Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

    He wasn’t sure how he got here, but he was utterly convinced it was some eternal punishment. See, Izuku Midoriya had lived in the same area with the same people his whole life, and he knew everyone. At one point, things like status and sexuality had not mattered this much. Walking into the red and white themed hallways every morning was a literal death sentence; it’s probably why he showed up so late. He was always there right before the bell, so he wasn’t late, just not early like everybody else. It’s how he avoided his issues and being shoved into a locker, not to mention that by the time he got there, half his friend group was already there too. 

     It’s not like Izuku was just some weird loser who deserved his daily torture; he just wasn’t athletic, that was about it. That and he was gay, of course. Otherwise, he was your average guy, not small but not huge, curly green hair, glasses, you get the point. Izuku was like the mastermind of shifting between people and getting from point A to point B. He just sucked it up and rambled on in his thoughts about whatever he had to do that day, like right now, all he could think about was the upcoming game and how he did not have his notes memorized yet. He was going to have to learn those if he wanted to avoid being the only one in his section who didn't know any of the piece; it wasn’t even a hard piece, he just didn’t want to learn it. Similar to how he didn’t want to be here at all. As he approached his locker, hoping to shove his flute case inside and get to homeroom as fast as possible, he heard that agitating, grating voice. “Hey fag, think fast!”

    Maybe he should have thought faster, because the ball slammed into his face anyway. The orange rubber dragged against his skin in a way that felt like his flesh was being pulled off. Okay, maybe that was a bit dramatic. All it did was slam his glasses into his face, which hurt, but it’s not like he hadn’t had it happen before. The whole slur thing was his usual, too. He watched the ball roll back across the hallway to his perpetrator. Katsuki Bakugou, he's pretty smart, amazing parents, great field records, athletic, hot, popular, and the world’s biggest douchebag ever. You’d think somebody as talented and smart as Katsuki was wouldn’t just be stupid, but no, he was, he was like an emotionally constipated bag of dirt, if that made any sense. He’d also been targeting Izuku since middle school when everybody magically decided to care about stuff like that. Katsuki was like THE worst person here, but that didn’t make his friends look any better.

    Ejirou Kirishima, his hair was taller than the Empire State Building, and he followed Katsuki around like a little lost puppy ever since he realized that was his ticket to being perceived as cool. Ejirou pretended to be a lot nicer than he was, but he was your stereotypical asshat. He was that one jock who went by his last name or jersey number and made kicking a ball his whole personality. Katsuki’s other weird little minion? Yeah, that was Denki Kaminari; he was the one with the bright yellow hair and the complex. He was a total jerk, always trying to show off. His biggest thing was thinking he was funny, even though Izuku had laughed more at a war documentary than whatever joke Denki tried to tell in English class. Not to mention, he was probably one of the dumbest people on earth. Kyoka swears she saw him put a "D” in the word "Orange.” Speaking of Kyoka, “Fuck off, you dick, don’t you have something better to do?” Yeah, that was Kyoka. 

   “Don’t worry about it, Kyoka, he does it every morning anyway.” Izuku’s voice wasn’t timid, just tired and somewhat annoyed. He wasn’t lying; it happened every morning, you’d think he’d be a master at dodging by now. News flash, he was not. Oh yeah, Kyoka was one of Izuku’s best friends, which didn’t make sense when you looked at them. See, Kyoka Jirou was emo, not like black lipstick and a little eyeliner, no, she was emo. It wasn’t a bad thing; he didn’t care. Denki did; Kyoka was his victim, and he annoyed her all the time. Anyway, Kyoka was the drum captain in the band with him, and she hated just about anybody and everybody. 

   “I’m not worried about it, I’m telling him to fuck off, there’s a difference. Nobody’s in the mood for his bitch baby sobbing this morning,” her voice reminded him of Raven from Teen Titans. They matched vibes a bit too. Katsuki didn’t take her comment too kindly, though. 

    “The hell did you just say to me, you little bitch?!” Katsuki’s voice was the equivalent of sandpaper and gravel all combined into one deafening smoothie. 

    “Uh-oh, watch out, Katsuki, she looks like she bites.” The comment wasn’t original or funny, but everybody laughed anyway. That was Denki for you. Izuku was pretty sure that people only pretended he was funny because he could totally beat somebody up if he wanted. The laughter was a welcome distraction; he had like two minutes to get to homeroom and just wanted to leave. Kyoka never saw things the way he did.

    “Denki, you look like your mother doesn’t love you,” harsh, deserved, but harsh. Her comeback wasn’t bad, but the main difference between their… species and Izuku’s friend group was that those absolute meatheads didn’t know when to shut up, at all.

    “Don’t you have blood to be drinking or something, Count Fagula? Get out of here, you whiny bitch,” Maybe if it was anybody else who said it, Izuku would have laughed. He didn’t, though. Katsuki Bakugou did not deserve his amazing laughter. Yeah, that was an overstatement, Izuku laughed like a dying pig, but whatever. Before things could escalate more, Izuku grabbed Kyoka by the hand and dragged her away. 

    “I don’t understand why you give their loudmouths the time of day, Kyoka.” It was true, he didn’t, if it was up to him, he’d continue pretending the idiots didn’t exist. Not that the world would ever be perfect enough for that to happen. 

     Their homeroom teacher looked maybe five seconds away from a felony, but that was very normal. Shoto sat in his seat with his head down. He should be studying something, but there was no way he was looking up unless somebody got him out of this school building. He was only here because of his dad anyway. See, Shoto Todoroki was a golden student, good grades, decent behavior, rich dad. It would be rich parents, but his mom walked out years ago. His dad was a corporate CEO, super fun. Yeah, it wasn’t a thing, put on a good face for the citizens, crap like that. Enji Todoroki was a man of power; he donated to charities, funded all of the school’s events, was good friends with the mayor, stupid things like that. He wasn’t a good guy when you got into all that angsty crap. 

    Shoto was the only kid Enji cared about. He was the only one afraid to listen to whatever crap his dad was spouting. He wanted to rebel, to ignore him, but it wasn’t that easy. He was his dad’s little puppet, honors classes, stuff like that. It sucked in the way everything else did, like this school did. He was only waiting for the bell to ring and signal it was time for his actual classes to start; homeroom meant nothing to him. Other than it being one of his only classes with Izuku. Speaking of Izuku- THUD “Ow!” his voice came out loud before quieting down, “Literally, what was that for?” He rubbed his head from where the book had struck it, looking up at Izuku with the most tired face he could muster.

    “You aren’t allowed to sleep if I’m here, I need somebody to bitch to.” Izuku’s voice wasn’t anything other than average, but it was familiar to Shoto; he was one of his best friends after all. Anyway, the boy’s curly green hair was somehow already a nightmare of a mess. Shoto didn’t bother saying anything. It was like that all the time, so his commentary wouldn’t be needed. 

    “Um, hello? I’m right here, Izuku,” that bitchy voice belonged to Kyoka Jirou, another friend of his. She was in the marching band with him; they both worked with percussion instruments, though they couldn’t be more different. The triangle and drumline differed greatly, maybe. He didn’t know what he was talking about; he was only in the band to avoid doing football because he couldn’t do both at the same time, and his dad wanted him to do football. It was his little rebellion in a way. His very lame little rebellion. He tugged the sleeves of his sweater over his hands, zoning Izuku and Kyoka out as they went back and forth. It was typical morning behavior. He hated this place. Like a lot. He’d rather be anywhere else, or at home in bed, staring at a wall and wondering why he existed. Shoto looked like a walking experiment; dyed or unnatural hair colors weren’t unusual, but his looks were. Split directly down the middle, half white and half red. His eyes, too, one teal, one grey. Not to mention the weird scar over his left eye, one of his only scars that wasn’t his father’s fault, weirdly enough. That one was his mother, but he barely remembered her enough to be mad. His dad said she was crazy, but he didn’t know what to believe. All he cared about was that she left, though maybe that was better than staying around to ruin his life like his dad did. Whatever, he interrupted the arguing with his thoughts. 

    “Do you two always have to bicker? Some of us are trying to sleep,” he laid his head back down as if proving his point. 

   “Shoto, all you ever do is sleep, you can be awake for like thirty minutes, it won’t hurt you any.” Kyoka was annoying sometimes. He loved her, occasionally, but all she ever did was complain half the time. She was right, though; he did sleep all the time, it was all he ever had energy for. It helped him distract his mind from the pain, like the body's built-in anesthesia. It helped distract him from the fact that he was numb and incapable of being himself, and helped him ignore the fact that he was bleeding out with no help.

   “Kyoka has a point, Shoto, wake up a little, have some fun or something,” Izuku added onto Kyoka’s point, hoping to ease things and doing the exact opposite. This sucked. The bell rang loudly overhead and signaled the start of what would surely be one very annoying day. Shoto ran a hand down his face, yawned a little, and stood up. Time to fight Satan, or something like that. 

