Today, 9/19, is Casey's negative second birthday!
-Wednesday, December 28, 5:19 pm/Karkat & Terezi's house-
Karkat had just finished feeding Katrina when the phone rang.
He sighed as he picked up his phone to answer it. It was John—what did he want? Wasn't he still sick, like Vriska had said? Even though Karkat didn't want to talk, he decided to answer it anyway.
"Yeah?"
"Hey, Karkat." John sniffed. "What's up?"
"Uhh, Katrina?" Karkat rolled his eyes. "That's what I've been doing since May?"
"I figured," replied John with a sigh. "Anyway, this Saturday Vris and Casey and I'll be going over to my dad's house for New Years', and we were wondering if you guys wanted to come too."
Karkat paused to think for a moment. "...Who all will be there?"
"Well, me, Vris, and Casey, obviously," John told him, "and Rose and Kanaya, and my grandparents and a couple of my aunts and uncles, and...did I tell you my dad is dating Rose's mom now?"
"What? Ew." The mutant-blood furrowed his brow and began to take his daughter, who had finished eating, out of her high chair. "What does Rose think about it?"
On the other side of the line, John shrugged. "I don't know. She hasn't really talked about it. But…" He paused. "I'm not sure if you knew this already, but she's never met her dad before, and I'm still not sure if she's comfortable talking about it."
"Okay…?" Karkat still had trouble understanding the concept of a dysfunctional family, since the only type of family he'd ever learned about was the stereotypical "dad/mom/kids" kind. He didn't understand how a child could hate-or in Rose's case, strongly disagree with-their own parent(s), and also just couldn't grasp the concept of divorced, separated, or single parents (without a death in the family, as in John's case). "But, uh, yeah. We'll be there."
"Great. It's at my dad's house on the 31st at eight."
-Saturday, December 31, 7:49 pm/John & Vriska's car-
"It's okay, Casey, we're almost there," Vriska mumbled through gritted teeth as John turned onto the street his dad's house was on. Casey had started crying for no reason, and it was getting annoying.
"Hey, look, Peanut," John sighed as he began to turn into the driveway. "We're at Grandpa's house!"
Once the baby noticed the car slowing to a stop, her crying started to diminish.
Her crying had totally stopped by the time they reached the front door. "Okay," Vriska said, breathing out a long sigh as she reached out to ring the doorbell.
Inside, Mr. Egbert set a bowl of potato chips on the counter and went to answer the door. "Come on in," he told his son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. "Your Uncle Steve and Aunt Brooke are already here, and your grandparents, but we're still waiting on everyone else."
"Okay," John said as he stepped over the threshold into his father's house.
Inside, Uncle Steve and Aunt Brooke were watching their three kids, but stood up when John, Vriska, and Casey came into the living room. "Hey!" Uncle Steve exclaimed, jumping up out of a chair. "How's my favorite nephew?!"
"I'm twenty-two, not ten!" John laughed before giving Steve a one-armed hug. "How are you?"
"I'm fine," Uncle Steve replied with a smile, turning to look at Casey. "And how's Casey?"
"Casey's good." Vriska smiled and leaned up against John. "A little whiny on the way over here, but not anymore."
"Well, I guess that's better than her crying." Uncle Steve paused before turning back over to his wife. "Brooke, didn't you want to say something?"
John's Aunt Brooke shook her head. "Not yet. Maybe later."
Mr. Egbert was about to say something, but an engine rev interrupted his thought. "I wonder who that is?"
Once he realized who it was, though, he ran outside to meet them.
"Everyone," he began, slowly walking into the foyer, "this is my girlfriend, Roxy, her daughter, Rose, and Rose's girlfriend, Kanaya."
Everyone reacted with expressions of joy and surprise. "You never told me you were looking to date again!" Peggy playfully exclaimed as she entered the room. "It's about time!"
"Well," Mr. Egbert laughed, "sixteen years of waiting was long enough. It was about time I found someone."
"And we're happy you did." Peggy paused and turned to her former son-in-law's new girlfriend. "Hi, I'm Peggy, John's grandma. It's so nice to meet you."
