Chapter Text
Your name is Eridan Ampora and you've just woken up because your brother has decided to play his terrible music at full blast. Irritated and furious you go pound on his door.
"Cro you son of a bitch turn down your god damn music!"
You wait a few seconds for him to turn it down but it doesn't change.
"CRO TURN DOWN YOUR FUCKIN MUSIC!"
You're pounding on his door even harder than before. Finally a few seconds later the volume decreases tremendously and he appears in the doorway.
"Oh hey chief didn't think you'd be up this early."
"I was sleepin till you decided to play your horrible music at the volume of a million. Anyways I thought you were some kind of greaser or some shit so why are you playin Heavy Metal?"
"Hey my music isn't terrible, and just because I'm a greaser doesn't mean I can't be open to all genre's."
"Whatever just keep it down."
"You got it chief."
Well now that you're up you might as well get started with the long and tedious process of styling your hair. You're in there for a good half hour getting your hair perfect. Some people might think that that's an absurd amount of time but you gotta look your best. Now you just have to choose what to wear. Your scarf is an obvious choice, you always wear it. You also chose a pair of skinny jeans, a violet purple button up shirt, and your black Vans. Now all you have to do is text your best friend and former crush, Feferi Peixes.
caligulasAquarium [CA] began pestering cuttlefishCuller [CC]
CA: hey fef are you ready for me to come pick you up
You waiting a few minutes but she doesn't reply back.
CA: fef you there
CC: Sorry --Eridan! I don't n--E--Ed a rid--E today, I'm actually going to pick som--Eon--E up for onc--E!
CA: wwho you pickin up
CC: My boyfri--End!
CA: wwait wwhat wwhen did this happen
CC: Friday! )(--E's a r--E--Ely nic--E guy!
CA: do i knoww him
CC: Y--Es.
CA: wwell wwho is he
CC: Sollux Captor.
CA: YOURE DATIN THAT PRICK
CC: --Eridan )(--E r--E--Ely is a nic--E guy! You just )(av--En't r--E--Ely talk--Ed to him on fri--Endly t--Erms.
CA: fef hate to disappoint you but im probably nevver gonna talk to him on friendly terms and last time i heard he already has a girlfriend so wwhat givves
CC: )(--E says t)(--Ey brok--E up last w--E--Ek, so I figur--Ed t)(is was my c)(anc--E! You know b--Efor--E som--Eon--E --Els--E snatch--Ed him up! I'v--E lik--Ed )(im for aw)(al--E.
CA: howw come you nevver said anyfin to me
CC: W--Ell, as muc)( as I lov--E you --Eridan, t)(--Ey'r--E som--Efins t)(at I k--Elp to mys--Elf.
CA: hey i gotta go fef cro is bein an ass
CC: Um, okay! Sea you at sc)(ool!
caligulasAquarium [CA] ceased pestering cuttlefishCuller [CC]
God, well your morning is just going absolutely swimmingly. And now Cronus has turned up the volume again but now hes changed genre's. Fantastic. "CRO TURN DOWN THAT FUCKIN SHITTY DUBSTEP!" You wait a minute but once again the volume doesn't change.
"I don't even know why father let you stay here after he kicked you out." You storm downstairs and go into the garage so you can get in your car and leave even though it's way earlier than you usually do.
"God damn it I forgot to do my history homework." You really didn't mean to forget, you enjoy history actually. Diamonds was gonna rip your head off.
---------
"I just can't believe she's datin that fuckin prick Kan."
You two walk into history class and take your usual seats near the back.
"And who is this 'prick' exactly?"
"Sol fuckin Captor."
"Oh, I should've known when he said ff. He actually broke with Aradia this morning on our daily Pesterchum memo."
"He broke up with this Ar chick just this mornin?"
"Yes."
"Fef said he broke up with his girlfriend last week."
"Here take a look."
She hands you her phone and shows you the memo. Wait, who in the right mind calls a memo board Rainbow Rumpus PartyTown? This girl seems a bit strange in your opinion. But there it was, in red and yellow. You take out your own phone and take a picture, you think Feferi will be VERY interested in this.
"Why did she name it Rainbow Rumpus PartyTown?"
"She didn't. We took a vote for Terezis name which is that and Karkats which was Fruity Rumpus Asshole Factory."
"Oh."
"Yep."
"So this girl didn't even care he did that?"
"She hasn't been acting any different. But who knows what she's really feeling? She tends to hide her emotions. She's quite good at it."
