The Four Seasons

New Friends - Chapter Four

A/n - Hello, hello! Quick note before we begin, (F/c) means Favorite Color.
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I never liked when it rained, and this particular day was no different. Yesterday was almost perfect, I had spent the day with Kyle, lazing around in his arms, and talking about the weather and other trivial subjects. Except, of course, the topic of Stan and Kenny, who had broken their arms several days previous. The boys often made me far more worried than I, or anyone else, should ever have to be, but that was just a part of loving them. 
Today it rained like no day before it. It came in loud, thunderous roars, pelting against the rooftops. The longer it went, the harder it got, to the point that I had thought my ceiling may collapse, but I vigorously shake that thought away before it gets any worse. I spend a good part of the morning lying in bed, wishing and wishing for the rain to end. I check the time on my phone, I'd be missing the bus if I didn't get up soon-  I would have to walk in the rain, this thought making me shudder.
I hesitantly untuck myself from my bed, tiptoeing out and retrieving a pair of underwear and pants, and a (f/c) tee, and black socks, from my dresser drawer. I quickly change, ducking out of my bedroom and downstairs to the kitchen. My folks wouldn't be home till much later, so they weren't much of a bother right now. Grabbing a bag of bread, and slipping out the last two pieces, possibly the worst of the sections- end pieces- and slide them into the toaster. While I'm waiting for my toast, I pack my backpack for school, y'know, with standard boring school stuff. Binders and books, history and sciences and math, god, you name it, for whatever reason every student would seem to have it.
A sharp ding from the toaster reverberates in my ear, as I grab my two slices, and slap butter and jelly on them. I head towards the door, rechecking the time. A sigh of relief escapes me, I'd have just enough time to make it to the bus in time, thank god.
I think of Kenny when I finally step outside, he loves the rain, he could walk all day in it. Maybe he didn't have the money for rain gear, but he'd go out still, becoming drenched- soaked to the bone. I giggle lightly at that last comment, as I barely manage to reach my destination on time. Eric, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny all stand at the bus stop, Eric and Kyle are fighting, while the latter of the four boys stay relatively quiet,  except for a bit of side conversation and several points of interjection are made throughout the fight. Three of the boys have umbrellas, while Kenny, like me, has none.
I adjust my scrappy (F/c) backpack, "Hey guys," I wave towards the four boys. Kyle stopping his fight for a mere second to greet me. I stand next to Stan and Kenny, joining their conversation. 
"Hey, what are they fighting about?"
"I don't know," Ken mumbles into his jacket, "Probably something stupid."
"Figures," I respond, "How's your arm, didn't do anythin' more stupid this weekend, did'ya?" I turn my attention towards Stan as well, aiming my worry at both boys.
"Nope, all clean," Ken says, showing off his arms and legs, offering them up for closer inspection. Stan nods, lifting his arm with the cast to show it's the only major injury he had. 
"And is it healin' alright?"
This time Stan responds, "Yeah, healing pretty well." I give Stan a small side hug, followed by one more for Ken.
"Good, I was so worried about you two the other day. Try not to do somethin' so stupid next time, alright?" They both nod their heads in return, and Stan lets out a string of small chuckles.
"Yeah, what about you though, you're standing out in the rain, silly!" 
"No jacket, no nothin', you sure?" Kenny adds to Stan's comment.
"Oh, I'm sure. If Kenny can do it, I can do it." I grin widely, as it begins, and not even sure if it's humanly possible at this point, to rain even harder than before. "On second thought."
Stan invites the two of you under his small umbrella, but I duck under his and sneakily find my way under Kyle's, snuggling into his side. Kenny is able to sort of fit under Stan's umbrella though, so I feel satisfied, we're both relatively safe.
"Oh," Kyle notices me on his side, smiling down at me, "Didn't notice you there, (Y/n)." I only smile in return.
"Mm-hmm,"  I mumbled into his side, "Sorry if my clothes are kinda damp, forgot to bring an umbrella." I lie, because in reality, like Kenny, I didn't even own an umbrella. 
"No worries."
"Can I kiss you?" I mutter shyly, Kyle frowns at me in return.
"No, we can't, people could see us from the bus. Later though, maybe?" he questions.
"Yeah, of course," I mutter again into Kyle's side, this time my smile has disappeared though. I loved the boys but hated that we had to keep it secret. I wanted to hold their hands in public, and sneak quick kisses on their cheeks, and cuddle them when we went to movies. I hated the conclusion that the boys came to, however, sometimes it felt like they didn't care about my own thoughts and feelings. I wanted to be open and free to love, and they wanted to keep it between one-on-one with only the five of us to ever know. They never asked how I felt with this situation though- things would have to change.
"Hey," I whisper, "What if we hung out with just the five of us tonight, like, a, uh, um, study date! Yeah!" Study dates are what I usually have with Kyle, it sometimes seems to be all I ever do with him, except for last night, last night was beautiful.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, yeah! We can do it in Eric's basement, we can study and cuddle an' stuff! We could get pizza, how does that sound?" Kyle gives me a look in return that I can't quite make out- if he likes the idea or not is completely unbeknownst to me. "Please, it'll be fun," I give him the best puppy dog eyes I can muster.
