~KINDERGARTEN~
Shouto Todoroki held onto his mother Rei as dozens of eyes stared at him.
The lady on the other side of him, Miss Yukizome, placed a hand on Shouto's shoulder before addressing the room.
"Everyone, this is Shouto. He'll be joining our class for the rest of the year. Can everybody please say hello?"
"Hi Shouto," they replied. The enthusiasm in their voices startled the boy.
Rei crouched down and caressed her son's hair. "Honey, why don't you say hi to your new classmates?"
Shouto peered back at the sea of children gawking at him like he was some zoo animal. His eyes bulged out while the rest of his body remained frozen. All the colorful art projects pinned to the back wall and the assortment of toys scattered on the floor didn't change the fact that this was a very scary place.
He'd never been around so many kids his own age before. In fact, he hardly had any interaction with children his age at all. Most of his five years on earth were spent in the confinement of the Todoroki household, with the occasional shopping trip with his mom. His father had to approve any other time he left the house, and he didn't permit it often.
So being thrown into a new environment with a bunch of people he didn't know overwhelmed Shouto to great heights. He'd been dreading this day for almost a week now, ever since his parents got into an intense argument over it right in front of him.
"He doesn't need kindergarten," his dad spat. "There's nothing they can teach my boy at that school that he can't learn at home."
"He needs to be around other children," Rei pleaded with him. "He's five years old and he doesn't even have any friends!"
Shouto's dad scoffed. "What good does it do to have friends at this age? Hanging around the kids that live in this neighborhood will only slow him down. My son is gifted and he should be treated as such."
"Stop saying he's your son! He's ours!"
Shouto fought back tears as their bickering shifted to yelling. He held his hands over his ears to muffle the noise, but they shouted loudly enough that he still heard every bit of it. He hated how often his parents fought about him. He tried his best to be a good kid so they wouldn't argue so much, but maybe he needed to try harder.
That fight made him want to attend kindergarten even less. It would just be another thing for his mom and dad to scream at each other for. Not that he had a great impression of it to begin with. His brother Natsuo told him that on the first day of kindergarten, an alien spaceship comes to the school and snatches all the children away and replaces them with alien clones. His sister Fuyumi assured him that Natsuo was just messing around, but Shouto had his doubts.
Everyone was still staring at him, waiting for him to speak. This was going to take a whole lot of bravery, certainly more bravery than Shouto's tiny body could handle. But with his mother beside him, he conjured just enough.
"Hi," he quickly muttered before throwing his arms around Rei's neck, hiding his face in her blouse.
Rei chuckled as she hugged Shouto back and stood up, lifting him in the process. She held him tight, doing her best to rub comforting circles into his back but struggled as Shouto still had his backpack on.
"Is it okay if we take a moment in the hall?" she asked Miss Yukizome.
"Of course," Miss Yukizome replied. "Take all the time you need. We'll be here when Shouto's ready to join us."
Rei nodded and carried Shouto out of the kindergarten classroom and into the hallway. He cried into her shoulder, his little hands clutching her shirt in a death grip. She rocked him side to side, whispered the words to his favorite lullaby, anything she could think of to soothe him. But nothing worked.
She kissed his hair as she continued rocking him. "Oh don't cry, baby. There's nothing to be scared of."
Shouto cried harder. "I w-want to go home," he said between his sobs. "I'm not ready for kindergarten, Mommy. P-Please take me with you."
After several more minutes of attempting to calm him without luck, Rei set her son down and pulled out her phone. Shouto, still crying, sat on the floor and with all of his might ripped off his left shoe and chucked it at the wall. He tried to do the same for his right shoe, but he was too worked up and his arms were too tired. Unfortunately, he hadn't learned how to tie and untie his shoelaces yet, for that would've been far easier for him. He also took his backpack off, but he chose to set it next to him instead of throwing it. He actually liked his backpack a lot. Anything that had kittens on it he treated as a national treasure.
Rei ignored Shouto's tantrum as she punched a combination of numbers into her cell. She held the phone to her ear and, when someone eventually answered, she had to turn her head away from Shouto so his screams wouldn't drown out the noise.
"Hello, this is Rei Todoroki calling," she said to the mystery person on the other line. "If it's not too much trouble, may you call Touya down to the office so I can speak with him?"
Shouto stopped crying immediately. "Touya?"
Touya was the oldest of the Todoroki siblings, and also Shouto's hero. Shouto'd idolized his big brother since the day he was born, which wasn't hard given how much time they spent together. Even if Touya had a friend over, he did his best to include Shouto in his daily life as much as possible.
Touya was Shouto's favorite person in the entire world, and Touya reciprocated those same feelings. Even though they had the largest age gap between the Todoroki siblings at eight years, they had the closest bond.
