Sophomore Sorrows

Sophomore Sorrows is an Arthur fanfic written by Fanfiction.net user Chrys-DASL that was published in 2013 and finished in 2016. As the title suggests, it follows the cast of the series in their sophomore year of high school as they deal with the various ups and downs of teenage life. In 2022, Chrys-DASL reposted the story on her A03 account.

Note that the story is very long, having a total of 387 chapters plus an epilogue, so make sure you have the time to read it.

Tropes used in Sophomore Sorrows include:

• Adaptational Jerkass: Cheikh, who's canonically a decent kid, has become a bully due to being toughened up from other people picking on him. He not only makes fun of Carl for having Asperger's Syndrome but is also said to have beat up other students for lunch money, and he even kidnaps and sexually harasses some girls in one chapter.
• Adults Are Useless: The faculty of Cheikh's school don't even lift a finger to try and stop his bullying antics so long as they don't disturb any classes. Although James does mention in Chapter 238 that he was suspended for three weeks last year for an unknown offence.
• Asshole Victim:
  • It's hard to feel sorry for Coach Peters when he's killed by Oliver Frensky, especially since he did it to protect Francine from him.
  • A non-lethal example, but it's also hard to feel sorry for Cheikh when James punches him to protect D.W. from his harassment.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: James punches Cheikh to defend D.W. from his harassment. Messing with his crush can provoke even a meek, quiet kid like him into violence.
• Death by Adaptation: Mrs. MacGrady's cancer relapses, and unfortunately ends up being fatal this time.
• Dirty Kid: Cheikh is just a middle schooler, but that doesn't stop him from kidnapping and sexually harassing a group of girls in one chapter.
• Dramatic Irony: Molly tells Cheikh, who has a crush on D.W., that D.W. is not going to like him back because of his bullying ways. While it's true that D.W. hates him for his bullying ways, Molly is unaware that D.W. would never like him back either way, because she already (implicitly) has a crush on none other than her own little brother, James.
• Enfant Terrible: Cheikh, if him kidnapping and sexually harassing girls is any indication.
• Ephebophile: Coach Peters sexually harasses the girls at the high school he works at.
• First-Name Basis: Cheikh tends to refer to D.W. by her actual first name, Dora.
• Freudian Excuse: Cheikh was picked on by other people in second grade when he needed to get glasses, which eventually toughened him up and turned him into a bully himself, as revealed in the side story DW's First Day.
• Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die: In Chapter 238, D.W. pleads with James that she's scared that Cheikh, who is coming to work with them on a school project, is going to beat her up, as he had done that to a few other students last year for not giving their lunch money to him. To try and reassure her, James tells her that he was suspended last year for an unknown offence, which doesn't exactly help her, but D.W. tells him it's okay since he at least tried and is still there to protect her.
• Infant Immortality: Averted. Benji Read sadly ends up passing away due to liver failure.
• Karma Houdini: Cheikh never receives any comeuppance for his bullying ways and sexual harassment of girls, due to the faculty of his school not even trying to do anything about it.
• One Steve Limit: Averted. Snow Fire's real name is Emily-Davies Crosswire, the same first name as a canonical character.
• Original Character:
  • Snow Fire, a goth girl in Arthur and co.'s high school who turns out to be Ed Crosswire's daughter and Arthur's half-sister.
  • The Read family's fourth child, Benji, who tragically ends up dying from liver failure.
  • Coach Peters, a gym coach who sexually harassess high school girls.
• Reality Ensues: Despite them having done it to protect people they care for, Oliver and James still get in trouble for killing Coach Peters and punching Cheikh respectively.
• Love Triangle: A Puppy Love example. Cheikh has a crush on D.W., but D.W. hates and fears him for his bullying ways and it's heavily implied she has feelings for James instead.
• Loving Bully: Much to D.W.'s dismay, Cheikh, The Bully of her class, also happens to have a crush on her. It's deconstructed in that Molly points out to him that acting like a bully isn't going to help him win D.W.'s heart (not that he'd have a chance with her either way).
• Puppy Love: A Puppy Love Triangle, in fact. Cheikh has a crush on D.W., but D.W. doesn't like him because he's a bully and is implied to have a crush on James.
• Ship Tease: Between D.W. and James, as in the actual show. In Chapter 238, D.W. pleads with James that she's scared that Cheikh is going to beat her up but tells him that at least he's there to protect her. In Chapter 368, the narration also describes D.W. as giving James "a light smile, the sort of smile a princess would give to the prince who rescued her" when he stops Cheikh from harassing her.
• Time Skip: The fic takes place when Arthur's generation are sophomores in high school, and D.W.'s generation are middle schoolers.
• Would Hit a Girl: Cheikh has no problem kidnapping or even sexually harassing girls, and D.W.'s fear in Chapter 238 of the possibility of him beating her up implies that he has no problem beating up a girl either.