Chapter Text
I didn't want to go to practice today. It was fucking Tuesday, and yesterday practice kicked ass. I was kinda sore, and I just wanted to chill with Marco and eat junk food. Plus I had all this stupid work to do, at some point. Damn, Mikasa looked nice bending over today in English earlier this morning, when someone walked past her desk and knocked down her scarf from where she had taken it off. Too bad she was bending over for Eren, technically, since it was something he gave her, but I didn't entertain that thought much. Maybe if I knocked it down she'd be bending over for me.
I honestly didn't even care if people made of fun me for checking her out, as many people did since I made it obvious how interested I was in her since the 5th grade. In seventh and eighth grade it was so fucking obvious. I didn't see why people reminded me so much though. I was a hormonal piece of fuck, and Mikasa was obviously more curvey than the girls then, and she still kind of is. But my crush died down by ninth. Now as a tenth grader I could just admire how damn hot she was.(Not that I would turn her down if she asked me out)Fuck it.
My thinking was disrupted by the buzz cut kid sitting next to me. Or more below me than anything, with his short ass. His short ass managed to hit my head pretty nicely however, which fucking hurt.
"You planning on growing anytime soon Connie?" I wondered why the fuck he hit me, but my response was an insult instead. It was more satisfying.
"Bro, did you hear the teach? We're partners!" He was grinning from ear to ear. I didn't blame him. We were friends, afterall, and it was hard to get a decent partner in this damn chemistry class, let alone someone you can stand. How Connie managed chemistry, I'm not sure. I didn't mind, nor care though.
"Who the fuck says teach, stop embarrassing me..." I pretended to look around like someone might've heard him, to further the fact that he was lame.
"Man, trust me, I'm growing. I'm just working on some parts that you should maybe think about catching up on." He winked at me, and I rolled my eyes.
"Yah, well, you're doing a shitty job at that alone, so you should probably work on first impressions first."
"Ooh, is someone jealous of what a lady killer the Con-mans become?"
"Bro, you're just lucky Sasha goes for personality." I was pretty good at being rude to people, and sometimes I didn't know when I was going too far, but lucky for me Connie could hardly take anything serious. Most of the time anyways. When he was mad though, he was a feisty little shrimp. I was never on the receiving end of his feist, at least. We were good.
"You're lucky that some girls in this school don't. I don't wanna see my buddy die a sad, lonley death." He was also pretty good at roasting people, and never really backed down. That was usually why when the two of us started up, it went on forever.
I gave out an exaggerated scoff. "That's cute that you think I'm going for someone in this school for the future. Right now it's just a few hit and runs." I smirked to support the remark.
"Hey man, you wouldn't get that either if they were just into personality." He mirrored my grin, as we were both obviously playing, when the teacher called us out.
"Alrighty kiddos. I'm being generous because believe me, I know who you hate in here and who you don't." Hanji raised her brows at me and Connie, or more me than anything it felt like, "and I purposely didn't put you with those people you hate, due to the fact that this project might already be a pain in the arse. So don't take advantage of my generosity." Although her dialogue seemed stern and professional, her smile was mad. That was actually alot scarier than stern and serious. Unless we're talking about Mr.Ackerman. Shit, I didn't know who was worse.
Definately Ackerman.
"Kirsten- research!"
Connie looked at the computer quickly, "researching" as she scolded me.
"...damn, she always calls me out..." He turned his head and shrugged.
"Well guess my voice isn't as loud as yours." He patted my back. "It's alright, bud."
"Connie, are you playing fucking Roblox." I looked at him and then at the computer.
"Yeah bro, wanna play?"
"We're in the fucking tenth grade, Mr. Lady-killer."
"Yeah, and there are people who don't do shit but play this and make a living outta that. Wouldn't mind that."
"Who the fuck are those people?"
"YouTubers my dood. Get out from under that rock."
I nodded mockingly.
"Riight. So until that happens, get the hell off that shit and let's look up some chemical elements."
"We got 5 minutes Jeannie, back off." I rolled my eyes. I did back off though, because I didn't want to seem uptight.
"Fine. But don't call me that. It's bad enough when Jaeger does it."
"Mhm."
He was completely engrossed in the game. I just decided to pack up. I had algebra 2 Ap next, which Connie sure as hell didn't have. What can I say, I was pretty smart. Armin, of course, was in there. Eren wasn't. If he was, then I'd be alone the whole semester. Or with some annoying kid. At least me and Armin were friends.
The bell rang and I kicked Connie's stool as a goodbye. He still had his shit out and was logged onto the computer as kids were leaving. What a dumbass.
