Scheduling Errors
Great fucking weather for a first day, Karkat thought to himself as he walked towards the school building from the parking lot. The sky was overcast with grey clouds, not a patch of blue or a bit of sun to be seen. It was still early in the morning, and the forecast called for rain today. The summer here was apparently very dry before the students all arrived, which, the meteorologists said, meant an especially wet autumn. As if it mattered to Karkat - it wasn't like he was going to be doing any sports, and all his time was spent indoors for the most part, anyway. Nature frustrated him, so he was happy that he'd have an excuse to keep out of the park and away from the woods and stay inside a library or something. But he knew everyone else would bitch about it, which meant dealing with whiny teenagers, which soiled his day before it had even begun.
Entering the lobby, he saw that there were plenty of students idling around, killing time before the warning bell rang to signal the last five minutes before classes began. Karkat glanced around for anybody he knew, but, finding nobody within the first two seconds or so, decided to just get to class. It's not like he had anything to talk to anyone about. He passed by a couple of people he knew, but he didn't have any interest in them aside from lazily mumbling a 'hey' in response to their own friendly greetings. He was through the doors towards his first class without incident.
"Well well, if it isn't Karkat Vantas." He heard someone say. "What a pleasant surprise."
Looking over to the desks in the classroom, Karkat saw Eridan Ampora sitting on a desk with his stuff strewn about. He was wearing his usual preppy outfit, trying to look all rich and powerful like he thought he was and really kind of actually was. He was taller than Karkat, and one of the taller students in the school, and he, at all times, had the demeanor and air of a shark. He was an asshole in general, but he was tolerably so to his friends and made a good guy to have on your side, and Karkat was on good terms with him. Partially because the thickheaded fuck couldn't write an essay to save his life, but also because of their complementary tastes.
"Eridan. What the fuck are you doing in an advanced placement English course?" Karkat asked, an eyebrow raised. He had a feeling he already knew the answer, of course. Eridan's shrug made him sure of it.
"How the fuck should I know? You can't honestly think I asked to be in here. It's going to be the fucking death of me, I'm shore of it." Eridan lamented wistfully. Karkat merely crossed his arms and rolled his eyes, deadpanning at the poor cod. Sod. Poor sod.
"My rates are still the same." He offered. Eridan grinned back.
"I figured. We'll make arrangements, then?" The amphibious ass asked.
"Yeah, sure." Karkat replied. He offered certain special services for those willing to part with their money to protect their grade in classes Karkat was skilled in. He had yet to let a client down, and it had kept his pockets lined quite neatly. Maybe that's why Eridan was placed in here - maybe the principal or whoever was in charge felt like it would be best for Karkat to have a steady flow of income.
Yeah, sure, that was it.
At that point, though, the warning bell had rung, and the halls were flooded with other students. Karkat, not wanting to get last pick for seating, sat down in the front row, but not directly in front of the teacher's desk. He wanted to be able to chat up the teacher easily while still not looking like a teacher's pet. He'd save that for some lame dork he'd never want to associate with under any circumstances anyway. Only people like that would sit as close to the teacher as possible. These were the kinds of people he liked to think of solely as posers, and he refused to partake in any kind of social interaction with them at all.
Students filed in, one by one, most of which Karkat didn't recognize. He saw Dave and Terezi filed in together, chatting each other up. They sat together towards the back of the class, Dave slinging his bag on the ground lazily while Terezi kept her materials in neat order next to her chair. Karkat thought nothing of it, but then remembered that Terezi was blind and shouldn't be in a regular AP English course. Shouldn't she have her own tutorial? And Dave was a lazy fuck - why was he in a college level literature course? Something very peculiar was going on here, and Karkat wasn't sure what it was. Before he could do anything, a man walked in that Karkat didn't know. He looked ugly and shitty as fuck, like he was just taken off the streets or something. His hair was white and filthy and his beard was fucking ridiculous. He spoke loudly and with a shitty German accent.
"Goot morning, class. I am very glad to see all of your bright, shining faces. I am very eager to spend the semester with you all educating you in the fine art of musical appreciation and the means by which you can enjoy music. I am Ludwig van Beethoven, but you may refer to me as Herr van Beethoven, van Beethoven, Beethoven, Ludwig, Mr. van Beethoven, Mr. Beethoven, or simply Bay. We will now go around the room and introduce ourselves. Please be clear and loud, I am deaf." The man explained. Karkat had no idea who he was or what was going on, but something was way off, he knew that much.
"Hang on, excuse me, sir!" Karkat protested. The man looked at him.
"What did you say?" He almost screamed, cupping an ear with a hand towards Karkat.
"This is AP English, sir, not… whatever the fuck you're -" Karkat started, but the cook howled again.
"What was that, sonny?" He asked. "I'm deaf, you know." He reiterated. Karkat felt his temper rising, and tried to contain, using all the methods his counselor taught him to use back in the day. He kept his cool, restrained himself, breathed deep, and tried again.
"This is an English class, not a -" He tried, but was cut off again.
"You've got English class? Well you may perhaps have the class of an Englishman, but that is hardly relevant!" The man asked, and what seemed to be hope twinkled in his eyes. Karkat's ire was raising again, but he held it back, knowing not to erupt. He tried again, trying very, very hard not to lose control, breathing deeply but rapidly.
"I… said…"
"You're sad?"
"I SAID THIS IS AP ENGLISH, YOU CRAZY OLD FUCK!" Karkat exclaimed. He blushed a bit - it was small and contained easily, but it was an outburst. A tiny little eruption. He was a ball of ornery irateness, sure, but deep down was his real anger, fueled by self-hatred and the resultant sweeping impatience for everything around him. He had learned to keep all that bottled up and locked away, and was taught to expose the world to it as little as possible. He hoped he could get away with it, just the once.
