Author's note: This story set in the future has no relation to my earlier future fic "Celebration" at all. This is an alternate view of the future in my eyes and although it refers to events in my fanfic continuity, it does not have scenes in the present day like Celebration did, so this story is basically a one shot fic and will not count as part of my regular timeline.
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There are all kinds of love in the world. There's the geniune type of love, the love that can be faked to keep up public appearences, and all the sleazy types of love on reality shows. But 17 year old Stan Marsh had nothing to do right now but lie on his bed and on his back, as he was left to think about the kind of love he had. The kind that compelled him to lose his virginity 10 minutes ago, even though it would have been more fitting to do it tomorrow night. Oh well, it wasn't like he could get a time machine and erase what happened- it would be another few years until Dr Mephisto perfected the first time machine. And the other reason he didn't want to go back and stop his innocence from being lost was because he was not an insane person.
Stan had just finished catching his breath as he started at the ceiling. Also, he was trying to get used to actually lying down and relaxing in her bed, where he would stay for most of the night if her mom didn't come back before morning. She wasn't around right now, but the room was surrounded with pictures of her and Stan when they were more appropriatly dressed. It was like they made up a timeline of the progress of their relationship, as they charted their growth from smarter than average 9 year old kids to the point they had reached tonight. Every path they had taken which was a cause for them to take a picture, all those events had led to this final milestone. This was wistful thinking that would have gone on for a while longer if she didn't sneak up behind him and climb back into bed to get his attention. Just one little tap was enough to snap Stan out of it and turn his attention back to the girl- or woman, to be more accurate- who made it possible.
Even after Wendy Testaburger had gotten her boyfriend's attention back to her, she didn't quite know what to say to him. This would be the first conversation they had after they made love, and she was still racking her head to figure out how they just lost control like that. Today was March 14'th, and the 8'th anniversary of their first real kiss was tomorrow, so it would have been more fitting to have their first time on that night, wouldn't it? But for some reason, when she invited him over for a pre anniversary celebration and they started kissing, they seemed to both decide without a word that they couldn't wait anymore. Not after 8 long years of waiting to be old enough to do it. And now that there was no more waiting to be done and they were lying there, naked but completly under Wendy's bed covers, what could they possibly say to capture the aftermath of the moment?
"I guess it was a good decision to buy condoms and forget to take them outta my coat pocket today, huh?" Maybe it wasn't the most lovely saying, but the truth of what Stan said was enough to make them laugh and calm themselves down a bit.
"Well, now that we already did it, we don't have to worry about it tomorrow. Now we can just enjoy our anniversary without this hanging over our heads." Wendy was surprised that she figured that out so quickly, but it really did provide her with some relief. But that was Wendy for you, as Stan figured. She always found the right and intellegent thing to say in any occasion, which really helped in the tight spots he got into when he was a kid. But now that their adventuring days were just about over and they had young adult responsibilites now, they were able to use their gifts in ways that didn't have the fate of the town and the world in the balance. Now all they could do was be a normal couple, and celebrate anniversarys like normal couples as well- and the non sex part of the anniversary was all set for tomorrow.
"So now that this is over, we can get ready for the non sex parts of the anniversary.", Stan repeated. "I'll pick you up at about 5, we'll find some kind of fancy transportation to take us to dinner, we'll eat and dance and then go to Stark's Pond like in the good old days. And now we have two things to celebrate, the annniversary and what we did tonight."
"It sounds just about perfect.", Wendy replied. With those last anxietys destroyed, she snuggled back up to Stan and started to put her hand on his bare chest, rubbing it gently over the places where she had kissed just a half hour ago. Stan was about tempted to start putting his hands over her at this point before one final anxiety of Wendy's quickly returned to her without warning. "Shit!! Butters!!"
"Butters?!" Stan asked in his most confused voice, since it was quite confusing that he would be mentioned at a time like this. But Wendy quickly cleared up the mystery. "I promised Butters I'd tutor him before he had his next math test, but his asshole teacher moved the test forward to the day after tomorrow! That means I have to go over tomorrow to help him with his math problems, shit! How's that gonna interfere with our perfect schedule?!" Wendy started to rack her brain again for a solution to the new problem, until she found the simplest one. "Wait a minute...it doesn't."
Stan got back to being a little confused again until Wendy presented her new revived schedule. "Silly me, there really is nothing to worry about! I was gonna spend the two spare hours I had after school to get ready for our date, but it really shouldn't take me long to dress up. I can come over Butters's house at about a quarter to 4, it should take me about a half hour at the most to set him straight. Then I'll have about 45 minutes to look my best and then we can go out on the town." Once she was done with yet another of her trademark long winded talks, Wendy looked to Stan for his reaction to her plan. He just responsed with, "Cool, dude." but that was enough to finish calming her down. So with that detail taken care of, she went back to lying down and leaning against him.
"Did you ever really think that we'd end up like this, Stan? Discussing altering my schedule for our 8'th anniversary date? I always said we'd be together forever, but I....I guess I sometimes didn't really think it would be a reality. Especially after all the shit we've beaten back." During Wendy's talk, Stan tried to resist thinking about that type of shit in too much detail before he moved on. "I don't know, Wendy. I probably didn't think as much about it as you did. But look at where we are now. We're lying in bed together until your Mom gets back or my Mom notices I snuck out of my room, we just, un, consummated our relationship....and my bare skin is being pressed against the most sexy girl in the world. I'd rather not overanalyze how lucky we are and just enjoy the moment instead."
If he had bothered to analyze it, Stan would have some evidence about how lucky he really was. All those times he puked on her when they first met, all those times he used to ignore her when they were young, and all those times she could have just gotten sick of her and broken up with him before he figured out how to love. Who would have dreamed that crap would end up like this? Of course they were 9 years old then, why would they be able to dream up this type of situation? But the past was past, and the many obstacles in their way were part of the past. They were in the now now, and the now was just too satisfying to forget now. Of course, Stan wasn't sure if he was feeling more physical or emotional satisfaction right now, since finally getting to kiss and touch most of Wendy's perfect body was pretty damm satisfying physically. But getting to do this with someone who had a perfect body with enough substance, smarts, and kindness to back it up wasn't so bad either.
