South Park: Dragging Me Down

Concussion

Kenny yawned.

He walked down the corridor with his bag slung over his back, eyes heavy and dull from the stress of the previous night's events. Kevin was out, his parents were drunk, and he had been left alone to take care of Karen, who was feeling pretty unloved and upset because of the bullies at school. Kenny had spent the entire night looking after her and ended up missing his Mysterion shift because of it, but he didn't care too much about that. Karen was way more important than the fuckers of South Park.

It was early in the morning, and school didn't officially start for another hour, but Kenny and Karen had left home early to escape their parents' hungover bickering. Kenny dropped Karen off at her school before making his way through the snow to the high school. As it was early, the school was dead. It was eerily quiet, but Kenny somehow didn't mind this.

It was calming.

At first Kenny aimlessly wandered down the corridors but soon found himself upstairs in the library. He knew that it had a comfy seating area and decided it was the best place to chill for a while before classes officially started. He made his way over to the seating area and was surprised to spot a lone figure leaning over one of the computers on the far side of the room. Kenny swung his bag onto a nearby beanbag and stuck his hands into his pockets, lazily approaching the person.

He felt himself frown when he identified the sleeping person by his stupid red outfit and crappy brown hat. He groaned. He had absolutely no idea why Pip was in school so early, so just put it down to him being weird. Not caring that he was asleep, Kenny sharply poked him in the arm.

Pip woke with a start. He slowly sat upright and rubbed his eyes, turning to see the older blonde standing there. It took him a moment to compose himself and he gave him a wary smile. "Good morning, Kenneth."

"Mornin'. Didn't get enough sleep last night?"

Pip shook his head.

Kenny leant up against the chair next to Pip's. "Why are you even here so early, Frenchie?"

"I... had work to do." Pip's tired eyes returned to the computer screen. "Thank you for waking me."

"That wasn't intentional, but, whatever."

The two remained quiet after that. Kenny's eyes met the pile of paperwork resting on Pip's computer monitor. He knew full well that it contained science homework belonging to his friends. His classmates had been forcing Pip to do their homework for years now - even Kenny had on occasion, but now found himself feeling slightly bad about it. He quickly shook this thought away.

He looked up at Pip and found the boy had once again fallen asleep. He frowned and poked him in the shoulder but the Brit did not respond this time, instead falling head first onto the desk.

"Lame." Kenny huffed, finding himself grabbing the homework sheets and flicking through them. Pip had already managed to finish all but Cartman's and his own homework, noting Pip's cursive handwriting. It occurred to him that teachers probably knew that Pip did homework for other students because his writing was so distinctive, yet didn't say anything about it.

Weird.

Kenny shuffled the papers back down before saving Pip's computer work and logging him off. The British boy was obviously in no condition to finish any work in his current state.

The school bell soon rang which indicated the start of first period, pulling Kenny out of his reverie. He was more surprised to find that the noise hadn't woken Pip. He tried shaking the boy again but Pip remained unconscious. Kenny rolled his eyes and grabbed his bag from the beanbag, slinging it over his shoulder. He took one last look at the sleeping boy before heading on his way.