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New Kid.
That’s what she was known as, despite having been living in South Park for years now. She guessed that the other kids never bothered to learn her name because they didn’t expect her to stay.
She had always been the weird kid. Nonverbal, blank faced, prone to expelling noxious farts like her asshole was a direct portal from hell. The other children thought it was hilarious, and her inability to voice her disapproval made it easy to rope her into their bullshit and make her do their bidding.
She was twelve when she was diagnosed with crippling anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome and lactose intolerance. Her farts weren’t her superpowers, so nasty smelling that they could literally bend the fabric of the universe. She just had a mere condition.
After two years of therapy and the proper lifestyle changes, her guts behaved pretty normally and her anxiety became manageable.
Her first words were memorable for the southpark kids.
She was twelve, and that day her teacher took the whole class to the pool. She had always been self conscious, so nobody noticed when she disappeared into the handicapped bathroom to change into her bathing suit. She emerged wearing her little pink Hello-Kitty one piece, her towel wrapped around herself to keep her tiny body warm.
“Hey, new kid!” Wendy grinned, waving her over to sit by her side on the wet bench. The new kid felt very comfortable with Wendy, her kindness and patience a nice reprieve from the obnoxious rowdiness of the boys. So naturally, she did not hesitate and dropped her towel on the bench and sat down.
“I like your bathing suit!” She said, and you mustered a tiny grateful smile in return, pointing at hers to say that you liked hers too. She seemingly understood. “Thanks!”
The gesture caught the attention of the wrong boy. Cartman, caged in a pair of swim trunks far too small for him, turned around, his brown eyes falling on her outfit. “The fuck?!” He suddenly shrieked.
His loud squawk caught the attention of the rest of the class, who collectively threw him an annoyed glare. The boy couldn’t care less and instead pointed at your body. “Why are you wearing a girl’s bathing suit, butthole?! Are you some kind of cross-dressing freak?!”
Eyes widening in shock, she could only gape at Cartman in silence.
“Leave him alone, Cartman!” Kyle barked out, naively thinking he was doing her a favor. “He can wear what he wants!”
Oh.
She couldn’t believe she didn’t connect the dots earlier. Those fucking pea-brained monkeys called her a ‘he’ not because they were treating her as ‘one of the boys’, but because they genuinely thought she was a dude.
Clyde furrowed his brows in confusion. “Hey, where’s your dick?”
A mix of embarrassment and anger simmered in her stomach as she felt her whole face flushing. The whole class was listening to the conversation and staring, and she wanted nothing more than to tie weights to her ankles and drown herself in the pool.
“Maybe Buttlord has a micropenis.” Kenny shrugged nonchalantly.
“A what?” Stan asked.
“Like a tiny dick.”
“Guys–” Wendy chimed in to shut them up, but was quickly cut off by Cartman.
“Ohh…” Cartman cackled. “Douchebag is a crossdressing freak with a tiny penis!”
Tears of rage prickled at her eyes as she glared openly at the boy. This was the most emotions she had displayed ever since her arrival in Colorado, and it seemed to urge Cartman on.
“Hey, whip it out, I wanna measure it!”
Her anger reached a breaking point, and all she saw was red. The kids watched her jump to her feet, towering over Cartman who had yet to hit a growth spurt, and her mouth opened in a snarl.
“I DON’T HAVE A DICK YOU BUNCH OF MORRONS, I’M A FUCKING GIRL!!”
Her scream echoed in the public pool, stunning everyone into silence. They stared with eyes wide as saucers, shocked at hearing her voice for the first time. Her anger dimmed, leaving her strangely self conscious and ashamed. Then she spun on her heel and fled the scene, hoping no one would see the tears dripping down her cheeks.
“Hmm…” Mr. Mackey’s long boney fingers drummed against his desk. “So I heard you’ve had a bit of a breakdown at the pool today, is that right?”
The new kid fixed the counselor with that unnerving blank stare, her face void of any emotions. “Mmm’kay…” He trailed off awkwardly. He had a bit of trouble believing the sixth grade teacher when she told him that she heard the mute kid screaming Cartman’s ears off, but the story was corroborated by a couple of other students. “What happened to make you so angry?”
