A/N Hey guys! I'm very sorry about the late update. My editor and I have both been really busy lately. But hey, this is the longest chapter so far. Hope you enjoy!

Math was the most boring class in the world. All you did was memorize facts and write them down. I already knew most of the stuff we were going over anyway. As of right now I was just listening to my teacher go on and on about something I learned last year. I kept wondering if Feferi was ok, but we had different 3rd periods so I didn't know. She had never shown up during science.

Math class was the worst mostly because the legendary Dave Strider sat behind me in class in the very back row. Terezi sat next to him and most of the rest of the popular kids were in this class as well, besides Kanaya. John used to sit next to me until one day he asked the teacher to change seats and for whatever reason my teacher said yes. I sat next to his empty desk and the aisle and I was glad. I liked sitting alone without anyone to bother me. In the middle of class I heard Terezi laughing behind me. I looked behind me and Terezi was talking to Dave about who knows what. When I looked behind me they both stopped talking and looked up at me. Terezi was smiling and Dave was, as always, poker faced.

That's when the teacher said "Alright class. I need to go up to the office really quickly. I expect you all to be responsible enough to not to do anything stupid." His eyes lingered on Vriska "Everyone just work on your homework until I get back," then he left. As soon as he left the class erupted in a chorus of talking. I sighed and tried my best to work on my homework. Even though the class was allowed to talk Dave and Terezi kept whispering. I kept ignoring them.

Vriska sat right in front of me, of course. John had come over and the two of them were talking like the idiots they were. John was totally in love with her and she obviously didn't feel the same way. If he was still my friend I would just tell him to get over it, she was a huge jerk, and go out with Rose. But now I honestly didn't care. He could go fall in love and get his heart broken all he wanted for all I cared.

Suddenly Terezi stood up and handed something Vriska.

"What's this?" Vriska asked.

"Just read it," Terezi and sat back down.

Vriska read it and started laughing like an idiot. Vriska's laugh was the worst sounding laugh in the world. It sounded like a million cats chocking to death, and if you listened to it for too long you'd probably go crazy. The weird thing is even she knows her laugh is horrible so as soon as she started laughing she covered her mouth, thank god. She took her hand off her mouth and smiled in the most evil way possible.

"What?" John said and she just handed the note to him.

"What?" He said again "That doesn't ma-"

"Oh just go with it John!" Vriska said, standing up. "Trust me it will be a hilarious!"

"Uh, you sure?" he said nervously and I laughed internally. John would never fit into the popular group fully because he didn't crave danger and wasn't a complete idiot, usually.

"Of course I'm sure!" Vriska said. She took the note from his hand and walked across the room. "I'm gonna show this to Ampora. Bye." And she walked across the room to Eridan's desk.

"Wwhat do you wwant?" he asked without looking up.

"Read this. Now." she said dropping the note on his desk.

"Wwhy?" he asked, eyeing it suspiciously.

"Because! Just read it!" she said angrily. Eridan just shrugged and read it.

All of this was weird but not unusual. Every once and a while one of them would think of something and rather than say it out loud they did this. But one thing I'd learned from past experiences was it definitely not a good sign. Something bad was on the horizon.

God I just hate school.

It's moments like this when I remember all those times I almost told my brother or my dad but I knew they either wouldn't listen or they wouldn't care. My brother would probably just rant on about 'triggers' or something like that. They would never get it. They would never see how far this had gone.

"Wwhat?" Eridan said, in shock.

"Shh!" Vriska said, taking the note off his desk and refolded it. "Don't say anything yet. All in good time. Plus," she said with an evil smile, "I'm going to be the one to start the fun."

Then Terezi stood up and walked over to Vriska "Wait," she said, "you aren't going to tell everyone, are you?"

"Oh course I am! This crap is hilarious!"

"What?" Terezi said, seemingly shocked "You can't do that. It's just a joke it's not really true!"

Vriska took a step closer and whispered "Since when has that stopped us?"

"But he's my..."

"What?" Vriska exclaimed "Don't say it. He is not you friend any more Terezi. Right?"

"What? Of course not."

"Then why do you care?" Vriska asked, twirling her hair with her fingers.

"It's just…we were just..." Terezi trailed off while Vriska stared at her, her eyes like piercing blades. "Ugh! Fine, do whatever you want!" It's weird how Vriska could make things go her way without saying a word.

It was also weird how everyone was completely ignoring them. No one noticed –or seemed to notice- what had gone one between the two girls. Then the bell rang and I picked up my stuff and dropped it off in my locker. I still hadn't seen Feferi but I knew I was bound to see her soon. She'd be fine.

At least that's what I told myself so I wouldn't feel so guilty.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~timeskip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~timeskip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After 3rd period we went to homeroom and we listened to all these announcements we already knew about, then we went to CoreFlex. CoreFlex is the half hour period before lunch where you basically catch up on work or go the commons. Since I didn't have any homework I made my way to the commons. I wished I had homework because then you go to the library where everyone is shutting up for the most part and I get to be alone, or at least pretty alone.

