"What are you going to do, tough guy?" A large male scoffed, pinning a smaller raven-haired boy against the lockers of Skaia High, making sure not to let him get away, "Try and pull one of your "pranks" to scare me away?"

"F- Fuck you!" The other murmured, looking down to avoid eye contact as he felt the pressure of the metal ridges against his back. It was just another usual day for him, John Egbert. Beforehand, he had found himself talking to his so-called best friend, Dave Strider, about one of his newest pranks before he had happened to use it on the biggest bully in the school, causing him to make a scene and get beaten up. Yet again.

Of course, being the nerd he was it was apparently "normal" to be picked on and bullied a lot. Every single day would he find someone whispering and laughing as they pointed at him, sometimes even throwing paper airplanes at the back of his head or even calling him names. Now, this guy… He was a whole other story. He seemed to enjoy stealing people's book bags and rampaging through their stuff with his buddies. Then he likes to destroy the items and beat the shit out of kid afterwards. John was like the icing on the cake; his favorite one.

He watched, frightened, as the other raised his fist to blow a punch to the face before a rough voice was heard. It seemed faint, as if the crowd watching the scene was too loud to hear anything clearly. He could tell the other in front of him could hear it too, as he had paused and surprisingly not beaten him to a pulp yet.

"Yo, Fuck-ass!" There was the voice again. It sounded more clearly this time, and more familiar. Maybe it was just another one of the bully's pals? Or possibly just somebody talking to someone in another part of the halls, oblivious to the fact John was in some serious shit here.

Shutting his eyes tightly- thinking it would at least lessen the pain a bit- he clenched his fists, preparing for weeks of a black eye and missing teeth. Then, he felt the larger male let go of him, causing John to plop down to the floor with an aching pain in his lower back from the tension. Tears began to swell as he looked to see who exactly actually took their time to help him.

It was Karkat Vantas. Another boy- around the same age and grade as him- that was in his Biology and Algebra class. He had pale white skin and short, shaggy black hair (almost similar to his' but slightly longer). He wore a plain black sweater and a pair of grey skinny jeans with black converses.

"Why don't you leave him alone? He didn't do fucking shit to you. Piss off." The newly-arrived teen had growled, his attention fully on the bully, "Or do you want to walk around this school with an aching bulge for a week?" If John could remember quite correctly, Vantas was one of the top players in the school's soccer team. So it would be natural if he had good kicking skills.

The bigger male scoffed and gave a signal to his pals, causing them to drop his bag and leave them alone. As John watched, he felt tears start to stream down his cheeks, using his sleeve to rub his eyes gently. He brought his knees to his chest, hugging them tightly and hiding his face. He just wanted everyone to get away from him at the moment, and didn't want any attention whatsoever.

"What are you nookwhiffs looking at? Get the fuck to class." The weeping boy heard the other roughly order, staying still. The sound of light footsteps neared him as he began to calm down just a bit. "Are you okay, John?" Moving his arm some to peer at the raven-haired teen, he smiled slightly. His glasses were foggy and his hair was even messier from the constant grabbing-by-the-hair the others had done. "Yeah… Thank you…"

He watched as Karkat held out his hand for him, gradually taking it and slowly standing up, brushing himself off. "U- Um…" Shakily starting to speak, he took off his glasses to wipe them with the collar of his shirt, "If it's not a bother, is there by any chance you could help me get my stu-" He cut off when the other was already handing his book bag to him, zipped up with no items hanging out whatsoever. "Thank you?"

"You're fucking welcome." He had an awful liking for cursing a lot, "Try to be careful next time, okay? That asshole must be planning to get back at you sometime."

"Okay." Was all John could answer with, taking his bag and putting it over his shoulders. "How did you find me?"

"Well, when there is a huge-ass fucking crowd in the hallway I think someone would know there is a type of fight or harassment going on, dumb ass." Karkat scoffed, crossing his arms. "If you weren't a friend of my boyfriend's then I probably would've just left you there. You're lucky I recognized you."

Okay, it looked like this boy was apparently gay. Never saw that coming. "Oh, right…" John replied, laughing a little, "Well, thank you again." Glancing at his watch for a brief moment, he noticed the time. Panicking a little, he looked around wary of any teachers nearby. "It's already been thirty minutes since the bell has ringed! Aren't you in my Biology class this period?"

The other teen's head nodded as he began to turn around and walk away down the halls. "Yeah, I am. If we don't hurry we'll probably get detention or something. I have fucking plans for tonight, so come on."

John watched him before smiling softly, lightening up a bit. For some odd reason, he felt like he had just made a new friend, whether he always cursed at him or not. Maybe they would get along better if they talked more. Following along, the boy caught up with the other, standing by his side as they headed to their next class together. He felt like the rest of the day would be a lot better than what he thought it would be.