Yay, second chapter! I'm sorry if this offends anyone, I tried my best to be inclusive!
"Wake up, fuckass!" Karkat yelled. My eyes shot open and I jerked forward, our foreheads colliding. We both groaned, Karkat falling onto the ground in pain, "WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" He demanded.
"You scared me!" I defended, holding my hand up to my head. He grumbled some profanity and stood back up.
"Well get ready." He ordered.
"Why? It's Sunday." I said, confused. Karkat rolled his eyes.
"Rosa's taking us to church, she thinks it's good for everybody. Though we're not all very serious about whatever religion we choose." He answered flatly. I rose an eyebrow. I've never actually been to church besides on Christmas or whatever.
"Or are you jewish or something?" He asked, leaning towards me. There were a few seconds of silence before he went back to his side of the attic.
"Aradia's Buddhist and prefers to stay home with Sollux and Vriska, who're both atheist. Gamzee stays home because he has his own wack religion that I think is satan worshipping but whatever." He went on. "Kanaya, Feferi, and Tavros are Islamic, and Eridan and Terezi are Jewish. We have a lot of stops before going to the Christian church." He explained. I just nodded slowly.
"Oh and wear nice clothes, Rosa likes us to look 'clean'." He made little air quotes. I dug through my bag and found some khaki shorts and a blue polo shirt. "Hurry up and get ready, geez, you're almost as bad as Kanaya." He told me, already in a black sweater and grey dress pants. I walked down to the bathroom to change, seeing a line of about three people.
"I need to brush my teeth!" Equius called, hitting the door and making a small indention.
"What teeth? You knocked out nearly all of them!" Vriska commented, standing behind him. He turned and they had a short stare down, though I don't know how it was possible since Equius was wearing sunglasses. Does he sleep in them? By how weird this place was, that answer was probably yes.
"I need to wwash my face." Eridan complained, crossing his arms. Vriska turned around.
"You already have a zit there-" She began, pointing to his face. He swatted her hand away.
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" He yelled, turning red and covering his face. She smirked and turned back around.
"I gotta go pee!" Nepeta announced, running up behind me.
Gamzee walked out of the bathroom, a brush stuck in his hair from what I guess him trying to brush that messy/curly mass of hair, "Go on in, my brotha." He said, grinning as he walked by. I waited in line, clutching my clothes and hair brush. It was finally my turn and I walked in, dressing quickly and trying to get my hair neat. That cow-lick right in the middle just won't go away, will it?
I walked back out, Nepeta shoving past me and slamming the door. I put my pj's back then went downstairs .
"Everyone grab a pop-tart or granola bar, we're running late." Rosa said. I grabbed what was left; a icing-less cherry pop tart. Yay. We all piled into a giant white van that didn't look like a pedophile would have at all. Gamzee waved us goodbye, using both hands and with a half-eaten grape pop-tart in one. I was shoved in between Equius and Nepeta in the very back seat. Equius started sweating heavily and I gagged a little, some of his dripping onto my glasses. Nepeta kept looking around frantically, swatting at the air every so often when she noticed the fly that flew in.
We stopped at a mosque first and dropped off Kanaya, Feferi, and Tavros. Tavros had to be lifted out into his wheelchair and I felt kinda sorry for him. I noted to ask about how he got paralysed when we got home, hopefully I wouldn't hurt his feelings. We stopped at a Temple next and Terezi and Eridan stepped out. Finally, we parked at a large church, the remainder of us piling out. I was relieved to get away from the giant sweaty guy and caught up with Karkat.
"Why're you wearing a sweater and pants, it's nearly 80 degrees." I asked him.
"I'll wear whatever the fuck I want, thank you." He replied.
"Karkat Vantas, don't cuss here." Rosa said sternly. He sighed and nodded.
"Vantas is your last name?" I wondered, grinning. He glared at me.
"Says John freaking Egbert." He responded. I shook my head at him.
"My last name is so lame that it's ironic." I stated proudly. He rolled his eyes.
"My last name is very STRONG." Equius bragged. Rosa looked over at him.
"Take off your glasses please." She suggested, though it was more of an order.
"But Rosa-" He began.
"Equius Zahhak." She stated. He nodded and slipped them off, revealing dark blue eyes.
"He actually has eyes?" I asked Karkat, laughing a little. Karkat grinned at my question. Equius looked over, curious what we were talking about.
"I order you two to stop laughing at me." He said, crossing his arms.
"You aren't the boss of us, stupid." Karkat said. Equius looked taken back.