"You too." Roxy smiled and awkwardly shook the older woman's hand.
Everyone else introduced themselves to Roxy, Rose, and Kanaya, then waited for the remaining people to arrive. Soon, John noticed headlights in the driveway and sighed with relief.
"Karkat and Terezi are here," he whispered to his friends, then prepared to greet the family.
-9:05 pm-
Karkat and Terezi had arrived with a bit of a hassle. Katrina had been the same way as Casey, crying non-stop the entire way to Mr. Egbert's house. But things soon got better when the baby troll realized her "friend" was also there, and even got along well with Annabelle (Steve and Brooke's two-year-old daughter).
After eating and chatting with the others for quite a while, Mr. Egbert finally stood up to get everyone's attention. "Everyone," he began with a smile, glancing at John and Roxy, specifically, "I have an announcement to make."
"Are you getting married?"asked Bob with a serious expression.
"No, Roxy and I just started dating in December!" Mr. Egbert sighed before deciding to continue. "Anyway, my announcement is I've decided to quit my job."
The guests at the party were rather confused at the man's statement. "...Why?" John asked his dad with a perplexed look. "I thought you liked your job?"
"Not as much as I used to," Mr. Egbert confessed. "It's just not something I enjoy anymore. So, I've decided to quit and open a bakery."
A bakery! "Why a bakery?"
"Because you aren't here to eat anything I make. Or, you won't eat anything I make." John's dad chuckled. "Anyway, I'm still trying to get everything worked out, but I think I'm going to buy one of the empty shops downtown."
"That's wonderful, dear," Peggy smiled. "I'm excited to hear about how it turns out."
-11:57 pm/Dave & Bro's Apartment-
"I got him to sleep," Jade sighed, walking out of the spare bedroom where she had Blake's travel crib set up. "Three minutes to spare."
"Sweet." Dave cracked a smile as his girlfriend joined him on the couch. "11:58. Two more minutes."
Jade sighed again and turned towards Dave. "Thank you so much for letting us stay for so long," she told him. "And...thanks for not breaking up with me."
"Why would I break up with you?"
"I just...wasn't sure if you would be like those awful boyfriends who break up with their girlfriends when they find out there's a baby."
"Jade." Dave laughed. "I'd never do that. I mean, yeah, it was a...surprise, but...he's a cool little dude."
He looked at the clock. 11:59.
"I'm glad you think so." Jade smiled and pecked Dave with a kiss.
"Uh, Jade." The blond coughed. "I know we've been dating a while, even though we live in two different states with several other states and a fucking ocean in between us. I know it's been hard for us to date, but we've made the best of it with Skype calls and text messages and visiting each other liked we are now. And now that we have Blake...I think it'd be good if we changed some of that."
The clock on the microwave beeped. 12 am, New Year's day.
"Jade Harley, will you marry me?"
Jade gasped, her eyes widening. Dave didn't have a ring, but he seemed super serious about it. Even waiting until midnight on New Year's to ask her.
"Dave…" Jade's voice got quiet. "I'm sorry. I can't."
Okay I apologize this chapter was extremely half-assed and overall just shitty. Truth is, I ran out of ideas, and on top of that my depression is worse and my grades have fallen majorly. I hope the next chapters are better than this one.
godlessAdversary - Thank you!
Arc of Carona - Thanks for reviewing! And I'll be sure to check it out once I have time :)
NamaraVersek413 - There will be 35 chapters to this and a sequel-there's definitely more!
My Mind is a Nomad - Thanks! I did manage to get my math grade up to passing but now I'm failing chemistry… :(
Baby Blue Fairy - It's fine, go ahead! I was raised baptist but I plan on visiting other denominations once I'm a legal adult. I actually went to a Catholic school where I used to live.
TavvyTaurus - I did the New Years'!
Namz011 - Thank you!
griffman - Thank you so much!
And to XellanxLarxene, Eridan x Feferi, peixes chick, homestuckTroll, and 2outherngemiinii - Thanks for reviewing!