Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep bee-
I slap my alarm clock's snooze button with as much grace as a wet cat. Gog, how annoying can one little electronic device be?

Slowly pushing the covers off myself, I sit up and stretch, yawning and wincing slightly as my back pops. I stayed up way too late last night, hunched over in my computer chair. Don't judge, Minecraft is addicting. Besides, I actually slept pretty well for once. What time is it, anyway?

I glance at the clock.

7:45.

Fuck! I'm going to be late! And for the first day of school, no less! Great first impression, like I wasn't already overjoyed at the prospect of a new school in the first place.

I leap out of bed, struggling into a pair of gray skinny jeans, a t-shirt with a bee on it, and my favorite pair of Converse. Technically I have two favorite pairs, because I bought one pair of red and one of blue. It was impossible to choose between the best two colors in the world, so one day I wear red on the right, blue on the left, and the next day it's vice versa. Completely normal stuff.

I grab my glasses, which are 3-D style to hide my heterochromatic eyes, and my car keys from the table next to the door. Trying to hurry, I'm still tugging one shoe on as I stumble down the hall, practically groping the wall for a handhold. No time to brush my teeth, just maybe to grab a piece of toast and stuff all of my papers into my striped backpack.

Thud.

Rushing too much and holding my shoe, I crash sideways into the very solid wall. Well, that hurt. I swear under my breath and haul myself back up, groaning at the pain in my now aching back. This is just perfect. At least I don't have to get one of my parents up; I finally got my drivers' license last month and can drive myself to school without irritating questions of what the day holds for me. Today's goal: don't get a speeding ticket.

I pull up to the school with absolutely no screeching, what are you talking about? The parking lot's crowded, wonderful, and the first bell's already rung. Frustrated, I slam my hand down onto the wheel, narrowly missing the horn. I have approximately seven minutes to get to class. Which, of course, is on the far side of campus. Doesn't really help that I've only been to this school once before for my schedule.

Grabbing my backpack on the way, I shut the door of my already banged up car with more force than necessary and start for class. Pre-Cal is first, in room 201, I think. Should be interesting. I'm actually not too bad at math. Numbers, computers and codes, those are the few things I'm good at.

Luckily, the halls are already thinning out, so I don't have to push anyone out of the way in my rush. I open the door to room 201, looking completely windblown and messy. I honestly don't give a fuck right now, I'm just glad I made it in time. It's not like I had time to do anything with myself this morning anyway.

And the bell chooses that moment to ring. Success. I find the first empty desk and pretty much collapse into it, running a tired hand through my hair.

The man at the front of the classroom looks up from his desk. "Glad you could make it, Mr..."

And now the teacher's decided to point out my tardiness. How charming. "Captor. Tholluckth Captor."

I facepalm inwardly. Why, Sollux, why would you say that? I've just displayed my extremely attractive lisp to everyone. Now I'll just a target for all of these lifeless jerks. Watch out for the kid in that desk on the end, there's a splash zone.

Yup, there were the snickers. I sigh.

"Welcome, Mr. Captor. I hope you'll make it a point to be more punctual in the future."

"Yeah."

The teacher, whose name is apparently Mr. Collins, leaves me alone after that. He just drones on and on about some equation and other math crap not a single teenager or even adult really cares about. I'm fine with that. Don't need to think about anything. Instead, I decide to take a subtle look around. Might as well get an idea of what kind of douche bags I'm going to be stuck with the rest of the year.

For starters, there's the kid who sits behind me. I didn't get a really good look at him before I sat down, but he looked pretty...flamboyant, for lack of a better word. He had a blonde streak going through his brown hair and what some people might call "hipster" glasses. He's got a purple scarf draped over a white v-neck and jean capries. The girl sitting to his right and diagonal to me has long, dark, curly hair and glasses with a modest skirt and a colorful tank top with a shell necklace. When she sees me peering at her, she smiles and gives a little wave. She seems pretty friendly. Looks like she spends a lot of time at the beach, judging by her skin tone.