"Fine," he sighs, "If everyone else wants to." He smiles back at me, I assume mostly because I'm happy, but maybe he liked the idea more than I had thought. 
"Eric," I make my way over from Kyle's umbrella to the boy as mentioned earlier's umbrella. "Hey babe, how are you?"
"Good, what are you doing over here, isn't it supposed to be, like, Kyle's turn?" I shudder at the term 'turn' but reply yes. 
"I'm inviting you to a little study date, at your house," I giggle.
"At my house, why the hell would I agree to that?"
"I don't know, they'll be pizza, free of charge."
"Well," Eric begins to consider it, then suddenly remembers the study part. "Nah, I'm not a fucking pussy, neither are you. Only pussy fucking nerds study." 
"Me and Kyle are not some pussy nerds. Okay, yes,  maybe nerds, but we're not pussies. Plus, I need to get my grades up." And the part I don't tell Eric, while he's considering my offer, is that if I don't get my grade up, I'll fail my sophomore year, I won't be in any classes with him, or any of them. Also, on top of that, my parents would be pissed, don't know what they'd do, though. "Eric, please-"
"Yes, I'll allow you guys at my house for the dumb study date," he mumbles, side hugging him like I did Stan and Kenny, and thank him over and over, quickly ducking under all the umbrellas, again. I stop next to Stan.
"Hey, study date tonight, Cartman's house. Pizza will be totally free, too."
Minutes later, the bus rolls up, and we all get on. The three boys with umbrellas close them up, before quickly heading in.  Stan and Kyle sit next to each other in the way back of the bus, while Cartman and Kenny sit the seats across from theirs. There's no room for me, so I sit a few rows up, next to Butters. I had never talked with Butters much throughout the years, I did move to South Park back in 3rd, maybe 4th grade, but the truth of the matter was, I have always spent most of my time with the boys. I don't remember how it happened, but one day, me and my new group could never be separated. Plus, I've never had any classes with Butters in previous years, except back then in elementary and middle school, I suppose I had just never paid much attention to him. 
Cartman makes some poor kid behind me tap my shoulder, averting my attention from my new seatmate towards Cartman instead. "What is it?" 
"Why are you sitting with that lame-ass pussy?" Cartman yells, earning a groan from several of the students, including myself.
"God, Eric, you can't just go around calling everyone a fucking pussy!" I yell back.
"Well, you're not the boss of me!"
"You sound like a child, Eric!"
"God, I am not!"
"I'm not having this conversation, Eric, you're a fucking young man, go grow a pair already." Cartman looks back at me looking astonished by my insult. I turn back around, facing the right way in my seat at last. "Hey Butters," I wave towards him, and he signals back at me.
"By golly, (Y/n), you got Cartman to quiet down real fast," Butters praises me, probably somewhat sick of Cartman's constant bullying, I still chuckle at his comment though. 
"Oh, you know, it's nothin' much," I joke, turning to the side to face Butters with a huge grin, "How are you?" 
He looks at me surprised, his eye widened, part of me thinking it might be in curiosity. I mean, I never talked much with him, I'd be surprised too if I were him. "Oh, I'm, uh," he looks back towards Cartman who's glaring at him. I glower back at Eric, giving him one of those looks, one of those 'I'll talk to you later about this' kinda look. 
"Never mind him, Butters," then I add in a shy whisper," and, uh, continue, please. I'd love to hear what you have to say."
He smiles in return, looking down at his hands, twiddling them in his lap, "I-i'm doing fine, and how are you, (Y/n)?" 
"Stan an' everyone is kinda a pain in the ass to deal with, but good," I chuckle at my small comment about the boys, growing all shy again, "Except, uh, not that first bit, I don't really mean that."
Butters only nods his head to that, "Well, how's the weather, uh, do you like it?"
He looks so filled with wonder, and he's got the biggest grin I've ever seen, but it all kind of disappears when I respond, "No, never have, never will."
"O-oh, uh," he twiddles his fingers a little faster, to the point he's fumbling with them. 
"It's alright if you like it, I mean, opposites attract, don't they?" Then his smile reappears, and he's turning his gaze outside, looking at the sky all longingly.
"I-I love it. The rain feels so free, and I  think that's beautiful."
I had never talked to Butters much till today, but when he described the rain, it made me tear up a little inside. He seemed so small and sad, yet through all life's bullshit, he was happy. I wish I could be more like him. To feel free in the rain, instead of this awful feeling of isolation and loneliness...he also has an umbrella, which would be cool to have.
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Word Count: 1,988
A/n- I am beyond excited to be sharing this chapter with you guys! It's not so much the chapter itself that I'm excited about, since really I wasn't a big fan of this one, it's more of what will come from the result of this. I have the entirety of this fanfiction loosely plotted out, I'm planning three major story arcs, and we're coming to about the middle range of the first story arc. This was kind of a filler chapter, but it was also super important to show some of her life outside of the boys. I am almost done writing chapter 5, so you should be seeing that next month!
Till next, Cloud