A/N Hi, this is my first fic ever so I'm very excited. I don't know how often I will be updating considering school will be starting again soon, but I will try to be fairly consistent. Anyways, please enjoy and let me know if there is anything I could improve on. I'm always looking for tips on writing. :)

My name is John Egbert and this is the story of the time in my life in which I attended Hussie Boarding School for Boys, though many female teachers taught there as well. I was under the tutelage of Doc Scratch during my later years at the school, though he won't become important until later in my tale. The teacher responsible for my telling this story was a very complicated and manipulative woman by the name of Miss Vriska Serket, and she changed my life forever.

The first day I walked into that school, I was eleven. Hussie Academy was unique in many ways other than being an all-boy school, it was a six through twelve school that operated somewhat like an elementary school as far as schedules go, except that you would remain under the same teacher from sixth through eighth grade and then another from ninth until twelfth. We still had other teachers who might pop in to teach in a subject that our primary teacher was not particularly gifted in, however that tended to be a rare occurrence other than for the sake of the arts. I honestly have no idea how they managed the system at the school, it seemed rather odd to say the least. Well, when I walked into that classroom the first thing I noticed was that the desks were all strewn about the room in an incredibly disorganized fashion, the second thing I noticed was the teacher.

She wore glasses with one lens blacked out her skin was incredibly white and had black hair to compliment it. She looked as though she were in her mid to late twenties maybe, but she could easily pass off as a student. Her face appeared to be frozen in a constant smirk.

"Please choose a desk and sit down," She said.

I obliged eagerly. Her voice had a certain musicality to it that made it simply beautiful to listen to. As more kids started to trickle into the classroom I noted that none of them really disobeyed her in the least. Her voice was simply enticing. She never once had to tell us to pay attention because, despite the classroom being filled to the brim with otherwise rambunctious preteen boys, no one ever said anything out of turn.

"Boys, welcome to your first year here at Hussie Academy. I'm Miss Serket but you can all call me Vriska if you really want. Honestly I don't give a rat's ass what you call me. You probably know by now that I'll be your teacher for the next three years so you all better get used to me or you're going to have one hell of a middle school experience. I don't believe in censoring my language as I'm sure that words at least as bad as mine escape your lips and reach your ears on a day to day basis no matter whether I choose to cuss like a drunken sailor or not."

I exchanged glances with the blonde sitting next to me; he just shrugged at me and adjusted his sunglasses as we returned to listening to Miss Serket's welcome speech.

"You may use what our headmistress, Miss Megido, deems inappropriate language in class so long as it does not actually interrupt a lesson. You can really do anything you want just so long as it does not inhibit the learning experience. I really don't give a fuck about your behavior. All that matters to me is that you do the work in whatever way works best for you, besides cheating that is. I do not support cheating in my class. You cheat and I will kick your ass into the next galaxy. And I do not say that figuratively. You may use technology in this class during work time. Again, I do not give a fuck about what you do so long as you don't cheat or disrupt class."

A hand shot up behind me. It was a little guy in a wheelchair with a sort of fluffy Mohawk.

"Yes Tavros?"

"What is considered disruptive?"

"If you talk while I'm talking or another student is talking or physically keeping another classmate from doing their work. As I was saying, you may use technology during class as long as you manage to get your work done and don't cheat."

She went on and on for another hour, but really none of us seemed to mind. Her voice was enrapturing and it was impossible not to listen to it. She tended to wander the room as she talked, walking up and down the scattered desks with great fluidity. When she finally finished her welcome speech, which I found out later was not, in fact, rehearsed, she handed out books and went on another long speech. This time she talked about history and told us we may take notes if we wished. Half the class, me included, pulled out a notebook and pen or pencil and scribbled furiously as she lectured the class on the French revolution. I never actually looked at my notes again as I retained every word she said. When the lunch period began the classroom emptied and I wandered off about the school to buy lunch. I also wondered if I ought to see if I could relocate my room. I found myself sitting at a table in the cafeteria alone wondering if anyone would sit down by me.

