Chapter Text
"Craig," a voice called out.
"Craig! Are you even listening?"
He hadn't even realized that he had zoned out until Wendy called out to him. Craig quickly took in his surroundings again. Currently, they were driving in Wendy’s car from the hotel to the studio and Wendy had been trying to tell him something over some random Justin Timberlake song.
Wendy then cleared her throat once she got Craig's attention. "Anyways, I was planning on taking you to the studio and introducing you to a few people then you can do whatever you like until Bebe arrives. She’s really excited to see you."
To be honest, he hadn't even seen Bebe at all since he was here. At the airport, the hotel—nowhere was she to be seen.
"Fun," Craig replied sarcastically.
Her hand gripped slightly tighter on the steering wheel. Craig could tell she was annoyed with him—like she had been the entire time. He just shrugged and turned away to lean against the window, taking in the South Park scenery. He swore he heard Wendy mutter "Bitch" under her breath but it didn’t bother him.
Wendy made a right turn and a big building, of what he assumed to be the studio, came into view. A large, cuboid-shaped building with red neon letters slapped on the side and the front. It was very unappealing to the eyes to put it nicely.
"Wow, these guys must've put in a lot of effort into the architecture."
"Shut the fuck up, respectfully," She said through clenched teeth. “We rented this place and this was the only studio in South Park. Plus, have you seen all the houses here? Identical.” Fair, he thought.
Walking closer towards the studio, Craig opened the door and walked through with the intention of shutting the door on Wendy. She could’ve gotten it slammed on her but held her hand out just in time to hold it before it could close on her.
"Dick..." She grumbled. Craig flashed her a satisfied smirk. Wendy then took the lead pushing past Craig and past the reception, an L shaped counter at the entrance. Two ladies sat there in their office chairs chatting with each other and laughing but immediately quieted down when they saw Wendy.
"Hello, Miss Testaburger!" The blonde with short curly hair greeted her almost automatically, making Wendy stop in her tracks.
"Good morning, Annie." Wendy smiled before looking at the black-haired one, who adjusted her purple headband and was suddenly head down, signing papers. "Morning, Jenny."
"Morning," Jenny said back, tilting her head up, before she looked at Craig standing next to Wendy. "Who's that?"
Wendy followed her gaze to Craig as well and jerked her head towards them slightly, as if quietly telling him to introduce himself. Craig stuck his hands into his pockets.
"Uh- I'm Craig," He answered awkwardly. Nice first impression, Craig. Annie and Jenny began whispering among themselves and giggling. Craig watched as Annie cleared her throat before speaking again, while twirling her hair around her finger, leaning forward.
"Would you just like to drop your number here, Craig?" She asked and pulled out her phone, screen displaying “New contact” with some blanks for information. Okay damn, straightforward. Not even a please? He was debating on whether he should decline politely or reply with a straightforward "No". But of course, Craig being Craig, he was going to go for a straightforward “No”. Thankfully before he could speak, Wendy stepped in with a sigh.
"That's enough, let's go. We’re busy." Wendy shot a cold glare at Annie and Jenny, who were still giggling. "Cut it out before I report you to Bebe." Which immediately shut their asses up.
Craig followed behind Wendy, Annie giving him a little wink that did not go unnoticed by him. He rolled his eyes before turning his head away. Wendy took him into a short hallway, which looked depressing. It honestly gave him the creeps as it was dimly lit and the walls were a sad gray color. The only things making it look slightly better were the photos and posters put up on the walls every few steps, otherwise there was nothing else that made it look less bland. It was like boiled chicken with a pinch of pepper and salt.
"Holy shit. Am I gonna get killed here?" Craig asked, gesturing with his hand, as his eyes roamed over the multiple colorful posters.
Wendy shook her head. "No, you're not going to die here," She reassured, turning the doorknob to a door with "DRESSING ROOM" written on a sign in all caps and a singular poster stuck on the side of some hot male model—no, just some male model. He was still busy admiring the shirtless guy on the poster for a minute before coming back to his senses once he heard Wendy's voice and what seemed to be two other people.
He stepped further into the room and was greeted by the almost spacious and modern interior—black walls, wooden floor, with clothing racks put to the side, and most importantly, those fancy vanity mirrors that hung on the wall above a wall-mounted table. Makeup and hair supplies sat on top of it messily.
"Are you Greg?" A girl with eye blinding red hair asked.