I finally walked into the commons. Almost everyone in my grade was there and it was extremely loud and crowded. Tables were set up just like in lunch and I made my way towards the back. The tables were all circular and were able to have up to ten people sitting at one time. No one ever sat at the very back table. Ever. It was an unspoken rule everyone followed. No one had sat there for almost a year and I'm sure if anyone did everyone would flip out. Whenever there was a new kid someone would go up to them and tell them. For some reason whenever I walked to the back of the room something inside me told me to sit there. Not many people sat in the back, apparently that's where nerds and other social outcasts were banished to. Maybe they wouldn't even notice, but I never did, more for my sake than anyone else's.

I sat down at a table near the back. No one else was sitting relatively close to it. Perfect. Everyone sat down in the middle first and filled out from there and because there were a ton of extra unnecessary tables the ones in the very front and back often remained empty. The popular people got the table in the exact middle of the room, right in the middle of the universe they created.

I stared at the center of the universe where I could see Vriska gossiping, John next to her absorbing every word, and I was over here, on the outskirts of their realm in my own little galaxy, Population One. Wait no, make that three. Feferi came over, clutching a sketch pad to her body. She sat across the table from me and pulled out a pencil and began drawing. I had no idea if she could draw well or not because she never let anyone see her drawings, even before. She'd always hid them from us and say maybe she'd show us one day. She said she'd only shown two people in the world and I'm pretty sure they were… never mind. Different subject.

Anyway they-by they I mean the popular people- hadn't done a lot today besides the thing with Feferi and usually they did worse than that. Maybe the thought because the fateful day was drawing closer they didn't need to be jerks to us. Maybe they knew we were going to be jerks to ourselves.

The day. Yes it was coming closer. An anniversary of sorts. On that day it will have been a year since it happened. A year before it all fell apart. I didn't know what I was going to do on that day and I didn't dwell on it. One day it would happen. I'd worry about it then. Maybe I'd just go to school, pretend it was another day. They'd probably say something. I mean they couldn't totally act like it never happened could they?

Then Tavros came over and sat next to Feferi. "Hey Feferi," he said and she looked up and smiled at him. The smile seemed realer than most, yet still completely fake. I knew how she must feel. It was so hard to force a smile sometimes.

Tavros had learned how to get around in a wheel chair pretty well given the fact he had the worst motorized wheelchair in existence which would sometimes just shut down. I realized that day would also mark a year since Tavros last walked. They said he would most likely never walk again in his life. They had started doing tests on him before but I think he'd long since given up hope he'd be able to stand ever again.

"Hey Vantassssssss," Oh god it was Vriska. She'd snuck up on me when I wasn't paying attention and now I was stuck in her spider web. I could tell almost everyone was trying not to watch us. I knew they were waiting for a show. I looked up and glanced around the room and several heads turned away. I saw Terezi, Dave and the rest of them in the center of the universe. Terezi looked sad, depressed almost. Dave said something and pulled everyone's attention from Vriska and me. I sighed. "What do you want Vriska?" I said. I didn't want to put up with this today. Then again, I didn't want to put up with this any day.

"Oh, I don't know. You just look so lonely over here," she said with a wicked smile.

"Why do you think that is?" I said rolling my eyes.

"I don't know, 'cause you're anti-social or whatever. Are you implying it was something I did?" she said, pretending to be offended. "I don't really care, though."

"Then why did you sit over here?"

"Just to tell you that your secret's out," She said smiling.

My secret? Which one? None of them would I want Vriska to know. I think about how Terezi showed Vriska that note earlier. Oh god no, Terezi knew a lot of stuff about me. So did John.

"What secret?" I said, trying to remain calm.

"That you're gay." She said shortly.

"What?" out of all the things I thought she'd say it wasn't that. "I'm not gay!" Out of all the years this school has been standing there only been one openly gay couple. That had been…what did she call them? PBJ? I tried my best not to think about that. Fate had sunk that ship.

"I'm not gay," I repeated. I had suspicions about people I thought might be and there wasn't anything wrong with it at all. I just wasn't. Most of my life I'd thought I'd liked Terezi and now I told myself I didn't like anyone, even thought I knew it was a lie. But our love would never work out. Ever.

Vriska laughed a little at my reaction, "Why on earth do you think I'm gay?" I asked.

"Because you love rom coms and crappy romance novels." She said shrugging. "I mean that's girl crap. I mean no guy would openly read that stuff, like in front of people."

"I guess I honestly don't give a crap what you guys think about me."

"Then why do you care if we think you're gay?"

"Because I'm not. I mean, yeah I read romance novels and I don't care what you think about that but I'm not really gay."

"So you don't care if we think you a prissy girly freak?" she said, spitting out each word.

"Nope. I don't care about that. I do care if you think I'm gay."

"Well it's basically being gay," she said, twirling her hair again.