   The hallways were her minefield. She was late, not purposefully. Ochaco was never late on purpose, but she lived kind of far from the school, and her parents didn’t believe in driving or something like that. So here she was, late and sort of sweaty. She didn’t care; she could do something about it later, like shower after gym. At the moment, she was trying to get to her first period. Ms. K’s class was almost worse than the hallways; the lady was her cheer coach, and a weirdo. Ochaco’s white skirt sort of swayed as she nearly ran through the hallways. She didn’t want to go to class, but it was better than having detention for being late. The door opened in front of her, and she nearly ran into Toru Hagakure, one of Mina’s dumb little followers. “Watch where you’re going, fatass.” Toru’s voice was high-pitched and annoying. Ochaco didn’t bother fighting the comment, just moved to the side to let the other girl through. Somebody oinked in the back of the class, and laughter broke loose. Wonderful.

   “You’re late, Ochaco, but I’ll let it slide this time. I expect you here earlier tomorrow,” Ms. K, or Ms. Kayama, wasn't horrible; she just didn’t sit right with Ochaco. She didn’t sit right with nearly anybody. Ochaco just muttered an answer and went to sit down, tugging her school hoodie away from her body. It didn’t make much difference to her if people laughed; she was immune at this point. She pulled out her history book, attempting to catch up on the notes on the board. Her things were shoved onto the floor, spilling out. 

    “Oops, sorry Ochaco, I don’t know how I didn’t see you there…” Camie Utsushimi, a mythic bitch. She was pretty much just used property, but every guy drooled over her anyway. She was a chick with big boobs on the cheer squad, who wouldn’t. Ochaco had to admit she was pretty, too. That didn’t make her any less horrible. Camie was dating Katsuki Bakugou; they'd been together since like the end of their 8th-grade year. She’d only been here two years before that and already bagged one of the hottest guys there, nobody even knew how. Camie moved over in their sixth grade year, completely ruining Ochaco’s life. Okay, that was a bit dramatic. She just took Ochaco’s best friend. Mina Ashido, the girl who held all the power, was gorgeous, with cocoa skin, and popular. The works. She hadn’t always been that way; she changed in middle school, and she used to be Ochaco’s best friend. Just as nerdy as her. She didn’t know what had happened and no longer cared.

    “It’s fine, Camie,” her voice came out before she could stop it. She didn’t know why she let everybody walk all over her like that. She bent over to pick up her stuff and earned another oink. She knew who it was doing it too, Denki Kaminari and his shitty humour. She would rather be anywhere else than sitting in front of the boy. He was a douche. Ms. Kayama never did anything about the teasing; the only female students she didn’t totally ignore were Mina and Camie, even if the others were also on the cheer team. Speaking of Ms. Kayama, she came over, placing a hand on Denki’s shoulder and bending over to help with the thing he was supposed to be doing. No scolding, just favoritism. She didn’t even need to bend over, but because Ejirou Kirishima was at the desk behind her, she did it anyway. That lady was such a weirdo, but most didn’t even see it. 

    “It’s not our fault you’re always in the way, Ochaco. Maybe if you were smaller, you’d be less of an easy target,” more laughter, man, Mina was also a bitch. Ochaco just wanted this day to be over with, cheer practice included; she didn’t even know why she did it anymore. It’s not like cheer brought her any enjoyment. Her good day started after school, when she went to work and got to see her girlfriend. She didn’t tell anybody about Himiko, but she existed. She was real and she was hers. Himiko was incredibly gorgeous in Ochaco’s eyes, blonde and adorable, a girl from KWHS, or Kamino Ward High School. KWHS was their rival school or something like that. They were always neck and neck for titles and championships when it came to sports and stuff. It got to the point where students vandalized the other school. She thought all of that was stupid, and so did Himiko. Another oink finally just made her stand up and leave. She would deal with the consequences of that later. Right now, she had a date with her waterproof mascara and the girl’s bathroom mirror. Skipping lunch didn’t sound like a horrible plan at all. 

  Tenya and Momo came as a pair in some weird way. They weren’t dating or anything, absolutely not; she was more like his sister. His best friend was always with him. It made sense when you put it into context. They were both in the student council; in fact, they were in a meeting right now. Tenya was the Sophomore class president, and Momo was the VP. Izuku Midoriya and a girl named Itsuka Kendo were secretaries. Izuku went way overboard in planning everything, and the Itsuka girl spent the whole time zoned out like she was only here for extra credit. She was only there to stare at Momo, but of course, Tenya didn’t know that. Momo was the conductor in the school’s marching band, Tenya played trumpet, Izuku played flute, and Itsuka was the only one here who didn’t fit. She was a cheerleader, but not crazy popular or anything. Tenya had a track meet later this afternoon, but that was the furthest of his worries right now. Currently, they were organizing a pep rally; the first game of the season was coming up after all.

   “I still think we should do like lasers or something,” yeah, Itsuka wasn’t a big help. She only occasionally gave ideas.

   “How on earth would we do lasers? I say we just do what we normally do: we introduce the players, have the cheerleaders do a routine, and then play games that we pretend the student body cares about. It always works,” Izuku was always straight to the point, and he was correct in this instance. 

  “Technically speaking, Izuku is correct, the normal pep rally performance will work just fine. It’s only for the first football game, also,” his voice was always perfect in tone and grammar, just the way he liked it. His professionalism was part of his charm, and he took this whole student council thing very seriously. He began writing down the ideas in a specific format.

  “Itsuka?” When the girl didn’t answer, Momo spoke again. 

  “Itsuka? Hello?” No answer still, this was beginning to get annoying fast. Very fast.

  “Itsuka! Can you stop staring at me, please?” Oh yeah, that was another thing. Itsuka always stared at Momo like she was some goddess on solid ground. To be fair, Momo was pretty, but having Itsuka drool at her all the time was incredibly weird. The redhead snapped out of it at that, shaking her head back and forth.

  “Sorry, what were we talking about again?” Yeah, this whole thing was hopeless. It was as dry as always, and nobody had an idea that was possible to execute other than drooling over Momo Yaoyorozu. Tenya didn’t even know why he was here or doing any of this. Their second period was in like ten minutes, and he could get away with ending the meeting early. Nobody cared about it anyway. At least, nobody other than Tenya himself cared about it. Even then, he wasn’t sure why he did, maybe it was because his brother was also a class president once. That was a possibility. He just wanted to live like his brother did, follow him perfectly and exactly. God, maybe he was a loser.

  Momo spoke up again then, hoping to do exactly what Tenya was thinking to do, “I feel like we should just end the meeting early if nobody has anything else to say.” Nobody had anything else to say at all; she was spot on. See, Momo was rich, pretty, everything that makes a popular girl, but she wasn’t popular. She was at some point, freshman year specifically, but everybody always used her for money. When she stopped letting them do that, she lost all her friends. Lucky for her, she gained new ones, like Kyoka and Tenya. Those two were her best friends; it worked when you don’t have anybody else. The door opened, and in walked Toru Hagakure, a cheerleader, really stupid and ditsy.

  “Hey, Itsuka, Ms. K said to come get you for something, come on,” Toru’s voice was annoying. Itsuka waved a little wave, and left. With her gone, Tenya just decided to end the meeting; there was no reason to keep it going if nobody was going to contribute at all. There was always the small possibility that his second period would go way better than this one. It was his physics class; it wasn’t a required class, but he took it anyway. His homeroom teacher, Mr. Aizawa, taught it anyway; the man wasn’t that bad. 

  Momo packed up her things and went to wait for her second-period class. She had English with Mr. Ishiyama, the man was like a solid brick, a nice guy if you talked to him, but weirdly dense. He kind of looked like a slab of concrete, or acted like one. Momo knew she would be alright later, still, all she managed to think of right now was Itsuka, the girl who kept staring at her. She was… kind of pretty. In a way. RING RING GO TO CLASS FUCKERS. The bell. Looks like she would think more about that later.

  The lunchroom smelled like shitty pizza and b.o., which was normal. Kyoka twirled a piece of her short, purple hair around her finger. This was boring, in all deep-rooted honesty. Lunch was the one time she was with all her friends. Momo sat next to her on one side, Shoto sat in front of her, and Izuku sat on her other side. Tenya was sitting next to Shoto and in front of Izuku. The difference from usual is that Ochaco wasn’t there; nobody had seen her all day, actually, her Snapchat location said she was here, so they had no clue what was going on. Kyoka wasn’t usually the type to focus on all that stuff. Her parents were musicians, which is important to her lore. She’s supposed to follow their path; that’s why she’s in the band. She plays guitar, she sings, she wants to do it all. The issue isn’t that she doesn’t enjoy music; it’s that she can’t do it fast enough. She can’t focus on it while doing school and focusing on friends. 

  She didn’t even know if that was what she was meant to do; she sort of drifted in between the cracks. She didn’t know why she was here, on Earth, that is. Kyoka made no major difference to her surroundings; she controlled nothing and no one. Was there any good reason for her to be there? Probably not, but she didn’t think about that. Shoto seemed extra annoyed lately, like everyone was bothering him for no reason. Even right now, he was trying to sleep instead of eating, which was a little worrying, but she’d learned not to push a while ago.

  Ochaco had been skipping lunch a lot lately, though usually she at least showed up, even if she didn’t eat. Kyoka had no idea what was going on with her at all. She had her battles to figure out right now. Like the one with obnoxiously bright yellow hair and a shit-eating grin. Denki Kaminari leaned back from the table behind her.

  “Hey, hey, hey, Kyoka, cast any spells lately?” the boy next to him started laughing a bit. Hanta Sero, he did soccer and stuff like Denki. He wasn’t great friends with Katsuki or Ejirou, but he hung out with them anyway. It was mostly Denki and Hanta who were friends. Hanta was still a bit of a douche, but he didn’t always participate in Denki’s sad attempts at jokes. 

