Beep! Beep! Beep!
John Egbert woke with a start, slamming his hand on his alarm clock to shut it up. Groaning, he sat up, and peered groggily around, before remembering to put on his glasses. The world jolted into focus, and he stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom. He rushed back out shortly after, remembering what today was.
It was the first day of school. The first day of normalcy after the whole Sburb incident, in which he and his friends had faced countless dangers, and survived them all. Jack Noir had been defeated once and for all, Lord English was no more, and the kids could finally go back to a normal high school life.
Well, almost normal.
While Kanaya was busy trying to revive the troll race, a few of the trolls had wanted to try something new: human school. Karkat, Vriska, and Terezi would be going to the same high school as John, Dave, Rose, and Jade. John thought it would be amazingly fun, especially since he still had a thing for Vriska. I mean come on; she never dated him,she dated his alternate self. He was older and wiser now, a powerful demigod with the powers of wind. The thought made him smile. If only the other kids at school knew.
John hadn't been to school for years, but now he was back to start his junior year. They had all thought it best to all live in the same area, in a small town completely separate from where any of them had lived before. Although all of their parental figures were deceased, they had decided to live on their own. Besides, they were all almost 18 anyway. After all they'd been through, what were a few forged documents?
John dressed quickly in the uniform for Nortlock Academy. It hadn't been his idea to go to a private school, but Jade thought the uniforms were cute. He would do anything for his sister. He wondered how Karkat was doing in the next room over. He couldn't hear anything, and wondered if maybe Karkat was still asleep. He knew Dave was awake on the other side, since he could hear the boom of his radio playing. Dave always listened to music in the mornings, and really any other time.
Dressed and ready to go, John headed out of his room. He stopped, considering going to make sure Karkat was awake. Sighing, he knocked on Karkat's door.
"Hey, Karkat! You up?" he called.
Silence.
"I'm coming in!" he yelled, and then opened the door.
The room was completely dark and John flicked the lights on so he wouldn't trip on anything. Glancing around, he didn't see Karkat. What the heck? Then he remembered that trolls sleep inside a recuperacoon, the big purple grub-looking thing in the corner of Karkat's room. The green slime inside was moving slightly, and John guessed that Karkat was most likely still sleeping inside. He went over to the recuperacoon, but stopped, unsure how he was supposed to wake Karkat up without touching the disgusting slime. Seeing no other way, John stuck his hand inside with a squelch, fishing around inside for Karkat. His hand touched on something slick, but he couldn't tell what it was since it all felt the same under all that slime. Nonetheless, he shook whatever it was, hoping Karkat would just hurry up and wake up.
It took a moment, but finally Karkat surfaced.
"What the hell, Egbert!" he growled, slapping John's hand away.
"Sorry Karkat, but you need to get up or you'll be late for the first day of school!" John explained, back away from the recuperacoon and wiping his hand on his pants. Ew. Slime.
"Well fuck you, I can get myself up! Go away!" Karkat yelled.
John noticed that his face was all red. Wait, did trolls even wear pajamas to sleep? Just to make sure, John backed closer to the door.
"Sorry, Karkat, I'll go. Just don't fall back asleep!" he called, already heading out the door.
John rushed downstairs, hoping to forget that whole incident. Awkward.
Downstairs, Jade was already up, making breakfast with... Terezi? Terezi was at the stove, receiving instructions from Jade on how to make eggs.
Walking up to them, John asked, "Um, should Terezi be cooking? She's blind."
Jade looked at him for a moment, then turned to Terezi. "I can't believe I forgot! Uh, why don't you just sit at the table while I make the food?" she asked Terezi, looking apologetic.
"Damn. No one ever lets me cook..." Terezi muttered, complying and sitting at the table.
Jade shrugged at John. "Oops. Thanks, John. That could've been... bad," she said quietly, so Terezi wouldn't hear.
John chuckled. "No problem. Want me to help?"
"Sure! Can you make eggs?"
"Yeah, here." John took the supplies from Jade. He cracked an egg into a bowl. "But, uh, I can only make scrambled eggs," he admitted.
Jade smiled. "That's okay. I'm making pancakes, too."
"Yes!" a voice said from behind them.
Jade and John spun around to find Dave, pumping his fist. "I love pancakes," he said.
Dave was already in his school uniform, although it looked... modified. Instead of the usual white shirt and black blazer, Dave had done away with the blazer all together and rolled the sleeves up to show off his muscles. Not that they were all that big, but they were more impressive than when he was 13. All that imp-slaying sure gave you a workout. John noticed that Dave's pants weren't the uniform pants, but his own skinny jeans.
"Hey, Dave! You can't wear skinny jeans, you gotta wear the uniform right," John admonished.
Dave shrugged. "No one will notice. They're black, too," he said.
John sighed. "Whatever, but if you get in trouble, it's your ass, not mine."
