~*~
This chapter is in honor of my late cousin-in-law.
~*~
*DING*
You groaned at the sudden buzz of your phone. Who would be texting you at such an early hour?
Maybe you can ignore it and continue to sleep, just for a few minutes.
.
..
...
Zzz...
*DING*
"Ugh, who the heck is texting me?"
Your hand slowly shuffled towards your nightstand and dragged your cell phone across the bed. Hitting the power button, you flinched at the sudden brightness of your screen. You rubbed your eyes and focused on the text notification.
[06:10] "Good morning (Y/N)!"
[06:10] "We should meet up at
school together!"
'Tino...'
You momentarily dropped your phone beside your pillow to stretch out your stiff limbs. You emitted a long squeal, gradually morphing into an inaudible yawn, and sprawled across your bed.
After a good five minutes, you were unsuccessful in getting a second snooze in. Ripping your eyelids open, you stretched one last time before unlocking your phone to reply to your new friend.
[06:16] "Morning, Tino, and
yeah I'm down for that."
Crawling out of your bed, you proceeded on with your morning routine. You changed into a set of dark blue jeans, a black tank top, and a(n) (f/c) flannel. Shuffling toward the bathroom, you attended to your hygiene.
*DING*
As you were brushing your teeth, your screen lit up. You skimmed through the message.
[06:20] "That is so great!
I cannot wait :)"
You chuckled. 'Tino is such an adorable bean.'
After you finished your morning routine, you grabbed your backpack and made your way down to the kitchen.
The house was silent. Your mother had left for work early, but your father was still sleeping upstairs. You did your best to keep the noise to a minimum. You grabbed a snack bar, shuffled your shoes on, and snuck through the door without a peep.
As soon as your feet greeted the pavement, another 'ding' runged from your phone. You checked and found a message from Emil.
[06:35] "hey you heading
out soon?"
[06:35] "Already walking
down there"
It didn't take long for you to reach the intersection. Usually, Emil would meet up with you at the crosswalk, but this time you had to wait for him. Luckily, it did not take long as you spotted Emil strolling across the street.
"You're early," Emil points out, as the two of you began walking down the street en route to school.
"I wouldn't be if somebody didn't text me so early," you drawled, causing Emil to whip his head in defense.
"I didn't text you that early."
"I didn't mean you," you clarified. "I meant Tino."
Emil furrowed his brows together. "What did he want?"
"He wanted us to meet up at school today," you said.
"Tch, of course, he does," Emil scoffed.
"I think it would be a nice change, though," you persuaded. "At least we got some more company at school now."
~*~
Timeskip
~*~
You and Emil finally arrived at the school grounds, but the two of you decided to make a stop at your lockers first. As Emil left to go to his locker, you whipped out your phone to text Tino.
[07:08] "Hey Tino, are you
at school yet?"
Stuffing your phone back in your pocket, you spun the locker combination and opened the blue metal door. You unzipped your bag for a moment, shuffled between your books, and withdrew your binder. You pulled out a familiar photograph and set it inside the locker for a moment. You replaced your binder back into your bag and fished out a couple of magnetic office supplies to stick to your door.
*DING*
[07:09] "Su-san and I are on
our way! Meet us at
the west wing of the
school at the small
courtyard"
The west wing was on the opposite end of where you and Emil were. You quickly replied to Tino and continued creating your set up.
You placed a whiteboard and a pencil holder with a couple of extra writing utensils. You picked up the photo you previously left and grabbed a circular magnet. You snapped it on the picture against your door.
Sighing in satisfaction, you admired your setup. It was not much, but you were happy with it. Now, your locker feels like your own.
"Seriously (Y/N)?"
You turned to find Emil giving you a questionable look.
"What?"
"You had to choose that picture of all the ones?"
"One of all my friends on it? Uh, yeah," you answered nonchalantly.
Emil sighed. "You could've at least chosen the nicer one."
"I could have, but I like this one better." You glanced at the goofy picture. "It shows all your colorful personalities."
Emil sighed. "You're such a weird person (Y/N)."