  “Fuck off, Denki, nobody has time for your bullshit today,” she rolled her eyes as she spoke. That guy was her biggest pain daily. She had no idea why he chose her of all people to torment all the time.

  “Don’t be such a little bitch, Kyoka, it’s just a joke. I’m just fucking with you, Dracula, don’t worry about it so much!” He probably wasn’t just fucking with her, considering he did it every day. His insults were never actually creative either; it was always the same thing, something about her being emo and moody all the time. It was better than Katsuki Bakugou, who only ever made comments about her being gay, when she was Bi, but whatever. Still, no matter how annoyed she was at the boy, a small flicker of something always went through her when Denki spoke. She didn’t know why; he was a dick, and he didn’t deserve the time of day. Kyoka’s dumb brain seemed to think otherwise. When he wasn’t a total asshole, he tended to be somewhat funny. Cute too. She shook her head; that was the least of her worries at the moment.

  “Go away, Denki. Nobody wants to listen to you right now,” Izuku was sassier than usual today. Well, that was a lie; he was always quick to be sarcastic and stuff. His comments tended to only make things worse, but she could never talk; she argued more than he did. She knew if she ignored them, it would just end, but there was no fun in that. 

  “Yeah, Denki, literally nobody wants to listen to you right now.” Mina Ashido, god, she was a bitch. Her tone was mocking Izuku obviously, and it made the people at her table laugh. Mina was practically on top of Ejirou; that was the only thing that made her a better person than Camie Utsushimi, at least Mina didn’t cheat on her boyfriend with every guy in the school. That didn’t make her a good person, though; she still sucked.

  “I see Ochaco isn’t here, she ran out of first period earlier, I bet all that eating she does made her sick,” Camie made the joke, Mina and everybody else laughed. Poor Ochaco. Nobody ever knows how to shut their mouths in this place.

  “Shut up, Camie, at least Ochaco isn’t a whore!” Kyoka spoke before she knew what she was doing. In an instant, Katsuki Bakugou’s eyes were on her. He always acted that way about his girlfriend, especially when she faked the waterworks like she was doing right now.

  “What was that you fag?” That stupid word was like the only insult he knew, based on the way he always talked. There was no telling why he disliked gay people so much, but his homophobia was shitty. Camie started up her fake tears, beckoning Katsuki to sit down.

  “Just ignore her, Katsuki, she’s just in a mood. I’m sorry, Kyoka, I was only worried for Ochaco, that’s all, it must be hard on her, of all people, to skip lunch.” More laughter followed the comment, but Kyoka didn’t speak this time. Katsuki sat down with his lunch next to his girlfriend, and she instantly hung off of him, tears drying quickly.

  “Thank you so much for standing up for me, though, baby, can I have some money? Mina and I are going out later,” Mina nodded, approving Camie’s statement. Kyoka watched as Katsuki just handed her cash without looking and started to eat. One day, there was the possibility that she was a better friend. She couldn’t even defend Ochaco right now because she didn’t want to stand up against Katsuki Bakugou. Izuku placed a hand on her shoulder and nodded, so she turned around. She would deal with it at a later time. Ochaco wasn’t even here right now. It didn’t matter right now. Her eyes traveled in front of her to Shoto, who was practically asleep with his head on his arms. Then they went to Momo, who merely smiled at her. Whatever, this wasn’t her biggest issue. 

  It was after school hours, but not by long. Maybe only thirty minutes had passed since the final bell. The band room was full, people outside of their friend group, people in it. Some students were upperclassmen, others freshmen. The occasional middle schooler, too, since the two bands combine. The band room was a mess, with instrument cases and people scattered around. A stack of books was in the corner, and a cluttered desk was in the back corner. Their teacher was running late, so Momo stood at the front, preparing to start practicing their piece. They were preparing for the first football game of the season and the pep rally. There was a poster on one wall that was peeling at the corner; it was a picture of an eagle, their school mascot, giving a thumbs up. It said something about going 'Plus Ultra,' the school’s motto for 'above and beyond.' It was like their golden rule, written everywhere it could be. There were even stickers on the bathroom mirrors. 

  Everybody sat in their section, Izuku in his, Shoto in his, Kyoka in hers. Momo stood up front, and Tenya couldn’t make it because of a track meet. It was a disastrous tornado of dying cats and the squeal of metal; they were by no means prepared. This was their little place, the “nerds” as they could be called, were safe in here. No idiots like Katsuki Bakugou and his little squad walked in here. This was their place to own; if everything else was on fire, this room was built of ice-solid and standing. If you looked into this part of the day and not all the times you were called a slur or shoved into a wall, it wasn't that bad, honestly. Otherwise, it was hell, and man, it sucked. 

Chapter Text

  The hallways were his domain. The whole school was his domain; he was Katsuki Bakugou after all. His letterman jacket pressed against his locker as he leaned against it. Katsuki wasn’t at all a loser; he knew that. He was the football captain, quarterback, and pitcher on the baseball team. Not to mention, he was hot, he had well-off parents, and great grades. Katsuki was the whole package, and he knew it. Of course, he knew it; he was told all the time. His girlfriend was somewhere; he honestly didn’t care. He was only with Camie because she was pretty, and not dating people made everybody think he was gay or something. He was NOT gay, no way in hell. That was a thought he’d had a long time ago, when he realized Camie wasn’t really attractive to him. He wasn’t gay, and even if he was, his parents would kill him and he’d ruin his reputation, but he wasn’t. He wasn’t a faggot. No way. Definitely not.

  Anyway, his…friends, or something like that, stood in front of him. He didn’t mind them, he just didn’t like them as much as he pretended to. Ejirou Kirishima was an idiot; he acted like he cared about people. All the time, Kirishima was like “Just leave them alone, bro,” or “Knock it off,” but Katsuki knew he didn’t care about the bullying of others. He talked shit all the time, about everybody ever. He just tried playing nice because it got him popularity from some of the weirdos, too, though Katsuki had no idea why the dick wanted that. It’s not like those freaks’ opinions mattered. Though Katsuki had to give it to the guy, Denki Kaminari was way worse. See, Denki was incredibly stupid; he once called a pronoun a hyperbole, only he pronounced it “hyperbowl.” Katsuki didn’t know if he was just playing stupid or if he was actually stupid, but either way, it was annoying. That idiot had some weird crush on that creepy emo girl. Something about her bothered Katsuki; he wasn’t scared of her, she was just freaky. In Katsuki’s opinion, she wasn’t attractive. He had no idea why Denki was so obsessed with her. 

  He saw a flash of green curls across the hallway and instantly stood straight. Bullseye. This idiot was Izuku Midoriya, a kid Katsuki had fucked with for years. He just didn’t like the little bitch, that was about it. Not to mention, Izuku was a total fag. He turned to Ejirou, getting the redheaded bastard to shut up for about five seconds. “Hey, Shima, give me the ball.” Everybody called Ejirou some version of his last name; it was stupid in Katsuki’s opinion, but whatever. Katsuki didn’t play basketball; it wasn’t even basketball season, and he had no idea why Kirishima was holding a basketball. The only thing he knew was that he needed the ball. Ejirou seemed to glance across the hallway before grinning and handing the ball to Katsuki. Katsuki mustered a smirk and threw it directly at Izuku Midoriya.

  “Hey fag, think fast!” He almost laughed when the ball slammed into the guy’s face. It was a sick and twisted good morning; they did it every day, like a shitty ritual. Katsuki knew it got old, but it was always somewhat funny, and anything that fucked with Izuku Midoriya was something he would spend his time on. That Kyoka Jirou girl was over there too; he noticed her after Denki said something stupid in a whisper that Katsuki didn’t catch. She was the one Denki had a crush on, or something. Katsuki still had no idea why.

  “Fuck off, you dick, don’t you have something better to do?” God, she was so annoying. Izuku turned to her and said something that Katsuki didn’t catch, which was weird because he was watching the other’s mouth move. That was weirder, maybe. He didn’t know. If that stupid nerd wasn’t a fag, he’d probably have a girlfriend by now; he was sort of attractive. Katsuki would never say that out loud, though. Katsuki completely zoned out of the conversation. He was focused on other things. All he knew was that Denki and Kyoka were going back and forth again. Katsuki didn’t get why Denki even made fun of her if he liked her so much. She was nearly all he ever talked about; there was no reason for him to mess with her. He knew that was hypocritical, though; there was no reason for him to mess with Izuku Midoriya either. The bitch said something again, and he decided to just stop this; she was getting annoying.

  “Don’t you have blood to be drinking or something, Count Fagula? Get out of here, you whiny bitch.” If he were in the mood, he would have laughed, Ejirou and Denki did. It was kind of funny, he had to admit that. He watched Izuku grab the girl by her hand and pull her away, a smart choice. Denki sluggled his shoulder, and Ejirou was still laughing. 

  “Count Fagula? Seriously, Katsuki, that shit was hilarious. Did you see the way her face completely crumbled?” He had seen the way her face completely crumbled. Finally, somebody got her to shut her trap. Even if he was the one who had to do it. He wasn’t paying much attention until a hand landed on his arm. 

