Prologue:
Six teenagers were sat in a circle, staring into one another's eyes and daring someone to speak first. There were secrets that had to be told, secrets that could not forever be kept inside them. It was now or never.
Stan Marsh rose bravely, observing his five friends. "I used to be the boy with the red puffball hat. The simple kid of the group. The 'norm'. Until this aura began to crush me, pushing down on me with its full force of negativity. It was drowning me, I didn't know why, what had happened to make me feel this sad, down, low. What have I done to deserve this? What happened to give me depression?"
"Well you all know me as the 'Jew'. Stan's 'side-kick'. 'The boy with the green hat'." Kyle Broflovski followed in his friend's footsteps. "But you don't know my full identity, the real truth, the real me. See, I was brought up in a religious background, people would make fun of me for it but what's even more difficult is being gay; when you don't know whether to trust the Torah, or believe in who you are supposed to be. But I guess I'm finally finding myself now."
"People say I sleep around." Bebe gave a slight cough. "I suppose it's true... Well you all know it's true. Problem is, I didn't realise it was true until something turned me in the other direction, something I can't change. So now I am going to have this baby, because it is my responsibility, my consequences, it is part of me. They say everything happens for a reason... Let's hope that is true. "
"My name is Kenny McCormick and I am an alcoholic." Kenny raised his voice. "You see people say that all the time on TV programmes. But it is so much harder to say when you actually mean it. When the words weren't just written in a script. When you have had the time to come to terms with the truth. Everyone has enemies and my enemy is the bottle. The cold, refreshing liquid that kills you whilst you are living on cloud nine. My mother always told me that it's the things we need most that destroy us. But never did I think that thing would come in a can."
"Well I suppose I had it coming to me. Because anything I try to prevent just gets stronger." Wendy Testaburger was shaking as she stood up. "I worked so hard to raise awareness for breast cancer. I collected money, painted posters, even physically hurt those who disrespected the people who were being hurt by it themselves. So of course it was going to happen to me. The least expected student in the school. The studious, witty girl who was full of potential. It had to find me to weaken."
"We have all heard the rhyme 'sticks and stones may break my bones, but names can never hurt me'. But we all also know that despite saying it is a pile of shit, it is actually the truth." Eric Cartman recites, clenching his fists as he does so. "Because words don't hurt you. They kill you. They kill you without a weapon. They sink into your brain and eat out your thoughts. It is more painful than any other physical pain, because it stays with you. Being told you are fat, is something a lot of people are told, true or not. But either way, it is not nice. Especially when you have been like this since you can remember. So that's why I stopped eating, because I couldn't take the words anymore. The words stopped and so did my heart for a short while. Because they drove me to anorexia."