happy new year!
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It was way too early for this. The dreaded week of school was about to start officially in around five minutes. You dropped your backpack next to your seat and slumped over onto the desk.
Having history first thing every morning was something you would change if you could. Being somebody who slept as little as you did, an overly enthusiastic teacher was a good wake-up call but not something you wanted to deal with at such an early hour.
Out of the corner of your eye, you watched two of your friends enter the classroom. One of them was scrambling to his seat with a look of pure helplessness written across his face while the other kept her usual calm disposition.
Eren rummaged through his backpack in a frenzy while you mumbled a good morning greeting to the black-haired girl sitting in front of you.
From the bg came a blank paper you recognized as last night's English homework. Eren slid the paper on your desk with expectant wide green eyes.
You raised both eyebrows. "What is this for?"
The boy in front of you ran an anxious hand through his ever messy short hair and brought it back down on the paper. "Listen, you gotta help me with this."
Mikasa turned in her seat to face you. "Don't help him. It's pointless."
Eren scoffed. "Wow, thanks, dear sister. I'm so glad I can count on you to help out a brother in need," he remarked sarcastically.
"I'm adopted," she deadpanned.
"Shut up, Mikasa," he said, scowling before he turned to you with a look of desperation. "Please, Y/n, you have to help me. Ms. Ral is gonna be so mad."
You were about to spew a clever response but a certain blonde boy beat you to it. "More like Zeke is gonna be so mad," Armin remarked as sat down in the seat next to yours.
Eren paled, not by much since he was still so tan from the summer, but you could tell since he was leaning so unfortunately close to you.
His eye twitched cartoonishly and he seemed to know the fate that awaits him in fifth-period English, which might have been your new favorite class after this day.
"Ah yes, my favorite brother," Mikasa quipped.
Eren was quick to clap back. "You're adopted, Mikasa. Plus, he's my half brother so that makes him your quarter brother."
Armin frowned. "I don't think that's how that works."
You patted their shoulder. "Just let him think what he wants. There's a reason why he flunked math last year, even with Mikasa's help."
Eren's light freckles danced as he made all sorts of offended expressions. "You don't know how hard algebra can be! When did this become hate on Eren day? You should be helping me. Y/n, you do your homework. Give me the answers now, pretty please."
"No."
He looked utterly perplexed that he was shut down again that morning. "How could you do this to me? After all I've done for you."
You folded your arms over your hoodie. "And what exactly have you done for me?"
He glanced away in thoughtfulness then snapped his fingers in realization. "I washed your car for you. Over the summer. Many times."
"That doesn't count. It was my mother's car and you only did it because you lost a bet to my twelve-year-old brother."
He pushed his lower lip out in a pout. "Well, believe it or not, I do many things for you out of the kindness of my heart."
"I've never seen it," Mikasa claimed. Armin snickered to himself at Eren's hurt expression.
You tried to reduce your laugh to a false cough as you slid Eren's incomplete homework off of your desk and onto his. "Maybe next time, champ."
His defeated look and wordless mouthing did nothing for him as your teacher announced the start of class.
This was your cue to zone out and drift off into a peaceful sleep. This was an honors history class, and you were in a good place. What harm could it do?
A tap on your shoulder stopped you from fulfilling your plans. You turned around to see Ymir, a freckled girl with a not particularly friendly reputation, holding out a folded sticky note.
"Pass this to Historia, will you?" She nodded in the direction of the blonde girl sitting in the front row a few columns over.
You took the note from her hand and passed it on to Armin, telling him who needed to receive it.
He passed it Reiner, who was sat diagonal from him, despite Ymir's frantic hand motions to stop the action. Reiner took the note, furrowing his eyebrows as Armin told him to pass it to the clueless girl in front of him.
He looked behind him at Ymir's pleading expression and smirked as he crumpled the note and threw it back at her forehead.
Armin watched the exchange and mouthed an apology to Ymir. She only waved him off and began writing a new note.
Your teacher was droning on about something horrendously boring and no matter how enthused he was with the topic, that couldn't stop you from drifting off once more.
The nap you were having was relatively good until the loud sound of wood slapping your desk jolted you awake. You leaned back in your chair as Professor Smith looked down at you sternly.
He walked back to the board and pointed his yardstick at you in disappointment. You had no idea why he always had one but for some odd reason, he did. Then again, Professor Smith was an odd guy.
"This, my students, is what happens when you don't dedicate your hearts to a proper sleep schedule. You fall asleep during the most important class of the day!" He swiped a blonde piece of hair off his forehead in frustration.
You looked at Armin, hoping to get some sympathy, but he was too busy trying to contain his laughter to take pity on you. Eren was doing similarly, only he made an effort to make sure you knew he found your suffering funny.
After the embarrassing moment in history that morning, which you were glad Jean wasn't there to see, the day passed by awfully slow.
By the time lunch rolled around, you were so relieved to eat that you forgot you had English afterward and that Eren is a dumbass.
So there you were at the lunch table, listening to Eren complain about
the homework he didn't do for what felt like the millionth time that day.
Mikasa, who was far beyond tired of listening to him, was reading one of her old sapphic stories while Armin sat on his other side with earbuds in and flashcards in his hands. That left you alone to hear about Eren's incessant dumbassery.
Jean tossed his tray onto the table and pushed your head down toward the table. "At least try to look interested in what he's saying."
He took his usual seat next to you and took the apple off of your tray. You gave him a look that said, "What the hell?" and he just shrugged in response.
Eren glanced between the two of you and slid the piece of paper to Jean. "Read this."
Jean looked over the paper and looked back up at Eren with a raised eyebrow. "There's nothing to read. You didn't answer any of the questions on here."
You snorted into your tiny milk carton as Eren glared at the copper-haired boy next to you.
