Chapter Seven
Warning: The following chapter contains heavy offensive language and may contain adult themes that may not be suitable for sensitive/young readers. If you're not used to the South Park humor and/or don't like it, then please don't read this fan fiction. If you are not a fan of Yaoi or this particular pairing, then please don't read this Fan Fiction. If you're a perfectionist who insists that the author must get absolutely everything right or it's the end of the world, then PLEASE don't read this fan fiction. XD
***I do not own any of the mentioned characters. All characters belong to Trey Parker and Matt Stone.***
The lunch break period was probably the most student-favored period out of all the class times at South Park High. A nice break from difficult math equations or harmful science chemicals was always needed and necessary. It didn't matter what class they were in; each student was always eager to leave the boredom or struggle of the learning environment and escape to the outdoors, where they had thirty minutes of precious free-time to clear their minds and get a breath of fresh air.
However, this wasn't the case for Eric Cartman.
The chubby teenager strode through the empty halls of the High School, his head held high and his shoulders broad to show that he was walking with pride and purpose. His usual light blue hat sat snugly on his head, the little yellow poof-ball bouncing up and down with each heavy and quick step he took. His hands were shoved deeply into the pockets of his warm red jacket. It wasn't the same jacket that he wore when he was a child. While he'd outgrown that one, his mother had arrived home one day with an adult-sized version that fit him perfectly. He was the only one out of his friends who still had an outfit that almost looked exactly the same as the outfit he wore when he was younger. Everyone else had gone on to different styles and fashions (especially the girls, who seemed to change their outfits half way through the day during school now), while Eric remained the same.
Reaching his planned destination wasn't very difficult for Eric. He'd usually expect teachers to be patrolling the hallways and telling him to go outside and leave the safety of the warmth on the inside of the building, but an emergency meeting had come up that required all staff attention, so the hallways and outdoors had been left unsupervised (and leaving high school students unsupervised is never a good thing). As his pace began to slow in preparation for a halt, his eyes left the white tile of the floor, and instead lifted to meet the familiar red locker against the left wall. As he got closer, the little white sticker posted in the top right corner of the locker door was easier to see, the number "126" being labeled with tiny black print.
He stopped in front of the locker, pulling his gloved right hand from his pocket and snatching the tiny lock in his fingers. He moved quickly – having done this for a couple years now – putting in the code and popping off the top of the lock. The lock made a tiny clink-like noise and unlocked, allowing Eric to open the locker and dig around inside. The locker was neat for the most part (which is a bit surprising, seeing how Eric was the locker's owner, and Eric had never really been tidy before), books stacked in a nice order, and pencils being held in the pencil jar in front of his books. On the side of his locker door, there were mini "The Passion" posters pasted here and there, featuring the actor Mel Gibson. There was also another poster, a very small one in the bottom right corner, with a picture of his favorite superhero. Underneath the picture of the superhero, the caption showed "Who is the Coon?". Eric lightly smiled to himself. Hardly anyone had figured out the Coon's true identity.
It wasn't long before Eric found what he was looking for. He gave a small relieved sigh, air exhaling through his nose as he pulled out his skinny Science book. He wasn't relieved that he had his Science book and thus wasn't prevented from learning. He was relieved that he had his Science book in his locker after all, and didn't have to get detention for leaving it at home again. He was always leaving important school things home (because he didn't care about school), and his punishment for leaving things home would be detention. And he'd much rather be at home, peacefully playing video games than be at school an extra two hours being yelled at by the school counselor.
The brunette sighed again, letting his left hand fall to his side, fingers tightly holding onto the book. With the other hand, he grabbed the locker door and began to shut it. Well... began to, until he practically suffered from a heart-attack when he closed it just enough to see a blonde figure leaning against the lockers, arms crossed and smirking at him with mischievous blue eyes.
Eric jumped with fear toward the unexpected company, taking a couple of steps away from the locker as he tried to calm himself down. The science book had somehow made it to his chest, where both of his arms wrapped tightly around it, as if the text book was giving him some sort of comfort from the unexpected scare. After he was able to calm down, he sent an angry amber-colored glare toward his visitor's direction.
"You couldn't have let me know you were there, instead of waiting for me to find out for myself, asswipe?" Eric gave a shaky, breathless grumble.
The blonde only snickered. "But you're so fun to scare, Cartman!"
"You could have given me a heart-attack, dick." Eric walked up to his locker and slammed it shut, popping the lock back into place. "What are you doing here, anyway? Shouldn't you be off doing... whatever it is you do during lunch break?"
