Butters' heart beats hard in his thin chest and he can feel the bile beginning to form in the back of his throat. If he was going to throw up, he kind of wished it would happen already, but dinner remained an uncomfortably heavy lump in his stomach that sometimes flip-flopped at the most inopportune moments. His mother had cooked meatloaf tonight – Butters' favorite – but he was so nervous about the dance that he barely tasted it. Going through the family meal had been downright distressing. Butters did most of the conversation at dinnertime, taking his parents' feigned interest as genuine encouragement as he chatted about school, the stupid shows he watched on TV, the news. local, everything and nothing. He talked so much that he often found himself babbling, one unrelated non-sequitur flowing seamlessly into the next, until he no longer even had the slightest idea what he was talking about. Butters didn't mind. He liked to talk, and it was better than the alternative: silently consuming Mom's special meatloaf while desperately trying to pretend there were no oceans between them. Butters was doing his best to keep up appearances, but he was just too preoccupied. Twenty minutes later, Linda Stotch finally noticed him, her gaze focusing on her only son. “Honey, is everything okay?” Butters had jumped in alarm, realizing belatedly that he had been silently staring at his plate for several minutes. Stupid. “Y-yeah, mom! I'm doing well. I'm doing really well, really! » “Are you sure?” You look a little...tired. » “You're starting to see dark circles there. » Stephen observed, scrutinizing Butters closely. It seemed like the only time his parents spoke these days was when they were discussing Butters' latest report... in the middle of a newspaper... he was asleep, building up his energy to deal with what Eric Cartman had in him. store for him, but he was too excited to sleep. Butters was floating in a state of euphoria that he wasn't sure he ever wanted to wake up from. He was sitting on the floor next to his bed, a small, stunned smile on his face. In his hands was $2,500, his share of the prize money the Titty Twisters received after sweeping the dance. It had been two hours, and he still couldn't believe it. Butters carefully stuffed the money into his backpack, then stuffed it under the bed. He quickly reconsidered his decision and ended up stuffing the money deep into the mattress, where it would stay until he could find a better place to hide it. Satisfied, Butters found himself reaching for his journal, skipping over the last few entries on a blank sheet of paper. Ben Affleck Entry/:We won.We won.