Sorry this took so long! And sorry it's generally really shitty. I've been exhausted and busy and . . . yeah just, sorry :/

Thanks for all the awesome reviews!

Friday came faster than anyone could have hoped. And while normally that would have been a great thing, that particular week Friday meant stress and panic. At least for Karkat, Terezi, Sollux, and Aradia.

Sollux's parents were coming home Sunday night. Meaning, Aradia only had two more nights of paradise before she was sent back to live with her stupid aunt, and probably have to explain where she'd been all week. That is, if her Aunt had even noticed her absence. She wanted to tell him that she was ready to . . . But no, no not yet. Not at school.

Terezi was regretting her bold attempt to ask Karkat Vantas on a date more and more with every passing second. She had refrained from telling the Strider-Clan (Roxy and Rose included) for fear of them making a huge spectacle out of it. Plus, Dave and his brother had been crashing and John Egbert's house, which was apparently very crowded as of late. John and his sister Jane, in addition to Jade whose parents were away, and Jake, who had moved in the second he realized he hated his college roommate. She didn't need to add extra stress on to that situation.

She had already picked out a movie for them to see and everything. The theatre was doing a special re-run weekend of all the old detective movies from the '50s. She wasn't exactly sure what movie would be playing at the time they arrived at the theatre, but she was sure there was bound to be something.

Karkat was feeling a similar kind of anxiety. He had never been on a date before-much less a date with a blind girl! What if she walked into something and got hurt? Or what if she got lost? Or worst of all . . . what if she decided she didn't like him that much?

And then . . . there was Sollux. He had two days to fix the giant mess he made of the house, delete the evidence of his girlfriend ever staying there, make sure Aradia's mental state stayed in the same some-what improving form it had been in since the honey-incident, and somehow manage to get her into bed with him all before his parents got home. God, being a teenager was hard sometimes.

"What's with all the sad motherfuckin faces?" Gamzee asked, snapping them all out of it.

"Yeah," Egbert agreed. Since Terezi had started hanging around with Karkat, so had Dave, and therefore so had John. It was getting kind of crowded at their table. "You all seem really out of it. Is everything alright?"

"Fine," the four muttered in unison.

Dave glanced down at his watch. "Almost time to get to class. Where the hell is that Ampora guy?"

"Probably stalking Feferi," Sollux told him honestly. "That's what he spends at least 99% of his time doing."

John cringed. "Creepy. Do you mean the Feferi on the swim team?"

Dave glared at him. "Egbert I really fucking doubt there's more than one 'Feferi' at this school. I'd go as far as to say there's probably not another 'Feferi' anywhere ever."

John raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, sorry Mr. Snappy-pants."

"We've talked about the lame nicknames," Dave said, almost as if that were an apology. "Don't turn into your cousin on me, please. The universe literally cannot handle another Jake English. It would implode upon itself."

"Oh that reminds me!" Aradia exclaimed. "Did you guys hear that biology was canceled for today?"

Since all of them were juniors, and therefore taking biology, the conversation became about a million times more interesting.

"Really?" Karkat asked, getting a little excited. He hated biology. "Why?"

"Well you know how it's dissection week?" Everyone nodded. "Well, someone was tampering with the frogs or something last night, because when Mrs. Pots came in this morning to get them ready for first period, they had all exploded!"

Terezi stuck her tongue out. "Ew!"

"Yeah from what we saw, it was pretty gross," Sollux agreed. "AA's locker is right by the lab, so we got front row seats to the whole spectacle. A bunch of the equipment was covered in frog guts because whoever did it left the cages open. Dead frogs-everywhere."

"So what are we supposed to do during the period we would have biology?" John asked.

Sollux shrugged. "Do whatever, I guess. I have it during lunch so I was just gonna leave for the hour and a half and then come back."

Aradia's eyes lit up. "You mean we'd go back to your house?"

"Sure," Sollux said. "We could just hang out or something."

Yes, yes perfect! Aradia thought. That would be her chance-a single window of opportunity. And she would take it.

"I have it last period with my sister," Karkat admitted. He hated letting people know that his younger sister was in the same level science class as him. "We'll probably just leave early."

"Gotta get ready for a hot date?" Terezi teased, trying to break the awkward tension she could feel forming between them. They hadn't spoken at all since yesterday.

Karkat merely shrugged. "I don't know; she doesn't really seem to care all that much about appearances."

He was smiling, she could tell by his voice. That was a good sign.

Terezi had bio first, along with Dave, so together they walked out to his car.

Once they were alone, he nudged her with his shoulder. "So, what's the deal with you and Vantas?"

Terezi silently cursed. "What do you mean?"

