South Park property of T. Parker and M. Stone. Ella Tweak and Nico are mine.

*

South Park High – Sophomore Year

Friday 7:50 a.m.

Bebe Stevens yawned behind her hand. She opened her locker and cringed at her reflection in the mirror. Wendy Testaburger had kept texting her late last night with pics of various hairstyles. The homecoming game was tonight and tomorrow the homecoming dance. For someone who insisted that a woman was more than her appearance, Wendy seemed to spend an awful lot of time worrying about her hair. Bebe shoved some books in her bag, sharing a smile with Stan Marsh as he passed. Stan and Cartman, as sophomores, would only be playing second string tonight but Bebe had a feeling they were just as nervous as the starters. Conifer High had a decent football team and a win for South Park would put everyone in just the right mood for dancing Saturday night away.

Bebe closed her locker door and found Craig Tucker on the other side of it. He looked at her, his face expressionless – but what a face it was. Although there might have been a fading zit on his forehead, the rest of Craig's face was smooth, sculpted and pearlescent. Deep blue eyes framed by thick black lashes were crowned with delicate dark brows. His lips were a bit on the thin side, but looked warm and soft to Bebe's eyes, anyway. She stared at him blankly and then laughed slightly.

"Right. I texted you Craig… sorry." Bebe said, trying a smile.

"You did." He said, waiting.

"Right.. um.." Bebe had looked at the pink rose on her vanity last night. Though she'd had it for about three weeks, it had yet to fade and still smelled just as lovely. She hadn't forgotten her promise to Kenny, but had found Ella Tweak to be elusive. Nobody she talked to regularly knew what her schedule was like, or had her number. Tweek had been sick for a couple of weeks now and hadn't responded to her emails either. She'd gone so far as to walk by the Tweak house last night, only to find that no one answered the door to her knock.

Craig stared at her.

"Sorry. Do you know Ella's schedule at all? I um- need to ask her something." Bebe smiled hopefully. Craig had often hung around with Tweak until this last year and she seemed to remember that he'd let Ella petsit for him once or twice.

Craig was silent for a minute, his eyes flickered strangely and then went blank again. "She has metal shop third period."

"Oh thanks a lot Craig. I-" she started and then stopped as he simply walked away from her without further acknowledgement.

"Asshole." She muttered and hurried off to class.

*

Friday 10:05 a.m.

Mrs. Chintz, the home ec teacher, hadn't even paused in her lecture on pie crust when Bebe put her hand up for the bathroom pass. Bebe held a hand over her stomach, feigning cramps, snatched the pass and fled to the hallway.

She made her way through the quad and to a group of menacing looking buildings that housed South Park High's shop classes, and apparently its most awesome girl.

The shop itself was dirty and noisy, and all of the students intent on various projects. Bebe scanned the group, all of whom appeared to be male. She sighed, feeling a bit annoyed with Craig.

"'Scuse me."

Bebe turned around and was confronted by the sight of a pale girl in a bulky, charcoal-grey hoodie, indigo skinny jeans and tattered converse hi-tops. Her pale blonde hair hung in limp waves around her face. Bebe looked at the girl, confused. She did look a bit like Ella, but the Ella she remembered was a cheery blonde girl, with soft natural ringlets and wide pale green eyes. Ella had never been what Bebe would have called pretty, but she had been petite with a serene smile and a cute face. This girl looked plain, defeated and empty.

Ella Tweak pushed a lank strand of hair out of her eyes and blinked at the curvy blonde girl who she recognized almost immediately as Bebe Stevens.

"Hey Bebe." She said dully.

"Hey!" Bebe said in an overly cheerful voice, still bewildered by the sight of her. She'd seen the type Kenny usually went for, and this girl wasn't it, unless she was hiding her most spectacular assets under her ridiculously oversized coat. "So! Haven't seen you since junior high! Two years ago. Wow, and now you're a freshman." Ugh. Lame.

"Yeah."

"So.. excited about Homecoming?" Bebe asked, determined to be friendly. Ella didn't look excited about breathing, to be perfectly honest. She'd definitely need Bebe's touch with a makeup brush if she were going to go out with anyone.

"You're blocking the door." Ella said, shuffling past her as she stepped aside.

"Guess not. Just wondering if you had a date for the dance, or were you going… or…" Bebe's voice trailed off as Ella turned again to face her with empty green eyes. "No? I happen to know someone-" Bebe stopped as a slender dark haired boy joined them and slipped an arm around Ella's shoulder. He looked at Bebe curiously with glittering amber eyes, and then broke into a killer smile.

"I'm Nico." He took Bebe's hand and shook it. "Ella's boyfriend. She has a date."

Bebe stared, openmouthed. Nico made Craig Tucker look positively plain. When he clasped her hand and shook it, she felt the heat of his skin race up to her arm and right to her heart. How Ella had managed to pull this guy was beyond her, and who was he anyway?

"I don't know you." Bebe said and cringed inwardly at her uncharacteristic dorkiness.

Nico offered her another smile and tightened his arm around Ella, who seemed to be lost in her own thoughts.

"I used to live in North Park, moved here over the summer. New school. You know how it is." He said.

Bebe opened her mouth to ask another question, but then the shop teacher turned around and noticed her lingering in the doorway. She gave the strange couple a quick little wave and hurried back toward the main building, unsettled in her mind.

Bebe's on the case. ^_^