attempting to make himself look more awake. With another long day ahead of him, he may as well have put the effort into trying to look his best. After all, he had learnt a while ago now that avoiding or running away from your problems was never really going to get you anywhere.

Stan knew he had to just keep tackling everything head on.

Stuffing a couple of books into his school bag, he hoisted it up and swung it over his shoulder just before he walked out of his room and headed downstairs. Stan took a steady breath in as he scratched the back of his neck. Amongst his positive attitude and thought of taking everything in his stride as it approached him, another important discovery had made itself obvious to him. He had spent most of the previous evening thinking about it, but Stan had soon figured out that there was no dodging another very serious confrontation that he was going to need to have. And just when he thought that nothing could have more intense than talking to Kyle, too.

As he rounded the corner and walked through the kitchen door, Stan stopped for a moment and simply smiled. Sharon was standing over to one side at the bench by the fridge making herself a cup of coffee. Her brown hair had grown out slightly over the last year or so and was tied up in a tiny ponytail behind her head. Now that Shelly was in college and Stan had almost finished school as well, the proud mother of two had resigned from her full-time reception job and now worked part-time hours instead. It was nice having her home a lot more, Stan thought. With the wild unpredictability of his dad and the constant distance that had always remained between he and his sister, Sharon had always been sort of his rock in his family. But, of course, that only contributed to the difficulty of the conversation he was about to have with her.

"Hey, Mum."

Spinning around at the sound of his voice, Sharon grinned happily at her teenage son as he hung his bag over one of the chairs at the counter, "Good morning, sweetheart," she cooed, "Do you want me to make you some breakfast?"

"That's okay, I'm just gonna' have some cereal," he answered, walking over to the pantry. As he opened the wooden door and reached up to grab a box of cereal, Stan closed his eyes for a split second before blowing out a slow breath.

"So, what have you got going on today, hon?" Sharon asked, flicking through the first couple of pages of the morning paper.

"Actually," Stan began, rejoining his mother, "there's something I kinda' wanted to talk to you about."

Sharon frowned, pulling open the fridge door as she retrieved the milk for Stan, "Is everything okay? What's going on?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine," he assured her, fixing his breakfast. He gulped down a huge spoonful of cereal as he thought of how best to word what he was about to say, "I just thought I'd let you know..." he paused, "Wendy moved back to South Park."

Almost instantly, Sharon's jaw dropped, "She what?"

"Yeah, she showed up at school yesterday."

"Well, what happened? Did she try and talk to you?" the rate of Sharon's immediate concern was quickly beginning to climb, "Did you even see her? Is she in any of your classes, do I need to call your principal and change you out of any of them?"

"No, Mum," Stan said, trying to calm her down, "and, please, enough with the million questions – Kyle gave me enough of the third degree yesterday."

"Stanley, I'm worried about you, I – "

"You don't need to be worried," the dark haired teen cut back in, "I didn't tell you to make you worry, I told you before you caught any word of it from anyone else around town."

Sighing in frustration, Sharon took off her reading glasses and placed them down on the bench top, "I don't like this, Stanley."

Pushing around his cereal on the end of his spoon, Stan stared down blankly into his bowl, watching the milk drown the crumbling flakes. It was hard for him to hear the immense amount of worry in his mother's voice. He remembered that tone all too well, and all the pain that had gone along with it. But as difficult as those recollections may have been to accept, they also made Stan just as determined to not let anyone or anything force his demons out of him ever again.

"Mum, you gotta' just trust me, okay?" he said gently, locking eyes with Sharon as she looked to him, "I put you guys through hell – I'm not gonna' let that happen again."

Sharon felt completely torn as she continued to stare at her son. Her little Stanley definitely wasn't as little as he used to be, even from just two years ago when his fifteen year old spirit had been utterly crushed by the departure of Wendy Testaburger from South Park. He looked big and strong and all grown up, but deep down, Stan was still her little boy. The thought of him ever returning to the state that he had been dwelling in for what had felt like an eternity all that time ago was one that absolutely terrified her. The fear would never leave her, she was certain it wouldn't. But at the same time, she couldn't deny just how much better and stronger Stan had become since then. If he told her to trust him, she knew she had to. It wouldn't be easy, but she would try.

Willing a brave smile to cross her face, Sharon walked over to Stan and swept his long strands of black hair to the side as she kissed him on the forehead, "I know you can look after yourself," she admitted, squeezing his shoulder, "But I still don't want you talking to her, understand?"

