The beats are the only sounds he's ever made...[SkyFairwind&Robeatics]

[SkyFairwind]

Well hell. This was it. This was just it. It was your first day of school at a new school, and you couldn't be more afraid, and yet relieved. What the hell are you even doing?

You are Dave Strider, it's 3 a.m., you can't sleep, and you've just moved to Washington D.C. You aren't really all that pleased to have had to move so far north, but Bro insisted that you move up here to get closer to your adopted sisters hometown. You noiselessly sigh as you stare down the clock on your bedside table, telling you that it's about time you fucking slept. You have school tomorrow. A new year, new people, and hopefully, less assholes. Now normally, you wouldn't care so much, being the awesome coolkid that you are, but you're just getting sick of not being able to retaliate.

Verbally anyways. You roll over, your shades still digging into the side of your face as you try to get to sleep. At least it's not so damned hot here, and you can rest comfortably. But now you're just sidetracking form the point. You can't talk. You were born without the ability to speak as a tiny glitch in your DNA rendered your vocal chords useless. You hate how life has to smack you around all the time, and you can't believe you are explaining this to yourself again. This is probably the hundredth time since you've moved that you've gone over this, and you've only been here for a week.

Picking up your iphone, you check to see who's on pesterChum, and you see only Bro, and Roxy. You assumed Rose was asleep, but then again that girl surprises you more than you like to admit. You think about pestering an old friend from Houston, but then you remember it's only 2 there so you just settle for checking up on SBaHJ, the webcomic you will never claim you made because the irony on it having no author is just off the charts. At least you think so. You now find yourself nodding off after a few minutes, and when you snap back into reality, it's to Bro throwing a smuppet at you.

"Hey, little man! Get up, it's 7! You're gonna be late if you don't get up soon." Dirk's always been there for you, through thick and thin. You both never actually had parents, but hell if he hasn't been the best Bro ever to you despite your problems.

You decide to just flip him off, throw on a moderately clean shirt and follow him to the kitchen. It's breakfast, and It's Tuesday. Fucking school... Bro slides a note over to you once you're seated, and you scrawl 'pancakes' in response. Can't go without your daily does of pancakes with strawberries on em. Those are the shit!

[Robeatics]

Your eyes snap open from an awesome dream about being a paranormal investigator to greet the sight of Nic Cage's smoldering upside-down gaze from the poster above your bed. You let loose a dazed huff and flop out of bed, snatching up your glasses from the nightstand and shoving them onto the bridge of your nose. The fuzzy glaze of your vision dissipates. You stumble downstairs after tossing on your favorite Japanese Ghost shirt and some plain shorts, straightening out your messy head of black hair along the way down the stairs. Your dad has already cooked up his own breakfast, and gives you a nod of greeting, fragrant pipe smoke wafting about the room with the motion. He deftly flips another page of his newspaper as you shove two slices of a blueberry bagel into the toaster. "Morning, Dad," You murmur after your tired brain awakes a bit more.

"Morning, son." You slather some cream cheese onto the slices and munch into one, finishing them off while still standing at the counter. "Have a good day at school," He adds as you pass by him to the door, giving him a peck on the head.

"I will!" Skaia High School was only a couple blocks away from your home, so most of the time you can just walk there. Jade grins at you and slows so you can catch up, waving when you approach. "Hey, Jade!"

[SkyFairwind]

Once you and Rose finally make it out of the house, you're on your way down the street. You live just a few blocks away, and you can most likely make it before 8. Great, now you've gotta wait through those first agonizing minutes before class, trying to avoid conversations with people. Great, it's not like you're not a master at that anyways already.

You begin to sign to Rose as you walk, simply because you know she won't answer her phone while she's right beside you. "Hey, so what do you think it's going to be like here sis? I mean, is it gonna be horribly different from back home?" You have no idea. You didn't bother to think ahead and actually check what's up. All you know is that you're gonna have first period biology. Why? Because you love stuff that's preserved in jars, that's why. It's awesome.