So Stan just looked into Wendy's deep eyes, put his arms back around her bare skin and kissed her, and figured he could worry about how lucky he was after Wendy was done putting her tounge back into his mouth. For now, although this makeout session probably wouldn't end with another round of....it, just being able to be this close to her seemed like the right way to wrap up the evening of a lifetime.
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With all the love and sap that was just decribed, you would figure this would take place in a magical land of love and dreams- but South Park was not even close to being that good looking, even in the mid afternoon. Winter was just about over but the cold winds and dirty air were still everywhere, which Wendy had the "pleasure" of breathing as she walked down a street. She had just finished another day of school with another round of perfectly answered questions on her part, and after she put away her stuff at home, she was ready to go to finish her first after school duty of the day.
Her thoughts inevitably went towards last night, as she figured they would. It was just one of those unplanned moments in which passion overruled common sense that moments like that should be saved for the actual date of the anniversary. And since Wendy had always been able to balance passion and logic well, it surprised her that logic so easily lost this round, but she would always be glad that it did. For 8 years she had the privledge of going out with the sweetest, most compassionate, and in her mind, hottest boy in the Midwest, if not the country. She was gonna see him naked sometime soon anyway, so why shouldn't she have just gotten it over with? Especially since he proved to be as, um, "talented" as she hoped he would be.....
But a moment like that really didn't need to be ruined by thinking dirty like that, so she got her head out of the gutter quickly. Still, she had earned the right to think however she wanted. Her life so far had been most eventful, and would have been ruined by now had she not stopped herself from being nothing but a controlling, overbearing bitch over 8 years ago. It was taking that step and not trying to control things and people so much that really made her relationship possible. Without that personality change, her and Stan couldn't have survived that long even after he stopped his vomiting. They had both made efforts to fix the worst parts of their personality for each other, and it had paid off with 8 years of happy memories with at least a few decades more to follow. And with her smarts and determination and desire to change the things she saw as unfair, she figured she would find a career that would help them live out those decades on easy street soon enough.
However, first things first. She was almost at Butters's house and she was about to help someone who wasn't on easy street when it came to math. So Wendy cleared her head again and decided to focus on the task at hand, then the thoughts about Stan and her luck could take over. With that, she headed down the last few hundred feet towards her friend's house.
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When talking about the different types of love, few kids between 9-17 years old have a love for school and schoolwork, unless they're- as some thoughtless popular kids would say- Melvins. Butters Stotch was a Melvin in many ways, as he too loved schoolwork a lot of the time, but this sure as hell was not one of them. He had always found a way to do well in his subjects, but the kind of math he was faced with in his senior year of high school had been his match. If he didn't start to turn things around with tomorrow's test, he would inevitably slip even further than he had already- then when he graduated, who would take a C math student like him seriously?! At that point nothing would save him from being a bum or someone who has to eat crappy government food or something awful and scary like that!
Butters willed himself to calm down, which he had gotten a little better at doing over the years. Though he had lost his childhood stutter, he was still a nervous person for as long as he could remember, and that's what caused him to overreact at times like this. He tried his best to think on the bright side, for if he could have survived years of being shunned by people and being labeled a nerd by other people even after the cool kids he knew had accepted him, he could overcome this. But he wasn't always the bravest kind of person, so that made it a lot easier to believe that he wouldn't. However, hope came back to him when he heard a knock on the door. That hope grew when he opened the door to see that Wendy had arrived.
"Hi, Wendy!" Butters almost yelled that greeting in his usual chipper, overly happy tone of voice, but his brief worry about that disappeared since Wendy just smiled back at him. He knew how lucky he was to get her here to help him, since he knew she had more important things to do later tonight with Stan. He didn't want to take any chance of blowing his luck, but it looked like it was gonna stay around since Wendy went over to look at the math books Butters had on the living room table. "So this is the stuff that's giving you such a hard time?" Butters shook his head yes in reply. "Well, this doesn't look like something we can't handle, let's go up to your room and prove myself right!"
Bitters figured that Wendy would be smart enough to back that up, even if she wasn't in his class and she didn't have this type of math. He wouldn't really be able to back that up though, because since high school began, he had never really been placed in many classes with his South Park friends and aquaintances. Butters shuddered at how much trouble that had been for him at first, but since this was hardly the time or place to remember unpleasent things like that, he shook his head and went up to his room with Wendy to handle the business at hand.
For the next half hour Butters showed Wendy the kind of problems that had given him a lot of trouble and a lot of lost patience, problems that would likely be on the test. Once Wendy saw what Butters did wrong in those problems, she analyzed it and found out what he needed to do right. She explained the right procedures as best she could and told him to study them thoroughly to prepare for the test. If he remembered them then he should be able to solve the test problems by himself. Butters wasn't sure that he could, but he knew that now that he had something to go on, it would be a little easier for him. It was just a matter of memorizing and studying, and he was very good at those two things.
Once they had covered most of the problems, Wendy looked at her watch and saw that it was close to 4:15. It was almost time to go, but of course she had to check and see if she had done something useful here first.
"So now that we went over and corrected all your problems, do you think you can start memorizing the right way to do them?", Wendy said matter of factly. Since Butters looked less and less confused and overwhelmed by things as the half hour went on, she figured that he understood a little of what she was saying, and she was right. "I guess all I need is to study study study to remember all of this, that shouldn't take more than 3 hours or so!", Butters answered with a big smile that no one else would have with 3 hours of studying on the way. "I thought it was gonna take about 5 hours, but you knocked off a few for me and now I might sleep before midnight tonight! Thanks a bunch!"
Wendy just smiled in response and figured she should start getting ready to go now, but Butters suddenly remembered something else he had to do during her visit here. "Oh, I almost forgot! Uh, look, I know you have more important things to do later on tonight, and I know this is kind of an important day for you. So I, um, got you and Stan a present. You can show it to him before your big date or whatever you have to go to." Butters went over to one of his drawers to find his gift, and Wendy looked on with intrige. Since Butters was one of the most thoughtful people she knew, he usually came up with a lot of good gifts for birthdays and special occasions, so she figured this one should be good too.
