He was just starting at a new high school. What could go wrong?

The answer to that, dear reader, is everything.

Now I'm not going to play this out by constantly warning you like Lemony Snicket, the author of A series of Unfortunate Events.

But I will tell you that this isn't going to be the happiest story. It may have a happy ending, but who knows? Only I.

But I won't delay this any longer.

Karkat Vantas was starting a new school year at a brand new high school in the brand new town of Skaia in his brand new house on a brand new street. This also meant that he would have to make brand new friends.

And maybe a boyfriend for the first time.

Anyway, on the first day of school, he walked there. He really didn't feel like having his older brother Kankri drive him. It wasn't too far. So the short, grumpy, redheaded boy walked all the three blocks in his faded, worn, gray jeans and light gray hoodie to his new place of education, MC Secondary School. The principal was this weird ex-mobster named Spades Slick. Nobody knew what the MC stood for.

As soon as our protagonist arrived at the gates, he was floored by how huge the campus was. It had two-story white buildings with black doors. The office looked like a pretty modern architect designed it, because it was like some huge spiky circle with a long hallway connecting it to another smaller spiky-circle. Odd.

Karkat walked into the school, looking around, almost never blinking. Luckily he got there 30 minutes early, so he had some time to find his classrooms.

After he got his bearings straight, he sat down on a bench in the courtyard and pulled out Fifty Shades of Grey. It was a book he'd heard the reputation of and bought it just to annoy Kankri, who was triggered by anything and everything that had to do with sex.

As he was reading, a girl walked up from behind the bench and tapped his ankle with a red and white cane.

As Karkat twisted around to face this mysterious pester, he was greeted by red-rimmed, pointy glasses and a wide, toothy grin from Terezi Pyrope.

"Hey kid," Terezi began, leaning closer to Karkat's face and sniffing a bit. "I've never smelled you here before. You new?"

Karkat scowled. Smell? Smell him?!

"Why the fuck do you care? I don't even know you," Katkat said, turning back around to his book. Terezi just laughed and sat down next to him, tapping his foot with her cane rhythmically.

"That doesn't mean I don't want to know you, grumpy," she said, frowning. "So tell me who you are."

"The biggest asshole you will ever fucking meet in your miserable life," he said, rolling his eyes. Better to just get it over with than be interrogated, "Or Karkat for short."

Terezi giggled and lightly socked arkat in the arm. "Okay, biggest asshole I'll ever meet in my miserable life- I mean Karkat. I'm Terezi Pyrope, future attorney at law."

Just then, Karkat thought he heard a cat's meow and Terezi was tackled to the ground. It took him a second to realize what was happening, but she was being attacked by a short girl who seemed to be nuzzling her nose aggressively. He shrugged it off and tried to continue reading, but like every other high school fanfiction you will ever read, he was interrupted by the very romantic interest that would change his life.

Gamzee Makara walked up behind some cute-looking new motherfucker who was reading some weird pornographic novel and tousled his hair. "Hey, bro," he said, sitting in the same spot Terezi had been, "You new, huh?"

Karkat stared at him, wide-eyed. His mouth was slightly open and a light blush was visible under his pale, freckled cheeks. The dude who sat down next to him was just the perfect amount of tan, three heads taller than him, and had long, jet-black, wispy hair that curled at the ends. He wore a black ICP jacket and purple skinny jeans with gray Converse Hi-Tops and his angled, heavily featured face was painted to look like a clown. Total juggalo, but... God, this guy was fucking amazing-looking.

Hang on a fucking second.

No! No, he was not going to give himself away as the fucking homosexual reject of the school just yet! He was going to put that shit off as long as possible.

"Uh, um, yeah," Karkat stammered, shaking his head and returning to the scowl he had plastered on earlier.

The other kid just smiled. "I'm Gamzee Makara."

Karkat was once again drawn into a trance by the other's looks. Mostly his makeup, though. "I'm, uh… uhh…"

"A genuinely adorable little motherfucker?" Gamzee chuckled, smirking.

Karkat broke out of his zone again, glaring at Gamzee. "F-fuck you! No I'm not… my… My name is Karkat Vantas."

Gamzee smiled and pulled out his schedule. "So whaddya have, bro?"

The day flew by fast. Karkat had more than half of his schedule with Gamzee, unfortunately. His teachers were all fucking idiots, as he assumed they were going to be. he met some more people, like eight more, but he couldn't remember their names. Gamzee gave him his number and he spent all of the first after-school-home-time thinking about talking to him for some odd reason. He couldn't figure out why.

But maybe this school year wasn't going to be so unbearable after all.