Fruit Juice - South Park

3: Plums

About fucking time!"

Eric Cartman was the first person to be picked up by Kenny McCormick at approximately three-thirteen. The afternoon could be considered completely unremarkable in almost every conceivable way; the sun was shining, as per usual, the breeze carried a slight chill, as per usual, and soft white splotches of clouds littered an otherwise clear baby blue sky, as per usual. Miraculously, Kenny's dad's pick-up truck was big enough to seat four people without worrying about any lap-sitting going on. The only downside was their luggage and other packed belongings had to be thrown in the back tray, out of reach to the passengers without physically leaving the stopped car to riffle around and find shit. This wasn't too much of inconvenience, Kenny had initially thought, but it did mean being light on the bags they did choose to bring in the car with them; four people could barely fit as it was, let alone multiplied with pillows and bags. Which is why, when loading his shit into the back of the truck, Kenny had insisted on Cartman sacrificing one of his two tightly-grasped pillows.

Shaking his head, Cartman had to be verbal to communicate his perspective. "No fucking way dude, if I put this out back here it'll get all dusty! I don't want a dusty fucking pillow!" He'd insisted.

But Kenny wasn't having any of it. "Go put it back inside for all I care. Shouldn't the airbnb have pillows there anyway?"

"It's for the trip, asshole!" Claimed Cartman, as he subsequently did as Kenny said anyway, making a move to return it back into the safety of his own home.

Stan was the next person to be picked up. Cartman had already claimed shotgun first and foremost, to nobody's surprise. For once however, he had an actually effective excuse for hogging it for the whole trip; after all, he would be making frequent swap-outs with Kenny as driver. Although, there was one more reason, in addition to that.

"Fuck. I didn't notice it only had two doors." Stan muttered, now face to face with the side of the red vehicle as Kenny helped manuever the bags into the back. "How the hell do you get in the backseat?"

"There's a thing at the bottom of the frontseats you can pull," Kenny responded, done with the last bag Cartman was currently standing in the tray attempting to tie down, "and it let's you pull the whole seat up to the dashboard with enough space to get in and out." Kenny had now moved to open the passenger seat door, "I'll show you," and he did, motioning for Stan to hop inside the car.

By this point, Cartman had jumped off the back of the tray with a very audible thump. "God, Kenny, you're opening the door for him and everything? Get a room you two." He cooed.

"You can hop in too, Cartman." Kenny added, holding the door open just long enough to Cartman to quickly dash inside again, before having it slammed shut with a distinctive amount of force.

"You should've done that in his face." Stan laughed, moving to make himself comfortable in the seat directly behind Cartman.

"Hey! Remember who invited you on this trip, ya ungrateful bastard."

Kyle was the last person to be picked up, but they hadn't so much as left Stan's place before someone had already brought him up in conversation.

"So... how has Kyle been since the valedictorian ceremony? I mean, he looked alright the other day at my place, but... that night... he seemed kinda... bad." Kenny began, pulling out of the driveway as a barely visible Stan's mother waved goodbye through the front window.

The subsequent tense air filling the car's atmosphere was inevitable, but Kenny knew as well as anyone that this would be the only opportunity for the next week to discuss the situation. In fact, he'd be lying if he said this moment wasn't part of the reason he'd ensured Kyle would be the last person picked up.

Stan responsed first. "That night was really the only opportunity I got to talk about it with him... cause y'know, I was comforting him. I was also like, really angry on his behalf, but it's not like me being angry was gonna make anything better." Playing the moment back in his head almost ignited the same fury he had come across within himself that very might.

"It was some bullshit is what it was!" Cartman surmised, forcing Stan to pretend he wasn't utterly surprised that Eric didn't snap up the opportunity to kick Kyle while he was down-, especially behind his back. "He's gotta be like the only person in the history of ever to be upset at getting awarded Valedictorian! And if he isn't, then he's the first person in the history of ever to get upset and have it be like, the most appropriate, proportional reaction of all time!"

Uh oh, Cartman's using big words again, Stan thought.

"I mean, it wasn't really the school's fault, they couldn't have known about the terms and conditions of Kyle's scholarship." Kenny butted in, now halted at a red light. "But fuck. Why would that... even be a condition anyway? What ivy-league school wouldn't snatch up a valedictorian straight away?" He rhetorically proposed, stepping on the gas as the light hit green.

He hadn't even left South Park yet and Stan couldn't help his gaze from being drawn out the window. "Well, from what Kyle explained, it seemed like it had to do with the money side of things within the scholarship," He muttered, refraining from leaning against the window already. "As valedictorian, his award came with a bunch of big cash prizes, and I think like, the scholarship he was awarded earlier in the year was for financial hardships or if you're someone with no means of affording that school, so if you got the scholarship, but then suddenly went around getting all these monetary bonuses, then they're allowed to take away your scholarship," Stan was pretty sure he was talking out of his own ass now, but he was attempting to repeat what he heard Kyle explain that fateful night, "and... they did."

They weren't far from Kyle's house now, so this conversation and it's lingering affect on the groups mood would have to wrap up real quick.

"Well... maybe something like this will be good for him then-, this getaway, I mean. Something to take his mind off of things? Although knowing Kyle, I don't think he's ever taken his mind off of anything before." Kenny sighed, finally pulling into Kyle's driveway and beeping the horn. Decidedly, this conversation was over.

Stan had also chosen to take the liberty of texting Kyle of their arrival, and soon enough, he was out the door with his mother closely behind him with additional bags in hand. "Why don't worry, Mrs. Brofloski, those must be quote heavy! Allow me to take that burden off your back!" Cartman cooed, drenched in a layer of sarcasm so wet it almost became completely unironic once again.

Now also outside of the vehicle, Stan shot Kyle an introductory look. "Hey man, got everything?"

Kyle nodded, then nodded again after taking a quick second to think. "Dude, I think I've got like, too much stuff. My mum made me pack all my diabetes stuff and this gay mini first aid kit too. Then we went over everything kust before you guys arrived." He exhaled; Shelia giving him one last right hug and a sloppy kiss before sending him on his way. "Mom! I'm eighteen now! I'll be fine!"

But soon enough, with all their luggage tied down in the truck's tray and four bodies crammed in it's interior, the boys could officially proclaim that their impromptu summer getaway was underway.