Archive of Our Own ^beta

Ah Clyde. His name was almost anywhere at the school whenever people think of him. Whether it be by trying to win Bebe's heart for the 100th time or having him and his football team win another game for the season, he is known throughout the school for a lot. But one thing for certain that nobody could predict was he would be the prime target of bullying on one faithful school day. But luckily, he wasn't alone to experience this by myself as he is well known to only hang out with a specific group of people.

Although their dynamic on each other's personality is questionable, they are surely one of the best friend groups in all of South Park as to how inseparable they all were.

Craig and Tweek were already a couple but treated each other like best friends through and through. Token was like the mom of the group and the voice of reason. If someone was going to do dumb shit, he would either encourage it to see them fail miserably or stop it before they ended up busting their ass. And Jimmy was the funniest joke telling kid in their entire group, he could make any situation less dull with his jokes and bright smile. And then there's Clyde, who needs no introduction and was like the one who could bring everyone in for a plan, whether it was good or bad , it all starts with-

"Clyde, I told you that was a terrible idea! Now she dumped you for the 101th time!

Clyde...who was faced down on the lunch table with his crew, mortified at the situation he was apart of as his friends gave their mixed reactions to the situation they heard from him.

At his usual table during lunch, Clyde was too embarrassed to look up at his friends as he heard Craig and Jimmy both laughing at his newly failed plan to woo Bebe, a girl he's been crushing for the past years. He got the courage to look up for a minute to see all faces on him. He thought he could cry right at that minute by was met with a soft yet sturdy pat on the back from his friend Token as Tweek went to stop Craig from laughing, even if he knew Craig would still chuckle behind Clyde's back.

"Next time, remember which allergies she has dude." Said Token with a half-crooked smile trying to comfort a nervous wreck Clyde who lifted his head up as it still rested on the table with his chin to support it.

"How was I supposed to know she was allergic to gluten?" Clyde said in response but soon backed away from the argument he would have likely lost.

Soon, Token and Tweek got both Craig and Jimmy to calm down to an extent before they decided the change the subject towards something else. They decided to talk about their recent works in school as they were almost done with their classes with only one last period to go before they could go home and rest. As Token took charge to talk about the subject, despite the soft laughter still coming from Jimmy still having the mental picture of Bebe having an allergic reaction to the food as Clyde described, the group continued their usual conversation about school work starting with Token who cleared his throat and began speaking again.

"Well I aced my writing assignment. How'd everyone else do?" Token said as he took another hefty bite of his pizza.

"I got a n-n-nice score on it as well." Jimmy replied as he smiled, showing some pieces of pepperoni dangling from in-between his teeth.

"M-me and Craig did okay on ours, wished we gotten an A though. My parents will kill me for sure!" Tweek said as thoughts flooded his mind.

However a warm hand rubbed his back as he looked over towards Craig who only nodded and mimicked breathing motions, which Tweek took note of to try and calm down as he began doing his breathing exercises which worked like a charm. He was thankful for Craig taking measures to help him calm down as he was improving a bit each day.

Clyde was nervous on his score. He wasn't failing but best case would be that he's barely made it through his classes that were littered with C's and D's, this assignment was no different. "I got a C+ this time." Clyde said with a smile which got some remarks from his friends who were surprised by this as well. Usually writing would kick Clyde's ass but they guessed he wasn't lying about studying for it like says everytime and it actually paid off.

"So, did your dad say if you passed he'd buy you a pizza?" Craig said with a smug look. Clyde only gave him a middle finger in response but still smiled. Out of everyone who gave him childish jeers, Craig was most likely to either start it or finish it. But Clyde knew him and Craig were best buds and all was in good fun. And soon, the conversation continued to other topics like what they watched on TV to what were their plans for the weekend. If only they noticed an upcoming storm walking right up to them...or should I say, right behind Clyde?

"Clyde, you got anything planned for Saturday?" Craig said, taking a bite out of his apple.