Chuckling to himself, Stan messed his hair back up with a roll of his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, I got it."

"Good. Now hurry up and finish your breakfast before you miss the bus," Sharon went on, "Your car will finally be ready to pick back up from the mechanic this afternoon."

"Ugh, thank God," Stan snorted, tipping his bowl up to his mouth as he slurped down the remainder of his cereal, "That was the longest couple of weeks of my life."

Sharon tried not to laugh as she watched Stan wipe his milk moustache on the back of his sleeve before he placed his bowl and spoon in the sink and snatched up his school bag once more. He looked back up at her and smiled just as he turned around to head out the front door. For a swift second, Sharon felt her heart splinter again.

"Are you sure you're okay then, honey?"

Stopping in the doorway of the kitchen, Stan looked back over his shoulder with a confidence in his expression, "I don't even want anything to do with her Mum, okay? It's fine," he spoke, continuing to push his point as he slipped into his shoes at the front door. Pulling it open and finally taking a step outside, Stan grinned as he called back to Sharon one last time, "I'll cya' later. Love you."

"Love you, sweetie," she replied, sensing her chest swell with pride in her son as he eventually vanished behind the door and set off on his way to school.

Sharon was amazed at how far her son had come. She remembered a time where Stan couldn't even say Wendy's name without feeling sick, and now it was all too clear to her that a weight had been lifted off his shoulders after being able to openly talk about her. But it was still only early days of the teenage girl being back in town – Sharon knew that and it only added to her uneasy apprehension. She needed to be guaranteed, one hundred percent that she had nothing to worry about anymore.

Until that day came, the nervous mother would continue to question if her bright and happy Stanley would be the same boy that returned home every afternoon, or if she was only eventually going to lose him again.

There was a lot of noise coming from the school gym as Wendy carefully pushed one of the double doors open and peaked in behind it. The teenage girl slowly scanned the area as she watched a great number of students setting up decorations and assembling the stage before her eyes finally landed on Bebe and Heidi trying to untangle themselves from a long and muddled string of red streamers.

It was lunch time and Wendy had been searching the school from top to bottom for her best friend for the last few minutes. It had certainly been another interesting morning for the raven haired girl. Wendy had recovered enough from her first day back at South Park High School, but before she had the time to settle herself, she had spotted Stan out of the corner of her eye again first thing that morning.

For a school that had such a large number of students, teachers and other staff, Wendy couldn't really believe her misfortune at constantly spying the one person who clearly didn't ever want to look at her. But ultimately, that had been the extent of the ex-couple's run-ins for that day. As much as it had hurt her to do so, Wendy decided that she was just going to try and completely avoid Stan as well. If that's exactly what he was doing to her, then where was the point in Wendy continually trying to force any interaction with him? All it was going to do was cause the both of them more grief. So she would just let it be. It was the only choice she had.

Though, of course, that also meant that Wendy was definitely in need of plenty more support from her best friend.

"There you are," Wendy exclaimed, approaching the two girls, "I've been looking for you everywhere."

"Oh, hey, Wendy," Bebe answered her, "Sorry, we've been helping out the senior girls as, like, assistants to the Homecoming committee."

"Yeah," Heidi said, joining in, "they wanted some help from girls in our grade so they could show us to set up and stuff for ourselves next year."

"Oh, cool," Wendy replied, giggling to herself as she tugged on the long piece of crate paper, setting her two friends free, "Looks like you could do with a bit of extra help?"

As she twirled her way out of the entanglement, Bebe flicked her blonde curls out of her face, holding onto either side of her head in an attempt to stop herself from getting dizzy. Soon enough, she laughed along with her best friend, "Sure! Stick around, try to find something to do. A lot of things won't be happening until the end of the week though."

"It's fine," Wendy said with a shrug of her shoulders, "It's not like I have anything better to do."

Busying herself with some posters that were in need of glittering up, Wendy tied her long black hair back into a ponytail and hung it over her shoulder as she tried to push any nervous thoughts about Homecoming on Friday to the back of her mind. She definitely preferred the idea of working behind the scenes and helping the other students set up rather than actually going to Homecoming. Wendy had too much else going on to worry about pretty dresses and dancing and partying. And boys – especially boys.

"So, are you going with anyone on Friday night?" the dark haired teen decided to ask her friend.

A pale pink blush melted its way into Bebe's cheeks, "Yeah," she answered matter-of-factly, "Kyle."