I got to math pretty early, but not before Armin. I couldn't think of a time he wasn't there before me. I threw my bag down at my desk, startling the blond who was frantically writing something already. Damn was I done with today.
"Hey." I plopped down next to him, leaning over to see what he was writing. I wasn't being nosey. He did this nearly everyday. He was always continuing something from another class, doing his homework, or doing something early. And of course, sometimes reading. He leaned his head over to me, but didn't take his eyes off the paper as he was finishing a sentence. I guess that was a hi. Because I didn't comment on the fact that he didn't respond, he started writing another sentence after he finished the last.
"Oh no, please don't let me distract you from your urgent work." I wasn't serious, obviously, but he stopped writing and shot his head in my direction.
"Uh, hey Jean. I'm sorry, I was just finishing these notes from chemistry, you know, before I forgot them."
I gave them a look over.
"I have a text book if you wanna copy from there." I began to reach for my bag, but he responded
"Oh-no, that's fine Jean. I got the ones from the book already, it's just... something else."
I looked at his notes again. Yeah, I didn't remember taking that.
"You know she only said to write down the last 3 paragraphs on 239." I looked at his long ass page again.
"And you could summarize." He seemed to look down a bit.
"Y-yeah, I know. This just, uhm. It helps me if I write out everything. That way, if I’m not sure about something, I don't have to interrupt my studying to search for the answer." He looked at me, expectant, brows furrowed. Damn, he was a nerd.
"Aye, whatever works." Mr. Zacharias, or Mr.Z as everyone called him, was handing out two papers. Everyone instantly looked at the board to see the daily tasks, as Mr.Z made it pretty clear he didn't care to speak much at the beginning of the year, and would write what we needed to know on the board everyday. He also said he'd answer any questions, and that he would ignore the stupid ones. Some kids tried to be funny and ask dumbass questions anyway, but eventually stopped as Mr.Z had a passive and strange way of embarrassing those kids. Not speaking from experience or anything. The board explained that the first paper, one page, was classwork, and the second, front and back, was homework. I groaned aloud. Damnit, it was Tuesday. I hated when I got homework on Tuesday because I always assumed that what I got Monday was the weeks homework. Nope. I actually hated homework in general. But hey, Historia's party was Saturday and I had that to look forward to. I looked over at the blonde next to me. He was already halfway finished with the classwork paper.
"You going to Christa's party?" Her name was Historia, but everyone called her Christa because she hated her real name, for reasons only her and her girlfriend knew. I thought Christa was more fitting for her than Historia anyway. Armin was apparently really into his work, as he didn't answer.
I pushed his arm lightly, and he turned sharply towards me, almost irritated. Shit. I could never tell when he was like this or not.
"So you going or not?" I kept my resting bitch face. Everyone knew I had it, so I was just looking like me when my eyes were narrowed and eyebrows raised in a jerk-like way.
"Going where, Jean?" He stopped what he was doing completely, looking at me steely.
"I don't know, what was this Saturday again?" I asked sarcastically. His irritation was just irritating me, which sucked because this never worked out with us. He wasn't as loud and boldly abrasive as Eren, but he was just as stubborn. This meant that our stubbornness clashed, too.
He furrowed his eyebrows, pursing his lips.
"Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday?" I scrunched up my face.
"Oh yes. I'm fucking excited for that shit. Bro, where the hell would we be going on Saturday to celebrate that? And why do you know his birthday on the top of your head. If you're going to be weird, you don't gotta be obvious about it."
"Sorry Jean, that I'm weird. And I wasn't addressing your statement about going on Saturday, you asked what was this Saturday, and that's what came to mind. And it really isn't that weird that I know that on the top on my head. He's a very monumental man who progressed the Civil Rights movement probably more than a lot of-"
"Armin, did you really forget?" His mouth hung open, mid sentence. His irritated face slowly turned to worry and I saw the gears turning in his brain. I grinned at how stressed out he was getting at forgetting something. I decided to play with him a bit.
"Wow. It's so fucking obvious. I can't believe you don't even remember." He tapped his pencil against the desk facing forward in thought.
"Want a hint?" I looked smugly at him. "Queen-"
"Oh!" He cut me off, clearly proud, yet sounding a bit uncertain as he said:
"1559, January 15th, Queen Elizabeth The First was crowned." His smile was slightly sheepish, and he awaited a response eagerly. I didn't know where the fuck he was storing that information, but it was damn impressive.
"Noooo-ah. Armin." I smacked the back of his head lightly, yet he still jolted.
