They had told him to relax. It was only high school. It wasn't like he was on death row. But according to Eridan Ampora, that was a complete lie. He clutched the strap of his shoulder bag as he scurried down the hall, lock in hand as he went to claim his assigned locker. He made it down the hall without attracting any attention, and soon he was putting a few notebooks inside, hanging up his jacket and slapping the lock on with a clang. He shrunk at the noise, looking around as he saw that no heads had turned to see him. Eridan hung up a small mirror and puffed up his cheeks, glaring at his reflection. Eridan had no real use for a mirror, but it had come with the locker pack his older brother had bought for him, and he figured that if Cronus Ampora had spent the money buying it, he might as well use it.

He checked his reflection and glared at it. In the mirror was a lightly tanned male with brown eyes gazing back at him behind hipster glasses. At least his were prescription. Eridan glared down his straight nose as his eyes scanned over the sharp jawline and thin face in the mirrow. He ran a hand through his black and purple hair, removing some of the strands that had fallen in his eyes, though they seemed to just fall back into place. He let out a soft groan, slamming his locker door, surprising the girl on the other side.

She was short, only reaching his shoulders, but that didn't say much since Eridan was probably taller than most of the people he had seen. Long, curly brown waves hung to her hips and amber doe eyes greeted him. She was only a few shaded tanner than him, and she wore black pants and a black shirt. A blue and green jacket was tied around her waist, and around her neck were piles upon piles of colorful necklaces. A pair of goggles were used as a headband.

"Hi there," she said. Her smile was bright and cheerful.

"Hello," he said, making an attempt at a smile that he was sure looked as forced as it was. His nervousness seemed to get the better of him, because her expression faltered and his smile dropped.

She pouted a bit. "No, no, I'm sorry. Nervous, huh?"

"A little, yes," he said, leaning against the lockers. He was speaking much slower than he normally did, trying to disguise the British accent that threatened to crawl up his throat as well as the God-awful stutter that came up on his W's and V's. As if being the new kid wasn't stressful enough, he was the new kid from the UK who's father's new wife made him and his brother the newest members of the Serket family, and according to the vicious younger sister, Vriska, the school would be swarming the British Ampora men the same way her mother swarmed his father. Eridan shivered a bit at the thought.

"Feferi Peixes," she said, extending her hand. He shook it, a small smile forming again on his face as he said, "Eridan Ampora. Nice to meet you." The accent slipped a bit, but he was able to regain himself while carefully choosing his words.

Her eyes seemed to brighten with curiosity. "You're Eridan Ampora?"

"Yes," he said, a little wary at her expression. "Did you hear somethin' about me? I bet it was V-Vris." There went hiding the accent and stutter.

She only seemed to giggle. "Nothing awful, I promise. Vriska just told us you were her new step-brother."

"She has tw-wo you know-w," he said. "My older brother Cronus."

"Cronus? What an interesting name," she said softly, continuing to play with her hair. "Well, what's your first class?"

He shrugged, pulling his schedule out of his bag and giving it a glare before saying, "History. At least it's a class I'm good at."

"You like history?" She asked, gesturing with a tilt of her head that he should follow her.

Eridan nodded. "I like w-war."

"Well then," she said, puffing up her cheeks.

He mentally smacked himself. "That's not w-what I meant."

"Then what did you mean, Eridan?"

"I like learnin' about it," he said. "History in general, but I like the conflict. W-War in history is like Indiana Jones an' that stupid, giant boulder. History is like a book series, an' w-war is the climax."

She paused a moment to think this over. "Make sense," she finally said, stopping outside the history classroom. "Speaking of your class, here we are. I can meet you back here if you want, and we can walk to class together."

"No," he said politely. "I think I can handle it. I'll see you around, perhaps?"

"Most likely," she said with a wave before she headed off in the opposite direction. He sighed. At least he had made a friend, and he'd have someone to talk to if all else failed. He slumped into his class and went up to the board where a piece of paper had their seating chart. He looked at the names of his fellow classmates. He sat with Dave Strider, Karkat Vantas and Sollux Captor. He headed over to his table, where he saw the three boys already talking and laughing. One was pale with golden hair, freckles and sunglasses. One was much smaller than the others two, with scruffy black hair, grey eyes and a round face.

As for the last boy, he was a bit on the weird side. He was of Japanese descent, Eridan observed. Upon closer examination as Eridan moved closer to the messy-haired boy, he saw the boy had one blue eye, and one amber-red. He had thin glasses perched on his nose, their colored lenses matching his eyes, one blue and one red. His shoes were mismatched, one white and one black. Other than that, he wore a yellow tee shirt with a normal pair of jeans, but Eridan couldn't really look past the glasses and shoes. First impressions were everything, and this boy certainly seemed the make one.

Sitting down seemed to make conversation stop as the three men all snapped their heads in Eridan's direction. Eridan's gaze switched between each of them as his cheeks became a soft pink. The kid in the glasses tilted them down to look Eridan up and down with his ruby red eyes. Albino, perhaps, Eridan thought.

