All you need to know is this is just another stupid mute!John highschool au. As you probably can guess it's going to be extremely ooc and 100% unedited.
Trigger warning; violence/child abuse, hallucinations, nightmares and strong language.
Please review!

John woke up with a start, dreams of a checkered battlefield with bloodied black and white creatures still fresh in his mind. He had suffered from nightmares for as long as he can remember and he's thankful they weren't as bad tonight. He didn't want to deal with the aftermath of a real nightmare. Looking at the clock the bright green letters flashed 4:13 AM.

There was still a good amount of time before school but there was no way he would be able to fall asleep in his current state. His mind was still racing and he wasn't breathing right. He got up to get a glass of water, thinking that would help clear his mind. Looking out the window he saw his dad's car parked in the driveway, he never saw his dad during the day and when he came home he usually shut himself in his room. It wasn't until recently that he discovered his dad had developed a pretty serious drinking problem.

The real trouble started one night after a particularly bad nightmare, he had gone downstairs in hope that he could watch a movie to help distract himself from the hallucinations that sometimes followed him from his dreams. But, to his surprise he found his dad at the kitchen table with a nearly empty bottle of whisky. He was confused at first, honestly thinking he was seeing things.

He knew it was real when the bottle was thrown across the room, just barley missing his head. He stopped in his tracks and felt his blood go cold when his dad looked at him with the most hateful expression he'd ever seen. His eyes were laced with venom and spite and John couldn't figure out what he had done wrong. Once his dad started yelling insults and profanity at him he retreated back into his room and collapsed against the door, sobbing silently. That was the first time they talked in weeks.

As time went on his dad got more and more violent, the yelling increased to hitting. Hitting increased to kicking and punching until he was bloody and passed out. Now his days were spent running from harassers at school, and his nights spent locked in his room in an attempt to hide from his dad. But still, his throat was dry and he needed water. There was no going around it, he had to go downstairs. Opening the door as quietly as he could and looked down the hallway, finding the light under his dad's door on. He was in luck, if he was quiet enough he might make it to the kitchen and back to his room without alerting the older Egbert.

Leaving the door ajar he quickly made his way down the stairs, avoiding the steps he knew squeaked with weight, and crept to the next room. In the kitchen he got a cup out of the cupboard before moving to the sink and turning it on. He tried to collect his thoughts and faintly noticed his hands trembling as he filled the clear glass. As soon as it was full he absconded right on out of there, almost falling up the stairs. Back in his room he let out a shaky breath he didn't know he was holding and locked the door. He was safe.

Sitting on the bed he looked at his computer, maybe he could pass the time playing some sort of video game. He never made any friends at school or online so talking to someone was out of the question. After awhile he decided getting up would involve too much effort so he just continued to sit on his bed sipping the cold water. The wall across from him wasn't very entertaining but he found himself just staring at it, not doing anything else. Eventually his mind began to fade and he fell asleep against his will.

The loud buzzing of his alarm forced him out of his short nap. Falling asleep after a nightmare always made him extremely disoriented and fatigued when he woke up. As he became more aware of his surroundings he turned the alarm off and found his glasses pressed into his face. Apparently he fell asleep with them on. Getting up he makes his way to the bathroom to get ready for the day ahead.

After a relatively lengthy shower he went to the mirror to brush his hair and teeth. There were bruises of every shade littering just about all of his body, it wasn't a pretty sight. At least his dad had the decency to avoid his face and hands, but that was to keep people from asking questions. He put on a white long sleeved shirt under a light blue sweatshirt and khaki pants. Despite everything his dad still provided him a good wardrobe but this too was probably just to keep people from noticing how obviously undernourished John really was. Not that they did, nobody looked close enough to tell.

His dad had always been somewhat neglectful, leaving only cake in the kitchen for him to eat and forgetting to buy groceries for weeks when he was young. It hadn't improved as he got older, it only got worse. But John could deal with that, he got lunch at school and that was enough. However, it was getting hard to deal with the bruises and cuts that covered his body. They hurt almost all the time, and if they started healing there was always someone at school who would use him as their own personal punching bag.

He made his way to the kitchen, being significantly less quiet than earlier. His dad was at work so he didn't need to be careful. When he entered he saw a note next to the toaster and a loaf of bread that wasn't there last night. John couldn't help but smile, he knew his dad cared, somewhere deep down in there he still cared. He swallowed down his feelings and stuck a slice of bread in the toaster. After adding butter to the bread he set out to walk to school. He lived somewhat close to campus so he decided to walk and try to avoid some of his daily tormentors that rode the bus.

