Chapter Four - Anywhere But Here.
Stan eagerly shuffled along the sidewalk as Kyle and Cartman were trying their best to keep up behind him. He smiled to himself, relieved that for once that week he actually had something to feel happy about. After what had felt like the longest few weeks of his entire life, the teenager was finally getting his car back from the mechanic who had been tirelessly working at fixing it.
It hadn't been too long after Stan had been given the motor vehicle for his seventeenth birthday when he had driven himself, Cartman and Butters over to Kyle's house one night. Gerald and Sheila had been out having a meal together and twelve year old Ike was up in his room doing his spelling homework when Kyle had started talking about a bottle of dark rum that his dad had brought home the previous night. Gerald had a drink or two with Randy, and both men couldn't stop talking about how smooth and warm the taste was. Now, the boys weren't stupid, and they weren't entirely irresponsible either – they were just simply curious as any other seventeen year olds would have been. It was for this reason that Kyle and Stan only snuck one shot each, just to see what the big deal was.
The rest of the night had gone on as normal – Butters was annoying, Cartman made about fourteen Jew jokes, and when it came time for them to drive home, Stan immediately stopped and gave himself a second thought. He had only drunk one shot, but the dark haired teen wasn't willing to take the risk of driving, so, very reluctantly, he had let Cartman take the wheel. They made it about half a mile up the road before Cartman in all of his uncoordinated glory ploughed the dark green Ford Focus straight into a tree.
The front end had been dented in to all hell, and dark black smoke had billowed out from the engine, but ultimately, that was all in the past now. Stan was finally getting his baby back.
"Okay, look, I'm not saying Stan shouldn't be careful with who he trusts to drive his car again," Cartman was arguing, "I just think it's unfair to put all the blame on me! Butters was totally distracting me, on purpose!"
"Butters wasn't doing anything, artard," Kyle sniped.
"Wasn't doing anything?" the heavier teen repeated, "He was shaking and screaming and crying like a little bitch!"
"That was after you crashed the car into the tree, dumb ass!"
Stan rolled his eyes at the typical back and forth between his two friends, "No-one is touching my car ever again," he spoke firmly, "Especially not now. I've had too much of a good day for anything to ruin it now."
Stan was right. Today had been a much better day. After exchanging yet another awkward glance with Wendy first thing that morning, the two had been able to successfully avoid each other for the rest of the day. And Stan wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
As the three of them approached the open roller door of the mechanics' workshop, Stan spied his shiny, green Ford all ready to go, while Kyle spotted a small framed man wearing a welding mask and working away at an exposed axel.
"Hey, dude," he said cheerfully.
The masked figure looked up at the sound of the voice behind him as he mumbled into the plastic that covered his face, "Mhmmmphhm, mhhpm?"
"We're here to get my car, Kenny," Stan somehow managed to answer the inaudible question.
As he switched off the blow torch, Kenny then pulled off the welding mask over his head, gasping out softly as he did. He pushed his fingers back between his greasy, blonde hair and grinned at his friends, "No worries, man, my boss just finished up on it this morning."
Kenny McCormick was one kid in South Park who had probably changed more than just about anybody else. About half way through the tenth grade, Kenny dropped out of school. He had never been great at his school work, or particularly book smart for that matter, but aside from all that, he had managed to find a job to go to instead. He had worked at the South Park mechanics ever since then and was performing as somewhat of an apprentice to his boss and the owner of the shop. More importantly than all of that, he was making money – actual money, all for himself. For once in Kenny's life, he wasn't so much of the poor kid that he had been throughout his entire childhood.
"Your parents already paid, right?" Kenny asked, walking over to the front desk.
Stan caught his car keys as Kenny retrieved them and threw them to him, "Yeah, my mum came down and did it this morning," he answered. It felt good to be holding the keys in his hands again. Thank God he had at least one thing in his life completely sorted out.
"So, what's been going on at school lately?" Kenny went on, "Have I been missing anything?"
"HA," Cartman grunted, "Missing anything? Stan, would you care to begin?"
Kenny furrowed a questioning brow, "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Seriously dude," Stan said, holding his hands up, "You do not want to know."
The blonde boy smiled sarcastically, "Uh, I'm pretty sure I do?"
