Locked In (Heart)

three

STAN'S POV

i didn't realize how fast my legs were carrying me until i heard repeated huffs, puffs, and groans from cartman behind me who was acting like we were trailing through the sahara desert.

"sl—slow down marsh — i, ugh — damn! what's the rush?" he complains attempting to keep up with me.

i think about it for a moment, "i just want to get to the bottom of this as soon as we can i mean, this thing is literally in two days right?!"

"yeah but you're walking like you're on a mission — ah! my sides," cartman winces.

"well...i am. and dude, this is exactly why coach makes you run extra how are you this tired by merely walking?" i say pausing for a break so cartman can like, not die before we can even reach our destination.

"fuck you with your tiny ass legs," he spits as he breathes heavily, "do you even know where we're going?!"

i wanted to bite back at that jab at my legs that he made, but then i thought for a moment.

"...no...i actually don't know um—"

"WOW!" cartman says a little too loudly because people started looking at us and it made me a little embarrassed to say the least, "how is your literal girlfriend the vice president of the damn thing and you don't even know where it is?"

"it's top secret," i say rolling my eyes, "so of course she wouldn't tell me."

"well, then i guess we just gotta just stick to finding her god i was hoping to give damien a piece of my mind...where is she?" he says now leaning against the locker still trying to catch his breath.

i check my phone for the time, it's currently 11:07am with the bell ringing simultaneously indicating it's the start of 4th period...but wait, what's her 4th period again?

"uh.....um...." i say trying to think.

"dear god stanley — you don't know her schedule as much as she yaps your ears off whenever you guys are together?!"

"i do , i do it's just my minds blanking," i lie...i truly realized i don't know her schedule except for the class we have together which is the last period of the day — u.s. history.

"well that's just great," cartman says, "instead of hunting her down because the bell just rang — how about we just approach her at lunch and ask her then."

"we could probably even ask damien," i perk up but then i think, "but wait, is he here today or—"

"now that i think about it, i don't think so. that mysterious ass fucker just comes to school whenever he wants to — he hasn't been here in like four days," cartman says rolling his eyes.

it's true, damien only shows up to school a few days out of the week...sometimes will skip a few weeks.

everyone used to question it, including the staff and teachers. whenever you miss a certain amount of days of school you're supposed to be legible for repeating the grade. however, with damien's amazing grades (even better than both kyle and wendy...) they don't even question him. they just let him do what he wants.

there's never a pattern to it either — i purely think he just wakes up and decides to go to school that day.

"right," i say, "fine then, let's give it a second go at lunch."

**AT LUNCH**

i spotted wendy with her girlfriends at their usual table and i approach them with my current right hand man, cartman.

before we could even reach them, the girls all looked confused as to why we've interrupted their girl talk.

except wendy of course, she always looks delighted to see me.

i clear my throat, "um hey wendy can i talk to you?"

she smiles brightly, "well of course stan." and then looks for a second at cartman narrowing her eyes and then turns back to me, "...with...him?"

"don't start bitch," cartman spits and the girls all gasp with wendy now looking pissed.

that's gotta be a record with how fast cartman can make someone upset by just opening his damn mouth.

i slap him on the back of his head, "knock it off." i seethe and then look back at wendy apologetically, "yeah actually."

she hesitates by looking between the two of us and then proceeds to get up and follow us as we make our way out of the cafeteria.

"what's up?" she says folding her arms, still acting defensive with cartman's presence.

i fiddle with my fingers for a bit before starting off, "so...the invite list results came out for the thing and i was just confused as to how you guys picked what you picked."

she sighs and says, "you know i can't discuss that with you."

"why not?" i question, "it's just a simple question."

"because it's secret. the entire thing isn't supposed to discussed — especially in school are you crazy?" she whispers.

"it's just that — i'm confused as to why certain people were picked and certain people weren't."

"you were picked, that's all that matters. i chose you first," she says, "you don't question our picks, you just accept what's given."

cartman then decides to step in, "why wasn't kahl picked?"

i almost forgot he was here and wendy did too because she nearly jumped at his sudden intervene, "huh?"

"why didn't you pick kahl...do you want me to repeat myself again?"

"kyle? im not sure, he wasn't my choice but i was sure he would've been someone elses...is that why you're asking me?" she says a little skeptical.

i start getting a tad bit nervous, "it just doesn't make sense to me and i would've liked him to be chosen."

"well i'm sorry babe but there's nothing i can do about it unfortunately. as i said you accept what's given, end of story," she says and then kisses my cheek, "i'll see you later."

she then walks passed me, gives cartman one last dirty look and then walks back to the cafeteria.

"well that was pure ass," cartman says, "this whole thing is stupid...i still wanna go...but this is stupid."

"yeah," i say agreeing with him. it's crazy how upset i am at the way this whole system is and yet i'm still super excited to go.

it's just a shame i can't experience this with kyle.

"well what the hell do we do now?" cartman says.

"we gotta visit the master behind all of this himself. we gotta find damien."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

are you guys enjoying this so far?

i hope you are all, it's a bit of a slow start but build up is very important to a story like this.

hope you understand!!'

-brooke