A.N. Special Thanks to London-in-Love for adding this story to her community JohnDave: The best of Pepsicola (check it out, there are some great stories there) and TheRoyalAwesomeness for agreeing to be a betareader!

Chapter 4: Meeting the Psychologist

(September 28th, continued)

The fourth dismissal bell rang for the day, and I began to put away the algebra notes we were taking for class. I glanced up to see Jade looking down at me. Her green eyes were filled with excitement as she held her notebook to her chest.
"Hurry up, John, it's time for lunch! I want you to meet everyone!" Jade bounced slightly with each word, adding to her case on how excited she was.

I forced myself to produce my famous Egbert smile. "I can't wait to meet them, Jade. If they are even half as awesome as how you describe them in your stories, I know I'll like them." It wasn't a complete lie. I might not be the biggest fans of them once I come to know the group, but they keep Jade happy. So as long as it make's Jade happy, I'll pretend to be their friend

The two of us exited the math room, only to be greeted by a blonde girl (who looked like a miniature Roxy) and a brunette girl who looked to be naturally tanned. The blonde was wearing a mid-thigh black skirt and white t-shirt with a miniature squid on it. The other girl was wearing a long red skirt and a solid black t-shirt.

"Hey Rose, hey Kanaya!" Jade spoke gleefully as she hugged both girls. "This is my cousin, John." she stepped off towards the side so that the two girls could properly see me.

"Hello, John," the blonde girl, who I assume is Rose, gives me a smile and a small nod.

"It is a pleasure to meet you." Kanaya closes the space between us for a split second as she pulls me into a hug.

The warm feeling catches me off-guard and after a moment of hesitation, I hugged her back. "Yeah, um, same here." The two of us separate and I had to suppress the whine that almost escaped my throat as my body began to feel cold.

Rose looked over from the two of us, to see where Jade was standing, "Are you ready for lunch?"

"Of course!" Jade stretched out her arm, revealing her Squiddles' themed lunch box "I'm always ready for that. So let's go down there already!" The overly-cheerful girl proceeded to walk away from the two girls and me. The three of us followed behind her.

It's not like I have much of a choice, I thought to myself, If I don't stick with Jade I'll be permanently lost at this school.

On our way to the cafeteria, I realized that Kanaya and Rose were holding hands. I bit the side of my cheek, curiosity was killing me, but I did not wish to come off as rude.
Rose picked up on the fact that I had been staring at the duo. "Can I help you, John?" Each word she pronounced as clearly as she could.

I looked away from here for a moment as I tried to state my words. "Yeah, um, I'm not trying to be rude or anything. But, are the two of you dating or something?" I felt the blood rush to my cheeks as I asked the stupidest question in the entire world.

The two girls giggled quietly to each other before Kanaya spoke. "Yes, in fact, we are. We have been dating for a year and a half now, ever since the end of Rose's seventh grade year.

"Rose's seventh grade year? Are you in an older grade?"

"That is correct, I am currently a sophomore."

I elbowed Rose's arm gently. "Going for the older ladies, are we?"

It was now Rose's turn to blush as we continued to walk down the hall. After a few minutes the four of us entered the cafeteria. The room was gigantic; it looked as if it stretched to miles on both ends. The room was slowly growing more and more crowded, so I gripped onto the back of Jade's shirt as she navigated us through the crowd.

Only bumping into a handful of students, the four of us safely manage to reach an open area. I noticed that there was two large, rectangular tables that had been combined so instead of two groups of 8, there was one group of 16 chairs available. The three of them sat towards the end of the conjoined tables, Rose and Kanaya sat on one end, and Jade sat on the other. I joined them by sitting beside of Jade on the corner seat of the table. I searched through my backpack for my Problem Sleuth lunch box. Inspecting the tin box, I used my thumb to trace the form of PS, AD, and PI as they posed on the cover.

More and more students began to join the table, some of whom I recognized from earlier classes. The short, shout boy from this morning (who's name I learned was Karkat) walked up next to Jade, before pausing when his eyes meet mine.

"Why the fucking hell are you here?" The dude sounded extremely annoyed over the situation.

I opened my mouth to respond, but Jade beat me to it. "He's my cousin, Karkat!" Jade looked at me with her normal grin, "So, I take it you've already met Karkat?"

"Met him? The fucker set up some goddamn air-horn shit in the first period of the day!" Karkat slammed his backpack onto the tiled floor next to his seat before walking off. "If he does it again, I swear to fucking god I will break his fucking neck. " The boy continued to rant as he wandered off towards the growing lunch line.

"Don't mind Karkat, John, he's always in a grumpy mood!" Jade opened her lunch box to retrieve her sandwich. Looking past her I saw the other group of students who remained at the table eating packed lunches rather than getting in line.

A skinny boy who had black hair with a single streak of purple sat next to a slightly pudgy girl with dark brown hair. Across from them was a girl with long black hair who not only wore glasses, but also had an eye patch over her left eye. Beside of her was a girl with ginger hair who was wearing bright red sun-glasses.

The ginger girl sat up straight for a brief moment before turning her head towards my direction. "It's rude to stare at a blind girl, ya know."

I froze, she had to be joking, right? There was no way she was blind AND could tell I was looking at her. The other three students sitting with her looked over towards the direction she faced, completely confused.

The girl with black hair laughed extremely loud as she placed her hand onto the ginger's shoulders. "Terezi, I still don't understand how you can do that." she then shifted her attention completely towards me. "So, who the hell do you think you are? Sitting at OUR table like YOU own the place. Welllllll buster, I got news for you! We've got this thing called an initiation you have to go through." The girl sported off a wicked smile at me, showing off her teeth that were practically as sharp as fangs.