The bread in his hands was quickly eaten and now replaced with his iPod. It was easier to ignore harsh words when you could only hear half of what was said. As he neared the school he saw boy with bright platinum blonde hair and shades smoking a cigarette. It was overcast so he had no idea why he was wearing sunglasses, but to each their own. He noticed they were walking in the same direction, but he had never seen this kid before. Maybe he was new. John decided he would make an effort to avoid him, there was no need to attract unwanted attention.

The building was warm compared to outside, but it wasn't any more inviting. This school was the worst in the district, it hardly got any funding. The most upkeep it had was an occasional cleaning from the janitors. The teachers hardly cared about their jobs and the students cared even less. This was good for John because people mostly ignored him, he didn't stand out much. He just looked like your average dorky nerd with no friends. But there was a group of people who liked to made his life even more difficult than it already was. They all had very odd names, Vriska, Eridan and Meenah and they enjoyed tormenting John almost every other day.

They had taken a liking to John when they realized they could harass the boy and he wouldn't do anything. He never said anything and it wasn't like he could. He was mute. It had been that way for his whole life, his vocal cords never developed properly in the womb. The most he could manage was a small breathy whimper, but nothing more. He had taken up learning sign language but nobody he knew had ever bothered to learn it, not even his dad when he was still somewhat involved. So he communicated through written note or a notepad app he had downloaded on his phone. Nobody tried to talk to him anyways, so it didn't really matter. He arrived at class and sat down in his stereotypical seat in the back. It was nice not having to worry about people sitting near him. He laid his head down and waited for astronomy to begin.

When the bell rang he found out he had fallen asleep, he should be more careful. It was a miracle that he didn't jump when the bell woke him up. He was still somewhat disoriented when he looked up he saw the usually empty seat to his left occupied by the kid he saw walking earlier. He was still wearing his shades but he was inside, why? The kid didn't even acknowledge that John was there. Class started and the teacher introduced the new student as Dave Strider. He told the class he had just moved here from Texas and said nothing else. By the way everyone was looking at him he could tell they liked him already. The girls looked especially excited to get to know him. They were probably just excited by a cool and mysterious new kid. He looked unphased by his peers fawning over him, John figured he was use to it or just acting like a prick. Maybe both.

Dave, on the other hand, was very curious about the small boy sitting next to him. He had eyes the brightest blue he'd ever seen but they were hidden by the glare on his slightly crooked glasses. While most students were trying to get the attention of the new student it was somewhat obvious the boy in blue was trying to attract as little attention as possible. To be honest it was a nice change, having people trying to get your number and pesterchum handle left and right gets annoying really fast.

"Hey kid, what's your name?" He asked John, looking at him through dark shades. Johns mouth twisted into an uncertain frown and opened the notebook in front of him. At first Dave thought he was being ignored but then the notebook was softly pushed in his direction. On the paper was his name written in dark blue ink. Dave noticed his handwriting was very neat, soft and elegant. What the hell? You're Dave Strider you don't notice shit like handwriting. The print read 'John Egbert' and nothing more. As soon as Dave opened his mouth to reply the teacher started talking and John took the notebook back to copy down notes.

Dave looked to the front of the room and started to doze off, not paying the least bit of attention to the instructor. It was his first day, if anyone expected him to do anything worthwhile they were delusional. He would steal occasional glances at John throughout class, not sure why he was so interested in the quiet boy. Why wouldn't he talk to him? What was up with that? Class ended and before Dave could get a word out John was gone. That was the fastest abscond he'd ever seen.

John was concerned. He didn't want this new kid to talk to him, it seemed like it would backfire quickly. He hadn't expected him to talk to him during class, and he kept looking at him. Why was he looking at him? It was scaring him to be honest. He didn't know how the new student felt about him and a grey area was never good. Uncertainty never created a favorable outcome. He would just stick to the plan of ignoring him, that would work. The new kid would hopefully lose interest and find a group of more eligible people to talk to.

His next class is English and he makes his way there before the hallways became crowded. He wasn't good with enclosed, tight spaces. As students filed into class John kept his eyes fixed to the sky outside the window. That was until he felt someone sit next to him, he nervously glanced to the seat and saw it was none other but Dave Strider. Why was he here? There was a whole room of open seats, why did he pick here?! John didn't know what to do so he just turned his attention to the sky once again. This class passed much like the last, Dave introducing himself and everyone staring at him as though he was some sort of rare commodity. About halfway through class when everyone had free time Dave turned to John.

