Somethings Change

Wednesday

Kyle woke to a quiet knocking at his door. He groaned and turned over to look at the alarm clock on his nightstand. '6:13AM' it was too early to wake up despite Kyle going to bed decently early. Another knock came from his door but he ignored it and just rolled back over. There was some shuffling as the person left, Kyle sighed and slowly started to slip into unconsciousness again. That is until he heard the sliding of his window and soon after a soft "Oof" as someone hit the floor with a thud. Kyle sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Stan, what the hell are you doing?" He asked annoyed clicking on the lamp. "Why are you climbing through my window?"

Stan sat up and smiled sheepishly. "You weren't answering your door." He replied.

"That's because it's 6 in the goddamn morning!" Kyle pushed his covers off and stood up. He walked over to Stan and held out a hand. Stan took it and pulled himself to his feet. "So why are you here so early dude? We don't even have to be at school for another hour and a half." Kyle released Stan's hand and walked to his dresser pulling out his clothes for the day.

"I wanted to see you dude." Stan said as he took a seat on Kyle's bed. The red head hummed in response. "I missed you yesterday."

Kyle sighed. "You want to talk about what me and Wendy did yesterday, right?" He asked grabbing the rest of his clothes and starting to change. Stan quickly looked away, flushing slight pink. He rubbed the back of his head, feeling kind of bad now. After he finished changing, Kyle sat next to him and lightly punched his arm with a smile. "It's okay man, I don't mind telling you." Stan smiled back. "We studied for a bit but got frustrated, so we watched a movie and then I came home."

Stan breathed a heavy sigh. "I feel like an idiot." He muttered, placing his head in his hands. Kyle rubbed him back

"You aren't an idiot. It's completely understandable dude." Stan kept his head down. "You know Kenny was here last night when I got home." No response. "He said something that I was surprised about. He said he didn't know who you were really jealous of?" Kyle said in the form of a question.

Stan shot up quickly, face red. "I-I mean-" he stuttered and stumbled to find the right words before stopping and taking a deep breath. "I guess both..."

Kyle's face grew warm as he looked at his friend thoughtfully. "Stan-"

"I know. I know." His friend cut him off before the word could hurt him. "You already said you didn't like me back."

"I didn't say that though." Kyle blurted. Stan looked shocked but somehow hopeful. Kyle jumped as his alarm started beeping.

Stan leaned over and turned it off, standing up and stretching. Like clockwork, there was a knock at the door followed by Sheila's voice. "Kyle, time for school. Come get breakfast." She shuffled away from the door.

"Come on. Let's go get food." Stan held his hand out to Kyle. His eye glued to the door, refusing to look back. Kyle took his hand and stood up. His stomach twisted.

The rest of the morning seemed to go by rather quickly. Kyle's parents weren't even fazed by Stan's presents. They had gotten used to the two boys sneaking out to see each other. So used to it in fact, that they gave Stan a house key about a year ago so he would stop waking them in the middle of the night. Stan made a copy of his house key to give to Kyle, though Kyle has never used it.

They heard a car Honk twice outside, they both excused themselves and grabbed their bags, heading toward the door. Kyle closed the door behind them and made his way to the white truck in his driveway. He sat in the back with Stan, greeting Kenny and surprisingly Butters. It was normal for Kenny to pick them up, but they usually didn't see Butters so early in the morning. Still no one questioned it, talking like normal as they drove to the high school.

They arrived and parked in their normal spot. Making their way inside they split up to go to their lockers. Kyle got to his and opened it, filing through his binders, folders, and textbooks. "Hey!" Wendy greeted, smiling widely. She was already fully in her gym clothes, hair tied back in a high ponytail. Kyle thought she was surprisingly cute despite the uniform's bland appearance.

He smiled back and closed his locker, a light pink dusting his cheeks from his previous thought. "Hey, I always forget cheer practice is first period. That has to be rough."

She just shrugged. "I'm just lucky they count cheer as my phys ed class."

Kyle laughed. "So what's up?"

"So I went to talk to Mr. Robertson this morning about some supplies he order for class that arrived." Wendy was speaking fast, though Kyle nodded, keeping up with the conversation. "Apparently he's offering people extra credit in class today to do a project."

Kyle grew excited with a smile just as wide as the noirette's. "That's perfect I just need to make up for a couple points from when I got sick and missed that test."

"There's a catch though." Wendy said putting a hand on his shoulder, dropping the smile. "It's a group project of four people."

Kyle frowned. He started thinking for a moment. "Wait a minute. Stan and Kenny have chemistry with us, why don't we ask them?"

"Oh um..." Wendy looked down with an expression that made Kyle's heart melt. He realized his mistake and lightly patted her head.

"Nevermind, we can ask someone else." Wendy looked up at him. 'When did he get so tall?' she thought.

"No no, you're right. They are the best option, but you'll have to ask them." She gave a genuine smile. The bell rang and Kyle cursed under his breathe. Wendy turned on her heels, a piece of her hair from her ponytail trailing through Kyle's fingers. "I gotta get to practice! I'll see you next period, don't forget to ask them!" She yelled, running off toward the gym.

Kyle looked at his hand for a moment. 'Soft.' He thought, he turned and walked a couple doors down. As he opened the door, he saw Stan sitting in his usual seat. The moment he spotted him, Stan smiled and waved. Kyle took his normal seat next to him.

"Wow man, took you pretty long to get here." Stan laughed. "You get distracted?"

"A little." He admitted. "Wendy wanted to talk."

Stan's mood dropped. "What did she want?"

"Long story." He started to explain, Stan just listened carefully waiting until Kyle was done to speak. "So will you help us?"

"Dude, I suck at chemistry."

"Alright students quiet down. Open your books to chapter 3, we'll pick up from where we left off." The teacher announce.

He started reading and immediately Stan and Kyle zoned back out. They started passing notes back and forth.

"Wendy and I will do all the work, we just need 4 people. Please?"

"I'm not really ready to talk to Wendy again."

"Come on, don't you need to up your grade. I'm giving you a free chance."

Stan thought carefully about his options. He didn't want to see Wendy right now, let alone see her interacting with Kyle. But he REALLY needed to get his grade in the class up. He sighed and just nodded to Kyle begrudgingly. His friend just smiled widely and mouthed the words 'Thank you' as he clasped his hands together. Stan pulled his phone out, keeping it hidden under his desk. He texted Kenny hoping he'd answer quickly, Kenny had geometry first period, so he unusually responded pretty quickly.

Stan- Ken!

Kenny- Sup

Stan- Kyle needs our help next period with a project

Kenny- K

That took a whole lot less convincing than is did for Stan. Kenny always was a man of few words and dirty thoughts.

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The art for the chapter is by @emilyartstudios on instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/emilyartstudios/