Mended Hearts.
Part VII.
Octobers in the small podunk mountain town usually meant that the fall season had been in full swing by now, bringing the characteristically shitty fall weather along with it and an overall gloomy atmosphere that would most likely remain there for quite a while – well, at least until up both the winter time and an even shittier weather would announce their presence.
Fall time was also almost always a sign that the seasons of various varsity sport teams from South Park High School had been well underway now, and were slowly but surely becoming more and more competitive as the winter semester went along.
And for the soon-to-be seventeen year old Stan Marsh, a start of the new football season meant looking forward to the annual football game that the South Park High School's very own football team would get to play against a rival football team from one of the smaller neighboring high schools in Park County.
The entirety of the Homecoming week in South Park High School rarely happened not to get organized within a proper time frame, although this year had turned out to be an exception to that rule as many organizational errors had happened from both high schools that would partake in the upcoming football game, thus forcing the organizers to push both the homecoming football game and the homecoming dance two weeks forward.
Despite the homecoming game getting rescheduled for later in the month, Stan still reveled at the fact that he would get to lead South Park Cows towards a relatively easy victory and get to celebrate his seventeenth birthday all in the span of a week.
But on a slightly less positive note, nearly a week had passed since Stan and his girlfriend got into yet another completely unnecessary fight over something that could honestly be deemed incredibly petty and insignificant; but what was different this time around was his decision to firmly stand his ground and not even attempt to put his pride aside. His girlfriend had been more or less acting the same way, although she had still attempted to come into contact with him by sending at least a dozen text messages a day and eyeing him in school at virtually any given opportunity.
Stan had been surprisingly firm in his decision, as this time he wasn't going to cave easily into Melissa's typical manipulative, victimizing behavior and be the one responsible for cleaning up the whole mess she had caused in the first place.
That Wednesday afternoon in school hadn't been any less boring than usual, with Stan sitting at his gang's designated lunch table and quietly munching down on his food, while the rest of the guys kept on blabbing about their surprise visit to Raisins that Clyde had suggested after getting his very first paycheck and subsequently spending all of his money in what was probably his favorite place in the whole wide world.
''Did you guys see how that Mercedes chick was eyeing me the entire time we were there? I swear, she's about ten times more gorgeous than when we were kids.'', Clyde grinned wolfishly, not really paying attention to the fact that some of the ketchup sauce had gotten smeared across his chin and jawline. ''I think I may have a shot with her.''
''No, you don't.'', Craig said in his usual monotone voice, wrapping an arm around the blonde teenage boy sitting next to him. ''The only reason why any of those chicks in Raisins would even bother talking to you is because they know you will tip them very well. They rely on dumbasses like you being ready to spend so much money on them and give them good tips, and not because they find you cute or anything.''
''Aww, come on dude!'', a high-pitched whine immediately left the dumb jock's mouth at Craig's usual deadpan remark, causing just about everyone at their lunch table to roll their eyes at Clyde's typical crybaby attitude. ''It's not like that.''
''Dude, it kinda' is.'', Stan found himself suddenly being invested into the whole conversation, already being done with his lunch and lazily typing something on his phone. He let out a faint groan as he read the content of his notifications, causing Kyle to curiously glance over and figure out why his super best friend of nearly fourteen years had suddenly felt more annoyed than earlier in the day.
''Hey, how did Melissa react when you told her about going to Raisins?'', the Jewish boy asked curiously.
''Who says I even said anything to her?''
''Really?''
''No, I didn't even talk to her after we had our fight that evening.'', Stan shrugged nonchalantly. ''You know, she probably would've lost her shit if she found out where I went, but I frankly don't care. I've dealt with this kind of behavior from her enough times before, and I really don't want to do it again.''
''Well, we were asking you to hang out with us for weeks and you just kept blowing us off, although everyone knew that it didn't have anything to do with you being super busy with football.'', Kyle replied, giving his best friend a comforting smile. ''I'm still glad you went with us, though.''
''I'm glad I did it too, but it wasn't great coming home and seeing that I had ten missed phone calls, almost twenty text messages and a missed FaceTime call request from Melissa.''
''Still whipped dude, still whipped.'', Cartman suddenly muttered under his breath, with a cheeky smirk plastered across his chubby face. ''Did you still call her and apologize for ignoring her?''
