It was almost time for lunch at South Park High, and Kyle Broflovski was confused.

Very, very confused.

He hadn't been this confused since…

"Kyle, this is Stacy! Isn't she freakin' adorable?" Wendy pointed to Stacy, a blonde haired, pretty eyed girl who was a little on the short side. She smiled brightly at Kyle, and Kyle gave her a blank stare back. Kyle was standing next to his locker, and the two girls had just….appeared. He wondered if they had materialized while he'd been exchanging textbooks.

He actually had never been this confused.

"Bro? Bro!" Wendy snapped at Kyle to get his attention. The expression on her face had gone from friendly to pissed off in one second flat. Stacy stood motionless next to Wendy, still beaming at Kyle.

"Sorry, Wendy. It's just…" Kyle continued to stare at Stacy. His instincts as a gentleman finally kicked in. "She's lovely."

Stacy's laugh came out high pitched, soft and sweet.

Rehearsed.

Kyle nodded politely towards Stacy, and then pulled Wendy to his side immediately.

"Why am I meeting Stacy?" Kyle whispered in Wendy's ear, and smiled at Stacy over Wendy's shoulder. Stacy waved shyly.

"You really think she's cute, right?" Wendy whispered back to Kyle, uncertain.

"You never introduce me to your cute friends! You never introduce me to anybody!" Kyle whispered to Wendy harshly, a little resentment showing in his voice.

"Relax, Bro. I'm just trying to help you out before you end up dating a poser." Wendy motioned towards a girl walking down the hall wearing a shirt with no cleavage showing and jeans that fit. At South Park high, she was a rarity. As Kyle continued to observe the girl Wendy carefully explained that such girls were posers that would only turn into sober sluts after Kyle had won his first game with the team.

Wait. The team?

"Who told you?" Kyle exclaimed in Wendy's ear. She jumped back, and made a pouty face as she slowly rubbed the side of her head. After she'd instantly nursed herself back to health, she leaned against the locker, and shrugged.

"I know everyone. Everyone knows me. Anyone knows anything. I know everything." Wendy shrugged again as a bell rang out. She pushed herself off the locker, made her way over to Stacy and took her hand. Stacy made sure to shout a cutesy goodbye to Kyle that almost sounded like they were already dating.

Kyle shook his head, trying to shake off the disbelief in the last five minutes of his life.

Things were already changing, and he hadn't even been to practice yet.

He knew someone pretty, someone actually pretty.

And someone pretty knew him.

He took a deep breath in, a deep breath out, slammed his locker and ran to the cafeteria.

Kyle was greeted by Craig patting him roughly on the shoulder.

"Sup, Kyle? DO THE RUNNING MAN!" Craig proceeded to awkwardly dance in the middle of the cafeteria. Instead of disapproving glances, Craig received misplaced praise from his audience. Girls started dancing right along with him, and guys got into it too.

Kyle began laughing so hard it hurt. This was the greatest display of chain reaction stupidity he'd ever seen in his life. When Kyle's laughter came to a stop, so did Craig's dancing.

"But seriously though, good to have you." Craig patted Kyle again, harder.

"You threatened to kill me yesterday." Kyle noted as he moved into the lunch line. "You chased me around campus until I wanted to pass out. Could've died. "

Craig followed Kyle into the lunch line. "Just kidding! You have got to learn how to take a joke, man! Seriously." One of the girls who had been dancing along with Craig pulled up beside him in line. Craig kissed her affectionately, probably too affectionately for a public place. Kyle thought he saw Craig's tongue go into her mouth, and sensed a bit of vomit in his throat.

Kyle grabbed his food, and was going to sit at his usual table near the trashcans. They'd been redecorated with smashed pieces of chocolate cake and half-eaten lollipops. At the table, Kenny was already waving, and Cartman already sneering.

Before he could get there, he heard his name being called out from across the room.

"Yo, Kyle!"

"Kyle! Kyle! KYLE!"

"Kylebro! Get over here, you fucker!"

He gave an apologetic look to his usual table, and Kenny just grinned. Cartman grinned too, and for the first time in a long time his emotion was genuine.

Kyle turned around, and ended up putting his tray down next to "the guys" on the football team.

This was it.

It was official.

Whatever "it" was, he'd done "it".

Kyle Broflovski officially had a place in the high school hierarchy. He might not have had his share of girls named Stacy, played a game or even practiced one, but once people saw him hanging out with "the guys" they'd know he had to be somebody.

He was a new prince.

Among the obscene sex jokes, regular visits from girlfriends to the table to make out with their boy and the gorging on generic pizza, Kyle sat on his newly carved throne.

"This bitch tried to jump on my dick when I was still tipsy."

"Dude, bitches that can't hold their drinks are fucking hilarious."

"BITCHES AIN'T SHIT." Kyle screamed out for no particular reason, and the whole table went silent. Then, the table erupted in a joyous noise of howls and agreement. The absurdly vulgar conversations at the table continued, and Kyle finally felt what Stan must feel all the time. That feeling you get when you know you can say or do whatever you want, because someone, somewhere will have your back no matter what.

At the thought of Stan, Kyle suddenly could feel vomit in his throat again.

Where was Stan? Kyle's eyes briefly scanned around the cafeteria. He hadn't spoken to Stan since the incident between them, and felt his heart racing faster as he remembered it.

Regret.

No regret.

They were all Kyle was feeling about what happened with Stan. He needed to find him. He needed to let him know that what happened was a mistake, but it wasn't a mistake he was never going to make. The mistake had to happen, because well…He was sorry. He wasn't sorry. He'd never do it again. He wanted so badly to do it again.

Kyle didn't know what he was going to say to Stan, but he knew he had to say something.

Kyle asked the table about Stan, and a few expletives later they admitted they didn't know where he was either or if he was even coming to practice.

Kyle excused himself from the table, taking his tray with him. He silently took care of his tray, discarded his food and left the cafeteria. As new royalty, he had a smile on his face and an overconfident stride. As Kyle Broflovski, he felt like he had a hole in his head. He couldn't think properly now, knowing that he didn't know anything, really, about how he felt about Stan.

He made it through the rest of his classes for the day like a ghost. He didn't raise his hand once, and when called on he gave no reply. Kyle's mind continued to float, waiting to figure out what Stan was supposed to mean to Kyle, where he was supposed to be.

By the time Kyle made it to the football coach's office, he had his answer.

"With me…" Kyle mumbled under his breath as he placed his hand on the coach's doorknob. "He's supposed to be with me."

Kyle assuredly closed the office door behind him.