Chapter 4

"Mom!" Stan cried as he entered his house, "Dad! My hand!!"

"Stanley?" Sharon said as her son approached her, "Hey, Randy, Stanley's home!"

"Oh, Stan," Randy smiled as he came in the kitchen, "Welcome home, son."

"My hand..." Stan shook as he held up his palm, "My hand is..."

"Why, Stanley," Sharon grinned, "The bandage is gone. Has your rash healed?"

"In a way..." Stan temporarily looked away, "But then... But then it got replaced with this!"

Stan then revealed the rouge-red mark on the back of his hand. The action caused Sharon to gape and drop the bowl she was holding and caused Randy to spit out the coffee he was drinking.

"What does this mark mean?" Stan questioned, "Is this what you meant by 'the mark' and 'my powers awakening'?"

"B-But..." Randy stuttered, "You were listening?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Stan's anger began to rise, "I know you know! Don't hide it!"

"Okay, I'll tell you," Randy spoke, "but what I am about to say does not leave this room. Capice?"

"Whatever..."

"That mark... can only be borne by the voice of Ashera, goddess of order."

"What... that doesn't make any sense!"

"Listen! Only the direct female descendants of Altina, first empress of Begnion, bear this mark. The apostle, the voice of the goddess, will foretell the future and bring prosperity to the world."

"Female descendants?" Stan raised an eyebrow, "How can I be a goddamn 'apostle' if I'm a guy? If that's the case, then shouldn't Mom be the apostle?"

"One would think that, but..." Sharon could barely make eye contact with her son, "The thing is... I don't have the mark, and thus... I am not your birth mother."

"What?"

"Right before you got the mark, what happened?" Sharon inquired.

"There was... a woman.." Stan managed to recall the dying, striking woman, "She had this red mark on her right hand right before she died, and-"

"My God," Randy's eyes dilated, "Could that have been... Izanami?"

"Dad?" Stan walked up to his father, clinging onto him.

Randy cleared his throat, "Nothing, son. Now, remember, you can tell absolutely no one about this brand, your mark. Okay?"

"Fine..." Stan felt inclined to agree, but would find it hard to retain such a dark secret.

~The next day at school~

"All right, class," Ms. Choksondik attempted to calm down the rambunctious class, "You are to do problems #3-39, multiples of three on the Chapter 11 Review Page as practice."

The whole class moaned, but knew that there would be hell to pay if they didn't listen. So they got into groups to work. If Ms. Choksondik hadn't allowed them to speak, even only quietly, they probably would have killed President Bush.

"So, Stan, anything cool happen to you yesterday?" Kyle asked out of the blue as he solved a summation notation problem.

"Cool?" Stan pondered, "Oh, yeah! Just last night, I-"

The new apostle stopped in the middle of his sentence, only just recalling that he was supposed to keep his brand a secret.

"Yeah?" Kyle went on to solving infinite series, "You what?"

"Um..." Unfortunately for him, Stan was utterly terrible at devising excuses, "Yeah! Did you see the new Terrance and Phillip episode last night?"

"What are you talking about?" Kyle recalled the flatulent, Canadian superstars, "There hasn't been a new Terrance and Phillip episode for about 7 or 8 years now! My goodness, haven't you heard?"

"Oops.." Stan attempted to do an innocent laugh, but to little avail.

"Are you... hiding something?" Kyle moved his face closer to Stan's, eyeing him warily.

"Oh... oh no..." Stan searched for a way out of his sticky situation.

Just then, however, the bell to move to second period had rung, much to Stan's luck.

"Oh, never mind!" Kyle bolted for his second period shop class.

Now he's flustered again... Stan thought, What is wrong with him? I don't know why, but I sense he has a secret he doesn't want anyone, especially Cartman, to know about... Could it be my power as the apostle?

It was now second period shop class for the two boys. 'Twas a very rigorous class, thus only the manliest people took it.

"Okay, class," the teacher, Mr. Bob, announced at the late bell, "Today, we will be sawing wood to make a shack in the backyard. For that, I need you to put on some tough working gloves to protect yourselves from splinters."

Stan gulped, for he knew that he would have to remove his gloves concealing his secret to do this. That would not be good.