"Oh, of course! Your powerful new romance," Wendy swooned sarcastically. Dropping her voice to a grumble, she rolled her eyes, "So powerful that Kyle's actually willing to ditch his best friend on Homecoming."

Looking up from the streamers that she was curling and coiling together, Heidi licked her lips, "Stan won't be alone, he'll be going with – "

"Heidi!" Bebe suddenly hissed at her friend. The venom in her voice and the urgency in her eyes immediately made the brunette girl bite her tongue. They both sighed quietly to themselves as Bebe then dared to gaze over her shoulder and look back over to Wendy.

Her eyes were furrowed in an extremely confused frown, "He'll be going with... who?" Wendy's frustrated curiosity only grew with each second of silence that dragged on, "Bebe?"

A growl escaped from between Bebe's lips as she took Wendy by the arm and pulled her off to the side of the gym, "Okay, okay," she conceded, glowering back at Heidi as she did, "Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you this sooner, but – "

"Well, you've already been holding out on me quite a bit," Wendy interrupted, yanking her arm out of Bebe's grasp once they were alone, "First the Kyle thing, and now whatever this is?"

Bebe shot daggers at her friend, "The Kyle thing was happening around the same time as your..." just as the sentence was almost out of her mouth, Bebe chewed down on his bottom lip, trailing off. She took a quick glance around the gym to make sure no-one was in ear shot, "Around the same time as your thing," she recommenced, "I didn't want to worry you with my shit, Wendy, I just wanted to be there for you."

A shiver went racing up Wendy's spine at the words that Bebe spoke. She wasn't sure which of her thoughts were the more dauntingly suffocating. The ones about Stan, or the ones about Malibu. One thing she was sure of, however, was that she definitely was not in any state to sit back and allow both of them to drown her. Not yet, and not for a very long time.

Sighing with a small shake of her head, the raven haired girl flipped back to her original question, "So, Stan's got a girl to go to Homecoming with?"

Bebe slowly nodded her head, "Darcy."

"Who's Darcy?"

"She's a Middle Park girl."

Park County was a reasonably sized area of Colorado, and although it was the location of a handful of elementary and middle schools, South Park High was basically the only high school in the entire county. While this meant a lot of new faces and a lot of new adventures, it also meant a lot of other changes and adjustments for the kids of South Park.

The tight-knit group of students who had grown up with each other since pre-school had been suddenly shoved into a mix of all new teenagers who immediately went on label each other as "South Park kids" and "Middle Park kids". For the most part, and particularly because they were now in their third year of high school, everybody seemed to get along nicely with one another. It was only in particular circumstances – like Wendy was now hearing for herself – that certain students from the opposing schools got along a little too nicely.

An uncomfortable lump formed in the back of Wendy's throat, "So, she's, like... his girlfriend?"

"No," Bebe instantly spat, "no, well, I'm pretty sure they're not. Like, they've gone to every school event and party over the last few months together. But I've never heard anything about them being official."

A slight sense of reality was beginning to dawn on Wendy. It had been two years though. What could she seriously expect?

"Wendy? You okay?" Bebe asked softly, snapping her best friend out of her trance, "I am sorry I didn't say anything. It's only your second day back," she added with a gentle laugh, "I just wanted to try and give you a little more time to settle in."

"I know, I know," Wendy assured her with an understanding tone.

There was an odd feeling bubbling in her stomach. She was trying her absolute best to ignore it, but no matter how hard she forced the positive words to grind out from between her teeth, she couldn't help but suddenly feel a lot worse than she already did that morning.

Her mind was attempting to wrap itself around the idea of Stan hanging out with another girl. The image of Stan being with another girl, touching another girl, kissing another girl. It all seemed so painfully unimaginable. And, damn, did it hurt.

Putting on a brave smile, the teenage girl eventually shook her head once more merely shrugged her shoulders, "It's fine. We don't even have anything to do with each other anymore."

The words stung harshly in her chest as they left her mouth.

"It's just one of those things. Stan can do whatever he wants."

How did everyone like this chapter! :)

So there's obviously a couple of new things going on here - new friends and other students, a nice little flashback and some continual mentions of past issues for both Stan and Wendy. Anybody care to ponder where I may be going with all of this, or what exactly has happened to Stan or Wendy over the past two years?

I hope you're all enjoying this so far, I know I am having so much fun writing it :) If you do happen to be following this story and reading every chapter, please consider leaving me a review! I would really appreciate knowing what you all think :)

Till next time guys,

Reneyyyyyyyyyyy x