Human!stuck high school AU (which hopefully turns out okay), fictitious locations (Skaia is a city; Derse and Prospit are largely accepted as separate districts of southern Skaia. There is a slice of the city (a shopping place, newsstand, cafés and thrift stores, leads into other parts of the city etc.) in between the two districts that neither claims.) They have well-known names even though they technically don't live on our version of Earth shhhh…
Pepper Mallory – Parcel Mistress/Peregrine Mendicant
William Vanderbilt – Wayweary Villein/Wayward Vagabond
Antonio Ramirez – Authority Regulator/Aimless Renegade
Daniel Daniels – Draconian Dignitary/Diamonds Droog
Harold Babinski – Hegemonic Brute/Hearts Boxars
Calvin Dailey – Courtyard Droll/Clubs Deuce
Jack Noir/Spades Slick – Jack Noir/Spades Slick
Primary ships: PM/DD, AR/Terezi Pyrope, Karkat Vantas/Terezi Pyrope, Possible WV/Sollux Captor
Chapter One
Pepper Mallory was feeling great today—more than great, actually. The fourteen-year-old girl was absolutely ecstatic, even as she kneeled down in the pouring rain, trying to unlock her bicycle from the rack in front of the Border Newsstand. Tomorrow, she'd start her job of delivering papers throughout the district of Derse—a district in the southern part of Skaia City. Her mother was a little reluctant to let her take the job, knowing that her route was in Derse, a more crime-infested area than the mostly peaceful district of Prospit, but Pepper assured her mother all would be well. Her mother also didn't like that fact that she was attending a Dersite high school, but Pepper begged and begged if only to attend school with her best friends William and Antonio.
Pepper giggled, pocketed a piece of paper with the newsstand owner's contact information and her route map and pedaled off down the slippery roads that threatened to tip her over. The traffic was a little heavier in this strip of town this evening as the workers traveled home and people did their evening shopping. This street—Dy Avenue—extended from the north part of Reloj through southern Skaia, also serving as a divide between the established districts of Derse and Prospit. Pepper, Antonio and William (when he was willing to come out of the basement) often enjoyed the small shops and cafés on this avenue during carefree summer days and weekends. She hoped William wasn't upset that he wouldn't be able to expand and manage his "Can Town" as often after this last summer weekend.
As she pedaled down the rain slicked streets wistful thoughts of school and friends and her new job whirled around in her head. Maybe before going home—she veered her bike to the left, narrowly missed the edge of the sidewalk and stopped pedaling as she went downhill. The area she ventured into became bleaker as she rode on—the houses standing shoulder to shoulder and the apartment complexes tall and brick. Trash littered the main streets of the Dersite District, sodden and smelly from the rain. A boy gave her a solemn look out of the corner of his eye as he walked down the street carrying a plastic bag full of something. Pepper gazed back at him wonderingly. The screech of car breaks sound and with a shriek, she quickly swerved to the side. She heard the angered slurs from the man in the vehicle as her front bike wheel hit the sidewalk's edge and ejected her from the seat of her bike. Her body hit the ground with a wet slap, pain springing up in her right arm and ringing through her head. With a groan, she sat herself up, opening her eyes slowly. The boy gave her one last solemn look and continued his trek down the street.
It took Pepper a moment to gather herself before she stood up and picked up her bicycle. How could I be so careless? she thought. Maybe I got a little too excited. At least her bike wasn't broken, but she wasn't sure she wanted to get back on. Oh well, she thought, a walk in the rain sounds nice anyhow. She continued walking down the road with her bicycle. The apartment complexes, shop buildings and business buildings were tall and sad-looking as the rain darkened the brick. Somehow, what looked lovely in Prospit appeared so dreary in Derse, and visa-versa.
