I wanted to kill myself.
Okay that was a bit too far.
Still, I looked at Yaoyorozu, the afternoon light filtering through the windows. It should have made her look like some kind of ethereal beauty but all I saw was a demon in human skin, ok that was also a bit too far but point stands.
We had been waiting for three hours, and during those three hours I had been lectured in an I don't remember how many steps plan for the future year and class activities. Hence why I wanted to kill myself.
"How much longer?" I asked, my voice carrying a hint of desperation that I tried to suppress.
She looked at the clock hanging above the blackboard, its second hand ticking away with an almost mocking rhythm.
"Not much longer. They said they would come to class 1A as soon as they could."
"As soon as they could. Today right?" I asked, already dreading the answer.
She turned from me, suddenly finding the empty desks around us incredibly fascinating.
"Please tell me they told you they would come today," I asked, my grip on Excalibur's hilt tightening unconsciously.
She remained quiet, her silence speaking volumes.
"Yaoyorozu?"
She remained quiet, even more so if that was possible.
"You there?"
"No," she answered, her voice barely above a whisper.
"No you aren't there or no they didn't specify today?"
"The latter."
I sighed, letting my head fall back against my chair. The classroom felt impossibly large with just the two of us in it.
"Great."
"It's not my fault okay!" she yelled turning back to me, her composure finally cracking. Her usually perfect posture had devolved into something more... wild, like she hadn't expected my question. "They tell you as soon as possible it's reasonable to assume they meant today."
"But why not ask them just to be sure?"
"I didn't see you doing it."
"You got me there," I answered, my arms now crossed on the table, my head changing position to rest above them. Maybe it was because of the fact I ate minimally as a vigilante and slept nothing at all, but I loved both of those activities and I would admit that loud and proudly. Right now, all I could think about was the warm bed waiting for me in my dorm room and the dinner I was missing.
The silence stretched between us again, punctuated by the ticking of the clock.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
Tock.
I know it shouldn't have, but it was getting on my nerves. Especially since I could also hear Kaminari's distinctive laugh echoing from somewhere down the hallway, probably joking around with Kirishima and the others. A pang of longing hit me, I could have been with them, enjoying a normal evening instead of sitting here in a bureaucratic purgatory which hadn't even begun.
"Arthur," Yaoyorozu said quietly, breaking the silence. "I'm sorry. I should have been more specific with them."
I lifted my head to look at her. The frustration that had been building up in my chest suddenly felt petty. I was getting too drunk on a normal life, and yet as I saw her the reason why I had a vigilante in the first place rose in my mind.
So I apologized.
"It's fine," I said, meaning it. "We're both new to this whole leadership thing, right? We're bound to make mistakes. Guess I need to learn patience along with restraint, huh."
"Restraint?" Yaoyorozu asked.
Before I could respond, we heard a rustle from the door, the hinges creaking. I smiled, relief flooding through me. Finally. I burst from my seat and in front of the door, my speed probably unnecessary but my patience had worn thin.
In front of me were two people.
A girl and a boy.
The girl had rounded teal eyes with white pupils and long orange hair tied into a high ponytail on the left side of her head. Her bangs were split into three clumps around her eyes, and some of her hair stuck up in large tufts at the top of her head.
The boy on the other hand was short. Sorry, but that was the first thing that came to mind. Other than that he was a bit chubby, had icy blue hair that shaped his round face along with large eyes but small black pupils.
His eyes widened when he saw me, and I saw him suddenly get nervous.
"Hello," I began, trying to channel some of the diplomatic energy Yaoyorozu had been drilling into me for the past three hours. "I'm Arthur Pendragon, president of class 1A. You've already met Yaoyorozu, she's the vice president. It's a pleasure to meet you."
I was expecting myself to be awkward, which I still kind of felt but oddly I wasn't that scared of introducing myself like I had been on the first day of school.
"Can't believe the school let in a vigilante," the girl said, her expression serious.
My face fell. Ok maybe I should have been more careful about my introduction. Great, here we go again. I braced myself for another lecture about how vigilantism was wrong and dangerous and..
The girl whose face was scrunched up, suddenly smiled, her entire demeanor shifting like a switch had been flipped.
"I'm joking, I'm joking, Itsuka Kendo, big fan, also class president of class 1B."
My face lit up again, relief and embarrassment mixing in equal measure. Great, she kind of felt like Mina, just not as...unruly. She also didn't seem like the kind of girl who would use words, like fam or boi.
"You really had me going there for a second," I admitted, rubbing the back of my neck.
"Sorry, couldn't resist. The look on your face was priceless." Kendo grinned. "But seriously, what you did as a vigilante was pretty impressive. Even if it was technically illegal."
"Uhm, hi," the boy began, his voice soft but clear. "I'm Nirengeki Shoda, it's nice to meet you."
He held up his hand with a slight bow, more formal than Kendo's casual introduction. I gladly shook it, his hand was a bit sweaty but I didn't mind.
"Nice to meet you too."
"Sorry for coming so late," Shoda said releasing his grip.
"Oh, don't worry about it," I answered. "I'm sure you came as soon as you could."
They nodded.
"We should probably take our seats," Yaoyorozu said, her voice carrying that slight edge of formality she used when she wanted to get things back on track.
"Our seats?" I asked, looking around the empty classroom. We hadn't exactly planned out a seating arrangement.
"I think she just means we should sit close to talk," Kendo said, already moving toward the front of the classroom where our desks were arranged.