  “Good morning, baby, sorry I’m late. Can I have some money? I’m going out with Toru later!” Katsuki didn’t think twice before handing her cash; it was whatever. He knew what she was about, but if he didn’t love her, then her using him for money meant nothing. She said thanks and instantly left again, talking to Mina, who had stopped by to hug Ejirou. Mina wasn’t as annoying; she was a bitch, like all of his friends were, but she wasn’t always annoying. Not like Camie or Toru, who both sucked. Probably not the right thing to say about his girlfriend, but whatever. Mina actually wasn’t bad to the people she called friends; to others, she could be horrible, but she was a good girlfriend and did actually care about Camie and Toru. With how much shit Camie talked, he wasn’t sure she cared about Mina, though. None of the football players ever went to homeroom; they just hung out with the coach before first period. He didn’t even look back as he started walking. This morning was shitty. 

  Camie knew she was hot. She used it for tons of things; it had always been that way. She first moved here in her 6th grade year. It was a nice fresh start that she needed. She’d moved over the summer and started at the middle school when the school year came around, so it had given her a chance to “better” herself. She had been bullied a lot before 6th grade, then she moved schools and got pretty, and it fixed things. She learned that being ruthless got her what she wanted. Like how she wanted a pretty best friend, so she started talking to Mina. Mina had been a total nerd back then, weirdly nice and stuff. Camie simply played the role of comfort after spreading some lies about the Ochaco girl she was friends with, boom, friendship made. Toru was a bit easier; she was even prettier, too. Toru was also dumb, so Camie was able to do what she wanted with that. She had just gotten done asking Katsuki for more money; she claimed it was because she was going out with Toru, but that wasn’t true. She was using it to buy a gift for Sen, a guy she was dating behind Katsuki’s back. Katsuki was hot sure, but he never did anything with her, so she stayed with him to help herself and got around elsewhere. 

  Toru held up her phone, displaying a picture of this random guy Camie had no idea who was. They were in homeroom right now, and Mr. Aizawa looked as clinically insane as always. Mina sat on one side of her, Toru in front. The guy on the phone screen looked to be the same one that over in the corner, blonde, plain-looking. Toru was way prettier than him, but Toru didn’t know her worth. Other than being pretty, the dim-witted girl had nothing going for her, really; she was a total slut and incredibly stupid. Still, she was better than Mina. Camie pretended to like her, but Mina was weird. Not to mention, she was black. Camie wasn’t racist…but black people were just different. Her parents thought the same thing. Not to mention, even if Mina was pretty, she wasn’t good enough for Ejirou. She had no idea what Ejirou saw in her; he was really hot, Mina just… wasn’t ugly. He could do so much better. 

  “Oooo cute, so you like him, right?” She didn’t actually think he was cute, but Toru didn’t need to know that. The girl would be bored with him in like two days anyway, they’d probably just fuck and move on. She always liked a new guy. Though it’s not like Camie herself could talk, she slept around just as much. It’s crazy how many guys on the football team are willing to sleep with the captain’s girl like that. The only two she hasn’t tried to at least ask are Denki and Ejirou. Though Ejirou always seemed utterly in love with Mina, and Denki was too stupid for her tastes, he would just blab about it and get them caught. 

  “I agree with Camie, he’s super cute, Toru.”  Mina’s comment was super backhanded; Camie was smart enough to know that, but Toru wasn’t. The girl nodded before beginning to go on about him and some other nonsense that Camie zoned out. Her phone buzzed with a notification, and she pulled it out without even looking. 

  “Hey, pretty girl, we still hanging out later? ” It was Sen Kaibara; he was a wide receiver on the football team, and everybody tended to ignore him. He was nice-looking looking though, and gave Camie what she needed. Not to mention, he acted like he loved her, which was more than Katsuki did. She slightly smirked to herself before texting him back.

  “We are. I got Katsuki to give me some money too.” She put her phone down after that, not really caring what he sent in response to that. It’s not like he meant more to her than something to toy with. She toyed with plenty of guys. Her head was genuinely going to split open if Toru didn’t stop her incessant rambling soon. Camie was only friends with them for the same reason she was dating Katsuki: popularity. It kept her afloat to be friends with two girls considered pretty and to date the Quarterback. She didn’t even know why Mina was considered pretty. Toru had reasoning, she had amazing hair and a nice face, and a good body too. Mina, on the other hand? Not exactly what Camie would call pretty. Especially because the girl wasn’t like the rest of them, she shouldn’t even be allowed in the same school as them. Nobody like her should; there was so much history about black and white people not mixing, in Camie’s opinion, it should have never been abandoned.

  Toru looked back and forth between Mina and Camie. She had vaguely seen Camie check her phone just moments before. “Is it Sen or Katsuki, ooo did you meet someone?” Of course, she knew about Camie cheating; Mina did too. Sometimes it was like the only one who didn’t was Katsuki himself. If he did, he sure as hell never made it obvious that he knew. Toru sometimes wished she were different. She felt that she was somewhere else, maybe. Like, in another world, she wasn’t the school’s little whore that couldn’t solve 10+10 without having to think about it. In another world, she wasn’t stupid. She knew what Mina and Camie were thinking; this was just another guy, but she didn’t think this one was. His name was Mashirao Ojiro; he was plain, yeah, but that’s what made him different. Toru always went after popular hot guys; this one wasn’t one of those. He wasn’t in any sports that she knew of; he was just there. Just existing, kind of like her. So, she didn’t care what those two thought about him; she liked him. 

  Camie was so thankful Toru finally shut the hell up, she didn’t know why she put herself through the torture of being friends with the girl. Whatever, it was over with now. The bell rang overhead, first period, good enough. 

  Denki Kaminari wouldn’t call himself an asshole, not honestly. It was all in good fun; he just liked joking around. He was a linebacker on the football team; he also played basketball and soccer, so a sporty guy. Other than that, he was like basically a comedian; everybody laughed at his jokes anyway. Ejirou Kirishima was at the desk next to him. Shima was one of his best friends, and they played basketball together. Football too, duh. This class was one of his most boring ones; he hated sitting still and history, two things that Ms. Kayama’s class required. Ms. Kayama was like, smoking hot though; whoever she wound up marrying couldn’t possibly handle all that. That’s not to say Denki wanted her; he had his own gorgeous girl to worry about, Kyoka Jirou. He didn’t know what it was about her, but man, was she amazing. He liked that she wasn’t boring like everybody else; all these other girls were all the same. Kyoka had this spooky vibe about her that made his heart beat fast. Though she very obviously didn’t like him back, since he flirted with her all the time, and she never said anything back. Good thing for him, he didn’t know when to quit.

  Toru had been told to go get somebody by Ms. Kayama, but Denki wasn’t paying any attention until the door opened and Toru suddenly spoke. God, her voice was annoying, but she was some girl Camie and Mina were friends with. Pretty, but not as good as his amazing Kyoka. Anyway, Toru had opened the door and run straight into this one girl, Ochaco Uraraka. Ochaco was on the cheer team, he was pretty sure. He knew Mina fucking hated her guts, though; it was all the girl ever talked about. He never bothered about it; he did know one thing: this girl was fun to mess with. He felt bad sometimes, it was like she took all his jokes seriously, but hey, what can you do? Anyway, Toru had said something to Ochaco about watching where she was going, and he decided this was the perfect time to oink like a pig. Everybody started laughing; he knew why, it was obviously because he was hilarious at all times. 

  Ms. Kayama had said something to Ochaco about being late, and the girl sat down. Camie took it as her chance and knocked the girl’s stuff off her desk and onto the floor.  “Oops, sorry Ochaco, I don’t know how I didn’t see you there…” Camie spoke up. Denki thought it was a pretty honest apology, but Ochaco didn’t look any happier. Whatever, Ochaco had bent down to pick her stuff up, and Denki oinked again, which made people laugh again. When Ms. Kayama started walking back, he expected her to say something, maybe tell him to stop. Instead, she placed a hand on his shoulder and bent down, offering help with his work. He didn’t need help; they were barely even working on something right now. Her hand slid down his shoulder, a little close to his chest for comfort, but he didn’t say anything. Her chest was practically sitting on his desk, and he wasn’t attracted to her, but he wasn’t blind. Her boobs were practically pushed into his face. It was a very uncomfortable moment, but nobody else said anything either.

  Mina had said something to Ochaco about her always being in the way and needing to eat less; it rubbed off as mean, but he was sure she didn’t mean it that way. He tried to ease things up by oinking again, and it worked for the most part; everybody laughed. Well, everybody except Ochaco, she just grabbed her stuff and left. Ms. Kayama moved her hand again. This was so weird. Everybody seemed to forget about Ochaco like the second she was gone; they all just went back to doing their work. Denki wasn’t currently able to do his work, not with Ms. Kayama whispering in his ear like she just leaned down to do. “You know, Denki, you’re such a good student, always trying your hardest to learn. If you ever need any…help, don’t feel afraid to come see me.” He had no clue what she was talking about; he hated history and never made an effort.

  “Sure thing, Ms. K, thanks for the offer…”  He let his voice trail off, not trying to be rude, but not happy to answer her either. She stood back straight, it seemed like she hovered in his face for longer than needed on her way back up, but he didn’t know. God, she was weird. Speaking of, she winked at him on her way back to his desk. Whatever, he didn’t want to think about it too much. Ejirou turned over to him, laughing a bit.

