Things were… really weird by the time school started again. Pretty much the first day back, there was a fight that caused a lot of crowding in the halls before lunch. Nepeta didn't see what actually happened, but word spread fast and it sounded like Aradia lost her shit and beat the crap out of Vriska, and then got suspended. Nepeta wasn't one to condone violence (okay, she wasn't one to condone unprovoked violence) but she thought it should be noted that Vriska wasn't the nicest person anyway? Aradia's absence at the table didn't go unnoticed, either. Equius had a good amount of guilt about it. Nepeta thought that he thought it was his fault Aradia was suddenly acting weird, but Nepeta herself thought that he was being too hard on himself. Everyone seemed like they were falling apart. Tavros was still dealing with the repercussions of getting so drunk on New Year's and being so upfront with Vriska about his feelings. Sollux was more depressed than usual. Kanaya and Terezi and Vriska all seemed so far away with their own problems. Gamzee was acting odd, too, and not in the "he's constantly high" sense, and Eridan and Feferi seemed to have had some kind of fight. It suuuuucked that everyone was so down in the dumps. Karkat seemed like he was going to blow a fuse keeping himself together, let alone dealing with everyone else. Jade and Feferi were trying to be optimistic, but it wasn't enough for the whole group, and eventually the pessimism and negativity started getting to Nepeta, too. She was definitely feeling more comfortable with the way her life was going, at least in regards to her prior feelings for Karkat. It was easier to think of him as a brother the more time passed, and it didn't hurt that she'd found someone else she was mildly attracted to. The unfortunate thing was that she hadn't seen him around school. There weren't that many combinations of classes freshmen could take, so she found it odd that they didn't share any. A few weeks after school had started up again, Nepeta heard a voice on her way to class after lunch.
"Hey! Uh, Nepeta!" She turned to see that familiar crop of copper hair bobbing through the crowd, moving towards her.
"Oh, hey Oliver!" she greeted him as he approached.
"Hey, hey, sorry I haven't been around. Been busy with rehearsals and stuff."
"Rehearsals?"
"Oh, yeah, I'm in the school play. Been going over music during lunch."
"Oh, cool," Nepeta muttered. "I didn't know there was a musical happening."
"Yeah, um, it's pretty fun. We're doing Bye Bye Birdie this year. I wanted to do Heathers but the drama teacher said it wasn't appropriate for high school," Oliver griped. Nepeta picked up on the phrase 'this year'.
"Hey, are you a freshman?" she asked.
"Oh! No, I'm a sophomore." So that was why she hadn't seen him in any classes.
"Oh, okay. Sorry, I was just wondering. Anyway, uh… what's Heathers?" Nepeta had virtually no knowledge of musical theater. Bye Bye Birdie sounded vaguely familiar, but she'd never heard of the second one.
"W- pff, wh- what's Heathers?" Oliver sputtered. "Heathers is fantastic." And he went on to give Nepeta a full-blown synopsis. "It's this newer musical about three mean girls named Heather and their kinda-sorta friend Veronica, and Veronica falling in love with this boy JD who turned out to be kind of a murderer. They kill one of the Heathers, maybe by accident? JD eggs Veronica on and then they poison her, but Veronica freaks out and they fake a suicide note. And then later Veronica gets embarrassed by the other two Heathers and these two jocks, Ram and Kurt, and JD gets so pissed that they're all laughing at her that they make a plan to fake Ram and Kurt's suicide and make it look like they're gay. But JD lies about using fake bullets and actually just straight-up kills Ram and Kurt and Veronica flips her shit AGAIN. She basically tells him 'stop killing people because I love you but this is wrong' so JD says okay. Then there's this whole sequence where the teacher is trying to have a talk about how suicide isn't the answer but it's all for publicity and when Heather McNamara talks about how she wants to kill herself, Heather Duke turns into a megabitch and encourages it, and nobody says anything, except Veronica goes after her. JD tells Veronica that he wants to kill everyone because the whole school sucks, Veronica breaks up with him, and then he tries to blow up the school. Oh, and then there's the thing with Martha! Anyway, I don't want to give away the ending but there's a bootleg on Youtube and you should definitely watch it. Or at least check out the soundtrack." Nepeta just watched as Oliver, very emphatically explained the show. It was endearing seeing how passionate people could get.
"Wow, that sounds… like a lot," Nepeta said. "But really good!"
"It is! I even used 'Freeze Your Brain'as my audition song this year."
