Chapter Seven - Taking Cover.

The sound of yet another glass smashing out on her back porch made Wendy shudder. She gritted her teeth and groaned out in annoyance. Her so-called ingenious idea was becoming less and less brilliant with each minute that ticked by.

"God damn it," she muttered dashing through her crowded kitchen and out the back door, "What the hell has broken now?!"

Unsurprisingly to the sixteen year old girl, she was met with absolutely nothing other than the loud, pumping music that was blasting through the stereo speakers. Each of her fellow tenth grade classmates that she had invited over to her Malibu house were busy drinking, running back and forth between the porch and the beach, and were certainly far too preoccupied to answer their host's aggravated shouts. She was quickly beginning to wish that her parents had never gone away that weekend.

"Wendy!"

Twirling around at the sound of her name, Wendy was just about ready to completely fly off the handle until her expression softened at the image of her closest friend standing opposite her.

The girl had long, wavy ginger hair that faded into blonde tips and bright green eyes. She was wearing a tiny pair of shorts, a pink crop top and a white cardigan as she reached her dark haired friend and took her by the arm.

"Hey, Abbi," Wendy huffed out with a relieved sigh.

The Malibu native smiled softly at her best friend, "Honey, it's okay, we can fix everything and clean it all up in the morning."

"It's not going to be okay if there's nothing left to clean up," she immediately shot back with a frown, pushing her way through all the drunk teenagers to get back inside, "This was such a stupid idea. I'm going to grab anything and everything valuable my parents own before it all breaks and I get sent into debt for the rest of my life!"

Wendy's head was pounding. She wasn't sure whether it was throbbing in time with the deafening music that thumped throughout the house or with each of the heavy footsteps she took across her tiled floor, but whatever it may have been, it was more than enough to give her one hell of a horrible head ache. Her long, flowing black hair swished behind her as she approached the entrance way of the beach house. Just as she snatched up the beautifully coloured vase that sat on the table beside the front door, the teenage girl was almost bowled over as it suddenly went swinging open.

Without even blinking, Wendy's appearance fell into a scowl at the two unfamiliar male faces, "Um, excuse me! This party was invite only!"

The shorter of the two boys ignored her, shuffling his way past her as he called back over his shoulder, "I'm Carly's boyfriend!"

Wendy scoffed in disbelief. Carly, she thought to herself, some friend she was. This notion didn't stay with her for long, however, as she hastily spun back around on her heels and glared daggers at the second stranger standing in her doorway.

She was so angry that she didn't even notice the way that he was grinning at her, "Invite only," she repeated, "What's your excuse?"

The tall, lean boy looked down at Wendy and shrugged his shoulders. He raked a hand back between his neatly cut, dark blonde hair, "Well, I just came along with my brother when he said he was going to a party," he began, gesturing over to the boy he had arrived with, "And he did say that he remembered coming here once before… maybe… I think."

The joking tone in the stranger's voice was rapidly getting under Wendy's skin, "Wow, really convincing," she snorted, "But you've definitely never been here before, and I've sure as hell never even met you before, so – "

"Well, then, how about you be a good host and show me around?"

Before she even had the opportunity to react, Wendy's expression dropped in immediate confusion as the tall young man stepped his way around her and carelessly strolled into her living room.

"Uh, excuse me?!"

Wendy watched on, wide-eyed as the stranger continued to casually wander between the different rooms of the Malibu house. She was trying her best to keep up with him, clumsily picking up empty beer bottles and attempting to keep her balance on her high heels as she did.

"Pretty nice place you got here," he teased, spinning around in the middle of the kitchen and winking sarcastically at the fuming teenage girl.

This was just about all Wendy was able to take. The party may have been her idea, but her friends all pushed her to throw it when she started to have second thoughts. Her parents left her alone in their expensive home because they thought they would be able to trust her. Seven glass cups and two light globes had already been broken. There was an insane amount of drunk teenagers standing on her back porch in clear view of her neighbours. And now, there was this guy. This guy, who Wendy had never laid her eyes on before, who was welcoming himself into her house and showing himself around. Who did that? Who had that much arrogance that they would even think of doing something like that?