"You guys have been all over each other since the beginning of week, and now suddenly it's like he's got the plague," Dave said. "You wouldn't even meet his eyes. Did you get in an argument or something?"

Could she really lie to his face like this? Dave had been friends with Terezi since . . . well, forever. "No, it's nothing. I'll tell you about it another time."

He stared at her skeptically through his shades. "Y'sure?"

"Yeah. Let's go before they catch us leaving school without permission."

Aradia glanced at the clock. Twenty minutes until lunch . . . She could do it. She could do it. She would do it.

"You okay?" Sollux asked, for probably the hundredth time that day.

"Super!" she insisted. "I'm just anxious to get out of here is all-I'm starving."

"Me too," he agreed. "I knew we shouldn't have skipped breakfast . . . At least we get the whole biology block off. We'll get to go home and chill out."

That wasn't exactly what Aradia had in mind, but she nodded anyway.

"I was thinking we could watch that History Channel thing," he suggested. "It's been in the DVR all week. I know you wanted to watch it before you'll have to . . ."

She nodded a little too enthusiastically. "Yes! Good idea, we can do that."

Sollux's eyes narrowed under his glasses. "You're being weird. Is there something you're not telling me?"

Aradia glanced up. Their teacher was turned around, writing notes no one was paying attention to on the board and muttering quietly. She took the opportunity to lean across the gap between her and Sollux's desks and give him a quick peck on the lips. "Everything's fine," she promised, "I've just got a surprise for you is all."

"Terezi that looks wonderful!"

"Thank you," she replied, smiling broadly. Karkat sighed. How was it that a blind girl could kick his ass and bowling and painting? Those were two things that he had previously been certain required vision.

He looked down at his own painting. God, this is pathetic, he thought. There wasn't much to it other than a few gray lines that sort of mushed together in the middle. He had lied and told the teacher it was abstract but, really, he had just been sloppily letting the brush drift across the canvas.

Terezi's on the other hand, really did look like a piece of art. She had stayed true to her promise of using red and teal paint; the colors swirled in and out of each other, forming a wavy looking backdrop that looked amazing. Karkat remembered what she had said about the meaning of the colors, and how it represented him and her. He tried not to read to much into the fact that her having the brush strokes mix and blend could be interpreted many different ways.

He'd been spending too much time with Eridan.

"So, uh . . . I was thinking, about tonight, maybe I could pick you up a little early and we could get pizza or something," he said, trying not to trip over his words and failing miserably. Why was he so nervous?! It was just Terezi!

She grinned. "Sure! There's a great pizza place down the street from the theatre. Just come and get me a little earlier and it should be fine."

"Okay . . . alright good, yeah. So are you gonna tell me what we're going to see?"

She shook her head defiantly. "Don't ruin the surprise!"

Dave stared at John and Jade from across the room. They were whispering to each other; probably about him. God, all they ever did was worry. Why couldn't they just be concerned with their own problems for a damn second? Jade's parents were practically MIA and John and his dad had been fighting recently-it wasn't like they didn't have their own crap to deal with. Sometimes they could just be too good of friends.

"So," Rose said loudly, noticing her brother's stare. "We're hanging out with Roxy after school?"

Dave nodded. "I guess so. Man, I am not looking forward to those stupid soggy fries."

"Remember last time we went their while Roxy was at work?"

"You mean when we were eating breakfast?" Dave grinned a little. "That guy grabbed at her ass and Dirk almost beat the shit out of him. That was great."

Rose scowled. "That man was a pig. I worry about her sometimes, at that place all alone all day."

"Things will be different when we're out of this place," Dave assured her. "We'll skip town and live in some too-small apartment building living off bad Chinese food and tap water."

That had always been the plan. Once he and Rose were out of high school, the four of them would just leave. Ditch their troubles and start fresh.

Rose glanced over to John and Jade. Their eyebrows were creased and they were using a lot of hand motions, almost like they were about to start arguing. "What about them? And Terezi?"

"Nothing lasts forever, Rose."

She sighed. Maybe he had a point . . . But it was nice to pretend.

Sollux looked over at Aradia. Her knuckles were tight on the steering wheel, which made him nervous. She said she had a surprise for him-what had he done now?

They pulled into his driveway and got out of the car. After fumbling with his eyes for about a minute, Sollux let them into the living room. Aradia slammed the door behind her, looking a little wild.

"Aradia are you-"

"We're gonna have sex," she announced, loudly.

"What?!"

Blushing she added, "I mean, if you want to. I just . . . sorry I've been holding that in all day. But I'm serious, let's fuck."

