"Wow. You and Karkat still date, chica?" Gamzee's voice was very calm. Terezi's grin probably took up her entire face, like the maniac she was, as she rubbed Karkat's shoulder with her thumb.

"Yup. Long and strong," she said casually, not missing a single beat. Gamzee shrugged.

"Motherfuckin' miracles, everyday. Well, my offer still stands, bro. Even if she comes too." He turned, arm flying up for a lazy wave as he sauntered away. Karkat watched him go, holding his breath until Gamzee disappeared around the corner. It was then he turned to Terezi.

"Terezi. Fucking- …thanks," Karkat said, torn between hugging her and killing her. Terezi's grin got wider.

"My pleasure. I will never grow tired of rescuing you, milady." Karkat scowled.

"Shut it." Terezi just pulled on his arm and he began to lead them out of the gloomy alleyway. Terezi was a blind art major. Someone who could somehow pick colors without sight definitely didn't need his help, but she let him so he didn't feel completely useless. She had glasses, a cane, and a crazily sharp set of senses, and sometimes Karkat swore there was no way she couldn't see. Until she licked his face, claiming it helped her 'smell him better'. Their relationship had always been filled with a strange sort of give and take that had never really gone away. Terezi had told Gamzee they were still dating, knowing it would repel him for at least a few days. The romance had run its course that summer, but in its new incarnation, it was probably much stronger. Did 'exes' spend every night talking to each other for hours? The pair strolled along the green, a comfortable silence settling between them. Terezi had to break it, of course.

"You sure you don't want me to report him, Karkat? It wouldn't be traced back to you at all."

"That's not even the issue. It doesn't matter if I did it or if fucking, uh, fucking Zahhak did it- not that Zahhak would ever snitch on his precious king of golden fucking whatever- it would still get back to ME somehow. He knows. Or just doesn't care. Who knows." Karkat gave up trying to explain it. Gamzee was a mystery. Terezi was quiet for a minute.

"…so are we going to the party?"

"ARGH. Do you want me to die or something?"

"Aw, Karkat~ I'd be there, there would be nothing to fear," Terezi cooed, slinging her arm around him.

"Okay, the fact that a psychotic blind girl keeps coming to my rescue is fucking embarrassing. I have to watch my reputation, okay?" All Karkat got in response was a cackle.

"Because it's so spotless. Oh, by the way, how is the new roommate?" Karkat jumped, suddenly remembering the whole thing with Sollux.

"FUCK! ON MY COMPUTER." Terezi raised an eyebrow at his sudden outburst. "HE'S ON MY COMPUTER, TALKING TO FUCKING JOHN." She nodded.

"Yeah. I talked to him on Pesterchum before I came to find you. That's how I knew you were out. He sounded …nice. Uh…why is he on your computer?" Karkat pulled at his hair. He talked to Terezi! Arghhhh! What did he say? What did she say?

"HE IS NOT 'NICE'. Okay, my roommate is fucking retarded. Like, he…he…"

"Breathes?"

"THANK YOU. YES, HE'S ALIVE. I think he hates me."

"I totally agree with you. Sounds really bad," Terezi said sarcastically. "And he's on your computer because…?" Karkat felt the sudden need to eat something breaded.

"Ugh. I forgot to eat today." No sooner had the words left his mouth than Terezi suddenly began to drag him sideways, in the direction of the cafeteria. "Fuck, Terezi, will you ever warn me when you do that?"

"Nope. Time for wickle Karkles to eat shum pasghetttiiii!"

It was three hours later when Karkat stumbled back into his dorm, holding his stomach in discomfort. It felt like he had eaten nine pounds of spaghetti. He stopped short at the door. Sollux was sitting with a pretty girl on his bed. They both had turned to look at him, and the girl had a curious look on her face.

"Uh, sorry," Karkat said, feeling his face getting hot.Great, Sollux is one of those guys whose girlfriend stays over every night. "I'll, uh…go." The girl shook her head and giggled, earrings clinking together.

