Sollux ran down the hallway, desperate to get to his dorm before his roommate did. This was a daily race between the two. Whoever got there first owned the TV remote for the night. It was a silly race but they didn't care. It was fun and put a little excitement to their boring routine. When Sollux got to the dorm, he tried to unlock the door, but found that it was already open. Karkat was casually laying on his bed with the remote in his hand. "Took you long enough." he said, smirking.

Sollux cursed under his breath,"My thtupid teacher wouldn't let uth out on time becauthe John wouldn't thtop talking to Dave."

Karkat blushed a little at the mention of the buck-toothed human, Sollux took note of this and grinned, "I thought you were over him."

"Sh-shut your annoying as fuck lisping mouth! He-He..." Karkat gave up trying to finish the sentence and rolled to where he was facing Sollux.

Sollux rolled his eyes and went to go change shirts. He had been expecting Aradia to call him. They had been dating for a few months but were separated when he went to college on a scholarship and she couldn't. Her foster parents had finally gotten enough money for the first year for her to go and Aradia was accepted into the same college as him.

Wow, what a coincidence!

Sollux cooked up his ramen and walked to his bed and plopped down. He looked at the TV to see what today's romcom torture was. "Thekth in the Thity? Are you actually theriouth, KK?" He looked at his best friend. Karkat barely nodded, he was too interested in the story to care about what Sollux said.

Sollux sighed. Typical life. He usually lost the race to the dorm. Karkat and Sollux had only one class at the same time and it was both their last class of the day. "I gueth I'll go hang out with FF, your girly tv show ith giving me a major headache..."

"Your pathetic excuse of a brain has been reduced to sludge after all those weeks spent shitting around on a computer. You wouldn't understand the perfectness of Sex in the City. Have fun with the fish swimming freak. I'll start trying to worry about you if you're not back by ten."

Sollux smiled and walked out of the dorm. Karkat was a good friend even though he had a hard time showing any other emotion besides a negative one. Sollux walked out of the building and went towards the more expensive ones. Feferi's foster parents were national champion swimmers and were very rich. Feferi was expected to go to some great college in Europe or Asia but choosing the University of Florida made a little sense, too. Florida being a state known for swimming with all the beaches surrounding it. She was the top swimmer of her swim team and she had a perfect body that all the girls wanted and all the guys wanted to touch. It made Sollux quietly laugh to himself everytime he saw a guy try to make a move on her. Little did they know of her, and his, secret. It was all of the kids with the weird attire and names' secret, really. They all had moved to Earth after the game was over and the Beta kids had moved to where they were either in Gainesville as them or pretty close to it. All the younger trolls were adopted by the most loving parents that could be found. Only Aradia and Vriska were living farther off with their foster parents. Aradia in Mississippi, and Vriska in Tennessee. Equius helped both of them with hiding their obvious trollian parts.

After moving to Earth, the trolls obviously stuck out like a sore thumb. Sollux and Equius teamed up to disguise everyone. Kanaya worked on understanding fashion so the trolls would look better in the clothing department. She didn't think their zodiac signs on their shirts were going to cut if they wore it everyday. Sollux and Equius made some strange gadget that hid the grey skin and horns from human eyes. Of course the Beta kids still saw the trolls as they were, and Sollux programmed it to be that way. Sollux and Equius were stumped on how to hide the blood color so every troll was told to try to not to bleed, cry, blush, or give away their odd body fluid colors in public.

The only troll to almost give away their color was Nepeta. She was with Equius and he accidentally rub her head too hard in the hallway, causing her to bleed a little. Equius safely got her to Feferi and all was well.

Speaking of Feferi, Sollux was knocking on her door. He thought he heard screaming but decided it was just the voices in his head. Feferi finally answered the door. She looked a bit mad and her cheeks were flushed pink. Feferi's expression softened when she saw Sollux. "Oh! Hey Sollux!" she giggled as she moved backwards a little. "Please come in!"

Sollux smiled and walked in, "Hey, FF. Thorry that I came on thuch short notithe. KK wath watching thome crappy TV show and I couldn't handle lithening to it."

Feferi smiled. She went to go get Sollux a jar of honey, like she always did when he came over. Sollux had put a jar of honey in all of his friends' houses for when he came over, he'd have something to eat that wouldn't inconvenience them. He sat down and looked around. She had a pretty awesome dorm. It was basically like an apartment. She decorated it like it was under the sea. She even had a humongous fish tank with three cuttlefish in it. Sollux looked down the hallway to see a strange sight. The biggest douchebag was sitting in a corner, moping. "Uh. FF?" Sollux looked at the ex-troll who was standing on her tip-toes to get the honey.