Greg? Seriously? "What? No, I'm Craig."
"I told you his name was Craig, Red!" The girl next to her whispered a bit too loudly.
Red... fitting for that mess of auburn.
"How did you even mess up my name that badly?" Craig asked with an annoyed tone.
"Craig, Greg. They sound the same. Thank god your name isn't Greg though. I think I'd just... die if I was named Greg." Red said, pulling her ponytail out from her half-up, half-down hairdo.
"Glad I wasn't named Greg too."
Wendy shook her head in exasperation before gesturing at the red head. "So, Craig... This is Rebecca, or Red, our makeup artist. She's really good with special effects makeup, but she’s still good with- uh, normal makeup?." She then gestured at the other girl whose hair was in pretty coils. "And that's Nichole, our hair stylist. She used to work at a hair salon too. Neat, huh?" She paused to give Craig an opportunity to speak.
"Okay," Craig said simply.
Wendy ignored his dry response and continued. "...Heidi should be arriving soon."
"Who?"
"Heidi is our wardrobe stylist, meaning she's the one who decides what you're wearing or something," She explained poorly. That sort of answered his question, in a way. Wendy then looked back at Red and Nichole. "We'll see you around you two!" The girls all said their goodbyes and Craig was again, taken back into that out-of-a-horror-movie hallway.
“You know…” Wendy began now that they were out of earshot. “Bebe told me about you. I only learnt that you two went to high school together yesterday. Is that true?”
That caught his attention. Bebe was talking about him?
“Yeah,” he quickly confirmed, as he slipped his hands in his pockets. He had such a bad habit of doing that, he should stop sometime. They fell into an uncomfortable silence but Craig made no effort to say anything. He wasn’t really one to start conversations or small talk, just participated in them. They kept walking without talking until they were met with a door.
“Uh…” Wendy broke the silence, “I think this is the actual studio. You know, for taking photos?”
“Got it.” Those words came out way too sarcastic sounding for his liking. Wendy made sure to be the one pushing the door open in case Craig shut it on her again, earning a slightly amused smirk from Craig. Once inside, the door seemed to close by itself and a large empty room stood in front of them. “Well that’s boring.” He commented.
“The rest of us only arrived yesterday so there’s like nothing here. We’re going to try to bring our equipment today.”
“Right.”
Craig used his eyes to look around for a bit. There was nothing to really look at. Just gray walls and tiled flooring, lights scattered across the ceiling and some chairs put in a row against the wall.
“Just wait here for now until Bebe arrives. She says she’s planning on taking us somewhere when she does,” Wendy stated, then stepped out of the room after adding, “There’s a vending machine somewhere out here if you’re hungry.” Great, he was all alone now in some scary room with nothing but a few chairs and windows here and there. He just decided to take a seat in one of the chairs in the meantime, head tilting back on the wall. It had a weird bumpy texture while his head leaned on it but it was alright. Running his hands through his dark hair under his chullo, he then took his phone out from an inner pocket of his jacket because what’s better than wasting your time scrolling on your phone?
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Craig felt as if he was going crazy out of boredom. It had been a good 20 minutes already but it felt like 2 hours to him. Could time go any slower?
Numerous empty snack packets were tossed onto the chair next to him in the meantime until he would stop being lazy and dispose of them properly. He swore he was going to go broke from the amount of vending machine snacks he was buying with his money. Craig just sat in silence, head leaned back on the wall as he just gave up on trying to entertain himself.
It wasn't long until he heard chattering coming from behind the door that he lifted his head to tilt over and check it out, when the door flew open suddenly.
“Jesus Christ, Bebe! You're going to scare him or something. He’s gonna quit ‘cause of you,” Wendy’s familiar voice teased.
“Oh, please. You think he’d want to go already when I already paid for his flight here and back, and the hotel? No way!” Bebe said back with a giggle. Her eyes then met Craig’s and widened to one of shock and excitement as she basically ran to him and pulled him up from his seat into an unexpected tight hug, rocking him side by side in a rough manner. At first he was trying to process what just happened, then he was slowly reaching a hand up and patting her back uncomfortably. How was he supposed to react?
“Craig! It's been soooo long since I’ve seen you!” Bebe said, her grip practically suffocating him. She was hella strong for someone so short.