"Well as a matter of fact-"

Before Clyde could answer him, a violent force yanked on the collar of his sweater as he choked briefly before his head met the hard cafeteria floor as he yelled in pain. The rest of his friends were shocked and stood up to see what had happened to only see a shit eating grin coming from a heavy set kid as he pointed and laugh at their injured friend.

"HAH! HAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh man, Clyde you are just a crybaby!" The voice said towards Clyde as he was still on the ground rubbing the back of his as tears flooded his eyes.

He wiped them away to clear his vision which only met the face of Eric Cartman, A.k.a., the school's most notorious asshole. Eric made a reputation of picking on people whom he didn't like or knew wouldn't fight back, of course with the added mentions of somehow still having friends who tolerate him to a degree but still give him a piece of their mind from time to time. Clyde managed to get up as he stood up, looking face to face to Eric who didn't flinch at all but began to punch Clyde in the stomach, making him clench his stomach in pain as Eric continued to laugh.

"Augh...what the fuck Eric...?!" Clyde blurted out as he tried to gain his composure as pain still tried to knock him down. Eric only bended over to be face to face with Clyde again as he began to reply.

"Because, no one likes you~!" Eric said, as he got up and walked around Clyde in a circular motion. "Like look at you! You're at idiot and fat, you can't even get a girl to like you back! And even your supposed friends even make fun of you!" Eric said as he watched tears form in Clyde's eyes. Clyde knew these were all lies, and that above all that Eric has done, being a manipulative asshole was one of them. And that was what he was trying to do, manipulate Clyde so he could get more reactions out of him. But when Clyde looked back up, he could see a pair of legs walk Infront of him as he saw the familiar back of a purple shirt meet his gaze.

"Eric, what the hell was that for?! Clyde didn't do nothing towards your fatass!" Token said with anger in his voice, as he shielded an injured and confused Clyde.

"Token?" Clyde muttered, as his friend turned around just enough for Clyde to see a slight smile as he turned back around to face the now confused Eric.

"Hey fatass, leave our idiot friend alone!" Coming from a mad looking Craig, as he got up and began to walk towards a now shocked Eric. 

His smile was now diminishing seeing both Token and Craig get up in defense of Clyde. 'This wasn't the plan at all, they were suppose to join in on the bullying not stop it...what the hell is going on?!' Eric thought to himself, but he could still talk them into bullying Clyde anyways since he saw them do it countless of times before, why was this no different?

Eric gave Craig a smug looking grin as he placed his sticky glove on Craig's shoulder, getting a disgusted look back at him. He knew that face and he knew what Eric was about to do, he could clock him right at that moment but he decided against it and only folded his arms together as he raised an eyebrow, hiding his still pissed off face.

"Aw cmon Craig, you and I both know Clyde deserves it! He's annoying and useless and dumb as hell! So why not join in on the fun?" Eric said to him as he felt Craig's arms move thinking he won him over.

By this moment, Token and Jimmy both were helping Clyde back up to his seat as he dusted himself off. He looked at his two friends with sadness as because of what Eric said about him, even if he knew it was just to get under his skin. But he felt A arm wrap around him as Token side hugged him as Jimmy wrapped his crutches and arms around the both of them, trying not to hit them with the metallic poles on his arms.

"Pay no mind to him, he doesn't know the whole picture to our best friend."

Token said as he still side hugged Clyde who felt a smile form across his face as he wiped away the tears. He soon turned towards Jimmy who was also speaking at him 

"Y-yeah, that large ass hole doesn't know the f-f-first thing to being a decent friend like you Clyde." Jimmy added as he smiled at Clyde who smiled greatly at the two of them.

"Aww thanks guys. I knew our bond as friends couldn't be broken!" Clyde said as he wrapped his arms around the two boys who rolled their eyes and pushed off him.

Soon, their gaze met with Craig and Eric who was pointing at Clyde. Even if Craig wasn't going to agree with Eric on anything he spouted out his mouth, an anxious feeling soon formed in his stomach as he looked towards Craig who looked back at him and to his surprise, he winked at Clyde. 'A wink? Why would he wink...?' Clyde thought but before he could think of it anymore he then heard shouting coming from where Eric and Craig were.

