Work Text
SEPTEMBER 17TH
The sun was out, Stan groaned into his pillow, not wanting to get up, they just moved in a little over a week ago, nothing weird happened like he expected it too. There was a dog barking outside, it was loud and a little overbearing, he eventually got up after 5 minutes of laying down, not wanting to be late, he headed towards his closet.
He eventually picked out a band shirt for some metal band, he didn’t know who they were, he just thought it looked cool, he had black jeans but he also grabbed his black sweater, throwing it on, he looked out the window, it wasn’t snowing yet, but there was a very high chance of it.
He didn’t want to miss his first day at this school, so he eventually exited his home, walking towards his school, it was about a mile walk but that’s what he did gym in 4th grade for, he didn’t care for walks, he couldn’t drive, nor he wanted to ride the bus. Buses were crowded and loud, that’s why he always asked his dad to take him to school. Not that he refused, his father got a bit more firmer over the years, and instead of dealing with that crap, he just decided to walk.
He was about half-way there, scrolling through his phone, bored. He noticed the time 8:26. He might be a little late, on his first day, that’s so normal for him. He yawned, and continued walk, he didn’t have much time to spare, and his dad might be a little pissed for missing the start of school. He knows he’s going to have a guide to show him around, so if he’s late, he won’t be seeing the light no longer.
Stan groaned, pocketing his phone, he contemplated his choices for a moment, he was thinking about just running to school, but then again, he could hardly move his legs off his bed this morning. After a moment of thinking, he continued walking, shrugging it off on how late he’ll be. A few cars pass by, there was one, a red pickup with about 4(?) teens outside in the back, and it looked like they were going pretty fast, he observed from the sidewalk as they sped down the street, shouting and hollering at 8am. Not something he’d want to wake up to every morning.
It was 8:45 when he made it to school. Not bad, only 15
minutes late. Sighing when he entered the building, he made his way towards the principles office. He walked up to the door, it was closed, he assumed no one was welcomed here and he was about to turn around but not before the door swung open. He froze, looking at who exited the room, it was a female, she looks a tiny bit like him but it was just the nose and hair color. Stan stepped back, the girl looked up at him. He guess 5’5.“Hey, are you…” She lifted the paper to her eyes, skimming over it. “Stanley Marsh?” She questioned, looking back up a him.
“Just Stan.” He breathed, letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, he watched her nod then put the paper on the wall and wrote something down, before handing it to him.
“Good. Stan it is, I’m Wendy Testaburger, leader of the debate club and president of student council.” She announced, holding her hand out as she shook his calloused hands and smiled. “I’ll be showing you around the school, sound cool?” Wendy questioned, Stan didn’t say anything, he acknowledged her words with a nod.
Wendy just smiled at him again. Wow she is really cheerful for some reason. His mind thought somehow. He walked behind her as she began talking, pointing to different classrooms that are on his schedule, he zoned out for a bit before they went in front of a bulletin board, there were lots of papers, clubs, sports, some other things like dances. He paused, looking through the papers.
“Well that’s it for the tour.” Already? Wendy spoke up, shaking him out of his thoughts. “You have a very decent schedule, Stan. You can sign up for clubs and activities later. For now you should head to class. You have ELA with Mr. Garrison, he’s a easy teacher, shouldn’t be much of a bother. I don’t have that class but others do, like Kenny or…” She trailed off for a moment before clearing her throat.
“That’s it anyway. Find someone named Kenny, just don’t follow in his footsteps.” She patted his shoulder before walking off, leaving Stan confused. He looked at his schedule, seeing she crossed out ‘Stanley’ and put ‘Stan’ above it. She has pretty nice handwriting. He thought. Looking up at the door number, he sighed and knocked on it. Not wanting everyone to just stare. One day they’ll go about their business. As he knocked the door swung open, leaving him facing
a very irritated teacher.
“Stanley?” He presumed this was ‘Mr. Garrison’, he just nodded and the teacher rolled their eyes, peering into the classroom before clearing their throat. “You can sit next to Kenny. Kenny raise your hand!” He called into the room, there was brief silence before a hand was raised in the back, Stan sighed. I’m guessing this was the Kenny, Wendy was talking about. He eventually walked to the back of the classroom, the other students watched with curiosity, and suspicion, eventually found the desk and slumped into it.
Looking over, he got a good look at Kenny, his dirty blonde hair was a little overdue for a haircut, he has a nice smile as he could see him grinning, freckles about all over, he has blue-ish eyes, Kenny was smiling, shifting in his seat and holding his hand out.
