So now I am back in the South Park mood I'm going to try and keep the chapters coming. Since work is finished I have a lot more time to write my FFs. Big thanks to those who stuck with the story during my long absence and I hope I'll soon get back in the swing of it. All your support (and urging for me to continue) was really appreciated.

Without further ado…

Enjoy!
Peeve

Chapter Fifteen
Life Is A Lemon And I Want My Money Back

We arrived at school with ten minutes to spare, Kenny grinning like a maniac and me gripping my sports bag and the thermos of coffee to my body as though my life depended. The three girls, Sally, Heidi and Kelly, standing in front of us looked as though they had nearly died of fright.

"You are never driving my car again ever." I said under my breath

"Why?"

I ignored the question and quickly climbed out of the car, muttering to myself. "Good thing they crossed the road when they did… two seconds earlier and they'd be dead."

"Don't over-react." Kenny said, rolling his eyes at me as though I were being irrational.

"You obviously only know two speeds, full throttle and stop."

Kenny just rolled his eyes again and handed me my back pack after I slung my sports bag over my shoulder.

"I'm thinking I might be hanging out with the guys this afternoon after school, do you want to tell your mum for me."

"I have netball, and anyway, mum is out of town remembering."

"Oh yeah… so I'll see you later then."

"It's a bit hard to avoid you… I better go make sure you haven't traumatised the cheerleaders for life."

"Ha, ha, you are so funny."

"I know, tell me about it."

"See you round"

"Bye Kenny."

I quickly walked over to the still recovering cheerleaders. Sally looked as though she wasn't as freaked out by the experience as the other two, and was picking up dropped books

"I am so sorry; I am never letting him drive again ever."

"It's ok Trace, it wasn't your fault. We all knew Kenny was an insane driver." Heidi said with a weak little "Why did you let him drive anyway?"

"I didn't know… wonder why I was never clued into that one." I said, trying to remember if I had ever actually seen Kenny drive before. I shrugged, "Oh well, I know now. And I am really sorry again."

"Like Heidi said, it's ok Trace." Sally said, "We'll be fine you just better hurry up, there's only about ten minutes 'til school starts."

"Yeah… I have a few people to see…" I said slowly as I worked my way through my morning timetable.

Really, I didn't want to go into the school. I had to give Tweek his coffee and really I wanted to avoid Tweek for now. Then there was form and Kyle would be there, Then Precalculus with Craig and then Film again with Tweek.

I groaned out loud as I thought about it.

"What's the matter?" Kelly asked

"Nothing, I just remembered I have Precalculus this morning and I am probably getting back my test." I said quickly.

"Oh," Kelly said, "Well good luck."

"You have no idea how much I need good luck at the moment." I said, "Well, I'll see you three later."

"See you Trace."

I quickly made my way through the car park waving at a few people who noticed me. I went to cross the road onto the grass outside the school. Just as I stepped onto the road a car came to a screechy stop centimetres from me.

"Trace! Look where you are going!" Token yelled from his convertible. He looked as though he had almost had a heart attack himself.

"Sorry Token." I yelled back and quickly got off the road, "I just saw my life flash before my eyes."

I made my way inside the school and headed down the hallway to the first locker room. As per usual there was a loud, over-excited atmosphere as every raced around talking about there plans for the weekend, what had happened last night and 'Did you do this work for this subject?' conversations.

"Morning everyone." I yelled raising a hand.

"Morning Trace!" the general chorus came, like it always did. I looked around and was unable to see Tweek anywhere. I pushed through the crowd to his locker and saw no-one was in front of it. I grabbed one of Gregory's sleeves as he went to walk past me.

"Hey Gregory. Have you seen Tweek?" I said, looking at him directly in the eyes.

His locker was right next to Tweek's I'm sure he would have noticed if the blonde had arrived.

"Nah, sorry Trace." He said with a shrug. "He might just be late though."

"Yeah… maybe… Thanks Greg." I said

He smiled then turned and walked away. I frowned and tried to remember the last time Tweek hadn't shown up for school. That had been last year, when he went to meet… nah, I'm sure he was fine. Greg was probably right, he was just late. I shoved the thermos in my back pack.

I pushed my way back out of the locker room, pausing only briefly to apologize again to Heidi as she came in. She quickly shooed me away saying it was no big deal. I continued down the hallway to the second locker room.

"Morning all." I said as cheerily as I always did. There was a chorus of replies and I turned to leave nearly running into Stan.

"Whoops. Morning Stan… Kyle…" I said, only glancing at Kyle. I was trying very hard not to blush or act strangely.

"Hi," Kyle muttered

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Kyle glance at me then look down at the floor. He looked as though the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Normally I would have immediately hugged him and led him away somewhere to talk about what was bothering him. However, I felt I knew what it was and a hug from me would only complicate things.

"Morning Trace. We heard about your entrance this morning." Stan said obviously sensing the suddenly tense atmosphere.

"Entrance?" I said, a little confused

"You know, nearly running over Heidi, Sally and Kelly and then nearly getting run over yourself. Maybe you should stay away from cars today."

"Oh… that entrance. Very funny." I said with a grin. "Kenny was driving and I just wasn't concentrating when I crossed the road.

"You trusted Kenny to drive? And I though you were smart."

