South Park: Dragging Me Down

Chapter 95

It was getting late.

The Goth Kids, Wendy and Kenny were still sitting around Pip's bed, chatting with him. Henrietta and Wendy had mellowed a little bit and were now actually engaged in a fairly civil conversation about their favourite poets as Michael and Kenny spoke with Pip about his past, with the goth especially wanting to pry a little more and know the full story of his life without upsetting him.

"So, in short: you've been passed around lots of different foster homes, huh?" he questioned.

"Well, sort of... I lived with my sister back in England for a while, then we emigrated to America and she couldn't afford to keep me so I was sent to the orphanage. I was passed around different homes a few times and I did settle with this one couple for a bit but then they didn't want me any more so I went back to the orphanage. I left the orphanage because I didn't think I'd get adopted, then went back to my sister again until she kicked me out, so then I sort of... lived on the streets for a few months until she took me back in, then- then Mysterion happened."

"Wow." Michael exhaled. It was a lot to take in.

Doctor Thomas was standing nearby and overheard his words, finding himself in shock over the trauma and heartbreak the British teenager had experienced. From his personal dealings with the boy, he seemed like such a polite young gentleman, a little shy and awkward at times but trying his best to learn how to act like a normal teenager. A normal... human.

He'd never had the luxury before.

"You said you've never celebrated your birthday before, or even know when that is. Did you ever celebrate other holidays, like Christmas?" Kenny asked.

Doctor Thomas blanched.

Pip smiled solemnly. "I was... there when other people celebrated it if that counts?"

"How does that even work?" Wendy asked, joining the conversation with Henrietta, her heart stinging.

"I was in the same room as them? B-But it... doesn't matter." he softly replied, not wanting to elaborate. "It's over now."

"So you like... didn't celebrate birthdays? At all?" Henrietta repeated slowly, letting the information sink in.

Pip rubbed the back of his head. "I didn't really know what a birthday was for a long time. S-Silly, right? It seems so obvious now..."

"That's as non-conformist as it gets." Michael nodded his head in agreement. Wendy frowned.

"So what were your adoptive parents like?"

"Fine, I guess. Just normal people who had mood swings sometimes. I made things pretty difficult for them."

"Mood swings?"

"Y-Yeah." he swallowed, recalling the times when they were having a normal conversation and in the next second his foster father would be beating the absolute shit out of him for no reason. "I made them angry a lot."

"Why?"

"Well for one thing, I'm not like most boys. I'm spineless. T-They also wanted me to be more like them. My foster father was outgoing, jockish and big into sports. That's just not me."

"Were there ever any times you thought about leaving them before they... returned you?"

Pip pondered his question, then nodded, beginning to explain why. "Yes, but it wasn't really to do with them directly. It was because of my 'grandparents'."

"Your grandparents?"

"Adoptive grandparents. I... um... I-I made things a little difficult for them."