"Ah, here it is!"
Butters walked back to Wendy and handed her a framed photo...one that brought back a lot of memories for her. "Where did you...." Wendy couldn't even finish since the photo was so familar- in fact it looked like it was exactly 8 years old today.
"Yeah, I was browsing around the Internet one day, then I found out someone was hiding in the bushes and taking pictures when you and Stan had your first kiss, and he was selling that picture on GGay! And since people have been tired of hearing about you and Stan, the bidding was cheap! So I only had to pay 60 bucks to get it, and my parents only had to loan me 30 bucks! I figured it's better you had this rather than someone who wasn't really interested in this kind of history. At least that was my way of thinking." Butters could tell that he had been on the right track as he saw Wendy admiring the photo of her and Stan's first puke free kiss 8 years ago. Eventually she was able to get back to normal to say something. "Gee.....thanks.", was all she could say, and since she was usually too smart to say something that simple, that made it clear that she was more than a little flattered. "You didn't have to go to this much trouble.", she went on to say in her normal fashion.
"I know, but I, uh, figured I might as well, especially today. You didn't have to go to the trouble of helping me when you've got all this stuff with Stan later on. But you remembered me anyway and, eh, I figured you're supposed to do things like this for those type of friends, aren't you?"
"Yeah, that does make a lot of sense." Wendy replied.
"Heh, I was pretty lucky that someone had so much time on their hands to spy on you guys that night." Butters laughed in an attempt to turn the talk from sappy to funny. "Ha, it almost makes me wish that someone had the time to take a picture of my first kiss with Julia, yes it....does." Butters trailed off after mentioning that name, and Wendy knew why, which made her feel a little guilty about talking so much about her and Stan earlier.
For Butters, he didn't have the kind of luck that Stan did to keep a girl for 8 years- he would have if Julia hadn't moved away 5 years ago because her dad's motivational speeches at the South Park Hell's Pass Hospital had gotten him national attention. Bill Simmons had been going on tours all over the country ever since, and Julia had rarely been able to visit her boyfriend or have time to call him. Now they rarely were able to talk at all in any form and it was starting to make Butters think they really wouldn't get back together full time soon, like he thought they would. He always tried to be optimistic about things, but several harsh lessons over the last decade had taught him that the world did not always give out happy endings for kids like him. Still, he had maintained his pleasent and helpful personality throughout it all- but that sure didn't help get his girlfriend back, did it? As Butters's body language got more noticably sadder, Wendy went over to give him some support.
"Don't think whatever bad thoughts you're thinking of. It's not your fault she isn't visiting or calling, and it probably isn't even her fault, I'm sure she still misses you. She knows that she's a lucky girl to have been together with you, and if she forgot it....well, there must be a lot of unshallow girls who would be equally lucky to go out with you! Just because people like me and Stan may have had more luck than you in love, that doesn't mean you can't catch up. I really do believe that." Butters turned his head to see Wendy wearning a reassuring smile, which combined with the speech, helped to up his spirits a little- it seemed to be one of her talents. So he got himself to smile and that did the trick to end that little bit of tension.
"There you go, Butters. Now I guess I really should be going, and I'll be sure that Stan sees this too. I'll try to talk him outta suing GGay, but I'm not promising anything." Wendy got her things together for real this time and was about to walk out of the room. "Now you do your studying and get that grade up so I'll have two things to be proud of about tonight, okay?" Butters kept his smile on as he sat down at the little desk in his room to start his work, so Wendy figured she should leave him alone to keep his unspoken promise. She gave him a light pat on the back and headed out of the room right after that.
Butters turned his head just in time to see her disappear out of sight. He breathed in a bit and was a bit surprised that his nose caught a sweet smell- it seemed that the smell of Wendy's hair had lingered a bit. She probably got ready for her date a little early. Stan would be quite lucky to see her after she got finished dressing up, Butters imagined, since she looks nice enough and her hair looks and smells great enough even without any special.....Butters quickly slapped his foreheard to snap himself out of this. It really was confusing to him that he would think that way about her just by thinking of her hair like that. But he had drove those thoughts out of his head the other few times that had happened over the years, so he did it again. The best way to think of her was to take advantage of the tips she had given him and study his ass off without any distractions. So Butters relaxed a bit and got ready for his long night of memorizing things, figuring he'd leave the thinking of dates and romance to Wendy and Stan for now.
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As Butters began his marathon of studying, Wendy started walking away from the house to head home, figuring she'd get back home in about 15-20 minutes or so. To keep herself busy during that time, she thought about how her tutoring session would likely be a big help for Butters. It was good that she fit him in during her busy night tonight, for now she felt a little extra good after aiding him and after getting that neat picture from him. But if anyone other than Stan was thoughtful enough to find that obscure picture, it would have been Butters, Wendy imagined. It was extra good to know that after all the hard things and ordeals he had been through in his life, Butters was still able to keep from being a bitter son of a bitch and stay the same sweet person he was when he was 9 years old.
Pride swelled up in Wendy even more as she kept walking, as now that this business was done, she was off to have her fun with the other kid in South Park that had stayed as sweet and wonderful as he was when he was 9. It was gonna be one hell of a night after the hell of the night they had last night....
But before Wendy went back to relieving that night, she was interrupted by some chirping. She turned and saw that a little squirrel had gone into the road next to her. Since she was still the same concerned environmentalist she was when she was 9, she hardly wanted the squirrel to get hit by an oncoming car, especially since she just passed a big pothole on the road a few houses down. After making sure no cars were coming, she went on the road and shooed the squirrel away, making some noises that she thought might be squirrel like to do so. They worked after about 5 seconds and the squirrel went away. Wendy then decided to head back to the street.
