A.N. I do not own Homestuck or any of its characters, it belongs to Andrew Hussie. This is rated T for minor foul language. This will contain minor spoilers for the series (but this will happen rarely). [Warning: Contains Pepsicola (John Egbert/Dave Strider), sadstuck concepts (self harm and mentions of suicide), foul language, yaoi (fluff), and High School Drama].

Chapter 1: My New Home

(September 27th)

The wind gently blew through my hair as I stood outside my house. My vision shifted between the road and the place I once called home. Pain slowly built up in my chest knowing the fact that it would be a very long time before I could return to this place.

This was the place where I grew up, and I've been here for as long as I could remember. This is the place where I first learned how to ride a bike, to cook, and learned how to perform my first trick.

I could feel a grin stretch across my face as I recalled all the glamorous times I had here. My hand slid down the outside walls, taking in every last detail I could. I looked through the window to view my old living room. The joy left my system when my eyes came in contact with the scene before me.

The once lively room, filled with color and laughter, was now silent; the furniture covered by thin, white sheets. It was just another reminder that no one would be living here anytime soon. I drew all of my strength to summon a small smile.

"Don't worry mom, when I'm old enough I promise I'll take care of the house like you used to," I whispered to myself.

I turned to face the road once again as I heard a car approaching. As I did, my ears heard the familiar sounds of a car horn blaring in my direction. A silver Toyota pulled into my driveway along with an unfamiliar truck. As soon as both cars stopped, Jane excited the driver's seat of the Toyota and ran over to me.

The two of us exchanged a small embrace before pulling apart. Her eyes were full of kindness as she gave me a light smile. "How are you doing, John?"

"Same as always, and you?" I grinned showing off my buck teeth. It was almost sickening how much I had to force the joy, pretending all the pain I was feeling did not exist.

The older girl matched my gleeful tone and smiled as well. "Oh nothing much, I hope you don't mind that I brought a few of my friends to help with the move." She turned to face the direction of the vehicles.

"That's Roxy," Jane gestured towards a blonde girl wearing a long purple scarf who was in the process of exiting Jane's car, she notice the two of us staring at her so in turn she gave a small smile and a wave. "And that's Dirk," Jane now gestured towards the blonde haired man exiting the driver side of the truck. His shirt screamed out "there's still work that needs to be done, but his spiked hair and pointed glasses told that he was a cool and laid-back sort of man.

During the time that I spent paying attention to Jane's friends, I failed to notice a figure appear behind me. I suddenly felt 100 pounds heavier as someone jumped onto my back. I stumbled forward trying to regain my balance. "John!" I heard a familiar female voice practically yell happily into my ear. I chuckled slightly as I tried my best to turn my head towards her direction.

"Hey Jade, long time no see," I could feel my knees slowly buckling underneath me. "Mind uh- getting off of me?"

"Sure thing," I sighed in relief when I felt the extra weight leave my back. I turned to properly face my first cousin.

"So, does this mean Jake is here too?"

"That's right, mate." My vision once again shifted towards the direction of the truck. Where my British-sounding cousin was standing at…with Dirk's arm over his shoulder?

Apparently my confused thoughts were very visible because Jane giggled when she saw my expression. "Guess I forgot to tell you that Jake is dating Dirk," she managed to say between her laughs.

"Oh, cool" was all I was able to say. Don't get me wrong, the idea of Jake being gay isn't that much of a shocker; just more along the lines of the dork was able to actually be in a relationship.

The girl named Roxy rolled her eyes before speaking, "Janey this isn't the time for laughing. You're the one who said we had to hurry up to John's house so we could get this done as soon as possible."

"Jane finally calmed down and briefly stuck her tongue out towards the blonde.

"Oh shush, I was just about to go inside and get the boxes!" She turn towards me with the same caring look from before "Come on John, show us where you put your boxes!"

"Sure thing, sis," I felt a lump grow in my throat as I headed towards the door. I wrapped my hand against the cold doorknob, twisting slightly till the door opened. Taking a few steps inside, I raised my right arm to point towards a wall where the miniature mountain of boxes laid. "I placed all the boxes right there. Only one or two of them should be heavy."

The group of teenagers gathered into the house with small chatter amongst one another. I walked over towards the pile myself and picked up one of the smaller boxes. I walked out of the house and heard Jane begin to speak up.

"Hey John, just place the box in my car and-" There was a high pitch scream and a loud thump from inside the house. I quickly placed the box down onto the ground and rushed towards the noise to see what had happened.