"Oh no, Crabsnack, we're fine. I was just about to leave." She turned back to Sollux, and they were fucking smiling at each other. And what's with that fucking nickname? Karkat took a deep breath. If he started yelling now, he was going to throw up.

"Whatever." He walked over to his bed and checked his laptop. At least the jerk had signed him out of Pesterchum. He wondered what Sollux and his friends had talked about. He wondered why he had to wonder what Sollux had said about him to his friends. He didn't have the energy to think about that, and collapsed on the bed, narrowly missing his laptop. He heard whispers from behind him, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He heard Sollux call the girl 'Feferi'. After a while, she left, and Sollux began to type on his laptop. A few hours later, the typing stopped, and there were some rustling noises, until Karkat guessed Sollux had gone to bed. Karkat eventually pushed himself off the bed, feeling like crap. He hadn't slept, just dozed, listening to the sounds of the past…he checked the clock. God. It's 3 AM. Why can't I sleep? Glancing at Sollux, Karkat felt a little jealous that he could sleep so soundly. He flopped onto his back, gazing at the ceiling. Pesterchum would be dead right now. He could work on coding, but…he laid there quietly. This time of night was the only time he felt mildly calm. It was also when his most overwhelming and unsettling thoughts could get past the angry ones and rise to the surface of his mind. Nighttime was the worst.

Eventually, the sun rose. Karkat didn't bother to set his alarm, so when Sollux's went off, he pushed himself up groggily. He needed a shower. Sollux woke up fairly quickly, and turned his alarm off. He grabbed his glasses and squinted a little bit, before his eyes landed on Karkat.

"K…KK? Did you sleep in your clothes?" His voice was thick with sleep, but the lisp was still prominent. Karkat gave him a tired glare, grabbing his towel out of his backpack.

"Wake up before you talk to me." He left Sollux to get ready. The dorms shared showers, and they sucked as badly as he remembered. After a quick, freezing shower, Karkat went back to his room to change. Do I even have an early class? According to the schedule he pulled up on the laptop, yes. It was just a liberal arts class, and then he had a intro class afterwards. He grimaced when he saw the instructor. Student teacher Equius Zahhak- Anatomy. What was I thinking when I signed up for that? Wonder if they've heard about Mr. Zahhak's exciting party this weekend.

"What class do you have?" Sollux asked from behind him. Karkat snapped his laptop shut and threw it in his backpack, finally turning to face Sollux. Sollux looked well rested, a sharp contrast to himself, Karkat figured.

"Anatomy, then intro to computer sci."

"You have a liberal arts class for a morning class? That majorly sucks." Karkat rolled his eyes.

"Sure does." He made his way to the door after checking himself quickly in the mirror. I look kind of dead. Great.

"I just have discrete mathematics today," Sollux offered, following him out the door. Looks like we're walking together, fabulous. Sollux didn't say anything else until they were walking past the alleyway that Karkat had been in yesterday. Karkat was avoiding it for obvious reasons, but Sollux didn't know any of them.

"You know, if you cut through there, you can save some time-"

"I know," Karkat snapped, and didn't bother to further elaborate. Sollux just figured it was a 'thing'. John had helpfully shared with him some survival tips for living with Karkat yesterday, one of them being the 'things', weird conversational fire starters that made sense to no one but himself. Karkat had a lot of 'things' ('all of the things!'), and it was best not to push them. Sollux hadn't decided if he wanted to be someone who would start those fires or not, but figured he'd play it safe for now. The two made their way to class, and separated when Sollux reached his building. He waved goodbye to Karkat, who grunted. Karkat continued on until he reached his classroom inside the liberal arts building. A quick survey of the small, dingy room gave him little hope for a pleasant class. There were about ten students scattered about, most of whom Karkat didn't know. Equius Zahhak stood in the front of the room, looking at him with an expression between a glare and a grimace behind his cracked sunglasses. A bead of sweat rolled down his face, surely the first of many. A student in the front row- oh fuck no not her- turned to see who had entered with a curious look on her face. It lit up when she recognized Karkat. Nepeta Leijon. Nepeta giggled and waved at him.