Then she heard another noise. The sound of a car hitting that big pothole she had passed by. About a second later she saw that car coming and spinning out of control thanks to the bump it had hit. Wendy quickly went back on the street to avoid it, but the car didn't look like it was gonna be on the road much longer. It was driving sideways towards the street despite the driver's best efforts, and Wendy backed away some more until she found herself up against a mailbox.
Wendy only looked at that mailbox for a split second. But that was too long because once she turned her head, she had no time to react as the car was headed right for a collision with the mailbox- with her right in the middle.
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Butters was trying to tune out the noises from outside, so the sound of a crash about 5 houses away from his didn't get through to him. But once he heard several people making shocked noises after that crash, he got a little annoyed and went to close his window. But before he did, he actually caught a look at the people outside and saw that they were running towards something. He stuck his head out a little longer to get a better look, and finally he got to see the sight of a wrecked car that had crashed into a wrecked mailbox....with a girl trapped between the two wrecked objects and not moving at all.
For one brief moment, a chill ran through Butters's spine as she thought the girl looked almost familar. But he tried to shake it off, telling himself that she had already left and was on her way to Stan's. Yet his curiosity and desire to reassure his paranoia got the best of him, so he found some binoculars and used them to get a better look at the victim. And once he could get that better look and realize who it really was, the chill returned with a horrible, horrible vengance. And it didn't take long for total panic and fear to take it's place.
With that, Butters ran out of his room and out of his house like a man totally possessed to get to the crash site.
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The next 45 minutes after that were almost a blur to Butters. All he could remember was that he had ran to the crash site to see the unconsicous Wendy, yelled at a few people to call an ambulance even though they already had, and then he brought himself to go back to his house to call Stan. He was already shocked enough by the accident itself that he had no idea how he was gonna tell Stan about it, but he had to so he could be there, just in case it was really serious. But when he got a hold of Stan, all he was able to say was that Wendy was in a car accident nearby his house before he heard Stan hang up a split second later.
By the time Stan got there and by the time the rest of Wendy's friends found out about it, she was already about to be moved to Hell Pass Hospital. Stan rode with her in the amblance along with another late "guest", Wendy's mother Ann Testaburger. Butters got his parents to drive him to the hospital to see what was going on, and by the time they got there, Stan, his best friend Kyle, Wendy's best friend Bebe, Ms Testaburger, and a few other classmates had already gotten to the hospital waiting room. A doctor told them to stay there for any further word before he went to check up on Wendy and see what could be done for her.
For about 20 minutes, this group of people sat and waited in total silence. Stan and Ms Testaburger moved closer to the entrance of the room, figuring they'd get the news faster that way. They were trying to keep their hopes up by reassuring each other that Wendy would be just fine, but since they had seen how Wendy looked up close before she went into surgery, their confidence was a little shaken. The rest of the gang just sat there, lost in their own thoughts about what was going on and trying not to say the worst, for Stan and Ms Testaburger's sake. So Butters kept his extreme worries to himself.
What if the worst had happened? What if the doctors couldn't fix her? What if Butters turned out to be the last person to ever see her healthy? This time it was a lot harder to get these paranoid thoughts out of Butters's brain. But the way he tried to reassure himself was that this couldn't happen to Wendy. The world was cruel to Melvins and nerds like him, it doesn't do these kind of tricks on cool people like Wendy. It just couldn't. Butters had considered Wendy as one of his best friends, she was always there for him if he came to her with a problem, and if she doesn't have to stay alive so she doesn't leave him, she has to stay alive so she doesn't leave Stan. She can't leave Stan like this at all. She wouldn't do that without a fight, cause she survived a prison term and tons of puking to be with Stan, so a little car accident wouldn't take her away now, right? Butters swore to himself that he had to believe he was right, or else he'd just go nuts and that would sure help the mood right there. So he sat in silence with the rest.
5 minutes later the same doctor came over, but he tiptoed towards the group and made sure that Stan and Ms Testaburger, who were lost in their own thoughts, didn't see him. Once he made sure they didn't, he signaled the others to come with him to a nearby room, and they did.
"So what's the word and why did you have to put us in here to tell us?", asked Bebe, who wanted to ignore the implications in a move like this and believe he wanted to say that Wendy was okay in private. But the way the doctor sighed at that point filled her with less hope.
"I'm afraid that by the time we got her here, the impact of the car and the mailbox crushed her stomach, broke too many bones, and caused too much internal bleeding. We tried to slow it down but there was no way we could do it without causing any more damage."
"So what are you saying? That she'll be dead soon and we don't have much time to say goodbye?", Kyle asked on behalf of the group.
"No....I'm saying that it's already too late for any goodbyes. She officially died about 3 minutes ago. I brought you away from Mr Marsh and Ms Testaburger to say this because, well, I wanted to warm up by telling you first before I told them and ruined their lives! They're gonna be hysterical after they find out and I'm a bit afraid to be the one to tell them and get them started, so do you think one of you could break it to them easier?" The doctor looked for someone that he might pass the buck too, but the shock and growing sadness over everyone's face told him that he would have no such luck. "Well fine then, I'll tell them and I'll listen to them blaming us for this tragedy, I hope that gives you some comfort at least." Luckly he left before anyone could realize how insensitive that was.
Everyone was now lost in the aftermath of what had happened. Wendy Testaburger was dead. Bebe's best friend was gone forever. Kyle's best friend's girlfriend was gone for good and he would have a lot of work to do to help Stan through it. The other kids were sad because a friend and a tutor that could have helped them pass their hardest courses was dead. But it took the longest for any thoughts at all to run through Butters's head. All he could do was hear the words "She officially died about 3 minutes ago" in his head. He didn't look like he was on the brink of crying like Bebe was, but it was still clear that until Stan and Ms Testaburger got the news, the death was hitting him worst of all.
But that was before they heard the screams. First a scream was heard that obviously came from a woman, and was full of a mothers desperation over her world crumbling. This was Ms Testaburger reacting to being left all alone. And then another scream came from someone else. It was a scream that was almost inhuman, an ugly, tortured sound that no human should be sad enough to yell. It was the sound of a young man who seemed to have lost everything that mattered to him, and in many ways, Stan had.
