001 - "Beginning" Fic: Preschool
TITLE: Preschool
ARTIST/AUTHOR: _confunded_
PAIRING(S) AND/OR CHARACTER(S): No pairing; Kyle, Kenny, Stan, Cartman, Butters
RATING: K
ONE SHOT OR SERIES: Oneshot
WORD COUNT: 1,500
SUMMARY: First day of preschool, Kenny meets some kids and makes some observations. (This fic was inspired by my job as a preschool teacher and written during naptime today)
The first day of preschool was difficult for everyone in one way or another, but even as a three year old, Kenny McCormick didn’t fail to notice that he was the only one who didn’t cry when his mom dropped him off. In fact, he was happy to be there - the second he walked into the building, he felt a surge of excitement rush through him. There were toys there, real ones that were (mostly) not broken and (mostly) looked really fun. That, above anything, told him two things: that this place was way better than his house, and that there was no reason to cry.
Still, as he sat on a mat playing with tinker toys and watching the other kids get dropped off, he noticed that every single one of them cried. Kenny hardly ever cried, and not seeing his mom for a few hours was way better than dying (as least in his opinion). Kenny really hoped he wouldn’t die at preschool. The place seemed safe enough, but nowhere was ever really safe for Kenny.
Anyway, a fat boy came in a little while after Kenny did and he cried. He cried a lot and clung to his mom, grabbing at her and asking to be picked up. For a second, Kenny thought she was actually going to take him back with her, because it looked like dropping him off was hard for her too, but finally she left. The boy kept crying, and didn’t stop until he saw a boy with black hair come in and say ‘bye’ to his mom with hardly any tears. Kenny figured maybe he saw he was the only one crying and felt bad about it, because afterward he didn’t cry about his mom and laughed at anyone else who did.
Like the boy with the green hat. He cried a lot and hid behind his mom’s legs like the last thing he wanted to do was come inside and play with the toys (which Kenny didn’t understand at all). His hat was way too big for his head and it seemed, to Kenny, like he was trying to hide behind that, too. His mom kept trying to pry him off and step outside, kept throwing apologetic looks at the teacher, but when she moved, so did the boy in the green hat. And the more the teacher waved stuffed animals in his face, the more he cried and clung to his mom.
It wasn’t until the fat boy called him a baby that the boy in the green hat finally let go of his mom. He stood there looking shocked and angry, and his mom took that opportunity to slip out of the room. Kenny wanted to tell him that the fat boy had cried even more than he did, but he couldn’t find the words for it, seeing as he didn’t know a lot of them and sentences were still hard to make.
Other kids were in their class too, a lot of them, but no one seemed to want to play together. Mostly they played next to each other. Kenny didn’t mind that so much, since he usually played alone anyway. But he noticed that the boy with the black hair wasn’t really sitting next/ to the boy in the green hat so much as with him, and seemed content to watch as the boy with the green hat built a tower of lettered blocks. They both looked nervous at first, but as the block tower grew taller, they grew more comfortable. The boy in the green hat began talking and explaining the blocks one by one, and the other boy listened intently. He presented each block and said things like ‘ay’ and ‘eff’, which meant nothing to Kenny, except for that it seemed like they had something to do with the squiggles on the blocks. Like maybe each block had a name. One was named ‘pee’ and the two of them laughed together about it.
Kenny almost wanted to walk over and join them, but it sort of felt like he shouldn’t, or wasn’t allowed to, even though it was free play time and all the kids could play with whatever toy they wanted to. It seemed like there was a big bubble surrounding those two, and Kenny didn’t want to pop it (even though he liked popping other kinds of bubbles). Things stayed that way until the fat boy from before waddled over and kicked over their tower of blocks, laughing meanly as he did so.
For a second, Kenny thought the boy in the green hat was going to cry. But he didn’t. Instead, he stood up and pushed the fat boy so hard that he fell right on his bottom. As the fat boy started to wail, the teacher rushed over and removed the boy with the green hat from the play area. She sternly told him ‘No thank you, we don’t hurt our friends’ and Kenny thought it was sort of strange to call the fat boy a ‘friend’ after he just knocked down their tower on purpose. She told the boy in the green hat to go say ‘sorry’, and then he did start to cry, protesting about his block tower. He had to apologize anyway, though, and the fat boy looked smug (not that Kenny knew what ‘smug’ meant, but that was definitely how he looked).
Later, during lunch, Kenny decided to be brave and put his chair right across the table from the two boys who had been playing with the blocks. He even asked them what their names were - Stan and Kyle - and told them what his name was in return. Sometime during the day, the teacher made Kyle put his hat in his cubby, and his hair was big and red and almost made Kenny want to laugh (but he didn’t, because he didn’t want to get pushed onto his bottom).