“Bebe,” he barely managed. “Calm down... you're like, crushing my bones or something.” Craig basically had to pry her off him to break free from the tight hug. Bebe stumbled back slightly before steadying herself, hand reaching up to rub the side of her neck with a half apologetic look present on her face.
“Sorry, just excited to see you.”
“I would’ve never been able to figure that on my own. Gee thanks.”
“Same attitude,” she commented, looking him up and down for a moment. “Same fashion taste too, and you're still wearing that freaking hat!” Bebe tugged the front of his chullo down to cover his eyes, an annoyed groan escaping his lips.
“Watch it,” He muttered, fixing his chullo. He was way too attached to that thing, it was ridiculous. Ever since high school after he got a new replacement hat, the thing was quite literally glued to his head and only taken off when completely necessary. He even went out of his way to teach himself how to hand sew and watched D.I.Y tutorials to make his hat bigger once it was starting to shrink on him.
“It's been what? Eight, nine years now?” Damn, has it really been that long? He’s never really considered that now that he thought about it. It's nearly been a decade since he had this stupid thing on his head.
“I knew that hat had a weird musty smell…” Wendy spoke quietly. Craig ignored that of course. “Do you sleep in it too?” she asked.
“I do, actually. Most of the time.”
“Not surprised. I wouldn't even be surprised if you told me you showered in it too.”
“No, I don't. I’m not crazy.”
He could see Bebe giving him the side-eye from the corner of his eye at that statement, while Wendy’s eyes widened a bit.
“Not that crazy.” He quickly corrected it. God, he felt like a fucking celebrity being interviewed, except it was about his years old hat.
“Okay, okay,” Bebe suddenly began. “Let's go. I wanted to take you two out, remember? So let's go instead of wasting our time.” She was already heading towards the door.
“Right… okay,” Wendy agreed, walking through the door Bebe was holding open. Craig made sure to take any of his rubbish that he left on the floor before making his own way to the door. As Craig was about to, Bebe let go of the door to let the door slam on Craig. With a sigh, he pulled the door open to let himself through.
“The fuck was that for?” He asked, though he had a feeling it was revenge for closing the door on Wendy before. Petty bastard.
There was no response from either of them, the two already being a few steps ahead of Craig, as he jogged lightly to catch up, tossing his rubbish away as he did. He decided not to say anything more due to them already being lost in their own conversation. If he had to guess, it was probably about makeup, shopping, girl stuff.
It was only when he was getting closer to the lobby-reception area did he start to get worried. Was Anna—or whatever her name was—going to attempt to grab his number again?
“Hey, Craig!” An annoyingly familiar voice called out, making sure to extend the length of every word. God damn it, it was none other than Annie. He couldn't hold back anymore and just flipped her off whilst they walked past the reception counter, collective gasps coming from both Annie and Jenny.
“Knock it off, Annie,” Wendy scolded.
Craig was trying his hardest not to make eye contact as they finally made it outside. It wasn't as cold as it was when it was earlier in the morning which he was grateful for. Even with his chullo and jacket, he could still feel the breeze through the fabric when it was early morning.
They walked and walked until they were in front of a white sedan. He knew this wasn't the car he and Wendy had rode in.
“Give me a minute,” Bebe mumbled. She pulled out the car keys to the car from her purse and clicked on a button, the car lights flashing twice with a beep, indicating that the car was now unlocked. “Get in the back, Craig,” She said over her shoulder.
Craig begrudgingly agreed, watching the two girls get in the front. He himself got in the back, getting comfy before reaching out to grab the handle and pull the door closed. He drew the seatbelt over his chest and secured it with a sharp click. While he was doing this, Wendy and Bebe were playing around with the car infotainment screen and debating on what song they wanted to play. In his opinion, music wasn't that important, especially when it was being debated over like right now. Couldn’t they just pick something and go already? Still, he zipped his mouth shut, not wanting to interfere.
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It had been a good five minutes now and it felt more like they were admiring the cool features of the car rather than whatever they were doing before. Before, Bebe was worrying about them wasting time, now she and Wendy are taking their precious time. The hypocrisy. Craig felt like sleeping—he wanted to sleep. God, he wishes he had slept more before getting on the plane and during the plane ride to South Park. It didn't help that he was packing at four in the morning, two hours before he was supposed to board the plane. He was almost certain he had forgotten something back at home, not that he knew what it was.
Finally, the car began to move and Craig felt a sense of relief wash through him. It was about time they got out of here.