Terezi woke up early when she heard the creaky floorboard on the second stair. She reached for her phone on the side table and held down the home button.

"Nora, what time is it?" she asked.

"The current time is 6:13 AM," Nora (the phone AI) answered in her slightly off-kilter voice. Terezi always thought it was a bit odd, how Nora wasn't quite monotone, like the programmers had quite purposefully tried to make it sound human. It was a little unsettling, but Terezi got the same impression from most vocalized programs. That "Microsoft Sam" feel was hard to get away from. Terezi turned over, groaning a bit, then began to roll out of bed, ignoring the goosebumps on her legs beneath her pj shorts as she slid into her dragon slippers and went downstairs, cane in hand.
As aniticpated, Terezi found her mother, as evidenced by the smell of fresh-brewed coffee, and the footsteps across the kitchen floor that were quickly followed by the tap-tap-taping of keyboard keys.
"Mom, are you working already?" Terezi asked, her voice a bit raspy from sleep.
"Mhm. I wasn't planning on heading into the office today, but figured I could still get some things done."
"I didn't even see you last night."
"I know, honey, I'm sorry," Rebecca answered. The creaky swivel of the chair told Terezi that she'd turned to face her. "Working on a really big case right now."
"Mom, I'm just…" Terezi sighed. "I've been reading and everything says that stress is really bad for babies. I think you should take a break from work. And—"

"Terezi, it's fine, I'm not even in the second trimester yet. And it's decaf. Look, I know you're worried; I know you're excited to have a baby sibling."
"Sister."
"Don't assume!" Rebecca said with a laugh, though she was also hoping it would be a girl. Terezi grinned. "I need you to trust that I know what I'm doing, 'Rezi. Okay?"
Terezi pursed her lips. "Alright, Mom."
"Okay. Do you want some pancakes before I take you to school?"
"Sure."

So they had breakfast, Latula joining them before too long, and then the girls got ready for school and headed off to Skaia High. There were a lot of conflicting sounds and smells, which made navigating a bit more difficult than it usually was, and Terezi wound up relying on her cane a bit more than usual. But on the way to her locker, Terezi caught the familiar scent of hair dye and frustration, and sure enough, Karkat's grumbling voice was nearby. Terezi swung her cane out and whapped him in the back of the head.
"Ow, what the-!"
"Karkles!" she grinned at him.
"Hey Terezi. How was your summer?"
"Boring. Mom's been working a shitton."
"Really? Shouldn't she be on leave?" Finally, someone with some sense!
"That's what I've been telling her. But what do I know about having babies?" Terezi's thought was cut off by the exceedingly loud bell. She frowned. "Well… guess it's time for class." That really hadn't been enough time to catch up with Karkat, or harass him about dyeing his hair.
"See you later, Ter," Karkat said, his footsteps beginning to move in the opposite direction from Terezi.

Terezi wasn't fully blind, but the most she could see was really just general blurs of color, tinted red by her glasses, and the general mass confusion regarding finding classrooms on the first day of school was only made worse by not actually being able to read the signs, and Terezi wound up having to stop and ask a few people if she was going the right way. Once she found her classroom, she found a seat near the end of a table, and then heard the squeaking of a wheelchair—she supposed it was Tavros, so she shifted over to make some room for him.
"Hey, Tavros."
"Hi."
The teacher cleared her throat just then, garnering the class's attention, and Terezi heard the rustling of paper. The kid on her left tapped her on the shoulder and put something in her hand—a stack of paper—so she took one and passed the rest along to Tavros before the teacher spoke. "Good morning everyone, welcome to Skaia High! My name is Ms. Merrick and this is our World History class. Okay, now I've given you all a copy of the syllabus. Let's just go over that." Terezi squinted at the paper, then raised her hand. "Yes… Terezi?"
"Do you have a copy of this in Braille?" she asked, wondering how on Earth administration hadn't told her there was a blind student.
"Hmm?"
"Ms. Merrick, I'm blind." Terezi cringed at the small bouts of laughter that rolled around the classroom.
"Ah, right." Okay, so she did know. "I will take care of any accomodations you need. And for you, as well, uh, Tavros."
"I'm uh, fine, thanks."

