(Yeah doing this now.... with the most attention you get out of someone with a problem learning... trying my best okay?...
~Eko.)

"Hey! Goddamnit stop running!"

I run after her before putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Dude, hi."

She turns around.

"Shit, sorry, didn't hear you."

"I quite frankly think that's impossible. I wanted to give you the homework, like you asked."

She nods and I give her the paper.

"There. If you want help, I'm done with English and Spanish. Math? Not so much, I'm too retarded for that shit."

She laughs.

"Need help?"

I nod and sit next to her, taking out my math books.

"Now what don't you understand?" She asks.

"Is everything a valid answer? This isn't something easy like history, it's math!"

She laughs and look at what I've got.

"Okay so.... this is fairly easy. You just need to—well, it's so simple I can't think of a way to explain.... that's an X.... but you most definitely won't get a six out of it. Did you sleep the whole of third grade? So basically, look at the marks a little closer."

I just stare at it for a moment.....

"They have minuses don't they," I say after a while of staring.

"Good job.... the next one you can do by yourself."

I just add minuses to all my things. She nods.

"Yeah, that's it."

"Oh that's embarrassing."

She laughs.

"It's really not. Cartman had a problem counting to five yesterday," she says.

"What why? He isn't that idiotic....?"

She laughs.

"So basically, the whole thing with volunteering, we're going to do it again. ANYWAY. So the kids, there were five kids and for some reason Cartman accidentally said three and I was laughing at it all night."

I roll my eyes.

"It's not really that funny."

"No, it's not, the way he tried his best to say ANYTHING so he wasn't wrong however..... was."

I chuckle.

"That's fatass for you."

She nods and takes the history book.

"Need any help?" I ask.

"If you could."

I nod and look at it, chuckling slightly.

"Saint Lucy's day! I could do a lecture."

"Please don't, I'm an atheist, I would rather avoid that happening."

I shrug and look up.

"Basically to sum it up, Saint Lucy's day started in Italy, Sicily if you need to be exact about it. Lucy was a Christian in a time when nobody was and when she was going to get taken, she didn't move an inch. They tried everything and eventually burned her."

"Ouch."

"However. The most popular place for this is..... Scandinavia. Saint Lucy brings light and as Scandinavia has fucking cold winters, 13 of December they have a parade for Saint Lucy.... probably to get light. There are normally Lucy and four other people with candles. If I remembered what the candles were..... bravery, peace, love and fuck.... no the candle isn't fuck. Dude, I literally can't remember it."

"Is it in the book?"

"No but I've read about this. History's fascinating!"

"You don't have to recap everything."

I nod.

"As far as the Nordic countries go, the cock of Europe does celebrate Saint Lucy's day. Especially Sweden, the golden boy. But yeah, they have the parade.... however, I would say the least prominent Saint Lucy's day is in Finland, where majorly the only reason for celebration is the other people from Sweden and whose families speak Swedish because Finland sucks Sweden's dick like their independence counted on it."

She nods and shows me the page.

"I reworded it but surely this is pretty much it."

I nod.

"Thanks, Stan."

"Don't worry about it," I say.

She continues to do her homework.

"So, Stan.... you're in the play, right?"

"Yeah! I get to be the best character!"

"I don't know who that would be."

"The dude who says that he isn't responsible for the murder of Jesus Christ."

"OH! That dude! Whose Jesus?"

"Ky."

"THE IRONY."

I nod.

"Yeah... also, if you didn't see, Gary's back in town."

She sighs.

"Don't be too much of an asshole to him."

I roll my eyes.

"Dude, I'm not going to be an ass at all. He's really nice.... and has changed a lot."

She laughs and takes her phone. Before 3 seconds have gone by, Can you feel the love tonight is blasting in the hall.

"SHUT UP!" I say.

"You're not saying it isn't true!"

"He's cute but seriously... I wanna talk a little before I do that shit."

"Awe. I ship it."

"Wendy no!"

"Wendy yes!"

Both of us start laughing.

"So anyway...... remember that one Christmas when mr. Hankey was banished for tweet?" I ask.

"Why did you ask that?"

"I found a picture from back then!"

