Author's Note:

Welcome everyone! I'm actually just here to update the current progress of the story with a directory! But for those of you who are just joining the story, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Noel, I'm an aspiring writer and a HUGE South Park fan! I hope you all look forward to starting this adventure, and I hope to hear from everyone on how they're enjoying the story! :)

And the Snow Keeps Falling – A Tale of Storms Directory:

Book 1: Prophecy of Five Storms

Prologue Arc: Chapters 1 – 10

Craig's Past Arc: Chapters 11 – 20

Arrival of the Dark Rider Arc: Chapters 21 – 30

Wendy's Heart Arc: Chapters 30 - 35

...

Book 2: The Four Friends

To the Stars Arc: Chapter 36 - 45

Wendy's Awakening Arc: 46 - 55

Tale of an Angel Arc: 56 - 70

Chapter 1 - Swinging for the Same Team

POV: Stan Marsh

The halls of South Park elementary were buzzing with activity; students running back and forth in the halls, locker doors slamming shut, and hushed chatter of the latest gossip filled the ears of young Stan Marsh. Stan opened his locker, clean and spacey on the inside, and reached up to grab his history book for Mr. Garrison's class. He shut the door with a light metal thud and glanced up at the clock on top of the hallway threshold. The time read 1:43. 'Two minutes to get to class.' Stan thought as he tucked it between his left arm and fast walked his way to Mr. Garrison's classroom. The hallways were decorated with paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling, and red and green decorative fabrics lining the classroom doors. It was two weeks until Christmas, and one week until Exams were over with. Next Friday Stan would be off of school for a whole two weeks. It was everyone's last class of the day (everyone was out by 3 P.M). He walked past all the festive decorations and finally arrived in Mr. Garrison's classroom. The usual chatter, swearing, and obscenities were being muttered and shouted by the other students. Since the class behaved this way, Mr. Garrison had to assign a seating chart, much to his students dismay, though it never did seem to work.

Stan made his way over to his desk, which was situated next to the window. Next to him on his right sat Craig, wearing his blue hat as usual. Stan sat down as Craig silently stared at him. 'What?' Stan asked. Craig spoke in his deep monotone voice 'Hello Craig. Good morning Craig. How was your day Craig. What are you doing for the weekend Craig?' Stan took this as a half joke. 'Good day, sir asswipe.' Stan said, reaching over and pulling Craig's hat down over his head. Craig moved his fingers to find his hat and re-adjusted it as soon as Mr. Garrison made his way into the classroom. 'OK Children let's take our seats.' Stan always was amused by that. The students were usually always already sitting, yet Mr. Garrison always asked them to sit...oh well, he's always been a weird teacher, with a mentality that's homosexual, yet homophobic, you never knew with Mr. Garrison. Stan remembered the time he had paired him and Kyle up with an egg to protect. Stan had told Kyle 'I'm a better egg-taker-carer than you!'

Stan grinned at the thought, feeling a light warmth at their friendship. He was fond of Kyle, the two had known each other since Pre-school. Stan always had the dominant, voice of reason role between the two. Though Kyle was never afraid to speak his mind. He was, to Stan, one smart Jewish kid. Stan moved his eyes over across the classroom. Eight desks down from Craig, near the door, was Kyle. If only Mr. Garrison hadn't made this seating chart. This was the only class Stan and Kyle had together at school, and he hardly ever talked to his best friend, because Mr. Garrison typically lectured on and on about nothing, yet somehow still remained their teacher. Stan and Kyle seemed to have distanced each other just a little bit. Stan was looking at his friend, feeling a longing to spend a weekend with his best friend. The Jewish boy was always so busy with his advanced courses he hardly had time to hang out on the weekends. Kyle had extra-curriculars, so Stan often had to be driven home or walk home on his own.

Stan was also very busy. He had had consistent A's for several semesters now. He chose not to do any extra-curricular activities. He didn't care much for basketball, thought chess was too boring, and debate was taken over by Cartman...and Wendy. His heart sunk at the thought of his ex-girlfriend. His memory flashed back to the last day of school his last academic year. Stan was cleaning out his locker, smiling that he had advanced yet another year in school, with perfect grades. He pulled his padlock from the front side of his locker, dropping it in a small pocket in his backpack. 'All done! Summer time!' Stan thought. He zipped up his backpack and made his way to the front of the school, where he was going to meet with Kyle, Wendy, Craig, Tweak, Bebe, Kenny, and unfortunately Cartman (who invited himself) to head over to Whistling Willies to grab a pizza, an old tradition the friends developed at the end of each year. Stan arrived at the front entrance, walking over to the front doors. A moment before he reached them, he was stopped by a blonde in a red sweater.