The girl in front of her has short blonde hair that flips out at the ends. She has what I'm guessing is a seeing eye dog lying next to her desk, and a huge grin on her face. Must be blind, especially with those crazy red glasses on. Not that I have much room to talk. She's whispering to the boy sitting in front of me, who doesn't seem very pleased by this. All I can see of him is an over-sized gray sweatshirt and kind of fluffy, dark hair with an almost red tint to it. I can't hear their conversation very well, but he seems pretty grumpy by his body language.

I can't help by smirk when I hear, "What the ever-loving fuck are you even letting spew out of your shit-eating mouth, Terezi?"

It can't be helped . I lean forward, still grinning, to speak to him. "Pretty eloquent, aren't you?"

He whirls on me, and man, what is wrong with this kid? He looks like he hasn't slept in weeks, and he's got huge eyes that are currently imagining me being sawed in half by a chainsaw. They're a very rich brown, though, almost red, and are pretty interesting. I've never seen eyes like that before.

He notices my gaze.

"What the fuck do you want, asshat? One: stay out of fucking private conversations, and two: stop staring at me like I'm more pathetic looking than a skinny weirdo with 3-D glasses and an elementary school bee shirt."

Wow, okay, what magical rainbow toilet got stuck in this guy's mouth? I sit back in my chair and keep the smirk plastered across my face, but don't reply. He turns back around with a muttered, "Fuckass" and leaves me alone after that.

Class gets out after a mind-numbing hour, and I snatch my crap from under my desk and head for the door behind everyone else. As I'm going out, someone bumps my shoulder. It's the the pretty girl who waved at me earlier.

"Hi! My name's Feferi! You must be the new guy I've been hearing about. It's shore great to meet you!" She cheerfully holds out a hand for me to shake.

I just stare at her. It's surprising enough that someone's talking to me, but even more so that it's a girl and one as pretty as her! But I'll take it. Maybe this won't be such a bad start after all. I shake her hand.

"Nithe to meet you, too. My name'th-"

"Sollux, you said." She kind of giggles, and it's pretty cute. "This is Eridan."

The kid with the blonde streak in his hair saunters up and sticks out his hand, which is adorned with several rings. I could swear his chest has puffed out several inches. "Eridan Ampora, pleasure to meet you."

"Uh...hi." I shake his hand too. These kids are kind of formal, but it's not bad.

"So where's your next class?" Feferi asks, clutching her book bag.

"Umm..." I pull out my schedule and squint at it. "Englith, in room 112."

"Oh, great! We both have that next! Walk with us!" She smiles brightly, and I smile back.

"Okay."

Eridan looks a little miffed by this, and makes a point of walking between me and FF the entire time. Yeah, I'm calling her that from now on, got a problem? I wonder absently if they're an item, but that's not really worth pursuing at this point. I mean, it's barely second period of my first day.

- - - - - - - Time Screw - - - - - - -

The next few classes are pretty uneventful. I don't have fourth period with either FF or Eridan, but it's just history and I half doze off anyway. I haven't even heard a lecture yet and I'm already sleeping. I feel accomplished.

After fifteen minutes, I'm nearly out, slumped over my desk, when someone jostles my arm.

"Hey." A hissed whisper from my left. "Hey, you. Fuckass."

I sit up groggily and quickly adjust my glasses. "What?" Oh, it's that kid from first period. The one with bags under his eyes and a creative potty mouth. This should be interesting. "It'th you."

He rolls his eyes. "Yes, it's me. Wake up."

"I'm awake, thankth."

"Well, stay awake. It's annoying when people start to snore in class."

I'm a little startled. "I wath thnoring?"

"Quietly, but yeah, and it was fucking irritating, so stay awake."

"Oh, yeah, I'll thtay awake to pleathe some grumpy jerk I've jutht met. Ethpecially after a too thort night'th thleep and almotht being late to the firtht day of school. That'th not athking anything difficult." I didn't mean to snap at him, but gog, the kid is rude!

He glares at me, and something in his expressions shifts before he abruptly turns back to his desk. "Fuck you."

"What happened to that creativity I heard earlier, hm?" Why am I egging him on now? Gotta admit it, the kid is just too easily riled. I have to suppress a chuckle.

He just flips me off without looking up.

Well then.