The Colloidal Paradox

4. The First Laugh

Finished - August 11, 2022

Word Count - 1799

Music - The Guardian of the Woods - Tartalo Music

**********************************

The clock read 12:15 and Allira was already mentaly exhausted, she wanted to go home and lay in bed. To do absolutely nothing until she was forced to get up. Yet she still had three more classes to sit through and more light chatter with her classmates. Which all seemed generally nice and friendly, but Allira knew not to get close to them.

Once the Quirk Apprehension Test had finished, they were sent back to the locker rooms to change back into their uniforms. After they changed, they were free to go to lunch. Another activity that Allira always hated.

A loud room full of nosey people and...conversations.

Allira was accustomed to packing her own lunch, even though U.A. students were given free school lunches, she preferred her own cooking.

The lunch room was large and filled with many different groups of people, with the hustle and bustle of any regular cafeteria. Though, U.A. was definitely different and the students seemed even more rowdy than usual.

Weaving her way though busy tables, Allira found the quietest spot and sat down. Her black backpack fell from her shoulders and placed it into her lap, where she pulled out her lunchbox. She tried to drown out the noise around her by concentrating on her food.

Closing her eyes, she said a quick thanks for her meal and took her chopsticks into her hand. However before she could even bring a piece into her mouth, a voice caught her attention.

"Hey Takari!"

Allira looked up to see Kirishima and a few of her other classmates. She recognized some of them by now, after hearing their names mentioned in class. If she remembered correctly, it was Jiro and Kaminari.

"What did you think of the quirk tests? Pretty different from last year." Jiro asked and she sat across from Allira.

"Piece of cake, I totally nailed first place." Kaminari placed his tray on the table and literally pat himself on the back.

"I bet Aizawa was very impressed by your healing quirk, he has to take that into consideration." Ashidoappeared behind Allira and sat directly next to her. The girl was not afraid of physical contact and practically sat in her lap as she sat down.

Each of her classmates joined her at the empty table, casually talking about the test and how they thought they fared.

Allira was quite bewildered at their decision to sit with her, maybe because it was a mostly empty table? Easy place for a larger group to sit together. Probably a choice of convenience, rather than emotion.

She simply sat and listened as their conversation continued, she found that they were quite entertaining to watch. Allira picked at her food, a bit too nervous to eat properly in front of so many people. But she would be lying if she said that she wasn't enjoying it.

As the chatter continued, more of her classmates joined the table. Midoriya, Uraraka and Iida were the next group to sit down. After that Todoroki, Asui and Shinso brought over their lunch trays.

Allira had never felt so included in anything before, never before had she been part of a friend group. As much as she wanted to relax and get to know all of them, she still couldn;t bring herself to drop her walls of safety.

"Hey!" Kirishima stodd from his seat and waved to someone behind her. "Bakugo, come sit with us!"

Alliura turned around to see Bakugo standing alone, no food in his hands, but a bag hung over his right shoulder. He looked over and examined the table of all his classmates, eyes wandering over all the familiar faces. The boy didn't look too happy, though, Allira was starting to realize that he probably never looked happy.