And once Stan's scream over his beloved's death was finished, among the group in the next room, Butters's tears were the first to fall.
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There are all kinds of love in the world. There's the geniune type of love, the love that can be faked to keep up public appearences, and all the sleazy types of love on reality shows. But 17 year old Stan Marsh had nothing to do right now but lie on his bed and on his back, as he was left to think about the kind of love he had. The kind that compelled him to lose his virginity 10 minutes ago, even though it would have been more fitting to do it tomorrow night. Oh well, it wasn't like he could get a time machine and erase what happened- it would be another few years until Dr Mephisto perfected the first time machine. And the other reason he didn't want to go back and stop his innocence from being lost was because he was not an insane person.
Stan had just finished catching his breath as he started at the ceiling. Also, he was trying to get used to actually lying down and relaxing in her bed, where he would stay for most of the night if her mom didn't come back before morning. She wasn't around right now, but the room was surrounded with pictures of her and Stan when they were more appropriatly dressed. It was like they made up a timeline of the progress of their relationship, as they charted their growth from smarter than average 9 year old kids to the point they had reached tonight. Every path they had taken which was a cause for them to take a picture, all those events had led to this final milestone. This was wistful thinking that would have gone on for a while longer if she didn't sneak up behind him and climb back into bed to get his attention. Just one little tap was enough to snap Stan out of it and turn his attention back to the girl- or woman, to be more accurate- who made it possible.
Even after Wendy Testaburger had gotten her boyfriend's attention back to her, she didn't quite know what to say to him. This would be the first conversation they had after they made love, and she was still racking her head to figure out how they just lost control like that. Today was March 14'th, and the 8'th anniversary of their first real kiss was tomorrow, so it would have been more fitting to have their first time on that night, wouldn't it? But for some reason, when she invited him over for a pre anniversary celebration and they started kissing, they seemed to both decide without a word that they couldn't wait anymore. Not after 8 long years of waiting to be old enough to do it. And now that there was no more waiting to be done and they were lying there, naked but completly under Wendy's bed covers, what could they possibly say to capture the aftermath of the moment?
"I guess it was a good decision to buy condoms and forget to take them outta my coat pocket today, huh?" Maybe it wasn't the most lovely saying, but the truth of what Stan said was enough to make them laugh and calm themselves down a bit.
"Well, now that we already did it, we don't have to worry about it tomorrow. Now we can just enjoy our anniversary without this hanging over our heads." Wendy was surprised that she figured that out so quickly, but it really did provide her with some relief. But that was Wendy for you, as Stan figured. She always found the right and intellegent thing to say in any occasion, which really helped in the tight spots he got into when he was a kid. But now that their adventuring days were just about over and they had young adult responsibilites now, they were able to use their gifts in ways that didn't have the fate of the town and the world in the balance. Now all they could do was be a normal couple, and celebrate anniversarys like normal couples as well- and the non sex part of the anniversary was all set for tomorrow.
"So now that this is over, we can get ready for the non sex parts of the anniversary.", Stan repeated. "I'll pick you up at about 5, we'll find some kind of fancy transportation to take us to dinner, we'll eat and dance and then go to Stark's Pond like in the good old days. And now we have two things to celebrate, the annniversary and what we did tonight."
"It sounds just about perfect.", Wendy replied. With those last anxietys destroyed, she snuggled back up to Stan and started to put her hand on his bare chest, rubbing it gently over the places where she had kissed just a half hour ago. Stan was about tempted to start putting his hands over her at this point before one final anxiety of Wendy's quickly returned to her without warning. "Shit!! Butters!!"
"Butters?!" Stan asked in his most confused voice, since it was quite confusing that he would be mentioned at a time like this. But Wendy quickly cleared up the mystery. "I promised Butters I'd tutor him before he had his next math test, but his asshole teacher moved the test forward to the day after tomorrow! That means I have to go over tomorrow to help him with his math problems, shit! How's that gonna interfere with our perfect schedule?!" Wendy started to rack her brain again for a solution to the new problem, until she found the simplest one. "Wait a minute...it doesn't."
Stan got back to being a little confused again until Wendy presented her new revived schedule. "Silly me, there really is nothing to worry about! I was gonna spend the two spare hours I had after school to get ready for our date, but it really shouldn't take me long to dress up. I can come over Butters's house at about a quarter to 4, it should take me about a half hour at the most to set him straight. Then I'll have about 45 minutes to look my best and then we can go out on the town." Once she was done with yet another of her trademark long winded talks, Wendy looked to Stan for his reaction to her plan. He just responsed with, "Cool, dude." but that was enough to finish calming her down. So with that detail taken care of, she went back to lying down and leaning against him.
"Did you ever really think that we'd end up like this, Stan? Discussing altering my schedule for our 8'th anniversary date? I always said we'd be together forever, but I....I guess I sometimes didn't really think it would be a reality. Especially after all the shit we've beaten back." During Wendy's talk, Stan tried to resist thinking about that type of shit in too much detail before he moved on. "I don't know, Wendy. I probably didn't think as much about it as you did. But look at where we are now. We're lying in bed together until your Mom gets back or my Mom notices I snuck out of my room, we just, un, consummated our relationship....and my bare skin is being pressed against the most sexy girl in the world. I'd rather not overanalyze how lucky we are and just enjoy the moment instead."
If he had bothered to analyze it, Stan would have some evidence about how lucky he really was. All those times he puked on her when they first met, all those times he used to ignore her when they were young, and all those times she could have just gotten sick of her and broken up with him before he figured out how to love. Who would have dreamed that crap would end up like this? Of course they were 9 years old then, why would they be able to dream up this type of situation? But the past was past, and the many obstacles in their way were part of the past. They were in the now now, and the now was just too satisfying to forget now. Of course, Stan wasn't sure if he was feeling more physical or emotional satisfaction right now, since finally getting to kiss and touch most of Wendy's perfect body was pretty damm satisfying physically. But getting to do this with someone who had a perfect body with enough substance, smarts, and kindness to back it up wasn't so bad either.