"Listen chubby, I do agree Clyde is an idiot and annoying sometimes but he's atleast more of a person than you. Now you know I don't care about what you have to say about him so you're just wasting your time with me." Craig said as he backed away from a stunned Eric who only grew more angry and spouted shouts at him. Little did he know Craig planned for this and Eric could only see Craig smile...

Before he could do react in time, was soon taken aback as he felt some kind of force meet his stomach as a yellowish blur went into his vision until he met the ceiling of the cafeteria. As he slumped over, gritting his teeth in pain as he yelled through them. He looked up to see the fist that hit him belonging to Tweek Tweak, who looked really pissed off. There was only 3 rare occurrences before this one where Tweek really let lost and that was when he fought Craig two time before they got together, and when someone decided to punch Craig. Eric was scared as he saw Tweek lower his head slowly towards him and grab him by the collar.

"Don't hurt him, ever again. Got it?" Tweek said as  he raised his fist Infront of Eric's punchable face, seeing Eric scared to the point of tears forming in his eyes.

But he didn't buy it as he knew it was possibly just to make him stop so he could talk behind their backs. With one swift glide of his arm, Tweek punched Eric in the face which left a bruise on his left cheek. Eric could only hold his hands to his cheek and yell, yell out it hurts and that he would call his mom on them. This was enough for Tweek to let go of him as Eric dropped to the floor as he stumbled away. It was only apparent to Eric and the group that most eyes were on them until Eric ran out of the cafeteria screaming something at them, then all began to go back to normal.

Clyde saw as his friends began sitting back down as Craig gave Tweek a tight hug, as he was proud of his boyfriend for punching the shit out of Eric. He also saw Token and Jimmy give their round of applause as they started talking about how Eric was so scared shitless as Tweek held him up. Clyde was about to speak before he heard a voice call him.

"Clyde." He turned to face Craig who wasn't the only one staring at him, as he saw the rest star at him too with either worried looks or a small smile.

"Are you alright dude? You took one hell of a fall." Token said, reminding himself of what Eric did to him. Clyde merely rubbed his head where he winched in pain before poking s thumbs up.

"It hurts but, I don't feel any blood " Clyde said with a chuckle. Token only rolled his eyes but turned focus back to him as he smiled, thankful that he wasn't harmed more.

"Jesus Christ Clyde, are you sure that's not the only injury? What if your brain is bleeding inside or maybe your skull is cracked open?! Or-or..." Tweek went on and on but Clyde only gave him a bright smile and stood up as he turned a full 360 for everyone to see he was fine.

"See? I'm okay Tweek, nothing to worry about."

"AAAH! J-just hope Eric doesn't do that again..." 

Craig cleared his throat to gain attention back to him, which seemed to work as they all quieted down before he spoke.

"Clyde, let this get through your hard headed skull. We all give you shit because that's what friends do. You know we don't mean any of it and that you do the same towards us when you can. So don't give Eric any other reaction and if he decided to put his hands on you again, we'll beat the shit out of him, got it?" Craig said with his stoic face but a cold stern sounding voice coming out. 

Clyde could only shake his head up and down to what Craig said before Craig gave a simple nod back. They all began eating the rest of their lunch before the lunch bell rang to almost no one's surprise ruined their peace. As they group separated to their last classes of the day, Clyde caught up with Craig and gave him a surprise hug.

"Ah, Clyde what the fuck?" Craig said with a puzzled look as he waited for an answer.

"Thanks for being there for me Craig. You're a good friend." Clyde said in response, as he looked at Craig with teary eyes.

Craig could only roll his eyes and flip him off before sighing and decided on hugging the crying mess on his back, as they both entered their class.

"Anytime Clyde, we all got you back." Reassuring Clyde that no matter what he did, his gang was always right by his side. This proving that this group of friends were the strongest in the town of South Park.