"Well, does anyone ever bother to tell me not to let Kenny drive… no they don't."

"Yeah, Kenny died once while driving a car."

"That's why he is still around to tell the story." I said rolling my eyes. Stan and Kyle exchanged a glance then Kyle looked down again.

"Well, you know it's nearly time for form so you better hurry."

"I can tell when I'm not wanted." I said with a smile to show I was joking, "See you later Stan. See you in form Kyle."

"See you." Stan said

"See you." Kyle mumbled.

I quickly walked away as fast as I could, mentally replaying the encounter over and over again. I wished I could kick myself for the way I had acted. I should have made more of an effort to make conversation with Kyle. Suddenly I collided with someone and it felt like I had hit a brick wall. I fell backwards and landed with a thump.

"Oh my god, I am so sorry…" I said, shaking my head and looking up to see who I had collided with. As my bad luck would have it, I came face-to-face with a single raised digit. "…Craig?"

The minute I said his name the finger went down in an instant and he offered a hand to help me up.

"Sorry Trace. Automatic reaction, you know."

"It's ok Craig." I said. I bent and picked up a couple of the books Craig had been carrying, and I had sent flying.

"Thanks Trace." He said taking them off me.

He stacked them neatly and put them under one arm. We stood in awkward silence for a second.

"Well, I still have to get to my locker so-" I was stopped y Craig grabbing my arm with his free hand and pulling me in closer to him, forcing our lips together. For a second I just stood there in shock. Then I recovered and put both my hands on his chest and pushed him away.

"Craig!" I said, unable to think of anything else to say. "I'm going to my locker if you don't mind."

And I quickly walked away, blushing bright red as a few people stared at me, obviously having witnessed the moment.

I just entered my locker room when Kenny appeared.

"Hey honey, how's your morning been?"

"Gah!" I yelled and threw myself at the nearest currently unoccupied locker. The locker room was mostly empty as most people had gone to form.

"So… not very good."

"That is the understatement of the year." I said leaning my head against the cold metal of the locker.

"What happened?"

"Let's just say nothing has gone right except breakfast… wait no… I burnt the toast." I growled to myself.

Suddenly I heard someone 'clear their throat', that is, someone made a little 'hem, hem' sound behind me. I stood up and turned around.

"Oh, good morning Maria, how are you?" I said

"Could you move, you're standing in front of my locker." She said, ignoring my comments.

I moved to one side and she began opening her locker. I saw her friends were all standing behind her looking shocked at the way she had treated me.

I opened my mouth a couple of times, trying to think of something appropriate to say but I failed. I gave up and just went to my locker and opened it, Kenny right behind me. The locker door swung open and I shoved my bags in it.

"That night was awesome." Kenny said pulling a couple of pictures off my locker door.

"Yeah, it was." I said seeing they were pictures from the victory party last year. The Charlies Angel picture and the one of me kissing kyle on the cheek.

"Wonder if there will be another party like that." Kenny said sticking the pictures back up.

"If there is, I shotgun being the designated driver. I don't know if I could handle another hangover like that."

"It's because you mixed your drinks. Pick one drink and stick to it and you'll be fine." Kenny said

"The problem is I run out or someone else hands me a drink."

"Tell you what, I'll look after you and make sure you only drink one type of drink."

"Willing to shake on it?"

"Only if you take care of me."

"Deal." I said putting out my hand.

"Deal." He said shaking it.

"What are you two dealing in?" said a familiar voice. I turned and saw Damian standing there.

"We're making a deal about the victory party for the grand final." Kenny said. I saw him take a defensive position slightly in front of me.

"I see." Damian said, "Trace can we talk?"

"Yep," I said, stepping past Kenny, books in my arms. "You better get to form Kenny, I'll see you later."

"See you Trace." Kenny said heading down the hallway in the opposite direction to Damian and I as we made our way to our form.

"Trace, I'm sorry about being so immature the other day. I guess I was just pissed with the world in general because Maria decided to dump me over it."

"She dumped you because of that?" I said a little unbelieving.

Damian rolled his eyes, "Actually she gave this whole speech about how I spend more time with you and Pip then I do with her and this just went to prove I didn't care about her and blah, blah, blah… I tuned out because she just keep talking shit."

I nodded sagely. "Well, maybe it was better you broke up then."

"That's what I decided after you came and yelled at me at lunch time."

"I yelled?"

"Sounded like yelling to me."

"Alright then…" I said "I guess this mean we're friends again?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Good… something went right today." I said, "I guess I'm not going home sick then."

"You were going home sick."

"I was considering it."

The bell went for form

"There's something I wanted to tell you."

I pointed at him, "I swear to God, you kiss me and I will kill you."

"Why would I kiss you?"

"That's a long story." I said, "No doubt you'll hear about it in form."

"Speaking of which… I'll tell you what I was going to tell you later… or we'll be late."

"Alright Damian. See you around."

"Bye."

Another chapter… a series of unfortunate events… well she seems to think so… I really wanted her to hug Kyle, just because he is my favourite at the moment and he was so down. By the way, just because he is the favourite at the moment it will be a different one by next chapter so don't think that is necessarily who she will end up with.

Well… until the next chapter…

Peace
Peeve