Fire in the Sky

New story time! This is a sequel to my story Smoke on the Water, so if you haven't read that one yet, this one won't make much sense. Basically, this one takes place one year later, so now they're all seventeen.

Just a quick warning: there will be mentions of drug use, underage drinking, and sex, but nothing explicit, just like the last one. All the chapter titles will be parts of song lyrics. Sort of like the last one, but different. And don't worry about catching up. I'll kind of recap everything in this first chapter.

One more thing, I thought of the ideas for this story before "Splatty Tomato," or "Moss Piglets" came out, so Heidi, who is in this, is still with Cartman and still skinny. Just so you know.

Anyway, enough jibber jabber. On with the story!

Note: I do not own South Park or any of its characters.

Chapter 1 – Falling From the Stars

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Stan stared up at the ceiling as he lay beside a sleeping Wendy. He was a little nervous about the upcoming weekend. It was the weekend of the grand music festival, which he and his friends and Cartman had attended a year earlier. It had also been when he and Wendy confessed their love for each other for the first time. Sure, they had been together for a while before then, but their relationship had been rocky for a while. Thankfully, after their love confession, they were closer than ever. There was still one problem, though.

For the past year, Wendy had been lying to her parents for the last year. In order to get her parents off her back, she told them that she had broken up with Stan, when the opposite was true. Even though the two were careful, Stan was always worried that they would get caught, and her parents would forbid him from ever seeing Wendy again.

With a small sigh, Stan looked over at Wendy, who was still sleeping peacefully beside him. She looked so calm and untroubled, unlike himself. He wished he could be as confident as she was. Maybe the festival would be just the thing to relax him.

As Stan stared, he suddenly noticed Wendy stirring. Her eyes fluttered, she groaned, and then her eyes opened. "Stan?" she whispered, her voice a bit groggy from sleep, "What's the matter, love? Can't sleep?"

"Yeah," Stan admitted with a small sigh, "I'm just a little anxious about the weekend. I'm glad your parents let you go and aren't going to be there this year, but I'm worried they'll find out about us."

Wendy stared at him for a moment before leaning forward and giving him a light kiss. "It'll be okay, Stan," she comforted, "We just have to survive a couple more years, then we can get out of this town, and we'll be free to be together all we like."

Stan couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm. "You're right, Wendy," he said, "And this weekend is just the perfect thing for us to spend time together without having to sneak around all the time." He returned her kiss with one of his own. "Good night, Wendy. I love you."

"I love you too, Stan," she replied gently. They snuggled closer together and drifted back to sleep.

…

Craig and Tweek were asleep together, their arms wrapped around each other, and Tweek's face buried in Craig's neck. Ever since they had confessed their love for each other the previous year, the two of them had been closer than ever. They couldn't stand spending even one night away from each other, so they were constantly at each other's houses.

But Tweek had kept his promise to Clyde. He let him have more alone time with his best friend, so Craig and Clyde could do whatever they wanted with each other. But this only lasted a couple of months before an obstacle got in the way.

Said obstacle was most likely the reason Craig's phone rang, startling him and Tweek awake. Groaning, Craig rolled over and grabbed his phone off the nightstand and brought it to his ear.

"Hello?" he muttered. The phone kept ringing.

"You have to press 'answer,' love," Tweek told him without opening his eyes.

Grumbling, Craig dragged the little phone icon over to "answer" and brought it back to his ear. "Do you have any idea what time it is, Clyde?" he hissed.

"Sorry, Craig," Clyde said on the other side of the phone. He didn't sound the least bit tired. "I was just thinking about the music festival, and how we have an extra ticket. And I was wondering if it would be all right if I invited Belle to come with us."

Craig blinked slowly, his tired, sleep-deprived mind making his memories cloud up. "Who's Belle?" he wondered sleepily. He could practically hear Clyde's eyes roll.

"My girlfriend," he stated, matter-of-factly.