Sollux could feel the grin creeping across his face, and was vaguely aware that he was probably coming across as weird and eager, but he also didn't really care. He was about to have sex for the first time! "Hell yes."

They raced up to his bedroom, pulling their clothes off and looking incredibly undignified. They didn't even bother closing the door to his room behind them.

"It's really . . . peaceful," Terezi observed.

"Yeah well, without Captor, no one really has anyone to argue with," Karkat told her. "It's so boring."

"You could argue with me, Kar!" Eridan offered. Karkat shot him a look that said, don't even go there.

"I think we all need a nice group hug," Gamzee suggested. "Maybe some make outs."

Terezi actually cringed. "Ignore him," Karkat whispered to her.

Dave looked down at his watch. "You know. . . lunch is almost over. If they don't sneak back into the cafeteria before the start of next period, they're done for." He was of course, referring to Aradia and Sollux.

Since it was technically against the law to just leave school, there was some serious sneaking around when it came to ditching classes. If you got caught leaving or entering the building after the first bell, you were in some serious shit.

"I texted him fifteen minutes ago," Karkat said. "I never got a reply."

Texting was also against school rules.

John sat up straight in his seat, squinting across the cafeteria. "Is that . . . them?"

Karkat turned around. Sure enough, climbing through one of the windows in the lunch lady's blind spot, was Sollux Captor and Aradia Megido. Once they were in, they quickly blending into the crowd of kids getting up to throw out trash and made their way towards their friends.

"Told you we'd make it," Sollux said, sliding in next to Karkat. Aradia sat across from him, between Dave and John.

"Your hair is a mess," Dave stated with a sly grin. "And your fly is down. You know if I didn't know any better I'd say that-"

"Don't." Aradia threatened, glaring at him. Dave raised his hands in surrender-didn't have to tell him twice. Her expression softened as she spoke to the rest of the group, "we were just in a rush is all! Lost track of time and almost didn't make it."

The bell rang, signalling the end of lunch. Aradia, Sollux, and Terezi all had class in the same direction, so they left together.

"So did you two really . . .?" Terezi whispered to Aradia. Sollux was preoccupied with his PDA and everyone else had gone the other way.

Aradia grinned and cupped her hands around Terezi's ear. After a moment, Terezi pulled away, eyes wide, and shouted, "TWO?!"

Sollux looked up from his PDA, blushing violently. "AA-!"

She interrupted him with a kiss. "Shh, don't spoil it!"

Dave stared down at the menu for the hundredth time. Roxy was standing over him, impatiently tapping her pen against her notepad.

"Sometime today Mini Strider."

"I'm not really hungry," he admitted. "Maybe later."

Roxy threw her hands in the air and stalked off. Dave had just wasted a good ten minutes of her time for nothing.

"She's always much more high-strung at work, don't take it personally," Rose assured him. She hadn't ordered anything either, other than a chai latte.

"I just wish he'd leave already," Dave admitted, obviously referring to their father.

Rose straightened out. She wasn't used to him opening up like that. "He will, eventually."

"You don't get it," he said, shaking his head. "Mom doesn't . . . you know. I'm just so sick of the way he treats us. I'm tired of being afr-I'm tired of having to hide out at Egbert's."

Nice save, Rose thought sarcastically. "You're always welcomed to stay with us. Mom's too wasted to notice either way."

Dave looked down. "It'd be too weird."

The bell rang above the front door, alerting everyone that someone had just come in. A few moments later, Dirk was pulling a chair up to the head of Dave and Rose's booth. He straddled it backwards, which Dave found kind of annoying. He could have totally fit in the booth with them.

"Ready to go, dude?" he asked.

Dave nodded. "I've been ready for the past hour."

"Could you drop me off?" Rose asked. "Roxy doesn't get off for another two hours and I really don't feel like waiting."

Dirk nodded, and together the three of them abandoned the table. Dirk walked over to Roxy, whispered something in her ear, and then signaled for his younger siblings to follow him out. Dave rolled his eyes. The older brother and sister had always had some sort of bullshit mutual understanding that because both of them were older, they had to 'parent' him and Rose. They still tried to shield them from things. Dave wanted to scream that he was old enough to understand the real world now, and he was tired of being babied. He was tired of a lot of things.

After they dropped Rose off, Dirk pulled the car over in an empty parking lot down the street. That's how Dave knew he was in trouble-Dirk always waited until they were alone to scold him for stuff (also annoying).

"You need to calm down," Dirk said. "You're gonna scare everyone."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Dave asked. "I amcalm!"

Dirk shook his head. "This always happens. Whenever Dad's back you just get angry and angsty and you take your frustrations out on everyone! The littlest things set you off and it's not healthy."

