Author's Notes: A huge thank you and hug to my one reviewer! I told you guys, I'm new to this fandom ((writing for it, at least)) and really would love to have your imput if this story is actually worth reading or if I'm just wasting my time. I honestly don't think I am. I really like writing this. So, please give me feedback!

This chapter is all about Kyle, Stan's super best friend...sorta. Okay, so you get some Cartman, but it was inevitable. You'll see, though you probably understand a bit more already. This chapter brings in the Kyman, just saying. If you really hate it, it's justified...as well as I can. Oh, and there's some Stendy...sort of...You'll see.

Going along with that, since I don't seem to be able to fully expain it in the story: Butters is bisexual. His parents don't know, luckily. They think he's been cured of his bicuriosity. You're gonna see a few hints to Bunny, but nothing too...big...at all.

Warnings: Not that much swearing or avoiding of swearing in this chapter, oddly enough. But still, sexual stuff and references to more than just kissing. And a bit of America-bashing. FBI, please don't come find me. This is Cartman, the Neo-Nazi we're talking about. ((God bless Lies My Teacher Told Me.))

Disclaimer: I don't own South Park. If I did, you'd see a lot more...slash. Okay, no, ew. They're 9-10 yrs old. I am not a pedo and I don't like shota. I don't own the song "Ghost of Days Gone By."

Chapter 2

My math class consists of the brightest juniors and the above average seniors. Ever since elementary school, I've been fairly good at math. There aren't too many dedicated, smart students in South Park, so the class is made up of mostly seniors with a few of us juniors. Kyle and Eric are in class with me. Still, it's not like any of us talk.

Kyle is constantly focusing on the teacher and the textbook, hands never stopping taking notes. Eric sits in the back, doing his history or language homework. I don't know how he continues to stay in this class since his grades have been slipping since fourth grade. Kyle's the exact opposite, perfect straight-A grades since grade school.

I sit a few seats over from Kyle, front row, like always. I need to be able to pay attention to the teacher, even though I teach myself the lessons out of the math book at home when grounded. Things get pretty boring when you're stuck in your room all afternoon and evening. Clothes can only be folded, books read, and fantasies played out so many times before they become pretty boring.

I know Kyle will get into Harvard or Yale with his grades and dedication. I have no idea where I'm going to go, or even what I want to do. I guess writing would be a cool idea, but I still don't know if I'm that good at it. I don't even think Kyle knows what he's going to do. His father has gotten him summer internships at his office, but Kyle never seemed that enthusiastic about being a lawyer when we were kids. In fact, he even got a panda to stop his father from making tons of money from his job once.

Kyle and I have similar schedules, and thus, I follow him out the door as he speed-walks, head down, through the halls to our science class. AP, of course, even as juniors. My father pushes me, and so does his family. He sits at his usual desk, pulling out all the essential tools for class and then some. Always over-prepared.

With a soft sigh, I sit in the second row, in my usual seat, and get out the homework for today. It was on the challenging side, but I think I did a good job. Kyle seems over-confident in his work, as usual. And yet, he reads over it all again to make sure it's utterly perfect.

That's when I notice it's not the homework he's reading over, but an extra credit research paper due at the end of the week. I'm turning mine in on the day that it's due. I thought it was smarter to wait and make sure all mistakes are gone before…okay, I haven't actual gotten even halfway through the paper, but I have done the research.

But for Kyle to already be done with the whole paper…is nothing new, really. Shucks, he always seems to have everything perfect and way before it's due. I rub my knuckles together uncomfortably, a habit I was never able to out-grow from childhood.

The teacher sets up a class lab in the front of the room. I'm really happy today is a class lab, because that means I won't have to touch the dangerous chemicals. You never know where those chemicals have been or how much they can harm you. I've gotten hurt way too many times in science labs in the past. Of course, many of those times were because my lab partners—often Eric before he dropped down a level—tricked me into doing something stupid that wasn't in the instructions. But still.

And my partners often don't let me touch the materials anymore, which makes it harder for me to work on the lab. If I'm careful, I'm okay, honest.

The teacher asks for volunteers, and of course, Kyle is the first to raise his hand. He steps up to the front lab table and prepares what our teacher tells him to…and then some. She tells him to only follow what she says, but he explains, "If we do more steps at once, then we can save a lot more time. If the others can't keep up, then why are they taking this class to begin with?"

An exasperated sigh escapes the teacher. She's dealt with this often from Kyle, but he never seems to get the hint. "We need to go slowly because not everyone has already done the lab before school, like you have." She pulls the lab materials out of Kyle's hands before instructing him to sit down.

It's a normal occurrence in the class. Kyle tries to help, ends up trying to lead the class, argues with the teacher, and then gets sent to his seat. Once, he was sent to the principal's office, but she couldn't find any fault in his explanation and he was let off. He would definitely make an excellent lawyer.

