Hello guys, and welcome to chapter thirteen of High School or High Water! Thank you so much for your reviews and for enjoying this story! It really makes my day to see how much you guys like it. I hope you enjoy this next chapter, and tell me what you think, or maybe something you'd like to see in the future! Enjoy!
"I still don't trust him," Vriska muttered as she sat on her chair at her desk, Dave's emotionless face plastered across her screen. She sighed and clicked on the internet to go mess around on Facebook. No one used the site anymore, but she had monsters to slay and people to stalk.
Dave only sighed from his now little box in the corner of her screen. "You know, as much as all of this is tiring me out, I actually agree with you. Your new brother has a date with our lisping coder friend and I'm not okay with it."
She gasped. "You're joking."
"You know I wouldn't kid about this, Vriska," he said, leaning back in his chair. "Can you fucking believe this?"
"Of course I can't!" she shouted. She paused a moment, glancing around her room as her leg bounced impatiently. She looked back at her computer screen and said, "He's not here right now. He's at the library with Feferi. I'm going to go do something. Be right back."
Dave nodded. "I want full details when you get back."
"Fuck that. Come with me," she said, switching the call to her cell phone and turning the camera on so Dave could watch and talk to her. She plugged in her headphones and darted across the hall. Aranea was gone with Meenah and Cronus was outside by the pool playing his guitar, so Vriska was in the clear. She opened Eridan's door and looked around. It was a lot cleaner than she remembered, but that wasn't important.
"So what are you doing?"
"Shush," she said quickly, trotting to Eridan's bed and getting on her hands and knees. She pulled up the skirt and peeked under. "Yes," she muttered to herself, grabbing the glass case and pulling it towards her. She crawled out from under the bed and put her prize on Eridan's bed, giving Dave a good view of it. She read the side of the case and saw that it said "The Elder Wand".
"Nerd," Dave said under his breath.
Vriska nodded. "I know he is."
"So what're you going to do?"
"Run it over like the worthless roadkill it is."
Dave smirked. "You don't run over roadkill. You run over animals and then it turns into roadkill."
"Shut up," she growled, putting the case under her arm and heading down the stairs and through the garage. She snuck to her car outside and put the wand behind one of her tires, unaware of a certain step-brother walking down the sidewalk with his best friend. She got into the driver's seat and put her phone in the passenger seat before staring up her car and backing over the wand with a satisfying snap and the shatter of glass. Then she heard a wail, and she knew she was caught.
"V-Vris! W-What are you doing to my w-wand?" He yelled, bending down to pick up a piece of glass. Feferi bent down and put a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.
"Revenge, motherfucker," Dave said, though his voice didn't come from Vriska's phone, and even if it did, Vriska would have had to unplug her headphones. All three teens looked to see Dave Strider at the end of the driveway, and when Vriska looked at her phone, she saw that he had hung up on her.
"Dave, you could've told me you were going to come. I would've waited for you," Vriska said with a bit of a chuckle.
Dave smirked. "Nah, thought I'd come here as a surprise. I see that I haven't missed the show, though."
"Are you seriously enjoying the fact that you've destroyed one of his most prized possessions?" Feferi asked, infuriated, which only made Vriska chuckle. Eridan stood and sighed, shaking his head and shrugging Feferi's hand off before heading inside.
"Eridan!" Feferi called, shuffling after him. The two disappeared inside, leaving Dave and Vriska outside in the heat. They stared each other down a moment before walking down the sidewalk to grab lunch. The two sat down in the diner across from each other, and soon John walked over, smiling.
"Hey Dave! Hey Vriska!" He was cheerful as always in his work uniform that was a bit too big for him, and Dave's charming smile at him made Vriska want to puke.
"Hey, babe," he said, continuing to smile. "How's work?"
"Good," John said with a shrug, sitting down next to Dave. "I had someone throw a cup at me, but then Dad threw them out."
"Good. Dad Egbert doesn't need bad business," Vriska said. John's father, who most of the kids just called Dad Egbert, ran the small diner on the corner, and John normally got them a nice discount whenever they met up there after school.