Grunting out one final exasperated sigh, Wendy placed the vase in the middle of her kitchen counter with force before placing her hands on her hips and glaring back up at the older boy, "Look here, asshole," she yelled, "I am not in the mood to put up with anymore shit from anyone else, especially someone who I've never met before! So, if you don't mind – "

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" he suddenly spat, cutting her off again. Grinning down mischievously at her, the boy raised a curious eyebrow. This girl was kind of cute. Particularly when she was so angry, "Allow me to introduce myself."

Between all the loud and destructive sounding noises that were still erupting all around her, the kitchen suddenly seemed to fall to complete silence to Wendy as all she could focus on was the image of the tall, attractive stranger leaning in towards her and collecting her face in his hands.

Her eyes instantly widened in intense surprise the second that his lips crashed against hers. Her cheeks flushed the deepest possible shade of red, and yet, Wendy still found herself kissing him back. She didn't know why – she didn't have the first clue why. But as soon as he pulled back and she was forced to gaze back up at his sparkling hazel eyes and perfectly handsome face, she couldn't deny that she… enjoyed it?

Brushing his thumb along the corner of his lips, the boy turned them up into a sweet smile, "I'm Griffin."

Wendy's voice cracked as she tried to reply. This guy, Griffin, had just done what Wendy thought was absolutely impossible.

He made her feel some sort of emotion for another guy.

"I'm Wendy."

Stan pushed his pasta bake around his lunch tray with the end of his fork. He was deep in thought. Far too deep in thought to be able to eat anything.

His weekend had gone by pretty much as per usual. He had done a bit of homework and hung out with Kyle, Cartman and Kenny just as he always had. His Monday morning at school was pretty much normal, as well. In fact, the only slightly abnormal thing that had taken place over the past two and half days was the painfully blatant thought that had been continually buzzing so badly in the back of his mind.

So, yes, it hadn't exactly been a particularly small hitch in his regular routine.

Stan sighed to himself. At the time, he didn't think that he and Wendy talking to each other had been such a bad thing. On the contrary, actually – the teenager figured that they were each taking some pressure off themselves by breaking the ice. But Stan hadn't counted on the fact that ever since his classmates' Friday night gathering, the only thoughts of Homecoming that would stick with him would be ones of Wendy.

"Hey, dude."

Happily snapping out of his absorbing trance, Stan blinked and looked up to see Kyle sitting down next to him at the cafeteria table, "Hey."

For a second, Stan had to bite his tongue while trying to keep his tone as upbeat as possible. Luckily for him, Kyle had obviously been rather preoccupied during the Friday night party, so his best friend hadn't caught word of who Stan had been sharing a drink with that night. Well, not yet, anyway. But the dark haired teen definitely wanted to try and make things stay that way for as long as possible. Because he knew that if Kyle found out even the tiniest detail about Wendy, Stan would never hear the end of it.

Keeping all this in mind, Stan licked his lips to speak again, "So, did you get any more of that English paper done last night?"

Kyle cracked open his can of soda as he replied, "Yeah, a bit more, I guess," he said with a shrug, "What about you?"

"Yeah. Well, I tried," quickly re-thinking his mopey response, Stan shook his head. He pushed his lunch tray away from him and leant back with his hands resting on the cafeteria bench, "Because, ya' know, video games and distractions and…"

Suddenly trailing off in the middle of his own sentence, Stan's vision narrowed at a figure standing on the opposite side of the cafeteria. The smallest possible sigh whispered out from between his lips as Wendy looked over her shoulder and locked eyes with him.

Stan gulped. Was he ready for this?

"…and stuff," he said, half-heartedly finishing his statement.