Stan sighed, uneasily adjusting his beanie on the back of his head as he did. He was already way beyond over explaining the Wendy situation to anyone and everyone. It had only been two days and he was just about ready to tear his hair out. But then again, South Park was a very small town and word travelled extremely fast. As he shared a quick, reassuring glimpse with Kyle, Stan decided that he at least wanted his only other long-time best friend to hear the mind-warping tale straight from his own mouth.
Shoving his keys into his pocket, Stan finally shrugged his shoulders, "Wendy came back."
Dropping the spanner that he had been fiddling with, Kenny's jaw dropped as the metal clanged on the concrete ground, "What? No way!"
"Yeah, dude," Kyle jumped in, "Total shock."
"She didn't tell anybody," Stan continued, "No-one except Bebe, then she just appeared at school yesterday morning," he paused for a second, "It's pretty messed up."
Walking out from around the front counter, Kenny casually leant up against it, a sly smirk crossing his lips, "I guess it's a little messed up, but hey, at least you're the one with first dibs on her, right?"
"Kenny, dude," Stan scoffed with a shake of his head.
"What?" the blonde boy defended himself, "She's easy pickings isn't she? If you don't wanna' get fully committed again, you can at least just pick up with her where you left off?"
"Oh, yeah?" Stan said, snapping a bit at his friend, "And where exactly would that be?"
The offended tone in his voice made Kenny fall to a short silence as he frowned to himself. He carefully licked his lips to speak again, "You two never had sex?"
As soon as the final word had left Kenny's mouth, Stan felt his throat go dry. A faint and distant memory came crashing down on him like a heavy tidal wave, but as he sighed to himself once more he was able to sweep it to the back of his mind.
"No. We didn't."
The blank expression that accompanied Stan's words made Kenny swap a fleeting look with Kyle. He wasn't sure if there was some vital information that he was missing, or if Stan just straight up did not want to talk about, or even joke about Wendy. Either way, the young mechanic soon changed the subject as much as he could, and in the only way he knew how. By talking about some other girl.
"Well, it's Homecoming this week, isn't it?" he began deviously, "Are you going with that bangin' chick from Middle Park? What's her name again?"
Cartman chuckled to himself as he watched Stan squirm uncomfortably, "I believe that would be Darcy you are referring to," he joined in with a sarcastic tone.
"Yeah, Darcy," Kenny echoed, "I'm sure she's more than enough to distract you."
Folding his arms across his chest, Stan groaned, "Do you ever think about anything else other than sex?"
"Fuck no, dude!" Kenny exclaimed. He smiled as he noticed Stan tying to stifle a laugh under his angry façade, "Do you seriously not want to try and get a piece of that?"
Having heard just about enough, Stan nudged Kyle and gestured him to follow as he began to walk over to his car. But, still, the dark haired teenager smirked at Kenny. He knew that his friend meant well and wasn't trying to get under his skin on purpose. Kenny was simply over-excitable and over-stimulated when it came to girls. Constantly. He always had been.
"I'm not that kind of guy. Not like you, you whore," Stan joked, pushing Kenny in the shoulder as he walked past him.
"Okay, okay, whatever you say, dude," Kenny conceded with a roll of his eyes, "Just please make sure you get some action before Cartman does."
"'Ay!" Cartman immediately yelped, frowning angrily at the instant laughs that had erupted from Stan and Kyle.
"Ahh," Stan groaned, still sniggering to himself, "Life goals, man. Get laid before Cartman!" He reached back to give his blonde friend a high-five, "Thanks for the car, dude."
"Don't mention it," Kenny answered with a nod, "I'll see you guys on the weekend."
Still seething from what was said about him, Cartman grunted in annoyance as he watched Stan and Kyle open the doors to the car, "Oh yeah? Well, how do you guys know that I haven't already gotten laid lots of times?!"
"Because, dude, you'd never stop bragging about it," Stan instantly shot back.
"Yeah," Kyle agreed, "Plus, none of the Middle Park girls are even that desperate."