“Hey, new guy. I’m Kenneth McCormick, but you can call me Kenny if that’s what you prefer.” The blonde said, still grinning. “You’re Stan, correct? We should hang later.” They shrugged, being very straight forward with their intentions.
Stan hesitated. “Uh.. Maybe later, I guess? I don’t really know you, but yeah, I’m Stan.” He said, looking at his desk. He saw the blonde- uh Kenny shift in their seat before going back to whatever work they were doing. Stan was a little lost, he could feel some looks and stares burning into him. He swallowed his breath before grabbing a pencil before sketching on a piece of paper, he got a few looks but he didn’t acknowledge any of them.
“That’s cool.” Kenny commented, continuing his work. Stan shrugged, sketching still, he noted that he’ll be starting to do work tomorrow, today he’ll just slack, not even wanting to come to school. Not after what happened in California. I don’t think anyone knows. He sighed, being too curious, he looked up at Kenny, who had their eyes focused on their paper.
“Hey, man.” He whisper shouted, shifting in his seat and facing him, Kenny looked up at him curiously. “Is there anyone I should avoid here?” He asked, Kenny just stared at him, Stan couldn’t read him, there was a firm look on his face, it was unreadable, it was making him nervous.
“Well, maybe one. That really depends on him.” Kenny said vaguely. “His name’s Eric Cartman, he’s not that bad, just sensitive. But yeah pretty much a bully, he’s not much, trust me. He’s soft inside.” He assured, Stan just got two, very different explanations, but it’ll have to do for now.
“But hey-“
They were interrupted by a loud voice in the front of the room; “McCormick! Marsh!” Mr. Garrison shouted, making them jolt in their seats and look ahead. ”Is there anything you two would like to share to the class?” crossing their arms, the teacher looked at them expectantly, same with the class, everyone turned to look at them, Stan shifted, feeling uncomfortable with their stares.
“No, Mr. Garrison!” Kenny answered for the both of them, rubbing his wrist, Mr. Garrison scoffed before turning back to the whiteboard, they exchanged a glance and giggled under their breath.
It was fine, class was the same, and Stan felt no pressure for once, completely forgetting about the incident, he knew nobody knew about it, he knew that nobody could find it anyway, it wasn’t posted on the school paper or anything, as he thought.
When the bell rang, everyone stood up almost instantly, putting books and binders in their bag, Kenny stood by Stan, looking at him carefully. “What’s your next class? I can take you, if you’d like” Kenny offered, running his hands through their blonde hair.
“Not sure actually.” Stan responded, pulling his paper out his bag. “Chemistry.” He eventually said, putting his schedule away, he saw Kenny’s frown but it disappeared as quickly as it came.
“Shame.. I have gym. See you then, right?” Kenny held out a fist, preferably a fistbump, Stan shrugged and bumped his fist with his own.
“See you.” He waved by, and threw his bag over his shoulder and walked down the hall until he made it to a door, the teacher wasn’t inside possibly since students were talking, surrounding the entrance. Stan didn’t look too nervous.
He thought he’d maybe slip by, go unnoticed. But nope, that’s not what he’s known for.
“Hey!” Someone shouted, making him jolt and look over, he saw a slightly average height guy, he was average in height but definitely not weight, he was a little (an understatement) fat, messy brown hair on top of his head, mischievous brown eyes gleaming into his sapphire blue.
“Hey?” He greeted, confused and mostly freezing up.
“What happened to your face, hippie? Got in a fight, huh? You win or did you pussy out?” They said, asking him questions, probably because he came to school looking like a human punching bag. Stan just shrugged his bag on his shoulders again.
“None of your business that’s what.” Stan retorted, seeing the chubbier males expression harden, he looked away though, he prayed and it seemed like they’ve been answer, they were about to speak but the classroom door opened.
A teacher walked out, looking stern as usual. Oh this is a buzzkill. He thought, looking at the teacher who held a clipboard, she must’ve been a new teacher because the students had mixed reactions, Stan groaned. This is going to be a long class. Dragging out the ‘long’, he entered the classroom and sat down at a desk he presumed no one else was going to take.
When class was over, it was quickly lunch time. A pretty early lunch if you ask me. He went into the cafeteria, it was loud sure, and seats quickly began to get filled, Stan swallowed, knowing he’d either have lunch in the stalls or sit by the trash, in which he saw some weird ginger kids sit over there anyway.