"AP English? Oh, no, my boy! That was moved another classroom down the hallway!" The senile shit explained. Karkat's face scrunched into a ball of confusion. When did that happen? He heard Dave and Terezi snickering in the back, like the insensitive fucks they had a tendency to be. Karkat looked over at Eridan, who merely shrugged. Looking back at the "teacher", he realized that this was probably more Skaia Academy bullshit.
"Anybody here that was meant to go to the advanced English class should go at once! You are horrendously late as it stands. I shall write you each a pass!" The man exclaimed, walking over to his desk and furiously writing on little slips of paper. Karkat dazedly gathered his stuff and walked up, Eridan following behind him. He took the yellow slip offered him, which seemed to just have scribbles on it. He didn't question it, though. Questioning the way things worked here was pointless.
Walking out of the classroom, he and Eridan walked down the halls together, looking for whatever classroom was now hosting the AP English course. Karkat just wanted to get to class and sit down and get on with the day as painlessly as possible, but of course Eridan had to strike up a conversation.
"So why do you think we didn't hear about the class moving?" Eridan asked. Karkat only sighed a bit.
"I don't know, Eridan, we both know there's no point in trying to figure anything out in this godforsaken school, it's like a perpetual roll of a die with infinite sides. Who knows what side it'll land and, and more important, how do you even know what side it lands on?" He answered. "Here, look, they even put up a fucking sign." Karkat pointed out, indicating the door on the right with the green attached with white ink reading "Messieurs Vantas and Ampora, your English class".
"How much you wanna bet that's VP Cueball's handwriting?" Eridan asked, eyeing it suspiciously.
"How much you wanna bet that I don't give a fuck?" Karkat retorted. The answer of course was that he most certainly did give a fuck, and very keenly wanted to figure out Scratch's angle here. What was he playing at? What did he gain by making him and Eridan late to class like this? At the same time, he didn't want to play to Eridan's own curiosity and make him think they were best buds or whatever.
Focusing on the important things, Karkat opened the door to the class. The desks were arranged in a linear pattern, rows and columns, faced towards the whiteboard at the front of the class, which also hosted the teacher's desk nearby. Standing at the front was Mrs. Lalonde - not Rose's mom but rather Roxy's mother. She regarded the late comers with a bit of amusement.
"Ah, the promised last minute runners. Vice Principal Scratch told me you'd be coming, and to do nothing about it other than to warn Mr. Ampora to refer to him only as Vice Principal Scratch - 'Cueball' is apparently considered derogatory." Mrs. Lalonde explained. Eridan looked violated and surprised, like VP Scratch had been spying on him. Karkat didn't care, he just wanted to get on with the day and work on this mysterious shit later.
"In any case, we have two seats left for both of you. Sadly, last pick is what you get for coming late." Mrs. Lalonde continued. Eridan glanced at Karkat, then back over the desks of students looking at them. Seeing his best friend, Feferi, Eridan promptly made his way over, abandoning Karkat to take a seat behind her. Karkat rolled his eyes at the lack of farewell or recognition of his existence once the fishy fuck's favorite female was in sight. He was used to it.
Looking around, though, he suddenly realized that the only other seat was in the front row, splitting center right in front of where Mrs. Lalonde was standing. On one side was a very bored and tired looking Sollux, which was good, they were not only best friends but also the best English students (though Sollux cared extremely little - he was just naturally gifted, it seemed). No problem there. But on the other side, sharing the center of the front row, was the midnight locks and wide smile that shot right through his heart and nearly made him drop down in cardiac arrest.
Slowly and awkwardly, suddenly aware of how long he was taking, he made his way over to Jade, only a few feet from the teacher's desk. He suddenly realized he had to reconsider his position on associating with posers who sit next to the teacher.
"Hey, K." Sollux mumbled. He was exhausted, probably from staying up all night playing video games or coding. He wondered if he and Aradia had gotten up to anything or if he had fucked himself up all by himself. Karkat mumbled a greeting back and sat down. Mrs. Lalonde resumed her speaking, going over the syllabus and what is expected of each of them and blah blah blah. Karkat hardly paid attention - he was focusing more on not focusing on Jade Harley sitting next to him. The sliding of a note onto his desk while Lalonde wasn't looking didn't help. He looked down and examined it.
I was wondering where you were! I got transferred at the last minute, I was so excited to have a class with you! I'm gonna need so much help though DX
Karkat looked up to make sure Lalonde wasn't looking, and wrote a quick reply before sending the paper back to her.
Relax. You'll be fine. I'm really glad you're in here too.
He tried to pretend to focus on Lalonde as she continued with her boring and pointless speech, if only to keep himself focused on something other than Jade. Finally, Lalonde passed out a test packet for them to take as a course pre-assessment. It would take the whole class period to finish, she said, and slacking off or taking their time with it was not recommended. Jade sent a panicked note his way.
HELP
He couldn't help but snicker and reply quickly before Lalonde noticed or started the timer.
SORRY
He was head over heels for the girl, that didn't mean he was going to help her cheat.
He finished before anybody else, and Sollux finished after him. He spent the rest of the time doodling absentmindedly. He was terrible at art but it was something to work on - and something to occupy his mind. He didn't want to think too much about the girl next to him - and even less about VP Scratch and what kind of hand he had in this. And what kind of interest. Tuning the thoughts out before he captured the at least semi-omniscient Scratch's attention, he focused on his art and keeping his thoughts covered up.
Finally, the ring of the bell released him from the awkward hell of doodling while Sollux drooled on his desk and Jade struggled to finish on time. He stood up and collected his things in a hurry, before dashing out without another word. If he had any other surprises that day he wanted to get them out of the way. However, he realized once he was out the door that he didn't even say goodbye to Jade. That'd cost him brownie points.