Chapter 1: A Fresh Start

September 9th, 2013

6:03 AM

John Egbert opened his eyes in an unfamiliar house. At first, he was confused, and for a second, irrational thoughts popped through his head. Have I been kidnapped? Abducted? It took him a second, but soon after, he realized what was going on. He had moved to a new school at the request of his best friend, who lived in this district. Looking at his calendar, it was a Friday, the first day of school in that district. His clock read 6:03 AM, so he groaned, slipped out of bed, and stepped into the shower.

As he waited for the shower to warm up, thoughts flooding back to him of the past week. He had told his dad back on the 2nd of September that he was moving to a different school district, and his dad had been furious.

"You're only 16!" He yelled, "You're going into 11th Grade! You aren't old enough to live on your own!"

"Dad," John had replied, "I mentioned this a month ago, and besides, the school district I'm in sucks! The teachers are barely older than me and they can't even teach! Plus, the school provides free housing for students like me who come in from other places." His dad had shaken his head at that point.

"I don't like you being away, but I am proud of you. So I'm going to let you try this out," His Dad had said, "If it doesn't work, I want you to come right home so I can re-enroll you as quickly as possible." John gave his Dad hug and eventually, he ended up 50 miles away in Pennsylvania, at the Timhold High School.

John stepped into the shower, and he thought about his life that was to come and change very fast. He was excited to see his friends, and excited to make new ones. He heard his class that he would be in would be kind of small, composing of merely 33 10th graders not including him. According to Dave, some of them were pretty nice once you got used to them. John had been surprised that Dave wasn't friends with all of them. To John, Dave was the coolest kid he knew.

John stepped out of the shower and dressed. He put on his favorite shirt, a shirt with a Ghostbusters monster on it. He wanted to make a good impression, even though at his old school, he had been known as a bit of a nerdy guy. He didn't know if Ghostbusters would help against his nerd stereotyping, but he didn't care. As long as he could find other nerds, he knew he'd be fine. John ate breakfast, grabbed his school stuff and walked onto the campus.

7:00 AM

John's first impression of the campus was a good one. The school looked to be in good shape, and the garden in front of the school was impressively well kept. He didn't see anyone else around, so he just stood around, admiring the whole place. The inside of the school was nice too. The floors were polished and the lights on the ceiling were bright. It was a huge contrast from his old school, whose lights in the hall glowed dimly on a good day, and whose garden was more of a showcase of dead plant life than an actual garden. People might have thought he was weird, with his staring and his overall impressed attitude of the school, but since there was no one around, he wasn't worried.

John smiled. This was a new beginning for him. A chance to finally make new friends and learn from teachers who knew what they were doing. He could finally enjoy himself at school. He looked down at the schedule that he printed out the previous evening. It read:

Period 1: US HISTORY 11

Period 2: STUDY HALL

Period 3: SPANISH

Period 4: COMPUTER PROGRAMMING I

Period 5: GYM

Period 6: BIOLOGY

Period 7: LUNCH

Period 8: ALGEBRA 2

Period 9: ENGLISH 11

John was impressed with his schedule. There was nothing on there (excluding gym) that he didn't want. He was especially excited for computer programming. He'd tried teaching himself that, to no success, and even though he was a wiz at biology, he knew that he'd enjoy learning it over again.

"Hey!" A voice yelled from far down the hall. John looked at the source and saw a blonde kid wearing shades. He had a t-shirt that had a vinyl record on it, and was wearing slim fit jeans. He looked like he was trying to keep a cool face, but was at risk of grinning from ear to ear. The kid walked up to John and wrapped him in a hug.

"John freaking Egbert," He said, still embracing him in a brotherly hug, "I didn't know they let nerds into this school." John laughed, eagerly returning the hug.

"Dave freaking Strider!" John yelled, and Dave and he broke the hug, "I've been waiting so long to meet you in person!"

"Dude, it sounds like your meeting your celebrity idol," Dave replied, "I'm not Nick Cage last time I checked" John smiled, overjoyed at seeing his best friend in person for the first time in his entire life.

"So I take it you've been looking around?" Dave asked, "This place isn't exactly strip club city, nothing pretty to stare at, but it's nice to get a first look around I guess." John nodded.

"I pretty much got the layout down," He replied, "It's not too complicated."

"I understand bro," Dave shrugged, "But there are more important things I need to get you acquainted with. I need to introduce you to the locals here. Most of them are pretty ok, but some of them you have to stay the hell away from." He signaled for John to follow him, and John happily followed.