You scoffed as you shut your locker. "Oh, I'm the weird one?"
You began walking alongside Emil towards the west wing.
"Yeah," Emil states.
"How so?"
"I've said it before. You're friends with an antisocial guy, a dude that sees fairies and trolls, and a noisy idiot with an ego bigger than his own brain. Now, you're friends with two people who are basically polar opposites to each other. We're all not even from this country (Y/N)."
You raise an eyebrow at Emil's statement.
"But they are all your friends too. Not to mention, your brother is one of them." You smirked at the platinum blonde. "I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that's weird."
Emil scoffed and rolled his eyes at your statement.
"Shut up, and don't think I will ever call him by that name!"
"What name?" Your smirk widened, causing Emil to groan.
"I'm not gonna say it, and you know that (Y/N)!"
You burst into laughter at your flustered best friend as the two of you continued down the hallway to meet with said friends.
~*~
Timeskip
~*~
It was the first period of the day, but instead of sitting in class, you were strolling through the empty hallways. Why? Because you were too smart for your own good. That's right. You were so sharp in your math period that the teacher had sent you to the advanced class to change your schedule. So instead of doing regular math with your classmates, you were going to take pre-algebra with the eighth graders.
Right when you were used to the people in your old class, you were being sent to another room full of strangers.
You exhaled a deep breath before entering the classroom. All eyes were pinned on you. Your nerves wracked as your gaze jumped from one student to another, till they landed on a familiar pair of friendly umber brown ones.
You internally sighed in relief. At least Tino is in your new class.
"Hello there," the teacher, Mr. Morgan, greeted from his desk. "You must be (Y/N), correct?"
"Yes," you meekly said with a shy nod.
"Ah, welcome (Y/N)! Mrs. Howard has told me much about you." Mr. Morgan smiled gently. "You must be quite the intelligent student to move up to my class."
"Thank you," you said sheepishly. "I have my schedule change form for you to sign."
"Oh, of course!" You handed your form to Mr. Morgan as he quickly signed his respective box.
"Here you go." Mr. Morgan returned the paper to you. "You can sit in between Tino and Cynthia right over there."
Mr. Morgan guided his hand towards your friend, Tino, along with a girl with golden blonde hair. It was cut into the style of a long pixie. She also adorned rectangular glasses, but instead of an intense stare behind her lens like Berwald's, her powder blue eyes held a welcoming vibe to them. Her warm gaze was complimented with a gentle smile as the two of you made eye contact.
She looked a bit familiar, but you couldn't recall where you had seen her.
You made your way towards the empty desk, greeting Tino as you set your bag down and took your seat.
"Hi there," the blond girl to your right greeted you. "My name is Cynthia, Cynthia Delta."
"I'm (Y/N)," you introduced. "Have we met before?"
"Yeah! We're in English class together."
So that's where you recognized her. You guessed you were too much of a reserved person to notice her.
"Anyways, it's nice to meet you (Y/N)." Cynthia lent her hand for you to shake. You returned the gesture.
"Nice to meet you too, Cynthia." You smiled at the blonde.
"I'm assuming you got put here too?" Cynthia asks.
"Yeah," you replied. "I guess I was smarter than I thought. At least, that's what my other math teacher thinks."
"I'll say," replied Cynthia. "I was put here too, surprisingly, so I guess we're on the same page."
"What are we doing for today?" You asked.
"We're just going over a worksheet right now, you can get them at the front of the class." Cynthia pointed at the front desk.
"Alright, thanks."
You walked to the front desk to retrieve a sheet and returned to your seat. Skimming over the questions, some of them you didn't know how to solve, leaving you confused.
"You missed a couple of lessons before you got here," Cynthia points out. "But I can help you with that so you can catch up!"
You looked at her in disbelief. "Really?"
"Yeah! I'm pretty solid with the material, so I don't mind, really. Plus, I can probably finish the worksheet in no time."
"I would appreciate that, thank you," You returned the smile.
"No problem," Cynthia beamed. "Now, let's go over rational and irrational numbers."
Maybe this class won't be so bad, after all.