Similar feelings from three nights ago had abruptly come rushing back to Stan. It was still sort of unbelievable to be seeing Wendy back in South Park again, but with the two of them ending on such a positive note at the after party, a small part of him actually kind of wanted to go up to her and start chatting again. But, no – Stan wasn't that crazy. He was, however, just crazy enough to respond and gesture back to her as the raven haired beauty mustered a cute, little wave in his direction.

"What the hell was that?"

Rapidly realising that he was in perfectly clear view of everybody around him, Stan looked out of the corner of his eye to find Kyle frowning at him and his hand that was raised to wave back to Wendy. Cursing under his breath, the dark haired boy flashed his sight back across the cafeteria to find Wendy gone and Cartman now staring at him too from where he sat on the other side of the table. Stan rolled his eyes, trying to think of something to say.

"Dude?" Kyle spat again, "Why are you saying hello to her?"

Stan adjusted his hat on the back of his head and sighed one final time. It had been pretty stupid of him to blow his cover so easily after he had just finished having a huge discussion with himself about the importance of being subtle. But something that he thought might have just been a little bit more ridiculous was the constant over-reaction from Kyle. After all, Stan was older now. He wasn't an idiot. He knew how to look after himself and how to best handle his own situations. Well, most of the time. Although, even considering the sound argument that Stan had to defend himself, he still wasn't necessarily in the best mood to be going through all of that with his best friend, or to have Cartman possibly making it all worse.

"Okay, Kyle, listen…"

Kyle was certainly all ears and urgently waiting to hear what Stan had to say for himself. But nothing about this entire predicament had been simple so far, and as a third party quietly began to approach the cafeteria bench, it was clear that wasn't about to change anytime soon.

The two boys jumped in slim surprise as the mystery figure suddenly squeezed their way in between them on the bench, "Hey, buddy."

The sweet sounding tone of the girl squished in between he and Kyle made Stan's eyes light up. It wasn't that he didn't always enjoy her company, but right at that moment, Stan had never been more relieved to see Darcy.

"Hey," he spoke back just as pleasantly, instantly dropping his conversation with Kyle, "How was the rest of your weekend?"

"Ha, yeah," Cartman suddenly snorted from across the table, shovelling food into his mouth, "Did you manage to pull your head out of the toilet?"

"Dude, back off," Stan sniped. Looking back to Darcy, he smiled at her, still trying to avoid the nagging expression from Kyle.

She grinned right back at him, "It was good. The girls and me went shopping on Saturday and then we had a birthday lunch for my mum yesterday," Darcy pushed her auburn waves out of her face as she spied Stan's near full lunch tray, "Not hungry today?"

"Not really," he answered with a shrug, smirking as she immediately leant over him and snatched up his can of soda.

"Well then, don't mind if I do," she joked with a small giggle.

Watching on as she sipped away slowly at his can and pulled his lunch tray closer towards herself, Stan couldn't help but keep smiling at Darcy.

She looked just as pretty as she always did. She might have been one of those girls who put maybe a bit too much time and effort into their hair and make-up – one of those girls who Stan thought he would never be interested in – but in actuality, he didn't even care if Darcy wasn't necessarily his 'type'. She was such a lovely girl with a genuine personality, and at the end of the day, Stan had fun with her.

"Whoa-hoa!" Cartman grunted again, re-gaining everyone's attention, "I wouldn't drink out of that again if I were you, Stan. Who knows where else her mouth has been."

Stan's expression immediately collapsed into a menacing grimace. The hurt look that had emerged across Darcy's face almost made him leap across the table and smack Cartman right in the lip, "Shut your fucking mouth, Cartman."

Darcy placed the can back down on the table as she sighed quietly to herself. She wasn't sure why, but she had always had this irritating feeling in the pit of her stomach telling her that Stan's friends couldn't quite accept the idea of the two of them seeing each other.

Flicking her hair to one side, Darcy turned around to face him, "So, um, I actually wanted to talk to you about something. Do you wanna' come for a walk, or whatever?"

"Am I in trouble?" Stan joked, trying to make her feel better.

"No," she laughed, playfully slapping him on the arm.