"Oh no way!"

"It's the class photo!"

"OH NO NO NO NO!"

"You remember? The second half of the year, they wanted us all to have elf hats and shit."

"I remember painfully well."

I show her the picture.

"Oh my God. Wait..... am I looking at my shoes or the camera?"

I roll my eyes.

"No, look at me for a second."

She looks around for a moment before catching it.

"Wait why are you laughing so hard?"

"I was hoping you could tell me!"

"I can't!"

I sigh.

"Wait why isn't Craig wearing a hat?"

"I don't honestly know that one either. It's as much of a mystery as why Kenny isn't in this at all."

"He isn't? Oh yeah....... I can recall him being sick? I think he was sick?"

I nod.

"So even more than that, I also found the pictures from an another Christmas."

"Don't be a school photo."

"No, it's from fifth grade, like, all of us together playing games or something."

I show it to her and she bursts out laughing.

"Let's break apart this fucking picture. I look drunk, Kyle is trying to go further from Cartman, Kenny is just sitting on the floor, about to get kicked by Nichole because you're hanging onto her, then Bebe is there with Kenny, she probably already got hit in the face. More than anything...... did Token take the picture?"

"You're asking too much I don't remember shit about that one."

I laugh.

"Now I know what I'll give you for Christmas!" I say.

"Oh yeah, they have gifts..... fuck it, I'm just baking again."

I nod.

"Stan.... um.... has Cartman mentioned anything about me?"

Does she want him to? Why did she ask? Don't tell me....

"No, nothing bad, other than the routine of course."

She nods, smiling.

"Exactly what I hoped. Thanks, Stan!"

I smile before my phone gets a message... from Kyle,

'Hey. So since your sister is with Ken's brother... can you have him over? I'll take the other two.'

Oh it's about this.

'Are you sure?'

'Yeah.'

I message my mom and get a 'sure.' So I send him a picture of the conversation.

'I owe you, Kenny's hurt and I'm kind of scared of what it's like for him at home.... I'll get them to the councilor, I just really needed them out of the house.'

'You don't owe shit, he's my friend and his brother is close to my sister.... even if I don't like my sister, Kevin's been nice.'

I close the phone. Poor Kenny.... in more ways than one.

~We're changing POV to get ahead in another two plots.~

I sit right next to him, looking at the book.

"I didn't know you read."

He actually jumps.

"Don't! Holy shit you scared me!"

I laugh and look at the back of the book.

"What language is that?"

He mutters something.

"Pardon?"

"Finnish."

I nod.

"What is it about?"

"The civil war of Finland."

"Oh the one that broke out not a year after their independence?"

"Just that."

I nod.

"What kind of book is it?" I ask.

He sighs.

"So basically, these five girls have to become war nurses in this house because that's somehow the plot.... and yeah, there are three parts. First part is basically the hospital..... and how one of these girls goes and gets romantically involved with a soldier. Anyway, so the other side reaches them—."

"Red or white?"

"Not really specified, it's stupidly historically inaccurate anyway. Sometimes it's talked about in a way that it sounds like World War One.... but then other times it's the civil war. Like, they can't keep that up. But I think that's the reds... or at least the rich bastards."

"Bastards is my thing though!"

"Yeah yeah. Basically, all is well is the ending. Which is sad..... considering the unknown soldier does a much better job with the way. This is an attempt at feminism that falls on its face."

"How come?"

"Ada's gullible as fuck, so are the other two. Then one of them is rude and the only strong female character is the smart one. Ada's just.... darling, no, don't. And most of the book is written from her perspective."

"Those were different times you know."

"I know! But....... that doesn't justify it. Ada's just weirdly stupid."

"What stupid does she do?"