So Stan just looked into Wendy's deep eyes, put his arms back around her bare skin and kissed her, and figured he could worry about how lucky he was after Wendy was done putting her tounge back into his mouth. For now, although this makeout session probably wouldn't end with another round of....it, just being able to be this close to her seemed like the right way to wrap up the evening of a lifetime.
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With all the love and sap that was just decribed, you would figure this would take place in a magical land of love and dreams- but South Park was not even close to being that good looking, even in the mid afternoon. Winter was just about over but the cold winds and dirty air were still everywhere, which Wendy had the "pleasure" of breathing as she walked down a street. She had just finished another day of school with another round of perfectly answered questions on her part, and after she put away her stuff at home, she was ready to go to finish her first after school duty of the day.
Her thoughts inevitably went towards last night, as she figured they would. It was just one of those unplanned moments in which passion overruled common sense that moments like that should be saved for the actual date of the anniversary. And since Wendy had always been able to balance passion and logic well, it surprised her that logic so easily lost this round, but she would always be glad that it did. For 8 years she had the privledge of going out with the sweetest, most compassionate, and in her mind, hottest boy in the Midwest, if not the country. She was gonna see him naked sometime soon anyway, so why shouldn't she have just gotten it over with? Especially since he proved to be as, um, "talented" as she hoped he would be.....
But a moment like that really didn't need to be ruined by thinking dirty like that, so she got her head out of the gutter quickly. Still, she had earned the right to think however she wanted. Her life so far had been most eventful, and would have been ruined by now had she not stopped herself from being nothing but a controlling, overbearing bitch over 8 years ago. It was taking that step and not trying to control things and people so much that really made her relationship possible. Without that personality change, her and Stan couldn't have survived that long even after he stopped his vomiting. They had both made efforts to fix the worst parts of their personality for each other, and it had paid off with 8 years of happy memories with at least a few decades more to follow. And with her smarts and determination and desire to change the things she saw as unfair, she figured she would find a career that would help them live out those decades on easy street soon enough.
However, first things first. She was almost at Butters's house and she was about to help someone who wasn't on easy street when it came to math. So Wendy cleared her head again and decided to focus on the task at hand, then the thoughts about Stan and her luck could take over. With that, she headed down the last few hundred feet towards her friend's house.
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When talking about the different types of love, few kids between 9-17 years old have a love for school and schoolwork, unless they're- as some thoughtless popular kids would say- Melvins. Butters Stotch was a Melvin in many ways, as he too loved schoolwork a lot of the time, but this sure as hell was not one of them. He had always found a way to do well in his subjects, but the kind of math he was faced with in his senior year of high school had been his match. If he didn't start to turn things around with tomorrow's test, he would inevitably slip even further than he had already- then when he graduated, who would take a C math student like him seriously?! At that point nothing would save him from being a bum or someone who has to eat crappy government food or something awful and scary like that!
Butters willed himself to calm down, which he had gotten a little better at doing over the years. Though he had lost his childhood stutter, he was still a nervous person for as long as he could remember, and that's what caused him to overreact at times like this. He tried his best to think on the bright side, for if he could have survived years of being shunned by people and being labeled a nerd by other people even after the cool kids he knew had accepted him, he could overcome this. But he wasn't always the bravest kind of person, so that made it a lot easier to believe that he wouldn't. However, hope came back to him when he heard a knock on the door. That hope grew when he opened the door to see that Wendy had arrived.
"Hi, Wendy!" Butters almost yelled that greeting in his usual chipper, overly happy tone of voice, but his brief worry about that disappeared since Wendy just smiled back at him. He knew how lucky he was to get her here to help him, since he knew she had more important things to do later tonight with Stan. He didn't want to take any chance of blowing his luck, but it looked like it was gonna stay around since Wendy went over to look at the math books Butters had on the living room table. "So this is the stuff that's giving you such a hard time?" Butters shook his head yes in reply. "Well, this doesn't look like something we can't handle, let's go up to your room and prove myself right!"
Bitters figured that Wendy would be smart enough to back that up, even if she wasn't in his class and she didn't have this type of math. He wouldn't really be able to back that up though, because since high school began, he had never really been placed in many classes with his South Park friends and aquaintances. Butters shuddered at how much trouble that had been for him at first, but since this was hardly the time or place to remember unpleasent things like that, he shook his head and went up to his room with Wendy to handle the business at hand.
For the next half hour Butters showed Wendy the kind of problems that had given him a lot of trouble and a lot of lost patience, problems that would likely be on the test. Once Wendy saw what Butters did wrong in those problems, she analyzed it and found out what he needed to do right. She explained the right procedures as best she could and told him to study them thoroughly to prepare for the test. If he remembered them then he should be able to solve the test problems by himself. Butters wasn't sure that he could, but he knew that now that he had something to go on, it would be a little easier for him. It was just a matter of memorizing and studying, and he was very good at those two things.
Once they had covered most of the problems, Wendy looked at her watch and saw that it was close to 4:15. It was almost time to go, but of course she had to check and see if she had done something useful here first.
"So now that we went over and corrected all your problems, do you think you can start memorizing the right way to do them?", Wendy said matter of factly. Since Butters looked less and less confused and overwhelmed by things as the half hour went on, she figured that he understood a little of what she was saying, and she was right. "I guess all I need is to study study study to remember all of this, that shouldn't take more than 3 hours or so!", Butters answered with a big smile that no one else would have with 3 hours of studying on the way. "I thought it was gonna take about 5 hours, but you knocked off a few for me and now I might sleep before midnight tonight! Thanks a bunch!"
Wendy just smiled in response and figured she should start getting ready to go now, but Butters suddenly remembered something else he had to do during her visit here. "Oh, I almost forgot! Uh, look, I know you have more important things to do later on tonight, and I know this is kind of an important day for you. So I, um, got you and Stan a present. You can show it to him before your big date or whatever you have to go to." Butters went over to one of his drawers to find his gift, and Wendy looked on with intrige. Since Butters was one of the most thoughtful people she knew, he usually came up with a lot of good gifts for birthdays and special occasions, so she figured this one should be good too.
