My hand was around Gamzee's arm in a second. I pulled him in to the closest enclosed space which happened to be the girl's bathroom. Equius had pushed Nepeta in as well and Sollux, Equius, and Aradia had come in as well. I got the key and locked the door from the inside. They had been a lot of school break ins around the area so the school bought locks you could lock from the inside just in case. Thank God they did.

I looked behind me. Nepeta was pressed up against the back wall next to Equius. Sollux and Aradia did the same. This is what we were supposed to do. Get up against the back wall after locking the door. Nepeta sat down on the ground and the rest of us joined her.

Nepeta was breathing heavily "Karkitty…"

"Shh. Don't worry. It'll be fine. Just don't say anything and we'll be fine." I said. I was freaking out mentally but this was a time I had to be a leader.

I wish I knew who was breaking in. No one had seen their face or anything like that. It was a pretty big deal. I told myself we'd be fine. I put my hand on Nepeta's hand and squeezed it. I was breathing heavily. There was absolutely no sound at all. "It's going to be alright," I whispered again. I closed my eyes. Maybe if I did that this would all go away. It didn't. My heart was racing. I looked at Nepeta. Her eyes were squeezed tight and Equius's hand was on hers. My eyes moved to Aradia and Sollux. Neither of them were moving, Aradia silently stared at the door to the bathroom, Sollux's eyes were covered by his glasses. Everything was so silent and so still. We were going to be fine. We're going to be alright. Nothing was changing and no one was moving at all. Maybe this was just a dark twisted dream.

That's when we heard the scream.

Even though I fell asleep on the floor I woke up in my bed and all my presents were put away. It was too early and I had gone through too much emotional crap last night to wonder how that had happened. I had got through two out of three parts of the dream. I was thankful I didn't experience the last one, it was the worst.

Over the last year I'd been trying my best to teach myself to forget. But now the nightmares were coming back. They'd stopped for a while but now they'd returned to haunt me again. So I went numb and shut down. Your Karkat has gone into permanent hibernation. My laptop had done that once and I flipped out until Sollux fixed it.

I went into auto pilot. I pulled a black shirt on and a pair of jeans but I had no intentions on going to school. Somehow I happened to "miss" the school bus. I stood outside in the rain, letting it shock me completely. The wind whipped my hair around, sending the rain in all directions. Oh my God this was so dumb. No not dumb. This was so horrible, so wrong. Why did this have to happen to me?

That's when I noticed our –or more Kankri's- car hadn't left. My dad took the bus to work usually and Kankri took the car and drove to the community college around 15 minutes away. Then Kankri came out of the house and I hid. He didn't even look in my direction. Instead he opened up a gray umbrella and walked down the street. He didn't have any of his stuff with and I wondered where he was going. I didn't have anything better to do so I followed him. We got into town pretty quickly and the streets became crowded. It was harder to follow him but easier to not be seen.

Kankri never really talked much especially in the last months. I guess I never really talked to anyone, especially outside of school other than the rare Pesterchum conversation.

I continued following him until we reached his destination, which was a Starbucks.

"Hello Kankri," It was Porrim holding a coffee cup with her name scribbled on it. I hadn't seen her in a long time and was happy with that.

"Hello," Kankri said, glumly.

"I'm guessing you're brother didn't concede. I thought he would. It is for his own good." What was she talking about? He hadn't said anything to me.

"No. Maybe it's better like this." Kankri said.

"Maybe…" Porrim said, obviously unsure.

"I mean…I wouldn't know. He doesn't talk to me much anymore so I don't know what he's going through. He hasn't said a thing about John or Terezi but I know Sollux stopped talking to him, which is probably hard on him. I just wish we could be brothers again," he said with a sigh.

"Don't worry Kankri, it'll work out in the end. I feel so bad for Karkat and well, for all of you. Even Kanaya's acting weird, hanging out with this Vriska girl, you know Aranea's sister. I love Aranea to death but her sister…" she trailed off. "Oh well. I'm sure in the end we'll all be alright. Come on Kankri. We have places to go."

"Yeah," Kankri said. He opened his umbrella again and Porrim stood under it and they continued down the crowded street. I knew Kankri thought of Porrim as just friends and I wasn't 100% sure if Porrim was dating Aranea or not. I continued standing there until I realized I stood out significantly in a crowd of mostly adults. I didn't bother following them. Instead I just walked back to my house in the rain.

When I got home the school called –they always did when a kid wasn't excused for school- and I didn't answer. No one was home and I sighed, dried off and decided to make myself a sandwich. I made one but never ate it. I realized I had made peanut butter and jelly so I threw it away. I never ate PB&J. Ever. I knew it was weird but I had my reasons. I guess everyone has reasons for the things they do. I'd learned that now. Everyone has a past you don't know, even your best friend. One day you may know why they do things, maybe not. People are weird like that.

I went into my room and did an idiotic thing, like usual. I stared at myself in the mirror and began talking to myself.

"Oh come on Karkat. Pull yourself together. You can't start skipping school all the time. Remember your plan? Make it through school, graduate, go to a good college, and get far, far, far away from here. Then get a job and live every day like it's your last because you personally know how fast it can all disappear." Then I sighed again, picked up my stuff and walked to school.

"What is your excuse for tardiness?" the lady at the front desk asked.

I hadn't been out the long so and I didn't have a very good excuse. "I slept in late and missed the bus. My dad couldn't drive me so I had to walk here alone." This excuse was pretty weak because I was within ten minutes walking distance from the school. I just hoped she didn't know that.

She looked skeptical but didn't say anything "Ok, here," she gave me a note to give to my teacher.

I walked into second period and people looked at me and laughed, probably because they thought I was gay now or whatever. I honestly didn't give a crap. Second period ended and before I knew it I was in CoreFlex again. I did what I usually did, sitting near the back. This time I took out my phone and opened Pesterchum. I started a conversation with the person I wanted to Pester and stared at my phone. It probably wasn't worth it to send them a message but I did it anyway.

CG: HEY

AC: :33 AC is not currently available. I'll try to answer as soon as pawsible. I don't get many so thanks. You can leave your reason for trying to talk to me, but you don't have to. I probably know mew anyway. I don't get many random conversations from strangers, especially when I'm off line. Anyway I'm sure we can talk later! Bye!

It had been the same message for a year now, but it didn't stop me from talking to her at times. I felt sad and happy too, but mostly sad. Sollux had been the one to find how to set up the auto responder. At the time we'd all thought it was awesome and now it was just like hearing from them again. I'd gotten rid of mine as had Sollux. I didn't really want to talk to anyone. I closed my eyes and started talking to one more person.

CG: HEY

CG: BRO

TC: TC iS nOt cUrReNtLy aVaIlAbLe. I'm PrObAbLy NoT oNlInE oR I lOsT mY pHoNe AgAiN, iN wHiCh cAsE I'm SoRrY. I'lL tRy tO gEt BaCk To YoU lAtEr CaUsE yOu'Re PrObAbLy PrEtTy AwEsOmE. If I dOn'T kNoW yOu, HeY nIcE tO mEeT yOu, aNd If I dO kNoW yOu, WeLl HeY bRoS. If ThIs Is HoNk HoNk MeOw ThAn sUp bRo, I'vE gOt SoMeThInG iMpOrTaNt To TeLl YoU. SeE yOu BrO's LaTeR :o).

The important thing he'd had to tell me was that he was going out with Tavros and he never changed his message after that, yet every time I saw it now I thought, 'What if he did have something to tell me?'

I guess I'll never know.

Jesse Lewis, 6, June 30 2006- December 14 2012 and Ana Marquez-Greene, 6 April 4 2006 – December 14 2012