"You said Queen-" he looked frustrated and upset.
"Come on, man. Its Christa's fucking birthday. Remember the queen themed party she's having for her 15th birthday. Dude, she's even turning 15. That's a hint itself."
"Oh." He looked kinda guilty, kind of disappointed in himself, but then resumed his work. I turned my palm, faced up.
"So you going?" He sighed, louder than usual, and sat his pencil down.
"Jean, what I'm going to be doing on Saturday if I don't finish this now is algebra homework."
"Dude, not even. You're such a drama queen. You always finish your shit early."
"Well, then let me-"
I slid his paper onto my desk, and put my hand over it.
He eyed my hand.
"I want to do it now and get it over with so that I don't need to worry about it later."
"It's literally one. Fucking. Question." I rested my chin in my hand. He finally looked at me.
"I don't know, Jean. I'll see Saturday." Just then his phone vibrated, a text from Eren displaying itself brightly.
Eren: so now ur just gonna fkn ignore me like it's my fault
I raised my eyebrows at the profanity. Not that Eren never cussed. That was some stand up comedy in itself. What was surprising was that I've never heard, or in this case, seen Eren talk that way to Armin. With me, there's been countless times.
So that was why he was being kinda bitchy. I made it pretty obvious that I had read the text, not that I had meant to, and he flipped his phone over, sighing through his nose. He continued on with his algebra, and I tried to un-awkwardize the situation. Fuck. Now I looked like a nosey little bitch.
"Your boyfriend mad at you?" I regretted the words right after I said them. What kind of fucking attempt at a joke was that? Well I knew what career I wasn't going into.
He shot me a glare, he face reddening. After a few times of teasing, I've come to accept that his fair skin reddened quite easily.
"He's not my- Jean, just leave it alone. Please."
"Yeah. Sorry." It was probably serious, since it was Eren and Armin, so I decided not to be stupid and make it worse than I was already in the process of doing. He seemed to appreciate the apology and gave a weak smile, but didn't take his eyes off his paper.
By the time I looked down at my desk again to remember I had work, Armin had finished his classwork and was on the back page of his homework.
Well that was fast. Hopefully that meant it was easy, even if Armin was unusually smart.
I became frustrated on the ninth problem and slumped back in my chair. Armins phone vibrated again, and we both looked at it, then looked at each other, then he went back to his work. I reached into my backpack for something to eat. Mr.Z was the only teacher that really let anyone eat in his class. Sometimes you could get away with it in chemistry, if we were just doing paperwork and no lab, which was rare with Hanji. It was absolutely fucking forbidden to eat in world history. Mr.Ackerman became, some fucking how, 1000 times scarier if he found a fucking crumb on the floor. Mr.Z just says he better not smell a crumb when we're done. So everyone made sure they cleaned up.
I grabbed out a sandwich. Not so much a snack, but shit I was hungry.
Armin stacked up his papers, evidently finished, and grabbed his phone, subtly turning his body slightly from me. I side eyed him a bit, but mostly focused on the yummy sandwich I was eating. My mom was some damn cook, even with sandwiches. I swore she could make anything taste better than the original recipe. Usually I made my sandwiches now-a-days, as I didn't have the luxury of everyday mom sandwiches as I did till about eighth grade, but occasionally I could enjoy them. She made them all the time for me at home, but now with basketball practice and shit I had to be more responsible. And no, I would not fucking tell anyone this was a sandwich my mom made. Especially Jaeger. And Connie. And even Armin. And especially Reiner. And Bert. And fuck if I'd let any girls know.
I heard Armin furiously tapping on his phone. Damn, they must be in some argument. I wondered what it could be about. I've never really witnessed them fight before. Sometimes Eren would be an accidental ass and hurt Armins feelings, but usually he'd catch himself and apologize, which Armin always willingly accepted. And Armin could even say something he didn't mean to come off as desensitized at times, but would explain his intent to Eren later, who would gladly except the lengthy speech with annoyingly big vocabulary as an apology.
I tried to come up with a few options. It was probably Eren who started it. Probably. Maybe he'd hurt Armins feeling too much this time? Maybe he hit on a girl in front of Armin. I smiled as I pictured the scowl Armin would give me if I had said that aloud. I wouldn't be smiling if that was reality, of course. I'd probably end up feeling guilty.
I finished my sandwich, easily. I wished my work was like my sandwich. I sighed and decided to put that shit up. Hell, I could just do it at home. I heard the clang as Armin sat his phone down again on his desk. Well I had French with Eren next. It would be alot easier to tell what was going on with him, honestly. Armin was a decently nice kid, but he was reserved as hell.
