Chapter Text
“..Hunk will be paired with Shay and Lance will be paired with Keith.” The rough voice of the 40-something teacher announced to the class that seemed far too uninterested until the last sentence.
“What?” Came two voices from opposite sides of the classroom, the unison speakers being Lance McClain and Keith Kogane. The class clown and the lone wolf. Since they met, Lance and Keith has seemed like polar opposites. Lances loved making friends and being the centre of attention while Keith would rather sit alone with his headphones on, not paying anyone attention and no one paying him attention as a result.
A long and clearly irritated sigh made its way from their teachers mouth. “I’m sorry boys but Shay has only recently joined us and She works well with Hunk.” She said decidingly, though knew neither would take that statement as a deciding factor in this conversation.
“That's not fair- Me and Hunk are always a team!” Lance argued. It was true, he had always been paired with Hunk since the first day of high school. Lance glanced across the room at Keith. He clearly looked unamused but Lance had assumed that was the way his expression naturally fell. Like a ‘resting bitch face’, but with less ‘bitch’ and more ‘emo’.
“I’m sorry Lance, but Keith is one of the best in the class even when he works alone so you are working with him whether you like it or not.” The class was always at an odd number so Keith always had chosen to work alone, and the class knew that their teacher wasn't wrong. He was almost always at the top of the class and nobody knew that better than Lance who had never done better than him in terms of grades. “That’s only cause he gets his brother to do his work for him.” A small grumble of an argument left Lances lips, loud enough for only those paying him any attention would notice.
“Anyways, now that’s out of the way, I expect you to all at least to have an idea of what you want to do for your project. Go sit with your partners and get to work. Remember, this is seventy-five percent of your grade.” All the students shuffled their seats to sit across from their partners, most of them simply chatting away. Lance sat stubbornly in his seat, arms crossed over his chest, refusing to move. He would rather do a project by himself than be forced to work with the grumpiest, most stubborn and hard to work with member of their class. The only upside Lance would be able to find in working with Keith would be the fact he’d probably get a good grade. But that’s mean being made to sit and actually talk and look at Keith and his really, really dumb hair. Its 2018, who has a mullet anymore?!
After a solid five minutes of just sitting there and doing absolutely nothing, Lance decided he would have to actually move and force himself to speak to Keith at least somewhat about the project. Lance unenthusiastically dragged his chair over to sit across from Keith, being in the ‘hip, young teacher’ pose on the chair as he rested his arms on the back of it.
“So, Kogane, what are we doing for this project then? I assume you have some ideas if you really do all your projects on your own.” Lance probed for answers, a small smirk on his lips as if to say ‘i know you can't really do all that work alone, liar.’ Lance had always been the one to backchat Keith and irritate him until they both ended up in detention so whoever thought this pairing was a good idea, neither of them knew.
Keith simply rolled his eyes, not letting Lance get to him just now. “We can talk about it later, I can’t think straight with so many people talking.” He answered simply, resting his chin in the palm of his hand as he glanced around the room, all the other pairs chatting away and some even scribbling down ideas in notebooks if they were that eager to start.
“Well then i guess we wont get any work done in class..” Lance grumbled before thinking to himself for a moment, coming to a sudden realisation that had him sitting up straighter and looking at the other across from him. “Wait- will we have to actually meet up outside of this hell hole?”
“Well.. yeah, I guess. Got a problem with that, McClain?” Keith was no outsider to getting back at Lance with his own small comments, the two just seemed to thrive on arguing with the other. Keith's almost downgrading tone caused a small tut from Lance, turning to face away from him with a small shrug.
“That depends if you have a problem with it, Kogane.” Lance bit back. Their class would hopefully end quicker than it was going, the two sitting in stubborn and annoyed silence. They each thought about what would be good for a project but had assumed that whatever idea they did have, the other would hate. Keith and Lance would never be able to wrap their heads around why their teacher had paired them together even if they had a lifetime at it. After what felt like hours, despite only being half an hour, the class wrapped up and everyone gathered their things, going back to mindless chatting and jokes. Lance was quick to pick up his things and head over to Hunk, leaving Keith to his lonesome once again. As the bell rang for lunch and the students started to spill out of their classes, the teacher spoke up above the crowd.
“Don't forget, this project will count for seventy-five percent of your final grade so make sure it counts. Fail to turn in a final project will result in you failing the class.” Her tone was her usual stern and irritated but with a new sense of calm now her class was over.
“You okay, buddy? Usually you’re the first one rushing out of class.” Hunk nudged lances side lightly, though still being hefty enough to wobble lance on his feet, clearing his the brunettes mind for a moment as helping him move along out of the classroom. Lances mind was in a state of pure confusion and his expression certainly showed. His brows were furrowed slightly, accompanied with pursed lips in a small frown as he stared at nothing in particular. Though this only lasted for a couple of moments as they made their way to the dining hall, Hunk mindlessly talking away about what he was planning for the project him and Shay were doing. Before too long, Hunk and Lance were sat at their usual table, having grabbed their (unusual looking) lunch from the counter. Apparently the guidance counsellor, Coran, was trying to make the food at the school healthier, but even Hunk could hardly survive lunch with how sickening the food looked. Lance sat quietly and poked at his food for a grossed out minute before Pidge joined them, as per usual.
Pidge, nicknamed for her short stature, was two years younger than Hunk and Lance, but she studied at the same level due to her ‘pure genius’ as Lance liked to joke. She shared science and math classes with the two older boys, often laughing at Lances very dumb and nerdy jokes, cracking some of her own (mostly at Lance's expense, but all in good fun.) Not even two weeks into the school year and Pidge had been adopted into their little group of three. Hunk seemed to lighten up a lot when it was more people he was friends with, as did Lance, but unlike usual; Lance was still stuck in a daze, shifting the food around on his plate rather than eating it.