''No fatass, I still haven't and I probably won't.'', the dark haired quarterback replied, smirking at his next words. ''And you're the one to talk about being whipped? I've seen Heidi finally managing to get the upper hand on you and make you her bitch.''
''True that.'', Kyle inserted himself into the conversation, not wanting to miss out on an opportunity to poke fun at his long-time frenemy – which unsurprisingly led to Cartman getting pissed off even more and spewing out crude remarks aimed at the gingerhead sitting opposite of him.
''At least I have a girlfriend, you Jew-rat. No wonder girls don't wanna' go near that kosher dick when they see this ginger mess of a hair and a daywalker complexion.''
''No comment.'', Kyle rolled his eyes, deciding that it simply was the best option to ignore Cartman and the words he had been hearing from the fat tub of lard pretty much ever since they got to know each other all those years back in preschool, and focus on something better.
Or maybe focus on someone better instead.
Like focus on a certain brunette teenage girl who had been on his mind pretty much since the eighth grade and who happened to be sitting only a few lunch tables away.
But even more importantly, a girl for whom Kyle wished she would just come to her senses already and realize that being in a somewhat toxic relationship with Eric Cartman just wasn't worth it anymore, and that it never had been in the first place.
While the rowdy group of teenage boys had been up to their usual lunch time shenanigans, Wendy and her girl friends were sitting several lunch tables away and had been wrapped up in their own lunch time activities – catching up on the newest school gossip, talking about their plans for the homecoming week and discussing if they would go to the party hosted by Tweek Tweak after Friday's homecoming football game.
''Can't wait for the dance. I'm so excited about it!''
''Annie, we know.'', Nichole said with a faint hint of annoyance in her voice. ''You've been talking about it non-stop for like two weeks at this point.''
''I know, but I just can't help myself! Thankfully, the dance is on Saturday, which means I won't have to get up super duper early on the weekend in order to get myself ready on time.'', the curly blonde sitting on the left side of the bench explained, ignoring the sighs and annoying groans of her gal pals.
''Hey, have you guys heard about the game afterparty on Friday?'', Red suddenly chimed in, reminding everyone about the party her cousin's boyfriend was in charge of organizing. ''Tweek said that he will make a group chat with everyone he plans on inviting to the party, and he also mentioned that no one else besides the people in the group is allowed to come.''
"Well, it's good to know that this party at least won't be so crazy with Tweek organizing it.", Wendy replied with a gentle chuckle as she took a swig of water from her hydro flask.
"Craig.", Bebe corrected her best friend.
"Craig?", the dark haired girl asked, raising a curious eyebrow.
"Yeah, Craig's organizing it in Tweek's name."
"Oh, oh well. That doesn't really surprise me.", Wendy said with a chuckle. "I love Tweek as much as the next person, but even I have to say he can be pretty chaotic when it comes to planning out even the simplest of tasks, let alone a house party for fifteen to twenty people."
"We actually already have this group chat on Messenger, and have talked about the party in it before, so I really don't know why Tweek's even making another group chat for it. Has he even added you to the already existing one?''
''Nope, but I did mention it to him the other day.'', Wendy's phone suddenly pinged, catching her attention and prompting her to see the source of her notifications. "Oh, speak of the devil! He literally just added me to both group chats he created.''
''And then there's Stan's birthday party happening next Saturday.'', Nichole responded, showing everyone the screenshot of Tolkien's message about the raven haired teenager's seventeenth birthday party being held next weekend.
''Well, that one I can easily skip.'', the black beret bearer said, surprising pretty much all of her girl friends with her statement. ''I don't think he's gonna' invite me anyway.''
''What makes you think so?'', Bebe asked as she shoved another fry into her mouth. ''You guys are still on good terms as far as I know, so I really don't see the reason why he won't invite you.''
''Because I don't think he's gonna' invite anyone besides his closest friends and Melissa...''
''Actually.'', Red suddenly caught the attention of everyone sitting at their lunch table, with a mischievous glint in her blue eyes. ''I heard that they had a pretty big fight and that they haven't spoken to each other since.''
''Color me shocked on that one.'', Wendy replied sarcastically, not really wanting to spend too much time talking about her ex-boyfriend and his long-time girlfriend. ''Anyways, Bebe, do you remember when you asked if I would like to join the cheer squad?''
Bebe's emerald green eyes immediately lit up. ''Yeah? Have you finally made up your mind about it?''
''Kinda', but I still have to think about how I'm gonna' be able to do it alongside my part-time job and volleyball. Not to mention that I'm taking several AP classes on top of already packed school schedule.''
