Four years and the cafeteria had never looked so big. There were endless rows of tables lined with students all comfortably seated with their friends or drifting from table to table, associated with multiple circles. Not wanting to stop for too long in any one place to search for familiar faces, Eridan's brow furrowed when not a single student came up to ask him to join them.
He was too intimidating, he reckoned.
Superiority could be a curse sometimes.
He turned to make one last sweep of the cafeteria before admitting defeat, only to find himself face-to-face with a pair of narrowed eyes rimmed with the worst case of spider lashes he'd ever encountered.
Vriska's blue lips spread into a smile at the sight of him. "Watch it, Ampora. You almost spilled that shit all over me."
She pointed a thin finger at his tray of cafeteria muck that the school system figured passed as food.
"You were in the way," he huffed.
She laughed and rolled her eyes. "M'kay, hon, now come sit with me and stop looking like a lost puppy, because I'm actually feeling kind of sorry for your pathetic ass right now."
He sniffed in distaste. "With you?" He glanced over her shoulder at the tangle of misfits sprawled across the cafeteria benches. Three of them were playing cards at the far end, while Vriska's redheaded sister was caught in what looked like a battle of tongues with a boy who Eridan was fairly certain was named Karkat Vantas.
"There's already enough idiots here, one more won't make a difference." She smirked. "Unless you have anywhere else you'd rather be."
He cast an involuntary glance at the table a few rows from theirs, where a girl with curly blonde hair and bubblegum pink lips chattered away happily, sipping vitamin water. He sighed.
Vriska looked satisfied.
Eridan's mouth twisted. "Fine, but I'm only doin' it 'cause I don't wanna be rude. Not that you'd understand anythin' about manners."
Her eyes glinted with amusement. "Whatever you say, Gills."
He snorted at the old nickname but followed her without another word of complaint. She wedged herself between her sister and a girl with cascades of shining black hair. Her sister broke away from Karkat, whose ears burnt red upon realizing everybody's eyes were on them.
There was a barking laugh from behind Eridan. He turned his head to see a thin figure looming over him, drowning in a faded red jacket.
"You're really getting it on," the newcomer noted, thick eyebrows raised. "Trying to get sent to the office for PDA before the first day is over?" His s's held the trace of a slight lisp.
"Fuck off, asshole," Karkat greeted, raising a stubby middle finger.
The stranger behind Eridan snickered. Vriska's sister cast him a grin and nudged Karkat with her elbow.
"Let's get out of here if we're bothering him," she suggested. Karkat's face reddened but he grasped her hand and she pulled him from the bench and through the aisles of the cafeteria.
The newcomer looped around the table to steal the spot the couple had occupied. The girl with the black hair smiled at him when he sat down, and he lifted his hand in a lazy wave.
Feeling underappreciated, especially by Vriska who just moments had been so keen on him joining her and was now seemingly unaware of his existence, Eridan cleared his throat to gain the attention of his tablemates.
"My name is Eridan Ampora," he announced proudly. "Vris asked me to sit with her, and seein' as I wasn't previously engaged, I decided to take her up on her offer."
His introduction was met by a stretch silence.
Vriska burst out laughing. "Ampora, you are the biggest load of bullshit I have ever met," she told him happily.
Eridan's face flushed, but he kept his chin raised. "Just tryin' to be polite is all. I was taught manners as a kid, unlike some people."
"Are you being dead fuckign serious, because so far you are the most pretentious asshole I've met to date," lisp-guy snorted.
Eridan bit back a heated response, remembering himself. He knew Vriska hung around a less cultured group. He had to show them how to conduct themselves. They were lucky, really, to have him there, he reminded himself.
"You might think I'm bein' pretentious, but I'm just tryin' to make conversation, alright? You might not know it, but usually when you meet someone new, it's polite to introduce yourself." He waited. "So? What's your name?"
He paused for a long time, as if debating whether or not it was worth wasting his time. Finally he sighed and muttered, "Sollux."
Eridan nodded in approval. Maybe this guy wasn't a total lost case after all.

It was his last year of school, but it many ways, the place seemed almost less familiar than it had during his Freshman year. Maybe it was the brand new extension that had been added over break, but somehow he suspected it had more to do with new company.
The only person he'd known for longer than Vriska was Feferi Peixes. There was a photograph of them, hand-in-hand, both wearing nothing but diapers and shoes several sizes too big for them. Up until recently, his parents didn't fail to bring it up every time Feferi came over.
Maybe they still would, if she was ever around anymore.
They hadn't spoken a word over the summer, though not from lack of trying. Eridan had sent a message a day for the first two weeks of break, before realizing she wasn't about to answer.
Her loss, he decided.
He'd spent the rest of the summer trying to occupy himself himself with things more worthy of his time. He was an important young man after all.
He'd ended up spending a week watching romantic comedies with a bowl of pop corn popped every few hours.
But now that school was in session, now that he saw the back of her blonde head in the hallways on his way to class, he was reminded of how everybody he'd sat with at lunch, talked to in class, tagged along with to the mall-all of them were her friends, not his. He'd known them merely through mutual association. And now that she'd cut all ties from him, they had no business with him either.
Not that he cared. If they couldn't be bothered to give a shit, they obviously weren't meant for him. He was too busy to deal with teen drama.
What he was busy with was yet to be decided, but he was sure he'd think of something sooner than later.