A/N okay I am SO VERY VERY SORRY for the wait for those of you who read this. Honestly, I have very little in the way of excuses except that school is kicking my ass. I'm also going to be in the Wizard of Oz so the updates may continue to be fairly slow. Anyway, again, I'm sorry for the long wait. Please review, don't be afraid to give constructive criticism, I always want to improve. Also, if there are ever any spelling or grammar errors feel free to point them out so that I can fix them. Enjoy!

I stood in the shower after groggily dragging myself out of bed. My mind was still foggy from sleep and the blast of cold water before it finally warmed up seemed to shock me out of my dazed state of mind. I popped my neck back and forth rinsing out my hair. Gog, this shower felt so good. I stepped out of the shower and toweled myself off.

Soon enough I had eaten a handful of dry cereal and downed a glass of apple juice and was on my merry way out the door to Vriska's classroom. When I arrived I was surprised to see Sollux sitting at the desk nearest the back corner with his laptop open and Vriska standing over his shoulder as he typed furiously. She looked up from her position stooping over Sollux who visibly relaxed as he felt her presence leave.

"Morning, John."

"G'morning," I mumbled in response.

I took the seat in almost the exact center of the classroom and pulled out a notebook, pencil, and my unfinished sheet music and began to work out the next beat in the song.

No less than a minute later Tavros opened the door, struggling to keep it open and roll in at the same time. I debated getting up to help him, but I knew Vriska would simply tell me to let him figure it out like she'd done yesterday.

After a minute or so of finagling with the door Tavros wheeled himself up to a desk diagonal to mine. The desks appeared to change position every day. Today they were again completely misconstrued and crooked, but they seemed to have shifted a bit to the left and a few of the edge desks were rotated differently. Tavros retrieved his "Pupa" Pan book from his bag as well as the notebook and began scribbling away at it furiously.

Vriska walked amongst the desks between the three of us and glanced at Tavros's journal and her face seemed to change from its usual stern and judging look to one of interest and maybe even mild amusement. She leaned in closer over his desk scanning the desk with her one visible eye.

She smirked and asked, "Into role-playing, huh?"

Tavros looked up, "Uh, What?" He glanced down at the "Pupa" Pan book, "Oh! This? Yeah, I, uh, suppose you could, uh, call it that. Mostly I, uh, just write little, uh, side stories, but, uh, yeah, I suppose I am into, uh, role-playing."

"I see. That's interesting. I myself am a role-player, though I haven't really done any in years." A frown seemed to appear upon her face, but she shook out of it and I convinced myself it had been simply been a trick of the light.

"Oh, that's, uh, really cool. I like to role-play as Pupa- I mean, uh, Peter pan."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I, uh, like to think that I can fly."

I heard Sollux snicker in the back of the room. At that moment I really kind of wanted to punch the guy in the face. So what if Tavros had fantasies about flying, why shouldn't he? He couldn't walk so why not pretend to be someone who can do even more than that? Who doesn't wish that they could fly? Okay, maybe people who are afraid of heights, but seriously, flying. Flying would be the coolest thing ever.

"Interesting," Vriska nodded and sat herself back down at her desk and sorted through some papers unconsciously fingering one of her eight-sided dice again. I returned my attention to my music picking out some more notes and calculating beats and time signatures. I hoped it sounded halfway decent for the amount of effort I was putting into it. I tapped the rhythm on the desk briefly and added in another sixteenth note. More time passed before class finally began.

We studied the written curriculum as well as a few other things Vriska threw in about good storytelling and arachnid anatomy. Lunch came and I hung out with Dave, Tavros, Gamzee, and occasionally Karkat would join us and Sollux would tag along.

Days passed in this manner, coming in early before school for extra work-time, hanging out with Dave, Tav, and Gamzee. Every Tuesday and Thursday I'd practice piano seeing as the music room was booked the rest of the week for a few of our auditioned bands and choirs. I had debated auditioning to be the jazz piano accompanist, but I figured, being in sixth grade and all, that other people would be better suited for it and I should get used to the school the first year rather than pile on so much stuff outside of class that I couldn't function properly.