"So basically her new 'boyfriend' Ville.... is under a table because fuck no is he going back to the war. Ada goes down and they kiss under the table, after which she seems really ignorant to the fact in a war every soldier counts. Seriously, if I wrote this, I would make more use of this relationship in a different way. Chemistry.... is there? I mean, sure, let's go with that two times they laughed together being chemistry. So anyway..... I would probably make it more clear they have some sort of interest because the way it's framed straight up seems like Ville is using how gullible Ada is. It should change into a clearer interest. Maybe a scene of when he's trying to walk again and they do it together. It wouldn't need above a page. And if anything, I'd cut it. Ada's only trait is that she's gullible and likes boys. Nothing else. And the author did it way better with Bea.... she's the smart girl... Bea is a goddamn real image that I remember outside of a romance. Fucking Ville is way more memorable than Ada.... which isn't a good thing when Ada is the main fucking character and Ville isn't there for half the book!"

I laugh.

"You should write a book, that's valid criticism."

"I should?"

"Yeah! I'll gladly spellcheck it. You have Jesus with you."

He laughs.

"Well, thank you Jesus."

"No... really... I'd read it. Gladly even. Hell... I'm not the best artist but I could make a couple things for it."

"Like... the story?"

"Most definitely. I do love drawing and as I'll never be good at all that book writing shit...."

I fake cough, saying 'terrible fucking handwriting' in between those coughs.

"But really. If you ever feel like you wanna, I'm all for it."

He nods.

"Wait... what did you do last night? Stan said you were doing something."

"I was with my girlfriend."

"You have a girlfriend?!?!"

I laugh, nodding.

"Is that so hard to believe?"

"No, not that.... who? Why didn't I get told?"

"We literally went to the movies and I asked afterwards. She's coming over to help me with my Jesus lines tonight."

"Wow there, remember to use protection at least!"

"Ken, fuck off," I mutter.

He laughs.

"But really... who is it?"

I roll my eyes.

"Nic."

"Oh wow.... she isn't with Token?"

"No, Token's with someone else... I think he might be with Leo?"

"Oh shit. That's an interesting pair."

"Not really. Seems like a nice pair to me."

"No, I just never saw it coming."

"I mean..... I did. With Leo slowly becoming apart of Craig's gang, I wasn't surprised at all. It wouldn't be any of the other... Jimmy's trying it with Tweek if I remember correctly, Clyde's off limits with Red and honestly, Craig.... he's dating someone. Just didn't tell us."

He shrugs.

"But you... I can't actually tell. You have anyone?" I ask.

He laughs and leans back again the tree.

"Me? I'm not sure if I like someone but I definitely could like this one person—ow, shit, wrong angle."

I take a hold of his left arm, looking at it. He flinches a little when i touch a certain part.

"Kenny, look, we're taking you to the nurse."

"No no, I just hit it last night! It'll be fine, doesn't even hurt anymore."

"Ken."

"Just, I don't need it. Please."

I sigh.

"Okay fine."

"Thanks, Ky."

I roll my eyes and put up a note to go see the school counselor about what I'm suspecting here. Poor Ken.... in both ways...

"Oh yeah, happy Hanukkah again."

I smile.

"Thanks, Ken. Are you gonna say it every day until tenth?"

"Probably," he says.

He laughs. How can he look so happy and be probably abused at home?

"Hey.... um.... you wanna come over?"

"Isn't your girlfriend with you today?"

"She'll understand. Eh, while we're at it, I'm sure Ike would love Karen over. Stay the night if you want to."

"I don't know.... Kevin would be home alone."

I shake my head and grab my phone to literally text Stan with a simple message.

'Hey. So since your sister is with Ken's brother... can you have him over? I'll take the other two.'

The answer comes in seconds.

'Are you sure.'

I just put a yeah. To which, after a moment, I get a screenshot of his mom saying yes. I respond almost immediately.

'I owe you, Kenny's hurt and I'm kind of scared of what it's like for him at home.... I'll get them to the councilor, I just really needed them out of the house.'

'You don't owe shit, he's my friend and his brother is close to my sister.... even if I don't like my sister, Kevin's been nice.'

He goes off and I close my phone.

"Kevin's safe. You two are coming at mine."

Kenny shakes his head.

"I couldn—."

"Shut up! That hand is fucking painful, I can tell. It literally feels like your hand was fucking spun around. You don't want Karen hurt, do you?"

He shakes his head.

"Then you're coming with me while I find the best damn way to get you out of your fucking family, that's fucking disgusting!"

He opens his mouth.

"Conversation over!"