The brunnette across from her rolled her eyes as the other, "Oh for cods sake, Vriska, I reely wish you would stop with all the glubbing nonseanse aboat initiations. If the buoy wants to sit here, then by cod, he should be allowed." It took me a moment to decipher the fish puns the girl used in her statement.

Vriska gave the brunnette a small pout, "You're no fun sometimes, Feferi." With her slightly sulking mood, Vriska looked directly at me. "Whale," The girl facepalmed herself as her annoyance seemed to intensify at the mistake, and Feferi quietly giggled at the accidental pun. "I mean "well", since we still can't do an initiation, why don't you tell us your name."

"John Egbert, I'm Jade's cousin," I mentally paused at what I just stated. "I'm Jade's cousin" the words echoed in my head, is that who I was now? Were those words my permanent label? Nothing special like "World's Best Magician" or "Pranking Master," just "Jade's cousin.

I was pulled out of my thought's as I heard Jade once again speaking up. "That's right, and he just moved here."

"Oh, reely? How exciting!" Feferi exclaimed, "So John, why did you move here?"

My mind went blank and it felt as if I swallowed my heart as the pulse in my body increased rapidly. I wasn't prepared to tell them yet, I barely knew them. "I, um, my parent's got a divorce. So I'm living with my dad and sister right now." As if my body was on autopilot, I unwillingly gave them a response, it's wasn't a complete lie, but not the exact truth, either.

I saw their eye's widen once they heard the response, the situation had turned slightly awkward as none of them new how to respond.

"My parent's are divorce," Terezi spoke up "I haven't seen my dad in over 10 years and I don't plan on seeing him any time soon."

Vriska bit on her lip for a second before shaking her head with a small sigh. "We're a group of people with messed up families. So don't think you're the only one who's had to deal with that." She gave a halfhearted smile. "Don't be afraid to talk to one of us if you need to." The girl then turned to face Feferi and the mysterious boy starting a new conversation on an unrelated topic.

Looking forward I realized Rose was closely watching me, I shifted my vision down towards my food as I slowly picked at my sliced apples and PBJ sandwich. Half a dozen students appeared from the lunch line and began to sit down at the table as well. The table filled with chatter and laughter as the students began to relay stories from earlier events in the day. Looking around I noticed that a certain blonde was missing from the miniature crowd.

"Hey, where's Dave?" I directed the question towards Rose and Jade.

"He usually sits with either our older siblings or by himself," Rose explained as she divided her lunch between herself and Kanaya.

"But why?"

"Dave is not very sociable with people his own age."

"Oh," I went back to playing with my food, I reached over towards my Coca-cola soda and open the lid. The contents of the soda explode from the tip as I begin to open the can. Unfortunately instead of landing onto me, the sticky substance attacked the side of Jade.

The girl squeals from the unsuspected attack and inspects the damage, her white shirt is soaked and is slowly staining from the brown substance. "Oh my god, John this is so gross!" Jade pulled the sticking shirt away from her skin.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to!" I rushed to hand her the few napkins I had brought with me.

Jade released a long, frustrated sigh. "No, no, it's alright," she stood up and searched through her school bag "I'll just go ahead and wear the clothes I was going to put on for my FFA class." After giving a small wave she walked off towards the restroom "It should only take me a moment."

I mentally slapped myself as I realized how idiotic I was to open the soda without checking it first. "I'm such an idiot, she probably hates me now." I muttered under my breath.

Suddenly the boy with black and purple hair began shouting over the group towards my direction. "Yo, Kanaya!"

The dark haired girl looked back over towards him giving her full undivided attention, "Yes, Eridan?"

"Can I see your math homework? Fef and I didn't come back from the swim meet till midnight and I don't know how to do this shit."

"Of course, darling, just give me a moment," the sophomore walked over towards Eridan with a piece of notebook paper.

The area where I was sitting grew completely silent, I had not realized the amount of chatter the three girls near me exchanged as the lunch period passed by.
"John?" Rose tried to gain my attention.

"Hm? Yeah Rose?" I tried to give her the friendliest smile I could.

"Why did you really move here? Roxy informed me that your and Jane's parents have been divorced for over a decade now."

My face dropped and I could tell the color was leaving me. I felt every muscle in my body tense up, the butterflies swarmed in my stomach as I tried to comprehend the words that left Roses mouth. Did she honestly expect me to answer her?

Apparently so, as the next words out of her mouth made me feel somewhat unsure on what to do. "Nobody else is listening, and I promise not to tell," looking beside us I realized she was correct, everyone was distracted with the chatter they shared with their friends that nobody was paying us the slightest bit of attention.

"Y-you swear?" I responded as I forced myself to pay attention to Rose once more.

"Secrets are confidential material, I would not share it with anyone else without your permission." The blonde rested herself on one of her open palms as she tried to give me a reassuring smile.

I laughed ever so quietly to myself. "You sound like a psychologist when you put it like that." I don't know why, but I felt like I could trust her.

Her smile grew at my reaction, "I wish to become a professional psychologist when I grow up, as well as a writer. So please, John, tell me the truth."

I felt my hands shaking slightly. "Alright then, as long as you don't tell another soul." I felt a lump forming as I tried to remain calm.
"Yes, I promise."

I took in one last deep breath before giving her the desired response.

"My mom committed suicide."

A.N. Hey everyone! Remember how I just said I was going to make weekly updates? Guess what, I'm moving next month and there is a 90% percent chance I have a job now. So in till June I will not be able to make regular updates. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THE STORY IS DEAD, it is just currently on pause. I will do my best to get at least two or three chapters in before then, but I can't make any promises for I have state and final testing for the next month as well as 5 end-of-the-year projects I need to complete. I will most likely just work on fixing the chapters already posted. Till the next time, -Zuzu/span/p