''Well, I don't know if this will speed up your decision-making process, but the situation has been borderline critical.'', Bebe groaned in sheer annoyance. ''We're currently one cheerleader short to properly do our dance choreography for the homecoming game, since Jessica walked out on us and basically left us hanging.''
''Wends, we all know how much you enjoy cheerleading and how good you've been at it.'', Nichole said in hopes of motivating and getting a positive response from one of her oldest friends.
''Hmph, fine. But just for this one time, okay?'', the ravenette smiled. ''I'll also fill you in on whether I will join the cheerleading squad later or not.''
''Oh Wends, you're simply the best! Thank you so much!'', Bebe grinned, giving her best friend a side hug.
''Yeah yeah, don't mention it...''
With Friday rolling around and the homecoming week in South Park High School coming to its penultimate day, it wasn't a complete shocker that pretty much everyone had been looking forward to the football game that was going to be played between South Park Cows and North Park Tigers.
A pep rally had been organized a couple of hours before the game, with marching band and cheerleaders doing their absolute best to pump up the mood and to lift everyone's spirits up before the game would be played – but all of those things seemed to be more or less useless since the football game finished in a way that pretty much everyone had expected in the first place, with South Park Cows having zero problems absolutely beating the living shit out of North Park Tigers and making complete fools out of them on the football field.
The usual homecoming game afterparty soon followed, but instead of typically being hosted at one of the football player's houses, it was up to Craig Tucker and his jittery significant other to hold the party at Tweek's house that evening – with the whole gang promising to help out with cleaning and making sure that they wouldn't really trash the whole place during the time the Tweaks were on a surprise vacation to Los Angeles.
Wendy was amongst the teenagers who were helping Craig and Tweek with organizing the whole party, being in charge alongside Bebe, Red, Heidi and Annie to buy enough food for fifteen to twenty people that would be present at the party.
And once the football game had ended, the raven haired beauty pretty much drove straight to her house in order to get ready for the party – taking a quick shower, applying a light amount of makeup on her face and picking out her outfit for the night. She also waited for Nichole to come and pick her up, as she wanted to get just a little bit tipsy that evening and not worry about having to be sober enough to drive back home.
Arriving at the Tweak residence, Wendy immediately made a beeline for beer pong table and started playing the fun drinking game alongside her best girl friends, but started to feel a bit tipsy about two jungle juice cups in; eventually deciding to head out to the back porch and get a bit more refreshed due to the crisp mountain air outside.
As soon as she slid the back porch door open and took a step outside, she could immediately notice that she wasn't the only person who decided to refresh themselves and get a little break from all the partying that was happening inside the burgundy-colored house.
She saw her ex-boyfriend sitting in one of the comfortable lounge chairs, holding a beer in one hand and his phone in the other – clearly being too wrapped up in what he was currently doing to notice Wendy standing on the back porch. She also noticed that he was wearing his football jersey with the #4 proudly displayed at the back of it.
''Hey Stan.'', Wendy said with a gentle smile, before being caught off guard by a sudden hiccup. ''I-I think I chugged down that cup of jungle juice way too quickly…''
''It's seventy five percent vodka at this point, so…'', Stan responded back as he locked his phone and set it to the side. ''What brings you here?''
''I needed some fresh air. Man, it's been quite stuffy inside.''
''I feel you…''
The atmosphere between Stan and Wendy immediately became awkward as the two teenagers realized that this indeed was the very first time they were one-on-one with each other ever since Wendy moved back to South Park.
''Well, this is certainly a nice way to catch up with an old buddy.'', she said, trying to ease the sudden awkwardness that had loomed in the air. This was apparently enough to catch the attention of Stan, who simply smiled back in response.
''Yeah, it is.'', Stan nodded his head in response. ''Hey Wends, I gotta' ask you something, but promise that you won't get angry at me.''
''Yeah sure, I guess?'', Wendy responded as her ex-boyfriend's question suddenly piqued her interest. ''What is it?''
''Why didn't you tell me you were moving back to South Park?''
''Uhm, because you and I aren't that close friends?'', she smiled sheepishly. ''I mean, I do consider you a good friend, but you're not a close friend to me like Bebe, Red or Tweek. Besides, I knew you were going to hear the news eventually.''
''Fair point then.'', the dark haired teenage boy said. ''You know, it's good to have you back in South Park.''
