South Park © T. Parker and M. Stone. Ella Tweak belongs to me.
Other Grapelicious OCs appearing in this chapter:
Lucy Montgomery: created by Kootie Bomb
I needed a break from srz bznz, so I wrote a little, mindless f-f-f-f-flashback.
Just cos. Back to the main event next chapter. ^.^
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Stark's Pond – Summer Before 7th grade.
"Looks like a rabbit." Ella Tweak pointed up at a passing cloud.
Craig Tucker lay sprawled in the grass next to her. His frayed cutoffs were damp from swimming, his skin browned from a long idle summer.
"It looks like a cloud." He said.
Ella rolled over and looked at him, her damp blonde curls sticking to her face. Craig would be starting junior high in a matter of weeks, and Ella wondered if it would change him at all. He'd always treated her like a little kid, but now that she'd be left behind at South Park Elementary, she felt like one. She clucked her tongue at him and flopped on her back again.
"That one looks like a bear." She pointed.
"Fat cloud." Craig said.
"That one looks like last year's Miss November, to me."
Ella twisted her head around and looked up at a grinning Kenny McCormick, his cutoffs even more sun-bleached and frayed than Craig's. She reached out and play-swatted his leg.
Kenny staggered, feigning grave injury and flopped to the ground next to Ella, who gave him another little shove.
"So can anyone play, or is this some kind of exercise meant to foster Craig's stunted imagination?" Kenny asked and got Craig's favorite finger in return.
"As long as you don't answer 'It's a cloud', you're invited." Ella replied, turning her attention back to the sky.
"Hey guys!" came a voice from somewhere behind them. A few seconds later Lucy Montgomery joined them, dressed for a dip in the pond in a black swimsuit and shorts. She sprawled out next to Craig. "Like your suit, Ella."
Ella looked down at her bright blue swimsuit, suddenly feeling childish next to Lucy, whose body looked as though it were abandoning girlhood as fast as it could. She smiled.
"Thanks. We're just cloud gazing." Ella pointed skyward.
Lucy looked up and squinted. "That one looks like a horse."
"Yeah." Kenny agreed.
"Long cloud." Craig said, suddenly very aware of the dark haired girl next to him.
"That's it, I need a break from Killjoy Craig." Ella said, standing. Kenny stood with her.
"Race you." He said, taking off for the water before Ella could agree.
"Ah! Cheater!" Ella ran after him and hit the pond with a splash.
Craig watched Ella run madly towards the water, trailing Kenny McCormick. At that moment, he would have been perfectly content to smother her for leaving him alone with Lucy Montgomery.
"Relax Craig. I know you have the social skills of a turnip." Lucy said with a huge grin. "No pressure." She stood and headed for the pond, stripping off her shorts as she went.
Craig watched her, his perpetual frown exchanged for an openmouthed stare. His middle finger twitched, but as he watched her walk, the lightness of her step and the gleam of her dark hair in the summer sun somehow robbed him of the power to raise it.
"Goddammit."
*
Hehe. It's like, when Craig first noticed Lucy with a capital "N". Yeah. Needed to write something relatively innocuous. Back to the story next chapter, I swears.
GAH! Sweet Jesus! O.o