Karkat stood up, glancing at the remnants of his first meal in 30 hours. His body was full and his numerous injuries felt marginally better. He turned and saw Kanaya get to her feet. He felt unusual, as his body was unaccustomed to a meal that large. Slowly, he felt himself smile. It was a small one, but his face felt completely different for those few moments. Kanaya was looking at him with a strange look on her face. Then, the moment faded, but the memory was lodged in the forefront of his mind.

"What are you looking at Kanaya?" Karkat asked tentatively.

"Oh, I-I've haven't seen you smile yet. You look good when you do." Kanaya said. While she spoke, a light blush crept onto her face. She must have felt it, because she looked down, hiding her face behind her hair. Kneeling, she began to gather the left over trash from the grass.

Karkat knelt beside her, although far more cautiously than she, and finished the job. While he worked, he spoke. "I still don't know why you did that, but thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you." He turned to face her, his eyes shining. "I'm not sure, but I think it's almost time for-" He was interrupted by the bell, signaling the end of lunch. As if triggered by my thoughts themselves. But it's not like they could actually change anything. When the tolling ended, he and Kanaya stood and started walking back towards the small courtyard. "So, uh, what's your next class, Kanaya?"

"I believe it is Biology with a Mr. Egbert."

"Well, what a coincidence, I'm there too. I think the Science building is next to the Math and English buildings." Walking a little faster now, they both exited the quiet peace of the 'tunnel' and re-entered the land of noise and chaos. Karkat felt Kanaya behind him as he wove through the growing crowd, but disobeyed his instinct to get away from her. That decision was nearly abandoned as he felt her place a hand on his shoulder. He tensed up, his body expecting a beating, but she just gave him a quick pat and removed her hand.

They got back to the main courtyard as the warning bell rang. Two minutes to class. Kanaya was still behind him, but Karkat no longer needed to fight his instincts to run. They had sensed that she was not a threat. Before going in, he turned, "What is your sixth hour class?" he asked, still sounding fearful of opening a conversation, "My schedule only says SEE GUIDANCE."

"I am afraid that I don't know what that means," Kanaya answered, "But it might be to select an elective if you haven't already."

"Okay, that would make sense." They walked into the classroom, Karkat holding the door for Kanaya. When inside, they both paused, startled by the wall decorations. One half of the wall space was covered in biology-themed posters: cell structure, DNA structure, enzymes, stuff like that. But the other half was taken up with movie posters. Karkat didn't know any of the movies, as he had never been to one, but judging by Kanaya's chuckle, they must have been a strange choice.

Quickly, they found seats in the middle of the room, Karkat sitting next to Kanaya. He noticed her laughing softly, and leaned over to her. "What's so funny?"

"Oh-j-just the movie pos-posters," Kanaya laughed out, "They're all really bad romantic comedies."

"Oh. I didn't really know. I don't really watch a lot of movies."

Kanaya looked like she was about to respond, but before she could, Mr. Egbert started talking from his desk in the back, "Alright everybody, settle down. I know you're all excited to see me, but keep the noise down please." At this, most of the class laughed. Karkat had never heard, or seen, someone quite as strange as his new biology teacher. His voice was about an octave higher than could be expected from a man of his height and build. It was an excited, slightly distracted sounding voice. I bet he's a bit ADHD, Karkat thought, seeing as the teacher was nearly bouncing as he walked down the center aisle.

"Okay, you all know the school rules by now. If you don't, they're up on that poster there." He gestured at it. "Other than those rules, I don't have any other rules. I like to operate on a first-name basis here, and that goes both ways. You can call me John." At this he grinned. His teeth, especially his top front teeth, were pure white and very slightly too big. "In this class, we will obviously learn biology, but I think it is more important for you to learn science than anything else in here."

Intrigued, Karkat leaned a bit closer to the front, along with the rest of the class. John continued, "While all of you need to learn biology, I feel that it's necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of how science works. That means you all have to be prepared to be wrong with your answers. Science is not the method you've been taught. In reality, there are only three steps which are repeated in a cycle.

"First, a hypothesis is made, then an experiment is conducted, and the data is analyzed. From the data, the hypothesis is supported or altered, and the process repeats. When the outcome matches the hypothesis for enough experiments, the hypothesis becomes a theory. This also is why there is no such thing as proof in science. The reason being is that while an outcome may be constant forever in the past, there is no certainty that it will always remain the same." As he spoke, Karkat became more and more interested. He certainly is passionate about this.

John finished his monologue and looked at the time. "Oh, is it already 2:15? You guys, you let me get on a tangent." Looking out at the class, he added in a stage whisper, "I tend to do that a lot."

The class laughed once more as the bell rang. Karkat stood up and left the room, walking right next to Kanaya. "Well, that certainly will be an interesting class." Karkat noted.