The fat boy, whose name was Eric, sat next to Kyle and spent lunchtime alternating between eating and pulling Kyle's hair. His hands were sticky from fruit and he had spaghetti sauce on his face, and Kyle kept telling him to stop (only to be told by the teacher to ‘not use his whining voice’ and to say ‘no thank you’ instead). Even after he said ‘no thank you’, Eric didn’t stop, though, but the teacher didn’t seem to notice that.
Eventually Stan stood up and stuck his finger in Eric’s face and said ‘no thank you’ in a voice that was much bigger and sterner than any three year old’s voice ought to be. For a moment, Eric looked scared, and Kenny was glad, but then Eric started crying (and it was fake crying, too) and ran to the teacher to tell on Stan.
During naptime, Eric had an accident, and Kenny saw Stan and Kyle exchange a look as if they agreed that he deserved it. Kenny felt sort of bad for him, though, because another kid had an accident too and he was really upset about it and kept saying he’d be grounded over it. Kenny didn’t know what ‘grounded’ meant, but it sounded bad and he hoped that it didn’t happen to either of them, even Eric.
Snack was brownies. Brownies. Kenny never had brownies before, and his snacks at home were often the same as his other meals (which were usually waffles), so when the brownie turned out to be delicious, he decided preschool was his new favorite place to be. He even asked Stan and Kyle to be his friends, then, because he liked them almost as much as he liked brownies. They agreed, and he was happy. They said they were best friends, though, and somehow Kenny was surprisingly okay with being a less important regular friend. It felt natural this way.
Eric decided he was their friend too, though no one said that was okay, and when his mom picked him up and asked him if he made a lot of friends, he said yes and pointed directly at Kyle. Kenny thought Eric had a funny way of making friends.
His own mom picked him up after that, and for the first time that day, he did feel like crying. He didn’t actually cry, but he definitely thought that leaving preschool was sadder than arriving there. As his mom ushered him out of the room, he looked back and saw Stan and Kyle whispering to each other over by the blocks. Kenny desperately wanted to know what they were saying, but he thought he would probably never find out.
Actually, he figured there would be a lot of whispers he would never be a part of, and he’d just have to accept that. Either way, he couldn’t wait to go back to school (especially because he didn’t die that day, so maybe that meant he wouldn’t ever die there).
Home seemed especially lonely that night, and he wished his friends were there to play with him while his mom and dad yelled at each other. Somehow he drowned during his bath, too, which made the night that much worse. But everything worked out, because he woke up in his bed the next morning, alive and well, already dressed and ready for school.
ARTIST/AUTHOR: _confunded_
PAIRING(S) AND/OR CHARACTER(S): No pairing; Kyle, Kenny, Stan, Cartman, Butters
RATING: K
ONE SHOT OR SERIES: Oneshot
WORD COUNT: 1,500
SUMMARY: First day of preschool, Kenny meets some kids and makes some observations. (This fic was inspired by my job as a preschool teacher and written during naptime today)
The first day of preschool was difficult for everyone in one way or another, but even as a three year old, Kenny McCormick didn’t fail to notice that he was the only one who didn’t cry when his mom dropped him off. In fact, he was happy to be there - the second he walked into the building, he felt a surge of excitement rush through him. There were toys there, real ones that were (mostly) not broken and (mostly) looked really fun. That, above anything, told him two things: that this place was way better than his house, and that there was no reason to cry.
Still, as he sat on a mat playing with tinker toys and watching the other kids get dropped off, he noticed that every single one of them cried. Kenny hardly ever cried, and not seeing his mom for a few hours was way better than dying (as least in his opinion). Kenny really hoped he wouldn’t die at preschool. The place seemed safe enough, but nowhere was ever really safe for Kenny.
Anyway, a fat boy came in a little while after Kenny did and he cried. He cried a lot and clung to his mom, grabbing at her and asking to be picked up. For a second, Kenny thought she was actually going to take him back with her, because it looked like dropping him off was hard for her too, but finally she left. The boy kept crying, and didn’t stop until he saw a boy with black hair come in and say ‘bye’ to his mom with hardly any tears. Kenny figured maybe he saw he was the only one crying and felt bad about it, because afterward he didn’t cry about his mom and laughed at anyone else who did.
Like the boy with the green hat. He cried a lot and hid behind his mom’s legs like the last thing he wanted to do was come inside and play with the toys (which Kenny didn’t understand at all). His hat was way too big for his head and it seemed, to Kenny, like he was trying to hide behind that, too. His mom kept trying to pry him off and step outside, kept throwing apologetic looks at the teacher, but when she moved, so did the boy in the green hat. And the more the teacher waved stuffed animals in his face, the more he cried and clung to his mom.
It wasn’t until the fat boy called him a baby that the boy in the green hat finally let go of his mom. He stood there looking shocked and angry, and his mom took that opportunity to slip out of the room. Kenny wanted to tell him that the fat boy had cried even more than he did, but he couldn’t find the words for it, seeing as he didn’t know a lot of them and sentences were still hard to make.
