Terezi sprinted to class, a slight grin on her face. She was almost always smiling, that was the thing she was best at, next to paper-cut art work... or at least that was what she told herself. Although she couldn't see anything, she could still make her way around the school; she knew it like the back of her own hand.

She ducked into class just as the bell rang and tumbled down into a chair next to her closest friend, Karkat.

"Hiya, Karkles." She said in a whisper followed with a goofy grin.

Knowing him, she could tell that he would have just rolled his eyes. He whispered back, "Why the fuck are you late? Get lost or over sleep?"

She showed him a bright red bandage on her index finger and smiled, "I accidentally cut my finger and I had to get it bandaged because 'I'm too helpless to do it myself'."

"That's a load of fucking bullshit."

"I know ri-"

"Miss Pyrope and Mister Vantas," The professor interrupted. "Is there something you'd care to share about nuclear physics that I don't know about?"

Karkat immediately got flustered and began, "W-well, uh, sir-" but Terezi cut him off with a smile and said, "We were just discussing the new nuclear reactor in... I think it was Japan."

The professor's eyes began to twinkle, "Ah yes, the most advanced reactor in the world!"

Terezi just rolled her eyes and took out a turquoise and a red marker and began to doodle in her notebook. Every once in a while, she would inwardly sigh as the scents of the cherry and the blueberry scented markers mingled in her lungs. Her friend began to grimace as the markers invaded his air space. He stuck a piece of paper on her desk and she felt it with the fingers on her left hand. It read: Why the fuck do you have to use those stupid fucking things in class?

She shot him a be-quiet-or-I'll-use-them-on-your-face look. She heard Karkat shuffle around in his seat and he left her alone for the rest of class. She smiled to herself.

That goofball is so adorable... if only he wasn't so angry at himself all the time.

Terezi mainly used this class as zone-out time. She even smiled as she zoned out, a decision that was now totally unconscious since that day several years ago.

The bell couldn't have jingled sooner and she and Karkat skittered out of the room to avoid any discussion with the professor. Karkat tapped her on the shoulder to which she replied with, "I might be blind, but I'm not that blind you know."

"I know, you notice things that I almost never even fucking bother to take into consideration."

"I'm detecting..." she sniffed his hair jokingly "Sarcasm and new shampoo."

"Weirdo." He grumbled.

"Oblivious." She shot back over several giggles.

They walked quickly to the cafeteria and they each bought a lunch and sat at their usual spot, a small table for four in the shadiest corner of the patio. Terezi gave her food an avid sniff before she began to shove food in her mouth. Karkat gave her a look of disgust.

"How in fuck's sake can you eat food like that?"

She grinned, "At least I don't eat like this" she opened her mouth and began purposefully missing her mouth with her fork. She closed it and giggled as Karkat grimaced at her again.

She pushed her red-tinted sunglasses up her nose and finished off lunch. She then waved Karkat a cheerful goodbye and headed to her dorm room.

Karkat was one of her two real friends in college; he didn't seem to really care about the fact that she was blind. He even knew how it had happened, and in a way, he tried his best to understand what she was going through. He was only rude, because that was just his demeanor. She sighed and her ever-present smile dropped to a neutral expression. She figured that he only really acted like he was angry because he would accidentally project his self-loathing onto other people, only... he hadn't really figured that out yet.

She unlocked her door and heard her roommate shuffling around on her bed. Terezi smiled slightly and said quietly, "You know you don't have to hide your silly supernatural romance novels every time I come in the room, it's not like I can see them or anything."

Her roommate, Kanaya smiled, "Oh but I do, because you'll find them and read them."

"Of course I won't, it's not in Braille."

They laughed as Terezi flopped over into her bed. She pulled her laptop onto the bed and began to softly play rock music and began a report that would be due on Monday, which was in three days. Terezi smiled to herself as she heard Kanaya pull out her silly romance novel and continue reading. After a while Kanaya sighed, "I love the music you play."

Terezi glanced over at her roommate, "Thanks, no one's ever told me that before."

"Well, time to go to work!" Kanaya stood up quickly and gathered her purse and her book, "I'll see you later! Oh, and I have a date, so don't wait up!"

Kanaya gave Terezi a quick peck on the cheek and went out the door.

Terezi sighed; Kanaya almost always had to work on weekends as a bartender at a gay bar. Not only was Kanaya a lesbian, but she was perhaps the most flamboyant one Terezi had ever met. Kanaya's personal style was a mix between fashionably girly and gothic, which was what made Terezi giggle a lot when they had first met. Terezi dropped her smile again. Kanaya and Karkat were her two most favorite people in the world. It was always hard to keep smiling for them, but it was worth it. The way she saw it was that as long as she kept smiling, then everything would be okay in the end.

Terezi rolled over onto her stomach and retrieved some construction paper and scissors from the desk next to her bed. She rolled back over and propped her feet up on the wall as she began to cut a shape into the paper. She smiled secretly as she put the scissors back into the desk. She stood up and got two scented markers and kneeled in front of the desk. She carefully decorated the slip of construction paper and then quickly shoved it into her pillowcase.

No one can know.

She changed into some shorts and a tank top, flicked off the lights and tossed herself into bed. As she curled up in her sheets, her mind drifted into its own world, not only of the past, but of the voices that spoke in the present.