𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐂𝐀𝐊𝐄 || tsukishima

Nine

✮ ✮ ✮

You got to class a few minutes early today. There were about a handful of students in there, excluding you. The teacher wasn't there yet either. You make your way to the far back and take your seat.

The classroom starts filling up and you notice that the blond you hate so much walks in. He walks to the back and takes his seat in front of you, his big ass head blocking your view as always, so you'd usually have to move your desk to the side a bit. Tsukishima doesn't even acknowledge you. He didn't even shoot you a glare or mocking face, not even attempting to kick your leg like he'd often do to mess with you.

All it took for him was seeing the girl he hates half-naked in his bathroom and suddenly he went mute, not to say you weren't enjoying it. Not hearing his voice for all that time was more than a pleasure to you.

"Before we start for today, I'll be assigning a project and it is to be done in pairs."

Great. A project. Wasn't taking social studies first thing in the morning for a double period already bad enough? You still wonder why the school thought this was such a genius idea. She explains the assignment to the class before moving on to the pairing up.

There were twenty-two students in your class. The eleven that sat closest to the front were directed to write their names on a strip of paper given to them by the teacher, fold them up, and drop them in a basket. Then the other eleven would have to choose a random name out of the basket and that would be their peer for the project.

After all that was done with, you and the other students in the back were asked whose name you got so the teacher could write it down.

You had gotten paired up with some random boy whose name you never bothered to learn until just now. Or so you thought.

"Hayashi, whose name did you say you got?", the teacher asks a boy a few seats from you in the back.

"Takao", the student responds.

"Nope", your educator says while shaking her head. "That won't work. The two of you never get any work done together. Neither do Ijichi and Fujioka..."

She thinks for a bit. The first two students mentioned were friends as well as troublemakers so she knew not much work would be getting done if they were partners. Or maybe it was just because she was mean and didn't want friends grouped together. Who knows? She was kinda mean after all.

The same was true with the last two. Looking down at her paper with the names, she speaks again.

"Alright. Takao, you and Fujioka will be partners." She continues on, reading the other four names. And last but not least... "L/n and Tsukishima, you two are together."

Just my damn luck.

You already knew Tsukishima wouldn't be the one to approach you, so you had to make the first move. And here you thought you wouldn't have to speak to him again for as long as you're here.

The project wouldn't be due until two weeks from now and likely would only take a couple hours of research and a day or two to complete, but the sooner you and the beanstalk resolve your little issues, the sooner you could go back to being... civil? Definitely not civil, but at least back to what was normal for you two.

After four long periods of class, it was lunchtime. The bell barely rang and Tsukishima was already out of the classroom with his green-haired friend. You head out of the room as well, quickening your pace to catch up with the two.

"Tsukishima."

The pair stops and the taller friend groans very dramatically when he notices your voice, as if you were that much of an inconvenience to him.

"Hey L/n. Tsukki, I'll be at our table." Yamaguchi waves you both off and you smile at him, before looking back at Tsukishima and dropping that smile.

"You ignoring me?", you ask

"What makes you think that, shortcake?"

"What did I tell you about that nickname, broomstick?"

"That's a new one. Glad you're learning to be more original, I guess." His words are followed by a yawn to let you know he's already grown bored of this conversation. He turns around to begin walking in the direction of the cafeteria again, but you grab him by his shoulder to get him to listen to you.

"Whatever. Look, if this is about what happened two days ago, you need to get over it. You're the only one making things awkward and that's the last thing we'll need right now since we'll be working together."

"Me ignoring you has nothing to do with that", Tsukishima responds, dusting off the part on his sweater that you had grabbed.

"So you're admitting to ignoring me then?"

"Fine, yeah I am. I have been ignoring you. If you haven't already noticed, I don't like you."

"No, for real?" You fake a gasp. "I haven't noticed. And here I thought we were the best of friends."

"Sarcasm is an ugly thing on you. Don't make your worth any less than it already is. Are you happy now or should I go on?"

"As much as I love you insulting me, no need to waste your breath, Tsukki." You hide a smile when you see his eye twitch at the nickname. Yup. He still hated it when you called him that. "So, the project."

"We'll talk later. You know I don't like being seen with you."

And he's off again. But he turns back to look at you once more. "There wasn't much to look at. Just letting you know."

You roll your eyes. "Thank you for that comment. I'll keep it in mind", you respond sarcastically. Just like that, he was back to his regular ill-mannered self. In all honesty, that was easier than you thought.