Chapter Text
Bradley had suspicions when his mother told him he was going to a new school. She said they were going to Disneyland when he was being sent off to Camp New Grace. That’s why he never questioned it when he packed over a week's worth of clothing and all his toiletries. He had a backpack today, so at least he probably wasn’t being sent to some sort of inpatient thing.
It was hard to have trust when his life was so erratic, after his “attempt” as they called it he had to stay a few nights at a crisis center. When he tried to go back to school, the rumors about him being gay and trying to jump off a bridge had obviously made the rounds. He didn’t like it of course, but he was just thankful to be back in school and away from camp.
When his teachers informed him of his situation, given the fact that it was a catholic school, his parents freaked out all over again and started to homeschool him. And when the rumors got into the church so they pulled him out of that and had to watch the service streamed from zoom every Sunday. All the changes made him feel sick, he felt as though he was getting whiplash from changing his routine every few months.
He could tell his parents were ashamed of him. His mom was a vocal member of the PTA and the church choir and his dad was a substitute Sunday school teacher when sister Trisha couldn’t come in. Now it was like they had all gone into hiding just because he got caught watching videos of boys kissing on youtube and got a men’s fitness magazine at the local library.
Only God knew where he was going, but he had no choice but to sit back and accept it. He was relieved when they pulled up to a building labeled South Park Elementary. With a “mommy loves you” and a kiss on the cheek, he was off to brave the new environment.
He received his schedule from the counselor with a strangely big head and stumbled off to his first class. He couldn’t help but to bite his nails, the foreign halls full of strange faces were awfully intimidating. He had done this many times before in the past year at the psych ward and the gay camp, but he never got used to it. He’d give anything to turn back time and cover his tracks better. Even if he had to stay in the closet forever it’d be worth it to know some sense of normalcy.
While he was wandering the hallways, looking for “Fourth Grade with Mr. Garrison '' he caught the sight of something familiar in the corner of his eye. There was a boy at his locker with bright blond hair getting his books. Something about his hair, the way it was shorter on the sides and fluffy on the top caught his attention.
When the boy started to turn around, Bradley knew it was time to leave and hurried off in the other direction.
He arrived at his glass a couple of minutes after the bell. The hallways in this school made about as much sense as his parent’s decision to send him here. Every face in the room seemed to turn to him as if he was some sort of specimen at a museum.
“Alright class everyone pay attention,” the teacher, Mr Garrison said, “We have a new kid here, His name is Bradley.”
The teacher was strange to him, he went by Mr but seemed to have boobs for some reason. That wasn’t part of God’s design was it? He never saw anyone like that, anyway. The teacher continued and pointed to a desk in the left-middle portion of the class and Bradley walked over.
That’s when he saw him. Brilliant blue eyes matched with his. It was Butters, his accountabilibuddy back from camp. He was the kid said he was ‘bi-curious’, the kid that liked him back, the kid that saved his life. Bradley never thought he’d see him again and here he was, smiling and waving at him from the other side of the room.
During class he could hardly focus, his heart was beating out of his chest and his brain had been filled with lofty thoughts of a future with the other. If Butters liked him back, that meant that they could date. Never did he imagine he’d have a serious chance at having a boyfriend.
From the moment he started having ‘bad thoughts’, as he always referred to them as, he committed himself to the closet. He had never seen anyone love someone else of the same gender the way he did, he had only heard about same sex love in a disparaging way. Even if he had to be alone his whole life, even if he had to be with someone he couldn’t love, he’d do it.
But now, he didn’t have to worry about any of that! His crush, the guy who liked him was right there, smiling at him with the perfect face. Even if they hadn’t spoken yet here, he felt giddy. He was excited and this was the first time in a long time he felt this way.
Other kids introduced themselves like this kid in a green ushanka hat and one with a blue and red puffer hat. He admired their kindness but his head remained on Butters. He worried what he would say to him, how he would go about trying to execute something with him.
He supposed he shouldn’t worry about it, it seemed as though God had sent him here to see Butters again. If it was his plan, they’d be together.
Eventually, the bell rang that signaled they were all dismissed for recess. When he started to get up to leave, he was already approached by Butters. “Hey, Bradley! Do you remember me? It’s me Butters from your accountabilibuddy from Camp New Grace!”
His face was as perfect and pure as ever, it was just as he remembered it. He was overjoyed that he seemed to continue to admit the same air of comfort and friendlessness he had the first time they met. He was flattered, too, and he still remembered him. In his eyes, Butters was a brace hero, the only one strong and bold enough to admit their thoughts to the world and to proclaim his support for the gay community.
