The cold snow felt good on his hands. Stan Marsh was the first one to arrive at the bus stop that morning. He made a snow ball and played with it. Working it over in his hands, the wet cool touch felt good for some reason. There was something about new snow that made Stan feel…calm.

"Hey dude" Stan's best friend Kyle walked up to him.

"Hey Kyle" Stan replied. "How come you were so late this morning?"

"Late…dude I'm like five minutes earlier than I normally get here" Kyle replied.

"Sorry…guess I didn't really notice what time it was…"

"You look really tired, Stan…are you having trouble sleeping again?"

"Nah I'm okay"

Cartman and Kenny were approaching the bus stop, a welcome distraction for Stan from the conversation he was having with Kyle. He hadn't been sleeping lately. He wasn't eating much either. Lately all he could seem to think about was the girl with the long black hair and the pink hat. Everything was reminding him of her; shows on television, his homework and just about everything else. He had really hoped that after a couple months the wound he received from the break up would have been healed by now. It seemed that the scar ran deeper than he initially thought.

"What's goin on fags?" Cartman said in his usual vulgar tone.

"Shut up fatass" Stan snapped. He wasn't really in the mood to listen to Cartman's stupid comments.

"Ay! I am not fat! I'm just big boned!"

"Cartman, bones don't make you wider than you are tall" Kyle replied

"He's like a walking chode" Kenny stated. All of the boys except Cartman laughed for a good thirty seconds.

"I hate you gahs…" Cartman muttered.

The bus pulled up, and they all got on. Stan and Kyle did their usual thing and sat together, and Cartman and Kenny took the seat in front of them. They sat in these same seats every day, just like pretty much everyone else on the bus. It was a ritual at this point in their lives. Though his friends didn't know it, the reason they sat in these seats was because it placed him right near a seat that was always occupied by two girls, the important one wearing the pink hat. He very rarely talked to her, but just being close to Wendy made his stomach do flips. Or at least it used to. Nowadays it only made him feel depressed, but he would never move his seat now. It would tip off his friends to his true feelings. As far as they knew he didn't care about Wendy, and that's the way he wanted it to stay.

"Alright Children time to take your seats" Mr. Garrison said as he walked in. "Today we're going to learn about balancing budgets."

"Awwww" the whole class whined harmoniously.

"Now hang on children it won't be that bad. Instead of standing up here and talking about it, I'm gonna let you balance a real budget with real money."

"Sweet" Cartman had that familiar look in his eyes.

"I'll be pairing you kids up into couples to help simulate real life situations. Most of the time you have to think about more than one person when you plan a budget." Mr. Garrison explained.

"I hope he doesn't partner me up with Cartman" Kyle said. "He'll spend his whole budget on cheesy poofs and snacky cakes."

All of the kids around Kyle laughed.

"Ay! At least I wouldn't keep all of the money for myself you damn Jew!" Cartman replied.

"Don't stereotype my people fatass!"

"Children please!" Mr. Garrison yelled. "Luckily neither of you will have to worry about that happening. Principal Victoria is coming down hard on me lately for being too gay lately. All of you will be partners with someone of the opposite sex."

Oh Jesus…god I hope he doesn't partner me with Wendy… Stan thought to himself. He couldn't even imagine how awkward it would be. He took a brief moment to glance at Wendy, and she seemed to be sharing the same nervous feeling that he was.

Mr. Garrison began to name the partners. "Heidi you'll be with Kenny"…

"So they'll have no money, then?" Cartman said in his smartass tone.

"Fuck you asshole!" Kenny yelled. Fortunately for Kenny his parka always muffled his voice, so he never got in trouble for what he said in class. That or Mr. Garrison didn't care. Honestly it was probably a combination of both.

"Eric you'll be with Red"

"Goddamnit" Red rolled her eyes and sighed as she learned her partner's name.

"Token you'll be with Rebecca"

As Mr. Garrison said this, Stan couldn't help but feel a slight amount of relief come over him. Not that he had any desire to be Wendy's partner; he just didn't want to have to relive that experience.

"Milley you'll be with Craig"

Jesus I wish he'd just call my name and get it over with Stan thought.

"Stan you'll be with…" Mr. Garrison paused for a moment as though he was making a major life choice. The moment felt like an eternity. Stan watched as Mr. Garrison's hand hovered over several different girl's names.

"…Wendy"

He felt his stomach churn. God how did I know this would happen…

Stan dared to look over at Wendy to gauge her reaction. Unfortunately for Stan, Wendy seemed to have the same idea at the exact same time. Their eyes met, and Wendy gave a nervous half smile. Stan did his best to do the same, but he felt like the face he made was anything but a smile.

"Dude you think you'll be okay?" Kyle asked Stan

"Yeah dude I'll be fine"

"You sure you don't want to switch partners?"

"Who's yours?"

"He hasn't called my name yet"

"And Kyle you'll be with Bebe"

Kyle looked over at Bebe and smiled. She did the same, and both turned a light shade of pink on eye contact.

"Dude…you okay?" Stan tried to regain his friend's attention. "…dude? Earth to Kyle" He was unresponsive, so Stan kicked him in the shin.

"Ouch dude" Kyle cried

"Sorry man you just like lost all contact with the Earth there for a second." Stan paused for a second, wondering if he should even bother to ask. "Dude…is there something going on between you and Bebe?"

"No way dude. Girls are lame, remember?" Kyle's reply was half-hearted. Stan knew something was up, but he decided not to push the envelope any further and dropped it.

"So do you still wanna switch with me?" Stan asked

"Switch what?"

"Partners dude"

"Oh…no I think I'm good"

"Dude weak"

"Honestly Stan I think this will be good for you. Maybe you'll be able to bury the hatchet with Wendy."

"Dude why the hell would we wanna bury an axe?"

"…nevermind dude"

"Now children the school has given us enough money so that each of the pairs will have twenty dollars" Mr. Garrison continued. "You are to make sure that you have ten dollars left by the time you come back to class on Friday. If you come to class on Friday without the ten dollars then you get an F"

"Dude this will be the easiest A ever" Cartman said. "I'll just spend all the money, and then tell my mom that I need ten dollars for a field trip or something"

"Now I know you're thinking you can just spend all of this and bring a new ten dollars into class. I've marked all of the bills with a special kind of marker that you can only see with an ultra violet light. You need to save one of your two ten dollar bills. I'll know if they're real or not on Friday"

"Goddamnit…" Cartman muttered.

"You and your partner need to spend this money together. I'll need to see receipts to know that you've spent it. I'm going to give you all two choices on this. Most couples tend to spend their extra money on entertainment, the most common of which are either dining out or going to the movies."

God this just keeps getting worse… Stan thought

"I've given the managers of the Movie Theater and Whistlin Willy's photos of all of you. So I'll also know whether or not you actually went and spent the money" Mr. Garrison continued.

There's no way around this Stan thought. I'm going to be forced to either see a movie with Wendy or go out to dinner with her. Talk about picking your poison… Despite the way Stan was thinking, somewhere deep inside of him he felt a small tingle of joy. He wouldn't admit it to himself, but it was there.