"I guess so," John said with a shrug. "Anyway, you guys want the usual?"
They nodded and John got up to yell to his father that Dave and Vriska were there, and the usual was served up with swiftness. Dave sat back and took a sip of his apple juice while Vriska poked at her burger, a little bored with Dave and John's relationship talk. The conversation had gone downhill in her opinion, but soon they were talking about Eridan.
"Yeah, he came in here with Feferi a little bit ago, actually. They had grabbed smoothies and headed out."
"Did they have smoothies when we saw them?" Vriska asked Dave.
"I was too busy internally laughing at Eridan's face," Dave said with a bit of a smirk.
John's mouth dropped open, then he shook his head and muttered, "You did not. Seriously? Why do you have to torture the guy? Come on!" He sighed and hunched over before picking his head up and glaring at Vriska and Dave. "What did you guys do?"
"Vriska ran over his stupid collectable wand," Dave said.
John looked at Vriska. "The one under his bed?"
She nodded. "Yeah-"
"How did you know it was under his bed?" Dave didn't sound as monotone and relaxed as he normally did, and Vriska could see the gears of assumption and jealousy turning in the blonde's head.
John rolled his eyes. "You can't seriously think I would cheat on you, Dave! He's my partner in science. We were talking about movie memorabilia and he said he had a lot of Harry Potter stuff, and his most prized possession was a wand that he kept under his bed so no one could break it." John sighed and glared at Vriska. "I guess you found it the first time you went snooping in Eridan's room, and now because you lost, you're all upset and you just wanted to get back at him."
"I didn't lose!"
"You gave him a fucking concussion, Vriska! If that's not losing, I don't know what is," John said with a pout.
"Egbert, you don't even know the half of what happened just recently," Dave said.
"What do you mean?"
"Sollux and Eridan have a date!"
"A date? You're joking."
"Am not," Dave said, leaning back in his seat and drinking more of his juice.
"No, I mean you're joking that all of this fuss is because Sollux is going on a date with Eridan!" John said with a groan. "Instead of being pissed at Eridan for no reason, how about you be happy for Sollux?"
"Why? Sollux was fine when he was single," Vriska said.
"Who asked out who?"
Dave was silent for a moment. "I don't know."
"Maybe, just maybe, Sollux asked out Eridan. And maybe, just maybe, you two can stop holding a grudge against the guy for no good reason, and instead you two could sit here and chat happily about things like the English project. Aren't you two partners?"
"Fuck that English project. What teacher assigns a project this early in the year?"
"A good one," John said, getting up. "I'll see you two around later, okay?" He bent down to kiss Dave's cheek before getting back to work, and soon Vriska was back at home, sitting on her computer, slaying monsters and thinking about what to do now that she had run over Eridan's wand.
"V-Vriska, may I come in?"
"No," she said.
"Too bad, I'm comin' in anyw-way," he said, coming in and sitting down on her bed. "I just w-wanted to know-w… Why?"
"You're a bitch and you ruined my established order. How else am I supposed to feel?"
Eridan sighed. "But how-w did I do that?"
"You and Cronus and Darren all did," she muttered. "My mom, sister and I were all fine, you know. We didn't need you three to come into our lives, but then your stupid father came in and swept my mom off her feet, and next thing I know, I have to deal with you, your brother and your stupid father. Then, you come and invade my home and take over the entire school with your fucking accent! How do you think I'm supposed to react?"
Eridan stared at her. "You could'v-ve said somethin'."
"What good would that have done?"
He blinked and stood up. "A lot, V-Vriska. It w-would hav-ve done a lot of good." He walked out of the room, but she heard his steps go down the stairs and a door slammed closed. She peered out her window, and Eridan was sitting next to Cronus, who had put his guitar down. She sighed and pulled her curtains closed when Cronus and her made eye contact, and she forgot about homework and showering. Instead, she stayed on the internet all night, rage not allowing her to sleep.