She remained silent, but he noticed the way her lips wavered, like she wanted to talk but didn’t know how. “Use your hands like I taught you. Do you remember how?” He asks patiently, softening his voice to calm her.
Slowly she raised her hands, and began signing.
Cartman is mean.
Mr. Mackey sighed. Tell him something he didn’t know. “M’kay. I’ll have a word with him. How are you feeling? It’s been a few years since you’ve last spoken.”
Silence stretched for a minute as he waited for you to formulate an answer. He expected you to either open your mouth or sign with your hands, but you chose neither options.
Instead your lips gently lifted in a tiny little smile.
He gave a fond little chuckle.
“Good job, kid.”
Ever since the new kid’s blow up, the boys were acting weird around her. She was used to hanging out with them, especially with the four troublemakers of South Park Elementary. Yet now they seemed to have shunned her out.
At recess she tried to join them for a game of dodgeball, but when they formed the team they didn’t pick her. “Oh, golly!” Butters, one of the team captains, rubbed his neck awkwardly. “I dunno… I don’t want to hit a girl!”
He squirmed under her blank stare, and Stan replied for him. “Just go join the girls, I’m sure coloring is fun too.”
Her shoulders fell in disappointment. She liked the girls well enough, but she wanted to play a game with the boys today. And the rejection hurt like a bitch.
Kenny watched her walk away with a little frown. “Hmph hmph mph.”
“We weren’t hard on her.” Cartman rolled his eyes. “She’s a fucking girl, Kenny. She probably has been carrying an STD all this time without us knowing.”
But while his back was turned, the rest of the boys exchanged a look tinged with guilt.
The screaming unlocked something within her. She felt a bit more at ease now, as if she had found her tongue again. It was hard at first, but sometimes she could break out of her muteness for a second to say a word or two. The first time she spoke up in front of her parents, it was during dinner to say in a soft meek voice. “Salt, please.”
Her mother burst into tears while her father instantly sobered up, for the first time in years he looked calm and content.
The new kid grew comfortable more and more around the girls of her grade. They patiently coaxed her into speaking by asking for her input on a list they were making, or by inviting her to play house or dress up. The absence of contact from the boys was still a sore spot for her, but she hoped that with time they would get over it.
One day, she was in class, absent-mindedly listening to the teacher giving a lesson about biology with her head propped up on her fist. She was exhausted, her parents had fought all night, the house erupting with screams and bitter reproaches. They thought she was already asleep, but the walls of their South Park house were paper thin.
She knew they were fighting about her. She heard her mom accusing her father of being the reason their own daughter was crippled with anxiety to the point of mutism. His father retorted ‘Maybe it has more to do with her mother being a fucking drunkard!’
The memory roused a deep, bone weary sigh out of her. She could feel her eyes drooping, sleep tugging her back into its embrace. She almost relented, but she heard the voice of her teacher.
“Can anyone tell me what molecules are made out of?”
The question startled her awake. She knew the answer! Giddy with excitement, she didn’t realize she had raised her hand before her teacher’s eyes widened in shock.
“Yes, Taylor?” The teacher smiled, her eyes sparkling with something soft and proud.
“Who the fuck is Taylor?” She heard Stan ask Wendy, her girlfriend throwing him a tired look in response.
“Atoms.” The new kid’s reply came in a quiet voice. She could feel a dozen pairs of eyes burning a hole in the back of her skull, which made her feel faint. Her hands found purchase on the edge of the desk, knuckles turning white.
“Sorry, Taylor.” The teacher cringed, as if afraid her words would ruin the huge step forward her student had taken. “Could you speak up a bit louder? I didn’t catch it.”
She forced her voice to carry across the classroom. “Atoms.”
She grins. “Correct! Great job!” She turned to face the blackboard and began scribbling with chalk. Taylor hid the lower half of her face behind her hands so no one could see the victorious smile she couldn’t tame.
Yet a certain redhead sitting beside her caught it, his green eyes softening.