Their laughs continued as Cartman sensed his face turning red with fury, "Oh yeah? Oh yeah? Fine! You know what, screw you guys, I'ma going – " Suddenly, Cartman stopped himself mid-sentence and frowned as Stan and Kyle ignored him and shut themselves into the Ford Focus, "'Ay, wait up, assholes!" he yelled out, banging on the back window, "Stan, you said you'd drive me back home!"
The pudgy teenager jumped back from the car in surprise when Stan turned on the engine and rolled down his window, "Yeah, yeah. Just don't dent the backseat."
With each agitated snort from Cartman and delighted giggle from Kyle, Stan could feel the smile on his face growing more and more. As he put his foot down on the accelerator and carefully drove out of the workshop, the purring of his car's engine shot a feeling of pure exhilaration up his spine.
It was amazing for him to be feeling anything else other than anger or sadness. From the exact moment that he had seen Wendy standing in front of him the morning before in the school gym, Stan hadn't really known what to expect in terms of his emotions. But so far, he was pretty damn proud of himself. He knew it wasn't quite over yet, though – he had to face the fact that he was still going to see her every day, plus he could only guess that Sharon had now informed Randy so he was going to have to explain himself yet again, plus the Homecoming dance was just around the corner, too. The thought of this final predicament made Stan shudder. Friday was certainly going to be one very eventful night.
Wendy stared herself up and down in the mirror. The dress she was wearing was absolutely beautiful. But she didn't feel particularly beautiful. Her hair was pinned up with angelic curls cascading down her back. But she didn't feel particularly angelic, either. She didn't real feel anything. Wendy sighed. Friday had rolled around far too quickly.
How the hell had she allowed Bebe to actually talk her into this? Wendy had decided pretty quickly that she wasn't interested at all in going to Homecoming that night. She would have much rather just stayed home all night watching movies and eating ice cream – as cliché as all of that was. Sure, she was going to have Bebe and all her other girlfriends to hang around and dance with, but they were all going with dates. And the couple of guy friends she still had were all going with dates, too. And Stan… shaking her head, Wendy groaned. She didn't even want to think about Stan.
But despite all of that, the raven haired girl found herself standing in her bedroom all dolled up and gazing at herself in the mirror. Her dress was a soft pink colour. It was full length with a tight, glittering bodice while the bottom half of it flowed out like a waterfall and trailed behind her with a small train. She definitely may have looked the part, but Wendy still felt like doing absolutely anything else rather than going to the dance.
It could have been worse, though. At first, Bebe had been desperately trying to convince her best friend to find a date of her own to accompany her for the evening. But Wendy had been completely defiant whenever the topic was brought up – no boys. She didn't care who they were, how sweet they were, or how good looking they were. No. Boys.
It had ultimately been the deciding factor in Wendy's eventual consent. Bebe swore that if Wendy agreed to come and try to have fun with her, she wouldn't mention anything else about any boys for the entire night. It didn't matter whether they were from South Park or Middle Park, Wendy just wasn't interested.
With all this and more still completely overwhelming her thought process, Wendy jumped slightly when she heard her mother's voice echo from downstairs.
"Are you ready, sweetie?"
Looking back at the reflective glass to give herself one more half-hearted glance, Wendy breathed out a slow, heavy sigh.
"Ready as I'll ever be…"
On the journey from her house to her school, Wendy's optimism didn't rise much higher than that. She was marginally relieved when one of the very first faces she spotted in the crowd was Bebe's. The blonde girl swished her curls away from her eyes and smiled at her best friend when she saw her. Looking beside her to the person whose arm she was attached to, Bebe quietly whispered to Kyle that she would be right back before she scurried her way over to Wendy.
The dark haired girl couldn't help but smile, "You look gorgeous, girl," she spoke sweetly to her friend.
Bebe was wearing a full length, vibrant red dress. The front of it was bedazzled with a number of jewels. The back was open and the slender fit of the whole gown hugged her body perfectly, showing off her womanly assets. Her stunningly curly hair was pinned to one side with a sparkling, red clip and her beaming, white grin tied together her entire look.
"You look pretty hot yourself," she exclaimed, pulling her friend in for a hug, "I'm so glad you came!"
"Uh, yeah, me too," Wendy managed to say. She tucked a few strands of stray hair behind her ear when Bebe let go of her, "So, should we go and see what the other girls are up to?"
