He tapped the cigarette on his desk a few times, it was freshly rolled, but that wasn't all of it. He was anxious. It was almost time to go for another smoke, the dorms threw a fit about smoking indoors.
Still, he could hardly believe that he, Kenny McCormick, was attending University of Colorado Denver. Living on campus and everything. He had even gotten a four person room, and since they all applied at the same times, he was rooming with his best friends, Stan, Pete, and David. Kyle, had gotten into an ivy league school, Cartman..., well they'd dropped him in early high school. Stan was tight with all the goth kids, but mostly with Pete, and David had become the fourth solid friend after Cartman. It was a good arrangement, and if everything went smoothly for them all, they would room together for the four years of school, longer if anyone wanted to pursue more than the bachelor's degree, but they weren't ready to make those kinds of decisions yet.
He tapped the cigarette a couple more times before standing and exiting his room, locking it behind him, not that he was worried about anyone going into his room, but it was his one place, you know? Pete was sitting at the table in the living room area, staring at his phone, angrily flipping his hair from his eyes.

"Ready?" Kenny asked, holding up the smoke.

Pete sighed and pocketed his phone, "Yeah might as well," getting up and pushing in the chair, going then to his own room to grab his cigarettes and shoes. Kenny waited near the door, twirling the cigarette he held between his fingers.

At last, Pete was ready and they set out the door and down the stairs, there were designated smoking areas on campus and near the dorms they had to smoke in. They went to the closest one, a small-ish area, paved over with cement walls around it and one entrance/exit. It always reeked of smoke, since that was the place, but it was usually empty or only held one other person. Today, it was empty, they sat on the lone bench, close but not touching and lit their respective cigarettes.

"Why are you so anxious anyway?" Pete asked as he exhaled.

"It's college dude," Kenny responded, his foot tapping rhythmically.

"Yeah so?"

"The expectations of everyone, no one from my family has ever been to college, shit the cost, everything."

Pete blew a few smoke rings before replying, "Yeah. I get it. It's a lot. One day at a time though man. Hell, one hour at a time."

This..., this was why he, Stan, and Pete all got along so well. Pete got it, sure he was a realist and nihilist, but he didn't fuck around. There was that hard edge to him, he knew things, just like Kenny himself did.
Kenny took a deep drag and a slow exhale, he knew what Pete meant. Hell, thanks to student health insurance, he would be seeing a therapist at the college. For once in his life, things appeared to be going well.

He and Pete were going for the same thing, Fine Arts, Stan was here on a football scholarship but was majoring in bioengineering, and David was majoring in mechanical engineering. He had heard others from South Park were here as well, but the campus was large, as were the dorms, and he hadn't yet met anyone else. Classes would begin in another week or so, depending on the course.

They finished their smokes in silence and walked back to their apartment.

"Have you figured out where all your classes are?" Pete asked after taking his seat back at the table.

"Nah, I was planning to in a couple of days though. See how long it takes to get to each and all."

"Do we have anything in common this semester?"

Kenny grimaced, "I don't know, I had to take a math class, an English, something called equality rights and education, and another core requirement called global media. For the math and english, i assume that will depend on what time and day ours are; though math depends which one, I'm not great at math."

"Shit those sound interesting, I grabbed world theater and social movements in 20th century america. My math is math for liberal arts, I was super shocked they offered that, but it's perfect." He laughed, "I'm also not good at math."

"Shit really? I'll see if I can't get in there with you then, I'll take the other math next semester."

Pete laughed again, "Get to it dude! It probably fills quick."

Kenny groaned, "You have no idea how much I hate math."

"We'll be awful together," Pete replied.

Kenny groaned again, but pulled up the necessary sites on his phone, adding and dropping courses and seeing how everything effected his schedule. He chatted with Pete as he did this, gradually calming back down, everything here was just so much. Yeah, he had worked his ass off to get here, but actually being here and working towards this stuff, was still really unreal.

He sent a text to Karen too, letting her know how things were going so far, she and their mom were living in a small apartment, still in south park, but away from their dad. Karen had wanted to finish high school and their mom had agreed, heartened by Kenny getting into college and Karen's soaring grades. They still didn't have much money, but Karen had a part time job too, and with any luck, when she got into college, they could move further away and be completely free of Stewart McCormick. He hoped so, it was great he had gotten out, but he still worried about them, he always would. But it was like Karen had told him, he had to live his own life, the world wouldn't wait for any of them.
It was hard for him to accept, but she was right. He had great friends, a life before him, but a body and mind incredibly scarred.

The last four years had been a wild ride actually.