The sun was beginning to rise behind Karkat, casting many long and dark shadows in front of him, including his own, which swayed left and right slightly as he walked downhill. If he looked behind him (which he didn’t really feel like doing), he would be able to see a little red crescent of the sun coming up over the top of the hill. Everything around him was tinted red by the light, and he hated it; he absolutely hated the colour red.
“Look out!” a voice cried from behind Karkat.
He looked over his shoulder and, even though the sun was causing a little difficulty, he could make out somebody barrelling towards him on a bike. At the last second, Karkat dove to the side, landing in the soft grass with a small squelch.
“Oh, gross,” he said to himself, looking at his now muddy hands. No doubt his jeans looked the same or maybe even worse. “Bastard.”
Karkat stood and got back on the sidewalk after cleaning his hands off the best he could while resisting the temptation to just wipe them on his pants, continuing his trek down the hill. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be late for school like the last time he missed the bus.
At the bottom of the hill was a strange sight: a beaten down red bike was lying on its side, the front wheel still spinning slowly, and there were pair of legs with well-worn red converse as the ends of them. If Karkat were to guess, he’d say that this was the same dick who almost ran him over earlier.
Though he was tempted to just ignore the scene in front of him and carry on, something made him stay.
He pursed his lips before speaking. “What the hell are you doing lying in a trash can?”
“It’s for ironic purposes,” came a muffled response.
Something clicked in Karkat’s mind, and he felt stupid for not putting it together earlier: this dick was Dave Strider.
“So, basically, you wiped out,” Karkat concluded, crossing his arms over his chest.
“No,” Dave said, wiggling out of the trash can and getting to his feet, shades still intact on his face. “I was aiming for the trash can to make it look like I wiped out.” The way he said this, in all seriousness, made Karkat unsure of whether or not he was joking, so he didn’t really know what to say.
“Well, I don’t want to be late, so see you,” Karkat finally said once he decided he had nothing better to say, giving Strider a rigid little wave before starting the mile that was left until he reached his and Dave’s school, Skaia Academy.
“Hey, wait up,” Strider said, picking up his bike by the handlebars and coming up beside him. “We go to the same school, right?”
Karkat rolled his eyes. “For almost three fucking years, and you’re just figuring that out now?”
Strider snorted lightly in amusement. “Whoa, man. Didn’t mean to strike a nerve there. Are you always like this?”
“Why am I even talking to you?” Karkat grumbled lowly, quickening his pace to get away from this insufferable prick. However, Strider just matched Karkat’s pace.
“What was that?” he asked, an ever-annoying smirk on his face. Karkat didn’t answer, so Dave tried again. “What was your name again? Kitkat Ventis?”
Karkat clenched his hands into fists and walked even faster. Almost there; just a couple more minutes and I’ll be free of this douche, he thought. Well, at least until photography class.
In the courtyard in front of the school, Strider met up with John Egbert, his best nerd friend. Karkat didn’t know if it was obvious to anyone else that Egbert had a huge crush on Strider, but it definitely was to him—for more than one reason.
“Hello, Karkat,” Kanaya Maryam’s familiar, motherly voice said as she walked up to him, her girlfriend's, Rose Lalonde’s, hand intertwined with hers. “How are you this morning?”
“Fine,” he grumbled, kicking the grass.
Kanaya frowned. “You don’t sound fine. Is it—?”
“No,” Karkat snapped, looking Kanaya in the eyes to silently tell her to shut up. Thankfully, she took the hint and nodded. Karkat sighed. “Look, I’m sorry. It’s just—you know.”
She nodded. “I understand.”
Karkat opened his mouth to ask how she was, but the first bell rang before he could say anything. Kanaya tugged on Rose’s arm, pulling her out of her conversation with Strider and Egderp so that they could head to homeroom. Last week, they had been late and ever since, Kanaya had made it her mission to arrive early to all of her classes.
“Well, I’m going to get going,” Karkat told Strider and Egbert, but they were still deep in their conversation about videogames to acknowledge that he had said anything. Whatever, he thought as he spun on his heel and bumped into someone, knocking their books to the ground.
“Oops!” an all-too-familiar voice squeaked. “Sorry, Karkitty!”
Karkat sighed and bent down to help Nepeta Leijon (who had a major crush on him that the whole school knew about) pick up her books. “No, sorry, that was my fault.”
She pouted slightly and, though he wasn’t interested and probably never would be, Karkat couldn’t deny that she was very cute. “I should’ve announced myself, though,” she said.
Karkat straightened back up and handed her the books that he had picked up. “No, I should’ve been paying more attention.”
She was about to argue further, but her best friend, Equius Zahhak, put his huge hand on her shoulder and said: “We should get going.” Nepeta nodded and they headed off to their homeroom.
As Karkat walked a ways behind them, he noticed just how odd they looked together. Where Nepeta was tiny and frail-looking with a high-pitched, squeaky voice, Equius was one of the tallest kids in their grade and so muscular that you’d think he came from a family of body-builders—not to mention that he had a really deep voice to go with all of this. They were complete opposites, yet they were best friends.
Before Karkat knew it, he was in homeroom. Terezi Pyrope, his girlfriend of almost an entire year, was sitting in the back talking to her on and off best friend, Vriska Serket. He went over and took the empty seat to her right, and, as if she noticed his presence (since she was blind and couldn’t see him), she reached over and took his hand.
Karkat smiled and thought that today was going to be a good one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AN:
Ahh, sorry that this took so long to do. I warned y'all that I would be recreating Backseat Serenade, so I hope no one's too mad at me. <.< >.> Haha, anyways, I got really motivated to finish this chapter (FINALLY) after seeing that I broke 300 votes. :3 I know a lot of them are going to disappear since I deleted Backseat Serenade, but oh well. I'm also on spring break now, so I'll probably be writing a lot more now that I have the time to. XD
So... yeah, haha. Don't forget to vote and comment if you liked this! :)
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The Meanings of Red
Fanfiction'He pursed his lips before speaking. “What the hell are you doing lying in a trash can?” “It’s for ironic purposes,” came a muffled response. Something clicked in Karkat’s mind, and he felt stupid for not putting it together earlier: this dick wa...