"Oh yeah," Craig muttered. That bitch. "I couldn't care less if you want to take Beth. You're going to have to ask Token. He's the one driving."

"First of all, her name is Belle," Clyde pointed out, "And second, I just wanted to make sure it was ok with everyone. I didn't want you guys to get upset if you wanted it to be just the four of us again."

"Whatever," Craig mumbled. His eyelids were starting to droop.

"Can you ask Tweek if he's all right with it?" Clyde asked.

Slowly, Craig turned to Tweek. "Are you ok with Bessy coming with us to the festival?"

"You mean Belle?" Tweek corrected, still laying with his eyes closed.

"Sure," Craig replied, with a sigh.

"I don't care," Tweek mumbled, "She's Clyde's girlfriend. They can do what they want."

Nodding, Craig brought the phone back up. "He doesn't care," he told Clyde.

"Great!" Clyde exclaimed, his enthusiasm so late at night making Craig cringe, "It's settled then!"

"Not quite," Craig reminded him, "You still have to ask Token about Susan in the morning, remember."

"Belle," Clyde corrected him, "And don't worry, I will. Good night."

Craig's only response was a tired grunt before he hung up and dropped the phone on the floor. Then he rolled back over to face Tweek, wrapping the small blond in his arms once more. Just as he was about to fall back asleep, he couldn't help but let out a heavy sigh.

"Something wrong, Craig, my love?" Tweek asked, raising his head to look at him.

Letting out another sigh, Craig looked at him. "I'm just a little worried about Clyde," he confessed, "He's been dating that girl for seven months now, and I feel like he's growing… distant."

Tweek sat up and looked down at him. "I know what you mean," he murmured, "I told him I would try to let him spend more time with you. But now he spends more time with Belle than he does with any of us."

"Yeah," Craig mumbled. He wanted to say something else, but decided to keep it to himself. Instead, he laid back down and pulled Tweek close.

"Let's just forget about it for now," he said, "I don't want anything to ruin this weekend." He let himself smile a little. "You know, it'll be one year since we confessed our love and had our first kiss."

"Mm," Tweek hummed in response, "And we haven't kissed since."

Craig looked at him. "Yes, we have," he pointed out.

Tweek giggled and leaned over, kissing him deeply. "I know, I'm just messing with you," he chuckled. He snuggled up to Craig and gently tucked his face into his neck. "Good night, love," he murmured.

"Good night, dear," Craig replied, as he closed his eyes.

…

Kenny was stretched out on his bed, staring at his clock. He was eagerly waiting for it to be time to get up. Today was the Thursday before the music festival, and he grew more excited by the day. He knew Karen was anxious as well.

Since Kenny had rejected Becca a year earlier, he had slowly been growing better with his bad habits. He didn't do nearly as many drugs, and wasn't constantly trying to find illegal alcohol to consume. Granted, he still smoked on occasion, but he was working on weaning off of that. And since he had gotten off most of his bad habits, he managed to find a job and actually save money.

At the moment, Kenny was trying to save up for college. He knew he probably wouldn't make enough in time to go anywhere fancy, but some college was better than no college. Besides, he had always planned on going somewhere close by so he could still be near Karen and take care of her.

But at the moment, Kenny couldn't care less about school. His mind was completely focused on the festival. He had already planned a lot of what he wanted to do, which bands he wanted to see, what activities he wanted to try. This year promised to be better than ever, and he was looking forward to it. And maybe he could pick up a cute girl or two along the way.

Unable to sleep, Kenny rolled out of bed and went into the living room. While his family was still dirt poor, Kenny did put aside extra savings to go towards the family. Namely, they had a bit better food to eat. It wasn't the same poptarts and frozen waffles. Now they could afford at least three eggs and half a loaf of bread.

Taking out the eggs they had, Kenny started making breakfast, knowing he wasn't going to get back to sleep. He contemplated calling one of his friends to see if they were awake, when his phone started ringing. Kenny quickly dived across the room and grabbed the phone before it could wake anyone up.