I accidentally catch his eye when he walks back to his seat. His eyes widen once he sees me and he quickly glances away. He misses us, the group, I know. He misses Kenny and even Eric, and Stan especially. But he knows there's no way of getting back together, not after so long…He knows that once Stan left, everything else went downhill. After all, he befriended the unfriendable, Eric. And because of that, Kenny became a third wheel who eventually left—though I think he views it more as they ditched him.

And then…aw, hamburgers. I don't even understand what happened after that. I think he and Eric just can't belong together without fighting. Meaning that they must have lost that connection when they became actual friends. But that's only a guess. Everything was more or less in private, and Eric never did tell me, even when we were still friends.

But Kyle…Now, he's completely by himself and won't tell me anything. Well, it's not as if he talked to me too much before everything happened…

"What a douche," I hear from a few seats to my left. The high-pitched voice belongs to Wendy. Her notebook is out, but so is her cell phone. She is probably texting Bebe the newest dirt on Kyle and everyone else in the classroom.

I continue to stare at her in disappointment. Why can't she just leave Kyle alone? I know she still has feelings for Stan, no matter how much she hates him and his actions now, but does she really have to take out most of that anger on the one who abandoned Stan?

Please don't answer that question.

Next period, I have lunch, so I head to the cafeteria to buy my usual lunch. The food has actually gotten no better as we've moved up in the school system, despite the seniority we have for school supplies like chalk and paper over the elementary and middle school.

Once I pay, I head towards my usual table, filled with old friends from elementary school. Clyde scooches over so I can sit next to him at the end. I'm always last to get my lunch, thus am often at the end of the table. I thank Clyde and he tries his best to smile, but I can tell he's tired. And no wonder, sitting in front of him, on the table, is his new fad diet. I don't even know what it's called, but I can tell he's not getting enough calories to last a day out of it.

I watch the other boys at the table goof off like they normally do. Craig steals Tweek's coffee, takes a sip, and then puts it back on the coffee-addict's tray before Tweek can freak out. Token gushes about the party he hosted this past weekend. It was all right, but I left early because it was too much for me (and my parents would've grounded me if I stayed out any later). Nothing seems that different from any other day.

Eric sits off in a corner, angrily biting into his sandwich. It's homemade, just like the rest of his sack-lunch. But I also have figured out that he makes it himself, not his mother. He doesn't shovel the food he has in front of him into his mouth, but he does have quite a bit. It's comfort eating…

Kyle must be in the library, studying or doing more homework. He rarely eats lunch, as anybody can tell by how skinny he is. He doesn't seem to care, though.

And Stan can only be out back, with the other Goths, like always. I wonder what drug they've gotten their hands on this time. That seems to be their only midday meal…

I turn back to my table and try to smile and laugh with whatever conversation is going on, but it's always so hard for me. Apparently, I'm getting another blind date, though…It's a boy from another school. Oh, if only I could turn down this one, but they say he's extremely…rugged…and blond. Okay, maybe just one more blind date.

A few hours later, and I'm sitting at the front of the school bus next to another old friend. She's happily conversing with me, as do most kids at school. Kyle sits next to the emergency exit window, nobody opting to sit next to him and his large pile of books while he does more school work on the way home than most students do when they get home.

Cartman sits wherever there's room or some freshman lets him sit. Stan, today, is at the back of the bus with two of the Goths, Henrietta and Evan. Dylan doesn't take this bus home and Gorgie isn't allowed on the high school bus to begin with. Kenny doesn't take the bus home, but I can never figure out why. It might have something to do with others touching him, but I'm not really sure.

Why does all this seem so normal, and yet so wrong?

As soon as I get home, I begin writing the next chapter to my book. It calms me until my dad catches me not doing my homework. Say goodbye to that blind date this weekend…

~DAYS GONE BY~

Stan stared at Cartman and Kyle as they walked up to their group of lockers in the hallway. It was a dull Monday morning and he was particularly tired. But Kyle seemed quite chipper…unlike the chubby teen at his side.

Still, it was Kenny who let out a low whistle and asked, "What happened to you, dude?" The question was directed at Cartman, who had a black eye and a few scratches and bruises on his neck and arms. Kyle was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and his curly, red hair covered most of his neck, so their friends couldn't see matching scratches and bruises.

Cartman simmered as Kyle just snickered. Kenny and Stan immediately understood what had happened and decided that further questioning would cause them to get pictures they never wished to see stuck in their heads.

Butters, on the other hand, didn't immediately get the body language and instead rushed over to his larger friend, pestering him with questions, if he was alright, if he needed any ice.

"I'm fine, Butters," Cartman replied icily. Kyle couldn't keep a loud laugh to himself and ended up shoved into the lockers. Both boys smirked at each other from their positions and began to make out hungrily.

"Aww, guys, not in public!" Kenny cried, though he continued to watch the display.

Stan just sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, before going back to packing his backpack for his morning classes. Swapping shit in the middle of the hallway just never appealed to him.

Rubbing his knuckles together, Butters tried, "U-um, fellahs, I really don't think th-that's appropriate in school…" He eyed Kenny and his fascination with the make-out session. The interest perturbed him, but he didn't say anything.

