Steven ran back up to his dorm room so he could unpack, but once he was there, there was a dark-skinned boy with thick square glasses, possibly his age, peering into the gift bag the Gems got for him.
"Hi," Steven greeted the other kid, who jumped in response and looked towards Steven.
"Oh, hi...sorry if I was being nosy, I was just curious about what was in your bad. I'll just back off," the boy stammered.
"Oh no, it's cool! Do you want to see what's in the bag?" Steven asked, not at all bothered by the other kid's actions.
Steven went to his bag and pulled out the two pictures. He showed his roommate the one of Greg and Rose. "That's my mom and dad," he stated. "My dad used to be a rock star, but now he runs a car wash, and gives guitar lessons! My mom cares a lot about the Earth and its creatures. She saw the beauty in everything and was very nice. At least, that's what my dad and the Crystal Gems told me."
"The Crystal Gems?" the boy asked, confused.
"Oh! That's the nickname of my...um...my aunts! Yeah! They're my mom's sisters," Steven fibbed, showing the picture of him and the Crystal Gems. "The one in red and black is Garnet. She's very protective of my and makes sure I don't get hurt. The one with the pointy nose is Pearl, she makes sure I'm healthy and clean, and that the house is clean. She likes things tidy. And the purple one is Amethyst, she's fun and cool, and likes to collect stuff."
"Collect stuff? Like what?" the boy asked.
"Well...basically everything. Most of it is junk, but there's a lot of cool stuff too, like old antique stuff. But she doesn't have that pile anymore. She, Garnet, and Pearl sold it all to get money for my tuition here," Steven explained.
"Oh, that's cool. I get your nickname for all three of them is too. It's because their names are after crystals, right?" the other kid guessed.
"Yeah! That's it!" Steven confirmed.
"What's your mom's name?" the kid asked.
"Rose Quartz," Steven stated.
"Her last name was Quartz! Cool!"
"Yeah, and it's my middle name too!"
"Man, I wish I had a middle name like that."
"Why? What's your middle name?"
The boy was silent for a few moments before saying, "Jocelyn."
"What's wrong with that?" Steven asked.
"It's a girl's name," the kid said.
"So? It sounds cool. But that's because I've never heard of it before. Say, what's your first name?" Steven asked.
"Oh man! I was talking to you for five minutes and didn't even introduce myself yet! My name's Noa. Noa Washington," the new kid stated.
"I'm Steven Universe," Steven introduced himself.
"Universe? That's your actual last name?" Noa asked.
"Yeah, it's on my dad's driver's license," Steven said.
"Cool," Noa complimented.
"So, what are your parents like?" Steven asked.
Upon saying that, Noa went sort of pale and stammered, "Um, well, my dad works at this big business that pays a lot, which is why I'm here, and my mom...well, she used to work in an art school and she was really nice, loving, and open-minded, kind of like your mom."
"Wow, they sound pretty cool," Steven said.
"Well, to tell you the truth, my dad doesn't really pay attention to me much, and my mom...she was killed in a car crash by a drunk driver when I was six," Noa admitted.
After saying that, Steven's eyes widened in surprise, by the fact that Noa told him those facts and the facts in general. "Oh, well, to tell you the truth, in a sense, my mom passed away too. She died when I was just a baby, so I never really knew her," Steven said sorrowfully.
"Really? Well, that's something we have in common. I'm sure your mother would've liked you, though. You're a good person. I wonder if my mom met your mom in Heaven," Noa said.
"I don't know...it'd be nice if they did," Steven said cheerfully.
"Yeah, it would be. They're probably up there, watching us grow and learn to be good people," Noa said, smiling a bit. "Well, we better get to class before we're late. We'll unpack during free time."
And with that, after Steven found a spot for his pictures on a table next to his bed, the two boys set out to located their homeroom.
"Wow! This school is huge! Look at how many dorm rooms there are. There must be hundreds!" Steven exclaimed.