"Hello, this is Kenny," the boy said into the phone.

"Oh, good! Kenny! You're not asleep!" the voice on the other end was clearly Cartman. Kenny would recognize that whiney voice anywhere. "I need you to do me a favor! You have to come up with a reason why Heidi can't come with us to the festival."

Kenny sat up from where he was laying across the table. "Why?" he wondered.

"Because! I don't want her to come with us!" Cartman explained.

"Why not?"

"Because! This is a dude's trip!" Cartman replied in a huffy voice, "I don't want any chicks coming with us!"

"Wendy, Karen, and Tricia are coming with us," Kenny pointed out calmly, "Besides, if you didn't want Heidi to come, then why did you ask her?"

"I didn't think she'd actually agree!" his sort-of friend reasoned, "Come on, Kenny! Just do this for me!"

"Why can't you ask Stan or Kyle?" Kenny wondered.

Cartman let out an annoyed sigh on the other end. "Because Stan wouldn't pick up his phone, and Kyle was all like 'stop calling me at five thirty in the morning, fat-ass!'"

Kenny rolled his eyes. "Look, Eric, you were the one who invited your girlfriend," he explained, "You deal with it."

"But Kenny, I-"

Kenny didn't hear what else he had to say as he slammed the phone down onto the receiver. He could almost hear Cartman calling him an asshole from across town, but he didn't really care. It was his own fault for having a weird want-to-break-up-with-her-but-won't-for-some-odd-reason relationship with Heidi. Now he was just hoping Cartman wouldn't mope around all weekend and drag the rest of them down. They really didn't need that.

With that thought, Kenny went back to cooking his eggs before they could burn.

…

Kyle didn't really know how to feel about the upcoming festival. Last year was certainly memorable, but he felt like he didn't really do anything that significant to the story. He hoped this time the author actually had something planned for him beyond getting a drunk kiss from his best friend and his not-friend.

He was now lying wide awake in his room, since Cartman had rudely woken him. He decided for whatever reason to get up and go downstairs, and was quite surprised to see Ike sitting in the living room.

"Hey, sport," he greeted his younger brother, "Couldn't sleep?"

"Nah," Ike replied, "I'm too excited. I've barely slept at all this week."

Kyle let out a soft chuckle. "Well, you really should try to sleep," he reasoned, "If you don't, then you'll sleep all through the festival. Then Tricia will be mad."

Ike gulped. "Yeah, you're probably right," he agreed.

About a month after the festival, Ike had started going out with Tricia, after Clyde had gently let her down. She was rather clingy and defensive of Ike, but not in a creepy way, more like a sweet way, and it reminded Kyle greatly of how Craig was around Tweek. It was like she was a miniature female version of her brother.

"I'm really glad we all get to go again," Ike said, breaking Kyle from his thoughts, "Don't tell anyone, but I actually kind of enjoyed sharing a tent with Karen and Tricia. Plus, I got to spend time with you."

Kyle couldn't help but smile. Ike could be a pest sometimes, but it was nice when the two brothers genuinely cared about each other.

"Are you planning on wearing your festival clothes?" Kyle asked him, referring to the special tye-die hippie-like clothes Ike, Karen, and Tricia had bought last year.

"Hell yeah!" Ike exclaimed, "I'll blend right in with everyone!"

"Ok, kiddo," Kyle chuckled, "Ease off on the enthusiasm if you want to get any sleep. Come on, let's go back to bed."

"Can I sleep in your room for the rest of the night?" Ike requested.

Again, Kyle smiled. "Of course," he replied.

Ah, it's good to be back, even though I didn't go anywhere. In case it wasn't obvious, this story takes place in summer, which is why no one is concerned with missing school or anything. Anyway, hope you like the triumphant first return and didn't find this chapter too boring and exposition-y. Leave a comment and tell me what you think so far!