He presumed he had no luck, not until Kenny waved him over, Stan just tilted his head, he walked over and sat down, Kenny was there, as well as three other people, It was that fat kid, another blonde kid with blue eyes and some ginger, well not exactly ginger. Do red-heads count as ginger? He wondered, he must’ve been staring into space because Kenny snapped their fingers in front of his face.
“Stan! This is Eric, Kyle and Butters.” Kenny flicked a hand to each of his friends, Eric was slouched in his seat, eating something Stan guessed were cookies, the Kyle guy on his phone and Butters was just fiddling with his fingers. “We’re an odd group but we work!” Kenny exclaimed.
“Oh, interesting.” Stan commented, he didn’t think too much of it.
“So, Stan… doing any clubs or activities?” Kenny asked, grinning. Stan didn’t have much of an answer, he didn’t know what to do this year.
“No not yet…” He trailed off, still confused. “Are you guys in any clubs?” Stan asked all four, leaning on top of the table.
“Kyle here is in the debate club!” Kenny announced to the table, grabbing the red-head’s arm and shaking him. Same as Wendy. He remembered.
“Come on man, it’s not that serious to announce to the whole school..” Kyle responded, taking his arm back from the blonde, Kenny just smiled. “You goin’ to that thing Tolkien is hosting in the forest?” Kyle asked Kenny, who shrugged in response.
“No idea. Doesn’t it bother you that he’s suspiciously hosting it in the woods?” Kenny responded, in which Kyle nodded and murmured ‘True’, and didn’t say anything else, Stan just hummed,, leaning forward.
“What thing?” he questioned, now completely invested, Kenny and Kyle just exchanged glances before Kenny turned serious.
“Well- uh. Tolkien- rich guy, like really rich! Hosts a gathering between students a few weeks after the school year starts. Everyone goes- sometimes its fun
sometimes it’s- chaos.” The light blonde spoke from beside Kyle, rubbing his knuckles together. “You should go, Stan!” Butters suggested.
A gathering huh. Stan thought it over, his eyes fixated on the table, he sighed and looked up. “When is it?” he asked, if he was going then he’ll have to mentally prepare before hand, there wasn’t a word for a moment, also that Eric kid was suspiciously quiet, Stan noted.
“Two weeks from now, it starts at 9:00 but you’d have to attend early. That’s the rule.” The red-head piqued up, making Stan look over. This whole
gathering thing was suspicious in its own way, he was still thinking this over.
“Yeah that’s fair. Thanks.” Stan thanked them both, he’ll just have to mentally store this information for later. They fell into a silence after that, it wasn’t suffocating or awkward. More of a comfortable silence, he doesn’t hate it, frankly he enjoys the silence more than talking anyway.
Kenny and Kyle were conversing, but Stan was too deep in his thoughts to hear. This school was getting more and more weirder by the second, he didn’t note on it though. He looked up and around, maybe using context clues to find out who Tolkien is. He didn’t find any ‘rich’ looking people. Probably eats private, if I’m honest. He sighed, eventually giving up on searching for now. He’ll just have to meet him on the day of the gathering.
The rest of lunch wasn’t bad. Nothing dramatic happened, if he were honest, he would’ve preferred the drama, like in California, everyone was super dramatic, it was almost funny. Stan noticed kids getting up, so that’s what he did, nudging Kenny in the process.
“What’s happening?” he asked
“Just the end of lunch, don’t worry.” Kenny said, giving him a grin and standing up, he hummed, and then followed him, no one said anything for a bit as the exited the cafeteria, Stan mind was blank, he wasn’t thinking of anything. Just blank. His eyes flicked back to Kenny who was walking beside him, no words were shared between them.
He walked to his next class, which was math, he stretched as he made it to the room, he walked in, thankfully no one was here yet. Does that mean he could choose what ever seat he’d like? He was so busy thinking about his choices, he didn’t hear someone walk up behind him.
“You new here?” a voice said, he flinched and turned around, he looked behind him, there stood an average sized male, who looked to be around 5’7 while he was 5’9 (almost), the basic blonde hair, blue eyed getup.
“Yeah, I’m new. Name’s Stan.” He said, holding out his hand for a handshake, the stranger nodded and shook his hand.
“Cool name. Gary Harrison.” The blonde said. “You can sit next to me.” He offered, Stan eventually agreed and Gary led him towards the back of the class, where he sat down.
“This class isn’t usually impossible, it’s pretty easy if you ask me. As long as you take notes and pay attention of course.” Gary rambled, pulling out a notebook and pencil, he kept talking, it was getting a little annoying so he just blocked him out.