  “Damn man, lucky as hell, that was something out of a dream.” Denki wouldn’t say that. It was honestly kind of weird that Ejirou did; the guy was dating Mina, and she was literally at the front of the class right now too, talking to Camie. Ejirou made weird comments about other girls all the time when it was just the guys. It was wild in Denki's personal opinion. 

  “Yeah, I don’t know, dude, she was just offering assignment help, not sex.” Now that he said it… Nope, not sex. She just said that if he needed help with anything, he could ask her. Even if the way she said it implied…other things. She did that all the time, always offering to help him out and complimenting him. It was nothing out of the ordinary; he was just overthinking things. Ejirou snorted.

  “Yeah, okay. Whatever you say, man, but if I were you, I would totally take the chance to crack that.” Like he said, wild. This class sucked, thankfully- BRRRRING! Oh. Okay. He was gonna say, thankfully, class was almost over, but the bell rang sooner than expected. That didn’t matter; the sooner he got out of here, the better. Something about that woman weirded him out. 

  Ejirou Kirishima was an awesome guy, in his personal opinion at least. Who wouldn’t love him, though? He was a wide receiver, played basketball, and was a catcher on the baseball team - what was there not to like? Still, he always felt underappreciated, in a way. Katsuki probably didn’t mean to do it, but that guy was an asshole sometimes. Ejirou was just trying to save face, like yeah, he understood bullying those people, but not everyone did. Sometimes, it was just better not to call the lesbian girl a dike; that’s just his opinion. Even if he also would have called her a dike. Also, Katsuki and Denki left him out of everything. He was a part of that group, too; hell, he should be the star. Still, it was always “Katsuki” this and “Katsuki” that. Katsuki had way too much power; it was so stupid. The guy wasn’t even that hot; Ejirou didn’t understand him. Like, why have such a hot girlfriend if you weren’t gonna do anything with her? It made no sense. 

  Even Denki was sometimes more popular than him. What was up with that? Denki of all people shouldn’t be cool at all. He was obsessed with the Count Fagula girl and didn’t even find Ms. K attractive. Now, Ejirou found other girls attractive and pretty, it was in his nature as a man, but he wouldn’t do anything with them. Not even if he thought about it, which he hadn’t! Not totally, and like he said, he wouldn’t do anything with them. He had Mina, sure, the girl was a bit weirder sometimes, but she was still pretty. Second-best girl in the school for the second-best guy made plenty of sense. That’s exactly why Katsuki and Camie worked; the first-best guy and the first-best girl made a perfect couple. God, he was lucky. Anyway, Ejirou was in his third period right now, it was his biology class. Mr. Sekijiro was the biology teacher; he was an okay dude, but he definitely didn’t like the right students. His favoritism was obvious, but it was towards somebody random. This Neito Monoma guy that was on the football team, god, he was annoying. 

  Speaking of Neito… “Hey, sorry about being late, Mr. Sekijiro, the coach pulled me back.” Knowing this idiot, the coach likely hadn’t pulled him back, but whatever. 

  “You’re fine, Neito, have a seat, you didn’t miss much.” Neito grinned, going to take a seat, he knew he could get away with being late here. 

  “Oh, by the way, Coach Yagi wanted to see Ejirou.” That made his head snap up. The coach wanted to see him? Of all people? That sounded promising. Mr. Sekijiro grumbled but told him to go on anyway. Ejirou practically bolted out of his seat. He was at the gym in three minutes, which was weird for it being across campus from the biology room. That didn’t matter to him, not if the coach needed him for something. The gym was filled with freshmen when he got there, which made sense. Freshmen were the only high school year that had to take P.E., at least that was the case here. Coach Yagi wasn’t around the freshmen, though; they were all sort of hanging out. Coach Yagi was actually in the corner by some boxes, talking to… Izuku Midoriya? Mina was over there, too. He hurried over there, grinning.

  “Hey Coach! Neito said you needed something!” Maybe he was a bit excited. The fag avoided his gaze as he got closer, but Mina grabbed his arm with a smile. She was the cheer captain, so he had to assume this was about the pep rally. The coach nodded. 

  “Haha! Yes! Katsuki is busy, so I assumed you would be up for the task! We’re preparing for the peprally coming up before the game and need help setting the gym up!” Ah. So he was the second choice again, which made sense. Whatever.

  “Sure thing, Coach! Just tell me what to do!” He assumed Izuku Midoriya was there to help with planning since he was on the student council, but there was no telling. His coach, Toshinori Yagi, was a good guy. He wasn’t too great at other subjects, so it worked that he taught P.E. However, he played favorites. Katsuki was one of his favorites, probably because the guy was his star player. The other favorite was a total wildcard, Izuku Midoriya. He was always calling the guy out and poking fun at him, which the idiot never appreciated, it seemed. All the football guys knew that meant you were good, though, since they’d dealt with him for a while now. 

  “Alright! You’re just gonna help us put up some decorations and move these boxes! You and Izuku here can do that!” Ejirou’s eye twitched. It was like the man was oblivious to everything that wasn’t in front of his face. Was it not obvious how much they didn’t get along? Sure, Ejirou didn’t outright bully anybody like Katsuki did, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t think about it. Not to mention, Izuku was gay and Ejirou was hot, he was probably gonna check him out or something. He turned around and just began moving boxes, avoiding eye contact with the guy until they got farther from the coach.

  “Don’t like stare at me or anything, man.” God, this was awkward, but he wasn’t about to let some gay guy like look at him. Izuku paused his movements and just looked at him for a second.

  “Being gay doesn’t mean I’m attracted to every guy? You aren’t my type.” Izuku looked a little appalled, which was very weird to Ejirou. He didn’t comment further, though, just continued working. This whole thing was stupid. He heard the door open and turned around. So Katsuki was done being busy, it seemed. 

  “Aha! Katsuki! Nice of you to join us, son. Go help Ejirou over there with those boxes, will you?” That man was so loud, and Ejirou didn’t need help with the boxes. He was doing fine before Katsuki showed up.

  “Sure thing, coach.” Katsuki jogged over, giving Izuku a look before grabbing a box. He sort of shoved Izuku with his shoulder on the way to place a box down, too.

  “Just stay out of the way fag.” Here we go again, listen, Ejirou got it, it was weird to him too. He also wanted to fuck with the guy, because seriously, who was just gay? It was weird. Still, he didn’t think this was the place for that.

  “Hey, come on, man, let's not do that right now!” He tried at least.

  “Shut up, Shima, don't give that bullshit.” That sucked; he knew he should say something. He wanted to do something, but he wasn’t going to. He would just shut up again. 

  Her whole lunch table reeked of cheap cologne and equally cheap perfume. People wore it like it would hide the stench of their sweat that clung to their skin from a day at school. Mina Ashido was not exempt from this; she had some on, too. Though her’s wasn’t Walmart perfume, so that counted for something. Her lunch table was directly in front of the one with those weirdo’s at it. She had no idea why they did that, but it always happened. She assumed it was because Denki liked that emo girl who was friends with Ochaco. Ochaco was her ex-best friend. They used to be close, but then Ochaco did some stupid stuff and spread rumours about her. She didn’t want to be friends with somebody fake like that, so she cut things off with her. Maybe she should have tried to talk things out and figure it all out, but it was whatever now. The girl had changed anyway. Why would she be friends with somebody who tells lies and stuff? Besides, Camie said that Ochaco would just bring her down.

  See, Mina was really where all the recognition should go. She was the cheer captain, really pretty, and dating Ejirou Kirishima. She should be the one people thought of when they thought of popularity, but nobody ever did. Everybody thought of Camie; it was probably because Camie was dating Katsuki Bakugou, but Mina knew the truth. Camie cheated on Katsuki every day, and it was always somebody new. Denki was leaning back at the weirdo table, talking to that girl again. Gosh, the poor guy was helpless. Mina moved closer to her boyfriend. She was glad that Ejirou wasn’t like Katsuki or Denki. Denki was an idiot, and Katsuki never did anything with Camie, but Ejirou was different. She loved her boyfriend a lot.

  “Don’t be such a little bitch, Kyoka, it’s just a joke. I’m just fucking with you, Dracula, don’t worry about it so much!” Mina chuckled even though nothing was super funny. She just liked to laugh at Denki’s helplessness; he had no idea had to talk to girls. She didn’t even hear the original joke, but if it was anything like his other ones, it probably wasn’t funny.

  “Go away, Denki. Nobody wants to listen to you right now.” That one did make her laugh. Did Izuku think he could talk to Denki like that? It was pathetic but pretty funny. The little dork thought he was being cool and aggressive, probably. She covered her mouth with her hand for a second to dull her laugh before looking over at Denki.

  “Yeah, Denki, literally nobody wants to listen to you right now.” Her voice was mocking; the whole point was to mock Izuku, since the little dork thought he scared them. She chuckled lightly, adjusting herself and moving closer to Ejirou. Camie sat on one side of her. 

