You hate this sort of situation. You hate being in a class in which none of your friends are at. You were lucky enough this year to have most classes with Aradia, and the rest with Nepeta, so you weren't exactly alone in any other class besides Science Class. But it was in this very same class that you usually had to pick a partner to do the experiments with. And you have no friends here.

You had to endure 2 experiments already in which the teacher pronounced the so dreaded words "pick a lab partner" in which you were able to just look around awkwardly, hoping someone else would notice you, and happily wish to pair up with you. You never had such luck though, and the teacher usually had to speak up and ask if anyone didn't already have a lab partner, and told them to pair up with you. It wasn't a fun thing to live through. Everyone in the classroom would go quiet and stare at you, maybe not with malice, but with curiosity for who was the kid with no friends in class. You knew it wasn't such a big deal. You still couldn't help the way your cheeks burned and your stomach churned with embarrassment. Damn school. Fuck experiments and lab partners.

You are torn out of your fleeting troubled thoughts by the teacher's voice, and you get as ready as ever to start feeling uneasy after his death sentence.

"Alright class, please be quiet. Be quiet." He lifts his arms in the air with a deep frown, eyeing the group of kids in the back that apparently didn't want to shut up. They did so immediately after one of them noticed the death glare. "Miss Peixes will hand out the worksheets as soon as you switch seats and ready to go." He takes a look around the classroom as if he is deep in thought, eyes slightly squinted, and he finally continues giving directions. "I will be pairing you up this time." You raise your eyebrows in surprise just as the rest of the class groaned in disagreement. He begins to speak louder to be heard over the whining. "You guys were incredibly loud last week, and you barely even finished the lab and followed instructions. I don't want that to be a recurring thing, so I will chose who you will be working with." He says with a final tone, and everyone becomes quiet as they wait for their names to be called, none too happy with the decision.

The teacher walks back to his desk and picks up a sheet of paper, reading the names fleetingly before starting to call out names, his eyes raising from the paper from time to time to look at the students over his glasses.

You feel relieved and anxious at the same time. You don't have to stand awkwardly while you wait for someone to notice you, but then again you did have to possibly endure a butt hurt kid that would look at you funny while they whined that they wanted to go back to sitting with their friends, instead of a lame loser like you.

You almost miss your name being called as you stressed over this issue, and when you lifted your head up, you realize he had already said your partner's name as well, and you immediately freaked out. You didn't hear a thing, and now you don't know who it was, you don't know if you have to stand up and go to their desk, you don't know-

"What's up, motherfucker." You almost jump as someone plops down on the seat right next to yours carelessly. You turn your head to see who it is, and you come face to face with a dude that sat at the very back of the classroom. You don't really know the guy in person yet, but you know his name, Gamzee Makara, and his so popular nickname, the juggalo stoner. He obviously doesn't go by that nickname. Not that he cares much what people thinks of him, or what they say behind his back.

"Oh, um, hi." You say, and hesitantly stretch out a hand to him to shake his. You wonder if that was a weird thing to do from the way he looked at it for a second, as if he suddenly didn't know what to do with it. But he eventually grinned quite stupidly and took your hand in his, lazily shaking it up and down before letting go. "You're, Gamzee, right?" You ask despite knowing it for certain.

"That's the name, brother." He chuckles quietly before lifting his eyes to receive a sheet of paper that Feferi held out to him.

"I'm Tavros." You provide, and try to take a peek at the worksheet in his hands.

"I know." He says simply, and smiles at you as he cocks his head.

"Okay. Can I, see that?" you take the paper from his hand as he lets it go, and you begin to read the instructions for the lab in concentration. Your face becomes a true representation of horror when you read just what the lab is about. You both have to dissect a frog.

Did the teacher even mention that before the class started? Did he even warn his students? You are certain he did not. You would have told him there was no fucking way you would ever agree to participate in such a thing. You take a big breath as you try to calm yourself, and you let the paper down. Gamzee takes it back right away, and you watch him slowly raise a bushy eyebrow at the thing. He speaks shortly after.

