Vriska was by no means the biggest fan of school, but she was a fan of being out of the house, and she was a fan of keeping her mother off her back, so she often stayed late doing homework in the library or spontaneously spending the night at Terezi's. And it wasn't as if Vriska was dumb, either, but in middle school her grades had slipped, and it only led to her mother being more harsh on her, so she was actually trying to study hard. But this didn't distract her from the fact that after several weeks of school, as they were preparing to flip the calendar to October, there was a sudden addition at their lunch table, and it started with a familiar voice.

"Hey, Karkat!" Vriska looked up to see John, along with three others, coming towards their table. Things just got interesting.

"I'm sorry, did I fucking invite you to sit here, Egbert?" Karkat growled at him.

"Oh fuck no, you three?" one of John's friends said, looking pitifully at Tavros, Karkat, and Gamzee. "These are the pricks from my Spanish class."

"Come on, Dave, Karkat isn't so bad."

"Whatever," Dave grumbled. Karkat rolled his eyes, but they all shifted around a bit to accommodate the new additions to their lunch table. Vriska found herself really enjoying John's company. Dave was tolerable as well, but while Vriska didn't dislike either of the girls, whom she would later learn were named Rose and Jade, she didn't find herself exactly getting along with them, either. The more they hung out together, the more Vriska found herself drawn to him. It also helped her Biology grade now that she, Terezi, and John were becoming better friends.

"Hey, Vriska!" John said one morning when Terezi was late to class. Vriska jumped a bit, then glanced at John. There was a nervous energy around him.

"John! What the hell. First of all, who told you you could just hasle me without warning like this? That's not how this works!" God, they'd been friends for like a month; she figured he would know that by now.

"Why not?"

"Those are the rules. I get to bug you any time I feel like, and you have to sit there and take it like a chump." She grinned at him, and he looked a little flustered, even though she was only teasing a little bit. "I am too busy to be fielding your nonsense at the drop of a hat. I have a ridiculous number of irons in the fire."

"That's dumb. I'm going to talk to you whenever I want!" Vriska's smiled softened, coming to her more naturally, then. John's face tinged pink, and he began thinking about his words more carefully. "Well, anyway, I… uhm. Have you seen the-!" John stammered. Vriska raised an eyebrow at him. What on Earth was he babbling about? John took a breath, preparing to try again, but Vriska's attention was then occupied by Terezi, who'd just come into the classroom.

Truth be told, Vriska had been hoping he was going to ask her to the Homecoming dance, because obviously Tavros wasn't going to. He didn't have enough of a spine. Frankly, the fact that the dance was in about two weeks and neither of the boys Vriska was mildly crushing on had asked her yet was discouraging, and she wasn't totally sure she wanted to talk about it. Maybe it was her; maybe she was just intimidating. But of course Feferi brought it up at lunch the next day. That rich princess never turned down an opportunity to socialize.

"Boys, who're you all gonna ask? Or have you already?" Feferi asked. Vriska could have sworn John glanced at her in the lingering silence.

"I ain't asking nobody, gonna go with my motherfuckin' self and have a good time," Gamzee said with a bit of a slur. God, how did anyone stand this kid? It was a good thing he wasn't hoping to have a date, because it was highly unlikely anybody would say yes to him.

"O-oh," Feferi answered, clearly being caught off guard by his nonchalant answer. "Um, what about you, Karkat?" Like she even needed to ask. Everyone knew who Karkat would want to ask. The question was whether or not he'd harness whatever amount of courage existed in that stubby little body.

"Don't put me on the spot!" Karkat snipped at her. "What about you, princess? Who are you going with?"

"Oh, I already told Eridan I would go with him." It was kind of amazing, how patient Feferi was. Eridan was such a thorn in the side, and Vriska knew from experience.

"Not worth the time," she sneered, looking at Eridan. "He's such a fucking pain; I can't believe I ever dated him."

"Because you were so fuckin' peachy, right, Vris?!" he shouted back. Wow, someone was touchy today.

"Eridan, hush," Feferi chided him. "He's not so bad. Anyway… what about you, John?"

"I, uh…" John stammered, clearly embarrassed by the mere question. Vriska didn't really know what to make of it. Rose interrupted.

"John and I will be attending together. He never got the nerve up to ask anyone, and neither did I," she explained. Pretty clear Rose was a big lesbian, but why didn't John manage to ask someone? It was a tad disheartening.

"'S cool, bro," Dave said. "I wasn't gonna ask anyone to be my date either. I'm with Gamzee on that one."

"As much fun as a date would be, I thought we could all just go as friends!" Jade added. Even if they paired off, they'd end up going as a group, so that wasn't an unwarranted suggestion. "But I'm still curious; who would you ask, Tavros?" Vriska was suddenly invested in the conversation again.

"Uhm… I was going to ask… um… this girl, from English class. Uh, how about you, Equius?" Interesting. He was so quick to change the subject, and avoided actually answering. Vriska mulled it over. Maybe he was avoiding the subject because she was at the table. Maybe he was planning on asking Vriska; they were in the same English class, as he said. Of course 'some girl from English class' was code for Vriska; he was just too embarrassed to say it in front of her! Vriska let herself smile as the conversation continued.

"I was… going to ask someone," Equius said. "But, if she says no I will go with Nepeta."

"You butt! I'm your second choice?"

"I believed that was our arrangement…"

"Naw, it is. I'm just teasing."

If Vriska was honest with herself, the whole thing was a bit upsetting. She had been hoping that either Tavros or John was going to ask her to the dance, and she still thought Tavros would, but she was feeling a tad discouraged. She didn't really know what to think of it, and was forced to ask Aranea for advice.

"Hey Aranea," she asked at dinner (which their mother was thankfully absent for.)

"Hmm?" Aranea looked up at her.

"Did you ever feel like people were afraid of you? Like… intimidated?"

"Is this about Homecoming?"

"Yeah. There was this boy I wanted to ask me, but he didn't, and Tavros is probably too afraid to. I kinda like both of them, and I think both of them like me, but I feel like they're scared of me."

"To be honest, Vriska, I have the opposite problem as you. People notice you and they get worried you'll reject them or tear them down with your words. I spent two and a half years going completely unnoticed. Nobody was worried about me rejecting them because nobody even knew I existed."

"Well you have Meenah now," Vriska said, slurping her noodles. Aranea glanced down at her plate.

"Yes, well, I suppose that's true. I feel like we're growing apart, though."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm preparing to graduate and go to college and I'll be gaining all this responsibility as an adult, and her only plan is to flee away from hers."

"Figures. I mean, as far as I can tell, Feferi doesn't want anything to do with the company either. Isn't Miss Peixes like super-brutal in terms of corporations?"

"See, that's the thing I don't get. Meenah idolizes her mother. But she doesn't want the company. I think she wants to prove she's as big a 'badass' as Candace is. Which leaves everything to Feferi, who is clearly much kinder than anyone in her family, and would either have to become ruthless, or change an entire corporation's policies. I don't get why Meenah's solution is to run away…" Aranea's voice trailed.

"Great, so anyway any advice for me?"

"My advice is to not worry about it. Look, Vris, you have a… a big personality. And if guys can't deal with that, then they're not the guy for you. You shouldn't have to change who you are."

"You know what, Aranea, for once, you're right," Vriska said, grinning.