"Now I know you're new here. Yeah, this school kind of has to be big in order to house about 200 students. Then there's the gym, the cafeteria, the auditorium, and a blacktop outside," Noa stated.
"What are those places?" Steven asked curiously.
"You mean the gym, cafeteria, auditorium and blacktop? They're-Hold on a sec, were you homeschooled for most of your life?" Noa asked, confused.
"Well, yeah. I live in a town called Beach City. They...don't have a nearby school I could go to," Steven explained.
"Oh that makes sense. What do you know?" Noa asked.
"Just about reading, writing, and Gem culture," Steven answered.
"Oh, that's good. At least you know the basic stuff, but there's some things that I don't think you've been educated on that you need to catch up on, like US history, science, and mathematics," Noa said. "But I'll help you with that."
"Oh good, because I don't want anyone to make fun of me for getting something wrong. They don't test you on the first day, do they?" Steven worried.
"Sort of, it's like a short review on stuff we're going to learn this year. Don't freak out if you get a few wrong, but just try to stay calm if the teacher wants to see you after class. If she asks about the review, just tell her you were homeschooled on reading and writing, and she'll go easy on you," Noa advised.
"Okay," Steven said, as they entered their classroom.
It was already crowded with students, many of them talking to one another about their summer vacation and after school plans.
Upfront, Connie was by herself, reading a book of some sort. "Connie!" Steven greeted his friend, running over to her.
"Steven," Connie responded, smiling happily.
Noa looked a little uncomfortable and nervous as he approached the girl.
"I thought I saw you in the hall, but I couldn't run to greet you because I was busy unpacking my stuff with my parents. My mom was crying most of the time, mainly because this is the first time I'll be away from home for a long time," Connie explained.
"Aw, really. Well, you might want to call her when classes are over, so she can talk with you. That's the advice my dad gave me," Steven stated.
"Hmm, maybe I will," Connie said. "So, who's your new friend?"
Noa's face turned red and he answered, "Oh, I'm Noa Washington. Steven's roommate."
"It's nice to meet you, I'm Connie," Connie greeted. "Are you okay? You look nervous."
"Oh! Sorry, it's just that I'm kind of shy around girls," Noa explained.
"I see," Connie said. Then, a wet ball of paper collided with the side of the girl's face, resulting in her yelping in surprise and remove it with disgust.
"What's that?" Steven asked.
"A spitwad," Connie groaned as a chorus of malicious laughter went off a few desks behind her.
The trio looked back to see a small clique of girls pointing at Connie, teasing her. The leader, a blonde, snickered, "No, leave it on, Maheswaran, it distracts people from your big nose!"
Connie gritted her teeth in annoyance and looked away, but the girl kept shooting spit wads at her, mostly at her blazer, face and hair.
"Hey! Cut that out!" Steven shouted. "It's not nice!"
"Why do you care?" the blonde asked the half-gem.
"Because Connie's my friend! What'd she ever do to you?" Steven asked.
"She's my roommate, and I wanted my best friend to share my dorm with me. It's not fair!" the yellow-haired girl sneered.
"My fri-I mean, aunt Pearl says you can't always get what you want and life isn't always fair. That's what my mother told her when they were young," Steven stated.
The blonde stared at him, as if taking his words into thought; however, this was disproven when she snarked, "Oh, what do you know, fat kid." The girl then proceeded to throw balled up paper and erasers at Steven and Connie.
"Hey! I told you to stop! Quit it!" he hollered as some of the other kids in the classroom began to laugh at them.
Noa just took a few steps back, pretending not to know them and not wanting to get involved.
After a few moments, Steven became frustrated by the ordeal and shouted at the top of his lungs, "I SAID STOP!"
Within seconds, Steven's shield appeared in front of him, preventing any more projectiles from hitting him and Connie. Upon seeing the feat, the class half-gasped, half-shrieked in extreme shock. Once Steven saw what he had done, his eyes became wide as big as teacup saucers and his skin went pale.