No one approached me for quite some time. I pondered whether it might be was because I was kind of geeky looking or maybe I just looked like I wanted to be alone, or maybe it was just that no one really wanted to talk to anyone else on the first day except for maybe the roommate that they'd meet later, but I sat at that table for quite a while all by myself before some guy wearing a big black sweater over his school uniform begrudgingly sat down next to me. I recognized him from my class and debated making conversation.

Finally I settled for just saying, "Hey."

He looked at me funny for a second and replied, "Hi."

I picked at my salad a bit, "I'm John."

"Karkat," He grumbled nigh inaudibly.

"What?"

"I said my fucking name is Karkat, fuckass."

I didn't know what spoiled this guy's day but he seriously needed to lighten up, "Gosh sorry!"

He just glared at me some more and went back to picking at his own food muttering stuff like, "this food is shit" or "Can't believe I'm stuck in this fucking school for six more damn years."

I mostly ignored him, but tried to strike up conversation every once in a while, "Do you think it's weird that a girl is the head of a boys school?"

He'd just grumble and ignore me.

"So, what do you think of Miss Serket?"

Again replying with a grunt.

"What do you like to do?"

"You just don't know when to take a fucking hint and shut the fuck up, do you?"

I looked down at my hands and withdrew to a silent lunch.

As soon as I finished eating I stood up from the table and meandered towards the residence section of the school. I wandered the halls and climbed flights of stairs with my face buried in a map of the school until I finally found my room for the second time today. Room 413.

I unlocked and opened the door wondering who my roommate was. I had arrived early this morning to settle in today and left immediately, leaving me without a clue who he would be. I still had no idea when I opened the door. No one was in the small room but apparently whoever he was had a love of music because the first thing that greeted me upon entering was the sight of a pair of turntables sitting upon the desk in the far left corner of the room. Some posters also hung upon the walls though I didn't really bother to examine it thoroughly. Instead I just laid down on the bed on what I had claimed as my side of the room. The room was 40' x 40' square with beds on either side of the room, an incredibly minimalistic kitchen near the back of the space, and a little room I assumed to be the bathroom in the corner directly to the right of the door. I desperately hoped my roommate could cook because not only did I loathe cooking, but I also was simply terrible at it. I'd managed once to burn scrambled eggs while paying meticulous attention. I really didn't want to have to eat whatever the school served at dinner and called food either. I stood up from the bed and wandered back to the school section of the building. I desperately hoped I could make some friends otherwise this was going to be one long year.

I walked down the hallway wondering where people might hang out during their free time. I found myself seated at a desk in the library. There seemed to be plenty of people here, maybe if I stayed here long enough someone would sit down by me and try to make conversation. I looked around for any familiar faces. There was that sunglasses guy sitting reading a comic upside down for no apparent reason. Isn't it hard to read while wearing shades in doors let alone reading something upside down? The wheelchair boy with the Mohawk was sitting at a table with a really tall guy who wore copious amounts of white face paint. I saw the really grumpy guy with the excessive potty mouth sitting alone at another table glaring at just about everyone, what was his name? Kurt? Carrot? Something kind of weird like that. I really did not want to talk to him again. I myself did not cuss much in my younger years. I thought maybe I should try talking to the sunglasses guy. He seemed pretty cool, but that's why I didn't want to, he was cool and wouldn't want to hang out with a dork like me. I suppose you never know until you give it a shot though.

I took a deep breath and approached him.

"Hey, what're you reading?"

He looked up at me, or I think he did, I couldn't really tell behind his anime shades.

"x-men."

"Cool," I scratch my head awkwardly and say, " I'm John, John Egbert."

"Dave Strider, you're in Serket's class right?"

"Yeah, what do you think of her?"

"She seems pretty chill, I did hear though that every cycle through the school she tends to pick a few students who get out-of-class time with her and apparently they always turn out a bit differently from the rest of the class."

"Um. Out-of-class time?" I was not entirely sure that sounded completely PG.