That was about how the rest of the day went; Terezi managing her way around to her classes and finding friends to join along the way. Her second period was Spanish, though she'd argued against having to take a foreign language if she couldn't read anything. The administration clearly didn't like having to make adjustments to graduation requirements even in these severe circumstances. And to make matters worse, Eridan was there. Okay, Terezi didn't have as much distaste for Eridan as the others did, but he wasn't exactly the most pleasant person to be around. And then in her English class, Terezi met someone new. She'd plopped into the only available seat, set her binder on the desk, and then sniffed the room.
"Ugh, why does high school smell like chalkboards and desperation?" she muttered, more to herself than anything.
"Funny, I'd say it smells more like AXE poorly masking BO than anything," the kid sitting next to her said. Terezi turned towards where his voice came from. "Nice shades, by the way. Dig the red."
Terezi raised a hand and fiddled with her glasses. "Oh. Thanks. I'm Terezi."
"Cool. I'm Dave." And that was it. It was such an interesting interaction, though, and it did nothing but pique Terezi's curiosity about Dave. At the end of class, she spoke to him again.
"Hey Dave, do you know where the gym is?"
"No, but I'm about to find out. You have PE?" Terezi nodded. "'kay. Let's go, then." Terezi followed Dave through the hallways to the gym, and then she sat on the bleachers. "Oh shit," Dave said when they got there.
"What?"
"Oh. Nothing, I just gotta go chat with someone. Catch ya later, TZ."
So PE was uneventful, aside from the fact that Eridan was there as well. Vriska was always so much better at dealing with his shit, which made sense, considering they "dated" in middle school. It didn't help that he overdid it with his cologne and had a whiny voice, attacking both of Terezi's stronger senses.
Throughout lunch, Terezi could feel eyes on the back of her head, even if she couldn't place where they were coming from. Dave, she hoped. In such brief moments, there was something intriguing about him. He seemed like a cool guy. It was a real shame Terezi couldn't get a good look at him, especially since she used to be so good at gauging peoples' expressions. But of course, through most of the lunch hour, Vriska demanded Terezi's attention. All the kids were chattering about how their days had been going so far, interesting teachers and new students and the like, but Terezi kept her mouth closed. For one thing, several conversations were happening at once and Terezi was having a hard time picking a voice to follow.
"'Rezi? Hey 'Rezi!" Vriska jostled Terezi a bit. "Are you listening to me?"
"What? No, I wasn't, I'm trying to figure out who in this damn cafeteria is staring at me," Terezi muttered. Vriska looped her arm into Terezi's and began toting her off towards their next class, biology.
"Whaaaaaaaat? What do you mean?"
"You know when you can just tell someone is looking at you?"
"Mhm, well, it was probably Karkat, to be honest."

"Ha. Besides him."

Vriska paused. "Ya know, I did see some blond kid looking over at our table. He had shades on, though."
"Hmm," Terezi pursed her lips, and kept shuffling along in the hallway alongside Vriska.

"Why, were you wondering if it was someone specific?"

"I thought… no. I just talked to this guy in my English class. He seemed cool."

Vriska paused in the hallway. "Terezi, do you have a cruuuuuuuush?"

Terezi nudged Vriska with her shoulder. "Ew, no, I just said he seemed cool. Can't a girl want to make some new friends?"

"Aw, are you replacing me?" Vriska said, but Terezi could hear her smile. "Anyway, speaking of boys, I hung out with Tavros last night." A door creaked open and Vriska led Terezi over to a lab station, both of them plopping their things on top of the counter.

Oh, really?"

"Yeah, I really just couldn't deal with staying with my mom all night so I left after dinner. He was being all weird and awkward about letting me use his sweater, like isn't that something you're supposed to offer to the girl you're interested in, or is that one of Karkat's weird tropes? Whatever. He even fell out of his chair, what a lame ass. And then he mentioned something about school, and I just could not believe Aranea didn't remind me school started today. Fucking ridiculous, right? Like, and now I have absolutely no supplies, just like, one pen and some scratch paper, so now I'm gonna have to make Aranea, or worse, Mom, take me shopping today. Tavros offered me some extra stuff he had."

Vriska paused her story for a moment, and Terezi heard a voice she didn't recognize.

"Hey, can I sit here?" The voice was decidedly male, a touch nasally and higher pitched than Dave had been.

"Shit, dude, I'm not gonna stop you," Vriska said before continuing. The boy dropped his stuff onto the counter and clambered into the third stool. "Anyway, so I told him, 'don't be stupid, I don't need your charity.' Like, that boy is too nice for his own good, honestly."

Terezi shook her head. "And you're too stubborn and 'self-sufficient' for your own good," she answered Vriska.

"Wouldn't have it any other way, though. Oh, sorry, we're being rude, aren't we? I'm Vriska, this is my partner in crime, Terezi." Terezi shot a grin at the boy.

"My name's John!" he chirped back. Oh, there was so much optimism in his voice. It was a touch endearing.

At the end of class, Terezi turned back to Vriska. "Vris, where's the geometry classroom?"

"What? Let me see your schedule." Terezi flipped through her binder and then slid it over to Vriska. "Mm. B34. I think it's down this hallway to the left, past the second locker pavilion, and then… hm. I can't remember exactly which room, but that's definitely the B30s over there."

"Okay. I'll check the signs, then," Terezi answered, tucking her binder back into her bag. She followed Vriska's instructions to the best of her ability, and eventually found the right classroom, thankfully. Had anyone else asked Vriska for directions, they likely would have been sent on a wild goose chase. As she entered the room, she swore she heard Ampora's voice again—good God, what ethereal being did she piss off to have him in half of her classes?—but then she heard Feferi as well and was a bit relieved. Feferi by far handled Eridan the best out of anyone in the group, so Terezi left them to their business, instead choosing a seat near the front row. Geometry was something Terezi was surprisingly good at. She didn't need to be able to see the numbers to understand them, so she took a good amount of pleasure in her last class of the day. Almost immediately upon getting out of class, her phone rang, Nora announcing that the caller ID said 'Latula'.
"Hey Tules, what's up?" Terezi answered, shuffling through the busy hallway towards the pickup lane where her mother was supposed to be.

"Hey, tell Mom I'm going to Tuna's place today."

"Hey, as long as you guys aren't making out in our living room I really don't give a shit."

"Fuck off, Terezi, you're just jealous," Latula laughed. Terezi grinned.
"Yeah right. See you later," she answered. Hoo boy, it was gonna be an interesting year.