"'Freeze Your Brain'?" Oliver chuckled at her.
"It's one of JD's songs."
"Oh," Nepeta muttered again. An odd sort of silence settled between the two of them, and then Oliver kind of awkwardly cleared his throat.
"Hey, this is my class. But, uh, could I get your Pesterchum handle? Maybe we can stream the bootleg together later."
Nepeta's eyes widened and she was pretty sure she was blushing, a light dust of pink appearing on her cheeks. She scrambled for a scrap piece of paper and scrawled out 'arsenicCatnip' on it, pushing it into Oliver's hands before darting off to her own class. She was thankful Equius hadn't been with her—he was off studying somewhere, but they rejoined in gym class.
"Equius! Guess what!" she said, bounding over to him after having changed into her P.E. clothes. He turned to face her.
"Oh, what is it?"
"A boy… has a crush on me!"
"Well that certainly is… news."
"Yes! Exciting news! He wants to watch a movie with me later. I gave him my Pesterchum handle." Equius didn't respond, just looked down at Nepeta. She couldn't tell if his glare was more stern, or sullen. Maybe he was just bummed out over Aradia still. Nepeta looked forward at where Aradia used to stand a couple rows in front of her; she'd been number 6, alphabetized by last name. Nepeta was number 17. Number 6 was now empty.
It didn't take long for Nepeta to get a notification on Pesterchum. It happened pretty much as soon as she got home.
- amibitiousThespian has requested to be chums with arsenicCatnip [AC] –
- arsenicCatnip [AC] has accepted chum request from ambitiousThespian –
AT: Hey nepeta!
AC: oh hey oliver!
AC: that was quick :P
AT: Yeah im in rehearsal right now but theyre working on scenes im not in
AT: So i thought id say hi
AC: so you spend a lot of time after school in rehearsal?
AT: Yeah but the show is in a couple months so my schedule will stop being so crazy after that
AT: I love theater but its so time consuming _
AC: yeah i bet
AC: gotta learn all those songs and dances and stuff
AT: Yeah i mean im a pretty good singer but the dances are hard
AT: Thankfully i dont have to do a whole lot of them unless im in ensemble
AC: hmm?
AT: Oh
AT: Ensemble is like…
AT: Extras?
AT: They dont usually play any character in particular but theyre in scenes where it needs to look like a crowd
AT: Or like kids whose speciality is dance
AC: oh… hm
AC: sounds interesting
AC: okay so what is this play youre in
AC: bye bye birdie?
AT: Yeah
AT: Its about this songwritier named albert, he writes for a kinda elvis-like guy named conrad birdie
AT: Conrad gets drafted into the army and they have to come up with some kind of publicity stunt because albert needs the money
AT: So alberts assistant rose comes up with the idea to have conrad perform a song live with a girl from the conrad fanclub
AT: She also makes albert promise to be an english teacher because theyre sweethearts and shes tired of not having money come in consistently
AT: This girl kim macafee gets chosen for the contest thingy but quits the fan club because she just got a boyfriend
AT: Then albert, conrad, and rosie go to her town in ohio and from there its basically drama
AT: Kims parents dont like conrad
AT: Her boyfriend hugo is self conscious and thinks she likes conrad more
AT: Alberts mom shows up to break up him and rosie because shes hispanic
AT: Rosie gets pissed by that obviously
AT: The broadcast conrad is supposed to perform on falls apart
AT: Its crazy
AT: But really fun
AC: it sounds crazy but fun!
AC: who do you play?
AT: Hugo Peabody :]
AC: so… kims boyfriend, right?
AT: Yeah!
AC: cool!
AT: Its a fun part
AT: No solos though
AC: awwwww
AC: whats your favorite song?
AT: Telephone hour
AT: watch?v=O2Di1_Zbtpk
AC: heehee, why does that kids voice crack so much?
AT: Hes supposed to be a really nervous nerdy kinda guy
AC: thats cute :3
AT: Hey do you still wanna watch heathers later?
AC: yeah!
AC: i havent used pesterchum's video sharing thing, how does it work?
AT: Oh its super easy
AT: Ill set it up when i get home
AC: okay cool!
AT: So ill talk to you later?
AC: sure! :3
AT: Haha alright
AT: Bye nep
ambitiousThespian ceased pestering arsenicCatnip [AC]
Nepeta set her tablet down and rolled over on her bed, barely managing to hide her giddy smile when Meulin walked in. Meulin raised an eyebrow. She made a questioning face at Nepeta, moving her hands forward, then pointed at Nepeta, then placed both her index fingers near her mouth and drew them upwards, smiling, ad finally, touched her forehead and swung the tip of her finger forward.