Dave only grinned, and sat down at the table next to Terezi. They started chatting, and John noticed how happy Dave looked when he was talking to her. He smiled, and started whisking the eggs.
"What are you smiling about?" Jade asked.
John shook his head, his smile growing. "Dave and Terezi. I don't know why they don't just go out together yet, they're so great together!"
"Hmm, one could say the same about you and Vriska," Jade countered with a wink.
John coughed, suddenly intent on his whisking. "If she felt the same way about me..."
"Aw, come on," Jade said, patting him on the back. "Even I can see that she likes you."
John didn't reply. He poured the egg mess into the pan and waited for it to cook.
It was just at that moment that Rose finally came downstairs. John wasn't sure, but she looked a little unhappy. He guessed that it was probably because Kanaya wasn't there. She had important work to do, to make a new Alternia, and hadn't been able to attend school with the rest of them. Rose had wanted to stay with Kanaya, but they had all convinced her to go to school with the rest of them, insisting that it was no fun without her. She had consented, but had also promised Kanaya that she would visit every weekend.
Rose plopped down at the table, as far away from Dave and Terezi as possible. Dave and Terezi didn't even acknowledge her, too engrossed were they in their conversation. Rose didn't seem to mind, however, and pulled out a copy of "War and Peace" to occupy her time with. This made John smile. She was always reading those enormous volumes of hers. He thought back to the time Karkat had made that shipping chart, saying that John and Rose should be together. What a dork. Of course that would never work. Rose was really more of a sister to John. An older sister, who was far more intelligent than he could ever hope to be.
"First batch of pancakes are ready!" Jade called out, brandishing a plate stacked with pancakes. She plopped several onto Dave and Terezi's plates, then moved to give some to Rose.
John looked down at the eggs he was making. In his ponderings, he had neglected the eggs a bit, and they were slightly crusting on one side. He scrambled them a bit, and flipped them to cook the other side. Oh well.
Vriska dashed down the stairs, nearly running into the table in her haste. "Are those pancakes? Sweet!" she exclaimed, smacking down onto the chair across from Rose.
Jade smiled. "Here you go!" she said, dropping the last of the pancakes onto her plate. "I'll make more," she promised.
"The eggs are ready, too," John said, moving to give everyone a fair share of them. He even set out Jade, Karkat, and his own plates. Done with his cooking, he sat down next to Vriska. He smiled in her direction, hoping to catch her eye, but she was too busy scarfing down pancakes to notice.
Jade finished the second batch of pancakes-which ended up being twice as plentiful as the first-and sat down next to Rose to eat.
"Hey, where's Karkat?" Jade asked, looking around.
"Probably still sleeping. I tried waking him up," John told her with a shrug.
Jade let out an exasperated sound. "Well, he's going to make us all late for school. Speaking of which, who's driving?"
Terezi's hand shot into the air. "I will!"
"Tez, you can't even see the road," Dave pointed out.
"And knowing you, you would probably tryto run people over, just to smell they're stupid blood," Vriska put in.
John stifled a laugh, and even Jade smiled.
"Hey!" Terezi said indignantly. "If anything, you'd be the one to run people over, what with your obsession with killing people *cough* Tavros. Should we even be letting you into the human school? Doesn't seem very safe to me!"
Vriska scowled and opened her mouth to retort, but Jade cut in. "Guys! Calm down. No one is killing anybody. After all that business with Jack murdering everyone, I'd think you guys would be a little more respectful."
Everyone was silent, and Terezi and Vriska even had the decency to look ashamed. Just then, Karkat finally walked into the room.
"What the fuck is everyone yelling about?" he grumbles, plopping down across from Terezi. John noticed that his uniform... wasn't even on. He was wearing his usual shirt with his sign, and black pants.
"Karkat! Finally you're up. I was just about to go get you," Jade said from where she sat next to him.
"Whatever. What the hell are these things?" he asked, holding up a pancake between two fingers like it was something the cat had dragged in. Or dog.
"Please tell me you know what a fucking pancake is," Dave said.
"Of course I don't! Stupid aliens," Karkat muttered.
"Karkat. We do have pancakes on Alternia," Terezi said in a no-duh voice.
"Yeah... didn't your lusus ever make you any?" Vriska put in.
Karkat's face gets redder with rage. "Maybe I just don't like to eat stupid things! Gog." Karkat pushed his plate away from him, slamming it into Terezi's plate.
"Hey! Watch it!" Terezi yelled, pushing the plate back at Karkat.
The plate slid off the table, depositing its contents all over Karkat's clothing.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" Karkat yelled angrily, leaping up from the table. "DAMMIT HOW MANY OUTFITS DO YOU THINK I HAVE?!"
"Karkat, calm down, I don't think it was on purpose," Jade said, trying to placate him.
"Yes, and you can just go put on your school uniform," John suggested.
Karkat stormed upstairs without another word.
The kitchen was silent for a moment. Finally, Rose put in, "Well. That escalated quickly."