Chapter Text
Chapter 3 – The Search
Kyle looked up from his books, which were spread out on the floor in front of him, as his mother knocked on his door. “Bubula? Your little friend Kenny is here,” she told him, stepping aside to let the lanky teen squeeze past her into Kyle’s small bedroom.
“Thanks, ma,” he said and got up, smiling at his friend as she left. “What’s up, Kenny? Were we supposed to be doing something today?”
Kenny shook his head and slumped down on his back on his best friend’s bed. As he threw an arm over his eyes, he thought about how he could never do this at any other friend’s house, not Stan’s, definitely not Cartman’s. He was only this close to Kyle. “I need help!” he moaned.
Kyle rolled his eyes. He did that so often he was worried they’d roll right out of his head one day. “What happened this time, dude,” he sighed, sitting down on his desk chair, taking off his thick black-rimmed glasses and crossing his legs.
“I lost the girl of my dreams…” came the melancholy response.
“Oh dear.” Kyle rubbed the bridge of his nose. This was bad. Kenny always got depressed when a girl either dumped him or he “lost” her in a drunken haze. “Have you tried…you know…looking for her?”
Kenny looked over at him. “Looking?”
“Yeah. All the kids are doing it!”
Kenny snorted and swung his legs over the side of the matress. “Dude, I’m not fucking stupid, ok? Of course I looked for her. I looked everywhere girls are, the Mall, the clubs, the shoe stores, the school, everywhere, dude! And I can’t fucking find her fucking anywhere!” He flopped back down, this time on his face.
“Have you tried looking places other than the Mall and the school?”
There was a pause. “Girls hang out placed other than the Mall?” Kenny asked suspiciously.
Kyle shook his head in exhasperation. The trouble with Kenny was that he never thought outside the box, especially when it came to girls. He just assumed all girls were the same, hanging out in the same places with the same people, doing the same things and talking about the same subjects. Such a putz… “That’s it, I’m calling Bebe,” he said, and picked up the phone.
“Why?” Kenny asked, rolling over to prop himself up on his elbow.
“Because she’s a girl,” Kyle said slowly, and started dialling. “Hey, Bebe? It’s Kyle. Can you come over? Kenny needs…” he paused and looked over at Kenny who was lying on his back moaning softly and hitting himself in the head. “Help. Big help. Right now. Cool, thanks, see you in a few then.” He put the phone down and folded his arms, shaking his head at the sight of his friend. “Putz.”
Mrs Broflowski walked over to the door as the doorbell rang. Another visitor at this hour… Who could this be? “Ah, Bebe, how nice to see you!” she exclaimed when she saw the girl standing on the doorstep, her shapely legs barely concealed by her short pink skirt. Girls these days… “Is Kyle expecting you?”
Bebe nodded, her curly blonde hair bouncing around her angelic face. “Yes, is he upstairs?”
“Sure, just head on up. Would you like some snacks?” she called as the girl skipped up the stairs.
“Thanks Mrs Broflowski!” she said happily as she nodded. She may be curvy and have the body of a model, but she sure could eat a lot. She gently pushed open Kyle’s door, grinning at the boy sitting at the desk. “Hey, you ok? I got here as fast as I could.”
Kyle pointed at the form on the bed. “He’s there,” he sighed.
Bebe walked over to the boy and knelt down beside him, Kyle looking the other way just in time to avoid catching sight of her panties as her pleated skirt lifted up slightly. “Kenny?”
“Where is she, Bebe?” he moaned.
She looked over at Kyle. “Is he being serious? All this over a girl?”
He shrugged as way of response.
She sighed and shook her head. “Jesus Christ, you’re more of a girl than I am sometimes, Kenny.”
“Fuck off,” he growled, and she slapped his chest.
“That’s better!” She stood and brushed off her knees.
“Well, Dr Bebe, what do you think?” Kyle asked, standing up and joined her at Kenny’s bedside. The two of them looked down at him with pitying yet patronising eyes.
“I think…” Bebe began, but Kyle’s mother poked her head around the door and interrupted her.
“Sorry to interrupt, Bubi, but what kind of snacks do you guys want?”
Bebe turned to her with a stern and wise look on her face. “Mrs Broflowski, we need ice cream. Stat.”
“What flavour?”
“Chocolate, please. And hurry!” She looked over at Kenny worriedly. “We might be too late…” she breathed.
“So… she left you hanging there, without even telling you her name?” Bede said through a mouthful of ice cream.
Kenny nodded and popped the full spoon back in his mouth. “Pwe-y muff,” he tried to reply.
Bebe shook her head, digging her spoon into the massive tube. “Sounds like a slut to me,” she said. “What!” she exclaimed as Kenny and Kyle’s heads spun towards her, shocked looks on their faces. “She does! I mean, what kind of girl makes out with a guy then just…leaves?”
“You.” Kyle told her.
“Yeah, but I am a slut. I freely acknowledge that!” Bebe popped her spoon in her mouth and shrugged.