"Ah, here it is!"
Butters walked back to Wendy and handed her a framed photo...one that brought back a lot of memories for her. "Where did you...." Wendy couldn't even finish since the photo was so familar- in fact it looked like it was exactly 8 years old today.
"Yeah, I was browsing around the Internet one day, then I found out someone was hiding in the bushes and taking pictures when you and Stan had your first kiss, and he was selling that picture on GGay! And since people have been tired of hearing about you and Stan, the bidding was cheap! So I only had to pay 60 bucks to get it, and my parents only had to loan me 30 bucks! I figured it's better you had this rather than someone who wasn't really interested in this kind of history. At least that was my way of thinking." Butters could tell that he had been on the right track as he saw Wendy admiring the photo of her and Stan's first puke free kiss 8 years ago. Eventually she was able to get back to normal to say something. "Gee.....thanks.", was all she could say, and since she was usually too smart to say something that simple, that made it clear that she was more than a little flattered. "You didn't have to go to this much trouble.", she went on to say in her normal fashion.
"I know, but I, uh, figured I might as well, especially today. You didn't have to go to the trouble of helping me when you've got all this stuff with Stan later on. But you remembered me anyway and, eh, I figured you're supposed to do things like this for those type of friends, aren't you?"
"Yeah, that does make a lot of sense." Wendy replied.
"Heh, I was pretty lucky that someone had so much time on their hands to spy on you guys that night." Butters laughed in an attempt to turn the talk from sappy to funny. "Ha, it almost makes me wish that someone had the time to take a picture of my first kiss with Julia, yes it....does." Butters trailed off after mentioning that name, and Wendy knew why, which made her feel a little guilty about talking so much about her and Stan earlier.
For Butters, he didn't have the kind of luck that Stan did to keep a girl for 8 years- he would have if Julia hadn't moved away 5 years ago because her dad's motivational speeches at the South Park Hell's Pass Hospital had gotten him national attention. Bill Simmons had been going on tours all over the country ever since, and Julia had rarely been able to visit her boyfriend or have time to call him. Now they rarely were able to talk at all in any form and it was starting to make Butters think they really wouldn't get back together full time soon, like he thought they would. He always tried to be optimistic about things, but several harsh lessons over the last decade had taught him that the world did not always give out happy endings for kids like him. Still, he had maintained his pleasent and helpful personality throughout it all- but that sure didn't help get his girlfriend back, did it? As Butters's body language got more noticably sadder, Wendy went over to give him some support.
"Don't think whatever bad thoughts you're thinking of. It's not your fault she isn't visiting or calling, and it probably isn't even her fault, I'm sure she still misses you. She knows that she's a lucky girl to have been together with you, and if she forgot it....well, there must be a lot of unshallow girls who would be equally lucky to go out with you! Just because people like me and Stan may have had more luck than you in love, that doesn't mean you can't catch up. I really do believe that." Butters turned his head to see Wendy wearning a reassuring smile, which combined with the speech, helped to up his spirits a little- it seemed to be one of her talents. So he got himself to smile and that did the trick to end that little bit of tension.
"There you go, Butters. Now I guess I really should be going, and I'll be sure that Stan sees this too. I'll try to talk him outta suing GGay, but I'm not promising anything." Wendy got her things together for real this time and was about to walk out of the room. "Now you do your studying and get that grade up so I'll have two things to be proud of about tonight, okay?" Butters kept his smile on as he sat down at the little desk in his room to start his work, so Wendy figured she should leave him alone to keep his unspoken promise. She gave him a light pat on the back and headed out of the room right after that.
Butters turned his head just in time to see her disappear out of sight. He breathed in a bit and was a bit surprised that his nose caught a sweet smell- it seemed that the smell of Wendy's hair had lingered a bit. She probably got ready for her date a little early. Stan would be quite lucky to see her after she got finished dressing up, Butters imagined, since she looks nice enough and her hair looks and smells great enough even without any special.....Butters quickly slapped his foreheard to snap himself out of this. It really was confusing to him that he would think that way about her just by thinking of her hair like that. But he had drove those thoughts out of his head the other few times that had happened over the years, so he did it again. The best way to think of her was to take advantage of the tips she had given him and study his ass off without any distractions. So Butters relaxed a bit and got ready for his long night of memorizing things, figuring he'd leave the thinking of dates and romance to Wendy and Stan for now.
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As Butters began his marathon of studying, Wendy started walking away from the house to head home, figuring she'd get back home in about 15-20 minutes or so. To keep herself busy during that time, she thought about how her tutoring session would likely be a big help for Butters. It was good that she fit him in during her busy night tonight, for now she felt a little extra good after aiding him and after getting that neat picture from him. But if anyone other than Stan was thoughtful enough to find that obscure picture, it would have been Butters, Wendy imagined. It was extra good to know that after all the hard things and ordeals he had been through in his life, Butters was still able to keep from being a bitter son of a bitch and stay the same sweet person he was when he was 9 years old.
Pride swelled up in Wendy even more as she kept walking, as now that this business was done, she was off to have her fun with the other kid in South Park that had stayed as sweet and wonderful as he was when he was 9. It was gonna be one hell of a night after the hell of the night they had last night....
But before Wendy went back to relieving that night, she was interrupted by some chirping. She turned and saw that a little squirrel had gone into the road next to her. Since she was still the same concerned environmentalist she was when she was 9, she hardly wanted the squirrel to get hit by an oncoming car, especially since she just passed a big pothole on the road a few houses down. After making sure no cars were coming, she went on the road and shooed the squirrel away, making some noises that she thought might be squirrel like to do so. They worked after about 5 seconds and the squirrel went away. Wendy then decided to head back to the street.
Then she heard another noise. The sound of a car hitting that big pothole she had passed by. About a second later she saw that car coming and spinning out of control thanks to the bump it had hit. Wendy quickly went back on the street to avoid it, but the car didn't look like it was gonna be on the road much longer. It was driving sideways towards the street despite the driver's best efforts, and Wendy backed away some more until she found herself up against a mailbox.