Finally, she entered a neighborhood—the houses modest and plain, much like her own neighborhood, but with a stranger colour scheme. She reached a house with a cyan roof and a brown exterior, parked her bike by the gate and knocked on the front door. Footsteps stomped throughout the house and stopped at the door. A woman opened the door a crack and peaked out. After a few seconds of examining the figure standing outside, she opened the door fully and said, "Come in." Her expression was cold and apathetic, her voice lethargic. Pepper followed Ms. Vanderbilt inside.
"Thank you. How are you today, Ms. Vanderbilt?" Pepper asked, giving the woman a weak smile. Ms. Vanderbilt gave her a blank stare that deeply unnerved the girl. "My mom's been going on…what's it called? Auto-pilot? She's been going on auto-pilot lately. She's probably growing old." The woman stared at her for another moment before slowly replying, "Fine. William is in the basement." Then, she quietly padded back into the kitchen, her shoulders hunched up to her ears. Pepper looked after her sympathetically, pursing her lips together before walking in the direction of the basement. She descended down the stairs into the dimly lit area. The basement had a large space, a bathroom, two extra rooms and even a kitchen. It could definitely serve as an apartment. They tried that tactic before—renting out this space, but it ended in disaster. Now, the basement was William's space.
The door to one of the rooms stood ajar. Pepper walked in on William drawing more planets on the wall with chalk. He hummed to himself and tapped his fingers in a 1-2 beat against the back of his neck.
"Hey, Will," she called out. The boy arched his back and stopped colouring.
"Mal," William replied, tilting his head to the side. Pepper loved her nickname.
"Sorry for dropping in unannounced," she replied, except she wasn't sorry. She was excited. "How are you?"
"Good. Hey, grab that chalk over there." Pepper stifled a giggle.
"Where?" she asked.
"The chalk. Over there. Top shelf," William replied, jabbing his thumb to the left. She turned and saw a shelf full of books and art supplies. She walked over, took the box of chalk off of the top shelf and brought it over to him.
"Here you go," she said, handing the chalk to him, "Do you want me to help you?" William nodded his head and passed her a blue piece of chalk. Pepper accepted it and started colouring in the sky. "Your mum…how are you two doing?" William stopped colouring with the chalk and looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
"She's just sad today. Don't worry about it, Mal," he replied. He continued filling in the planets. As he concentrated, his mouth twitched and moved.
"I got the job," Pepper announced.
"What?" the boy replied.
"I got the job for the paper route," she said. William grinned.
"A REAL delivery girl now, right?" he congratulated, smiling wide enough to show all of his teeth. Pepper laughed and echoed, "A real delivery girl."
/ + /
The streets of Derse were lonely, even as cars sped to their destinations, rubber screeching against the wet streets as cars sharply turned corners. Everyone here drives like lunatics, the boy brooded as he walked with a plastic bag in hand. He walked through an alleyway, stopping when a piece of plastic got stuck under his boot. He tore it off in disgust and discarded it into the plastic bag. And so much trash. He continued walking. It's disgusting. He picked up any piece of trash that he happened to find on his walk through the city. Soggy or moldy, dry or crusty, the boy didn't care. He didn't know what drove him to do it—he just did. It may've been to make something in his life just a tad more beautiful. No amount of cleaning up will ever make this town a nice place. Rain poured down and pelted his short shaggy brown hair. He pierced the clouds with his narrow brown eyes, expression fogged over. Then, after a few wasted moments, he continued on. A girl on a bicycle flew past him. He stared at her as he walked. He noted how bright her green eyes were as she rode down the street grinning with a lovely thin-lipped smile. He noted how her almost white hair that could be no more than shoulder-length tangled between the fingers of the wind. He noted how tightly she gripped onto the bike handles. However, these things didn't stop him from thinking that she was careless and probably utterly stupid. He didn't expect the girl to glance back at him, much less to show interest. Then, a car came rushing down the road and the girl crashed into the sidewalk.
Daniel would've helped her if it was in his nature. He looked back at her, actually contemplating helping her up, but chose to walk away instead. As he wandered, picking up more trash, he found the girl constantly recurring in his mind. A smile played at his lips, just barely. I guess I was wrong. You can find beauty in this town.