The next day Karkat was sitting in homeroom, bored as ever. Kankri had given them both a long lecture and by the time he'd finished Sollux's dad had phoned and said it was time for him to go home. Karkat had been disappointed. He'd wanted to hang out with Sollux longer. He was actually interesting to be around. Gamzee and Tavros were fine, but Sollux turned you're lights into a lightshow and made paint-bombs for you to set off.
Sollux was sitting next to him, writing in a notebook. Gamzee and Tavros were in front of them, talking away. Tavros was of course in a wheelchair now. Karkat was zoning out, not really interested in listening to music and not having anything to do. The girls in the corner were whispering and looking at Sollux again. Karkat wondered if Sollux found them annoying. He didn't even seem to notice them.
Then one of them walked over to them. Karkat recognized her as the leader of the group. She had long blond hair, a slightly revealing pink shirt and a white mini-skirt. She basically looked like a stereotypical popular.
"Hi Sollux." she said. Sollux looked up at her.
"Hi." he said.
"Hey, do you wanna hang out this Saturday?"
"Not interethted." Sollux looked back at his notebook. The girl looked stunned.
"What? Are you gay?!" she exclaimed. Sollux sighed and looked at her.
"No actually. I'm bi."
"Th-then, why don't you wanna hang out? If you like girls…"
"Yeah, I like girlth who've been friendth with me for yearth and I actually know. Not you. Pluth, I like girlth with darker hair, like brown." The girl blinked a few times before marching back to her friend group, looking offended.
"That was interesting." Karkat commented.
"Yeah, bro. You just dissed the highest of the sis's." Gamzee said. "Good job!" He patted Sollux's shoulder and grinned.
"Thankth. They all theem tho annoying."
"Yeah, they probably are." Karkat muttered. Then the bell rang and they headed off to class. They had drama class second period that day. When drama class came Karkat, Gamzee, Tavros and Sollux sat in a corner of the chairs in front of the stage. Everyone else sat more in the middle in their large groups.
"Good afternoon class!" the drama teacher said. "I'm Mrs. Serket, but please call me Aranea. Okay, today we're going to be splitting off into groups of five. I'll name out the groups now, so listen for your name." Karkat waited until she said their names. "Karkat Vantas, Sollux Captor, Gamzee Makara, Tavros Nitram and Calliope Scratch are the last group." An albino girl wearing a green suit walked over to them. Her eyes were bright lime-green, so Karkat suspected she was wearing contacts. Her hair definitely didn't look dyed.
"Hi Gamzee." she said.
"Hi Calli! How's you're bro doing?"
"Better, I guess? He's still away of course. And we don't know when he's getting out, but…yeah."
"Uh, you know her?" Tavros asked. Gamzee nodded.
"I met Calli and her twin bro during the summer while on vacation."
"Nice to meet you." Calliope said.
"Okay class! All of you are going to think up a skit. It has to be appropriate for school, but swearing is okay if there isn't too much. It has to be at least thirty minutes long. You have the whole school year to think it up!"
"What are we thuppothed to do a thkit about?" Sollux asked.
"Dunno. Let's brain-storm." Gamzee said. Before they could the door opened and a girl walked in.
"Sorry I'm late!" she said.
"Oh, wait. You aren't on the attendance. Who are you?" Aranea asked.
"Roxy Lalonde! I just moved here!"
"Ah, I see. Okay, we already have full groups so…go with Karkat, Sollux, Gamzee, Tavros and Calliope. We're working on making a skit." She pointed at their group and Roxy sat down with them. She had pale blond hair that was almost white and pink eyes. She had black lipstick and eyeliner on. Her nails were painted pink and she kept grinning.
"Hi! Nice to meet you guys!" she said. Karkat just nodded.
"Okay, what sort of skit should we do?" Calliope asked.
"Hmm, something with a fairy-tale theme." Roxy said.
"That sounds cool!" Gamzee said.
"With six people? What parts would we all have?" Karkat asked.