What're you smiling like that for?
Nepeta grinned, then gestured for Meulin to put her aids in. It would be easier just to talk about it. Meulin complied, putting her hearing aids in and then looking back up at Nepeta.
"Okay, what are you so happy about over there?" she asked again.
"I was just… talkin' to a boy."
"A boy!" Meulin screamed. "What's his name? Where'd you meet? How old is he? What's he look like? What's he interested in?" Meulin bubbled with excitement and Nepeta's eyes widened at all the questions, but she answered, one by one.
"His name's Oliver, I gave him my Pesterchum handle earlier today and he was just messaging me. His handle is ambitiousThespian… we met at the pet store a while ago when I went with Jade and Jake, and we bonded over puns and cats. He's a year older than me… a little bit taller than Karkat, and he's got these really warm kind of cinnamon eyes and a rusty red sort of hair color, and he's really into theater. We're gonna watch a musical later."
"What, like go to a theater and everything?! That's an expensive first date!"
Nepeta giggled at her sister. "No, he wants to stream a bootleg of Heathers from YouTube."
"Oh. Well that's kind of cute," Meulin conceded. Nepeta grinned at her.
Once again, Nepeta didn't have to wait too long before hearing from Oliver. His rehearsal couldn't have been that long. Maybe a few hours. It was only around 6:30 when she heard from him again, scarfing down dinner to excuse herself as fast as possible before answering.
ambitiousThespian began pestering arsenicCatnip [AC]
AT: Hey nepeta!
AT: Im back :]
AC: hii!
AC: sorry, i had to finish dinner real quick
AT: Thats fine!
AT: Im still getting this set up
AT: So while i work on that
AT: Hmm
AT: Tell me about your family
AC: oh uhm
AC: okay!
AC: well theres me
AC: im technically the youngest but only by about a month
AC: and my sister Meulin
AC: shes 17 but her birthday is in august too
AC: around the same time as mine
AC: we get along pretty well
AC: but learning sign language has been weird
AC: she went deaf a couple years ago right after we moved here
AC: and my mom!
AC: my mom's great
AT: Is it just the three of you?
AT: I thought you said you have a brother
AC: oh!
AC: well he's only kind of my brother
AC: see we moved here because my mom found her high school sweetheart again!
AC: they broke up when she went away to college
AC: and i don't really know what happened to my dad
AC: but she was happy to rekindle things with solomon
AC: so he's kind of sort of my dad?
AC: and he has two kids of his own
AC: karkat and kankri
AC: karkat is kind of a crab but deep down there is a soft lovable center
AC: kankri is…
AC: hard to describe
AT: Wow thats pretty cool
AT: Its like the brady bunch
AT: But with two less kids
AC: it can be hard having so many """siblings"""
AC: but its fun for the most part
AT: Thats good!
AT: Okay i think i got it
- ambitiousThespian has requested to video chat with arsenicCatnip [AC] –
- arsenicCatnip [AC] has accepted video chat request from ambitiousThespian –
- ambitiousThespian has shared screen with arsenicCatnip [AC] –
A window with Oliver's face popped up. He smiled at Nepeta, and she smiled back, and then the larger portion of the screen changed, shifting Oliver's window into the lower right corner. The screen was dark, and didn't look like anything was playing.
"Is it working?" she asked.
"Yeah, I just have it paused. Are you ready?"
"Mhm!" she smiled again, and Oliver pressed play on his computer.
They didn't stop when Heathers ended. Oliver showed her a couple songs from his favorite musicals, they looked up funny cat videos, Nepeta suggested he listen to The Adventure Zone and told him about a couple fan-made animations that they then watched, and eventually, Oliver just pulled up Aladdin on some streaming site. Nepeta felt her eyes drift closed before the movie ended.
Nepeta woke up with her tablet still on her bed, barely any battery left. It lasted long enough for her to read a few messages that had been left for her on Pesterchum.
AT: Hey
AT: You definitely passed out during aladdin
AT: Which is kind of adorable not going to lie
AT: Anyway i wanted to say goodnight but youre not gonna see this until you wake up
AT: Well
AT: I hope you have sweet dreams nepeta
ambitiousThespian ceased pestering arsenicCatnip [AC]