6:30 p.m.

You love dancing so much. You know you look like a total dork and probably will be teased about it by John and Karkat, but you don't care. You're high off sweets and having a great time.

The person you are currently dancing with is having slightly less of a good time. Cronus always seems to weigh down on parties. Plus, he's the worst at dancing, and you don't say things like that lightly. So far, he's stepped on your feet five times, fallen over twice, and smacked various people in the face numerous times. You're not mentioning it, but you think he might be even clumsier than Mituna.

Which is saying something.

He's also tried to make a move on you several times just in this one song. You've had to actually kick him a couple of times to stop him from leaning in uncomfortably close.

Oh well. As the song comes to an end, you wave goodbye to him and wander around the dance floor, searching for someone to talk to. You've never heard this song before, so you're going to rest your feet a bit.

There's a lot going on, but it's pretty much the same at every dance. There's a group of people that know they're complete dorks but dance together anyway. That's where you usually are, along with Terezi, Aradia, Feferi, Jane, and Jake. They're in a bunch of your classes, too, so you can joke around about your teachers and stuff. There are the really good dancers, like Kanaya and Porrim, and (surprisingly enough) Gamzee. Then there are the too-cool-to-dance kids, who usually hang around the food and talk about how stupid everyone's being. Dave goes over there sometimes, joined by Dirk and Meenah. And the slightly off-putting Damara hangs out there too, occasionally joined by the nicer people who humor her heavy accent and constant innuendo and rude language.

Oh! There's Dave. You wave enthusiastically, but he doesn't seem to see you. He's talking to John. You decide to avoid them for a while, because you know John wants you to be his partner for the science project. He's a great guy, and a wonderful partner, but he's absolutely hopeless at even the most basic nuclear science and you have the best idea ever for the project.

You zone out a little thinking about how awesome it'll be when you show your teacher your cool assignment and kind of end up losing track of where you're walking and suddenly find yourself sitting on your ass with two confused trolls staring down at you.

"Oh! Sorry, Jade..." Tavros looks pretty scared as you wince, brushing off your shoulder where he collided with you. You give him a thumbs-up to assure him it's all right, and push away the hand he offers you. (When he tries to help people up, they usually end up pulling him out of his wheelchair.) Instead, you stand up yourself, dusting off your skirt. Sollux, behind the wheelchair and probably guilty of the high speed the wheelchair had accomplished shortly before its collision, looks sheepish. "Sorry about that, Jade."

You shrug, not in the mood to get mad at them for reckless driving. "It's fine. I wasn't paying any attention. It was probably my fault anyway. You look like you're having fun!"

"Do you want to push me too?" he offers. You have to decline- after all, you're not his student aide, are you? He scowls at the mention of the program that the school put into effect a few months ago. He's already ranted to you over chat about how he doesn't need help getting around, and he's perfectly capable of handling himself. Privately, though, you think he likes Sollux's company.

You try to talk a little but you can't hear each other over the booming of the speakers, so eventually you both give up and he tells Sollux to push him faster. Sollux shrugs with a last, apologetic look at you and grabs the back of the wheelchair. They zoom off, Tavros and his chair glowing with psychic energy, and he throws his arms in the air, smiling wider than you've ever seen.

6:41 p.m.

Seems like John's left Dave alone, finally. You start wandering in their direction, looking around for more things to do. You could go talk to Rose, you suppose. But you've sorta lost the urge to gush about your science project, and that's the only thing you can think of to talk about with her. You've begun to realize that the only person who will know who you're talking about when you start spewing nuclear physics is Eridan, who is one of the people you definitely want to avoid.

You're approaching Dave, thinking of alternatives to the conversation you had planned, when you find yourself falling for the second time today. Your glasses skid across the floor, and everything blurs in front of your eyes as your hands skid across the floor. Your head cracks violently against the floor, and somebody swears loudly above you. Then you find your head in something soft.

At first, you just sort of close your eyes and let the throbbing in your head grow louder. You can sense that your head should hurt, but now you just feel numb and shocked. Then a voice fades softly into your consciousness and you accept that you won't be going to sleep here on the hardwood.

"...fuck oh god shit... shit," somebody is saying, and you look up and at first it's Karkat with blonde hair and sunglasses but then it's Dave wearing gray and scowling directly into your face and then it's... Becquerel? You try to say his name but the sound that comes out of his mouth more accurately approximates the sound someone makes when they're gargling. Wincing at your sad attempt to speak, you swallow a few times and repeat, "Bec?"

"No, you shitstained excuse for a human!"

Someone shoves your glasses back on your face and then Karkat's recognizable glower comes back into view. Dave's standing behind him, punch cup gripped tightly in his hand. Your vision doubles a few times and then goes back to normal, and you blink at them, slightly bemused.

"What happened?" you try to ask, pushing nonexistent strands of hair out of your eyes. Judging by the way Karkat's face changes from pissed to panicked and how Dave's grip tightens so much that his drink is starting to leak onto his shirt, you aren't going to be dancing with anybody anytime soon.

"No, no, I'm fine," you insist, and bat at the little hummingbirds that are flying around Karkat's face. He frowns and pushes your hand back down. "Jade, shut up and lie down."

You suddenly realize that your head is resting in his lap and jerk up, scrambling to stand up. "No! Ew. I'm not going to sleep in your lap, you sicko." Your head spins when you stand. He looks down at his legs as though he's just realized you'd been there the whole time, and you reel away from him, only half in control of your movements. Suddenly Dave is there, holding his arms out for you to fall into. Sinking into the floor, you let him pull you towards the bench and seat you there with a glass of punch in your hands.

You give the punch the stink-eye, remembering how it tasted like medicine, and try to push it away. Then Dave looks at you with his pouty face and you take a reluctant sip.

"Drink lots of that," he orders. "It'll make you feel better."

Then Terezi zooms past, still grabbing Nepeta, and calls out to him. "Hey, coolkid, are you going to sit there all night and waste away?"

Dave shakes his head, but then glances quickly between Karkat's disgruntled expression and the half-full punch cup in your hand and gets up quickly. "Well, hate to leave you guys alone," he says hastily, putting his crumpled cup on the table and straightening his glasses, "but I've got some people to dance with."

He gets the hell out of there quickly, you think grumpily to yourself.

Spending the dance on the sidelines with Karkat glaring at you. This is shaping up to be an awful night.