"Hey, bro..." He begins, and turns the paper in his hands to check the back before scanning the front again. "Is this shit trying to say we gotta go all up and take a fucking look at some little frog's guts?" You almost gag. That was a nice way to put it.

"I'm, pretty sure, that's exactly what we are, uh, supposed to do..." You tell him with a worried expression to give him the message you are sonot down with the idea.

"Well, fuck." He huffs out a humorless laugh and looks at you with a frown. "That shit ain't cool." He looks serious. You don't think you have ever seen this guy even try to feign a serious expression. You nod in agreement before you notice someone is by your desk once again, and you see Feferi place a jar with a frog inside it on your table.

The little animal is looking at you. The little animal is alive. You purse your lips as you hear another person leave a metallic tray with some surgical instruments on your desk before walking away.

"Hey little fucker!" Gamzee takes the jar from you and lifts it up to his face, his long nose almost pressing against the glass. "Fucking cute." You swallow thickly. You see the teacher stand in front of the class and hear him clear his throat. You lift a hand in the air to call his attention. He ignores it as he begins to speak.

"Very well." You keep your hand up in the air, hearing as Gamzee cooed at the little thing, hearing it croak quietly in response. The teacher began to give some extra instructions before finally giving in to your insistent hand. "Mr Nitram, all questions after I finish giving instructions." He says, and without another glance in your direction, continues to speak. You lower your hand and look at Gamzee.

"I can't do it." You inform him, and he looks puzzled for a moment as he tears his eyes away from the jar in front of his face. He seems to understand after a few seconds. "It's a... living thing..." You continue. "I can't." He nods before turning his eyes to the jar again. You want to add some sort of passionate speech about you being vegan and this whole experiment going against everything you believe in and how terribly awful the whole idea of killing an animal in class is, but you refrain from doing so. Not that you have it in you to start ranting to a stranger. You aren't one to rant too much at all, actually.

"I'm not down with this shit either. Fuck this, man, this little motherfucker had done no wrong at no one, shit ain't any kind of fair." He frowns deeply as he shakes his head, and leaves the frog on the table to cross his arms.

You hear the teacher tell the class to start, and the sound of light chatter begins to fill the room, the noise of a jar opening and metallic utensils coming from all directions. You cover your face with your hands. Those poor animals. There's no way you can stop your classmates from doing the experiment. You can hear some of them even laughing excitedly at the prospect of seeing some frog's insides. You hear Gamzee start tapping the glass and say 'hi' to the amphibian yet again.

You hear some more laughter coming from a table close by. You hear a kid talk about how he wanted to see the lungs. You feel so sick. You suddenly feel a bony hand grasp your shoulder, and you uncover your face to look at Gamzee.

"You feelin' alright?" You shake your head. "Damn." He purses his lips for a moment, and then he raises his voice to speak. "Mr. Ampora!" You see him lift an arm in the air to call the teacher's attention as if his loud voice hadn't interrupted enough. The teacher groans in annoyment from his desk, and you aren't exactly sure why. "Me and my bro here don't wanna do this shit." You gulp and wish you could hide under the desk.

"Mr. Makara." There is a serious warning tone in his voice. "Language."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." You can feel everyone staring at you and Gamzee now. Your ears are getting uncomfortably hot. The teacher is nodding now, apparently letting Gamzee off the hook with the cursing. Probably only this time. You hope he can control his mouth with his next words.

"Can you explain now, please?" Gamzee seems to think his words through for a second before elaborating.

"Me and my bro here, Tavros, don't wanna go and cut up this little... dude. That's all kinds of sick."

"...I see."

"I mean look at him!" He lifts the jar a little higher and points a finger at it, moving the frog just a little in his hands. "He ain't hurting nobody. Why do we gotta hurt /him/?"

"We are doing an experiment." He sais simply.

"No, no, this ain't cool, I ain't about to touch this frog for anything else besides some wicked petting or some sh- stuff." Gamzee is lowering the jar to the table when he suddenly loosens his grip on it by accident. You gasp when the jar falls flat on the table and rolls on the desk before crashing down on the floor.