'Hey Stan...' Bebe said flatly. 'Hey!' Stan greeted her as he continued walking for the door. He reached down to push the metal latch as Bebe interrupted his action. 'Stan.' Bebe said, with a serious tone. Stan looked up at her. 'You're going with us aren't you?' Stan asked, a bit oblivious. 'Stan...' Bebe walked up. Wendy asked me to give this to you. Bebe reached inside her sweater pocket and pulled out a piece of notebook paper, handing it to Stan. His fingers gripped it, lightly crumpling in his grasp as he gave Bebe a blank stare. Her stare was blank as well. She walked away quietly. Stan looked down at the note, terrified of what he might find. He was starting to get a bit queasy. He delicately opened up the notebook paper, to find Wendy's words scrawled in the middle: Stan, meet me at Stark's pond. That was all it said.

Stan took a moment to digest what he read. Maybe she was just having some troubles and wanted to confide in Stan. He pushed any negative thoughts to the back of his head. He'd had a great year, how could anything ruin it now? He walked out the front door, where he saw his friends waiting for him. Kyle gazed up at him 'There he is!' he called out in his group. The others gazed over at Stan, all eyes on him. Stan gave a friendly wave to Kyle. 'Hey...' he said as he approached the red head Jewish boy. 'My dad wants me to go home real quick, he says he thinks he may have left the front door unlocked. I'll meet you guys at Willies, OK?' Kyle's light smile changed into a flat line. 'Is everything ok, Stan?' he asked. His best friend always knew when something was wrong. Sometimes Stan felt he knew Stan better than himself. 'Yeah, I'll take extra onions on my pizza.' Stan said. He turned to walk away, 'See you soon!' he said.

His walk to Stark's pond seemed like a few seconds. He remembered approaching the water, the water rippling gently against the shore as he saw Wendy sitting on a log, her back to him. Stan walked over to the log, and sat down as Wendy silently stared into the distance. 'Stan...' she said to him, looking down at her feet. She looked troubled, and sad. A slight gust of wind picked up, sending the warm summer air through Stan's hair, Wendy's hair flew across her eyes, she took her hand it brushed it back. She looked over at him as the wind blew leaves from the trees, the water rippled softly, and the sun was setting.

Stan suddenly snapped back to the present. He noticed all the students were looking at him, and he met Mr. Garrison's face with a blank stare. 'Stanley?' Mr. Garrison asked him. Stan felt hot with embarrassment, he was worrying about his troubles, and didn't even notice Mr. Garrison had spoken to him. 'Yes?' Stan asked, clearly demonstrating he wasn't paying attention. 'Do you want to be partners with Kyle?' his teacher asked. Up on the board Mr. Garrison had written History Report Teams and Stan realized he was likely just asking him to choose a partner. 'I'll take Kyle as a partner.' Stan said. The phone rang on Mr. Garrison's desk. 'Excuse me, children.' he said as he walked femininely over to his work phone. He picked up the phone 'Yes? Uh-huh...OK...Yup, I'll let them know, thank you.' Mr. Garrison clicked the phone back in place.

'Ok children, I have an announcement to make as decided by the school board.' Mr Garrison said as he gazed around the classroom. 'As of today, a new dress code policy will be enforced.' The room exploded with 'Awws!' and lowered heads. 'Now children, it's not all that bad, all that it requires is that children remove any hats, hoods, or headgear, unless of course it's headgear for your teeth or something. Seriously though, if you have that you'd be a dumbass to show up to class anyway. OK children let's start of our class with...' his voice turned into background noise as Stan reached up to remove his hat. His black hair fell downwards over his eyes. Stan grew self conscious, thinking he had 'hat hair' and quickly played with his hair, hoping it adjusted correctly.

He looked over to see Kyle hesitantly remove his hat. He felt bad for Kyle, having to be picked on because he had tall, red hair. Not many other boys had red hair. Stan had thought it was unique rather than funny. Kyle never liked it, but Stan didn't think it was that bad. He had always accepted Kyle the way he was, just as Kyle had accepted him. The pair had always been best friends ever since pre-school, nothing could ever seem to tear them apart. 'OK children, get with your groups now.' Mr. Garrison said as he went to his desk and began scribbling away at papers.

Stan stood up, and shuffled his way through the moving students to make his way over to his Jewish friend. 'Finally!' he thought 'Some time with my best friend.' He sat down, the two exchanged ecstatic glances. 'So what do you think we should do our topic about, Stan?' Stan was lost in thought about his friendship with Kyle, but quickly returned to the present. Why was he so distracted today? He hadn't had any caffeine. Stan had to take a second to register what Kyle had asked. He at least knew Mr. Garrison had babbled on about the middle ages. Stan grasped for the right answer. 'Well, uh, how about we do a topic about what a household was like in the middle ages?'

'Sure, that sounds good.' Kyle said as he pulled his backpack up to his lap and rummaged through it for a mechanical pencil and a notebook. He pulled both out to set on the table and briskly flipped open his notebook to a blank page. 'Well...' Stan started. 'Maybe we could just do a topic about the role of a specific family member in a house. Since we're both sons, why don't we research that, it'd be more relevant anyway.' Kyle nodded and blinked in agreement.

