Chapter Two: First Day of School

John woke up groggily to his alarm the morning after the beach day, blinking awake, until he fully processed why his alarm was going off so early, and he sat up in his bed excitedly, slamming the alarm button down.
"First day of school! First day of school!" John shouted excitedly in his best Nemo impression as he grabbed his glasses off the nightstand and ran down the hall. Jane woke up much slower, but also a bit earlier than John, and was already in the bathroom getting ready when John darted in, utterly beaming.
"I take it you're excited," she said, a thin smile on her face.
"What's not to be excited about? High school is going to be a whole new experience."
"Mhmm, it sure is," Jane muttered, thinking about her own plans. It was going to be difficult without Roxy around. Jane, Roxy, Jake and Dirk had been together since their own first days, and while Jane was exceptionally close with Jake and Dirk, it would be unusual to be the only girl around. Roxy had assured her they would still hang out on the weekends, the college was local, but that wasn't the only issues complicating things. There was also the matter of Dirk's affections. That was to say, Jane was very aware that she wasn't the only one crushing on Jake, which, without Roxy to balance things out, put the trio in what Jane was afraid would be a very awkward situation. She paced out of the bathroom to give John a bit of room, and pulled out her phone, messaging Roxy about her concerns.

gutsyGumshoe [GG] began pestering tipsyGnostalgic [TG]

GG: Heyyy.
GG: Ahem.
GG: Ro-Lal?
TG: oopos sry
TG: was havin important chats
GG: Oh?
GG: With whom?
TG: w yet anather ineligible fuckin bachelor who elfe i have to talk 2
GG: Yeah.
GG: Um… which one, precisely?
TG: di stri
TG: insmufferable prick mf'r extroariadinnere
TG: *lol wow
TG: *extradinner
TG: *heheh yum

Jane squinted at her phone screen. It was sometimes hard to tell whether Roxy was stealing from her mother's liquor cabinet, or if she just made a copious amount of typos. More often than not, the answer was both.

GG: If the chats and surplus dinners were truly important, I wouldn't want to interrupt.
TG: tchhhh
TG: of course not jus the usual bs
TG: chats with u always get precedance anyways
TG: unless this is more of u givin me shit about not believin me on all my sick tru facts
GG: No, but there was something I wanted to talk to you about.
TG: i c
TG: go on….
GG: You see, I was just thinking about the situation at school this year. I know I really should talk to Jake about how I feel, but… what if that ruins everything? And, worse, because of Dirk's feelings, also. Even if I don't say anything, I am concerned that without your oddly good sense of diplomacy with this situation, Dirk and I might begin subconsciously fighting for Jake's attention.
TG: nah
TG: frist off, jake in't goin 2 stpo hangin out wit u just cuz u decide to womon up an tell him how u feel
TG: second off, u an dirk are too good of friends to start arguin, evn subconcuously, over sone DUDE
TG: even if that dude is jakey
GG: Are you sure?
GG: I'm just very nervous about this year.
GG: And if I wanted to tell Jake, I'm not even sure how to approach it.
TG: do u wan me 2 talk 2 jake about it?
GG: That's not necessary.
TG: fineeee
TG: u gonna do it today?
GG: Probably not.
TG: well the sooner the better janey
TG: if u don't say sometihng soon, dirk'll beat cha to it
GG: Mm.
GG: I suppose I should try to do that soon.
GG: Thanks, Rox.
TG: no prablem
TG: we BFFSIES 4 LYFE
TG: i got chu girl

gutsyGumshoe [GG] has ceased pestering tipsyGnostalgic [TG]

John glanced at his schedule. He'd sent it out in a group text to Rose, Jade, and Dave, and they'd sent theirs back. From what he could tell, he didn't share any classes with them, but he tried not to let that fact curb his enthusiasm. John assured himself he would manage to make some friends as he made his way downstairs. Jane came down a few moments later, trying her best to smile.
"Alright, kids, let's go," John's dad said, ushering them towards the car. Jane was quick to grab two paper bags out of the refrigerator before going, tossing one of them to John.
"Don't forget your lunch, John!" she said as he caught it. "I baked some cupcakes and put one in there for you." John made a face that was not quite a grimace, but not quite a smile either. He didn't want to hurt Jane's feelings, but she and her dad baked so many sweets. John had a sweet tooth, like any kid, but he preferred sugary candy and chocolate to baked goods. Still, it was a kind gesture and John smiled up at his cousin.
"Thanks, Jane," he muttered, taking his lunch and climbing into the back seat of his dad's car. Jane got the front, as per usual. It was a perk of being older, she supposed. Jane wished she could evoke the same enthusiasm as John, but with it being her senior year, she was the slightest bit jaded, as well as nervous about having to apply for college. Roxy had graduated early, Dirk would get into some robotics or computer programming school with no issue, and it sounded like Jake was toying with the idea of returning to the UK, which left Jane with no friends and hardly any prospect of how to continue her education. It was wearing on her to even think about. That was why it was so important to her to make this year count.