"Uh oh," Connie muttered.
After a few seconds of silence, Steven did a weak laugh, grabbed the shield and said nervously, "It's um, a frisbee. A really bowl-like frisbee." He then grabbed the shield and threw it out of a open window. "See?" he said, pointing out the window.
Noa stepped up to his new friend and said, "You realize that you just lost that frisbee forever right? There's some dense woods near the blacktop and it looked like it went pretty far, so it's probably there now."
"Don't worry, it'll disappear after a while," Steven assured his friend.
"It'll what?" Noa asked as an adult walked into the room.
"Never mind! Teacher's here! Class is starting!" Steven announced, avoiding Noa's question and getting into a seat.
As Noa sat at his own desk, he stared at Steven sceptically.
Later that afternoon, the class was in another room, working on drawings as their first lesson of class. Noa went over to the table where Steven and Connie were working on their pictures alone and tapped on Steven's shoulder, where the former jumped in surprise and fear until he realized who had gotten his attention. "Oh, hi Noa," he greeted.
"Hey Steven, um, I have a couple of questions for you. About the incident in class this morning," Noa said.
Steven began sweating bullets, trying to think of an explanation for where the shield came from, but so far, no luck.
After at least a minute, Connie sighed, "If it'll make you feel better, Steven, I'll try to explain everything."
Steven thought about it for a second and then nodded in agreement.
Connie looked around for a few moments, making sure that nobody would listen in, and then quietly informed Noa, "Steven isn't exactly fully human."
"What!? What do you mean?" Noa asked, really baffled.
"My mom was an alien from another planet. That's why she and the Crystal Gems don't look like normal people," Steven explained. "But I'm surprised you didn't notice since my mom has pink hair and Amethyst has purple skin and white hair."
"I thought your mom and aunt dyed their hair, and that your aunt Amethyst painted her skin," Noa admitted.
"Why would someone paint their skin?" Steven asked, confused.
"I thought she cosplayed," Noa said sheepishly.
"What's cosplay?"
"...Another day, maybe. So, what kind of aliens are they? Where are they from? Mars? Venus? Pluto?!" Noa asked.
"The Gems didn't give us a specific name, but they call it Homeworld. It's not exactly in our solar system," Connie explained. "
Hmm, what's it like on Homeworld? What sort of culture is it? The government? Religion? Social life?" Noa questioned.
"I don't know, Pearl and Garnet never said anything. All I know is that their technology is more advanced than it was 5000 years ago and that they tried to take over the Earth," Steven admitted.
"Take over the Earth?! When did that happen?" Noa asked frantically.
"More than 5000 years ago?" Steven guessed.
"Why? What did they want?" Noa questioned.
"Well, they were making new Gems in the Earth's soil in a place Steven said was called Kindergarten," Connie explained. "That's where Amethyst came from. But there was a major drawback; it sucked nutrients from the soil and was actually harming the planet."
"Wow, that's terrible. But why is it not happening now?" Noa asked, curiously.
"Oh, my mom started a rebellion to put an end to it. Remember when I told you she really cared about the Earth, that's how much she cared about it," Steven explained. "It's been at peace for 5000 years...but, now Homeworld is trying to take the planet back and restarted the Kindergarten again. And my mom isn't around to help, so it's just me, Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst left to protect the Earth." Steven looked over at his friend Noa to see his skin was a LOT lighter than usual, his eyes were huge behind his glasses, his mouth was clenched shut and there was this long, weird squeak sound coming from him.
Steven groaned and said, "I shouldn't even be telling you all this."
Noa snapped out of his frightened state and objected, "No! It's okay! It's just that the fact about aliens threatening to take out planet and destroy all life kind of freaked me out."
"Are you sure?" Steven concerned.
"Yeah, it's fine. Say, have you ever met any Homeworld Gems, other than your family?" Noa asked, changing the topic.