They started walking together outside of the classroom side by side which alone was making Bradley a bit flustered. “You should come sit with me and the fellas!” Butters continued, “I’m sure they’d love to get to know you!”
“Oh, ok, sure,” Bradley half mumbled. The idea of meeting a bunch of strangers was much less pleasant. He had done it many times before in the past handful of months and he felt like he was going to barf if he had to do one more cheesy icebreaker. Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as before with an already established friendship, if that’s what they were, to vouch for him.
“Oh they’re gonna love you, Bradley!” Butters started to ramble, “I can’t wait!”
They found themselves in a large cafeteria with a lunch line that seemed to go one forever. His mother told him this school was a lot bigger than what he was used to, given that it was a public school, but it was much more intimidating than he had prepared for.
He followed his friend to one of the brown tables filled with students, this one occupied by a large array of different boys around his age. Butters and him sat down, neither of them acting as if anything was remotely different.
The first person to speak up was the chubby one with the blue hat. “Butters, who the fuck is this?”
“This is Bradley,” Butters smiled, “we met at Camp together!”
“Bradley, like Bradley Biggle? Are you here to delight us with the powers of mint and berries.” The big one laughed at his own joke as if it was incredibly clever, “and what’s with the gayass hair cut? Did your fat sister do it?”
“You can’t be talking about anyone’s weight, asshole. And Bradley Biggle is sitting with Brimmy and DogPoo dipshit.” This other kid, the same one from class with the green hat, said. He turned towards him and explained, “ignore Cartman, everybody hates him.”
“Wait so you guys went to camp together?” Cartman asked, “since when did your parents care about you enough to send you to camp?”
Right off the bat, even before he knew his name, Bradley didn’t like him. He seemed rather abrasive, even towards someone as kind as Butters. He was happy to see that he wasn’t the only one who wasn’t a fan because the green hat kid spoke up, “shut up Cartman nobody loves you.”
Those two argued for a bit before the other kid, the one with the blue and red hat spoke, “Wait, dude, did you guys meet at that ‘pray away the gay’ camp?”
Kyle shot Stan a dirty look before Cartman started to laugh again, almost toppling over. “Butters when to a queer camp? Oh my God this is the best day ever!”
“Yeah, and you went to fat camp,” Kyle yelled, “it was your fault anyway, asshole.”
This exchange seemed to hold a lot more weight to Bradley than it did to anyone else. He had the small, feeble hope that maybe at public school people would be more accepting. It’s not like this sort of language was new to him. He had heard much worse coming from his parents alone, but it made him scared to think that he might be forced to be relocated again.
“I’m Stan, the way,” the kid with the blue and red hat said, offering him a cool smile.
“I'm Kyle and the dickhead is Cartman,” the kid in the green hat said, “welcome to SouthPark.”
“And I’m Butters! But you already knew that!” Butters felt the need to say, which only made him more endearing to Bradley.
He was happy to be introduced to a handful of students, it made him feel a little more acclimated to the unfamiliar environment. It seemed kind of just liked everyone hated each other, which at least was better than everyone hating just him.
Lunch ended not long after that, recess was uneventful, all he did was throw around a football with the other boys. He was happy though, primarily because he was still invited to play despite the fact that Cartman had already suspected him of being a homosexual. At his old school he would’ve been socially ostracized the rescind someone suggested he was gay.
When the school day came to an end, Bradley rushed over to Butters to catch him before he got on the bus. This day had gone much better than he could’ve ever anticipated, he thought he was destined to be a loner here but already he knew that wasn’t the case!
But, one thing still bothered him, did Butters still like him. Obviously, he still wanted to be friends, but did Butters still have feelings for him was the real question. He’d understand if the lovely sort of feelings weren’t still there, he’d be more than happy to be just friends if that’s what Butters wanted.
He just had to ask, considering it had been so long since they had seen each other. “Butters, um, do you still like me?” Bradley felt like he was going to die. The half a second it took for the other to answer seemed like an eternity to Bradley’ His heart stopped, he couldn’t breathe, and he was sweating profusely.
“Awe of course I do!” Butters said without hesitation, honestly feeling a bit perplexed that he had even been asked that at all. Why wouldn’t he? There wasn’t really anything to dislike.
Bradley had to ask himself; “do I have a boyfriend?”