Before you can even say anything else, Diamonds Droog walks in.
"Alright class before we get started, hand in your homework you were suppose to do over the weekend."
You hope he doesn't notice that you haven't handed in your homework.
"Ampora. Were you too good to do your homework again."
He noticed. Now you gotta think up of an excuse.
"Sorry Diamonds but I have a life so I forget things."
"There are some people that hand in their homework everyday Ampora so I except everyone to do the work."
You highly doubt that, everyone has forgotten to hand their homework in at least once this year.
"Maybe they just have too much time on their hands."
"That's enough Ampora or I'm sending you out and don't call me Diamonds, I'm your teacher so you will call me mister Droog."
"Whatever Diamonds." He gives you a scowl then continues.
"Today class you are going to start a project. Now what you will be doing is choosing a subject that we've learned so far this year, like China, then you could find a topic to do. You have a few days to find your partner if you want one and to figure out what you're gonna do. You have a couple options, you could put on a sort of play with costumes and props, or a fifteen slide power point presentation, or a five thousand word essay. Have fun with this project and if you want to do something that wasn't listed come ask me for approval."
"Hey Kan wanna work together?"
"No thank you, I'm already working with Rose."
"You always work with her, you should just ask her out already."
She blushed and looked like she wanted to rip you in half for saying that out loud. Then she gets closer to you so you could hear her whisper.
"You know I want to but I'm just a bit nervous. I will when I feel the time is right."
She got up and sat across the room with Rose. Her seat isn't empty for long when someone else you hate comes and sits with you.
"Heeeeeeeey Eridan."
"You want to work on the project together Vris?"
"Hell no, everyone knows you never do anything in group projects."
"Then what do you want want."
"What? A friend can't come over and say hi?"
"You're not my friend and you're not the type, either you're wantin somethin or came to boast or somethin along those lines."
"Heh, that reminds me. Hows it feel that pep girl is going out with nerd boy instead of you?"
"How would you know she's goin out with him already?"
"I was there for the break up. DUH."
"Who's this Aradia girl anyways?"
"You really don't know who she is? You guys have every class together."
"We do?"
"Yeah! God they should call you Eridumb instead of Eridan."
"Just shut up and point her out will ya."
She points to a girl sitting in the front by herself typing on a laptop. How come you've never noticed her before? She's apparently in every single one of your classes and you've never noticed? Wow, maybe you should be called Eridumb because that was just a fail.
"She has A's in all of her classes. Shes gotten Principles list ever since shes started school."
"Do you think if I asked to work with her she'd say yes?"
"Ha! No. She works with no one so I doubt that she'd say yes to you."
"But if she does it's an easy A right?"
"That's what I always assumed."
This was good, you were in dire need need of an A to bring up your grade. Now all you had to do was get her to agree to be your partner.
"So you said she's never worked with anyone?"
"Yeah, she always turns everyone down. She even said no to me. ME! Can you believe that?"
"Did she say why?"
"Yeah for the exact reason why you wanna be her partner. So like I said, I doubt she'll say yes to you."
"What does she know about me huh? She probably doesn't know that."
"Well whatever. Good luck with that, I'm gonna go back to my partner John."
A second later she's gone. God what are you gonna say to Aradia to get her to be your partner? You notice her walking back to her desk with a stack of papers when someone stuck their foot out and tripped her. Now was probably a good way to introduce himself, being a gentleman and helping her. You go over and start picking up papers while Droog starts yelling at the student who tripped her.
"Here I'll give ya a hand. Are you alright?"
She was sort of quite when she talks.
"Yes I'm okay."
Together the two of you pick up all of the paper and set it on her desk.
"I'm Eridan Ampora."
You hold out your hand for a hand shake and she gives you one. "I'm Aradia Megido." You get a proper look at her, and you gotta say she's actually quite beautiful. Her long black thick wavy hair, her eyes are such a stranger brown they almost look red, her pale skin.
"Thank you for the help mister Ampora."
"No problem Ar." Then she sits back in her set without saying another word, so you take this as your cue to go back to your desk.
-----------------
You come home earlier than you usually do, by about five hours. You showed Feferi the chat picture but she didn't care.
"Oh hey chief I wasn't excepting to see you home so early. Want some pizza? It just got here and it's cheese."
"Yeah sure." You sit on the counter and grab a slice of pizza then take a bite.
"Woah, you feeling alright chief? You seem a bit down."
