Chapter Text
It is a nice-looking, cloudy weather at the Iron Solari Academy campus, most of the students are sitting on benches around the school studying to the exams that are close to come, but some of them choose to review subjects lying on the lawn, recently trimmed by the old janitor Yorick.
However, inside the institution a great mess happens. By the corridors, a small, blue-haired girly student guides the chemistry teacher towards the gym. There is no game, but it’s not reason to it be empty. When teacher Ryze opens the door, he come across with an unusual scene, resembling a renaissance painting.
On the stands, Vladimir and Neeko are laying. Vlad is fixated at some generic videogame on his last generation, expensive cellphone, meanwhile Neeko nonstop writes on her accomplice’s notebook. Not that higher up is Ahri, taking her thousandth self-picture since the last minute with her cellphone matching her fox-ear pair pink color.
It doesn’t stop there; besides the goal are, laying on the wall, Rakan and Xayah, trying to make out, however, pulling Rakan, is Sett, a strong jock, trying to get up and fighting against Darius, another jock, but the mean-cliché-kind of school movies. On the other side, trying to reach the lovebirds hair, is Sarah. She tries to catch her two little pets which are pulling the large, pointed ears of Xayah. No one can explain what they are, but they’re very hectic.
Ekko is in the middle of the fight too. He doesn’t follow the good or bad side, but he wants the fight to end soon, and he’s armed. Ekko aims his baseball bat right on the Darius’ nape, who is almost hitting a full punch on Sett’s face, who almost makes Rakan to fall with all his weight pulling him, nearly making Xayah to fall too.
But teacher Ryze yells right in time.
“Enough!”
Everybody stop, look to the educator and startle, mainly Neeko, who jumps off the stands, frightened. “We’re screwed.”
He goes stepping hard on the wooden hall’s floor, crossing the entrance until where the students are. Sarah’s able to reach her little pets in time and holds them near her belly. Ryze rip the bat out of Ekko’s hand whilst the others recompose, then pulls the notebook off Neeko’s, reads it for two seconds and looks angrily to Vladimir, but not forgetting about his colleague. The little girl who reported them ran frightened, afraid of being seen, because she knows it would fell on top of her.
The teacher walks to the middle of the hall and announces:
“Suspended. Each one of you, for a week. And the rest of the semester in detention.”
Xayah is the first to object:
“Huh? But why? Rakan and I wasn’t doing a single thing, actually these two brutes are the ones who almost ended with us. This is pathetic.” She crosses her arms and snorts hard, making her side bangs to hop.
“Pathetic is, Miss Xayah, you two clinging inside the school, a learning place, not dating. I’ve told you many times to let this to another time.”
Xayah reroll her eyes while Ryze fixes his glasses. She’s furious, but Rakan chooses to accept silently. Normally, Xayah is the one who has the voice within the couple, she’s the one who has attitudes, on the other hand Rakan has passion and compassion. Ryze looks at Sarah.
“And you, Sarah, how many times haven’t I told you to not bring those…” he tries to think in any word that could describe them, but they don’t look like anything, unless teddy bears from any cartoon to children with less than five years old, “stranger things to the academy? I wouldn’t bother if they behave, but wherever they go, they’ll wreak havoc.”
Sarah opens her mouth for one second before justifying.
“But teacher Ryze, I swear I don’t bring them. They follow me; already I tried to lock them up, but they always find a way to get out, they’re smart and strong. And they do have names, they are Boki and Baki!”
Sarah, regardless of being a behaved and smart student, also doesn’t like to going silent and always responds when it’s convenient for her. Her pets, Boki and Baki are small, yellowed creatures with three small, orange feelers, thick and fuzzy, which resembles pompadours. To difference, one has a scar on the middle of the forehead whilst the other wears an eye patch from any past fight — Sarah prefers not to tell which one is who. The teacher continues with the scold staring at the two jocks.
“Why are you fighting? I mean, why are jocks always fighting?”