''Err, thanks. You're three months late on that, but better late than never I suppose.''
''True that.''
"So...'', Wendy said as she took a step forward and plonked herself onto the porch chair opposite of the one in which Stan was currently sitting. ''Since we're apparently asking each other all sorts of questions tonight, how did you and Melissa even meet?"
''Well, it's a bit hard to explain..", Stan rubbed the back of his neck nervously, gulping at the sight of his ex-girlfriend raising a curious eyebrow at him.
''I promise I won't laugh at you if it's something really stupid.''
''Well, in that case...''
•
Stan huffed in pure frustration, walking right behind Cartman and Kenny towards the unfortunate outcome of them trying to prank their tenth grade Algebra teacher – with all three of them managing to get themselves detention and being forced to spend some additional time in school.
Cartman and Kenny were much more relaxed about ending up in detention and acted like them having to be in one wasn't such a big deal, especially for the hefty brunette teenager who had managed to make himself quite a regular at getting sent to the detention – unlike Stan, who had been quite pissed off at the two mischievous teenagers due to the fact that the only reason why he even landed himself into detention was because Cartman and Kenny named Stan as their accomplice in their failed attempt at pranking their teacher.
''I can't believe you dickheads thought that Mrs. Henderson wasn't going to find out it was you two who decided to pull a prank on her again! And why did you even rope me into your shit? I didn't do anything wrong.", Stan groaned in sheer frustration, tugging at the straps of his backpack.
''Stan, we've always done this – if one of us fucks up and needs be punished for it, then we all take the fall. Capisce?", Cartman smirked cheekily.
''It doesn't matter, you idiot. I don't want to mess up my results at school this year with these unnecessary detentions.''
''Hey, look on the bright side. Maybe some hot chick or dude will be in detention.", Kenny said as the trio of long-time friends walked through the detention room door and made themselves quite comfortable at the very back of it. ''Maybe someone like Craig?"
''I don't think Tweek would like to hear that, dude. And besides, I don't think Craig would stoop so low to be with someone as poor as you, Kinny.", the fat boy commented, chuckling to himself as Kenny flipped him off.
''Firstly, fuck off.'', the blonde teenager grinned. ''And secondly, at least I'm able to get whoever the heck I want to. That's the beauty of being pan.''
•
''And that's pretty much all I can remember from that day.''
"Detention? Really?''
"Oh well, blame Cartman and Kenny for it. They just roped me into their shit!", Stan laughed, bringing his hands up in defense. "Anyway, Mel later came into the detention and sat really close to us. At one point, she walked up to me and asked me something related to Algebra – as it turned out that she was in the same class as me and heard that I was really good at Algebra, so she needed some basic tutoring. She was also in my English class and Social Studies class last year, and we got paired up to do some exercises, and the rest is pretty much history."
''Interesting.'', Wendy said. ''So, have you been into any other sport besides football?''
"Yeah, baseball, when I'm not suffering second-hand embarrassment from my dad, and ice hockey during the winter."
"Shit, I'm actually surprised you're still so invested in sports."
"Well, I really had no choice.'', Stan admitted, hanging his head back with a faint groan. ''I really wanted to get my shit together and not end up as a high school dropout like my dad. Football scholarship is a way for me to enter a really good college and get out of this shithole town, so I guess I want to make the most of being so talented at football."
"And you? Are volleyball and cheerleading still your thing?'', he continued.
"Well, I did join the volleyball team at the start of school year, but cheerleading is currently put on the back burner because I just don't have the time for it at the moment, but I'll probably give it a go once spring rolls around."
''Has it been hard getting adjusted to a new school?''
''Not so much now that I'm in high school, but it was quite difficult when I started seventh grade.'', Wendy responded. "Look, the schooling system in Tampa is leaps and bounds ahead of what it is here. I mean, here we learned jack-shit about actually important and useful stuff – well, except for that period when we had Mrs. Nelson as our teacher and when we were finally learning something good. Do I seriously look like someone who wants to know the whole Keeping up with the Kardashians trivia?"
''As long as my grades keep on being like they were in Tampa, then I really don't have anything to worry about.'', she continued further. ''Well, maybe the SAT scores and applying for any Ivy League college, ugh...''
"Thinking about college already?"
''Not really, but I do have some colleges on top of the list of colleges I hope to get in – I will aim for some Ivy League college, like maybe Princeton or Columbia. But if none of those work out, then definitely UCLA, Berkeley or University of Denver.''
