Sorry for not updating yesterday, I was busy with friends. But I've got the chapter today! :)
The next day was the Sunday they headed back. They all packed their bags and crowded back onto the buses. Karkat and his friends sat in the same order they had on the trip there. Roxy chatted away about what they did during the blizzard and how Emma's brother was okay.
"What did you guys do?" she asked.
"We played flappy bird until our phones died, ate cheetos and dried fruit and drank melted snow." Karkat said.
"Altho known ath water." Sollux commented. Karkat rolled his eyes.
When the bus arrived at the school everyone got off and Karkat and Sollux walked home together. They chatted a bit on the walk and Karkat realized he was getting a bit more sociable. Normally he would have just been completely silent. Actually, he normally didn't have someone to talk to when he walked home from school. Sollux was a nice change of pace.
"Welcome home." Kanaya said when he got back. "It's lunch time if you're hungry."
"Yeah." Karkat walked inside and dumped his stuff in his room. Then he made himself a quick lunch and sat on the couch and watched TV.
"Mom's grocery shopping right now. She'll be home in about half and hour." Kanaya said. Karkat just nodded and kept staring at the TV screen. Half an hour later Porrim showed up.
"Hi Karkat. How was the field trip?" she asked as she put groceries away.
"Alright." Karkat said. "Oh yeah, apparently I have to get a ticket to an amusement park so we can all go as a group."
"How much does it cost?"
"I dunno. Gamzee and Tavros won two tickets with a snow sculpting contest."
"Well, I'll think about it."
Kankri got home hours later. By then it was supper time so they all sat at the table and ate chicken.
"So, how was the school field trip Karkat?" Kankri asked. "I imagine you must have had a good time, or at least an average amusement level of time while you were there, as you do not seem particularly angry or upset about anything. Of course, you could just be good at hiding your emotions, but I wouldn't know. I apologize if you are feeling triggered and I cannot tell, that would be even more triggering, and-"
"Dad, give him a chance to answer." Kanaya said.
"Oh, yes. How was the trip Karkat?" Kankri asked.
"Alright." Karkat said.
"Karkat, that's rather triggering. Most kids would at least say what they did during the trip. And I admit that is really what I was hoping for in your answer. And while it is rather triggering of me to expect you to answer a question in a certain way, I was only hoping this because that is how most people that are at least a bit sociable respond-"
"Okay, fine!" Karkat snapped. "I found out I can't fucking ski, Roxy brought alcohol and got people drunk off their asses, Roxy and Calliope got together, we went on a shitty hike and heard a ghost story, we went sledding, we made stupid snow sculptures, then there was a fucking blizzard and we got stuck in our cabins for the whole fucking day and all we could do was play flappy bird and eat cheetos and dried fruit and some guy got stuck outside during the snowstorm but he was okay and then today we came home. The end."
"Well…that was interesting." Porrim said.
"Yeah. Now I'm going to charge my phone." Karkat put his plate in the sink and went to his room. He plugged his phone charger in and set it on his bed. Then he went on his computer and looked up some music on YouTube for the hell of it. After awhile when his phone had finished charging Sollux called.
"Hey KK."
"Hey."
"I found another cool thing in the woodth. Wanna thee?"
"Okay, sure."
"Cool. Come over now."
"Okay." So Karkat hung up and went to Sollux's. It was dark by the time he got there and Sollux was waiting for him by the garage.
"Hi KK."
"So what did you find now?" Karkat asked.
"C'mon. I'll show you." Sollux led him into the woods, flashlight in hand. They walked a little deeper than the last time. "Here it ith." Sollux stopped in front of a tree and shone the flashlight upwards.
There was an old tree-fort sitting in the tree. It looked like it had been abandoned for decades. It was covered in some moss and was crumbling in places. There was a rotting ladder leading up inside it. Sollux's flashlight beam scared a few bats out of it.
"Cool, huh?" Sollux said.
"Are there any dead kids in there?" Karkat asked. Sollux laughed and shook his head.
"C'mon. Let'th go inthide." He walked up to the ladder and started climbing.
"What? Oh, fine." Karkat followed close behind him since he had the only light.
The ladder creaked when they climbed on it and Karkat got a few splinters in his hands. Inside the tree-fort there was a bottom floor and a top floor. The top floor was mostly destroyed and inaccessible, while the bottom floor had a couple crumbling chairs, blankets and some cutlery. Sollux sat down on a branch that was sticking through a window and grinned.
"C'mon. Thit down." he said. Karkat sighed and sat down on the branch.
"Do you just explore this forest looking for dead people in cars and tree-forts in your spare time?"
"Yeah, if I'm not coding."
"Huh." They sat in silence for awhile. Eventually Sollux's phone went off.
"Hello?...Oh, okay." Sollux hung up and sighed. "I've gotta go back home. Dad'th pithed off about thomething."
"Oh, okay. I'm going home then too." Karkat said, standing up. They climbed out of the tree-fort and walked out of the forest. Karkat waved bye to Sollux and went home. Everyone else was already asleep so he went to his room as quietly as possible. He sighed and lay down in bed. Okay, now I'm back to going to school tomorrow.