"Every butterfly in the world has migrated to my stomach." -Tahereh Mafi
♥♥♥
♪Listening suggestion: Somebody To You by The Vamps ft. Demi Lovato
----------
(Y/N)'s POV
I looked up at Shoto again, and decided to be bold. I'll ask him how his day's been, that's not weird at all, right?
"So, Sho-" I was cut off.
"Mika! (Annoying nickname for yourself you've never been called before)! Are these pretty boys some of your friends?" The new girl Taega pranced into our circle.
"It's Mikura and (Y/N)", Mikura corrected, her voice filled with ice.
I rolled my eyes and stared at the grass.
Bakugo, Midoriya, and Uraraka stood up.
Friendly Midoriya was the first to outstretch his hand. "Hi there, I'm Izuku Midoriya!"
Taega shook his hand. "My pleasure to meet you, Izuku! I'm Taega, and I'm new to this school. I just moved here from Yokohama." She turned to Bakugo, completely disregarding Uraraka.
I heard Uraraka whisper "ouch" to herself.
"I'm Bakugo and we all go to U.A. High," he hotly introduced.
Taega muffled a squeal with her hands. "Wait, as in the U.A. High! And you're Bakugo?! You won the sports festival! I was so on edge as I watched you battle Todo-"
Suddenly, her eyes landed on Shoto, who had been standing there in silence the whole time.
This time, the scream wasn't muffled. It pierced our ears.
"Todoroki! I was watching you at the sports festival and you were incredible!!!! The way you generate that ice and the way you blew up the whole arena with fire?! That was insane!"
Shoto only shrugged. "Honestly, I couldn't have done it without Midoriya. He was a true friend to me that day." He gave Midoriya a slight smile.
The girl turned around to glance at Midoriya. "Oh yes, and you were great too."
Within a second, however, all her attention was back to Shoto. Bakugo, Midoriya, Uraraka, Mikura and I no longer existed.
I whispered to them, "let's go now. I don't wanna be here anymore."
"Neither do I," Uraraka responded. "I might just go to the school cafeteria, now. You coming Deku? Bakugo?"
We parted ways; Midoriya, Uraraka, and Bakugo returning to U.A., and Mikura and I trudging back to our academy. As we went, I looked back at Taega, who was smothering Shoto with her loud voice. I felt a pang in my heart.
It was awfully irritating that she was even talking to him, but what hurt the most was that Shoto was reciprocating...just a little.
----------
After school, back at the agency. (Y/N)'s POV
I sadly twirled my pencil in my hand as I stared at a sheet of my notebook that should've been blank. Instead, it featured names like Mrs. Todoroki, (Y/N) Todoroki, or (Y/N) (L/N)-Todoroki all in various hand written fonts. I'd doodled it the night after I went to Shoto's house, before things became weird. But now, things were so much worse.
I dropped my head face first on the notebook and sighed.
Nachika came over to the desk, concerned.
"Are you okay, (Y/N)? You've been a little down ever since you got back."
I sighed again. "Girls suck. Not you, of course, but I mean the 'Barbie' ones. The ones that have a whole M.A.C. store worth of makeup on their face."
"Schoolmate problems?" Nachika suggested.
"Yeah..." I responded weakly.
Nachika looked over my the notebook, my face still resting on it hopelessly. "What's this?" She asked, slightly laughing. "Who's 'Todoroki'? Looks like there's a special boy after all..."
Ugh! Just the boy who placed SECOND in the Sports Festival!!!! my mind screamed. None of us agency kids paid attention to the news, at least not our team. We didn't even have a TV in our room. We basically only heard things from other people outside the agency, so I was shocked out of my pants when I heard Taega's words. But now he seems so much farther away...Taega's as hot as a California beach and Shoto's an even bigger bigshot than I thought he was. Will I forever just be watching from the shadows?
Nachika nudged me, awaiting a response. "Girl, you have a crush. Tell me! Makes you feel better, I promise."
My head slowly rose from its lazy position. I knew then that I was just gonna tell her. I wasn't that close with Nachika, yet something about her made her feel like an older sister. "I haven't even told my best friend at school," I began, "but I think she already knows."
"She probably knew before you did," said Nachika. "It's always that way."
I exhaled deeply. "His name's Shoto Todoroki. He's really handsome. He's got this hair that's half-white, half-red, and eyes that are two different colors but like the prettiest things I've ever seen. Besides, he's really caring but chill at the same time." I remembered the car incident. I decided to tell that too. "Remember the case we were on when the crazy car careened down the road after I stole the backpack?"
Nachika nodded.
"I never told any of you this, but I was in the street when the car came. I would've gotten hit if it wasn't for Shoto. He happened to be there, and he rushed in front of the car and rolled me onto the sidewalk. He risked his life for me...it was the first time I met him."
Nachika was speechless. She'd probably never heard anything like this before.
I continued. "I found out he goes to U.A. High School, and I met his friends. I sort of felt like a nobody after I learned he was this amazing hero-in-the-works with an incredible quirk, but he seemed to really want to be my friend. I actually used to think he liked me, but now things are really weird." Briefly, I told her about Bakugo and my suspicions, but then how I wasn't sure if it was related to Shoto's behavior.
A seizure of excitement went through Nachika at the mention of drama. "So this Bakugo character...you think he likes you? And you think Shoto knows? If he does, that shouldn't be a reason for him to act strange."
"Everyone knows about Bakugo. He's painfully obvious, but it'll probably be short-lived...I hope." I'd caught her up on almost everything, except one thing. "But now there's this new girl at school. Her name's Taega."
"And?"
"She went straight for Shoto the moment she saw him, and I don't know how long they talked. They were still talking when I left. I'm worried because he hasn't talked to me like that this past week, and Taega looks like a supermodel..."
"Hey, if Shoto's as perfect as you say he is, he's probably just being polite. And this girl, maybe she just likes meeting new people?" Nachika obviously sympathized with the feeling. Every girl probably did.
However, I wanted her to know how miserable I felt.
"No!" I exclaimed. "She's like nothing I've ever seen, Nachika! She's boy crazy and horrible to my friends and only acts all chummy with me because Shoto and Bakugo were there. She's inconsiderate and rude and selfish..."
Suddenly, our door opened and Kaito peered through.
I shut my mouth and we both looked up.
Kaito cleared his throat. "Looks like we've got another girl joining our squad to replace Riku. I'm officially outnumbered! Please welcome our newest team member..." He inaudibly beckoned to someone behind him.
A girl stepped through the door, but immediately locked gazes with me.
My heart must've skipped several beats, because nothing made me believe I was at death's door more than this.
Innocently unaware, Kaito only smiled. "Nachika, (Y/N), meet Taega."
----------
Uh oh...anyways, hoped you all liked the chapter! I know there ended up being a lot of dialog in this one; personally I don't mind as I feel like stories are developed as much on character's speech as well as actions, but if you think the speech/action ratio is a little unbalanced feel free to shoot me a message. This story's views suddenly shot up over the last two days so I just wanna keep doing whatever it is you guys like!
Thanks♥