Shelly Marsh hated her life.

She absolutely hated her family, too.

She didn't have any friends. Everyone whispered about her at school. Everyone laughed at her. They made fun of her, saying she was ugly, fat, dumb, or all three. Though she told herself she wasn't bothered by them, she was lying to herself. The murmurs did bother her. A lot. They tore her apart.

Shelly could have easily kicked everyone in the school's ass if she wanted to. But she didn't. Maybe she was too shy, or maybe she was scared of getting in trouble. Regardless, Shelly didn't know why either. She just couldn't bring herself to do it.

Because of this immense bullying she had to suffer through, she never believed anyone on the rare chance she got complimented. This even applied to her own family. That's how low her self-esteem was.

Perhaps things were looking up for her, though. Recently, her uncle Jimbo had scheduled for the two of them to go on a week-long hunting trip. And, for the first time, it was just going to be the two of them - Ned was not going to be there to deprive Shelly of her valuable time with her uncle. Though she hated her entire family, Jimbo was an exception to this - he seemed to be the only one that cared about her. Her mom was at least bearable too, but Shelly always had a sneaking suspicion that she favored Stan over her.

She was going to get away from her piss-ant brother. She was going to get away from her deadbeat dad. And most importantly, she was going to get away from all the fake assholes who constantly talked shit about her at school.

To say she was excited would have been an understatement.

Today, Shelly and her family were outside in the garage, hanging out. Well, Shelly wasn't there, she had just dropped by because her mom called for her help for something. She never ended up doing whatever that thing was - she was too busy cussing out some loser on the opposite side of the street.

Kenny McCormick and his two siblings stopped by. Apparently, Stan was working with him on some project for school. Shelly could've cared less. They were going to be gone in a few minutes anyways, right?

Wrong.

Kenny's older brother sat there, gawking at her as if imitating an officious Parisian badaud. Shelly swore she had seen him before - he was probably in one of her classes, or in her grade at least. There was a moment when Shelly looked up from her phone to see the older brother staring at her, dead in the eyes. That asshole. Shelly didn't have to ask to know what he was thinking - "Oh, what an ugly bitch," or "Who is that fat fuck?"

Shelly didn't want to think any longer. She quickly shouted at him, asking him what the hell he was looking at. She thought it was weird that the kid didn't snap back. He seemed like the type of kid to put up a fight. She also thought it was weird that the kid jolted down the street as fast as he could after the encounter.

She just assumed that she scared the living daylights out of that kid.

Oddly enough, she then found herself wanting to know more about him. He definitely was different from all the other kids in South Park. She wanted to know his name, where he lived, what his interests were - she didn't know why he intrigued her like this, and it kind of bothered Shelly. She obviously didn't like the kid. Right? I mean, if she did, she wouldn't have lashed out like that. So it can't be that. I guess morbid curiosity just got the better of her. She expected it to go away soon.

But it didn't.

It got even worse.

Why was she so engrossed with this kid she knew nothing about? He was poor, he was dirty, he was gross. None of those qualities resonated with Shelly. What was her problem? She had to get this thought out of her head. Quickly. She swiftly picked up a magazine and tried sitting down on the couch to read it.

It didn't work.

She then tried to just watch TV. Friends, The Office, the classics - none of them got her mind off of the boy.

Pissed off, she sat there, defeated.

Hopefully the car ride would free her mind. Hopefully the trip as a whole, would free her mind. Hey, maybe she'll even forget about him entirely. That'd be the best case scenario.

That did not happen.

You could imagine how pissed Shelly was the next morning when she was woken up by her father telling her the whole trip was called off.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" she shouted at her father.

Randy, completely ignoring the harsh swearing, tried to calm down his daughter.

"Now, sweetie, I can expl-"

"NO!" she exclaimed, cutting him off.

"I was so excited for this damn trip, I was finally gonna be able to clear my thoughts for once! God damnit!" she complained, this time even louder.

Shelly quickly went from angry to sad. It was almost as if a switch was flipped in her head. She sat back down on her bed that she had just aggressively leaped out of, before putting her head in her hands and slowly starting to sob.

"Now, Shell, don't cry, please... you're a big girl..." Randy said, in a sort-of-soothing voice, trying to cheer his daughter up.

Randy sat on the bed next to his daughter. He was going to take any chance he could get at talking to his daughter, this was a rare occurrence nowadays.

"Now, me and your mother were talking last night, and we've looked into things, and it-"

In between tears, Shelly managed to mumble out a "I don't care..." to her father, cutting him off again. "Just don't even bother," she mumbled again, in between more tears and more sniffles. She was a crying mess. "N-now I'm gonna have to deal with those turds at school again..."

Oh shit.

She had just realized what she said. Did she just reveal she was bullied at school? Now her parents were going to get involved. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck. She had to find a way to get out of this. She did NOT want her parents to butt in and try to "protect" her. The kids would find out, and then they would bully her some more. And that time, it would probably be to her face. And Shelly wouldn't do anything, because for some fucking reason unbeknownst to her, she couldn't find it in herself to fight back.

"What did you just say..?" her father inquired.

"N-nothing, dad, it's nothing!" she blurted, rather quickly. The sleeve of her shirt was now increasingly becoming wetter and wetter with her tears.

"Shell, are you being bullied at school..?" Randy asked, trying his best to sound thoughtful, though he knew Sharon would be the one doing most of the work if they were to intervene.

"No, I'm not. It's just... I don't like any of my classmates, dad. It's really nothing personal, I promise..."

"Well, alright... if you say so..." Randy said, unconvinced. He got up and went to the door. He stood in the doorway for a good second or two, looking at Shelly as she cried into her hands some more. Randy closed the door. He was definitely going to bring this up to Sharon later. Well, that is, if he doesn't get wasted beforehand and forget.

Then it hit Shelly right in the stomach. Like a fucking freight train. She had to get ready for school today. Why had her father not reminded her? She had to get up and go now, or else she'd be late. She was going to have to go to school a big, teary-eyed mess. God damnit. Of course. More reason for her turd classmates to laugh and point at her.

She tried to mumble something to herself in an attempt to cheer herself up, or, at the least, make the tears go away, but to no avail, having ended up an incomprehensible hodgepodge of adenoidal sobs, sniffles, and snivels.

Though she liked having everyone afraid of her, it was at times like this when Shelly inwardly demolished herself for being the most abnormally unapproachable person on the planet.

Because she really, REALLY needed an arm around her shoulder right now.