"Hey, John right?" Dave asked in an uninterested voice. John nodded awkwardly and went back to reading the assigned book, hoping to get his point across. Dave kept looking at him like he was expecting something. Eventually he let out an annoyed sigh and started talking to a group of kids who were trying desperately to get his attention. He answered each of their questions in a completely roundabout way leaving the other students confused as to what was just said. From John's perspective it looked like he was just taunting them.

The next class passed with no difficulty and now lunch was being served. John got food from the cafeteria, he wasn't as hungry today because of the toast but he still got as much as he could. One of his rules was to never turn down food, 'you never know the next time you'll get something to eat'. He was soon tucked away in the library, nobody bothered him here, not even the kids who liked to harass him. He sat in a corner and ate, listening to quiet music through his earbuds.

People weren't exactly allowed to eat in the library but the librarians seemed to pity him and allowed it. He was grateful, and he often told them by offering to clean up and put books away but they always smiled and told him not to worry about it. He was in the middle of eating a pretty horrible pizza when he heard someone clear their throat above him. He jumped, dropping the pizza into his lap. Standing in front of him was Dave. He sat down right next to Egbert and looked at him with a less than pleased expression.

"Why won't you talk to me?" He asked, tone slightly hostile. John, wanting to avoid a confrontation pulled out his phone and typed rapidly,
'i can't, i'm mute.'
Dave's expression became neutral again once he read the screen.
"Ah shit, my bad dude."
John smiled and shook his head. He figured if Dave insisted on talking to him he better be polite and talk back. Maybe he just needed help getting to a class. He took the phone back and started typing again.
'it's fine, there was no way you could have known. can i help you with something?' John handed the phone to Dave as he sat in the seat across from him. He was looking for any reaction or emotion, something to clue him in on his intentions. The other just stayed as stoic as ever.
"No, not really, I just wanted to avoid all the people bugging me so I came here for some quiet. Then I found you." John forced another smile.
'i see. why did you move here?'
Dave frowned, these were the same generic questions people had been asking all day. Maybe he could give this kid a straight answer, he hadn't done anything to annoy him yet.
"My Bro is a DJ and his work made us move here. Shit sucks but it's cool." Dave shrugged, not looking at John anymore, he was focused on the flickering lights on the ceiling. When he looked back at John he was surprised to find a sympathetic expression.
'i'm sorry, did you have to leave your friends?'
"Yeah but I can talk to them over pesterchum so it's not really that bad. We didn't hang out much outside of school anyways."

That's when the bell rang. John got up and waved to him shyly before exiting the library. Dave sat there for a moment, processing that John had just absconded in record time once again. It seemed like the kid had practice. He saw one of the librarians give him a warm smile and he left to find his next class. It turned out that the two didn't have any more classes together so Dave was forced to talk with some other students to pass the time. Some were alright but most proved to be less than desirable.

The ones he found most annoying were a group of 3 pretentious hipsters. He was pretty sure their names were Vriska, Eridan and Meenah but those names were just too odd to be real. He could tell that they thought themselves higher than the others and he didn't find that too cool, so he ignored them. At the end of class the three of them had given him a piece of paper with all of their phone numbers and contact information on it. Dave threw it in the first trash can he saw. The day finally ended and he exited the school. Once outside he saw a familiar smudge of light blue walking off campus. Knowing he wouldn't be able to catch up with the kid he shrugged and lit a cigarette to start the journey back to his apartment.

The wind was soft as it rustled the yellow and red autumn leaves, faintly he thought it sounded similar to a small stream. John had always liked the wind, he found it calming, even when it was violent and harsh. His black hair whipped around his face while he thought about his odd day. As he got to his house he broke out of his trance, his dad's car was in the driveway. This never happened. This wasn't good. What should I do? He stood outside the house for a few minutes, contemplating his options. He didn't have any other option but go in and hope luck is on his side.

He found the door was unlocked and when he entered the living room the smell of cake greeted him. He was at a loss for words, he hadn't seen his dad in the kitchen for weeks, maybe even a month. He couldn't decide if this was a good or bad thing, but with optimism in his heart he was leaning towards good. He pulled off his yellow converse, placing them next to the door. His dad liked a clean house, he had made that clear many times in the past. He stalked to the kitchen, looking at his dad from the doorway. They made eye contact and when John heard a gruff "Go to your room Son," he knew better than to argue. He went to his room quietly. His bed looked exceptionally inviting so he placed his backpack next to his desk and collapsed into a pile of blankets. He faintly realizes he was crying before drifting into unconsciousness.

Your name is John Egbert and you think you had a good day.