"Well, there's Peridot; she was put in charge of restarting the Kindergarten, but me and the Gems stopped her, but she's stuck on Earth now and we can't find her. There's also Jasper, but she's kind of mean. And then there's Lapis Lazuli; she's actually really nice, but she doesn't like the other Gems because she was trapped in a mirror for a long time and was set free about a year ago. I helped her get back to Homeworld by healing her Gem so she could fly home, but then, she came back with Jasper and Peridot, and well...it's pretty tough for me to explain. I don't like talking about it," Steven stated.
"Oh, it's okay. Whatever happened must have been hard on you. I'll stop the questions there," Noa said. "It's actually kind of cool that your half-alien. And to hear all that stuff. It makes me think there's more to the history of the world than there actually was."
Steven smiled at his friend, then at Connie, who was smiling because she was glad that Noa took the information so well, and then down at his drawing; a picture of him, his dad, the Crystal Gems...and Lapis.
Later that evening, Steven was on the phone, talking to the Crystal Gems about his day at school.
"Well," Pearl said. "It's good to hear that you're learning interesting stuff at school, even though some of the things in history is slightly inaccurate, but it's best if humans didn't know what really happened when Columbus first came to America. So, did anything else happen? Did you see Connie? Made any new friends?"
"Yeah, I have a friend named Noa. He's my roommate in my dorm room. He's pretty cool," Steven stated. "And Connie's doing fine, except…"
"Except what, Steven? Is she homesick?" Pearl asked, concerned. "If she is, I'll let Mrs. Maheswaran know."
"No, it's not that, it's just...well, in class this morning, this group of girls were picking on her and shooting spitballs at her head."
"What's a spitball?" Pearl asked, curious.
"Oh, it's when you chew on a small ball of paper, put it into a straw, blow into the straw, and shoot it at someone. It doesn't hurt, but it's annoying," Steven explained.
"That's disgusting! Kids chew things up in their mouths and spit them out through straws at innocent people! That must be horrible!" Pearl shrieked.
"Yeah! Maybe I should try it on Pearl," Amethyst said.
"Don't you even think about that, Amethyst!"
"But that's not the worst part; I was trying to defend Connie, but they started aiming at me, and I got a little mad, and...I summoned my shield to protect her," Steven said.
"Did you hurt the girls picking on Connie?" Garnet asked.
"No, but I think I scared them."
"Good, you struck fear into their hearts."
"Garnet! Steven, please don't do that again! I don't want your school to know about your powers. They might send you to a lab somewhere to be experimented on by scientists and we'll never get to see you again!" Pearl shrieked.
"Don't worry, nobody questioned the shield. I lied and said it was a frisbee, then I threw it out the window to get rid of the evidence," Steven told the Gem. "Oh thank goodness."
"But, my friend, Noa, asked me about it during art class, so me and Connie explained to him that I was half alien. He actually took it pretty well. He's even interested in Gem culture now."
"Really? That's surprising," Pearl said.
"Yeah, at least another human here is okay with what I am," Steven said positively.
"True, but please be careful from now on," Pearl warned.
"Okay...so, any sign of Lapis, Jasper, or Peridot?" Steven asked.
"Not today, but don't worry. We're doing our best and we'll find them as soon as we possibly can," Garnet told the boy.
"Okay, Garnet. Talk to you guys tomorrow. I love you. Tell my dad and my other friends in Beach City I said hi, especially to Onion. He probably doesn't even know I'm here," Steven said.
"I'm planning on seeing Vidalia this week, so I'll talk to him then," Amethyst said.
"Thanks Amethyst. Bye guys," Steven said, hanging up the phone and going back to his dorm.
Well, that's how Steven's first day went! He summoned his shield trying to defend Connie from a mean bully and then later explained some Gem culture and History to his new friend, Noa Washington.
The next chapter will mostly be around the Gems, specifically about Steven's friends learning about where the he is at the moment, and also a big surprise! Feel free to guess what it is!
Rebecca Sugar owns Steven Universe
I own Noa Washington
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