"Yeah, well, I would," The blonde shrugged and tilted his head back against the locker, glancing up toward the ceiling. "But Red is off doing some school council thing with Wendy, so I don't really have anything exciting to do right now."
Eric raised a brown eyebrow. "You're committing to one chick, Kenny? Damn dude, that's impressive."
Kenny scoffed. "I never said I was committing to that bitch." He said. "I just can't find any other chicks to bang, and I left my magazines at home, so I'm stuck with you."
Kenny lifted himself off of the lockers, straightening his rumbled dark red shirt. He'd long since overgrown his orange parka... and since his family was too poor to afford more clothing, Kenny had received Kevin's hand-me-downs. The shirt didn't look too well on him, but it was better than being shirtless in the cold. Even if Kenny preferred no clothing at all... he'd rather use his brother's old scruffy clothes instead of be cold. So now he wore his brother's clothing, and his little sister, Karen, wore Kenny's orange jacket.
"Stuck with me?" Eric rolled his eyes. "I thought you were bi, Ken? Just go hang out with Butters or something, like that one ti-"
"Oh, shut up." Kenny mumbled, his cheeks coding a light red. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and looked around, checking to see if there was anyone in the hall that could have heard Eric. When he was confident no one was around, he let himself relax a little.
It was Eric's turn to snicker. "You are such a fag, dude."
Kenny didn't reply. He was looking around again, but this time, it didn't seem like he was searching for other people. Eric could tell his mind was on something. His smile had fallen, and his expression turned a little serious than it normally was. His body had stiffened slightly. Whatever the blonde was thinking about, it clearly wasn't a good thing.
"You okay?" He asked. It wasn't that he was concerned for the blonde. He was just curious as to what made Kenny change his attitude so quickly. It wasn't like the blonde to look too serious. ...It was a couple moments before Kenny looked back to Eric. Slowly, he leaned his back against the wall again, and shook his head. He cast his gaze toward the ground.
"I miss Kyle and Stan." He said softly.
Eric stiffened. Kyle and Stan. He hadn't thought about the two of them in a while. How long had it been since he'd locked them up in that bomb shelter? Eric searched his mind for the amount of time. Weeks? A month, maybe? He honestly couldn't remember. It'd been a little while.
A soft sigh came from Kenny, as the blonde decided to continue. "It just doesn't make sense, Cartman. Run off to join the circus?" He looked up to the chubby brunette. "Wouldn't they have told us about their plans, or... or even try to convince us to go with them? They've hardly ever left us out of something like this."
Eric slowly leaned himself against the locker, keeping his eyes on Kenny. Subconsciously, he began to nervously tug and push at one of the corners of his Science text book. He cleared his throat. "Stan and Kyle have always been super close, Kenny. Closer than we've ever been with them," He reminded the blonde. "This was probably just some personal thing that they wanted to do together. Maybe... maybe they didn't really want to be around us anymore anyway."
Kenny looked up to Eric, and tilted his head to the side. "Why would that be?" He asked. "They really like being around us. ...Or me, at least. I don't know about you." He waited for Eric to scoff before continuing. "They would have told at least one of us... like us or not. ...Cartman..." Kenny, again, lifted himself off of the locker, and took a couple steps into the middle of the hallway. He turned back around to look at Eric, who was still nervously rested against the lockers, watching him carefully. "I don't think they ran away. I think someone kidnapped them."
Eric's eyes went wide. "What?!" He asked. Kenny looked surprised at Eric sudden outburst, but he let it happen. Eric continued. "Dude, no way they were kidnapped. I mean, think about it, Ken. If they were kidnapped, then there would have been some sort of... sign. You know? Like a ransom note from the kidnapper or something."
Kenny opened his mouth to object, but Eric cut him off. "Plus, they would have found a way out by now. Lots of stupid shit has happened to us, Kenny. But we've gone through it in less time than it's been taking them." Eric pushed himself off of of the lockers. He walked forward, letting go of the textbook in his arms with one hand, and gently resting it against Kenny's shoulders. He looked him in the eyes. "Kenny, you need to let them go. I miss them just as much as you do, but keeping the memory of them with us won't bring them back. They've made their choice, and it's time we've accepted that and let it go."
Kenny was still for a few moments... but then slowly nodded. Inhaling, and then deeply exhaling, he gave a light smile to Eric, before shrugging his hand off of his shoulder. "You're right, Cartman." Kenny spoke softly. "Wherever they are, they're happy. And if that's what they want, then we should leave it at that."
