Karkat got up and went to school the next day. It was starting to warm up so he didn't need to wear a coat. He half-dragged his feet as he walked and he got to school a little later than usual. The bell rang just as he arrived. So he trudged up to homeroom.
To his surprise Roxy and Calliope were sitting with Gamzee, Tavros and Sollux. But they had homeroom on the other side of the building.
"What are you two doing here?" Karkat asked. His friends looked up at him in surprise and there was maybe half a second of silence. Then they all ran up and hugged him all at once. "Whoa, shit! Yeah, glad to see you too fuckers. Can you let me go now?"
"No way best friend." Gamzee said.
"We were so worried Karkat." Roxy said. "Don't you dare ever do that again!"
"Okay, okay. Are you gonna let me go?"
"No." they all said.
"Well fuck that!" Karkat yelled. He knocked them all off him and sat down at his desk. His friends all stood up and started laughing.
"KK'th back to normal." Sollux said. Karkat rolled his eyes and his friends sat back at their desks.
"So, did I miss anything?"
"Nah. We killed off thome thtupid rumourth about you but that'th about it." Sollux said.
"Abby's friends talked to us once too." Roxy said.
"They're really nice." Calliope said. "I'm still talking to some of them."
"Oh."
Then Mr. Slick walked into the classroom. He took one look at Karkat and said "Oh, the Vantas crap is back." Karkat flipped him off and he scowled at him. Roxy claimed that he and Mr. Slick seemed to get along well. Karkat had no idea what she meant. He hardly knew him, just like every other teacher, and really they would usually just glare at each other. But Roxy still insisted they got along well. Karkat didn't really mind Mr. Slick. Somehow he wasn't as annoying as other teachers.
The rest of the day was like a normal school day for Karkat. The only difference was that when he had classes with Abby's friends they would talk to him and his friends. Calliope was right, they were nice. Karkat had only spoken to them at Abby's funeral at first and they'd all been crying. Now he could actually see what they were normally like.
During lunch, Gamzee brought up the topic of the amusement park.
"Everyone got motherfucking tickets, right?" he asked. Karkat and the others nodded. "Cool. I was all up and thinking we could go first day of spring break."
"That sounds great!" Roxy said. "I can drive everyone there!"
"That sounds perfect." Gamzee said.
They kept discussing it until they had planned out the route to get there and when Roxy was picking everyone up. They spent the rest of lunch listening to Sollux list off rides from a list he got off the internet.
On the walk home Sollux asked Karkat if he wanted to come over.
"Sure." Karkat said. Though he suspected this was Sollux's way of trying to cheer him up.
At Sollux's Karkat got his ass kicked at videogames as usual. Then Sollux gave him some tips on coding and showed him some of his codes. Karkat still wasn't very good at coding. Then they ate dinner. Karkat and Sollux played videogames until Porrim phoned and said it was time for Karkat to come home.
"Thee you." Sollux said, waving. Karkat waved back and walked home. Kanaya was waiting for him when he got there.
"Welcome home. Did you have a good day at school?"
"Yeah." Karkat knew this was Kanaya's way of worrying over him. And sure enough she gave him a hug before going back to sewing. Karkat nodded to her and walked into his room. He lay down in bed and closed his eyes. And he knew he wouldn't get nightmares.
Sollux stood in his doorway and watched Karkat walk down the sidewalk. And he watched the three ghosts following behind him. He smiled and walked back inside. He sat at his computer and worked on codes for awhile. Then he looked up the amusement park online, even though he'd already done that at lunch. He skimmed over it for anything he might have missed, but he didn't see anything. So he turned off his computer and lay down in bed. He knew Karkat was going to be fine.