Other kids were in their class too, a lot of them, but no one seemed to want to play together. Mostly they played next to each other. Kenny didn’t mind that so much, since he usually played alone anyway. But he noticed that the boy with the black hair wasn’t really sitting next/ to the boy in the green hat so much as with him, and seemed content to watch as the boy with the green hat built a tower of lettered blocks. They both looked nervous at first, but as the block tower grew taller, they grew more comfortable. The boy in the green hat began talking and explaining the blocks one by one, and the other boy listened intently. He presented each block and said things like ‘ay’ and ‘eff’, which meant nothing to Kenny, except for that it seemed like they had something to do with the squiggles on the blocks. Like maybe each block had a name. One was named ‘pee’ and the two of them laughed together about it.
Kenny almost wanted to walk over and join them, but it sort of felt like he shouldn’t, or wasn’t allowed to, even though it was free play time and all the kids could play with whatever toy they wanted to. It seemed like there was a big bubble surrounding those two, and Kenny didn’t want to pop it (even though he liked popping other kinds of bubbles). Things stayed that way until the fat boy from before waddled over and kicked over their tower of blocks, laughing meanly as he did so.
For a second, Kenny thought the boy in the green hat was going to cry. But he didn’t. Instead, he stood up and pushed the fat boy so hard that he fell right on his bottom. As the fat boy started to wail, the teacher rushed over and removed the boy with the green hat from the play area. She sternly told him ‘No thank you, we don’t hurt our friends’ and Kenny thought it was sort of strange to call the fat boy a ‘friend’ after he just knocked down their tower on purpose. She told the boy in the green hat to go say ‘sorry’, and then he did start to cry, protesting about his block tower. He had to apologize anyway, though, and the fat boy looked smug (not that Kenny knew what ‘smug’ meant, but that was definitely how he looked).
Later, during lunch, Kenny decided to be brave and put his chair right across the table from the two boys who had been playing with the blocks. He even asked them what their names were - Stan and Kyle - and told them what his name was in return. Sometime during the day, the teacher made Kyle put his hat in his cubby, and his hair was big and red and almost made Kenny want to laugh (but he didn’t, because he didn’t want to get pushed onto his bottom).
The fat boy, whose name was Eric, sat next to Kyle and spent lunchtime alternating between eating and pulling Kyle's hair. His hands were sticky from fruit and he had spaghetti sauce on his face, and Kyle kept telling him to stop (only to be told by the teacher to ‘not use his whining voice’ and to say ‘no thank you’ instead). Even after he said ‘no thank you’, Eric didn’t stop, though, but the teacher didn’t seem to notice that.
Eventually Stan stood up and stuck his finger in Eric’s face and said ‘no thank you’ in a voice that was much bigger and sterner than any three year old’s voice ought to be. For a moment, Eric looked scared, and Kenny was glad, but then Eric started crying (and it was fake crying, too) and ran to the teacher to tell on Stan.
During naptime, Eric had an accident, and Kenny saw Stan and Kyle exchange a look as if they agreed that he deserved it. Kenny felt sort of bad for him, though, because another kid had an accident too and he was really upset about it and kept saying he’d be grounded over it. Kenny didn’t know what ‘grounded’ meant, but it sounded bad and he hoped that it didn’t happen to either of them, even Eric.
Snack was brownies. Brownies. Kenny never had brownies before, and his snacks at home were often the same as his other meals (which were usually waffles), so when the brownie turned out to be delicious, he decided preschool was his new favorite place to be. He even asked Stan and Kyle to be his friends, then, because he liked them almost as much as he liked brownies. They agreed, and he was happy. They said they were best friends, though, and somehow Kenny was surprisingly okay with being a less important regular friend. It felt natural this way.
Eric decided he was their friend too, though no one said that was okay, and when his mom picked him up and asked him if he made a lot of friends, he said yes and pointed directly at Kyle. Kenny thought Eric had a funny way of making friends.
His own mom picked him up after that, and for the first time that day, he did feel like crying. He didn’t actually cry, but he definitely thought that leaving preschool was sadder than arriving there. As his mom ushered him out of the room, he looked back and saw Stan and Kyle whispering to each other over by the blocks. Kenny desperately wanted to know what they were saying, but he thought he would probably never find out.
Actually, he figured there would be a lot of whispers he would never be a part of, and he’d just have to accept that. Either way, he couldn’t wait to go back to school (especially because he didn’t die that day, so maybe that meant he wouldn’t ever die there).
Home seemed especially lonely that night, and he wished his friends were there to play with him while his mom and dad yelled at each other. Somehow he drowned during his bath, too, which made the night that much worse. But everything worked out, because he woke up in his bed the next morning, alive and well, already dressed and ready for school.