Soon those days turned to weeks and the weeks turned to months and soon enough winter break was creeping up around the corner. I would be headed home for the break. It would be nice to get to see my dad and friends again; however I wasn't sure whether Jake had returned from his 'adventures.' I supposed I'd find out when I returned home.

"Hey, Dave?" I asked a couple days before break was to begin.

"Yeah, man?"

"What're you doing over break?"

He shrugged, "I don't know. I haven't heard from Bro in a while, I should probably ask him if I'll be coming home or staying here."

"Where do you live? I never really asked before."

"I'm from Houston, Texas."

"Really? You don't have an accent or anything! Heck, you're freaking blindingly white!"

"Yup. I'm a Texan."

I turned to face him across the room crossing my legs on my bed, "Can you speak with your accent?"

He looked up from his laptop, "You're fucking kidding me, Egderp."

I widened my eyes at him trying to give what I imagined to be an adorable puppy-face.

"You're eyes look like they're about to pop out of your head."

"C'mon Dave! Please!"

Dave cleared his throat and said in a Texan drawl, "Aw, Hell no, I am not doing a fucking accent for you."

I clapped and fell backwards on my bed with glee.

Returning to his usual speech patterns Dave asked, "Anyway, where are you from, Egbert?"

I sat back up, "Washington, we're over in Maple Valley."

"Where's Maple Valley? Gimme some perspective here."

"You know where Seattle is?"

"Yeah."

"We're about thirty miles southeast of Seattle."

"Cool. What're you doing for the break?"

"Me? I'm heading back up home and probably going to hang out with my dad and avoid as many cakes as possible, maybe see Rose and my cousin Jake, depending on whether he's back from whatever it is that he does when he leaves."

"Sweet."

"So, you should probably talk to your bro about whether you're staying or leaving. If you want, you could come home with me over the break. I'm sure my dad wouldn't mind."

Dave shrugged, "It all depends."

"Well, if heading home with your bro doesn't work out, then just keep it in mind."

Dave smiled, actually smiled, and said, "Thanks, John."

I smiled back at him, "No problem."

I turned back to my homework and continued editing my essay due the next day. It wasn't long before I finally finished re-writing my conclusion and heard a knock at the door. I hopped up from my bed and unlocked the door to see Tavros and Gamzee, that's right, tonight it was our turn to host dinner. We'd worked into a groove where Mondays and Thursdays were our night to have Tavros and Gamzee over and Tuesdays and Fridays Dave and I would head over to their room. Wednesdays we'd alternate and weekends we tended to go out to eat, generally at this fantastic Indian restaurant with the greatest butter chicken ever. I let Gamzee and Tavros in. Gamzee pushed him through the doorway.

"Motherfucking HONK motherfucker!"

"Uh, hey guys!"

Dave stood up from his bed stowing his laptop beneath it and pulling out a phone and walked out into the hall dialing a number and muttering some sort of greeting to Tavros and Gamzee before excusing himself to call... whoever it was he was calling, probably his bro or something.

Tavros wheeled himself over to the fridge and gestured for me to follow, lately he'd been trying to teach me the basics of cooking, but honestly, I really wasn't catching on. It seemed that I burned everything. Tavros opened the fridge with a bit of difficulty and grabbed an assortment of vegetables. Honestly, I think he knew his way around our fridge better than we did.

He replaced the door of the fridge and placed the ingredients on the miniscule counter space.

Whilst Tavros explained to me what we were making Dave reentered the room and sat down on his bed again collapsing in a pile of blankets.

"Hey, Egderp?" He called over to me.

I looked up from carefully chopping carrots, "Yeah?"

"I'll take you up on that offer."

"The one where you come home with me for break?"

"Yep, that's the one."

"Cool, I'll let my dad know."

He nodded and seemed to relax on the bed. I returned to meticulously slicing the little orange vegetables while Tavros struggled to watch me trying to peek up a little higher over the counter to supervise my cooking. Eventually I finished with the carrots and moved on to slicing peppers, broccoli, and onions. By the time that was over my eyes were watering to the point at which I was as blind as I was without my glasses. Tavros instructed me in how to fry them, it seemed we would be making some sort of stir fry. Telling me which spices to add and when to start boiling the rice I tried desperately to follow his directions. By the end it seemed that we had a decent dinner.