Bebe paused for a fleeting second, "Well, actually, Kyle and me were just gonna' go grab some punch and have a dance and – "
"Uh, uh, uh! No! No way, Bebe," Wendy fiercely interjected, pulling her friend back towards her as she attempted to walk away, "I didn't even want to come here tonight, remember? I'm not going to have you ditch me and be stuck walking around here by myself like a loner."
"Wendy, come on – "
"Please, Bebe," she pleaded, "Can't we just go and find Red and Heidi and Nichole and the others and just hang out? Please?"
Sighing to herself, Bebe rolled her eyes before she cast her vision down to where Wendy was gripping onto her hand. Between that, her imploring eyes and the beseeching tone in her best friend's voice, Bebe knew that she didn't really have much of a choice. After all, she was the one who had basically forced Wendy into coming tonight.
"I still get at least one dance with him, okay?"
A huge, reprieving smirk stretched its way across Wendy's face, "Okay, yes, anything you want!" she happily agreed, looping her arm with Bebe's as the two began to make their way across the school gym, "This is why you're the best best friend that a girl could ever have."
"Yeah, and don't you forget it, either."
Wendy's levels of anxiety were beginning to slowly creep downward with each minute that ticked by. She felt happy to be dancing and chatting and hanging out with all her friends, but one single thought was still throbbing in the back of her mind. It distracted her, it was putting her on edge and it was constantly making her glance out of the corner of her eye at just about every moment. But what was probably the most absurd thing about her current state of mind was that she wasn't even particularly thinking about Stan. She was much more concerned and curious about the girl he was with.
By this stage, Wendy was now sitting down at one of the many round tables that were scattered throughout the gym. She was with all the other girls and a couple of their dates, laughing, talking and actually having a pretty good time. She was sort of surprised at how much she was enjoying herself and at how fast the event was going by. She had almost completely forgotten everything that she had been worried about when her ears perked up at the sound of Bebe calling her name.
Spinning around in her seat, the wide expression that was blissfully spread across her face instantly fell to the floor when Wendy found her friend standing alongside a mysterious male stranger whom she hadn't ever seen before. But even so, Wendy could guess exactly where this was going.
"What's going on?" Wendy asked calmly as she approached the two.
Bebe smiled innocently as she placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, "Wendy, this is Derrick. Derrick was wondering if you wanted to dance with him?"
Gritting her teeth and projecting a very, very forced grin, Wendy stared Derrick up and down. He was sort of tall and had dark brown shaggy hair. He was wearing suit pants and a nice dress shirt with a pair of black suspenders and a cute, red bowtie. He may have been kind of attractive, Wendy thought to herself, but soon enough she shut her eyes tightly and sighed as she tried to refrain from shaking her head and screaming.
"Bebe, could I just talk to you over here quickly?"
The strangely composed tone in Wendy's voice made Bebe all the more nervous. She tried to smile in an attempt to keep Derrick's hopes up as she took a few steps forward and turned away from him, bracing herself from the onslaught she was sure to endure at the hands of her best friend.
Immediately, Wendy's appearance collapsed into an aggravated frown, "Uh, what did I tell you about tonight?"
Bebe tilted her head slightly, keeping up her guiltless demeanour, "You said no boys from South Park or Middle Park."
"Exactly! So – "
"But," Bebe cut back in, "Derrick's not from South Park or Middle Park. He moved up here from Denver three weeks ago and he's so nice and sweet and kinda' hot and – "
"Bebe!"
"What! Come on, girl, I'm just trying to help you slowly get back out there," she urged, "Are you seriously going to go the rest of your life with zero male interaction?"
"After what I've been through? Yes. Yes I am."
"You can't sit around being completely un-used, your lady bits are gonna' get all shriveled up and – "
"My 'lady bits'? Bebe!"
As intriguing as it may have been to receive a first-hand insight into the depths and complexity of the female mind, Derrick soon began to feel the awkwardness of the situation settle in around him as he suddenly cleared his throat, "Ahem?" he asked, swallowing a nervous lump when Wendy and Bebe both turned back to him, "Uh, Wendy? Would you like just one dance?"