Sett snaps his neck and punches his hands on both sides, then points at Darius. “Me and my boys were supposed to use the gym to practice volleyball, we’ve game on Friday!”
“You had game on Friday,” Ryze corrects him with closed eyes. Sett snarls.
“Whatever. Darius wanted to come at the same time as us and didn’t let us practice. I had to straighten him up.”
Darius guffaws. He’s very tall and very muscled, there isn’t a single person to look at him and think he’s a high school student. And he doesn’t run from fights. Different from Darius, who has the same characteristics, Sett prefers to bully who deserves.
“I came here first! It’s not only your and your sissy team who has priority in this school.”
“Hey!” Rakan retorts. “Don’t use dirty words! Are you gonna let this jerk using slurs to offend the adversary, teacher?”
At his side, Xayah is still enraged. Sett repress his lips while Darius guffaws once more. “Spare me from your politically correct, little bird.”
Darius keeps with the slurs. Rakan and Xayah are different, as well as Ahri and Neeko, they’re vastaya. But each one has a different semblance. The lovebirds look like fliers; while Rakan has short and lying to the back of his head ears, Xayah has them pointed and pointing upwards. Both has feathered paws on the place of the legs, which resemble a lot like the ones from eagles.
Neeko is a curious case, from an almost extinct race; her skin is magnificent, allowing it to change color like the ones from chameleons — there are some who says have seen her to turn into one of her classmates, but it’s just rumors. She also carries a huge and heavy tail that seems to have own life, but for being disastrous, she feels forced to sit on the last chair at the classroom to not bother her mates. She’s not proud of being vastaya, but also doesn’t care — as long as she doesn’t bother her friends.
Ahri is the most charming among all of the vastaya and all of the students from the academy. She is vain with her beauty, long and hydrated pink hair, but what draw attention the most on her are her fuzzy, voluminous nine pink tails. She also has short, fuzzy pink canine ears. She’s known as the Pink Fox inside the entire school, Ahri is only a nickname. Despite Neeko not being very popular, she’s always besides Ahri, along the other two vastaya and Sarah — the famous popular group.
“Quiet, both of you,” says the teacher, then raises one finger to Darius’ profile. “One more slur, and I let you in detention for the rest of your life. It’s extremely abhorred the use of hate speech either inside or outside the institution, make it very clear.”
Darius reroll his eyes. Ekko, quiet, keeps looking at the corners, with the intuition of getting out unnoticed of the cranky teacher, but his big, colored quiff draws attention of anyone.
“And you, you big fool, where was your head when you were thinking of hitting the head of your colleague with this bat? You could have caused serious damages at you colleague and you, my friend, surely you would be in trouble.”
Ekko holds his arms behind and lowers his head, thinking in say anything that a behaved one would. “I’m sorry, teacher Ryze, I wasn’t thinking through. I promise it won’t repeat.”
“May it be so. I will hand over your bat on the hands of your guardian, I’ll have a brief talk to them,” Ryze announces, going on the direction of the last three on the stands. Neeko is gnawing her nails, whilst Vladimir keeps playing on his cellphone and Ahri taking pictures. Ryze enrages. “Enough!”
He rips the cellphones out of Vladimir and Ahri’s hands, who startles and argue against the teacher’s action. But he ignores. Vlad comes from a rich, famous family in Valoran City. Little is known about him, only that he bribes the students to make his homework, but he loves red fruits juice.
“You know very well it’s explicitly prohibited the recreational use of cellphones inside the institution, it’s not the first time I confiscate the cellphone of both of you and obviously it’s not the first time I warn you.”
Ahri contests:
“But, but still I haven't found the best selfie to publish!”
“What the hell is selfie?” Inquiries Vladimir, confused.
“You would know if you had an acceptably appreciable reflex to have the desire of opening the camera, instead of spending the entire day wasting time on stupid, expensive games,” replies Ahri, meanwhile retouch her strong lipstick.