"All right, get into partners," Mr. Bob instructed, "One person will hold the wood in place as it goes through the machine, and the other will actually operate the machine. There are six logs for y'all to cut in half, and 15 machines total, which is just enough for the whole class to use. Now go!"

The whole class split into pairs. Stan was contemplating to work alone when all of a sudden, he felt a finger on his shoulder.

"Hey, Stan,want to work with me?" Kyle's voice sounded.

"Oh, h-hey, K-Kyle!" Stan was totally flabbergasted at Kyle's presences as he put his red glove back on, "Why, of course!"

Stan and Kyle headed over to the last remaining machine. Over there, there were two pairs of gloves for them.

"Well, let's get started," Kyle spoke as he put on the gloves, "Is something the matter, Stan?"

"Oh, uh, nothing!" Stan reassured as he took off the glove from his left hand and replaced it with a working glove. To conceal his brand, he decided to try to put the working glove on his right hand, without taking the red glove off.

"Um... Stan?" Kyle looked perplexedly at the boy, "You know, it would be far easier if you took your red glove off before putting on the work glove?"

"No, I'm fine..." Stan waved his right hand in reassurance, only to cause the the glove on it to fly off.

"Gaah!" Stan could not believe how foolish he was, automatically covering up his blood-colored brand with his left hand.

"What happened?" Kyle asked.

"Oh, I just burned myself by accident when that glove flew off my hand!" Stan giggled as he frantically put the other work glove on his right hand, "It wasn't that bad, though. Let's get to work, now!"

Kyle decided to be the one to operate the machine, since he was always the top student in the class. Stan was quite up there, too, but was afraid that operating the machine will take off his gloves.

"Okay, Stan, you need to position the log exactly right, or the cut will be inaccurate," Kyle directed.

"Like this?" Stan asked, attempting to move the log without moving his gloves off, thinking, Damn, maybe I should operate the machine instead...

"No, no, Stan," Kyle got away from the machine's controls to help Stan. From behind, the bright-haired kid put his hands on top of Stan's feminine hands, repositioning them until the wood was straight enough.

"K-Kyle!" Stan almost elbowed Kyle in the gut.

"Ooooh..." Cartman cooed, "Hey, Wendy, I think you have some competition..."

"What?" Wendy Testaburger, who was Mr. bobs student assistant, looked in Stan's direction, then yelled, "Stan! I can't believe you!!"

Never f*** with an ex-girlfriend, folks. Especially if that ex-girlfriend just so happens to be Wendy Testaburger.

"Oh, shit, it's Wendy!!" Stan jumped (but not literally), "Kyle! Get off me before my ex thinks you're trying to put the moves on me!!"

"Sorry about that," Kyle felt the temperature in his cheeks rise, letting go of the petite teenage boy. Doing so automatically put the jealous woman straight to work.

"Um... Kyle?" Stan eyed Kyle warily, "Are you all right? You're blushing."

One would think that the apostle of Ashera would be so much wiser. Apparently not.

Maybe I should tell him... Kyle thought.

"Tell me what?" Stan somehow knew what Kyle was thinking.

"S-Stan!" Kyle was alarmed, "Did you... read my mind?"

"No!" Stan tried to blanket his powers, "You... uh... looked like you had something on your mind, that's all! Did you want to tell me something?"

"Stan...!" Kyle fumbled for a decent word choice, "Stan, I-"

It was just then that Mr. Bob walked over to the two boys, bellowing, "Stan and Kyle!"

"Sir," Both stood like soldiers.

"Get back to work!"

"Yes, sir," Kyle felt some of the tension gently lift off his chest. He went back to the controls on the machine as he and Stan perfectly cut six logs.

Maybe I should tell him later... Kyle pondered in his mind as he and Stan put the logs outside.

"Take your time, "Stan told Kyle.

"Stan, I could have sworn you read my mind just now, "Kyle raised an eyebrow.

"What I meant was," It took Stan seven full, straight seconds to find the right words, "take your time getting to your next class! It's only a few feet away from this one, right?"

"Riiight..." Kyle sounded doubtful, but moved on to third period as the bell went off.

When Kyle left, Stan said to himself, Gee, Mom and Dad, how do you expect me to keep my powers a secret even from my best friend?