''Forward thinking as always, Wends.'', Stan grinned. ''In my case, I have to get a football scholarship first. If UCLA fails and goes to shit, then I hope to get into University of Denver instead. I don't think getting in should be that hard, as my GPA has been around 3,5.''
The ex-couple continued with their pleasant chit-chat for several more minutes, before the sound of the back porch door sliding open forced the conversation between the two of them to come to a sudden end – as none other than Melissa stepped outside the house, green eyes widened in horror and a furious glare spread across her face.
"Oh great.", Wendy rolled her eyes at the sight of Stan's girlfriend standing right in front of them.
''We have one fight, and you're immediately talking to other girls behind my back?'', Melissa asked with a furious look on her face. ''What the heck is wrong with you Stan?''
''Mel, it's nothing, seriously.''
But before the brunette teenage girl had the opportunity to come up with a response, she was immediately shut up by Wendy, who could feel her blood boiling rapidly with each passing second she was listening to the argument between her ex-boyfriend and his girlfriend unfolding right in front of her.
"Look Stan, I've been keeping my mouth shut this whole entire time for the sake of our friendship and because I didn't want to offend you, but I just have one question for your girlfriend – what is your problem with me?"
Taken aback by the fact that Wendy had the balls to speak to her like that and be one hundred percent direct with her, Melissa then decided to take the very same approach. "You snooping around my boyfriend at any given opportunity is what bothers me about you."
"You're either blind, totally oblivious or delusional. Or maybe all three, who knows.", the dark haired girl said, folding her arms across her chest. ''I'm not snooping around Stan. We've just been talking for a little bit, jeez.''
"And besides, I've known Stan pretty much since preschool, which is quite a long period of time.'', she continued further, feeling her confidence grow with each word that had slipped past her lips. ''Yes, it's true that we used to date back in elementary school, but I was the one who broke things off between us before moving to Florida. But just because we haven't been together for a while, that doesn't mean we have to be on bad terms and completely cut each other out of our lives. We've been friends for years now, and I'm actually glad Stan's been with someone for such a long time – he clearly loves you and you clearly love him, so I don't think you should ruin your relationship by treating him so poorly.''
''What the heck?'', Melissa widened her eyes in absolute shock, mouth agape and herself left speechless at what she was hearing. "Stan, are you seriously gonna' allow her to act this way towards me?''
Sighing, Stan simply shrugged his shoulders in response. "Well, she's not wrong in one thing – you've treated me poorly on more than one occasion and have been acting spitefully towards Wendy just because she's my ex. And she pretty much told you the truth right here and right now.''
''I'm not here to ruin anyone's relationship, let alone yours. I'm genuinely happy for you guys.'', Wendy said, giving her ex-boyfriend one more glance, before getting up from the porch chair and walking back inside the house. ''I'll see you around, Stan.''
Letting out a frustrating groan, Wendy felt like she could definitely make herself a third cup of jungle juice and try to forget about the incredibly awkward encounter she had with her ex-boyfriend's bitch of a girlfriend.
But what was even weirder to the teenage girl, was the sudden feeling of disappointment about her conversation with Stan ending so abruptly, as she really couldn't wrap her head around why she was feeling that way.
Get your shit together Wendy! This means absolutely jackshit!
Pulling her phone out of her jeans' pocket, all the frustrations and emotions of anger she had been feeling over the past several minutes had suddenly vanished as she read the message from someone who was slowly, but surely becoming one of her favorite people in life.
One simple text message was enough to make her cheeks flush pink, and Wendy was one hundred percent sure that it wasn't just from the alcohol she had drunk throughout the evening.
David:
'it was really great spending some time with ya at the homecoming game, hopefully we get to do the same at the dance on Saturday ;)'
Finally a one-on-one conversation between Stan and Wendy happened!
Oh man, I had so much fun writing that whole scene of them talking and just catching up on things, and it's quite obvious that they still care about each other a lot and don't need to be awkward with one another just because they are exes. ❤
Wendy finally confronting Melissa also means that Stan will have to patch things up with his girlfriend yet again, while Wendy's friendship with David is slowly beginning to turn into something more – so things are certainly starting to become spicier and spicier. ;)
I didn't expect to put another chapter up this fast, but considering the fact that it took me nearly a month and a half to post the previous chapter, consider this as sort of a way of me making up for the lack of chapters in January.