"Life sucks." "Ah yes, the old 'life sucks' days, I'm here if you wanna talk about."
"Fef is datin the guy I absolutely fuckin hate."
"The Captor kid?"
"Yeah."
"Didn't you tell me how it was a miracle that he even had a girlfriend?"
Instead of explaining everything to him you just show him the picture you took.
"Ouch, poor girl. Do you know her?"
"I met her today, her name is Aradia Megido."
"Hold up, did you just say Megido?"
"Yeah why?"
"Oh man the same thing happened to her sis Damara, she was dating this cool guy named Rufioh then he cheated on her with a guy named Horuss and then he dumped her. Broke the poor girls heart. And she broke every bone in his body. It sucks, she used to be a real sweet gal too."
"What do you mean used to be?"
"She just wasn't the same afterwards, the only person her relationship hasn't changed with is her little sis."
"So do you think Ar will break Sols bones?"
"Nah she's a good kid, now if Damara finds out then that's a different story."
"Damn."
"So what's up with you and the Megido girl?"
"What? Nothin."
Yet.
"Doesn't sound like nothin."
"Look nothins goin on."
"If you say so chief."
You get a plate and take a few slices of pizza then head into your bedroom. You haven't been able to get Aradia out of your head. In fact you've found yourself staring at her all day. You're so confused. You kinda just wanna talk to her. What was her Pesterchum name again? apocalypseArisen is what it was. You mean it wouldn't hurt and try to talk, maybe you could even ask to do the project with her this way.
caligulasAquarium [CA] began pestering apocalypseArisen [AA]
CA: this is ar right
CA: this is eridan
CA: eridan ampora
CA: wwe met in history
Still no response.
CA: did i come at a bad time
Are you serious? She still hasn't answered.
CA: wwell if you dont wwanna talk to me you could at least say somethin
You waited long enough. Just leave.
CA: okay i can tell wwhen im not wwanted
caligulasAquarium [CA] ceased pestering apocalypseArisen [AA]
Well that didn't go well. Looks like she didn't wanna talk to you. You haven't done anything wrong to her so you wonder if maybe she heard some things about you and that's why she didn't answer. You two have every class together so tomorrow you two can talk like civilized, well mannered people about the whole situation. In the mean time you might as well start on your homework. What should you start on first? Your math homework that Spades Slick gave you, the science homewrok that Clubs Deuce gave you, or read the book Hearts Boxcars gave the class then write a summary about that chapter? All of them suck but Clubs usually makes homework easy, so you guess you'll start with that. You finish all of your homework quicker than excepted, so you've just been watching YouTube and looking at your Tumblr for a few hours. Unexpectingly you get a Pesterchum notification.
apocalypseArisen [AA] began pestering caligulasAquarium [CA]
AA: hell0 im s0rry i didnt resp0nd earlier i havent been 0n my lapt0p until n0w i pr0mise i wasnt ign0ring y0u 0n purp0se
CA: ok wwell all is forgivven
AA: s0 was there s0mething y0u needed
CA: i just thought maybe wwe could talk
AA: 0h 0kay sure
CA: so wwhats up
AA: n0thing much i was just g0nna try and d0 s0me m0re research f0r the hist0ry pr0ject
CA: wwhat are you doin
AA: im d0ing a rep0rt 0r slide sh0w ab0ut greek myth0l0gy
CA: thats cool
AA: yeah what are y0u d0ing
CA: i dunno yet theres just so much to choose from
AA: ha ha yeah there is
CA: so wwhy greek mythology
AA: im just int0 that kind 0f stuff
CA: yeah that stuff is interestin
AA: mhm
She's losing interest Eridan, just ask the question.
CA: hey ar can i ask you a question
AA: y0u just did but ask away
CA: do you think maybe uh wwe could wwork on the project together
You wait but she hasn't responded yet.
CA: you there ar
AA: yes and yes
Wait what?
CA: wwait wwhat so wwere wworkin together
AA: yes
Wow, well that happened. You weren't excepting her to say yes that easily and quickly, to be honest you thought she'd say no then you'd have to bother her until she agreed.
AA: uh y0u there
CA: yeah yeah sorry got distracted
AA: 0kay
CA: see you tomorrow ar
AA: bye
CA: bye
apocalypseArisen [AA] ceased pestering caligulasAquarium [CA]
You still can't believe that she agreed just like that. This brightened your day a bit, and getting that A is gonna keep you from getting grounded. You can't wait for tomorrow.