It was nights like these I used to adore; nights when we had no worries and not a care in the world. Our casual bickering keeping the mood light and the food that didn't taste like, as Dave continued to put it for as long as I can remember, a fucknado.

"Nice job, Egdork."

I shrugged, "Tavros was the guy who really did all the work. It'd taste horrid if he weren't there."

Tavros chuckled, "Well, uh, you did it right, so you, uh, deserve at least some credit."

"Honk!"

At this we all went silent for a moment and burst out laughing, except Dave, who simply smirked and chuckled a bit, he was too cool for laughter.

We sat and ate telling jokes and chatting like usual and soon enough it was nearing curfew and Gamzee and Tavros rushed out the door to their dorm. They were often caught out past curfew and had received more than a few detentions for it, though Dave and I also wound up with just as many detentions for the same reason.

After they left the room grew quiet as I pulled on a nightshirt and slipped into bed. I pulled out my phone and opened up a message to send to my dad.

Me: Hey dad, I was wondering if maybe my friend from school could come stay with us over break.

I waited a while before I heard the familiar BLIP of my phone.

Dad: I suppose we have room to spare. Is this that Tavros kid, or Dave?

Me: Oh, it's Dave. He can't go home over break, so I offered to have him come back home with me, I hope that's ok.

Dad: Yes, it's fine, he can stay with us. I suppose I'll have to drive the van up then won't I? Or do you think we could fit everything in the Civic?

Me: I dunno, maybe, depends on what he's bringing.

Dad: You'd better ask him.

Me: sure.

I turned to face Dave's side of the room where he sat goofing around on his laptop.

"Hey, Dave?

"Yeah?"

"My dad says you can come."

He looked up, "really?"

I nodded.

"Cool."

"Um, we do need to know how much stuff you'll be bringing up to the house with you though, also I think we need to fill out some forms or something like that."

He shrugged, "I'll probably just bring a few pairs of clothes and such. I'd bring my turntables, but that'd be a bit of a nuisance to load and unload, not to mention if anyone broke them I'd probably be arrested for attempted or successful murder."

I chuckled despite knowing he was serious.

Me: You should probably be able to manage with just the civic

Dad: Okay. Also, I think you'll need to have his mom or dad to fill out a form saying he's allowed to come home with us.

Me: Um, he doesn't have a mom or a dad. He's got his bro though.

Dad: Oh. I see. Well, he'll have to fill out that form, I think it's on the school website.

Me: Okay, I'll let him know

This presented a real dilemma, if they didn't have a fax machine wherever Dave's Bro lived he may not be able to come home with me at all.

"Dave?"

This time Dave stirred from trying to sleep, "What do you want, derp?"

"Geez! Just needed to let you know that your Bro will have to sign some form on the school website, which could be problematic considering he's in Texas and we're in the middle of northern Idaho."
"He's not in Texas."

"I thought you said you guys were from Houston."

"We are, but he's not in Texas."

"Well, where is he?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Dave sat up, "I don't know where he is."

I furrowed my brow, "Why not?"

He laid back down on the bed and took off his shades, which I'd never seen him do without thinking no one was watching, though he kept his eye closed as he pinched the bridge of nose, "Because I called and his friend Roxy picked up saying he went off to god knows where."

"Oh." I wasn't sure how to respond.

After a long silence I cleared my throat and asked, "Does he have a cell number?"

Dave nodded.

"Did you try that one?"

Dave nodded again.

"Oh. Is there anyone else who could sign that form?"

"I can, I've forged his signature enough times."

"Oh."

"Why do you keep saying that?"

"What?"

"You keep saying "Oh" over and over again."

"Oh. I-"

"There it is again. Why do you keep saying that?"

"I just, I guess I'm just not sure what to say."

"Why?"

I shrugged and laid back on my bed, "I just never really thought that your bro was the kind to up and disappear all the time. Sounds kind of like my cousin Jake, he leaves all the time without notice, but I suppose it's okay for him because, well, he doesn't have any responsibilities."

Dave rolled over to face the wall and said, "I see. Well, goodnight Egbert."

"G'night Dave."