John and Jane arrived at school and went their separate ways. John's first class was history, which he was mildly interested in, though he knew, as was the case with most of his classes, he was only taking it because he had to. John took a seat towards the middle of class as a kid in a wheelchair came in, made eye contact with the red-headed girl in front of John, and moved next to her as she displaced the chair. John couldn't help but notice her unusual, red-tinted glasses.
"Hey, Tavros," John heard the girl say.
"Hi," the boy replied.
A moment later, the teacher cleared her throat as she began passing out the syllabus. "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." The girl in front of John raised her hand and Ms. Merrick consulted her attendance sheet. "Yes… Terezi?"
"Do you have a copy of this in Braille?"
"Hmm?"
"Ms. Merrick, I'm blind." John couldn't help but chuckle at Terezi's point-blank statement, and neither, it seemed, could most of the class. Ms. Merrick looked a bit flustered.
"Ah, right. I will take care of any accommodations you need. And for you, as well, uh, Tavros."
"I'm uh, fine, thanks," Tavros said.
John was feeling sufficiently awkward after that, simply not knowing how to react to sharing a class with a blind girl and a paraplegic, but he tried to ignore it, especially considering that it turned out he also shared his next class with Terezi. He purposefully left a seat between them, as she'd sat down first, and it was quickly filled by another girl. John went to P.E. for 3rd period, only recognizing one other boy.
"Hey, I know you!" John said, excitedly approaching him. "You're that kid from the beach yesterday!" John's smile faded as he saw the boy's deep scowl.
"What the wet bag of human horse shit to the face do you think you're doing? Oh my lord."
"What?" John said, genuinely taken aback. "I was just trying to be friendly!" He didn't let the grumpiness deter them. "Hey, have you ever seen Con Air?"
"What kind of crappy movie is that? Stupid asshole screws the pooch?"
"No, it's about these criminals on a runaway plane, and they've got to be stopped by Nic Cage and John Cusack together as a team."
"Oh. Ok, that actually sounds pretty good, I guess," the boy softened. John grinned again now that he was lightening up.
"It is sweet. So sweet."
"I've heard of John Cusack, I think. Wasn't he in Serendipity? That was pretty great."
"Hahaha, oh man, that sucked so bad!"
"Weren't you trying to become friends with me? I don't see how that's going to work if you recoil from my olive branch like I'm wiggling a gnarled tree monster's dick in your direction."
"You… say some weird stuff. Anyway, my name's John!" John finally managed to get an introduction out.
"Karkat," the short boy grumbled.
"Karkat? Haha, beep beep meow!"
"Don't make fun of me, I didn't choose the name."
"Sorry."
It was at that time the teacher (coach?) gathered everyone's attention, and Karkat returned to his other friends, an overly tall boy with crazy hair and juggalo makeup, and a girl with one eye bandaged and a prosthetic arm. John frowned a bit. There were lots of weird kids at this school.
John sat next to a girl with a cat beanie on in his next class, geometry, and on her other side was a muscular boy, and after that was lunch. John was glad to get to meet up with his friends again.
"Hey Dave, I met that kid from the beach. He's in my P.E. class!" John said.
"Yeah, I met him too, in geometry this morning. Karkat?" Dave answered, almost questioningly. "He's so goddamn angry."
"Yeah, I noticed."
John and Dave were shortly joined by Jade and Rose, and they all talked about their morning experiences before having to return to class. John had biology after lunch, and he saw the red-head and the girl with the prosthetic arm again. On impulse, he decided to take the third seat at their lab station.
"Hey, can I sit here?" he asked, trying to be polite.
"Shit, dude, I'm not gonna stop you," the girl with the prosthetic said. The red-head grinned. That was Terezi, right? The other girl kept talking. "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."
"And you're too stubborn and 'self-sufficient' for your own good," Terezi answered.
"Wouldn't have it any other way, though." John gave both the girls a puzzled expression. "Oh, sorry, we're being rude, aren't we? I'm Vriska, this is my partner in crime, Terezi."
"My name's John!" John said with a smile. The girls seemed nice. Vriska was perhaps a tad arrogant, but John wasn't really off-put by it. He made his way to his last class of the day, English, and sat next to a very pretty and quite elegant-looking girl, but minded his own business.

Jane said goodbye to her cousin and headed off to class, starting the day with Statistics. Jane was used to all the first-day rigamarole at that point, and knew it was a day for gauging classmates and collecting syllabi, though she did hate that she'd been stuck in math first thing in the morning. Though, she did share the class with Jake, so that was a plus. They sat next to each other, each of them having taken statistics due to feeling unprepared for Calculus, which was, of course, the option Dirk had taken. If anything, it was nice to have a friend. Jane's next class was English, followed by ceramics. It was relaxing to have an art class in the middle of the day, and the teacher was new that year so there weren't really expectations other than to do the assigned project. Jane was mildly creative; she was sure she could have fun in that. She had Spanish after that, though, which definitely brought her down. It was something her dad had absolutely insisted on, even though colleges only required 3 years of a foreign language. It seemed Jake and Dirk had decided to take Spanish 4 as well, but neither of them wound up in the same class as Jane. She let out a sigh. Foreign languages certainly weren't her forte, and feeling lonesome in the class wasn't going to help.
At the very least, she had lunch to look forward to. She found Jake and Dirk already sitting together in the cafeteria and she darted over, sitting on the edge of the bench next to Jake.
"Hey, guys!" she said as she sat. "How's your morning been?"
"Meh. Robotics class is cool," Dirk said, as stoic as ever.
"Yeah, until you mentioned signing up for that class, I wasn't even aware it existed."
"Small program," Dirk answered.
"My morning was top!" Jake said, grinning. "I must say, it's nice to get all the blasted academia out of the way in the morning, what with teachers prattling on about nonsense. I can't wait to see what the rest of the day has in store." Jane found herself smiling blithely at Jake, when Dirk caught her eye (at least, she thought he did; it was hard to tell with the shades) and she brought herself back to attention. She and Dirk went to their next class together- Economics- and then parted again before 6th period. Jane had only taken Home Ec in the hopes they would be cooking plenty; it was the elective that had caught her attention most, and, as usual, she hardly recognized it.
Jane was wearing a deep frown when she and John got back home. John plopped onto the couch.
"It's going to be an exciting year," he muttered, sounding a bit sleepy.
"Yeah," Jane answered. She knew it would also be a long one.