"Calliope can be the princess!" Roxy declared. Calliope blushed and stared at the ground.
"I-I don't know…" she mumbled. "I mean, shouldn't someone pretty play that role?"
"What are you saying? You're adorable!" Roxy said, hugging her. Calliope smiled and nodded, though Karkat thought she didn't look convinced.
"…Okay." she said.
"I can be the prince that comes to you're rescue!" Roxy went on.
"Shouldn't a guy play that part?" Sollux asked.
"Hey! Discrimination! I can if I want!" Sollux just shrugged.
"Go ahead."
"Uh, then what about us?" Tavros asked.
"Shouldn't we think up what the hell we're doing first?" Karkat said.
"Why don't we mix fairy-tales?" Calliope suggested.
"That's a great idea!" Roxy said. "Our part could be, like, Snow White or something."
"KK could be thleeping beauty." Sollux said, smirking.
"What? No!" Karkat yelled. Roxy laughed and Gamzee chuckled.
"We should try and think up some modern versions of them." Roxy said. "And a way to fit two guys instead of a guy and girl into it."
"I'll try and think of something." Calliope said. "I'm pretty good at thinking up stories."
"Great!" Roxy said. "And I guess groups could be Gamzee and Tavros and Karkat and Sollux."
"Why those particular groups?" Karkat asked.
"Well, Gamzee and Tavros seem like a good couple." Roxy said. Tavros blushed and Karkat could have sworn Gamzee smiled. "So then there's you two. …Actually, you two do look cute together."
"What the fuck?!" Karkat exclaimed. Roxy laughed and Sollux rolled his eyes.
"Ha, ha." he said. "Tho, what about cothtumeth?"
"Kanaya can make them." Karkat said. "She's into fashion design and she's great at sewing."
"Cool! We're doing good so far!" Roxy said. "I'll have to think up my costume! And we need to think up you're dress Calliope!"
"Oh, um…I guess I'd like something green?"
"That's you're favourite colour, huh?" Roxy asked, smiling. Calliope nodded, looking embarrassed. "That's fine, it suits you!" They talked a bit more until the bell rang for lunchtime. Roxy decided to join them at their table and she brought Calliope with her.
"So, where'd you move from Roxy?" Calliope asked.
"Uh, up north." Roxy said. "It snowed a whole lot there."
"This climate must be a big change, huh?" Gamzee said, grinning. Roxy nodded.
"Yeah, it is. It's really warm here. But it's nice."
After lunch they found out drama was the only class they had with Roxy and Calliope. They also found out they got homework in their last two classes. Karkat was annoyed by all the homework. It was only the beginning of the year! Why were they getting so much homework?!
"Why don't we all work at Tavbro's?" Gamzee suggested.
"Sure, whatever." Karkat said. Sollux agreed and Tavros was fine with it, so after school they all went to Tavros's. Karkat texted Kanaya to tell her where he was.
At Tavros's house they were greeted by his dad.
"Hi. Nice to see you guys again." he asked. Tavros just nodded. Gamzee pushed him up the ramp and into the house. Karkat and Sollux followed behind them. They all sat down in Tavros's room to do the homework. After about half an hour Karkat's phone went off.
"Hello?" he said.
"Karkat, you should come home." Kanaya said.
"Why?"
"Uh, dad wants to talk to you about something."
"Isn't that a good idea not to go home?"
"Well, he'll just come over to you if you don't come home now. Might as well spare you're friends his lecture."
"Yeah, okay. Fine."
"Okay, good. As a warning, he's pretty mad."
"Gotcha." Karkat hung up and sighed. "I gotta go." he said.
"Already?" Gamzee asked.
"Yeah, I'm sparing you all a lecture from Kankri." Tavros just nodded quickly.
"What'd you do now Karbro?" Gamzee asked. Karkat shrugged.
"No idea." He grabbed his books and said bye. Walking home, he kept wondering what Kankri was mad about.
