South Park High

Chapter 2-The Bus Ride

Cartman chuckled to himself, thinking of the events that had occurred earlier that day. Something about seeing Kyle rattled up always made him smile.

He honestly loved any interaction with Kyle. Unfortunately, most of the time, the only way Eric could get a response out of Kyle was by annoying him, and Eric would rather have Kyle despise him than not have Kyle in his life. Also, Eric would vehemently deny it if anyone asked, but seeing Kyle is what got him through the day.

Eric's life wasn't easy. Being known as the son of the town's whore/former cocaine addict didn't bode well for making new friends.

All he wanted was affection, someone to care about him. Never having known his father and barely seeing his mother caused Eric to push away anyone who remotely cared about him. Rejecting them first before they could reject him.

He did have Stan, Kyle, and Kenny, but Eric wasn't foolish. He knew that given a chance, they would stab him in the back. Maybe not Kenny, but definitely Kyle and Stan.

When the shrill of the bell rang through the hallways signaling the end of the first day of school, Eric sighed. Time to go back home to an empty house, he thought. Even though Eric was considered to be somewhat popular, he was only popular as the kid everyone hated.

Exiting the school, Eric felt the cool fresh August wind blow across his face brushing his dark brown hair. Golden brown leaves cracked beneath his worn-out sneakers as he walked towards the parking lot.

Eric pulled the sides of his red fleece jacket closer ignoring the fact that it was two sizes too small and could barely wrap around his large bulky frame, let alone be buttoned. When he saw the bright yellow bus pull up, he clutched the strap of his backpack with his gloved hands and walked up the grimy black steps of the bus.

Ms. Crabtree, the bus driver, always had music blasting through the stereo and when Eric recognized the song, he smirked at the irony. 'Gives you Hell' by All American Rejects was playing and having to look at Ms. Crabtree's ugly face as he entered definitely gave Eric hell.

Looking around as he entered, Eric noticed the bus was more empty than usual. It was probably because by now, almost everyone drove a car. But Eric, coming from a very low-income household, couldn't afford to get one. Eric couldn't even bank on Kenny since Kenny usually waited for his sister after school to walk home.

However, just to his luck, Kyle was in a seat towards the front by himself! Usually, Kyle drove home in his car, but Kyle's car was in the shop getting fixed up. Eric tried to hide his excitement by sauntering up to Kyle with a big smirk on his face.

"I'm sitting here," Eric stated. Then, before Kyle could even begin to protest, Eric plopped down right next to him.

"Cartman, I'm not in the mood to deal with you today," Kyle glared at Eric, annoyed.

Eric ignored the Jewish boy and pulled out his red iPhone. It had taken weeks of whining, begging, and emotional blackmail to get the gadget but to Eric it was totally worth it.

He didn't want to feel anymore left out than he already did. Eric opened the 'Terrance & Phillip: Give Us Your Money' mobile game and starting clicking away.

"Dude, can't you find somewhere else to sit? There's so much space!" Kyle exclaimed, gesturing to the rows of empty seats around them.

"I don't care. You should be grateful that you get the honor of sitting with me. After all, who'd wanna sit next to a pathetic ginger?" Eric sneered in response, looking up from his phone.

A small flash of hurt flashed across Kyle's face before it was quickly covered up with anger. Eric felt a pang of guilt but did his best to shove the feeling down and ignore it.