Sophomore year of high school. Your name is John Egbert and you are pumped for this year. You had a great freshman year and now here comes round two. Your friends on the other hand aren't. You all don't go to the same school, but being the social butterfly that you are, you have made other friends at your school. But your very best friends you met online. They don't go into much detail, but they hate school. Even Rose, she is always reading and writing and stuff, but she still hates it. Sometimes you can't bring yourself to understand them.
You on the other hand, love school. So many new things to learn and new people to meet! You smile and pick up your pace. A new school year is only one block away. You look around and see other kids walking towards the school as well. Your gaze stops on one girl leaning against a tree. She has long black hair and is wearing a tee-shirt, jeans, and converse. You also notice she is wearing glasses with one lens darkened out. You wonder how the heck she can see like that. The girl doesn't look familiar in the slightest. Considering you know the majority of the students, she must be new.
The girl notices you looking and glares right at you. You quickly divert your gaze to the ground. She must be one of those 'cool kids'. Though you have never been actually bullied, you like to stay away from 'cool kids'. Unless they are Dave. Dave's cool. It was actually Dave who warned you about 'cool kids'. He told you that not all kids are nice. Sometimes they think they are too cool for everyone. You avoid those 'cool kids' unless you have a reason to talk to them, but the girl makes it impossible when she steps right in front of your path.
"Umm, hello!" You say flustered from almost running right into her.
She scoffs, "Hello to you to four eyes."
"Uh." You try to think of something else to say, something to possibly get you out of this position, but she starts talking again before you have the chance.
"I saw you staring at me." The one eye you can see has a mischievous twinkle to it. "You in love with me or something." She crosses her arms crossed her chest and looks you up and down. "Sorry to crush your hopes, but I don't do geeks."
"Oh, no. I'm not into, like that. I, umm, noticed... are you new?" You stumble over your words in the shock of her rude behavior.
"Round of applause! You just won the no shit award!" She rolls her eyes.
"John Egbert!" You stick out your hand and she just stares at you.
"Why would I want to be friends with a loser like you?" She states bluntly.
You have to say that kind of hurt. You were just trying to be nice after all. Just because she's rude doesn't mean you have to be.
"Well, I could just show you around and-" You lose your breath and train of thought when she pushes you backward.
"I said, I don't want you and your fake hospitality." She practically growls.
The girl stares as you as you struggle to regain your footing. With your limited sense of balance, you close your eyes as you feel yourself falling to the ground, but something stops you by the arm and yanks you up. You open your eyes to see the girl holding you.
"Do you use your legs often?" She holds you until you regain you balance, then she turns to walk away.
"Wait," you reach out to stop her, "thank you for-"
Before you can finish she whips around and slaps you. You almost lose your footing again, but she grabs your arm, pulls you close to her face, and hisses, "Why don't you take lessons on how to walk and don't go blabbing to anybody about this. Got that?"
You nod unsurely as she walks away. You have absolutely no clue what just happened. All you know is that slap felt more like a punch. Gently rubbing your cheek and know it is going to bruise.
Though your morning had been extremely weird, you continue on with your first day like nothing happened. You meet up with your friends and have a great time, but you just can't forget what happened that morning. It's even harder to forget when everybody asked what happened. You just say you fell. Some people looked skeptically at you, but let it slide.
The end of the first day rolls around and your friends joke around and tell you to be careful as you all head home. Walking out the door and remember you forgot your math book. After mentally kicking yourself, you run up the stairs and grab the book from you locker, but when you reach the stairs again you see a figure sitting hunched over at the bottom.
Slowly, you walk to the bottom for the stairs and see that it is the girl from the morning. Her long black hair is draped over her face and her hands are cradeling her head. She's not crying, you note, her breathing is slow and even. You walk down the stairs to gently set your hand on her shoulder, but the second your hand makes contact with her shirt, one of her hands is wrapped around your wrist, twisting, and digging its nails in.
Slowly, the girl looks up. She's not glaring like she was before. She eyes are wide and shifty, as if she is afraid of something.
"Oh, my god," she whispers and drops your wrist, "did I do that?"
She is looking at your cheek, the one she had hit earlier. She obviously recognizes you and the bruise she gave you. Slowly, you raise hand to cover your cheek.
"It's not really that bad." You admit. "I barely notice it at all. Really it-"
You stop blabbering when she stands up and removes your hand. She examines your cheek and her fingers glide crossed the bruise lightly and you instinctively flinch.
Seeing your flinch, she lets out a dissatisfied sigh. "A great way to start the first day at my new school, huh?"
It's obvious she wasn't really asking you, but you feel like you should answer her anyway. "Really, just forget about it."
Maybe it's because she's new, but you don't want this girl to get in trouble or feel too badly about it. Everyone deserves a second chance. She just took her first step with the wrong foot.
"I won't tell anyone, I promise." You assure her. "So you can just forget about the whole thing." You manage to give her a smile without hurting your cheek.
The girl doesn't smile back. The girl looks at you a long moment until her blue eyes water. "Thank you, but..." She holds up her hand in between your faces and you examine her long boney fingers and notice how her knuckles are tinted in blues and greens. They're probably bruised worse than your cheek. "You weren't the only one and I don't think the whole world is as forgiving as you."
Your eyes go wide. "W-why?" You stutter.
She abruptly turns away from you. That window that she had opened up had closed as suddenly as it had opened. "It's none of your business."
She picks up her bag and starts walking away. In a similar confused state as this morning, you walk down the stairs and run after her.
"You know," you start as you catch up to her, "you never told me your name."
She glares at you out of the corner of her eye. "Why would you want to know?"
"Is it wrong to want to know the name of the girl who can beat you senseless?" You smile and she rolls her eyes. "Come on, as a courtesy?"
"Vriska." She sighs as you walk through the front door.
"Any last name?"
"Nope."
"Come on!" You laugh at how difficult and shut in she is being.
"I will tell you next time I beat you senseless, how about that?" You hear her say sarcastically as she walks away in the opposite direction.
You laugh to yourself. Vriska doesn't seem like a horrible person. What's with her and fighting though? Vriska is one curious girl, you think to yourself as you turn and walk home. Bringing up your hand to your cheek once again, even though she is quite good at throwing punches, you still think she deserves a second chance.