Dave huffed and crossed his arms. "I don't need this."

"Alright Mr. Teenager, don't listen to me. All I'm saying is that you need to-"

"All I'm saying is that you aren't my dad," Dave snapped. Oh shit . . .

Dirk turned back towards the wheel. His voice was flat. "I never said I was."

As he started to drive again, Dave really felt the guilt setting in. Why the hell would he say that?! Dirk was just trying to help him! He knew he had hurt his brother's feelings, which sucked. It's not like Dirk acted that way on purpose . . . Shit he had done it now. Should he apologize?

"I was thinking pizza tonight," Dirk said dryly. "At that place near the movie theatre. The Egberts are going to visit their grandmother."

Dave nodded. "Sure. That'd be cool."

Or he could just pretend nothing happened.

Karkat pulled up in front of Terezi's house, praying he hadn't forgotten anything important; like deodorant or pants. He was about to get out of the car when he saw the front door open.

"Stay there!" Terezi mouthed. She shut the door slowly behind her, then ran as fast as she could without tripping over anything and slid into the passenger's seat. "Floor it!"

Karkat did as told, stopping at the end of her street. "What was that about?"

"My parents don't exactly know that I'm going on a date tonight," she said. Oh god she called it the D-word. "I don't usually tell them this sort of thing. Don't-ask-don't-tell, right?"

She was fixing her hair as she spoke, tucking it back and pulling it down past her shoulders. Karkat couldn't help but notice she looked really cute, and wondered how she had managed to put together such a nice outfit without any assistance.

"So where's this pizza place?" he asked.

"Just drive like you'd be going to the movies," she told him. "It's the street right before."

So she could bowl, paint, and give directions. What the hell couldn't this girl do?

When they got to the pizza parlor, Karkat remembered his manners. He pulled out her chair for her and everything. He started to read her the menu too, but she told him she already knew what to order. When the waiter came around she told him they'd have a small peppers and feta cheese with a side of fries.

"Peppers and feta?" Karkat asked, disgusted.

"Not as bad as it sounds," she promised. "It sort of tastes like pizza-lasagna, actually."

"How'd you know what to order?"

She began playing with her hair. "I used to come here a lot with my parents before, um . . . Well, back when I could see."

Don't tell him, she thought. Not yet. That's not a first-date conversation.

"Oh . . ." Karkat silently cursed himself. He always managed to find exactly the wrong thing to say. "So it's, uh . . . a nice night out."

Terezi laughed. "You're so awkward sometimes. It's okay! I'm blind! I'm blind! I'll climb up on the roof and yell it if you want. I'm not sensitive about it or anything-it's who I am."

He smiled a little. "I like that you're so cool with it."

She shrugged. "What other way is there to be?

Aradia put her head against Sollux's shoulder and sighed happily. She actually felt content.

"I'll admit it," he said. "This is pretty interesting."

They had put on the History Channel special she'd recorded and snuggled up under a nice thick blanket. "I told you-history is great!"

"Maybe I'll give up my aspirations to become a video game designer and go to Egypt with you," he said. "We could dig up some mummies and Indiana Jones the shit out of that place."

Aradia giggled. "That'd be nice, but a lot of archaeology is just paper work and boring stuff."

"That sucks," he said. "It's so much cooler on TV."

She put her hand over his mouth. "Shh! They're about to talk about King Tut."

He licked the inside of her hand, causing her to shriek playfully and pull it back. "You're gross!"

Sollux kissed her forehead. "I love you."

"I love you too."

"I can't believe it," Dirk muttered. He and Dave had just been sitting down about to enjoy a nice large BBQ chicken pizza when they had walked in.

"I can," Dave admitted. He knew something was up with them. Terezi was an awful liar about that sort of thing. Though to be fair, she didn't have much practice.

"Do you think they know we're here?"

"Doubt it. She's blind and he's an idiot."

Dirk smirked. "More like he's only got eyes for her."

"Dude." Dave glared at him. "That was dry as hell."

Dirk shrugged and took a bite of his pizza. "Least they're having fun."

He was right. It didn't take more than a couple minutes for Karkat and Terezi to start joking around and laughing. Every now and then, Dave would catch one of them blushing. It was weird, watching one of his best friends go out on a date without them knowing that he was watching. To be honest, he felt sort of like a creep. But it had just been a coincidence after all. He could pretend it never happened and let her have fun while also keeping a watchful eye on Vantas. The situation was ideal.

"I guess this means I owe Roxy ten bucks," Dirk said. "She gave it less than two weeks, I said it'd be at least three."

"Before they went on a date?"

Dirk nodded. "I really should stop betting against Roxy when it comes to all this romantic crap."