Chapter 10

Your name is Dave Strider, and you are screaming internally.

John and I are so close to the Principal's office, and I still don't have a plan. I have to protect him, even if it means I get detention for life or something, if that's possible. I realize he's not used to getting into trouble, and i'm not going to make that start now because I was being (and don't tell anyone I thought this) a total insufferable prick, as much as I hate to admit it. I'm not exactly sure why I despise being called that. It's just the breaking point between mad and spewing fire out of my lungs.

John is shaking so bad that you can actually feel it. Holding his hand has never felt so bad, but if I let go, it would get worse.

It was only the office, and I really don't get why he's so scared. I mean, I didn't kill him or anything, not that I didn't want to. The most that could've happened is a broken nose, black eyes, and busted lip.

"John, calm down. It will be fine, I promise." I looked at him, he had tears back in his eyes, but he refused to let them go. "John." He clicked out of it, and looked at me. "Oh, okay... I'm okay... I love you..."

Man, he must not get in trouble a lot.

"I love you too. Now come on, it should be just around this corner, right?" He nodded and firmed his grip on my hand.

We turned the corner, and we both let go of each other. I opened the door, and we walked in to where the receptionists and all the other people at their desks were. They all gave us weird looks, but only one smiled at us. Of course, we went up to her, seeing that she already didn't have some kind of feud with us.

"May I help you?" She smiled and put down her paperwork.

"Er, yeah. We were called to the office." She looked at me with surprise.

"Oh! Then you must be the Strider everyone is talking about, am I right?"

I pretended to itch the back of my head. "Er, yeah, I suppose. How do you know?"

"You're talked about a lot. Especially by this young man right here." She pointed to John, and his eyes instantly went wide in surprise.

"Whoa whoa whoa! N-no I don't!"

"Hehe, sure John." She turned to me. "Whenever he comes to see me, you're all he talks about. You, two girls named Jade and Rose, and some people with slightly different colored skin. I'm still analyzing that."

I smiled and chuckled a bit. "Ah, so you must be the guidance counselor." She nodded. I went up to her and whispered into her ear. "Has my brother already talked to you?" She nodded again. I nodded in response.

John still looked confused, but I can't tell him anything just yet. He stepped up. "Um, Mrs. Hanson, do you, er, do you think you could help us?"

"Of course! I still owe you for fixing my computer. What do you need?"

He actually smiled a bit, and cheered up. "We just got into a bit of trouble, and it would mean a lot to us if you could help us in it."

She looked at both of us, and nodded. "Okay, but first you'll have to tell me what happened. I'll go tell the principal that it's an emergency and that you two have to come with me, okay?" We both smiled and nodded.

She did so, and took us both to an individual room. She asked us to go into complete detail so that she could help us. I figured she would keep everything discreet, so we told her everything. It involved us dating, John getting beat up, the trolls (who she's now analyzing thoroughly), and everything in between. (Except the sex, of course.)

"Okay, I will definitely help you two. Just make sure nothing like this happens again, okay? Well, at least not on school grounds." She laughed.

"Deal." We both said in unison.

She led us back into the office, and apparently everyone was on lunch break, so the office was empty. But the Principal's office was just through the next door. John held my hand, and Mrs. Hanson smiled.

"Okay you love birds, let's get this over with, okay?" She opened the door and we both walked through.

"You! You're going to pay for this!" The kid I beat up pointed at me and yelled.

"Mr. Vargas, be quiet."

Ah, so that's why this kid annoys me so much. His last name sounds like Vantas. Well, he sure does yell like Karkat.

"Boys, please sit down." The principle smiled at us and we followed.

"Now Mrs. Hanson, why are you here?" She pointed at the counselor.

"Ah! I'm just observing. Mr. Egbert is my responsibility right now."

The principle looked at her confusingly, but then just smiled at us. "Now boys, which one of you hurt Mr. Vargas?"

"I did, Mrs..." I tried looking for a name tag or something, but none was seen.

"Mrs. Brown," she kept smiling at me, "Mr. Strider."

Why the hell does she keep smiling at John and I, and turns into like the devil at that kid?