  “I see Ochaco isn’t here, she ran out of first period earlier, I bet all that eating she does made her sick,” Mina tried to hide a wince at the comment. She had also noticed that Ochaco wasn’t there; she just didn’t expect Camie to say something about it. Camie said that making fun of Ochaco was a good way to get her back for the stuff from 6th grade and some of the other rumours. All of the rumours against Mina came from Ochaco, or at least that’s what Camie said. Still, she didn’t think all that was needed anymore. She adjusted her pink boho braids over her shoulder and laughed a little fakely at Camie’s comment. 

  “Shut up, Camie, at least Ochaco isn’t a whore!” Wow, she didn’t expect the little emo to yell that, but she had to admit it was true. Camie was a total slut, still, she acted mad. Camie was supposed to be her friend after all. It was like the insult to Camie summoned him. Katsuki was suddenly there, tray in hand, staring over at Kyoka. Damn, she wished Ejirou did stuff like that for her sometimes; he never stood up for himself, let alone anybody else.

  “What was that you fag?” Yeah, Katsuki wasn’t too creative with his insults, though. She noticed the Hanta kid pausing his laughter just a bit before picking it back up. Weird. That guy was one of Denki’s friends; he was on the soccer and baseball teams. He wasn’t bad, just didn’t hang out with all of them often. 

  “Just ignore her, Katsuki, she’s just in a mood. I’m sorry, Kyoka, I was only worried for Ochaco, that’s all, it must be hard on her, of all people, to skip lunch.” The laughter picked back up again, something twisted in her stomach. She knew that wasn’t true, nor were Camie’s fake tears. Katsuki sat down anyway, and the girl instantly clung to him. 

  “Thank you so much for standing up for me, though, baby, can I have some money? Mina and I are going out later.” Confusion spiked in her brain; this wasn’t planned. Camie sent her a small look, and Mina nodded, trying to confirm the girl's words. You’d think she’d try being smarter about her cheating. Camie had told Katsuki she was going out with Toru and had already asked for money today. It never seemed like Katsuki cared, though, he handed her the money anyway. Mina couldn’t help but feel awkward here, though, and her stomach still turned from earlier. Lunch was going fine, but something about the empty seat at the table messed with her head. Ochaco had been here that morning; she was in first period and had run out after Denki oinked at her. 

  Mina suddenly stood up, grabbing her small bag. “I’ll be right back, guys, I just remembered Ms. K wanted me for something.” With that, she left the lunchroom; she didn’t know why. She found herself in the girls’ bathroom closest to her homeroom class. Mr. Aizawa’s classroom. There was a sticker with red letters on it in the corner of the mirror. “Go Plus Ultra!” is what it read, the school’s motto. She knew somebody else was in there; it had gone quiet when she stepped in. It had sounded like somebody was throwing up when she first approached, weird. She stared at herself in the mirror for a moment. She didn’t know why she was doing this. 

  She dug around in her bag and pulled out two sticks of gum. She left the gum on the counter with a small sticky note next to it. “Hope you feel better.” She left after that, pretending she didn’t hear the stall door open once she was gone. 

  It was just after the last bell, and they were all out on the field. Cheerleaders had just finished practice, and those like Mina and Toru stayed around to watch Football practice for a bit. All the dew from the morning fog had been dried off the field by the sun at this point. Mina couldn’t help but laugh when Ejirou tackled Denki to the ground. The sun beat down on everybody’s skin, and the smell of sweat and grass surrounded them. Coach Yagi was yelling about something, and none of the boys were listening. 

  The football field was its own place. The popular kids might own the school in their way, but out here was where they lived. This place was where Mina and Ejirou first kissed and where Katsuki helped win championships last year. Out here was like their own big country, a country populated with meatheads, but a country nonetheless.

Chapter Text

  The junior hallway was substantially less chaotic than the Sophomore or freshman hallway. Though that’s just from his memory, Mirio couldn’t tell you what they were like now. He didn’t roam the school much, not since being kicked off the football team. It wasn’t that he was a bad player; he was honestly amazing. He just got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, that’s all. A group of guys he used to be friends with were having a party, and things got a little heated. He was lucky not to be a main participant; those other guys got expelled. Mirio only got detention and was kicked off the football team. That wasn’t the coach’s idea, though. Coach Yagi would never get rid of one of his star players. That was more Principal Nezu’s idea; it was one of the first times Mirio had ever seen the man. He was a short guy with a scar over one eye and greying hair. Anyway, Mirio was on his way to class at the moment, and it was pretty early in the morning. He always got to school early so he could sit in homeroom with his friends. His closest friends were Nejire Hado and Tamaki Amajiki. “Hey Mirio! Whatcha doin'?” That one was Nejire, she was… very loud. Lucky for her, Mirio himself was too. 

  “Good morning, Nejire! I’m just on my way to our homeroom, same as usual!” He grinned. Nejire was a good friend; she had blue hair, too, which was cool. 

  “I guess I should have seen that answer coming… well, anyway, come on, we should hurry up!” He nodded and followed her as she practically skipped through the hallways. Nejire had an admirable personality. The door to Mr. Snipe’s room was wide open as usual. Snipe wasn’t his real last name, but nobody knew his real name. So, Snipe it is. He taught chemistry regularly, but he was a junior homeroom teacher. Tamaki was already there when they arrived at the classroom, and Mirio knew he would be. Tamaki always came early to avoid the crowds; he hated people. He took his seat next to Tamaki with a wide grin.

  “Hey! Good morning, Tamaki!” He gave a big thumbs up while talking to his friend. Mirio himself was a morning person, but Tamaki was not.

  “Good morning…” It was probably the gloomiest good morning to ever be spoken, but Mirio would take it.

  “Hey Tamaki! How are you?” Nejire was a curious girl; she enjoyed knowing things about people. Nejire was also a cheerleader, though she didn’t do much cheering. She helped out the cheer coach a lot and was basically an assistant coach. Her goal was to be a fashion designer one day or a nurse. She could never decide. 

  “I want to go home…” That was Tamaki for you. He always wanted to go home. Which made sense when you were home alone as often as Tamaki was. His parents worked a ton, and he had no little siblings. He used to have a friend in his neighborhood, but they weren’t friends anymore. His name was something Kirishima, and he was a sophomore, if Mirio remembered correctly. Anyway, Tamaki liked being alone, which is why he liked being home. Too bad for Tamaki, Mirio was always at his house or dragging him out to do things. If Nejire wasn’t cheering or out with another friend of hers, then she was also with Tamaki and Mirio. Nejire was a curious person, as mentioned earlier, and she enjoyed knowing everything going on with the lower grades. They all had issues this year, but that was just what Nejire said.

  The only underclassman Mirio knew was Shoto Todoroki; Nejire was friends with his older sister and brother. He had met them, Fuyumi and Natsuo Todoroki, the twins.  They were both juniors too, and had an older brother who was a senior. They were both good people, pretty different though. Fuyumi was shy, while Natsuo was loud. Mirio didn’t know any upperclassmen either, but he was familiar with who some of them were. Like Natsuo and Fuyumi’s older brother. Mirio was supposed to help out with the upcoming game; he couldn’t play anymore, but Coach Yagi liked him too much to get rid of him. 

  “Whoa, Tamaki! Why so gloomy? It’s nice out!” Mirio chuckled at Nejire’s comment and nodded, clapping Tamaki on the back.

  “Yeah, come on, buddy, it’s a great day, we should make use of it!” Nejire nodded excitedly, already preparing to make tons of plans for after school. Mirio agreed with them all, head nodding vigorously. 

  Tamaki didn’t understand how two people could be so energetic this early in the morning. He just wanted to go home and sleep, maybe deal with whatever needed to be done around the house first. His parents wouldn’t be home until late, which left him alone. He was fine with it; he enjoyed being alone, preferred it, actually. Though he had to admit, talking to Mirio after school was nice on occasion. When he wasn’t so tired. It didn’t matter all that much to him when Mirio and Nejire came over; it was good to see them. Besides, it’s not like he had many other friends. That Fuyumi girl was nice, but they weren’t like best friends or anything. Same with her twin, Natsuo. He did have one a couple of years back, this kid that grew up in the same neighborhood as him. His name was Ejirou Kirishima; he used to be pretty nice until about Tamaki’s 8th-grade year, which would have put Ejirou in seventh. The guy was a sophomore now. 

  The bell rang just as Nejire had decided on plans for after school. They could all hang out when her cheer practice was over; he was okay with that. It seemed Mirio was, too, since he nodded. Tamaki grabbed his things. It wasn’t horrible here. It just wasn’t home. 

  Natsuo was what you would call a good guy. He was athletic, but didn’t participate in many sports, aside from soccer. He liked soccer a lot, which would make sense as to why he played it. He had good grades, and he wanted to be a doctor. Natsuo’s dad was a big corporate CEO, friends with the mayor, and he had an amazing public face. At home? Enji Todoroki was a horrible father. He only cared about Natsuo’s little brother, Shoto. Shoto was going into college for law, or at least that’s what his dad said. Shoto did everything their father asked, but Natsuo didn’t know why. As a kid, Shoto had been homeschooled for the first couple of years, that’s how much Enji wanted to isolate the boy. It was something from some weird movie; his father was obsessed with Shoto following in his footsteps. So obsessed that he ignored everybody else. Natsuo didn’t remember his mother, but she had walked out years ago; he received the rare text on occasion, but the last time he saw her in person was when he was maybe seven. She lived far away and hated having contact with his dad. He didn’t know what happened there, but he understood. He didn’t want contact with his dad either.