"It certainly will be. Look, I'm sorry, but I need to run. My final class is all the way across campus. See you later!" With that, Kanaya was off. Karkat sighed and walked across the large courtyard and into the office. Turning to the right, he walked down the hallway to the door labeled 'Guidance'. He knocked on it twice, lightly, but hearing no response, he knocked louder.

"Come in!" a muffled voice called. Karkat turned the handle and walked into the counselor's office. "Please sit down." A woman at the desk intoned. Karkat took a seat and studied the counselor. She was wearing a wide-brimmed hat that hid her features, at least until she looked up. "My name is Mrs. Noir, but my friends call me Snowman," she said, extending her hand.

"Good to meet you Mrs. Noir," Karkat answered, ignoring the proffered hand. "Why exactly am I here right now?" he inquired.

The counselor had wrinkled her forehead when the young man sitting in front of her had called her by her professional name. "Well, originally, you were set to come here because you had no elective chosen, but a much more serious issue has been brought to my attention." Mrs. Noir leaned over the desk towards Karkat. "Is there anything you'd like to offer beforehand so that I don't have to pull every bit from you?"

Karkat completely ignored her question and asked his own, "Did Kanaya come in here about this?"

Mrs. Noir looked surprised at his guess. "Why, yes she did. How did you know?"

"She was late to lunch and came through the set of doors closest to this building. I was sitting right by them."

"Well, Ms. Maryam came in here because she was concerned about you. Any ideas why she would be?

"Absolutely no damn idea why. Can I just pick an elective and leave now?"

"I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that yet Mr. Vantas." Mrs. Noir stood up. She surprised Karkat by not locking the door, however. As she stood, Karkat quickly peered at her face, trying to see it. He failed, as it was still shadowed by her hat. "Does your father drink, Karkat?" She started to pace the area behind her desk.

Startled by this question, he was relieved he could answer it truthfully. "He hates alcohol. Says it rots the mind." He hates a lot of things.

As if she read his mind, the next question was harder to answer, "What else does your dad hate Karkat?" She looked at him with a piercing gaze.

Karkat gulped. "I-I don't see that as a relevant question. Can we stay on topic here?"

"This is the topic here. It's relevant because Kanaya suspects that your father is abusing you. So the question is: does your dad abuse you?" She waited for an answer. Failing to receive one, she continued. "Does he abuse you?"

"No"

"Does he kick you? Does he starve you? Does he scream at you?"

"No, no and no." Karkat was sweating bullets now, but he still had not told anything. "This is irrelevant and wasting time. Let me go."

"Karkat, I know I can trust Kanaya. She knows what she is talking about. Her sister is a psychology professor and he mother a businesswoman. She knows how to read people like a book. If she says something is wrong with you, I'm inclined to believe her." She sat back down and looked at him expectantly.

"I said this before and I'll say it again, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG!"

Disappointed, Mrs. Noir made a little note on her computer. While she typed, she spoke. "I'm afraid that is not going to work Mr. Vantas. Since you are unwilling to tell me anything, I can't allow you to register for an elective yet."

"WHAT THE FUCK!"

"There is no need for that kind of language Mr. Vantas. This actually is in the staff regulations: we need to know if there are any problems at home. It's a security concern. We have reasonable suspicion to believe that there is something going on. Until you choose to tell us, though, you'll have to come here every day for sixth hour."

"All of you 'suspicion' is based off of the word of ONE GIRL! There is nothing going on. I'm fine!" Karkat was petrified with fear, but kept it from slipping into his voice. Oh, god, my head feels like it's going to fucking explode.

"Not just the word of Kanaya, I have my own reasons, too."

"Like what?"

"I can see that your face is as white as a sheet, your eyes are sunken in and shot through with ruptured blood vessels, your breathing is shallow, and you are terrified to answer even my most simple questions." She made another note on her computer. "Well, I do hope you'll come to your senses. We are here to help you."

"I don't need any help." With that, the bell rang, signaling the end of school. Karkat got up and walked out of the office, for once eager to get home. I need some pain medicine. I can't even think straight. He walked down the sidewalk and through the gates. Alright, you waste of space, get home. He started to walk down the street, but was stopped by Kanaya waving at him from a car.

"Karkat, get in here. We'll take you home!" Karkat shook his head, hoping to stall long enough that the driver would get impatient and leave. Kanaya turned around and presumably said something to the driver before getting out. "Well then, I'll walk you home."

"That really isn't necessary Kanaya. Go on home. I can get back just fine." See, she's offering to walk you home! Dad will literally kill you if he thinks you have a friend- wait! I have a friend? I suppose Kanaya is.

Kanaya looked at him sadly, and then got back into the car. Quickly, it pulled away from the curb. Karkat turned again to walk home, and got about a hundred feet before he walked straight into Equius as he rounded the corner of the walls.