"Now, Dave. Why did this happen?" She turned back to me.

"Ahem, Vargas over here was being mean to John, and just like Mrs. Hanson, he is my responsibility." She seemed very interested in this, for some reason. "And what did you call Mr. Egbert, Nick?" She turned to the kid.

"I didn't call him anything, ma'am." Her smile faded fairly quickly, and she turned angry for a second. Then she turned to John.

"John, what did this man say?" I looked at him, and he was still shaking.

"He called Dave an insufferable prick, and he called me a.. Uh..."

She nodded. "Ah, you brother warned me about that name."

"What? You talked to my brother?" I looked at her shocked.

"Well of course. When one of my brightest students all of a sudden has a person with him, I do my research." She smiled. "Now, what did he call John, Mr. Strider?"

It was hard for me to even say without wanting to tear Nick's throat out. "He called John a wimpy faggot."

She turned to Nick with a gasp of fury. "Nick! Why would you say such a thing?!" He was still trying to act like a cool boy, with his arms crossed and stoic face. Of course, I outdid him, though. "Because he is."

She sighed, "And why is that?" I sat up, just waiting for his response. "Because he's dating that guy." He pointed at me. She followed his finger and smiled at us a bit. Then she looked like she was about to spew flames at Nick. "And is that a problem?" He looked at her, rather confused. "Well yeah. These fags can't be together, like, isn't it a sin or something?",he turned to us, "Just get a girlfriend, prick."

I got up from my seat fast. "Dave, please sit down." I did so, slowly.

"Nick, we don't allow that kind of language in here, or your tolerance level. My son his homosexual, and I don't approve of your language."

Oh hell yes. We have him now.

"What the hell! That's not even right. And that still doesn't give him a right to hit me."

"One more cuss and you are out of here, Mr. Vargas. And yes, that still did not give him a right. Mr. Strider, why did you hit him?"

"I can take this one!" Mrs. Hanson stepped up. Nick rolled his eyes and groaned.

"First, can we please put Nick on another room for a second?" She nodded, and escorted him to the room next door.

"Okay, please continue."

"Alright, Dave came here to help John. From his own words. He had to protect him. Nick threatened them, and Dave had to defend John."

Well, I thought she would be more help than that.

"No offense, Mrs. Hanson, but I think I can describe this better." I turned to her. "Ah! Go ahead! I'm sorry, i'm more of a listener..." She smiled and left swiftly.

"Sorry about her. It seems like your lawyer wasn't that much help, huh?" The principle laughed. She noticed John still shaking. "John, please calm down. I promise you will not get into trouble."

We both looked up. "Really?"

"Of course. Nick is always doing this. And just because of your sexual type too. Ugh, I despise those thinkers." We smiled.

Finally, someone who understands!

"Wow, thank you so much..." John giggled and finally stopped shaking.

"All I need is for you to tell me why this all happened in the first place. So I have a good reason for giving Nick the punishment he deserves."

I held out my hand to John, and he held it too. Mrs. Brown smirked and let us do as we wanted. I turned back to John. "Is it okay if I tell her everything?" He nodded and smiled at me.

"Okay, well, John was beat up by this group of boys here about two nights ago. Nick here was one of them. He messaged me that night and said that he was stuck at a nearby Starbucks. I quickly came here all the way from Texas, because he was one of my best friends, and I couldn't stand to see him like that. He couldn't go home to his father, because he wouldn't understand. I picked him up, and yesterday, we went to school together, as you may have known already. I vowed to protect him, and, well, excuse the clicheness, I am now his protector. During lunch yesterday, they all tried to beat up John again. I was there, of course, and I defended him. You probably didn't hear about it, but I did fend them all off. I guess you could say I beat them up, and i'm sorry for it-"

She cut me off. "No, don't feel sorry. I understand. My son went through this."

I nodded and went back to my story. "Well, I beat them up, and we tried to stay away from them the entire day. We successfully did so, and I got a hotel room for John, so he could feel better. That's about when we started dating. Then today, we came here. And at lunch, Nick came up and started yelling at me for giving me a black eye. Then he called me a prick and yelled at John, and I may have lost it a little."