I looked through the rubric for the project that was given in chemistry, since I knew I would need to know what I was doing. I mean, Connie was my partner. He would do shit, but only if he didn't have to figure out how to on his own. He was good at taking orders.
The bell eventually rang after a few more moments of me staring into space, at classmates, and at my desk, and of Armin scribbling something or texting Eren hastily. I practically skipped to French. I loved that class. It was a freebie for me, easily. I knew alot of French, since my dad's side was French. Alot of it has escaped me over the years, but it was still fairly easy. I understood the concepts and grammar, I just forgot some vocabulary. When I figured out Eren was in the same French class as me this year, likely trying to get his language credit, I almost considered changing. I didn't want him to ruin my favorite class, the little bitch, but i didn't want to ruin my schedule that I was content with either. Marco told me to give it a shot and I did, which turned out okay as me and Eren hit it off well since we were both pretty serious about the class, for different reasons for course, but it helped since I didn't really have any of my friends in that class, as I had at least one in every other. Plus everyone else seemed disiniterested and gloomy. I arrived, before Eren, and sat down next to the window. Me and him had this unspoken rivalry of sitting next to the window, so whoever got there first got it. We had an unspoken rivalry just about everything, but this was another one. Everyone else in the class kinda got this, and they sat at different tables away from me and him. They were the type of kids not to care much anyways.
The late bell rang and Eren didn't arrive. I was curious as to where he was, only because I saw him that morning in the cafeteria. The teacher was telling us what page we needed to complete in the books, when Eren suddenly pushed the door open. He stomped over to the teacher and practically shoved his tardy pass in their hand, and sat down dramatically next to me. He was breathing heavy, and his eyebrows were pressed together dangerously.
Someone was pissed.
I wonder what about.
I smiled and, after everyone settled down from Erens rude arrival, said,
"Well damn, did mommy and daddy powpow you a little too hard last night. Must be a sting still there, huh?" I grinned, and he snapped his head in my direction.
"Shut the fuck up Horseface, I swear I'll slam that ugly ass grin right off your face and into the damn wall. And if you don't like that I'll stick your big ass head right up your uptight ass." I always enjoyed how creative his threats were. I didn't enjoy how everyone was staring, though, as he shouted his insult much louder than I had mine.
"Eren, do you need to step outside for a moment? And excuse your French." The teacher laughed a little at his own joke.
"No, but I mean if I can step outside with this asshole right now and beat his stupid ass into the concrete, fuck yeah." He turned his threatening gaze from the teacher towards me.
"Now, Eren, we've had these talks. Those kinds of threats can get you jail time."
He sighed loudly through his nose, then slumped down in his chair, looking to the side.
If we were in any other class, Eren would've already been escorted outta the class and to the office or something. But you know how language teachers were.
I thought it'd be funny to further the anger that was an evident aura around Eren, but I was very aware of where my limitations were. Usually.
Anyways, I could tell he was pretty damn mad.
I worked on the pages given, and took notice of how Eren, even more furiously than Armin, tapped out on his phone, slamming it down, picking it up, just to slam it down again, then pick it up again.
It was interesting and everything, the drama, but usually I relaxed in this class, surprisingly enough as that was with Eren in it, but I needed the extra brain rest after algebra 2, so I was really looking forward to lunch next. Eren eventually stopped texting and just started to more consistently pick up his phone, and slam it down, obviously checking for a response. The teacher only came around once to tell Eren to get on task, who sighed loudly and ran his hands through his hair, pulling. He didn't really ask after that. Eventually the bell rang, and Eren practically ran outta the class room, eyes still on the screen of his phone. I pushed in his chair and followed behind.
We had the same lunch, B lunch. Our friend group at lunch this year consisted of me, Eren, Mikasa, Reiner, Historia, Sasha, and Connie. I didn't really know where the rest were, if they were in A or B, but I asked Armin and Marco, who were both in C lunch, and Marco told me Bertholdt had A lunch. I didn't really ask anyone else aside from Marco and Armin, so that's all I knew.
I eventually arrived, sitting at our lunch table, which was in the corner of the cafeteria, and pulled out my lunch, as did Mikasa, and Christa. Everyone else bought theirs, so we often had conversation before they got there.
I considered myself lucky to get lunch with the majority of the group, but I still missed how in freshman year we all had the same lunch. Ymir and Annie included.
It was a big ass school, so they had to divide it into three lunches, I guess.
