A/N: Sorry this took so long to upload! i'll try to post another chapter before Christmas. Just so you know the italics are flash backs. I'm very sorry for my horrible Gamzee and Equius writing.

It was almost the end of the school year. The teachers were still trying to force the last ounce of knowledge into our brains before we took these huge tests we have to take at the end of every school year. Luckily for me I'd already taken my first two tests and only had one more left. So I just stared at the clock, ignoring my science teacher's ranting. Only five more minutes. Five more minutes until this period was done and I only had free period left, thank god. I also got to see Nepeta then and I had some important stuff to tell her. Gamzee, Nepeta, Aradia, Equius, Sollux, and Tavros were all in free period with me.

Just three more minutes.

But how would I tell her if Equius was there. Maybe I'd find a way to get her alone, but how? This was important and I wanted to do it in private.

BEEP!

Class was done.

I darted out of the classroom as fast as possible. Gamzee was waiting at the door. His class always got out a few minutes early and he'd always wait for me.

"Hey bro," he said smiling as I tried getting my locker open.

"Hey," I said shortly "Where's Tavros?" Tavros' class also got out early at this period so Gamzee would say hi to him first.

"Haven't seen him yet," Gamzee said with a shrug, "Had to say hi to my best bro first."

"Isn't he your best bro now?" Finally I got my stupid locker to open.

"Nah. We're…we're…" He said, looking to find the right words, "we're more than that." He finished.

"Yeah," I said turning to him "And if anyone gives you crap about that tell me."

"No offense Karbro but I'd be better at beating someone else than you," He said, laughing slightly.

"Yeah whatever. Tell me anyway."

Suddenly I hear a voice from behind me "AC sneaks up on her crabby friend, CG, and greets him with a huge TACKLE POUNCE!" then someone jumped on me from behind.

"Ugh Nepeta!" I said, smiling, just a little bit.

"Hey Karkitty! Hey Gamzee!" she said. Equius walked up behind her.

"Hey Equius. Nepeta, get off of me," I said.

"Oh you know you like it Karkitty!" she said, sliding off my back. "We have free period now, right?"

"Yep," Gamzee said.

"You guys know where Sollux is?" I asked and as if on cue Sollux came up with Aradia behind him.

"Hey guyth," He said. God his lisp was so annoying.

"Hello." Aradia said. Something about her gave off a spooky vibe we'd gotten used to long ago.

"Hey Aradia, hey Sollux," I said.

"I'm gonna go say hi to Tavbro," Gamzee said "see you guys there." Before he walked away he remembered something. "Oh crap I didn't put my stuff away." His locker was right above mine and I moved over while he put his stuff way. I was glad he was the locker above mine. It usually was someone who well, tended not to like me very much. Cough VRISKA cough.

"I'll go get FF," Sollux said.

"I'll come with you," Aradia said.

"My guess is that she's hanging out with Eridan." I said shrugging. "Come on, let's just get to class. You'll see her there." Aradia nodded and leaned up against the lockers waiting for me to finish so we could leave.

That's when two shrill bells sounded, so loud it could make your ears bleed.

I quickly scanned my mind. Our school had a complex system of alarm bells. Different amounts of bells meant different things. What did two short ones mean? Then I remembered. Two was for an intruder. Then another bell rang.

That meant it was not a drill.

I woke up covered in a cold sweat. That dream, that stupid dream. It kept happening over and over and over again. And even if I remembered it was just a dream I couldn't wake up, I couldn't change it. My mind went through everything that had happened that day, everything I thought, everything I did, everything I said, everything was the same. So many times I would think Karkat either wake up or do something to change this. Get them out of there, leave for class earlier, do something to save them. But nothing would work.

I got out of bed and went into the bathroom and threw water on my face. I could tell I wasn't going to fall back to sleep. It was gonna be a long night. I looked at the time. 2 o'clock. Of course.

I lay down in my bed, staring up at the dark ceiling as if somehow if I started long enough, focusing on only it, all my problems would go away. It didn't work. I shut my eyes. How many times had the dream happened now? Too many times to count.

I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling again. Maybe I could tell myself I was just a dream. It never happened, they never existed. But then why was there a chumhandle called arisenCatnip that hadn't been used in over a year? No, they had been all too real and that dream was my dreaded reality. That didn't stop me from telling myself it never happened. It was all a dream. Everything's alright.