A week later and they were all back into the public pool. Taylor was wearing her Hello Kitty swimsuit, and she could feel herself squirming under the curious gazes of the boys. The novelty had worn off for a good half of the sixth grade population, but her closest friends were still having a hard time getting used to the fact that she had been a girl the entire time. As if that had been the greatest betrayal of their lives.
Anxiety made her bowels hurt. This morning she couldn’t even eat breakfast, and so she was unable to take her treatment for her IBS. She could already feel her guts churning with a familiar ache as it bubbled threateningly.
Cartman was eyeing the girl like a predator. Studying for any weakness he could exploit to publicly humiliate her. The anticipation was causing her anxiety to spike, knowing she could fall victim to his bullying at any moment while in such a vulnerable state of clothing. She hoped he wasn’t looking at her buttocks, her mother had said she needed to lose weight in this area. Unfortunately, Cartman noticed the way she tugged at the edge of the swimsuit in hope to cover more of her ass, and his eyes sparkled like the ones of a cat that caught a canary.
The anxiety reached a point where her guts liquified, and she lost control of her muscles.
Her ass let out a loud fart, once again stunning the class into silence. The teacher’s face betrayed her horror as she bit back a gasp.
Meanwhile the boys stared in a mixture of fascination and disbelief, the new kid hadn’t farted like that in a while, and it kind of caught them off guard.
Until a snicker broke the silence.
Clyde burst laughing, earning himself an annoyed look from Tolkien, then Butters joined, then Kenny, and soon most of the boys were giggling like a bunch of hens.
Well, some things never change.
Hours later it was finally time for lunch. Carrying her tray of cafeteria slop, the new kid made her way to the table the girls usually sit at. She didn’t bother to even try to join the boys anymore, they had made it abundantly clear that she wasn’t welcome anymore. Yet her heart still caved in when she walked by the table where her former friends sat.
“Hey, buttlady!”
Taylor froze, blinking owlishly. Then she forced her head to turn.
Kenny was looking at her, his hood down, honey blonde hair sticking in all directions from static electricity as he munched on a small jelly sandwich. “You joinin’ or what?”
She hesitated, eyes blank as if expecting this all to be a stupid prank they wanted to play on the weird girl. But then she saw Kyle smiling earnestly at her, and she felt herself cave in.
She looked over her shoulder to throw an apologetic look at Wendy, but the girl had watched everything and was urging her to join them with a flick of a hand.
So the new girl dropped her tray on the table and plopped down on the bench, right next to Stan.
“Nice to see you back, Fartaylor.” The raven haired boy tells her.
Fartaylor? Stan snorts at her blank stare. “What? Don’t like the new name?”
She shrugs before digging into the slop the school cafeteria calls food. She didn’t care about the name, she just was a bit miffed at the fact that they all acted like nothing happened.
“What Stan is trying to say…” Kyle threw his best friend a glare. “Is that we’re sorry for shunning you out. That was real shitty of us.”
“Yeah, it’s not like you suddenly grew a pair of tits overnight.” Kenny says, as eloquent and tactful as ever. “Chick or Dude, who cares? You’re funny to have around.”
“How progressive of you.” Her voice was deadpan as she rolled her eyes, making the blonde grin.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re up to four word sentences now!” He announced, and cackled when she flipped him off.
“In no time she’ll be talking our ears off about stupid girl stuff like cooking and periods.” Cartman chimed in dryly.
He gasped in outrage when the new kid threw a fry at his face, which Kenny rushed to grab and pop into his mouth before it fell to the floor.
The drama quickly forgotten, the boys return to a discussion about Wendy and Stan’s rocky relationship. This time she didn’t talk, already too exhausted by the few words she had spoken today. But she was content just listening and giving answers to questions in the form of facial expressions or hand gestures.
And at the end of the day, when she stood up from her usual seat while riding the bus. She turned to her friends and drew a small smile and proudly spoke up.
“Bye, guys.”
Four pairs of eyes smiled at her, and for once Cartman refrained from saying something cruel and just waved.
Today was a good day.