"Exactly." Eric grinned, relief washing over him. "I'm glad you understand, Kenny."
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!
Eric and Kenny both stole a glance toward the speaker on the wall as it emitted a loud ring. It was the signal for the lunch break, meaning that the period was over, and it was time to move onto the next class. Kenny looked back to Eric and gestured to the textbook in the brunette's arms.
"We should probably head to class. You have Science this period, right?" He asked. Eric nodded. Kenny grinned. "Me too," He replied to the silent response from Eric. His deep blue eyes lit up with his usual excitement. "I hear we're going to be blowing stuff up today."
Eric's own eyes lit up with excitement. Blowing stuff up was always one of his interests. But before he had a chance to respond, a sudden, familiar voice came into earshot, causing him to almost give another startled jump. Kenny saw Eric's reaction and grinned again, obviously amused.
"Eriiiiiiiiiic!"
Eric rolled his eyes, turning to the right, allowing his eyes to fall upon the second blonde racing toward him. The familiar light blue turtle-neck sweater was wrapped tightly around his body, his darker blue scarf draped over his shoulders. A pair of thin black glasses sat on the ridge of his nose, his light blue eyes brightly glowing behind them.
Eric rolled his eyes. "Hey, Butters." He said, his tone almost robotic with dullness.
"Heya Eric!" Butters widely smiled as his pace slowed to a halt. His arms hung loosely at his sides, though his fingers played with the bottom of his shirt. "Your next class is Science, right?" He asked. "The teacher is going to let us blow stuff up today!"
Kenny laughed. "I know, dude! It's gonna be awesome!"
"Yeah," Butters nodded. "Anyway, that's not what I'm here for. Eric," He turned toward the brunette. "Do you remember Jimbo? Stan's uncle? The guy that moved to Denver a couple weeks ago?"
This caught Eric's attention. He turned fully towards Butters, crossing his arms over his chest again, his book tucked between the two. "Yeah?" He asked. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, I know you told me to keep an eye on the place..." Butters said slowly. Eric nearly flinched, and avoided the curious look he received from Kenny. "And guess what? A nice little family just bought it! They're moving their stuff in today, I think."
Eric's casual attitude fell completely. His eyes widened for the second time that day, as he eyed Butters for any bullshit. But Butters looked absolutely serious. He was even smiling a little, too, but that was normal for the short blonde.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Eric whispered.
Butters shook his head. "No, Eric, I'm being serious! A nice family. A woman, a man, and a little girl. They really like the house."
Eric quickly shook his head. "Noooo, no no no." He mumbled lightly.
Kenny raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong with a family moving there, Cartman?"
Was that a hint of suspicion in Kenny's voice? Oh, shit. Not fucking good. Nope. Eric quickly turned to Kenny. "Ah! No," He said quickly. "Nothing's wrong. Just..."
"Just... what?" Kenny asked. Behind him, students began to descend down the halls, eager to get to their classes before they were late. Eric watched the students as they approached... and then quickly turned around and grabbed Butters' hand. Butters gave a startled yelp when he was suddenly yanked out of the spot he stood in, and dragged down the hall. Eric walked quickly, keeping a tight grip on Butters' as he made his way toward the exit of the school. Behind him, he could hear Kenny's voice, but it was quickly drowned out in the chatter of passing students.
"E-Eric, where are we going?" The small blonde asked, trying to keep up with Eric's quick pace. The brunette didn't reply for a moment, weaving past a group of students as he aimed to get to the end of the hall. When the group of students finally passed and they were at least somewhat alone, Eric whispered a reply.
"We're going to Jimbo's old place. We cannot let that family move into that house."
Okay, so this chapter isn't as nicely-written as the other chapters... and it's also really short! I apologize for that. It's short and not as nicely-written, because I was being distracted while I was writing this. Still, I gave my best at the time I WAS writing this chapter, and I hope you guys enjoy it all the same.
Oh God, Cartman, what are you going to do now? X_X
Thank you all so much for the lovely reviews and favorites! As mentioned before, if it hadn't been for you guys, then this story would have been quit a long time ago. I really appreciate your guys' feedback. You keep me going! ^-^
(Curious as to who the author is? Have some questions or feedback about the fan fiction? Bored and want to make fun of someone for your amusement? Well, you can find ITNOA's Skype information here! noloveforrainbows)