There were also those big ass trees you could see outside of the cafeteria.
Eren was the first to slump down in his everyday seat next to Mikasa, and started instantly shoving spaghetti into his mouth. I sat on the opposite side of Eren and Mikasa, facing the two, next to Connie and Sasha, who were in the snack line.
Eren began ranting to Mikasa, loudly.
Guess I accidentally started to listen up.
"Gosh...he's fucking pissing me off so bad Mikasa." He started off kind of quiet, but of course the tempo in his voice began to rise. Mikasa listened attentively, but seemed like she wasn't, because she kept correcting him about stuff.
"Eren, don't talk with your mouth full. Some people don't like to look at that while they're eating." She basically demonstrated what he needed to correct as she gracefully ate her salad.
"Mikasa! Are you listening!?"
She simply nodded. He looked at her a bit longer for confirmation, then continued his rant.
"Yeah, well, I told him to meet me near that one restroom near Mr.Ackermans class, because he was being all bitchy about being late, and I knew he had history next, so I was trying to make it easy on him-" Reiner sat down next to Christa, which was pretty eventful as always, due to his size. I admired his football abilities. He was Captain during the season.
I tried to ease back into Erens rant.
"-and when I got there he wouldn't even let me speak. He kept on and on about how long I took. You know how fucking far I had to run?! I literally went my fastest to spare the complaining, and he wouldn't even let me speak. So while he was wasting time talking about how 'long' I took-" he made quotation marks with his hands.
"I was trying to solve the problem, like he wanted me to. But nah, you know what he said. 'Oh, Eren, I'm going to be late, just text me about it.' Why the hell-!"
"Eren." Mikasa said calm, but firmly.
"Keep it down."
He lowered his voice, barley.
"So I grabbed his hand, because he started to walk off and he wasn't even letting me speak!" He whispered harshly.
"Why didn't you just text him?" Mikasa questioned, mellow.
"Because! Who's side are you on, Mikasa?!"
"Eren, I'm not on a 'side'." I watched how astonished he looked, and inwardly laughed. Aw, his precious beautiful Mikasa wasn't siding with him.
"What do you mean you aren't on my side!?" He turned fully towards her.
"I mean that-"
"What? You think that he's right?"
"Eren, I don't think either of you are right."
He stared blankly at her, shocked.
"Wow, now I can't even talk to anyone about it." He started to turn away from her.
Yes. Fuck yes. You see how much of a little bitch he is now, Mikasa? Look over here. I-
"Eren, please," she grabbed at his shoulder. I sighed. Connie and Sasha had sat down quite some time ago, but I was very immersed in Eren's and Mikasas conversation, and I didn't give them a second look. Even if they were loud as shit.
When I looked back at Eren, he was ranting again. I guess he accepted her...apology? Did she apologize. Damnit Connie, quit fuckin throwing fries. You're getting Sasha worked up.
"-So he ended up getting pissed at me even though it was so fucking his fault that he was late."
"Eren, you made him late?"
"No! What the hell, were you listening?"
"He's never been late before. Like, ever."
Eren went a little quiet for a second.
"Yeah, I know- that doesn't mean-" he was cut off by the bell. Damn, would I ever escape from this soap opera? I watched as he continued to talk to her, walking off as I gathered up my backpack.
Well, guess I just did.
I walked to history with Reiner.
The rest of the day was pretty chill. After I got got home from practice, of course. I tried to work on some algebra, but I gave up after I finished the front page of the homework. I sighed. I still haven't gotten Christa anything for her birthday. What do I get her, anyway? Something girly, probably. Then again, she was a cheerleader. Maybe something athletic? I don't know. Guess I'll look for something Friday. It was only Tuesday. I had plenty of time. I really hoped that her party was exciting. It should be, since everyone was all hyped about the hot, but more cute than hot (Mikasa was more hot),and politically active, well, class president’s, queen-themed birthday party. It was crazy that I was apart of Christa's inner friend circle. Of course, overall, she was closer to Reiner, Bert, and Annie, who were all pretty popular themselves. Well, not so much Annie. Annie wasn't that close to anybody, bus I saw her hanging with Christa alot. And of course, there was Ymir, who was surprisingly not as popular as her girlfriend. She was a bit like me. I wasn't any Reiner or Christa, but I knew a lot of girls thought I was cute. And hey, I was on the A team in football, now basketball, and I was played alot too. The guys respected me. Plus, I kept my grades up.
I fell back onto my bed, after taking a shower. I ended up falling asleep with the light on, ass naked.