~*~
Timeskip
~*~
The bell reverberated across the school grounds, signifying the end of class. You gathered your belongings, and so did Cynthia.
"Thank you so much for the help, Cynthia," you said as you slung your backpack on your shoulders.
"Of course! If you need any help, I got you," Cynthia nodded in assurance.
The two of you bid farewell to each other and filed out of the classroom on your own accord. Tino trailed after you and caught up to you.
Tino asked you how you were able to get into an eighth-grade class. You explained to him that you were doing too well to be in the math period you were initially assigned to, so you were sent to an advanced class.
"That is so great to hear," Tino says ecstatically. "We actually have a class together now! Maybe I'll be the one asking you for help instead of the other way around, haha!"
You stated your modesty to Tino, but he assures you that you are probably even smarter than him. All intelligence aside, you were just happy to be in a class with people you can actually talk to.
You and Tino walked down to the courtyard to meet up with Berwald and Emil. As the two of you exited the double doors, you spotted the other pair sitting on a bench on the opposite side. You and Tino strolled your way there.
The four of you chatted up a bit throughout recess until a voice cut through your conversation.
"Tino?" A boy's accent interrupted.
The four of you whipped your heads to find a blonde boy with a bowl cut and glasses standing nearby.
Tino gasped.
"Eduard?" Tino grinned.
Suddenly, he engulfed the unknown boy into a hug.
"Oh, my goodness! It's been so long!" Tino hollers in excitement.
As the two boys rejoiced in their reunion, you, Berwald, and Emil stood in your places awkwardly. You gazed at the other two Nordics; Emil seemed uninterested, while Berwald looked like he was going to rip the unknown boy's head off.
"Um, Tino, not to be rude or anything, but who is this guy?" You asked, causing Tino to regain his composure.
"Oh, sorry! Where are my manners?" Tino pulled away from his hug and stepped aside. "This is Eduard. He was one of my friends from when I was still living in Finland!"
"Hello, everyone," Eduard sheepishly greeted.
Berwald and Emil merely grunted while you gave him a small wave.
"I'm sure you've already met Berwald and Emil," Tino said.
As soon as Eduard's azure irises locked with Berwald's teal ones, he shivered fearfully.
"But I can't forget," Tino gestured to you. "This is (Y/N)! She's one of Emil's best friends, and now she's one of our friends too! Right, Su-san?"
Berwald grunted deeply.
"It's nice to meet you, Eduard." Your lips turned up to a small smile.
Eduard's face flushed. "I-It's nice to meet y-you too."
Damn, Eduard sounds like his voice is cracking on a constant rhythm.
The school bell rang, signaling the end of recess.
"Aww, we didn't get to catch up!" Tino frowned, but the corner of his lips quickly upturned. "No matter! At least now we can hang out again. Right, Eduard?"
"Yes, you are definitely right." Eduard smiled.
"We should get to class," Berwald said firmly, startling the two feeble boys.
"Agreed," Emil exasperated. "Where's your next class (Y/N)?"
"I have art class at the northern wing," you replied.
"Oh!" Eduardo popped in. "You're heading there too?"
You nodded as Eduardo caught up to walk by your side.
"I-I have my next class on the way there, actually," Eduard says shyly. "W-Would you mind if I can maybe, w-walk you there?"
You shrugged it off, not really thinking much of the favor. You already knew your way to your class. Though, the two of you were going the same way, so why not?
"Sure, if you really want to," you say casually.
"Oh, r-really? Well, let's go then."
"Alright. I'll see you at lunch, Emil," you called over the loud crowd of students beelining in between the two of you.
Emil was left baffled as he watched you and Eduard trot down a different hallway. He huffed out an irritated sigh and shook his head.
'I should've been the one walking with her,' Emil thought. 'But it's whatever, I guess. She can do just fine on her own. She doesn't even need that creepy baltic guy to walk her there.'
...
'Why am I even making a big deal over all of this?'
Emil internally sighed.
'Maybe I'm a weird one, too...'
~*~
May you rest in peace, Cynthia.
I love you,
Just like the joy reading gives you.
~*~