He pointed a stern finger at him and licked his lips. "I'll have you know that I am too brilliant for this type of thing."
Jean clicked his tongue. "Stop with that BS. You want me to help you with this? I can't, I'm not in honors English with the rest of you. I don't even know how you got recommended."
Eren snapped his fingers and grinned. "Keyword: Mikasa."
Jean rolled his eyes. "Of course, how could I forget?"
You snickered and pushed the paper back to Eren. "Give up now. No one's gonna help you now. You're doomed."
He groaned and slumped his head onto the table. "I know. Please don't rub it in."
You picked up your tray and let Jean stack his on top before heading over to the cleaning window, surprised to see Ymir and Reiner inside washing trays. "Who put you two together for tray duty?" you asked as you slid both trays through the window.
Ymir glared at Reiner. "This idiot got me caught passing 'Toria notes."
Reiner scoffed. "Try to get a little closer to the truth. Professor Smith is smarter than I thought. He saw her writing the note."
"So then why were you punished?"
He shrugged and tugged at the school-issued apron. "Because I tried snitching on her. Plus I threw the sticky note in her face."
"Funny, he doesn't like snitches. That was your first mistake."
Reiner's shoulders sagged as he sighed. "Yeah, this sucks majorly."
You nodded and carefully eyed Ymir, who was lurking behind Reiner with a finger raised to her lips and the sink's spray nozzle in the other hand.
"I could be eating right now but- Jesus Christ! Ymir, what the hell are you doing?" Reiner yelled when the cold water hit his back. Ymir grinned mischievously as he shouted threats and complaints at her.
You went back to your table, no longer wanting any part in that. Jean was slinging his backpack onto his shoulders while whining about not being in fifth-period english with the rest of you.
"Don't you fret, Jean. I'll tell you all about it later." You patted his shoulder and lightly pushed him in the direction of Professor Smith's classroom.
"We'll see you at PC later, right?" Armin called after him, referring to your usual Monday meetups at Paradis Convenience.
Jean turned around and continued to walk backward. "Sorry, you know I usually would, but practice was canceled yesterday so it's happening today. Eren's skipping though, so don't worry about him." He turned forwards again and slipped into his classroom.
"Eren, you know you really shouldn't skip baseball practice." Mikasa frowned as the four of you rounded the corner to the English department.
"Zeke definitely wouldn't like that," you added casually.
Eren groaned dreadfully. "Can you all spare a little sympathy for me? I'm going through hard times."
"No," you said in unison and took your seats.
Eren was glad he sat in the back row next to Armin. His chances of Ms. Ral calling on him were much lower than yours and Mikasa's, who sat at the joint desk in front of him.
Zeke was everyone's favorite sub because he was awfully calm and unintentionally funny. His half-brother was the only one who didn't like him working in the school. Well, the janitor didn't like him very much either.
"Okay, everyone, Ms. Ral said she assigned a few questions for homework last night so if you could all pass your papers to the front row, I'll collect them.
You heard Eren gulp behind you and you snickered to yourself. You turned in your seat and reached out expectantly. An eyebrow raised, you said, "Well?"
He was rightfully ashamed, that much was clear when you looked at the messy "IDK :)" scribbled under each question. You had to stifle the laughing fit that was sure to slip out if you didn't pass it to Bertholdt quick enough.
As Zeke gathered the papers and flipped through them, he frowned at one. Eren knew he was in deep. He shrank down in his seat, trying to hide from Zeke's wandering eyes.
They found him, however, and narrowed. "Jaeger, see me after class."
__
"And then he threatened to tell dad but I'm not scared of him! I'm not a kid anymore," Eren declared as he shoved more quarters into the rocket ship machine he was sitting in. "He also laughed in my face. This is a cruel, cruel world we live in."
You couldn't help the laughter that bubbled past your lips. "You're such a moron. I mean, no, you're so smart and I feel so, so sorry for you."
Mikasa snorted into her ICE drink and Armin threw his head back onto the brick of the convenience store, not caring enough to stifle their laughs.
Eren glared at the three of you. "Don't you laugh. That was mean."
"Pretty sure that was the point," Armin remarked as they tossed some goldfish into their mouth. "Do you really not see the irony in your words? You've been playing on a kids toy for the past hour and a half."
Eren took an angry sip of his soda and flipped the three of you off.
Mikasa swiveled her head around you and Armin to look him in the eyes. "Speaking of time, can we go home now? Who cares if dad is upset with you? It's your own fault. I'm hungry and it's getting cold out."
"Eat your hair. Just let me have one more ride."
Her cold gray eyes narrowed even further. "You said that five rides ago."
He put up his hands defensively. "And I mean it now!"
She sighed lightly and grabbed onto Eren's hood, leaving you and Armin alone with a one-word goodbye as she dragged him away, much to his obvious dismay.
Armin sighed and you looked up from your bag of chips. "Something wrong?"
"I just remembered there's a history test on Wednesday and I've been putting off studying for it."
You froze. "There's a history test?"
He stared at you for a moment and then burst out laughing. You didn't even care that it was mean of him to laugh at your misfortune because it sounded so nice.
"It was announced last week. Professor Smith was right, you do need to pay attention more."
You blushed, embarrassed to be caught slacking by someone so smart. "I get by just fine, thank you very much."
"Sure you do. If it helps, I'm going to the library after school tomorrow to study, if you wanna tag along."
You grinned, gratefully. "That would help a lot, thanks."
He smiled back with tinted cheeks. "Anytime."
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word count: 2.4k
THE NEW EPISODE...
getting back to aot sundays is gonna be the best. i'm planning on updating (almost) every sunday from now on so make sure you stick around!! have a great week everyone!
p.s. why does erwin kinda remind me of captain america?