Jane was three feet away from the door, frozen in place as she stared wide-eyed into the kitchen. I followed her gaze; her eyes had met with those of what looked like a black rat hiding at the corner of the doorframe. "J-John you have rats!" her voice was high pitched with fear.

"Holy crap! Don't worry, I got it!" I state as I barged towards the creature. I snatched the little creeper before anyone could stop me; holding it by its back legs as I stand up. "Shit."

"What?! Did it bite you?" Jane said. Her voice was panicked, and I had to resist every urge to not smile at her.

I turn to face them, hiding the rat from their vision. "It seems-" I fidgeted my arms slightly trying to get a solid hold "- it looks like I'm about to lose my grip. Oh, watch out Jane!" I yell tossing the rat towards my sister.

"She let out a ear-piercing squeal as she moved back from the flying object. The rat hit the floor and immediately everyone moved away from it. Jake ran forward to catch it before the rat had a chance to run away, but stopped once he got a closer look. He looked up at me and begins to laugh loudly; I quickly join him as I could no longer keep a straight face.

As the rest of them looked closer towards the rat, they realized it was nothing more than a fake Halloween decoration. Roxy and Jade laughed to themselves while Dirk shook his head lightly at the foolish situation. Jane was red in the face due to the embarrassment of falling for such a trick.

"John, that was such a mean joke!" Jane said, a blush still covering her cheeks.

"Sorry Jane thought I packed all of them up!" I explained honestly, looking at her with a grin. "Now if you excuse me, I'm going back to packing up my stuff." I said, absconding out the door before she could say anymore into the situation.

A little over ten minutes later, the six of us had filled both Jane's car and part of Dirk's truck with the boxes I was bringing. Jade and I went into the back seats of Jane's car, preparing for our departure.

"Are you excited to start school tomorrow?" She asked in her normal cheerful tone.

I shrugged. "Eh, can't be any worse than my old school. The only bright side is I finally get to meet the famous Striders you're always talking about."

"Whoa, did you say Strider?" Roxy asked as she climbed into the vehicle. "You shorties aren't talking about me, are ya?" She playfully winked towards our direction.

"I didn't know your last name was Strider." I looked back over to Jade, "Is she related to Dave and Rose?" Jade opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by Roxy.

"Related? They're my lil bro and sis! And that's not all, Dirk is my brother."

"But wait, I thought you and Dirk were the same age." I looked into the eyes of my cousin as I hoped she would be the one to respond this time.

"They are, Roxy and Dirk are step siblings. Roxy's mom married Dirk's dad when the two of them where very young. The two then had Rose and Dave," Jade manage to say before Jane entered the vehicle. Once the older girl did, Roxy became distracted from her current conversation, so I turned my attention back to my lovely cousin.

"So you didn't answer me, do I get to meet the famous Strider's you're always talking about? Honestly Jade, I don't see why you didn't just give me their pesterchum accounts."

"Yeah, you get to meet them tomorrow, and I only didn't give you their account names because they rarely use them. Rose mostly Skype with people and Dave isn't much of a fan of pesterchum." She stated simply.

"Why is that?" I tilted my head in confusion.

Her face showed she was hesitant to tell me the answer, "Last year some kid used pesterchum to fake a few conversations with Dave and started some drama. The dude convinced Dave's girlfriend to leave him, and Dave's hated the site ever since. Ever since it happened he's been talking to fewer people, it's making me a little worried."

"That sucks." I began to stare out the window. I didn't realize Jane had started the car until now, and by the looks of it we were only 30 minutes from Dad's house. I gave Jade a half smile. "Well we both know my pranking skills can make almost anyone laugh. Maybe I can help him feel better."

"Hopefully," I barely heard Jade say under her breath as she watched the scenery move by.

"Yeah, Hopefully" I think to myself.

The rest of the car ride was quiet, the only noise was the purr of the engine and the faint sounds of the local radio station Roxy had switched on.

After what felt like only a few moments, the car pulled into my father's driveway. I stepped outside of the car and inspected the house. It had only been two months since my summer visit but it feels so long ago. The tire swing hanged from the tree, turning its position ever so slightly as the wind pushed passed it. The grass seemed freshly cut, unsurprisingly considering how much of a neat freak dad was, one of the few traits he shared with mom. I realized that dad was not home at the moment.

I was pulled out of my thoughts as I heard the back of Jane's Toyota being opened so we could retrieve my items. I rushed to help Jane and the others so we could get this over with quickly. I retrieved two of the smaller boxes, stacking them and began to enter the house

Taking a step in I felt the wooden floors creak beneath my feet. Looking around I released a sigh, clearly my father was still very much in love with clowns. Ignoring the contents in the living room I guided everyone towards my room. I was very familiar with what route to take; it was the same room I had used for the last 12 years whenever I would visit my father. It was the room located right across from Jane's.