Shouto, still missing a shoe, bounced on his heels at his mother's side. "Is that Touya on the phone? Can I talk to him? I promise I'll stop crying." He rubbed his eyes to prove it. His face was flushed and his eyes were still puffy, but the tears did stop.
Rei smiled but held a finger to her lips, signaling for Shouto to be patient. While his mom waited, he grabbed his shoe near the opposite wall and slid it on his foot. He then approached his mother with caution as the laces were undone and he didn't want to trip. Excitement built up in his chest as she spoke again.
"Hi honey," she said. "Sorry for pulling you out of class. I'm at Shouto's school and he's struggling a bit and I thought he may feel better if he got to talk to you."
Shouto couldn't contain himself and started jumping, arms stretched above his head, reaching for the phone. It didn't work. His mom was too tall. He made a mental note to eat an extra portion of vegetables at dinner so he could have a growth spurt.
His grin stretched across his entire face when Rei finally handed the phone to him. He shimmied a bit as he held it to his ear. Wanting to ensure his brother could hear him, he projected his voice to the best of his ability.
"Hi Touya! It's me, Shouto."
"Hey buddy," Touya's voice rang from the other line. Hearing it lifted Shouto's spirits immediately. "What's going on? Mom says you're having a hard time."
"Yeah." Shouto sucked in his lower lip. "I don't like kindergarten. It's too scary. Can you come pick me up?"
Touya laughed into the phone. Shouto didn't understand what was so funny, but he laughed too since his brother did.
"I can't Sho," Touya said. "I'm at school right now. But don't be nervous. Kindergarten is awesome! I went when I was your age and it was a blast!"
Shouto's eyes widened. "Really?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die. You're gonna have so much fun today that you won't wanna leave when mom comes to pick you up. And you're gonna make so many friends. Did you know kindergarten is where I met Keigo?"
"No," Shouto said as he rose to his tiptoes. With each word Touya uttered, the more magical kindergarten sounded to him.
"Well it's true. And when I see you at home, we can hang out all night while you tell me about your day."
Music to Shouto's ears.
Shouto practically yelled it into the phone. "Do you promise?"
Touya laughed again. "I promise. But that's only if you have fun today and make a lot of friends, otherwise we'll have nothing to talk about."
"No, no, I will," Shouto insisted. "I'll make a million friends today and play with them all!"
"That's the spirit, little bro. Listen, I have to go back to class now so I'll see you at home okay? Can you hand Mom the phone?"
Shouto smiled, the smile that only appeared when he received his brother's praise. "Okay. I love you."
"Love you too, buddy."
Shouto gave the phone back to Rei as promised. As his mom wrapped up her conversation with Touya, he glanced at the door of his new classroom.
He was still scared, though not as much as before. If Touya managed to go to kindergarten and enjoy himself, then it couldn't have been all bad. Touya was the coolest person Shouto knew, so his opinion meant a lot.
So Shouto took a deep breath, balled his pudgy hand into a tight fist, and nodded to himself. He was strong. He was brave. And he was going to do this.
Kindergarten was his for the taking.
*
Once situated back in the classroom, Rei offered Shouto several hugs and kisses before she left. Shouto cherished every one. Even though he wanted to be brave, he was still terrified of being abandoned to fend for himself.
He held back his tears until after she left. He figured if she saw him cry, she wouldn't be happy. But a few trickled down his cheeks once he was alone.
Shouto was too busy rubbing his eyes that he didn't notice someone was standing next to him.
"What's the matter? Why are you crying?"
Shouto removed his hand and came face to face with a boy shorter than him. He had bright green hair and a small amount of freckles on his cheeks. But what Shouto noticed above anything else was that this boy had kind eyes, certainly not the eyes that would belong to any alien clone.
"My mommy just left," Shouto said. He fidgeted a bit where he stood. This was his first time interacting with a stranger without having someone he knew nearby.
To Shouto's surprise, the boy smiled. "That's okay. I cried when my mommy left on my first day too."
"Really?"
He nodded. "Mhmm. But then we played a lot of games and then I didn't want to cry anymore."
Shouto's tears were dried up now. He decided he liked this boy. All it took was a few short sentences for him to relax a little.
"My name's Izuku," the boy said. "Do you want to be friends with me?"
Shouto gave a small smile. "Okay."
"Cool!" Izuku took Shouto by the hand and led him toward the back of the classroom. "You can come color with us."
Shouto's smile expanded as he approached a small blue table with Izuku. He hadn't been at kindergarten for too long and he already made a friend. While that was exciting in itself, he was even more excited to tell Touya later.
The table had four chairs. Izuku sat down in front of a partially completed drawing. Shouto figured that was where he was sitting before he came over to check on him. Shouto would've taken the seat right next to him, but a girl already occupied it, so he grabbed the one across from her.