You are trying so hard to be able to sign whilst not having to remove your shades. You know she'll probably make you eventually though, and you dread having to show your eyes to civilians you don't even know yet. Being mute is one thing. Un-natural red eyes is another. You keep your thin little legs chugging along at your usual pretty damn fast pace, hoping that if she tries anything, you can say you didn't hear her. Fuck, this was getting to you. You normally don't care about shit like this. Damn.

Alright, maybe you will have to open up to her before the day is done. But not before she has had her chance to try and 'break' you into doing it first.

[Robeatics]

Jade greets you with a chipper, "Hey! What's up?"

"Why are you you so happy today? Was there a Squiddles special last night or something?"

"Naw, I dunno. I had a neat dream."

"Oh, me too! It was super cool, I was--"

"Hold up, jeez! I dreamt that I was walking around this big gold ship. It was really cool, but kinda boring, I guess." She shrugs and glances upward to read the large wording across the water tower near the school, saying in big, bold lettering: "SKAIA HIGH SCHOOL". "Man, that's obnoxious," She jokes.

You reply with a nod, distracted for long enough for a certain girl to swing her arms around your neck and greet, "Hey, Joooooooohn!" Vriska grins, showing off her weird snaggleteeth that gave her the appearance of fangs. She offhandedly greets Jade with a quick "Hey Jade." Jade gives a sterile grunt in response, arms crossed.

"Hi Vriska," You shoot a genuine smile to your friend, patting a hand on her back in the lopsided hug. She releases you and has the twinkle in her eye that you recognized far too well.

"So, John," She begins as you three continue walking across the front parking lot of the school, "I forgot to do my math homework--"

You tease, "RPG with Pyrope?"

"Duuuuuuuuh. So anyways, I was wondering if, as my bestest buddy in the whole universe, you could give me yours to borrow, because we're the closest of friends!"

"Dude, come on! You need to do your own homework."

She puts on an expression of mock offense. "I helped you with your homework all the time! Gimme a break!"

"Geez, fine!" You grin and give her a playful shove. "Homework thief." Jade rolls her eyes. Good thing you had 1st Period Biology and 2nd Period Math. It would give Vriska enough time to copy down the answers and give your work back to you before your class.

[SkyFairwind]

It wasn't the greatest time waiting, but Dave managed to not speak to anyone. The thin guy he was made it pretty easy for people to not care who he was, but then again he noticed a few people questioning who the new kid was. Yeah, I'm the new kid. What of it? He wasn't sure why he had just stood near the front door the whole time, but once the bell was ringing, he'd realized Rose had left him, and he'd had no idea where to go. Fuck. It was.... Oh right, room 312. Great.

So making his way to the Biology room, he made himself pretty damned prepared to try and evade all talking situations in class without having to alert anyone to why he wasn't talking. Though, from what he'd heard, people here just love to talk your ear right off. Rose's words, not yours....okay her phrasing, not yours. Wait, why do you even care? Fuck, whatever.

You look around once you're in the room, and catch the only empty seat is next to a buck-toothed kid. Well, he doesn't seem to be all bad. He does look alright to be near. Maybe he'll just be one of those science nerds who won't even pay attention to anything but his work. So, you sit next to him ignoring everything around you, pulling out your binder and your conversation/sketch journal. Class should be starting in three...two....

[Robeatics]

Mr. Signus rises from his desk as a really skinny blonde dude plops down next to you. You grin, lean in and whisper, "Hi. Are you new?"

However, Mr. Signus says in his gentle, but powerful voice, "Mr. Egbert, please, no talking." He then smiles and claps his hands together. "Alright kids! Today, if you haven't already noticed, we have a brand new gentleman in our class!" He looks straight at the skinny kid next to you. "How about you introduce yourself?"

You lean back in your seat, toying with a cowlick in your hair. The class grows oddly silent when nobody moves, so you tap his knee to get his attention and whisper, "Hey, it's okay. Mr. Signus is nice."