  Enji used to be really bad, like abusive bad, but now he was just neglectful. The only kid he didn’t ignore was Shoto, as usual. Back then, though, not even Shoto was able to escape the pain. Natsuo had scars. It was rare that Enji cared enough to focus on any of his older three, but he still hit. Anything lower than a 100 on a test? You were beat. Make a fool of him somehow? You were beat. It was a gross cycle. He hated his dad, but Fuyumi couldn’t be more different. Fuyumi was his twin sister; she was sweet. She wanted to be a teacher, and she helped the staff out a lot. His only issue with her was that she was way too forgiving. She wanted to forget everything, the bruises, the pain. She just wanted to move on from it. He didn’t understand her, just because the guy left them alone now didn’t mean it had never happened. That was whatever, though.

  Natsuo was in P.E for first period, as a junior, he didn’t have to take it, but it was one of his favorite classes. The coach was a funny guy, too; his name was Coach Yagi. He was the football coach. The gym smelled like sweat and a small hint of floor wax. It was bright from the lights, and others were doing their own thing all around him. A hand was placed on his shoulder, and he nearly had a heart attack. “Hey man, what’s going on?” Hanta Sero, okay. 

  “Jesus dude, you scared the hell out of me.” He looked down at the other, catching his breath. He didn’t even know why Hanta was in here; the boy was a sophomore, and he didn’t play football. Natsuo knew Hanta from soccer; they played together. He was alright on his own, put him with Denki, though, and he wasn’t so great. 

  “Whoa, my bad man, I had to ask Coach Yagi something, figured I would say hi or something.” Hanta placed a hand on the back of his neck, and Natsuo stared at him for a second.

  “Oh, okay, well, give a louder warning next time, please.” Natsuo chuckled just a bit, clapping the other on the back. He grinned a bit, taking a sip from his water bottle and running a hand through his white hair.

  “Yeah, I’ll make sure to do that next time. Do you know where Coach is?” Natsuo laughed it off, rubbing a hand down his face.

  “Right, last I saw him, he was going into his office, good luck, man.” He watched as Hanta said thanks and left. Hanta was a good guy if you ignored the smell of weed that followed him everywhere. Yes, he was a stoner; he even shared it with some people. Nobody knew how he got it, but he did. Natsuo wiped his head again before going back to what he had been doing. He was just practicing drills, even though the boys' soccer season didn’t start until after football season was over, he wanted to be ready. It was a free day in P.E anyway.  He just couldn’t wait until after school. See, his older brother, Touya, had quite a few friends at this other school, KWHS. Touya’s best friend, Tenko, came around all the time. He liked Tenko, the guy was… weirdly pretty. His house was always full after school. Most of the time, Tenko came over, and so did Fuyumi’s boyfriend. Their dad was never home, at least not until late, so it was okay. Shoto was the only other one who never hung out; he had band practice and then never came downstairs when he was home. 

  Natsuo breathed in quietly and began gently tapping the ball back and forth with his foot. The ball itself was an old, school-issue one, ripped on one side and close to deflating. He fixed his stance before driving his leg forward and shooting the ball towards the old goal by the wall. It was one of those you just connected and pieced together; the ball hit the corner of it, and the whole thing collapsed. He groaned lightly; that was probably the fourth time it had done that. He set the goal back up and went again, dribbling a bit before once again shooting the ball. This time, the worn-out ball hit the edge again and bounced off; the goal moved backwards, but didn’t fall. Natsuo went again, and again, and again.

  He grabbed the ball once more, ready to shoot it again. His foot tapped it back and forth lightly. He set the ball in place and drove his foot towards it, slamming into the ball and shooting it to the goal. The ball hit directly in the middle of the goal and knocked the goal down just as the bell rang overhead. 

  Fuyumi Todoroki knew her life was a gamble. She knew that focusing on fixing things wasn’t what she should be doing, but she did it anyway. It wasn’t her fault her dad sucked, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t help. Fuyumi had never been close with her mother growing up; she’d only had four years with the woman after all. Her name was Rei Todoroki, or it was; she didn’t know what the woman had changed her last name to now. She didn’t blame her mom for leaving, even if she wished that wasn’t the case. She was the only girl in a large family of boys; she didn’t have any aunts or a grandma to see. She had spent her whole life learning things herself. Her little brother Shoto was always isolated; she didn’t know much about him, and he was like a stranger in her house. She made him a plate at dinner anyway. Fuyumik took care of herself and the whole family. It was times like these when she felt like herself.

  The door closed behind her as she moved forward through the senior hallway. Fuyumi was a junior, but she had just come from the senior hallway staff room. She was delivering papers to Nezu’s office, but she knew the man probably wouldn’t be there. He was never there when you needed him and always there when you didn’t. It was weird. Fuyumi wanted to be a teacher; she liked kids, and her own experience with one had been ruined long ago. Her brother was supposed to be her baby; she had only been one when he was born, maybe bordering on two. Then something snapped within their father, and her little brother was sent away from her and her other brothers. She’d never been close with Shoto, nor had her brothers been. That wasn’t their fault, even now, after their dad had somewhat changed, Shoto was isolated from them. She tried, but he always ignored her attempts. Shoto was difficult to understand.

  She walked into the office, her view obscured as she glanced around the papers in her hand. She moved around objects and over to the principal’s closed door. She barely managed to open the door and squeeze in without dropping anything, but she did it. Fuyumi set the stack of papers down on the desk. As expected, the short man was nowhere in sight. She left the pacers there, turning around and heading out of the office. 

  Fuyumi was only running errands because it was third period, her free period. She had nothing better to do and enjoyed helping out the staff. However, she was suddenly aware of her existence in the senior hallway when footsteps approached behind her. Two hands, slightly callused and larger than her own, moved over her eyes. A confident, maybe too confident, voice spoke from behind her. “Guess who?” A chuckle left her lips before she could stop it. She grabbed the hands and moved them down from her eyes, taking the callused skin into her own.

 “I believe I might have a guess…” She smiled lightly, finally turning to face the boy, no, young man behind her. Keigo Takami, a dream. He was one of her older brother Touya’s friends and her boyfriend. They’d been dating since the beginning of her sophomore year, so a little over a year. He was a senior like Touya, but he was still seventeen years old. He wouldn’t turn eighteen until December 28th, which was still a little over three months away, but Fuyumi already had a plan in mind. Keigo always claimed he didn’t want anything big; he was a lot like Touya in the way that he just wanted out. Getting out of his parents’ house was the only thing he would ever ask for. They weren’t great people. He chuckled smoothly, no clue as to what she was thinking.

  “Hello, gorgeous, how are you this fine evening?” She laughed, lightly smacking his shoulder. 

  “Ugh, don’t start with that now.” She hugged him lightly anyway, gently pressing her lip balm-covered lips to his for a second. She didn’t let it last long, not while they were at school like this. He smirked, pressing a hand on her waist for a moment before backing off. Even he knew not to push it while they were at school. She saw him all the time anyway; he always came over after school. Her house was always full after school, with Touya’s friend, Keigo, and Natsuo. Occasionally, Fuyumi invited Nejire over, too. Nejire was a lively girl, a junior like her. They were pretty good friends. Keigo smiled lightly, eyes casting over her momentarily.

  “I think we should run away, you can come with me and we’ll move to Italy.” She snorted lightly, rolling her eyes.

  “Oh really? Why Italy?” He grinned widely, nudging her shoulder with his own as they started walking. 

  “Because Italy is beautiful like you, much better than here.” She smiled gently. Italy didn’t sound bad. She shook off the thought; he was joking, obviously. She didn’t need to get out; she had her brothers, Touya and Natsuo. Oh, and Shoto, of course. She rolled her eyes again, speeding up her walking pace just a bit. 

  “Hey now, I’m being incredibly serious. We could run away as soon as I graduate and get married in Italy, we can take Touya and let him cover for us.” Fuyumi shook her head, laughing.

  “What does he need to cover us for Keigo?” Her words were spoken between laughter as she attempted to breathe normally. Keigo went to talk, probably trying to give her some elaborate explanation, but the bell cut him off. Students began filtering out of their classes on their way to fourth period. Lunch. She sighed and shook her head. Keigo didn’t have lunch with her. He had third lunch, and she had second. He had lunch with her brother and one of his best friends. With teachers now in the hallways and students on either side, it was hard to do more than give each other a quick hug, but Fuyumi took it anyway. A student shoved into her side as she tried to move ahead. Maybe Italy wasn’t such a stupid idea after all. 

  He had never been more bored in his life. Well, that was a lie. Plenty of things had been more boring than his history class. He’d sat through custody trials and jail visitor hours too many times. Keigo had to be honest with himself there; visiting his dad in prison was far worse than learning about world history for the seventh time in his school career. He had a good memory, amazing even, he didn’t need to know who controlled a country that no longer existed back in 90 B.C or something like that. Luckily, it was nearly time for lunch. He had third lunch with Touya and Rumi. If only Fuyumi were with him, then it’d be perfect. 