... 7:20 AM

Dave led John to a pillar near the front doors of the school. From there they saw an approaching crowd of teenagers that John was soon going to know about. There was one way ahead of the others, and he stepped into the doors of the school. Dave leaned against the pillar, and John copied. Dave thought it was pretty dorky, but he thought he would let it slide this time. The kid who had just walked in walked by them, and murmured a soft "hi." to Dave. He had a black t-shirt with a green skull on it.

"That's Jake English," Dave said before John could ask who it was, "He's a dork so you'd probably get along with him just fine. He's more of a movie nerd than a game nerd but I think you guys'll make fast friends. I don't hang around him because I think he's got the hots for my brother Dirk." John just leaned against the pillar listening. Soon after Jake's entrance, a black haired boy and a pretty, long haired girl walked in, their hands clasped together. The girl's green eyes pierced John's, and John forced an awkward smile.

"Who're they?" John whispered.

"That's Meulin Noijel and Kurloz Arakam," Dave replied, "Meulin is deaf, but she's a real fangirl about all kinds of shows. She's got all these fandom blogs on tumblr. Kurloz is quiet too, but he and she have been together for a long-ass time. They always seem pretty happy together.

Next, a girl with a skull shirt, black lipstick and headphones in her ear inched into the building. She didn't walk by like Jake, Meulin, and Kurloz did. Instead she strolled up to Dave and John.

"Sup Dave," She said, taking a headphone out of her right ear, "Who's your friend?" Dave smiled.

"This is John," Dave replied, "John, this is Rose LaLonde. She's one of my close friends. She gets me my drugs."

"He's joking," Rose told John. John wasn't the best socially, so he just laughed nervously and looked over at Dave, who was calm as usual.

"Well," Rose said, putting the headphone back in her ear, "I'll see you guys in class I guess." She walked away, and Dave shook his head.

"You gotta talk more, man," he said to John, who just awkwardly shrugged and nodded. Before he could say something, a group of kids came in, and Dave sighed.

"Okay, those people are part of the clique and personally, I would not recommend getting to know any of them," Dave explained, "Except maybe Roxy, but she's only nice to me because-" Dave stopped and laughed, "Never mind," He continued. John gave him a skeptical glance and shrugged. One of the girls in the clique made eye contact with him. She waved and winked at John.

"Um, who's the girl who just winked at me?" John asked Dave in a moderately love-struck voice.

"Oh Jegus," Dave groaned, "That's Vriska Serket. Don't tell me you like her!" John's sheepish face confirmed that Dave's assumption was correct. "Dammit dude, she's such a bitch! You guys better not end up together or I swear our friendship is done." Dave looked like he was only half kidding, so John laughed nervously again and watched as the clique, and particularly Vriska passed by them.

A girl with red glasses and a walking cane walked in. Her mouth curved into a smile the second she stepped in, and she walked up to Dave.

"Dave!" The girl said, "I thought I smelled you!" He kissed her and gave her a warm hug, much more loving than the brotherly hug Dave gave John a few minutes back.

"Hey babe," Dave said, "John this is Terezi, my girlfriend. Terezi, this is John, my good buddy that I told you about a few times."

"Hey there John!" Terezi giggled. She pointed at her cane, "Do you know why I have this?" John shook his head. "It's because I'm blind!" Dave laughed.

"She's not really blind, but one of her idols, attorney Richard Bernstein was so she pretends she is sometimes," Dave explained, "Anyway I gotta run dude, I'll introduce you to more of the locals later." He put his arm around Terezi's shoulder, and Terezi waved to John as her and Dave disappeared down the hallway. John's smile faded.

"But you promised," He said to no one in particular. He continued to lean against the pillar as he watched the other people walk into the school walk in. Everyone passed by him, except for one guy who had smoke on his breath and a scar on his head.

"Hey handsome," The guy said, "I haven't seen you before. Want me to show you around?" He gestured around flirtatiously, and John's face reddened.

"Um, n-no thanks," He stuttered out. The kid frowned, and rolled his eyes.

"You'd be privileged to be shown around by me, Cronus," He drawled, "But fine." He slinked away. John looked around, creeped out by that encounter, and as the last people, including a particularly stoned looking kid, entered the building, the first bell rang, and John rushed off from the pillar, into the hallway and into a classroom, into the new long life ahead of him.