[SkyFairwind]

You turn to the kid next to you after he pokes your knee. Oh hell, you know it's you, and the whole class has to know it'd you by now, and it's now or never. Great You have to...wait. Yes. Yes, you totally have to do that. So, in getting your great idea, you wander up to the board right past Mr. Signus, as the boy next to you called him, and scrawl your name across it, making sure to make it look all fancy. You hear a few snickers, and wonder what's up. It's not like no one's written on the board before.

So, now that you're done, you look over to the teacher, out at all the students, point at the board, give a large bow, a quick nod, and again you are seated. You just stare up at the board for a bit, waiting for the class to continue. It seems though, that you've disrupted it. What were they expecting? You to actually talk to them? Nah, you too cool for that. Not 'wanting to get in trouble for talking' you open your conversation book to a blank page and write, "what class always this quiet?" and pass it off to the kid beside you. You should probably get the derps name so you can call him something other than the kid beside you, cause fuck that's a mouthful.

[Robeatics]

The dude, instead of actually saying anything, just loops his arm around on the board to scribble out a big, fancily-lettered name: Dave Strider. Okay, now this dude just seems like a douche. He doesn't even want to say anything? He seemed like a decent guy, too, at first. You were curious. As he sits, trying to melt into his chair, Mr. Signus says, "Well, Mr. Strider, it's nice to have you here in my little world of the living side of nature. Now, today, we will be dissecting something very simple: a flower. Eventually, as most of you know, we will eventually move onto a chicken wing, and then, finally, a fetal pig." Some of the girls cringe.

Dave slides onto your desk a little notepad, reading, "was class always this quiet?" You chance a glance at him and see his head turned, looking at Mr. Signus.

You shrug to yourself and scribble, "nah, you're just new and everyone's curious!" You stare at it for a bit, then erase the exclamation point and add a period instead.

[SkyFairwind]

You look back over to see what the kid's written, and it doesn't surprise you. What does surprise you is that curious here just means quiet stares with no prodding, and no having to answer questions.

You're starting to like it a hell of a lot here. You can deal with stares and unasked questions. You are so down for this. You start scribbling down a new sweet jeff frame, when you remember you never got his name. you write down the question and slide the book back. "Fetal pigs, yes! Also, never got your name." was what it read. You weren't sure what else to say, When you got a little a-hem from the Teacher. You look up, and give probably the quickest "Sorry" sign you've ever given. To most it would probably just look like a twitch.

Mr. Signus, "Moving on..."

Well that was close. You almost had to show people that you couldn't talk. You just really hope that this kid next to you didn't catch it, but you've felt his eyes on you every so often, so he probably caught that. Shi---it. Welp, here goes nothing when you get that book back you guess. Damn, why's it always the nerdy ones that get you to?

[Robeatics]

You grin like a devil with the greatest scheme ever hatching in his brain. Suppressing giggles, you scribble down, "Zoosmell Pooplord :B" and slide it over to him.

Mr. Signus, catching them passing notes, scolds jokingly, "Boys, if you don't stop passing notes, I'll make you hold hands for the rest of class." Giggles from your peers. "Pay attention. Now, as I was saying, I want everyone to pick a partner for their dissection today. I'll pass out the flowers and the worksheets before we begin."

As expected, no one picks you as their partner, opting for their friends. You didn't really know anyone in this class, except that weird mohawk-guy Vriska was obsessed with. What was his name? Something weird and foreign, like most of Vriska's friends. She had moved with Pyrope to America from some country in Europe that was in the thick of a hairy-ass civil war or something, she didn't really like to talk about it. Some fellow freshmen made up dumb rumors that both of them had been child soldiers, or some crazy shit like that, but you knew there was no way that was true. Regardless, you were very much dissection partner-less, and you see that Dave was too. You look around frantically, searching for a partner that wasn't Mr. Wearing-Shades-Inside-And-I'm-A-Silent-Douche, but they were being taken fast, and before you could stop it, you and him were the only saps left. Dang it!