"I am MUCH taller then you and STRONGER then you. Now, I'd like you to say that statement again." He ordered. I rose an eyebrow at his comment.
"I'm obviously the smartest one in the house. When you're this smart, height and strength don't matter." He replied. Equius paused, probably thinking over Karkat's reply. He opened his mouth to respond when Rosa shushed us. I was so caught up in watching the quarrel that I hadn't noticed we'd actually walked in and sat down.
This was a pretty big building, seeming larger on the inside. The room a weird shape, lines of benches leading up to what looked like a small stage. A stained-glass window depicting a giant angel loomed behind the stage. A small choir began singing, people pulling weird books and singing along. Equius and Nepata began singing, Nepeta smiling and reading along and Equius singing by memory. Karkat pulled out the book but just moved his mouth, no noise being made. I started daydreaming, getting lost in my thoughts.
About an hour passed, we ate these weird crackers and drank grape juice, which was pretty nice since I was starving. There was a big crowd as we tried to leave and Rosa kept getting stopped and started talking to people. Nepeta was running around, dragging Equius behind her who kept ordering her to stop. Some other kids my age came up and talked to Karkat, who he just said hi and turned away.
"Hey, if you're albino, why's your hair black?" I asked him suddenly. He stared at me a little.
"I dye it. Dont you think people would start staring if they see a pale red eyed kid with white hair?" He answered with a question. "Yes. The answer is yes." He answered for me since I wasn't responding.
"We're going to go pick up Kanaya, Feferi, and Tavros then go on some errands while we wait for the other two to be done." Rosa said as we climbed in the van. I made sure not to sit anywhere near Equius. We drove to the mosque and picked up said weirdos. Feferi climbed into the very back seat, Kanaya sat near Karkat, and Tavros was lifted into the seat next to me.
"Hey, I was meaning to ask, how did you get paralyzed?" I wondered. "It's okay if ya don't wanna answer." I assured him before I made him uncomfortable. He gave a kind smile.
"I, uh, used to roleplay with Vriska, Terezi, and Aradia and, uh, Vriska pushed me down the stairs, uh, really hard." He answered timidly. I nodded.
"I'm sorry for asking." I told him.
"It's fine! I mean, uh, they say the best way to get over stuff is, uh, talking about it." He said, smiling. I smiled back. We drove to a nearby Wal-mart and gathered next to the car.
"Okay, I need to get some things, everyone meet back here in about forty-five minutes." Rosa said. Everyone nodded and dispersed.
Nepeta darted to the stuffed animals. Equius headed towards electronics, making sure not to touch anything in fear that he'd break it. Tavros went with Rosa, helping her remember what she didn't put on her list. Kanaya and Feferi went to the clothes, Feferi paying more attention to the swimwear then the actual clothes. I followed Karkat to the movies. He dug through the giant bargain bin, probably looking for more cheesy romance stuff. I wandered over to the video games, seeing a new one called sburb. Dad got it for me for my birthday but it crashed my computer with this virus called Asteroid.
"We all played that game at the house. It shut down before we could officially win and get our prize." Karkat commented, looking over my shoulder, "Stupid fucking piece of trash." I jumped in surprise.
"Stop scaring me!" I declared. He rolled his eyes.
I kept checking my watch to see how much time had passed. Finally, it'd been forty-five minutes and all of us ran out to the van. We had to wait a few more minutes before Tavros and Rosa finally showed back up.
"Good job everybody, this was much better then last time." She said as she loaded the groceries in. Karkat scoffed.
"If Equius didn't break that DS then we would've been out sooner." Karkat commented. Equius got really sweaty.
"They were not supposed to know about that." He whispered. Karkat smirked.
We all got in and went to pick up Terezi and Eridan, who hopped into the car.
"Everyone have a nice time?" Rosa asked as we drove home. There were some excited yeses and other half hearted ones.
"Did you get food?" Vriska asked when Rosa walked in.
"Yes, but no eating until it's all put up." She said. Everyone groaned.
All the people from the van dispersed to what they were doing when I arrived yesterday.
I walked walked up to the attic and laid on my bed, staring at the unfinished ceiling. I'd changed back into my pj's since the polo shirt was starting to get uncomfortable. I think I got up too early today because I was suddenly tired. I wish I was at home. My REAL home. The one with my ghostbusters sheets and the smell of cake and other pastries. I know I was missing home when I missed the cake. I missed Coronal Sassacre. Hell, I even missed those stupid clowns. I'd give anything to see those stupid Harlequin pictures. But I was stuck at THIS home. I was Wacko-house-stuck.
I turned over and fell asleep, the image of my real home on my mind.