"Holy fucking shit!" You cover your face with your hands again, this time out of profound embarrassment. Why.

"Mr. Makara!" Now you hear everyone laughing at the show, your eyes closed tightly behind your palms, and you feel as Gamzee moves the table to stand up and probably try to catch the frog. You hear more laughter.

"Sorr- Fuck!" You lower your hands to take a peek at what he is doing, and you see him shove a finger in his mouth and suck on it. You doubt the frog bit him. You are pretty sure he just cut his finger with the glass.

"God, Gamzee." You say as you stand up to help him, almost squeaking when you see the frog jumping towards you, afraid that you would step on it and kill it. You turn your head to watch it run away, and the table nearby catches your eye. There is an already dead frog sliced up on the table. You try to suppress a gag as you bend over yourself, clasping a hand over your mouth.

"Mr. Makara..." You hear the teacher try to control his tone of voice.

"Where'd it go?" Gamzee takes his index out of his mouth and looks around the floor before trying to stand up.

"To the principal's office. Now."

"Wait, wait, I got this." He quickly walks past the desk in the direction he had seen the frog jump towards.

"I said now!" He barks this time. Gamzee groans in what could be annoyance, and you gag loudly when you become stupid enough to take another glance at the horrible murder table. "And take Mr. Nitram to the infirmary." He adds with a tinge of amusement in his voice, and you soon feel Gamzee wrap an arm around your shoulders and begin you walk you out the classroom, laughter beginning to grow even louder all around you.

When you are finally out of the classroom and the door closes behind you, Gamzee leans you against the wall and holds your face in his hands.

"You alright, motherfucker?" He asks, violating your personal space without even flinching, and you nod vigorously just to get him to back away.

"Yes." He breathes out a soft laugh that tickles your own mouth and lets you go.

"Sorry. Shit got kinda crazy in there." You swallow hard, both thanks to the nervousness his closeness made you feel, and because you still feel like you could puke right this very second.

"You don't look okay, though." He adds after taking another look at you, and begins to walk in the direction of the infirmary. "Come on, bro." You nod and hesitantly begin to follow him, hearing your teacher start to scold his students to get them to shut up already.

You find the way to the infirmary to be excruciatingly long, and once you are there, the nurse quickly makes you sit on a bed and lay down, telling you to stay still and not move your head. Gamzee leans on the door frame, watching you before the nurse tells him to either get out or actually get inside. He chooses the latter of course, and sits on the bed carefully to avoid moving you. The nurse soon places a cold and moist towel on your forehead, and you close your eyes while you will the nausea to go away. You breathe in deeply, exhale deeply, and repeat.

"What happened?" She asks after a moment, directing the question at Gamzee as she leaned on the wall with her arms crossed. Gamzee spoke for you.

"Had to get ourselves out of science class. We had to..." You open your eyes to look at him just as he ran his thumb across his neck in a slicing motion. "A frog." You close your eyes back again and try to think of something else.

"Aw..." She sounds equally amused and sympathetic. She soon moves from the wall and takes a seat on a desk not far from the bed you're at, and you hear her begin to hit a keyboard with her fingers; for some reason you guess she isn't working. You guess she doesn't have much to do around here anyways.

You feel Gamzee's hand find yours and you open your eyes with a frown to look at him, but you don't pull your hand away. You don't really want to move a muscle anyways in fear of the nausea getting worse.

"You got long nails." He observes with a smile, and runs the pad of his thumb over all your nails. You can't help but chuckle lightly. You like to keep your nails longer than most guys, but no one really ever points it out.

"I do." You confirm the obvious and feel his hand linger there for a second more before pulling away. You want to say he's probably a little touchy, but you don't want to judge him yet. It's not like you mind touchy people anyways.

You sigh deeply and let your eyelids close again, and you try to relax as much as you can, feeling the nausea start to dissipate.

He seems to remember he had a little cut on his finger, and asks the nurse if she has any bandaids.

You don't even notice when you start to fall asleep and Gamzee gets off the bed, probably to face the consequences of his foul language. If he even intends to follow the teacher's orders.