She nodded. "So, it was basically verbal and physical abuse, right?"

I looked down at the floor. "Yeah..."

"Okay, well first of all, I will be the first to tell you that Nick will be expelled. We don't condone this whatsoever." John smiled a bit. "And you two are not in trouble at all, don't worry. But I think you may want to tell your father you are okay, John."

John looked back at me, now saddened. I looked back at the principle. "Do you think there is a way you could tell him? I don't think John wants to talk to his father right now."

"Of course." She smiled. "Ah, and Dave, about your brother. He wanted me to tell you that he found an apartment, and that he has moved all of your things." My eyes widened. "Wait! Uh..."

John looked at me, then at Mrs. Brown. "What? You're moving?" He looked a lot sadder than he already was.

"No! Well, yes! But ugghhh. I wasn't going to tell you yet..."

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry, Dave. I didn't know it was a surprise..."

John looked like the most confused person on the planet right now. Still adorable, though.

"Okay, John. I'll tell you. Yesterday when I was in the arcade I asked Bro if we could move here. I had to tell him everything... If that was okay... But he understood, and he agreed to move here so that I could be with you every day... I hope that's okay..." I looked down.

John got up quickly. I looked at him, and he had a huge grin on his face. "What?" I asked him. "What do you mean what? This is awesome!" He walked over to me and hugged me tightly. "John!" He looked up at the principle who is now smiling at us. "Oh, no no no, go ahead. This is a very good thing. And ah, Dave, as of now, you are a student here. So tomorrow make sure you have every thing you need." She smiled and dismissed us to talk to Nick. As we walked out hand in hand, we heard a shitload of yelling from the office. We both smiled at each other and laughed.

"I can't believe you actually did this for me! You are the best boyfriend ever!" John was literally jumping up and down in excitement.

"Of course I did this! I couldn't just go back home in a week and continue to just pester you." He hugged me, and when he made sure no one was around, he kissed me quickly.

"I still can't believe we didn't get into trouble. That was a close one. Is the principle always that nice?" I asked him.

"No! Which is surprising. Everyone calls her the she-devil. I guess she just really liked us!" John giggled.

"Damn John, every time you giggle I want to pounce on you." I put my hands behind my head and continued walking. Of course he giggled again and blushed.

"Sorry, I can't exactly control it. Hehe." We stopped at his locker, and he got whatever was needed for his next class. "So, what's next?" I asked. "World Studies. Sorry, it's really boring." He looked at me. "Nah, nothings boring with you around." He laughed.

Man, i'm being really cliché today.

"Oh yeah, you talked about me a lot, eh?" I looked at him. He was blushing even harder now. "Er, yeah... I talk to her a lot. You were just always on my mind. I suppose I had a bit of a crush on you for a while. I told her a lot about Sburb, but she didn't understand any of it."

I smiled. "It's okay. I had a fanboy crush on you too."

He smirked. "How was it a fanboy crush? I'm not even famous or anything!" I laughed. "Of course you are! You're the best Sburb player I know! The only person that could possibly beat you is me."

He smiled and turned around, facing me.

"I'd love to see you try to beat me."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Maybe. We can round up everybody again."

"Okay. Let's just try not to destroy a whole planet this time, okay?"

He giggled. "Okay."

"Oh and Dave?" He looked at me, holding out his hand.

"What?" I put my hand in his.

"I love you."

"I love you too." We both smiled, and he kissed me again.

Your name is Dave Strider, and you want to be with this boy forever.

Sorry this chapter was so... Sugar coated. I thought about making the principle all mean and stuff, but I just couldn't. *Cue my inner Dave* I just had to have John happy in the end. And yeah, the whole secret I was going to have was that Dave was moving with John, but I decided to go ahead and add it in there this chapter.

I hope this chapter was good enough. I tried my best. :D And to Gamzeelicious, I'm sorry that I couldn't have Gamzee as the stoner principle (as awesome as that sounds), but it would've made the story a bit weird. But thank you for the idea. :3

And as to where I go from here, next up will be the Mr. Egbert drama. Wooo. I can either make him all mad, or understanding. You guys choose!