Wendy only looked at that mailbox for a split second. But that was too long because once she turned her head, she had no time to react as the car was headed right for a collision with the mailbox- with her right in the middle.
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Butters was trying to tune out the noises from outside, so the sound of a crash about 5 houses away from his didn't get through to him. But once he heard several people making shocked noises after that crash, he got a little annoyed and went to close his window. But before he did, he actually caught a look at the people outside and saw that they were running towards something. He stuck his head out a little longer to get a better look, and finally he got to see the sight of a wrecked car that had crashed into a wrecked mailbox....with a girl trapped between the two wrecked objects and not moving at all.
For one brief moment, a chill ran through Butters's spine as she thought the girl looked almost familar. But he tried to shake it off, telling himself that she had already left and was on her way to Stan's. Yet his curiosity and desire to reassure his paranoia got the best of him, so he found some binoculars and used them to get a better look at the victim. And once he could get that better look and realize who it really was, the chill returned with a horrible, horrible vengance. And it didn't take long for total panic and fear to take it's place.
With that, Butters ran out of his room and out of his house like a man totally possessed to get to the crash site.
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The next 45 minutes after that were almost a blur to Butters. All he could remember was that he had ran to the crash site to see the unconsicous Wendy, yelled at a few people to call an ambulance even though they already had, and then he brought himself to go back to his house to call Stan. He was already shocked enough by the accident itself that he had no idea how he was gonna tell Stan about it, but he had to so he could be there, just in case it was really serious. But when he got a hold of Stan, all he was able to say was that Wendy was in a car accident nearby his house before he heard Stan hang up a split second later.
By the time Stan got there and by the time the rest of Wendy's friends found out about it, she was already about to be moved to Hell Pass Hospital. Stan rode with her in the amblance along with another late "guest", Wendy's mother Ann Testaburger. Butters got his parents to drive him to the hospital to see what was going on, and by the time they got there, Stan, his best friend Kyle, Wendy's best friend Bebe, Ms Testaburger, and a few other classmates had already gotten to the hospital waiting room. A doctor told them to stay there for any further word before he went to check up on Wendy and see what could be done for her.
For about 20 minutes, this group of people sat and waited in total silence. Stan and Ms Testaburger moved closer to the entrance of the room, figuring they'd get the news faster that way. They were trying to keep their hopes up by reassuring each other that Wendy would be just fine, but since they had seen how Wendy looked up close before she went into surgery, their confidence was a little shaken. The rest of the gang just sat there, lost in their own thoughts about what was going on and trying not to say the worst, for Stan and Ms Testaburger's sake. So Butters kept his extreme worries to himself.
What if the worst had happened? What if the doctors couldn't fix her? What if Butters turned out to be the last person to ever see her healthy? This time it was a lot harder to get these paranoid thoughts out of Butters's brain. But the way he tried to reassure himself was that this couldn't happen to Wendy. The world was cruel to Melvins and nerds like him, it doesn't do these kind of tricks on cool people like Wendy. It just couldn't. Butters had considered Wendy as one of his best friends, she was always there for him if he came to her with a problem, and if she doesn't have to stay alive so she doesn't leave him, she has to stay alive so she doesn't leave Stan. She can't leave Stan like this at all. She wouldn't do that without a fight, cause she survived a prison term and tons of puking to be with Stan, so a little car accident wouldn't take her away now, right? Butters swore to himself that he had to believe he was right, or else he'd just go nuts and that would sure help the mood right there. So he sat in silence with the rest.
5 minutes later the same doctor came over, but he tiptoed towards the group and made sure that Stan and Ms Testaburger, who were lost in their own thoughts, didn't see him. Once he made sure they didn't, he signaled the others to come with him to a nearby room, and they did.
"So what's the word and why did you have to put us in here to tell us?", asked Bebe, who wanted to ignore the implications in a move like this and believe he wanted to say that Wendy was okay in private. But the way the doctor sighed at that point filled her with less hope.
"I'm afraid that by the time we got her here, the impact of the car and the mailbox crushed her stomach, broke too many bones, and caused too much internal bleeding. We tried to slow it down but there was no way we could do it without causing any more damage."
"So what are you saying? That she'll be dead soon and we don't have much time to say goodbye?", Kyle asked on behalf of the group.
"No....I'm saying that it's already too late for any goodbyes. She officially died about 3 minutes ago. I brought you away from Mr Marsh and Ms Testaburger to say this because, well, I wanted to warm up by telling you first before I told them and ruined their lives! They're gonna be hysterical after they find out and I'm a bit afraid to be the one to tell them and get them started, so do you think one of you could break it to them easier?" The doctor looked for someone that he might pass the buck too, but the shock and growing sadness over everyone's face told him that he would have no such luck. "Well fine then, I'll tell them and I'll listen to them blaming us for this tragedy, I hope that gives you some comfort at least." Luckly he left before anyone could realize how insensitive that was.
Everyone was now lost in the aftermath of what had happened. Wendy Testaburger was dead. Bebe's best friend was gone forever. Kyle's best friend's girlfriend was gone for good and he would have a lot of work to do to help Stan through it. The other kids were sad because a friend and a tutor that could have helped them pass their hardest courses was dead. But it took the longest for any thoughts at all to run through Butters's head. All he could do was hear the words "She officially died about 3 minutes ago" in his head. He didn't look like he was on the brink of crying like Bebe was, but it was still clear that until Stan and Ms Testaburger got the news, the death was hitting him worst of all.
But that was before they heard the screams. First a scream was heard that obviously came from a woman, and was full of a mothers desperation over her world crumbling. This was Ms Testaburger reacting to being left all alone. And then another scream came from someone else. It was a scream that was almost inhuman, an ugly, tortured sound that no human should be sad enough to yell. It was the sound of a young man who seemed to have lost everything that mattered to him, and in many ways, Stan had.
And once Stan's scream over his beloved's death was finished, among the group in the next room, Butters's tears were the first to fall.