Kyle shook his head. “Ok, so now that we’ve worked out that Bebe is a slut, what are we going to do about this?”
“What do you mean?” Kenny asked him sadly, leaning back against the wall.
“How are we going to find her?” he finished, and Bebe nodded.
“Yeah, how are we? I mean, this town isn’t that big but we’re not exactly junior detectives,” she said grimly.
Kenny sat bolt upright. “What the fuck are you guys talking about!” he yelled, stunned. “You don’t think we can actually find her, this isn’t some cheesy romantic-comedy. In case you haven’t noticed, life is never nice to anyone, especially not me, so why would I be able to find her again?” He sank back onto the bed.
There was a silence as both teenagers though about Kenny’s life. A drunk, drug-addict/dealer father, a mom who was too doped out to stand up to him when he started beating up his kids, a son who was wilder than any other kid in South Park and a daughter who was the only calm one in the family. And another son who had cut off all ties with his siblings. Kenny was right, life wasn’t fair to him. As if they’d had the same thought, Kyle and Bebe shared a look.
“Why isn’t it?” Bebe asked slowly.
“Huh?” Kenny looked darkly up at her from within the recesses of his hood.
“Why isn’t it a romantic-comedy? Why can’t life be like in the movies?” Bebe continued, her steady gaze fixed on a point on Kyle’s wall.
“Because it’s life, B. Life isn’t like that,” Kenny told her and snorted.
She frowned, the lines between her eyebrows only adding to her delicate features. People forgot sometimes how clever she was, since she acted like a ditz, but she was sick of staying in this rut. They all needed this, whatever Kenny had got himself into, just to distract themselves from their everyday drudgery of a life. “That’s bullshit.”
“Excuse me?” Kenny’s eyebrows rose higher than his forehead at her words. Even Kyle seemed taken aback, she so rarely swore, but when she did she went all out.
“I said, that’s bullshit. Now listen to me, you depressed little fucker,” she pointed a slender, red-varnished finger at the boy, who actually flinched back at the sternness of her gaze. “Life. Isn’t. Fair. So why would you waste your time complaining about what everyone knows, and get over it and try and change it?” She whacked the knee of his jeans with her palm. “We’re finding this girl. And nothing you can say can change it, got it?”
Kenny nodded, gulping.
“Fuck, Bebe,” Kyle breathed and chuckled. “Didn’t know you had it in you!”
Bebe snorted and leaned back, picking up the ice cream tub from Kyle’s hands again. “I think you’ll find that girls are full of surprises,” she told him and closed her eyes, nodding.
“I’m not sure about this…” Kenny grumbled as he looked down the hallway towards a small, blond-haired boy rummaging in his locker. The corridor around him cleared as students made their way to their next class, but Bebe and Kyle were skipping the start of theirs to give him moral support.
“Shut up, man up, and ask him,” Bebe scoffed and rolled her eyes. “And hurry up. If I miss another Chem class I’m out.”
“Please, you wouldn’t get kicked out of Chem even if you blew up the labs,” Kyle told her. “You’re the only one that listens.”
Bebe shrugged. “Whatever. Just, go!” She shoved the back of Kenny’s parka, making him stumble forwards.
Kenny growled at her, his chapped lips rising at the corners and showing his teeth. “Fine. Go, I’m not a baby. Hurry up and get to class.” He straightened up and took a deep breath, before walking towards the other boy, who looked up from closing his locker to smile at him.
“H-Hey there, Kenny!”
“Hi, Butters.” Kenny frowned and looked over his shoulder at the other two, who made “GO” gestures to him, as well as a rude one from Bebe. Ok, ok, he got it… Man up. “I kinda need your help with something…” he began awkwardly.
Butters’ periwinkle blue eyes grew concerned. “Did you forget your lunch again? I think I have a few bucks if you wanna buy something.” He shoved his hand in his pocket, but Kenny shook his head.
“No, thanks. I need your help on this…project. For history class!” he invented wildly. “See, I need to find this girl, to ask her some questions about her…grandfather.”
“Ok…” Butters blinked a few times and smiled at him. “I don’t really know very many people, but I sure wouldn’t mind helping you!”
Kenny shook his head again. “I…don’t actually know who she is…” he confessed, rubbing the back of his spikey blond head and resisting the urge to pull his hood up to hide his face.
“Oh. Well, I’m sure that we can find her! Do ya know what she looks like?”
Like Kenny could ever forget that beautiful face… Those sea-blue eyes, that flawless skin…. He realised that Butters was looking at him quizzically. “Yeah, yeah, I know what she looks like,” he replied hastily. “So, whaddya say, do you wanna help me?”
Butters blinked a few times and then grinned. “Sure, sounds like fun! We haven’t really hung out since 8th grade,” he said lightly with a giggle.
Kenny smiled at the other boy. “Yeah man, this is gonna be fun.” He looped his arm over Butters’ shoulders and walked down the hall with him, telling him more about this “history project”.