"Hiya, Karkitty~" Karkat waved unenthusiastically. Jegus, what was with these females and their stupid nicknames lately? Equius glanced at Nepeta, sweating more as he reprimanded her.

"Nepeta! We have discussed this. You will stop…stop cavorting with that delinquent." Karkat had never really figured out where Equius got the whole 'delinquent' thing from- not that he cared. It probably had something to do with the fact that he had changed majors and effectively stayed a freshman. Equius had a superiority complex bigger than his stupid overgrown muscles, and once he found something to lord over you…he would latch on it. Or it might just be that he was a sycophant jealous of the attention Karkat got from the rich kids- the most prominent being Gamzee Makara, one of the richest kids at school. Not by choice, not my problem, Zahhak. Nepeta's attentions were the cherry on top. Nepeta, who had turned back around after shooting an apologetic smile at Karkat, was Equius' best friend-slash-super obvious crush. She, unfortunately, had quite the gigantic crush on Karkat. This did little to help Equius' and his relationship blossom. Not my fault your psychotic spaz friend has the hots for me, Zahhak…trust me, I'm just as unhappy about it as you are. Karkat glared at Equius, then checked out the other students. He noticed Sollux's girlfriend- Fef…Feferi was it?- chatting with the other girls in the corner. When she noticed him looking at her, she waved. The other girls turned to look at him, and he waved weakly. Among them were Kanaya Maryam, Aradia Megido, and Vriska Serket. Kanaya smiled at him, motioning to her shirt. She had probably made it herself recently. Kanaya was a fashion design major, and was very good at what she did. Karkat had a surprisingly easy friendship with her, and had introduced her to John, Rose, and Dave last year. He didn't know Aradia very well, and he knew Vriska far too well. She grinned at him predatorily. Yeah, well stupid smile at you too, Vriska. Crazy bitch. Karkat rolled his eyes and continued his survey of the class. No one else stood out as familiar.

"Class. We will go back to our seats and take attendance now," Equius announced with an uncomfortable strain in his voice. Oh, here we go. This will be hilarious. A sheen of sweat was prominent on his brow (and his everything else) when little attention was paid to him. "You…you will stop." Karkat propped his head up with his hand, enjoying the show. Equius was getting upset. He finally slammed his fist on a chalkboard behind him, which cracked. A silence fell over the classroom. Equius cleared his throat, brushing the chalk dust off his fist. "Uh…yes. I guess I forgot to temper my STRENGTH. Anyways. This is anatomy. It fills your liberal arts requirement. This course will be equal parts academic and artistic. I assume everyone bought the required text, 'The Definitive Guide to Anatomy, Physiology, and MUSCLE." Equius continued to drone on about how amazing muscles were, working up quite a sweat. Karkat was suffocating in boredom, and possibly the stale air hanging in the room. He perked up when Kanaya slid into the desk next to him.

"Hey, Karkat. Did you have a good summer? I missed you," she whispered. Karkat's scowl dropped a little bit.

"Missed you too. I did a whole lot of nothing. How are you liking this joke?" He motioned towards the ranting Equius.

"He is not that bad. I think he is just nervous about teaching." She leaned closer, tone quieting. "Why are you going to his party?" Karkat looked alarmed.

"What the actual fuck. How did you know about that?"

"I heard it from Tavros, who was wondering if he should tell Nepeta, but Nepeta already knew from Terezi, so they were trying to decide if they should tell Equius or just let you kind of show up, but he invited Aradia, who says she'd give up her inv-" Karkat interrupted her verbal flowchart.

"Okay, stop now. Why does fucking everyone know about my party schedule? Who the fuck is Tavros?"

"Tavros Nitram. That guy over there," Kanaya said, gesturing at a boy in front of them hunched over a notebook.

"Why is he talking about me at all? I've never even met him." Kanaya looked at Karkat silently for a second.

"That's Gamzee's new roommate."