He tuned Gary out, looking briefly at his desk, the class started but he was pretty much drowning them out. He turned to Gary who looked pretty focused, scribbling down some notes. Stan didn’t bother with notes anyway. They seemed like a waste of time. Until Gary’s words echoed in his head about how the class is a breeze as long as you pay attention and take notes. He wasn’t doing not one of those.
He zoned out for a while, not paying attention, clearly. He felt like was going to fall asleep, not until Gary nudged him with his pencil, on the eraser end.
“You might want to write this down.” He gestured, Stan blinked and looked forward, the teacher was looking their way, a stern look on her face. He swallowed and reached for a pencil in his bag before he started writing whatever she put.
He started eventually drifting from the notes to just scribbling, his mind drifted back to that gathering and who ever Tolkien was. Maybe he’ll just asked around. Stan shifted to Gary, about to talk, his lips parted but then he was cut off by “fake” howling and laughing in the hallway.
He looked curiously towards the door, the laughing died down and the teacher looked frustrated she’d been interrupted, Gary looked conflicted as he saw a bunch of bodies walk by, laughing and fake howling and yelling.
Then when they stopped the teacher went back to teaching, Gary looked back at Stan, they locked eyes for a moment before he drifted back to his notes and Stan sighed, leaning backwards in his seat, there was then no words spoken, she handed everyone a work sheet and everyone in the classroom groaned except for about three people.
Stan looked at the paper, now lost. I should’ve taken notes like Gary said. He thought, sighing, Gary was happily doing the work, clearly going through the questions in a breeze, Stan rolled his eyes and then continued working like it was nothing, like he wasn’t internally panicking. He yawned and then his eyes fluttered, he snapped back awake, eyeing the time. It wasn’t too long until this class ended.
Stan tapped the desk, now severely impatient, Gary seemed to be done with his paper, now leaning over to look at Stan's. “You done yet?” He questioned, the teen just shook his head.
“No. This is like impossible.” He gestured wildly at his paper. “How do you do this stuff? And before you say notes, I want a better answer.” He admitted, leaning forward, Gary just furrowed his brows but didn’t push on it, leaning back into his seat.
Stan scoffed, tapping his pen against the chair, just before the bell rang, ending the pretty short school day. He stuffed his things in his backpack and then threw it over his shoulders, walking down the hall, seeing Kenny wave him over.
“Hey man.” The blonde greeted, gesturing for a fistbump in which Stan returned. “Want me to walk you home? Sure you live far but I can show you a shortcut.” Kenny winked, Stan shook his head.
“I’m pretty sure-“
“I can take him.” Someone spoke up from behind him, almost jumping, he turned and faced the culprit, Kyle, the ginger guy he met earlier. “He lives right next to me, I’ll show him the way.” He offered, Kenny sharing a toothy grin.“Yeah, that’s fine.” Stan said softly, letting out a hum as Kyle nods.
“Kenny you live past the railroad. Don’t take Stan through that hellhole.” Kyle responded, running his fingers through his frizzy curls, Kenny just gave a small pout but didn’t push, walking thee opposite way as Stan and Kyle exited through the front.
Now outside and walking side-by-side outside, snow was on the ground and they trudged through it, his socks now uncomfortably wet.
“So…” Kyle drawled out, probably trying to spark a conversation rather than walking in silence. “Make any friends? Besides us of course.” He questioned, his arms were crossed over his chest in a guarded sort of way.
“Oh- Uh… yeah. I met someone named Gary. That’s basically it.” Stan replied, shrugging lightly, he looked at Kyle’s face for some sort of reaction but his expression was stern, like he was thinking about something.
Kyle clicked his tongue, looking at him. “Yeah, Gary’s cool.” He murmured, seemingly to himself but loud enough for him to hear.
They walked in silence once again, the silence that was once broken now pieced together again. He hummed, a small tune before going in front of a green house, the one right beside his.
“Nice seein’ you, man.” Kyle said, nodding at him before walking up the driveway and into the house, the door audibly shutting, he nodded to his words before making his way to his house, entering and then shutting the door, sighing.
Nobody was home, he knew this, he yawned and just went upstairs, too tired to do anything anyway, he stretched, and opened the door to his room.
It was mess, sure. He was a known hoarder since like 5th grade. He’ll clean it eventually, or maybe when someone comes over. He tossed a shirt away off the floor and into a laundry basket. He eventually flopped face first on his bed, his parents not coming home anytime soon, so he had some time to nap.