"Yeah that," Yaoyorozu nodded, looking slightly flustered that her suggestion hadn't been as clear as she'd intended.
So we pulled up the chairs, rearranging them into a rough circle near the windows.
"So what exactly did you call us here for?" Kendo asked, settling into her chair, her legs spreading wide. "Don't get me wrong, I always appreciate meeting new people, but this is a bit weird."
Yaoyorozu looked at me, her eyes carrying that familiar weight of expectation. Yeah, we had talked about this, I was supposed to take the lead on the actual discussion.
"Ughum," I coughed, trying to give out an air of professionalism that I definitely didn't feel. "Well, we thought it would be a nice step forward for us to get to know each other better as we will be operating together to plan certain school events performed by our classes."
The words came easy, if anything they were a bit rehearsed, but Yaoyorozu had made me practice this opening at least five times.
"Okay look, not that I mind any of this," Kendo said, leaning back in her chair, "but we are kind of rival classes."
"Rivals?" I muttered before I could stop myself.
"Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with any of you, in fact most of class 1B doesn't have a problem with you," Kendo continued, "but the heroics department has always had some rivalry between both classes. In fact there is a certain classmate of ours that has been pretty vocal about hating your guts."
I pointed at Yaoyorozu then at myself, genuinely confused.
"Our guts?"
"Not you specifically," Shoda added with a slight chuckle. "He just dislikes that you're named class 1A. Something about alphabetical superiority being arbitrary and unfair."
"Oh."
I guess I could understand that. In fact, thinking about it, Bakugo would most likely be the same if he were in class 1B. He'd probably say something like:
Why do those two-bit fucking extras get to be A, huh! They should die!
I almost laughed as I thought about it, picturing Bakugo's explosive reaction to being placed in the what he would think would be the inferior alphabetical position.
"We still wish to have a smooth relationship, so our future endeavors are fruitful," Yaoyorozu said, slipping back into her formal tone. "We believe that having a rivalry like other years have had will be worse for all of us in the future, since we will most likely work together during our agency internships. It wouldn't make sense to have bad blood between us."
I really hadn't thought about all of that. The idea of working alongside these people in the future, maybe even depending on them in dangerous situations, made the whole rivalry thing seem pretty stupid.
"Plus," I added, "if we're all going to be heroes, shouldn't we be focusing on working together rather than competing against each other? I mean, villains don't care which class we came from."
Kendo and Shoda exchanged a look.
"Yeah that makes sense," Shoda finally said.
"So what do you say? Want to work together to make the best of this year?" I asked.
Both Kendo and Shoda looked at each other again. Then they turned back to us with matching smiles.
"Sure why not," Kendo said. "Could be interesting to shake things up."
"I think that is a great idea," Shoda added.
Yaoyorozu beamed at their responses, her relief practically radiating from her. "Great, then I'll make a chat group between the four of us, so we can coordinate and plan."
We handed Yaoyorozu our numbers. I realized, looking at my phone, that I didn't have a lot of contacts. Nezu, Toru, Mina, Tsuyu, Kirishima and Kaminari, that was pretty much it.
All of which I had given proper surnames for their contact names.
Nezu Principal.
The others I named them with their names and U.A. at the end. Now what were the chances I would run into another person who was named exactly like them and I would get their number?
Probably no one. But you could never be to sure.
After giving out our contact information and appropriately naming them in my contacts as their name plus U.A. as a surname, we fell into an awkward silence.
"Guess, that's all for today," Shoda said, rising from his chair with a small bow, he was really polite.
"Indeed," Yaoyorozu added as she rose from her own chair, bowing in response while smoothing down her skirt.
"We'll keep in touch," Kendo said as she and Shoda walked toward the door.
"Thank you both for coming," I replied. "Even if the timing was a bit... unclear."
Kendo laughed. "No worries. We'll make sure to be more specific next time."
I could see Yaoyorozu get as red as a tomato at my side.
As they left, I heard Kendo saying something to Shoda about that Monoma guy and how he was going to have a field day if he ever found out about this helping each other deal. I made a mental note to ask about this Monoma person later.
Yaoyorozu and I stared at the now closed door, the classroom suddenly feeling very empty again.
"Hey Yaoyorozu."
"Yes, Arthur?"
"This president and vice president stuff is going to be a lot of work? Isn't it?"
"Most definitely."
I sighed and gripped Excalibur's hilt... hard.
"Thought so."
A/N: I apologize profusely for the incredibly late chapter. It was kind of hard to write, then I had to make dinner, a few things kept popping up and before I knew it... BAM!
Either way, I've uploaded so it's fine. The daily streak will continue. Oh as for this chapter, I feel like I have most of the relationship threads done, so we can advance quicker from now on (or at least I hope so).
The main four are. Nezu and Arthur. Arthur and his friend group. Arthur and his fan club (only Nejire as of now, though he has met one other person who is in his fan club, they jusy haven't disclosed it) and finally the president cabinet of class 1A and 1B.
I've also started to realize how many damn girls are around Arthur lol. Thank god this isn't a smut or harem cause he would be collecting them like pokemon if that were the case, but no, in this story people won't be degenerates aside from Mineta though I have a plan for him (Kaminari is also a bit of a degenerate but Arthur's holiness will rub off him sooner or later).
That's pretty much it, expect a bonus chapter tomorrow (most likely). Thx for reading. Author out.