Eventually, Stan spotted Wendy down the hall and ditched his friends for his girlfriend. Lucky for him that today they were actually dating. For some reason, the two never got out of that on-again-off-again relationship that began eight years before. Now, seven years after their worst blowout, when Stan began seeing the world as shit, things had finally slowed down so that they were together for longer periods of time.

From where Stan met her half-way down the hall, Wendy shouted, "Ew, grow up, you two!" before walking away to her first class with Stan.

In a way, though, they had indeed grown up from their constant bickering as kids. Now, most of the fights they had—and they seemed to have even more than before—were extremely more mature and philosophical…and ended with one on top of the other, lips connected…or a trip to the bathroom…together.

The bruises, cuts, and Cartman's black eye were all proof of this newfound relationship. Well, it was newfound to them, as they only began to "date" a year or two back, when hormones got the best of them at one of Token's many amazing parties. Everyone else knew it was bound to happen, what with their constant fighting and the fact that neither had had any boyfriends or girlfriends—besides Wendy's few one-sided flings with Cartman and the same with Red and Bebe for Kyle.

That still didn't mean that everyone expected whom wound up on top. Cartman's size comparable to Kyle's, and the fact that he more often was able to one-up the Jew than the other way around would've clued people into the obvious dominant one. But as their friends could see that morning from Cartman's black eye, he was actually the submissive one…but only after a fight, of course. His Jew never backed down, though.

The bell rang for classes to start and Butters pulled Kenny away from his ogling and to his next class, which he probably wouldn't have gone to if Butters hadn't thrown him inside the room…and into whom became his date for that night, much to Butters's annoyance.

One of the teachers, on her way to her first class, stopped by the two lone boys still lip locking against the lockers. She cleared her throat lightly, but neither heard her. "Boys!" she yelled, going straight from the quiet to the obnoxious approach.

That got their attention and they quickly separated. Craig snickered from around the corner, spying on them and decidedly skipping first period, or at least arriving late, as the teacher then spotted him as well. The three were sent to class, only slipping into their classrooms a few minutes after the bell. Seeing as it was first period, they weren't marked tardy.

Kyle and Cartman shared the same AP US History class. Kyle was fascinated by it, but Cartman always wished to bang his head against his desk. He did research on his own time, his love of history often getting the better of him, and he quickly assessed from the first day that this was one biased history class. Plus, he liked the history of the rest of the world more than the crappy old United States of Discrimination.

His boyfriend often had to shush him in class so he didn't act up and try to teach the real history that wasn't in the textbook. He'd already gotten one too many detentions. Kyle, one the other hand, got to learn the real history while the two did their homework together after school. At the same time, he tutored Cartman in math so he could stay in the high level.

"Actually—" Cartman started again with a raised hand, only ten minutes into class.

Kyle was able to reach over the side of his desk and clasp his hand over his boyfriend's mouth, hissing, "Eric!" Several months of doing this at least once a day had given him great reflexes. "Sorry," he apologized to the teacher. But then, he screeched, "EW!" and pulled his hand back to his own desk, palm now wet with saliva. "Gross!" he cried at Cartman.

"That's not what you said last night…" Eric replied with heavily lidded eyes.

"Enough, boys," the teacher scolded. Cartman still stuck his tongue out at Kyle like a little kid. Nothing new at all.

Author's Notes: Read the South Park Archives. Butters is good at math. And is actually pretty smart in general, especially in mathematics and computer skills. So...yeah. He's just a naive little idiot. ^_- Cartman 'tis like me, though. Somehow in the highest math classes and yet...totally not getting anything, writing out the lyrics to my fave songs or info for my stories in the back of the room. Thus, I've been demoted to AP Calc AB instead of AP Calc BC this year. Boo hoo. I'm still gonna die. Why can't we go back to when math was simple? Speaking of which, Kyle is modeled after several people I hate in my math classes. Yaaay!

Also, about the other characters appearing: I know Wendy is smart, duh. But she's also a girl and best friends with Bebe. That is all. I'm neither supporting nor bashing Creek within this story. They're friends, as you can tell. Interpret what you will. Clyde is apparently the second-fatest kid in their grade after Cartman, but also seems pretty...vain. Thus, he's obsessed w/ being fit. Fad diets obviously don't work and he'll gain all the weight back and then some as soon as he's off them. Sorry if you don't like that, but I like making my stories angsty, duh.

Watch The Midnight Beast's "Friends for Never" and you'll pretty much totally laugh at how similar their relationship is to Kyle/Cartman((or Stan, I guess)). Yes, Butters is DEFINATELY Dru in the music video. Hehehehe...

Oh, and please don't complain about Cartman's character...yet. He's only been mentioned and explained a bit because the story calle for it, but this was still Kyle's chapter, even Butters's book's part. Thus, his thoughts and racism/anti-seminism will show soon enough. Yes.

Speaking of, would you like to continue on this train of thought and have Cartman next, or would you like the extremely under-developed Kenny next?