Deep Red

53

Living in a dorm wasn't exactly a new experience for me. The room I had been renting during my high school days had pretty much been more like a dorm room. And when I was in university I had been renting student accommodation, too, so I should have been fairly used to this.

But there was just something humiliating about having to live in a dorm again at 32 years of age, after previously living in your own apartment and/or with a roommate. And it was also kind of annoying not to live with Shouta anymore. Especially now that we were going out. It wasn't anything official, but still.

It sucked having to sneak around like a dumb teenager again and barely ever being able to meet up. Shouta was continuing to train with his kids, so he was busy most of the time and I was keeping myself busy by being available for any of them that felt the need to talk about what happened.

Of course they had proper trained counsellors as well and all, but... well, the waiting lists were long. This entire incident, plus moving to the dorms had put a lot of stress on all the students, not just the hero course and, well... of course class 1-A and 1-B were given priority for counselling.

A few teachers had gotten together and I had volunteered as well, to support the few counsellors that were already working around the clock by having some preliminary sessions with the other students to see whether it would help them to just talk or if they needed more professional help than we teachers could offer.

And with all that my schedule had suddenly become really full and I felt like I had just adopted a bunch of kids without even realizing it. Was this how Shouta felt about his class? No matter how annoying they could be, they needed someone and being their teacher meant being there for them.

And just like that, the first day of school approached faster than I thought. I kind of forgot that I was literally already on campus, so I got up at the usual time, only to realize I didn't need to teach a class for another two hours. But I also didn't want to stay in bed, it just felt depressing.

I never had a problem with waking up alone, but after I had gotten so used to just sleeping in the same bed as Shouta, it was weird to suddenly be alone again. I never had a tendency to have nightmares, but at the moment they were getting worse. A few times they were bad enough for me to sneak down to his room, just so I wouldn't be so alone with it all. I hated the dorms.

After I realized that I'd be insanely depressed if I was to stay in bed any longer, I forced myself to get up and get dressed and maybe go over my material again. I had decided to break away from the curriculum and have one particular lesson today. The kids needed it. I wished I had had it myself.

I was thinking about making myself a cup of coffee in the common kitchen, but the coffee machines there were kind of shit, so I figured I'd just head to the teacher's lounge and get my coffee there. Somehow that coffee was much, much better than the one in the teacher's dorm.

"Miss Takahashi! What are you doing up so early?" I heard a familiar voice. I couldn't really quite place it yet, it was too early for that kind of stuff, so I had to turn around and saw Hitoshi Shinsou jogging up to me. Was he working out? This early in the morning? Just what kind of training schedule had Shouta put him on?

"Morning, Shinsou. Couldn't sleep anymore. I'm not actually used to living this close to the school anymore. You out training?" I asked and continued on her way towards the main building, Hitoshi jogging beside me.

"Yeah. We've got you first period, right? We doing anything fun today?" Shinsou asked. I raised an eyebrow.

"All my lessons are fun." I replied, to which he gave me a look that told me he begged to differ. I sighed.

"We're doing something important, Shinsou, yes. So if you'd be fresh and dandy and would not fall asleep in class, I'd appreciate that. Gosh, you're getting so much like Shouta..." I muttered, before realizing what I had said. Shinsou didn't miss it though. He raised an eyebrow.

"Shouta? As in Shouta Aizawa? I knew you two had a thing for each other." Shinsou muttered. I couldn't help but blush a little, which really didn't help my case, but I could always pull my teacher's authority.

"Hitoshi Shinsou! We don't have a thing for each other and you better finish up and get ready for class right about now." I said to him in my 'you're-way-out-of-line' voice. It usually got through to everyone and it seemed to even get through to Shinsou and he was usually a tough nut to crack.

"Right, sorry, Miss Takahashi. On it." he replied and jogged away, back towards the dorms. Thankfully, I had already made it to the school building. I needed a coffee now. With Shinsou there was no telling whether he'd go and blab to other students and I honestly wasn't prepared for those kinds of questions.

The teachers' lounge was empty when I got there, so I had enough time to make myself some coffee and gulp it down, enjoying my morning until people came in. As the other teachers filed in, I realized how much quieter it was in here, now that we were all already living in the same building.

The time until my first class went by really fast and it almost took me by surprise when Shouta rushed in to get his coffee. I smiled at him a little and he glanced at who else was in the room, before smiling back. It kind of sucked, but since Allmight had seen me heading over to Shouta's room, we wanted to lay low for a while. And that included less obvious contact during school.

"I'm heading off to class now, everyone. Wish me luck, I bet the kids are going to bombard me with questions about the summer camp..." I announced before getting up. Nemuri gave me an encouraging smile.

"More about you being on TV. Good luck, you've got this." she replied, as I walked out and headed towards the classroom of 1-C.

Thank God, it wasn't too far. I was kind of nervous about this lesson. It wasn't exactly my area of expertise and I wasn't sure whether I was doing the right thing, but it sure felt right to do this, especially now.

"Morning, class. I'm sure you all have questions, but if we have time at the end of the lesson, we can get to that. How have you all been during summer break?" I asked, as I entered the room.

As expected they seemed a little uncomfortable and were looking at each other quietly. Then, finally someone put up their hand. I smiled at the girl and nodded at her, indicating she could talk.

"Miss Takahashi, are... are you okay? Did you get hurt during the training camp? And are you... are you staying here as our teacher?" she asked.

"Alright, let's do this now, then. Yes, I'm okay. I didn't get hurt during the training camp, just a few scratches. I got off with a fright. And yes, I'm staying here. No one's been fired and everyone is fine, at least physically. Which brings us to our lesson for today. I've been talking to some of you during the last few days of the break and I figured it might be important to address this." I replied. It seemed like it was high time to start addressing this, to all of the students and not just the hero course in their last year.

"While everyone was mostly okay physically or has more or less recovered by now, there are still a lot of us struggling mentally. And I'm not just talking about the hero course, I'm talking about everyone. That's why we're going to talk about trauma today." I said and got my notes out of my bag.

"Sorry, Miss, but I don't think that's on the curriculum..." the class president chimed in, after raising her hand. I sighed.

"No, it's not. But right now, I don't care about the curriculum, I care about you and your wellbeing. Sure, you might not have been involved in traumatic events until now, but times are changing and bad shit happens. No one's safe and even if none of you ever witnesses a traumatic event, you might have friends or family that will be affected by trauma. So it's good to be prepared, know the signs, know when to get help. Alright? Everyone with me?"