A classroom is filled with the scratching of pencils against paper. Heads bent over the desks, scrutinizing the owner's handiwork. Sunlight slants through the windows. A quiet afternoon of testing in the town of Annapolis, Maryland. All students were focused, except for one.

Nepeta Leijon, freshman in college, studying visual art. She wasn't much of a girl to look at. Small, with mouse-brown shoulder length hair, and olive-green eyes. Pale pink lips were always set in a small smile, and nose that was splashed with a few freckles. Another thing to be noted was a large green trench coat that she was never to be seen without. That and her blue cat hat.

On this very fine day, Nepeta was not testing. She already finished her testing of course. Actually, this wasn't even her school that she was at, oh no. Her school had sent her to a different school for a painting, a project, if you will. She was to draw a calming, but common scene, but to incorporate into the drawing, a mystery. Nepeta had many choices, but she chose this school, an acting school that was said to be haunted. She had hoped to be able to paint a calm classroom scene, but it the corner, lying in the shadows, would be a pale impression of a spirit, sad and excluded. The story that she wanted to incorporate was a girl, found dead in an empty classroom, with no lead on how she died. The investigators soon marked it as suicide, and the girl's spirit, enraged that no one would try to even find her murderer, haunted the halls of the school and forever in search for revenge against her murderer.

A drop of paint fell on Nepeta's dark painting apron. She paid no attention to it, because it fell on her apron, not on her clothes. She was trying to capture the sunlight before the sun set and she had no time to fuss over her apron.

'Now. If only that boy over there would stop moving. I can't paint him at all! He simply is so frustrating!' She fumed to herself. She had finished the sunlight, but now she was painting the students. The aforementioned boy turned his head yet again and Nepeta hit him with a small eraser. He turned towards her, frowning. He picked up the eraser and walked back to her to give it back, scowling all the way.

"Here's your fucking eraser." He hissed through his teeth. He handed her back tha eraser and was about to return to his desk when she spoke up.

"Hey, can you stop moving around in your seat? I can't paint you at all!" She whispered to him. He turned around again.

"Fine, whatever…" He grumbled. He walked to his desk and slumped into it, setting his head on his desk. Nepeta turned back to her painting and painted the boy in the empty spot on the canvas. Then, she moved to the black shadow that she had painted earlier. She picked a pale grey and painted a wispy smoke-like column in there. She made it look slightly like a girl, and then took red and painted small dots where the eyes should be. She took a step back and sighed happily. She was done! Finally.

Nepeta gathered her things and waved good-bye to the professor. She nodded her head once and smiled. Nepeta smiled as well, and walked out the classroom.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Nepeta now sat at a park bench. The sun had begun to set.

She turned her head slightly to look at the painting, protected in its covering. She blew a hair out of her face as she sighed and looked out to the street again, waiting.

'I have to be patient!' She chided herself when she considered calling him. 'He hates it when he's rushed.'

Then, she heard a shutter click, and the whine of a camera. She looked towards the sound and saw none other than Karkat Vantas. She gaped at his camera.

"KARKAT WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She screeched, springing to her feet and swiping at the camera. Karkat snickered and snatched it away before she could get it.

"Taking a fucking picture, is that against the law?" He asked her, batting away her hands.

"Yes, it is! I didn't know you were taking my picture! That qualifies as stalking!" She said, still trying to get his camera.

"Sheesh, it's not like I'm going to paint it out for the whole world to see. But now that you mention it…" He smirked as he saw her look of horror. "Maybe I will…"

"You wouldn't!"

"You don't dictate what I can and can't do. If I want to paint out this picture, I will."

"Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarkaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaat!"

"Fine, I won't! What-fucking-ever…" He muttered. He put his camera away. "I'm keeping that picture though."

"… As long as you don't paint it out, I'll be happy." Nepeta sighed. She sat back down at the bench.

"So, let me see it, Nepeta. You were boasting so much about it on my way here, I thought my damn phone would explode from all those texts." He reached out for her canvas.

"Heehee, sorry, Karki—Karkat!" She giggled and handed her painting to him. He took it and peeled off its protective covering. She observed him as he did so.

Karkat had messy light brown hair, and red eyes. The red eyes were a result of his albinism. He was only part albino, and he was always sensitive to that fact, wearing either contacts or his glasses to draw attention away from his eyes. Nepeta always thought he looked good though, but she would never tell him that! Oh no, that would probably put a small rift in their friendship, and Nepeta would never want that! It would break her heart.

"It looks good, except I think you should have used transparent gouache and outlined it with acrylic, to make it look more… Ghostly… Fuck." Karkat yawned and Nepeta giggled.

"Tired, Karkat?" She looked at him and he scowled slightly.

"Shut up. I'm fine." Karkat yawned again. Nepeta suddenly remembered when they met. It was at this very park, to be exact.

It was when they were both 6 years old. Nepeta's mom had taken her to the sandbox to get away from her father. She was muttering the whole way and Nepeta knew to keep to herself. She played in the corner of the large sandbox, singing a soft tune to herself and drawing in the sand with a stick. Suddenly, a shadow obscured Nepeta's sunlight. She turned around to find herself looking at a small boy with white hair and red eyes. She stared at his hair as he plopped down beside her.

"Hi." The boy said. His voice had a slightly rough edge to it.

"…." Nepeta didn't speak. She kept drawing in the sand. The boy scowled slightly.

"My name's Karkat, what's yours?" He asked. Nepeta wrote her name into the sand. Karkat read it.

"Nepeta. That's a pretty name." He said to her. She nodded and touched her index and middle fingers to her lips and pulling them away again [thank you].

"What was that?" Karkat asked her. She wrote into the sand, 'Sign language.'

"What's a language?" Karkat asked. (A/N: remember guys, they're only 6 years old!) Nepeta thought for a moment and wrote: 'It's a different way to talk to people. With a different alphabet.'

"Oh, like Spanish and Chinese and stuff?" a nod of confirmation from Nepeta.

"Why do you use sign language?"

'Because I don't want to talk out loud because my mom might get angry at me.'

"Why would she be angry at you for talking?"

'Because she says my voice is annoying.'

"Oh…." Karkat fell silent for a second before asking her again, "Who taught you sign language?"

'My sister.'

"How old is she?"

'16.'

"Where is she now?"

'At the cemetery.'

"Why?"

'She died.'