Taking a hold of him, Darcy then began to pull Stan up from the table and drag him away. Luckily for her, the dark haired boy was more than willing to do so, because as he looked back over his shoulder at Kyle, he knew the person that he really was in trouble with.

"Stan!" Kyle yelled out to him through gritted teeth.

"Sorry, dude," Stan called back sarcastically, "I'll catch up with you later!"

As the two of them approached the exit of the cafeteria, Stan opened the door for Darcy and they walked out into the main corridor of the school. The quarterback felt very at ease to have been able to avoid being interrogated by Kyle, but now there was one other worrying question that still stood. What did Darcy want to talk to him about?

The two friends continued to walk side by side down the hallway as Darcy nervously folded her arms across her chest, "So, look, I just wanted to say sorry about Friday night."

"Friday night?" Stan repeated with a confused frown, "What about it?"

"Just about, like, getting ridiculously drunk and – "

"Hey, if this is about what Cartman just said," Stan started, trying to comfort her.

"No, no, it's not about Cartman," Darcy cut him off. She stopped as the pair reached a row of lockers and she turned to the side to lean up against them, "I mean, it's kinda' about all your friends. Like, I don't ever want to be an embarrassment to you or – "

"Darcy," Stan interjected. A small chuckle of disbelief echoed from the back of his throat. The last thing he wanted was for Darcy to feel bad about herself when there was really no need. He hadn't even felt a single second of embarrassment when she had been sick from drinking at the after party. He actually just thought it was sort of funny. But that wasn't really going to make her feel better, either.

Resting one hand against the row of lockers, Stan leant in closer towards her with a warm smile, "You do not need to worry about what my friends think of you, okay? The only person you need to worry about is me, and I could never be embarrassed by you."

Darcy immediately felt her cheeks flush pink. She couldn't help but grin giddily at the caring way Stan always spoke to her. There was seriously no other guy like him in the entire school.

Stan smiled back, "I'm always gonna' be your friend, Darcy."

The moment that this sentence left Stan's mouth, Darcy tried her absolute hardest to not let her happy expression drop. It was always a hard task when he used that word, though. Darcy's least favourite word – 'friend'.

"Thanks for walking me home, as well," she spoke, trying to carefully change the subject, "…Even thought I don't really remember much of it."

"Don't mention it," Stan said with a small laugh. He watched on curiously as Darcy suddenly seemed to hesitating about something. In a flash, she grabbed him by the hand and quickly pulled him along as the two of them ducked behind a side passage of the main corridor.

Groaning playfully at her, Stan backed up against the wall and glanced down at the auburn haired girl before him. This was not unusual behaviour for Darcy.

"So," she swooned with a flirtatious tone, "Did you happen to give me a good night kiss before you left on Friday?"

Stan shrugged his shoulders with a teasing expression, "If you can't remember, then you don't really deserve the answer, do you?"

Darcy's cheeks still felt red hot at the fiery attraction she could sense bubbling in her stomach. She blew out a nervous breath as she wrapped her arms loosely around Stan's neck and gazed up into his bright, blue eyes. The teenage girl waited, watching with a roll of her eyes as the boy opposite her quickly glanced around to make sure no-one could see them. He always did that. But ultimately, the only thing that mattered to Darcy was the one other thing that Stan always did. And that was to never leave her feeling rejected.

Shutting her eyes tight, Darcy felt her heart race, even for a split second as Stan tipped her chin upwards and softly pecked her on the lips. It was always the most amazing sensation for her to be able to kiss him, because Darcy knew she didn't get to experience it as much as she would like.

Suddenly feeling a lot more confident in herself, the red head tensed her grip around Stan and attempted to pull him in closer towards her. She was desperate for things between the two of them to just be the same as they were whenever they were on their own. Weekends spent at either of their houses had Darcy not being able to keep her hands off Stan, and most of the time, he would be totally okay with that. But it was never like that in public, not ever. And sadly for Darcy, today was proving no different.