“I honestly do not know how you can stomach that stuff, Hunk.” Pidge spoke up, taking a bite of the sandwich she had brought with her, never trusting the food handed out by ‘questionable sources.’ The short girl wasn't opposed to spewing out her conspiracies about the school’s lunch system while in the middle of eating, much to her friends clear disgust about the whole topic of what was in the gross food they were forcing themselves to eat.
“We are not doing this again, Pidge.” Hunk sighed out before filling his mouth with another spoonful of what could only be described as ‘slop’. Lance glanced to his two friends between forced spoonful's of his lunch. Pidge and Hunk went back and forth about the usual arguments and jokes they made before noticing lance being unusually quiet, The two starting to stare at him and lance only noticing after he realised they were not talking anymore.
“Huh? Everything okay?” Lance asked, looking at them as the two relaxed a little in their seats.
“We were about to ask you the same thing. You seem pretty out of it today, Lance.” Pidge spoke up, Hunk having gone back to eating as Pidge spoke for the both of them.
“Well. Okay, so- Me and that idiotic mullet were forced to work together on the dumb project for our final in humanities class and he is just so hard to work with!” Lance complained, poking at his lunch with his fork as he huffed, just wishing that they could get that project done well. “The sooner this project is over with, the better.” Grumbled Lance, leaning back in his chair as he sighed and tried to make himself chipper up. He wanted to cheer up so the rest of the day could continue without his gloomy atmosphere. He put his fork down, stretching his arms above his head as he let out a long breath and broke into a toothy grin.
“I’m not gonna let him annoy me! He’ll do enough of that for the next.. Who knows how long! The rest of the year?” Lance shrugged, glancing at the dining hall before smiling at his friends.
“Anyways, in more important news, what’s this i hear about Pidge actually not getting one hundred percent on the homework from the other day?” Lance teased, resting his chin in the palm of his hands, feigning innocence. Pidge quickly shot Lance a death glare to which he responded with a further joking wink. Hunk had to stop himself from spitting out his final mouthful of ‘food’ and swallow it before slamming his hands on the table and looking at Pidge with an exasperated expression.
“But you always get full marks! What happened, Pidge?” Hunk asked with clear and genuine concern for his friend. Hunk paused for a response that he didn't get before gasping perhaps a little too loudly. “You’re not overworking yourself right? You’re eating right? You need to make sure you take care of you genius brain before it short-circuits!” Hunk continued for a moment before Pidge just let out a loud groan, cause Hunk to fall quiet.
“I’m fine, okay! I probably didn't check my workings before handing in the homework. Geez, Hunk, I got 98 marks overall anyways so it's not like I dropped that many to worry about. I’m still top of the class!” Pidge adjusted her glasses, relaxing in the chair as Hunk let out a sigh. Lance chuckled, patting Hunks shoulder lightly.
“Good to know you care about us though, buddy.” Lance smiled brightly, Hunk nudging his side lightly with a roll of his eyes and shooting a happy smile back at him. Pidge just laughed lightly and watched them for a moment as she finished off her lunch and grabbed her small, portable laptop from her bag. She had been working on a personal project that was ‘top secret’ to Lance and Hunk, no matter how many times they tried to sneak a peek at her stuff. She was just lucky that her friends didn't know her password. The three relaxed and has some casual chats for a while before Lance and Hunk moved to go and clean away their lunch trays of somewhat eaten slop. Lance turned, not looking where he was headed before practically giving himself a concussion by walking into someone.
“Ow! What the-” Lance started, steadying himself on his feet before he looked and realised he had walked into none other than the mullet himself, Keith Kogane.
“Keith?! What the hell? What do you want now?” Lance asked, a definite frown on his pursed lips. He had just about forgotten about the impending doom of working for Keith for the coming months and then he just walks right into him. Keith’s expression mirrored Lance, rolling his eyes before looking at Lance.
“I was coming over to ask you for your number. We’ll have to do the project out of school, if you actually want to do it that is.” Keith smirked to himself, knowing that would get under Lances skin and would probably help him in getting the brunettes number anyways. Lance didn’t like being shown up or made fun of so It certainly did tick the taller teen off. Lance rolled his eyes, grabbing his phone from his pocket and handing it to Keith.
“You do it if you want my number so desperately.” Lance grumbled, stepping past Keith and walking with Hunk to put their things away. The staff would have a field day if they knew a senior didn’t tidy up after themselves when eating. Lance was quick to put his things away, throwing out whatever gloop he hadn't eaten, which just so happened to me most of it. After a moment, the two made their way back over to the table. Keith was resting against the edge of the table next to Pidge, speaking up when they sat back down as he handed Lance his phone back.
“Okay, McClain, it’s all sorted. I’ll text you about the project later. Make sure you text me back, I don't want to be doing this dumb project alone.” Keith grumbled, shifting his black backpack over his shoulder slightly. He was probably just as annoyed as Lance that they were paired up, but he just decided not to make a big deal about it and get it over with. After receiving a small ‘yeah, yeah, whatever’ from Lance, Keith left the three alone, pulling his headphones back over his ears as he left the cafeteria. Pidge looked to Lance, a small smile on his lips as Lance looked bewilderedly at his phone and spotted the contact.
“He.. named himself mullet? Is he self-aware or does he know I call him that?”