"No it's not. Why don't you just shut up and leave me alone for once in your life!"

"You totally like John."

"WHAT?"

"Obviously."

"The heck with John. He's a total idiot." I said.

"Don't," she yelled, grabbing me arm, tightly, "say that about John again. Ever!"

"Fine," I said, pushing her hand off my arm.

Vriska closed her eyes, took a deep breath and then opened her eyes again, "Well I just wanted you to know you could stop hiding the truth all the time now."

"Hiding what again?"

"That you're gay you idiot! It was totally obvious all along but now everyone knows for sure."

"You told everyone?" she just smiled and nodded.

Why wasn't I surprised?

"It's just what I have to do Karkat. I don't like secrets," she said. Yeah, Vriska's totally the one who doesn't like secrets. Seriously her last name sounds a lot like secret. Serket, Secret, not much difference.

On that note Vriska left, smiling like her plan had gone off perfectly, which I guess it did in a way. I sighed and sunk down in my seat. What the heck. What the actual heck? The bell rang and that meant it was time for fourth period and after that was lunch. Oh my god this was all so stupid.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Another~time~warp~for~you~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After buying lunch I went to sit at the same table I had at CoreFlex. Even in lunch no one sat in the very back table or any of the tables around it. One of the tables back there was just for me, Feferi, and Tavros and no one else. Every once in a while Vriska would sit next to us just to be a jerk but that was it.

Almost all the tables had more than the max amount of students at them but no one did anything about it because frankly the teachers didn't care what we did. I sat down at the table and ignored people looking at me and pointing and laughing. God I hated this. All of it. I hated how people stared at me wherever I went. I hated going home and doing nothing but stare up at my ceiling and hope someday it would all be better again. I hated seeing Feferi and Tavros. I hated Vriska's laugh. I hated how Terezi and John ignored me. I hated remembering how it used to be. Above all I hated how it haunted me like a nightmare that replayed over and over every time I closed my eyes. It was all so stupid, so unnecessary. I wished it would all just disappear. There were times I used to think about suicide, but I never really actually did it, obviously. Each time I thought about it the thoughts would pass for whatever reason. I honestly didn't have any reason to live anymore. In fact if I ever did do it I'm sure everyone at school would be overjoyed. Maybe, hopefully, Terezi and Egbert would be overjoyed but they'd get over it pretty fast. They seemed to have gotten over the rest of them pretty quickly.

They had been one time I'd almost actually done it. I was in my room with the sharpest knife from the kitchen. I'd stared at myself in the mirror. 'So this is how it ends. 16 years old and you've finally figured out this world wasn't meant for you,' I'd thought, 'quit procrastinating! Get it done with. You'll see your real friends soon. Egbert, Captor, Terezi, they didn't actually care. It would be better for everyone if I didn't exist. Karkat, you're heading home.'

"Karkat," Kankri came in my room without knocking. I quickly stuck the knife under my covers.

"What do you want Kankri?" I said bitterly. I didn't want to talk to him. I wanted just to move on.

"I was wondering…" he trailed off. He knew, somehow he'd known what I was going to do, "I was wondering if you were ok."

We sat there in silence until I shook my head and a tear fell from my eye. He came over and gave me a hug.

"Don't worry Karkat. This storm will be over soon." And that was the last time we'd had a longer conversation then just "hi".

I shoved those thoughts out of my mind and moved the disgusting food around with my fork. I usually didn't eat much of it because it was so hard to keep down. I usually just made myself a sandwich or something when I got home and before locking myself in my room. Kankri and my dad didn't care and it was just a part of life.

Tavros sat at the end of the table, not talking to me, like usual. I admit, even before we'd never been really close friends. I was kind of a jerk to him when we were younger and even thought we both agreed I was just an idiot then we still weren't exactly close. But before the 'accident' as people called it, even though they knew it was an accident, we'd started getting along and started become friends I guess. I knew it was all because one major thing in our lives drew us together. Gamzee.

"Oh Gamzee, you're such an idiot." What? I just whispered that under my breath so no one could hear but why? I remember saying it some many times before whenever he messed up. I guess I'm the one who messed up now.

I closed my eyes and counted to ten. That's what I did when I thought about them too much. When I opened my eyes I saw Feferi sit down next to Tavros. I don't know why but I thought of how noticeable we were, no matter how hard we tried. Feferi slunk down when she walked and I always wore black but nothing ever worked. How much longer would we be the ones their eyes always turned to? How much longer did I have to put up with this? How many more times could I break before I finally shattered? How much more of this could I take?

After a while the bell rang and lunch was over. Feferi hadn't eaten anything. She never did.

I closed my eyes again. The day was drawing closer as was an undying weight on my shoulders that wouldn't fade. Again that question flashed though my mind.

How much more of this could I take this?

R.I.P Dylan Hockley, 6, March 82006 – December 14 2012 and Madeleine F. Hsu, 6, July 10 2006- December 14 2012