"What's your name?"

"Eridan Ampora."

The guy with the glasses only nodded, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over red tee shirt. The small one in the middle grumbled, "Excuse my fuckass friend's extreme inability to uphold one single conversation."

"It's no problem," Eridan said, grabbing a pencil and one of his notebooks out of his backpack.

"Dave Strider," said the man behind the shades, tilting them down to look at Eridan before giving his hair a flip and glaring at the middle guy. "There, Karkat. I gave my name and was hospitable. Can you shut up now?"

"Okay, you tw-wo, don't start this," Eridan said, trying to keep peace. The two looked at him while the third had opened up a GameBoy and had begun playing. Eridan continued, "It's nice to meet you, Dave. And you said your name was Karkat, yes?"

"Yeah, dumbass," Karkat said.

"And you say I'm rude," Dave said. Eridan couldn't tell if he was truly offended or not. The shades were too dark.

Karkat leaned forward. "Well obviously the guy is a dumbass if he can't think for five seconds before remembering my name."

"That didn't even make sense. It made less sense than algebra."

"Have you ever thought that my words and algebra are hard for you because you're fucking retarded? Seriously! I've never met a more idiotic imbecile in my life. More shit spews out of your food hole than out of a normal person's ass."

"You guyth are aware that you both thound like thhit heads and are probably freaking out the new guy, right?" The third boy, who Eridan had deuced was Sollux Captor, spoke up, glaring at his two best friends. "I'm thorry for thethe two idiotths, Eridan. Thollux Captor."

"Nice to meet you," Eridan said, taking note of the lisp in Sollux's speech. "I take it you all hav-ve been prev-viously acquainted?"

Dave just stared at Eridan before answering, "Yeah. We were all in middle school together." Eridan felt like he struck a chord with Dave, considering how the other male was hostile and how he happened to be watching every move Eridan made. With a small gulp, Eridan turned his gaze to the teacher, jotting down important notes here and there, and dealing with the traditional "ice-breakers" schools would always throw at him. He jotted down the requirements, handed them in, watched the games but never spoke up, and then packed up to leave. It was basically the same drill for each class. The teacher would introduce themselves, go over the syllabus and then play a few games.

Eridan didn't end up making many friends. Feferi had introduced him to Nepeta Leijon and Equius Zahhak. Nepeta seemed to be wary of Eridan, choosing to talk to Feferi rather than him. At least Equius spoke with Eridan on the occasions when he got bored of Nepeta and Feferi's lady-talk.

As Eridan sat there, he glanced around the cafeteria, only to see Dave, Karkat and a few other all gathered at one table. Sollux was in the middle of it all, laughing and talking with his friends. Among the throng was Vriska. Looking away, Eridan saw his brother, who was with a few of the friends that he had made. Despite the fact that Eridan was better with love when he actually got it, Cronus was better at actually going out and getting the interest of people. Of course, he was the only guy dressed up like a greaser in the entire school.

"W-wow-w," Eridan said to himself.

Feferi glanced up, raising an eyebrow. "What's up, Eridan?"

"Oh, nothin', really. Just my brother seems to really be hitting it off with his friends," Eridan said, shifting his gaze back and forth between Cronus and Feferi.

"Oh, so your brother is the one Meenah has been telling me about! She was right. He really does dress like he belongs in the nineteen-fifties," Feferi said, giggling to herself.

"That greaser is your brother?" Equius asked. Eridan nodded, and excused himself to go speak with his brother a moment. Approaching the group, Cronus caught sight of his younger brother and beckoned him closer before pulling Eridan into a headlock and giving his hair an affectionate ruffle. Eridan laughed and managed to get away, pulling his hair back again.

"Vwhat's up, little man?"

"Oh, nothin' much. Just w-wanted to come ov-ver and say hi," Eridan said. He looked over Cronus's shoulder, and saw Aranea. He waved to the older Skeret girl, who smiled and waved back before going back to talking to a girl with two long braids. Cronus introduced him around, saying Eridan was his kid brother from across the pond. Eridan only rolled his eyes and gave Cronus a light shove, then he met Latula Pyrope and Kankri Vantas.

"Hey, you wouldn't happen to have a little brother, w-would you?" Eridan asked.

Kankri nodded. "Karkat, though he and I don't get along as well as you and your brother do."

"I hav-ve Karkat in my history class," Eridan said with a smile. "He's a loud one."

Kankri laughed. "At least you don't live with him."

After a bit more small talk, Eridan bid farewell to his brother and the group before heading back to his friends. Equius had already left for the gym, but Nepeta and Feferi were giggling and talking like they were when he left. Sitting back down, Eridan joined in the conversation where he could.

Little did he know, there was a pair of bicolored eyes that continued to watch him, and those eyes were not alone, as red seemed to also follow the black and purple haired Brit, both like hungry hawks looking at their prey.