While lying there I had a stupid, irrational idea. I stood up and walked over to my closet and opened it. As much as part of me wanted it to be a dream the other part wanted to show me it wasn't; that all those memories I had of them were real. I got a box out of my closet a pulled it into the middle of the floor. The box was duct taped shut and I hadn't looked at it in a long, long time. I got scissors off my nightstand and cut off the duct tape in the darkness. Finally I cut it all off and I yanked it open and looked at the contents inside. They were present to me for my last birthday with them.

I could still remember that day perfectly. All my friends, even one's I wasn't super close with, had come over. John, Sollux, and Gamzee got to sleep over while the others just hung out for the day. I sighed and looked through the contents of the box. A ton of Kitkat bars from Tavros. There was GhostBusters one and two from John along with a note that said 'you can be a nerd with me now,' and Red Pop and Grape Faygo from Gamzee.

Oh god, Karkat just stop it! Don't do this to yourself! But I didn't stop. I couldn't.

Next was a laptop, not a super expensive one, which had been really old and crappy before Sollux fixed it so it could work and go on the internet and do PesterChum and stuff like that. Under that in the box were its charger and a blue and red mouse. Feferi, Aradia, and Equius had all come as well, even though the only reason I invited Equius was because Nepeta persuaded me, and they had all gotten me a present together. Well it was mostly Aradia and Feferi's idea with some help from Equius. They had gotten me an MP3 player Equius helped fix. I knew they'd gotten it because they all had one and I always complained how I didn't have one. It was pretty good now and they already preprogrammed a ton of songs on it. There was also a recording that went like this:

"Hey Karkat! Happy birthday! Hope you like our present." Feferi said. I could imagine her smiling holding the MP3 player up to her month so it could hear her.

"I'm here too!" Aradia shouted in the back ground." We just want to wish you-"

"A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Feferi said interrupting her.

"Yes. And many, many, many more!" Aradia said. Then the recording ended.

I placed the MP3 player down next to the other things I'd taken out of the boxes and continued searching. A scalemate, made by Terezi herself, which was impressive if you thought about it. It was a white one with a red stomach and teal eyes because my favorite color was red and hers was teal and because, quoting her, 'White looks good with anything." Which was interesting because she couldn't see.

My hand kept moving thought the contents of the box. Only one more gift. The scrap book.

It was so thick it was hard to believe. There was a flash drive taped to the front with a note that said 'Hey Karkitty! I had no idea what to get mew for your birthday! I had so many ideas and I didn't know what you'd like the most. Then I thought of this and I knew I'd be purrfect! All the pictures are also on this flash drive in case anything happens to the original. I just want mew to know you're a pawsome furend Karkitty and always will be. And I'm glad you've always been there for me. I consider you one of my best friends ever (even if you are a bit crabby at times)! I know deep down inside you're a total softy (I know mew going to be mad at me for saying that). I gave you this so you can always remember us after high school, even though I know we'll still be furends after that too, even if we have different collages or careers. Just always remember no matter what the pesterchum handle arisenCatnip and I'll always remember carcinoGeneticist! *AC gives her crabby furend a hug, even thought he acts like he doesn't want one*.'

No Karkat. Don't do it. I ignored myself and opened the first page in the scrap book as tears began to stream down my face.

First there was a picture of all of us as of last year, posing and smiling. Next was one of Gamzee and me in second grade. Then one of her in mid tackle pounce on Equius. One of Feferi and Aradia in 5th grade, showing off their new friendship necklaces. One of our trips to the water park in 6th grade. One of Terezi, Aradia, Feferi, and Nepeta at the Halloween party dressed as a dragon, a zombie, a sea princess and a lion in 1st grade. One of me Sollux and Gamzee just last year, hanging out. Oh god why was I looking at this? A picture of the three of us in kindergarten. Slowly I looked through every page, absorbing all the memories. At the end there were blank pages with the caption 'I hope you remember this Karkitty! I left blank pages at the end so we could fill them out as time goes by because I know we'll always be having good times together, no matter what! We'll all be friends, through thick and thin. Bye Karkitty! :33'

That was it. I closed the scrap booked, lay on the ground, curled up into a ball and cried.

R.I.P Catherine V. Hubbard, 6, June 8, 2006 - December 12, 2012 and Chase Kowalski, 7, October 31, 2005 – December 14, 2012