The girl beamed at him. "Here Shouto, you can borrow my crayons if you want."
She extended the pack of eight across the table. Shouto did have a 64 crayon pack in his bag for himself, but he didn't want to be rude, so he accepted them.
"Thank you."
Izuku gestured to the girl. "This is Ochaco. We always play together."
Shouto gave a small wave, then got distracted by Ochaco's appearance. Eyebrows furrowed, he glanced back and forth between her and Izuku. Aside from having a brown bob instead of green hair, as well as a lack of freckles, Shouto couldn't help but notice that Ochaco and Izuku had the exact same face.
"Are you guys twins?" he asked.
Izuku and Ochaco looked at one another and bursted out laughing.
"Shouto's funny," Ochaco giggled.
Shouto sat there awkwardly, not finding the humor in what he said. But it pleased him to know that his peers accepted him and seemed to enjoy his company.
"We're not twins," Izuku said. "We're not even related."
"I'm an only child," Ochaco says.
Izuku nods. "Me too."
"Do you have brothers and sisters, Shouto?" Ochaco asked.
"I have three," Shouto replied, holding three fingers up.
"Woah," they answered in unison.
"That's so cool!" Izuku cheered. "You must always have someone to play with!"
Shouto grinned. "Yeah. My big brother plays with me all the time. He's my best friend."
Ochaco pouted. "I wish I had a big brother."
"You can have my brother Natsuo. He farts in his sleep."
"Ew!"
All three of them laughed, and Shouto's last bit of nerves disappeared. His mom and Touya were right. There was nothing to be afraid of. Kindergarten was going to be awesome.
He stared at the blank sheet of paper in front of him. "I don't know what to draw."
"Draw whatever you want," Ochaco said. She held her paper up. "I'm drawing a rocket ship."
"I'm drawing broccoli," Izuku said.
"Why broccoli?"
"It's my favorite vegetable," he replied. He pronounced vegetable like "vegible".
Shouto tilted his head toward the ceiling and pondered. What should he draw? Whatever it was, it had to be good, since he was planning on showing it to Touya when he got home.
Then it hit him.
He reached for a red crayon. "I'm gonna draw my brother!"
Shouto scribbled red in every direction to represent Touya's wild and fiery hair. His motor skills were poor, definitely not as advanced as his friends across the table. It wasn't his fault, he simply hadn't had enough practice. He knew how to throw a baseball and swing a bat like his life depended on it, but nobody taught him how to hold a writing instrument yet.
He grabbed all sorts of colors to decorate the background. He colored the sky, some grass, and drew a few tiny cats for the fun of it. Touya was going to love this picture, he just knew it.
His face hurt from smiling. Kindergarten was pretty cool, he had to admit.
"Hey! Give that back!"
Shouto looked up to see Ochaco scolding a boy hovering beside their table. He was holding her rocket drawing, laughing to himself as he scanned it.
Unlike Izuku, this boy didn't have a pleasant demeanor. His hair was blond and unruly, and those crimson eyes of his had a menacing look to them.
Ochaco whined again for the boy to hand back her drawing, but he turned his back to her.
"Relax," he said. "I'm not gonna rip it or anything."
"Give it back, Kacchan," Izuku said. "You're gonna make her cry."
The boy, "Kacchan", as Shouto guessed he was called, laughed in both of their faces. "It's not my fault she's a crybaby. I just wanna look."
Ochaco, surely enough, began to tear up. "I hate you Katsuki! Stop picking on me!"
"Katsuki Bakugou!" Miss Yukizome's voice boomed through the room. "What are you doing?"
Katsuki set Ochaco's drawing back in front of her and held his hands up. "Nothing," he said.
"I hope not. Why don't you color at this table with Yuga instead?"
"Okay." Before he sped away, he turned back to Shouto's table one last time. "We'll settle this at recess," he muttered.
When he was gone, Ochaco crossed her arms. "Katsuki is so mean."
"Is he like that a lot?" Shouto asked.
Izuku nodded. "He pushed Ochaco down on the blacktop last week." He pointed at the small bandaid on Ochaco's hand. "He gave her a booboo."
Shouto's eyes locked on the boy a few tables away. He noticed how Katsuki gripped his crayon so harshly he snapped it into two after a few seconds of using it. He bared his teeth as he scribbled onto the paper, his mouth twisted into an unpleasant scowl.
Maybe kindergarten did have its problems after all.
Shouto focused back on his own drawing, grabbing a black crayon to color in Touya's clothes next. But that boy, Katsuki Bakugou, still occupied his mind. Before he knew it, his nerves were back again.
Things had simmered for now, at least. But Shouto had an inkling that if anything bad were to happen on his first day of kindergarten, Katsuki Bakugou would have something to do with it.