Finally reaching my destination I placed the two boxes onto my bed. As the others started to pile in, I just told them to place the boxes onto the floor. It look a little longer getting all of the boxes into my room compared to piling them into the cars. All in all, it took us roughly 20 minutes.

At the end of unloading the boxes, Dirk conveniently received a call from work asking him to cover an afternoon shift for a co-worker. After receiving an okay from Jane and me, everyone agreed it would be easier if Dirk went ahead and dropped Roxy, Jake and Jade home on his way to work.

So after all the goodbyes were said and done, the house seemed empty with the lack of people. I decided this would be the perfect time to slip away to my room and begin to unpack.

I inspected my room in its current state. A dozen boxes occupied the area, all different sizes labeled with different materials. I walked over towards my closet and opened the door, I located the box labeled 'Shirts,' opening the cardboard cube I began to place the plastic hangers into the closet. In the corner of my eye I kept noticing the two boxes I had specifically left on top of my bed. After emptying the box of the hangers, I kicked the half-empty cube into the closet and closed the door.

I shuffled my way over towards the bed; once I sat down I placed the larger box into my lap. I slowly opened the lid and hold back the tears that I felt trying to escape. Inside the box was the authentic stuff-bunny from the movie Con-Air. Mom bought it for me for my thirteenth birthday because she knew how much I loved it.

With a shaky hand I placed the bunny beside me and reached for the smaller box. I took a deep breath and opened it as well. I wiped away the tears that had begun to roll down my cheeks.

It was a photo of Mom and me when I was five years old. We were at a Magician Convention and I was wearing a traditional Magician's outfit. She was kind enough to wear a fancy dress and pretend to be my assistant. It was one of the few conventions we had gone to before Jane had gotten into tricks as well. The photo was placed inside a hand-painted frame I made for her a week after we got the picture. It was blue and magician props such as hats, rabbits, and wands were poorly painted all around the photo.

I clenched the bunny with my left hand as hard as I could as I choked back a sob. She used to look so happy back then.

"Why did she stop smiling?" I muttered to myself. "Is it my fault?" I gritted my teeth as I tried to stop crying.

I placed the photo next to my alarm on my nightstand. Summoning all of the strength I could, I pulled myself off the bed and once again stared at the boxes. I sighed rubbing away the last few of the tears I had on my face. I then proceeded to spend the next half hour sloppily placing all of my pants and undergarments into their designated drawers in the dresser. I didn't bother to put away my pranking equipment or toys, figure future me could deal with that shit.

Exhausted, I dragged myself towards the living room where my sister was currently watching reruns from Castle. I plopped myself next to her and a small awkward silence grew between us, neither of us knowing what to say.

"You can change the channel if you want," Jane said trying to break the ice

"Nah, I don't mind this show." I stated with slight boredom.

After a moment of silence she spoke again. "Do you miss her?"

I did as best as I could to avoid looking her in the eyes. "What kind of question is that? She was our mom, of course I miss her," it was growing difficult to not allow my voice to show the pain I felt. "What about you?"

Out of the corner of my eye I saw her gaze shift towards her feet and she spoke barely over a whisper, "I missed her before she died."

The pain in my chest began to squeeze my heart and lungs making it difficult to breath. Jane had barely seen our mother in the last year, only a solid month at best, when totaled. "She was proud of you, ya know? Mom thought you were the perfect heir to dad's family company." I told her quietly. It was true; Mom knew that I would have zero interest in the business, but was also perfectly well aware of how much Jane loved it.

"Really?" Her face lit up with a mixture of joy and desperation as she stared at me.

"Mhm," I turned to face Jane and look her in the eyes, "So make sure to do your best and you'll make her proud."

I could see the tears preparing to escape Jane's eyes, but what I had not expected was the hug Jane pulled me into. I felt my shoulder grow damp as Jane began to cry into my shoulder.

"You too, d-don't forget t-to do your best and m-make her proud," her voice was shaking as she tried to get a grip on herself.

Once those words left her mouth I felt a sickening feeling in my stomach. Because what nobody knows is I already failed mom. I tried my hardest, and I failed her.

A.N. If you have any questions please feel free to send me a private message. Some of you may have notice the date at the top, this is so you know when the event is happening. It has nothing to do when the chapter when typed or published (but if you're curious, it was typed and published April 7, 2015).