'Good idea.' he said as he lifted his hand to write the title neatly on top of the notebook paper 'A Son's Role in the Middle-Ages.' Stan was always jealous of Kyle's handwriting. Stan's was good, yet never quite up to par with Kyle. He wrote with such speed and grace it was hard to believe he had such a gift. Stan thought to himself how he was probably the 2nd best in the class as far as good grades went, only to Kyle, maybe Wendy. He pushed his ex girlfriend to the back of his mind.

Mr. Garrison got up from his desk 'Ok children I think it might be a good idea since time is running out to have two students go down to the office at a time and make some copies out of the textbooks depending on your topic, that way you all won't have to carry around a huge weight all weekend' Mr. Garrison continued: 'Now, who would like to go down to the office first?' Stan raised his hand almost immediately and expected Kyle to raise his as well. Kyle didn't raise his hand, but Cartman, who was sitting next to him did. Cartman probably just wanted something from the vending machine. He somehow ended up paired with Kenny, who was leaning on his elbow, head in palm. He hated taking off his hood, since he always had messy hair. It was an interesting partnership, since Cartman always seemed to rip on Kenny for no reason.

Mr. Garrison's gaze trailed around the classroom. His eyes met Stan's, he was one of his favorites. 'Ok Stan, how about you go...and...' Mr. Garrison saw Cartman, but quickly discarded any thought and set his focus on Kyle. 'And...how about you take Kyle with you. Kyle, would you mind? You wouldn't have a partner anyway.' Kyle stood up almost immediately, without warning, and started moving towards the door. Stan had a delayed reaction, and got up nearly a second later than Kyle. The two left the room together, Kyle held the door open for Stan as he came up behind him. 'Thanks...' Stan said quietly as he passed through the doorway out into the hallway.

'I love getting out of class.' Kyle said. 'It's so boring.' Along the way, Stan noticed that they both weren't as talkative as usual. 'Why am I being so quiet?' Stan wondered to himself. He always talked to Kyle smoothly for years, but this was the first time he didn't know what to talk about. Kyle just walked beside him, eyes forward. Stan searched for things to talk about, but couldn't find them. The two arrived at the copying room, and got to work. They each chose different chapters to print off and got started. Kyle opened his textbook, flawless and new-looking, and placed it neatly on the copying machine. The two then started making copies, Stan a moment later than Kyle.

As Stan was printing, his talking seemed to come back to him again. Stan chattered on about the craziness in his family, how his father Randy was always completely nuts. He spoke of Shelly, who was still ugly and nasty. He also discussed how his grandfather was getting old, yet still managed to be feisty, yet hilarious. He noticed the entire time he talked, Kyle wasn't looking at him. The Jew just gazed down at the copy machine, the occasional brightness from the machine lit up his face.

'So our topic...' Kyle randomly said after a short silence. 'Do you think we should just generally report on the expectations of sons, or what they actually did, or what exactly?' Kyle inquired. 'Well...' Stan started, 'Well, I'm sure growing up in medieval times wasn't overly strict. Though I suppose your lifestyle depended more on which family you were born into. I mean, I'd say I was born into a pretty crazy household, but yet I managed to overcome the craziness and be my own, awesome self.' he grinned a bit at his half-joke. 'Though you were raised in a fairly strict family...yet we both grew up to be smart, awesome...and similar in many ways.'

Stan was a page behind Kyle as the Jew tucked his completed papers into a neat pile. 'Well, I'm headed back to class now.' Stan looked up at Kyle, almost giving him a desperate gaze. 'Kyle...hey I just have one more, let me walk back with you.' He wondered why Kyle hadn't looked at him much at all today, was something wrong? He seemed just fine before the two left the classroom. He was glad when he saw his friend remained still. He seemed so serious about an assignment, yet it pleased Stan he would wait for him. This almost made Stan feel a bit special. Maybe Kyle was just having an off day. Stan took the lead back towards the classroom.

Along the way Stan thought to himself 'Why did I just insist the two of us should walk back together?! Well..we are good friends. Wait, why am I thinking about why it's an issue for us to walk back...I mean it's not like we're...' 'Hey Stan.' Kyle said, catching Stan off-guard. Stan snapped back to the present yet again, why was his mind wandering so much today? The Jew started again 'So since the report is due by Monday, and today is Friday, do you just want to stay after school and finish our report together so we can have a longer weekend?' Stan thought of the idea. More time with his best friend. 'Sure.' he said. 'Cool!' Kyle said with a new grin 'We can spend more time together that way.'

Stan gave him a slight nod and a warm smile. As he walked along the hallways with Kyle, he realized he was starting to feel warm. His heart was beating a bit faster. Well, all this walking is sure to raise the heart rate a bit, right? Stan didn't know why, but he looked over at Kyle. Kyle looked back at him as they moved, an eyebrow raised in amusement. Stan suddenly realized with horror that he was gazing at Kyle's soft red lips, not at his eyes. He glanced back up and met Kyle's gaze as he realized how awkward he must have looked. He quickly looked ahead again, trying to pretend he was invisible. 'Wow Stan, your face is redder than my hair.' Stan just looked forward and continued walking.