  Fuyumi was Keigo’s girlfriend; she was perfect in every way, shape, and form. He loved everything about her. Not to mention, he was best friends with her older brother. She was exactly what he wanted and needed. He never had to take her home to his family, and she never fought with him about it, which was great, because his family sucked. See, Keigo was adopted. His mother left a long time ago after giving up her rights, and his father was locked away in some dusty jail cell for manslaughter. Keigo had only lived with them until he was like six. After that, his mom decided she didn’t want him and gave him away. He honestly never understood why; he was a smart and talented kid. He always had been.

  Keigo didn’t hold much of a grudge, though; the people he hated right now were his adoptive family. They were perfect on the front of things, like a magazine cover, perfect. They had money and stuff, anything a kid in the foster system might want. Only they got that money for fostering. Keigo wasn’t the only kid they had taken in, just the only one they kept. They kept him because he was smart and probably going places. That, and he took care of the other kids they fostered, so they didn’t have to. It was the main reason Fuyumi hadn’t his family, and probably wouldn’t ever meet them. The moment he graduated, he was out of there. By then, he would be eighteen. He wanted to take Fuyumi with him and go somewhere new, travel places. He wanted to fly to different countries and stuff. Get out. It was his dream; he hated being stuck in this school in this town full of people who had never felt life. BRRRRRING BRRRING. Lunch, finally, thank whatever lord was up there. 

  The lunch room was loud and overly full. The loud part was partially because of him, and partially because of this table of sophomores near the back. It was a bunch of jocks from what he could tell, and he could have sworn he heard a slur or two, but it wasn’t his business. He didn’t worry about stuff like that, he was a senior. They were kids compared to him, and if they wanted to slur at each other, then who was he to stop them? Besides, he really should be focusing on whatever story Rumi was so invested in telling. Or Touya, who was so utterly zoned out that he seemed to be on at least ten different drugs. Rumi and Touya were two of Keigo’s best friends. Touya claimed to hate Keigo and Rumi, but that obviously wasn’t the case since he kept staying around.

  “And so obviously I said no, because I don’t want some creep having my number, and he got all defensive, like just say you can’t take a no. How much more baby can you get actually? Well anyway, after that I tried to walk away and he started actually throwing a fit, so of course, I was confused, because seriously, all of this over a girl’s number is pretty crazy if I had to say-” Rumi was still going on, he honestly had no idea what she was talking about. He decided now was probably a good time to cut her off; she had a bad habit of restating a story twelve times over.

  “Some men are babies, Rumi, I’m surprised you didn’t punch him or something, honestly.” he was being serious; there were some people who just had some gross intentions, and it wasn’t just men. Like that one teacher, whatever her name was. Ms. K or something, she was the cheer coach he was pretty sure, but he’d had her for history in his Sophmore year. She was weird. Always trying to “tutor” him after class even though his grades were great. She always gave him some weird vibe.  Whatever, he put the sandwich he had in his hands down, it was some soggy chicken sandwich with no taste. School food wasn’t great, but UA had some weird rule about Doordashing and stuff. Keigo spared a glance over to Touya momentarily; he was still out of it, not even on his phone. He was just staring at the table, looking emotionally dull like usual. He was pretty sure Touya’s little brother had this lunch too, but he wasn’t sure. 

  “I decided not to waste my time with him, I’m the best I know, but anyway, the rest of the night we were all just sort of walking around and thankfully he didn’t come back. Still, I can’t believe he threw a fit like that because I mean he came up to me and asked for my number then dared to be a baby about it when I said no, can you believe that?” He decided then that Touya was the luckier of them, since he was so zoned out that he wasn’t listening to Rumi’s rambling because he couldn’t hear it. He loved her, but Rumi really was something. She was strong as hell, and, while their school didn’t have a volleyball team, she played on a community team. Keigo found himself glancing out the window, trying to avoid re-hearing her story. He wanted to go somewhere, to fly out. He would take Fuyumi with him, maybe Touya too, and they would go to someplace like Italy. For now, he was stuck here, eating soggy, tasteless chicken sandwiches, overhearing sophomores say slurs, and listening to Rumi’s re-told stories. 

  There were considerably worse ways for his life to be going. For example, instead of sitting in the hallway skipping the last period of the day, he could have been at home, on a Wednesday, worst of all. Thankfully, it was only Monday, and he wasn’t at home. Or in class. That was also good. He was tired, and his hair shagged in his face because he needed to cut it but refused to do so. Partly because his father hated it in his face, and partly because he liked it in his face. His roots were stark white, but the rest of his hair was black. The colors contrasted with each other and still managed to twist together in messy strands.

  His back slumped against the wall; this area of the hallway was seldom used. The only thing back there was a vending machine that didn’t work and a trashcan nobody used. It was the old dusty spot right behind the stairs to the roof, where he always went when he couldn’t be bothered to go to his class. His hoodie sagged on his body, which lacked muscle and a certain noticeability most other guys at his age had. The hoodie itself was this old black one he was never spotted without, and aside from the cologne smell and occasional bleach stain from who knows what, it was a decent hoodie in his opinion.

  He ached weirdly, like his joints were sore without him having done anything to make them that way. His day had been far more than just annoying. It started with the twenty-minute walk to school, he didn’t have to walk. Truly he didn’t, but walking was better than riding to school with his father and his siblings. He also didn’t have his license yet, his father wouldn’t let him get it because “driving is a privilege” and he was “a disrespectful brat.” They both knew it was really because the moment he got a license, he would either buy or steal a car and run away. Which was fair, if you lived where he did. He cracked his knuckles, attempting to make the weird ache go away, but only making it worse. His phone buzzed in his lap, and he glanced down for a second.

  ‘CrustFuck: eating cereal with a fork is just upping the breakfast difficulty level.’ It took him three tries to form a response for the absolute stupidity that was just laid across his screen. By the time he did, it wasn’t even needed anymore.

  ‘The Creature: Tenko what the actual fuck is wrong with you?’  He didn’t actually remember when that girl was added to the group, since he didn’t hang around her all that often, but she did have a way of… not holding back. Then again, none of them really did.

  ‘I actually second that comment.’ He really did; there was absolutely no sense behind anything Tenko said ever. The other girl was a different story. She was weird, and way too overly excited and loud, but she fit. She was younger than he though, his little brother’s age, a Sophomore. Though he was pretty sure she was supposed to be a junior and had just failed a grade.

  ‘CrustFuck: wdym what is wrong with me i’m a perfectly functioning human being’ He rolled his eyes at that.

  ‘We can’t be sure you’re human let alone functioning.’ 

  ‘CrustFuck: okay well fuck you too touya damn’

  ‘The Creature: Literally don’t even Tenko he’s 100% right.’

  ‘CrustFuck: okay bitch you fuck off too’ He turned his phone off right about there. Tenko always found a way of cussing like a 5th grader who had just discovered that nothing was actually stopping him from saying cuss words. It was repetitive and annoying, plus, Touya was attempting to chill. He would see Tenko later anyway. Tenko was one of his best friends. Sure, he had Keigo or whatever, but Tenko was just better. The girl’s name was Himiko, and they both went to KWHS. He didn’t really know much about her other than the fact that she was stupid, overly energetic, and dressed like a witch that fell into a pile of glitter. It was weird how the surroundings affected people, almost everybody he knew from KWHS was some form of alt. Even the football players looked like they’d rather be in a holding cell than on the field. His phone buzzed again, this time it wasn’t his group chat, at least not that one.

  ‘Hoe: Touya why aren’t you in class bro?’

  ‘(248) 434-5508: he’s probably lurking in some shitty dust corner somewhere’

  ‘Hoe: fair point.’ Touya liked Keigo, for all he swore he didn’t, he’d known Keigo for a long time and the guy wasn’t horrible. Rumi, on the other hand, was the most annoying bitch he ever had the displeasure of meeting. He wasn’t sure why Keigo took to her like he did; she was egotistical and didn’t have half the smarts her large head implied. Hence, her lack of a contact in his phone. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with her, and only tolerated her because Keigo kept her around. As long as she didn’t show up at his house, then all was well. He ignored that conversation; he didn’t want to let Rumi know that she had absolutely been correct about his whereabouts. He would much rather continue to be ominous and lurk around.

  He kept his headphones in so he could continue to be nonchalant, though the Block Blast screen loaded on his phone said he wasn’t as ominous as he wanted to be. Touya didn’t have much going for him: a shitty day, shitty relationships with his iblings, like hell he didn’t even know Shoto, and annoying friends. Not to mention his high score was lower than 30,000, which said plenty enough. He did well enough in his classes to make sure he graduated, because if he had to stay in this hellhole one more year, he would absolutely jump off a building. He planned to graduate and get out of town. He wanted to leave everything behind, not necessarily go to some new country, just cut his dad off and get out. He heard the bell ring through his headphones and sighed. At least this part of his shitty day was over.

  The Todoroki house was full, well, sort of. Half the people who lived there weren’t there. Natsuo was away at soccer practice, and Shoto probably had band. Touya was on the couch, though, and Fuyumi was across the room, trying and failing to do homework. Keigo was next to her, being the annoying reason she was failing. Tenko was next to Touya, watching TikTok on Touya's phone since his had died about ten minutes ago.

  The sky looked dull out the window, and the clouds showed that maybe it would start to rain in a while. To every occupant of that room, though, the sky looked better than this town. They were all getting older and wanted out, reasonably so, but for now, they were stuck plotting how to get through a locked fire exit while the building around them burned down. It was like a blurry exit sign loomed tragically above their heads.