Wendy wasn't exactly sure how long she remained silent for, but she was pretty certain that it had at least been long enough to only add a severe amount of discomfort to the scene. No less than a day ago, she hadn't even pictured herself coming to Homecoming, let alone actually dancing with some guy – some guy that she didn't even know the first thing about. But, honestly, what was she going to do? Tell him to get lost?
Sighing with a subtle roll of her eyes, Wendy reluctantly held her hand out, "Sure. Thank you, Derrick," she tried to speak sweetly. As the young man took her hand in his and lead her towards he dance floor, Wendy peaked back over her shoulder, glaring absolute daggers at Bebe.
Right as they had found a suitable space amongst the numerous other couples that filled the floor, Wendy sensed another exasperated groan escape from between her lips as the music suddenly began to slow down. Unwillingly, she placed her hands on Derrick's shoulders while he placed his just above her hips. The dark haired girl took a major step back, standing as far away from the unfamiliar boy as possible and quietly praying to herself for this whole horrible moment to just be over.
"So, um, how long have you been in South Park for?"
Oh my God, Wendy cringed, He's trying to make small talk.
"Uh, well I lived here when I was younger, actually," she began with little enthusiasm. As they continued to fumble around each others feet, the pair somehow managed to spin half way around so they were facing the opposite way, "And then my family moved… to…"
A small gasp slid out of Wendy's mouth from where her next words were supposed to be. Her heart was suddenly aching like a heavy weight had crushed down onto her chest. Her eyes were wide and filled with emotion, but it wasn't all too clear to her what it was she was feeling. Was she shocked, upset, confused? A dreadful combination of all three? All that Wendy was sure of was that no matter how desperately she tried, she couldn't tear her eyes away from Stan's.
The teenage boy was staring back at her just as fiercely. He was sort of surprised that they had recognized each other so quickly. Stan was without his red poof ball hat for the first time in a long time, and the full length of his hair was finally revealed as it sat messily on top of his head. He was dressed in a dark gray suit with a white dress shirt and white tie. He scrubbed up perfectly, just as he always had. But it wasn't by any sort of miracle that Wendy actually wasn't paying so much attention to him. All she could see was the beautiful girl that his arms were gently attached to.
From the back, Wendy could see the tight, above-knee, white dress that was clinging to the slim body of Stan's date. That explained the white, matching tie she thought gloomily. The girl's hair was long and wavy and a magnificent combination of auburn and blonde. The soft colours melted together so effortlessly that it looked like her long strands were woven with gold. As she inched closer to Stan, slinking her arms around his neck and spinning the both of them around, Wendy felt her stomach drop at the flawlessly tanned skin and the stunningly deep, brown eyes that momentarily glimpsed back at her from the other girl.
Out of all the girls that filled the gym, why did this one have to be Darcy?
"Uh, sorry, Derrick," Wendy quietly murmured, "I'm just gonna' go grab some punch."
Wendy's feet couldn't carry her fast enough. Before Derrick even had the chance to comprehend what his dance partner had said to him, the raven haired girl had bolted across the other side of the gym, making a beeline towards the ladies room. But amazingly, Derrick wasn't the one who had been left most unsure of what had just happened.
As Stan abruptly snapped himself out of his hypnosis, he beamed a small, affectionate smile at Darcy and placed all his concentration back on to dancing with her. Well, at least he tried to.
Beneath his blank exterior and his fancy-pants dress-matching white tie, there was one resounding thought that Stan just couldn't escape. And that was how God damn beautiful Wendy looked.
Okay, so here's the deal (and this is something exciting!) I finished writing chapter four of this story and it ended up being about 7,300 words. So I decided to split it in half, meaning that because this is the first half, chapter five is already written up and ready to go! So, if all you wonderful readers are desperate to see what happens next as quickly as possible, pleeeease leave me a review to let me know what you think/like/dislike! I love reading what you all think and truly do appreciate it :)
Does anyone think Stan and Wendy are going to talk to each other yet? It's beginning to get just about as awkward as possible, right? I would love to hear everyone's opinions :)
Don't forget to leave a review, and chapter five could be up in no time! Thank you all so much! :)
Till next time guys,
Reneyyyyyyyyyyy x