"Are you aware of the pompouth hipthter thitting and crying in your hallway?"

She sighed, "Eridan is in timeout... Don't talk to him, ok?"

Sollux burst out laughing. Eridan? In time out? He's 19! Feferi puted when she saw Sollux dying a little on the floor in a fit of laughter. "Shoosh, Sollux! Eridan doesn't need you laughing at him!"

"I-I'm gonna die, FF!" Sollux was clutching his lungs while laughing just a bit more. Once he stopped and looked down the hallway, he saw royal purple eyes framed in hipster shades glaring in his direction. "I-"

"No talking Eridan or I'll add an extra 10 minutes!"

He scowled and went back to staring at the corner. Sollux stood up on his shaky legs and walked to Feferi, still smiling like an idiot. She succeeded in getting the jar and handed it to Sollux. He opened the lid and stuck his finger in. "Tho how have your clatheth been?"

She groaned and did a little pout dance to express her frustration. "Insufferable! The only time my classes are good is when Nepeta is in them..."

Sollux sighed, "I can relate to that... I have KK and John in an engineering clath but it'th not very fun watching KK attempt to flirt with John and fail."

Feferi smiled and nodded, "I think he's getting closer to actually flirting with John! I have faith in Karkrab..." She went to check on Eridan.

Sollux sucked on his finger and thought about Aradia. He missed her so much and couldn't wait to see her again. She hadn't called in a few weeks and Sollux was getting nervous, and actually a little pissed off. He had decided she stopped talking to him because she was cheating. The thought of her with someone else made his psionics go off a little. "FF..." he started.

"Yes?" Feferi looked at the dual-eye colored boy.

"Have you heard from AA lately?"

Feferi froze where she was and turned to look at Sollux. Pink tears filled in her eyes. "Sollux... Out of everyone... How the glubbing hell do you not know?"

Sollux cocked his head, "Know what? All I know ith that she hathn't rethponded to my callth or tekth or even letterth!"

He looked at Feferi as Eridan came walking up. "Aradia is-"

Feferi put smacked her hand over his mouth and looked at Sollux,"I think it's time for you to go home... Karkat should tell you..."

Confused, Sollux nodded and put the honey jar down. "Uh... Bye FF and Ed, I gueth..." He walked out into the humidity of Florida and went back to his dorm.

Sollux walked into his dorm and saw a sight even stranger than Eridan in time-out.

Karkat and John were having a heated session.

Of arm wrestling.

And Karkat was losing.

Sollux snickered at this. "Need back-up, KK?"

Karkat jumped and that made him lose. He glared at Sollux, "YOU FUCKING DOUCHEMUFFIN! I'M GOING TO TAKE YOUR RETARDED OPTIC POWERS AND SHOVE THEM UP YOUR ASS!"

John laughed at Karkat's outburst. "Karkat, calm down! We can always arm wrestle again!"

Karkat huffed and glared at the floor.

"Ah... Karkat, I need to talk to you. Alone."

Karkat looked up at him, "Uh... Ok then."

John got the message and went to stand in the hallway until they finished. Sollux looked at Karkat with worried eyes. "Do you know what'th wrong with AA and why she hathn't talked to anyone?"

Karkat face changed to an expression that Sollux was not used to seeing. It was sadness and guilt. "I didn't want to tell you right away..." he sighed and shifted his feet. After a while, Karkat finally looked back up at Sollux, "A few weeks ago Aradia was killed in a car accident. It wasn't her fault, the breaks somehow just quit. All of us found out when Equius called her family to make sure Aradia's disguise machine was still functioning right. We all decided we were going to wait to tell you so it wouldn't affect your grades..."

Sollux had to take a few minutes to let that sink in. Aradia was dead. Gone. Never to return. He felt his psionic powers flaring in and around him. Karkat jumped as Solux lifted himself into the air. The red and blue electric energy gradually got stronger. His disguise short circuited so his grey skin and four horns were visible.

"Sollux!" Karkat grabbed his foot in an attempt to bring him down. "Calm down!"

Miraculously, Sollux did calm down. Yellow tears streamed down his eyes and his shoulders shook. "AA ith dead? T-that can't be p-pothible..."

Karkat pulled him into a hug, "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner."

Sollux cried into his shoulder and said silently begged Aradia for forgiveness. He thought she had been cheating on him since they lived so far away. Sollux looked up behind Karkat and saw something.

"A-aradia?"