"Darce…"

The firm tone in his voice made Darcy freeze for a short moment, before she reluctantly took her hands away from Stan's neck and took a step back from him.

Stan felt so angry at himself sometimes whenever this happened. He did like Darcy, and he loved spending time with her. But no matter how much she wanted it, Stan just couldn't let things between them get too serious or too out of hand.

"Darcy, look," he began, before getting sharply cut off.

"I know, I know," she conceded, "You just want to be friends, you want to finish school before you worry about getting a girlfriend, blah, blah, blah."

The soft understanding smile on her face made Stan's heart sink slightly, "I'm sorry. I just want to concentrate on school and football. I'm really not ready to commit to a relationship."

"But how do you know what it's like to have a girlfriend when you've never even had one?"

Stan's breath hitched in the back of his throat. There was that lie again. That ridiculously huge lie.

"Darcy, you know how I feel about all this, so if you just want to maybe stop hanging out or – "

"No," Darcy snapped in response. He voice was defiant. That was the last thing she ever wanted, "No, ignore me, I'm just being silly. It's fine."

Stan simply remained quiet, gazing at Darcy affectionately as she softly kissed him on the cheek. She stepped back and the two looked at each, still silent.

There were a million different thoughts racing through both of their minds. From where Darcy stood, her situation with Stan was one that constantly went around in circles for her. She knew that he wasn't interested in having a serious girlfriend, but no matter how many times he told her that, her hopes still remained high. Just about every few weeks she would attempt a conversation with him about her desires to be his girlfriend, but it would always get cut short from the fear of losing him altogether. It was endless. But the worst part of all was that with each day that passed by, Darcy was getting more and more crazy about Stan.

Trying to push her thoughts aside, Darcy grinned sweetly at Stan as the bell for the end of lunch suddenly rang, "There's only two years left until we graduate," she joked, starting to walk off to her class, "I will make you fall for me, Stan Marsh, if it's the last thing I ever do."

Stan chuckled, winking at her with a small shake of his head, "Well, I look forward to taking part in your attempts."

Scoffing at his teasing retort, Darcy cheekily stuck her tongue at him before finally turning around and disappearing down the other end of the main corridor. The second that she was gone, Stan's positive demeanour dropped.

The teenage boy thought that his life was sailing along pretty smoothly, but in the matter of just a week, Stan had never felt more confused. Yes, he may have been seeing somebody without ever considering what may happen between them in the future, but he didn't think he was being particularly cruel to Darcy. He wasn't lying when he said he really did want to just concentrate on studying and football. And she understood how he felt, even if she wasn't aware that he had been twisting the truth just slightly about his past relationships.

Stan wanted to kick himself. He was asking himself way too many different questions. He did have feelings for Darcy, but what if he and Wendy were to become real friends again one day? Were the butterflies he felt while talking to her on Friday night anything for him to worry about? What would happen if Darcy ever found out about his past with Wendy? He didn't want to have the feeling of carrying past baggage when he met Darcy, nor did he want her to be worried about him or ask him question after question about Wendy. That was the only reason that he hadn't divulged what happened to him at the start of high school. The two girls were pretty much exact opposites, but maybe having somebody completely different to Wendy in his life was what Stan needed right now?

Amongst all of these overwhelming thoughts, there was one query that ultimately summed up all of Stan's apprehensions quite perfectly.

What the hell was he going to do?

Hello readers!

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much I enjoyed writing it! I loved finally giving a bit more shape and insight into Darcy's character, and of course, my neat little flashbacks are really the main focus that tie together everything that has happened over the past two years - that is everything between this story's prologue and that start! :)

Please leave me a review to tell me what you thought! Did you like this second flashback (there are still plenty more to come!) and what about that guy Griffin who kissed Wendy? But more importantly, what did you think of Darcy? Is Stan acting in an okay way, or do you feel a bit sorry for her?

I would truly appreciate it :)

Till next time guys,

Reneyyyyyyyyyyy x