"Whoa Egbert! I didn't peg you as someone with a dirty mind." He smirked at me covering his mouth in mock horror.

"What? No! I just mean, why?"

Dave shrugged, "I dunno. H ey, you're like the first person I've met today, wanna chill after school or something?"

"Sure!" mission accomplished, friend acquired, "what's your room number?"

"413."

"No way! You're my roommate!"

"No shit?"

"Yeah! So turntables huh?"

"You didn't touch them did you? Because if you did you will soon be a puddle of filleted internal organs on the side of the street."

I laughed and he just continued to stare at me completely seriously. That's when I realized he wasn't kidding. I pushed up my giant glasses sheepishly and replied, "No I didn't touch them."

"Good, let's keep it that way."

I nodded.

Another ten minutes passed while Dave and I chatted. I learned three main points of import from him 1. He was incredibly ironic 2. He lives with his bro when away from school and 3. He always wore his shades, except maybe while he slept and showered. Which could result in some interesting pranking opportunities.

We walked back to the classroom wondering at what Miss Serket would lecture us on this time.

Her class was exciting and impossible to ignore even if you tried. I sat in class between Dave and Karkat.

"Numbers are fascinating things and they are pretty goddamn useful. Being able to manipulate them is equally as important as the numbers themselves. 8 is a particularly interesting number. It is twice divisible by two. It is easily squared and divided. But enough about 8s, today we are working with graphs and line plots. I have some worksheets printed. Karkat, hand them out."

He stood up begrudgingly, I honestly was surprised he even did so without spending ten minutes arguing about it, and retrieved said sheets from the front desk and went about the business of handing out the papers amongst the misconstrued desks, slamming them down in a most unceremonious manner. The rest of the school day passed as one might assume, work time and homework assignments were given out. Books were checked out and papers packed up, and most of the class was out the door in no time.

"John? Tavros?"

I flinched a bit as Miss Serket said my name. That Tavros kid wheeled around as well just as he was about to leave and ran into Karkat who let out a string of incredibly creative profanities.

Did I do something wrong? I wondered, I very well may have. I turned around, "Yes ma'am?"

I plead with my eyes for Dave to stay with me, but he just shrugged and continued out the door behind Karkat.

"You two have been very diligent in my class thus far."

"Thank you?" I replied.

"You know? It's very difficult to find students who will work their asses off like you two do nowadays."

Again I was perplexed by where she was going with this. I didn't really try all that hard that day so I had no idea why she would hold us after class.

"Uh, Well, thank you Miss Serket," Tavros seemed almost like his knees were shaking, or they would be if he had any.

"Please, you two call me Vriska."

I furrowed my brow, "But I thought you don't give a rat's ass what we call you?"

She laughed. It came as quite a shock because her laugh differed so much from her enticing voice. I swear, every time she laughed a baby died. It sounded more like shrieking than laughing. She regained her composure and said, "Well, not really, but anyhow, I noticed that you two seem to be a bit, well, ahead of the rest of the class, and I thought maybe you might appreciate some out-of-class time to find ways to challenge your big-ass brains."

"Well, I- I suppose that might be nice Miss Ser- I mean uh Vriska," Tavros replied.

I scratched the back of my head, "I don't know. I mean, I'd like to find some time to-"

"John."

I stopped talking immediately as she fixed me with a stern gaze.

"You have a whole lot of potential. I suggest that you don't let it get thrown away."

"Okay. Sure." Wait. Did I really just agree to that? I didn't want to. I was planning on working on my piano playing in the music room after school every day.

"Perfect. I expect you two to get your asses to class about half an hour early every day. That should give us enough time to get some proper work done for non-shit-for-brains pupils."

"Uh, thanks Vriska."

Tavros and I left the room and I hurried towards the music room. I needed to play some piano to think through whatever just went down. Dave's words ran through my head "every cycle through the school she tends to pick a few students who get out-of-class time with her and apparently they always turn out a bit differently from the rest of the class." I had been picked as one of those students.