Vladimir gets angry. “Oh you…”
“It’s enough!” censors Ryze, enraged, and stares at Vlad. “Besides never taking the eyes off the cellphone, you’re paying students to do your school works.” He points at Neeko, who instantly hides under her own arms, getting blushed. “I’m very disappointed, Neeko, for accepting such dirty jobs. But I’m afraid I won’t withdraw your suspension so you learn what is wrong. Vladimir, I’ll provide a new work with the double of the pages. And I’ll verify letter by letter from each student of this institution to make sure it wasn’t another person who wrote it. The cellphones will be confiscated, as well as Ekko’s bat, and will be only hand over your parents’ hands.
All of the students get disappointed and low headed, with the exception of Xayah, who keeps enraged for thinking her suspension is silly. Ryze claps twice and closes his eyes.
“You’re dispensed.”
All of the suspended students had already been gone, with the exception of Sett and Rakan. They were the last ones to leave the bath and are changing at the empty locker room. Sett’s uniform is all crumpled, but nothing that his dearest mother couldn’t fix with a well-worn clothes iron and a nice cup of tea — already she is used to it. He carries a scar which he won at 15 from his worst fight at his old school, right above his nose, from the left to the right eye.
Sett is very tall and muscled, fills himself with training meanwhile he’s home and always when he can in the school’s break — he likes to being in a good shape and healthy. He inherited his blued, messy hair from his father which he never had the chance to meet, from his mother he inherited a special characteristic which he rather to keep it secret. Even being warm outside, he prefers to keep on his fuzzy white snow cap.
He closes his locker and looks at Rakan, who brushes his long, silky greened hair. Personal beauty is the major to Rakan. He denies being narcissist, but also says he’s not obliged to show up disheveled in public, even if he’s just going to the bakery. Rakan also slides his hands over his peculiar ears.
Sett keeps staring, he likes vastayas. He notices Rakan’s uniform is tore and remembers he’s the one who was pulling it. Sett wants to offset him and approaches.
“Ay, Rakan, thanks for defending me from Darius back at the gym.”
Rakan stares him from top to toes and raises an eyebrow. “Don’t mention it. He’s a dick.”
Sett twists his mouth. “I’m sorry about your suit. I can help it; if you lend me, I can give you back patched up, momma’s good at it.” Sett is proud of his mother and likes make it explicit whenever he can. She raised him all alone with no one’s help, only each other. “It’s the least I can do, please.”
Rakan doesn’t think that much. He’ll get lazy to patch it up and, anyway, it was Sett who tore it, so let him fix it. Rakan takes his external uniform off, getting only on the white, tight button shirt under. Sett can see the vastaya’s thin but strong arms. He hands the suit over to Sett and starts to leave, but the muscly one holds him with a question.
“What’s your thing with Xayah?”
Rakan leans on a locker and looks at the floor. “We’re not dating, or kind of stuff. We’re only very close for being from the same kind. You know, vastayas don’t get well along near humans because of all the prejudice and intolerance, we’re seen like aberration. But Ahri welcomed us and taught to accept ourselves the way we are. We, actually, all have a little secret.”
The speech encouraged Sett; sometimes he reads some books about self-acceptance he finds around the school’s library, but he never finished a single one. He leans on the locker, gazing at Rakan. He is interested, he’s curious. But Rakan only giggles and walks out the locker room.
“We all have a little creature, like Sarah’s ones,” he says, lastly. “Bring my uniform tomorrow, I’ll come by to get some notes. Thank you for you favor.”
He raises his arm and say goodbye without looking back. Sett smiles aside, places Rakan’s suit over his shoulder and go his way back to his house.
After entering home, he kisses the purple hair of his mother and slides his thick hand through her ears, sitting on the armchair in the living room and knitting. She is making a small snow cap to her child, the color of her hair.
“Sett, my dearest son, do you bring me any good new?”
He seats on the couch besides her and yawns loud. Still he holds Rakan’s uniform, unnoticed. “Only bad, momma. Got myself in trouble again, was suspended for a week and I’ll be in detention. I’m sorry.”
She impetuous stops the knitting and frowns at her son. “You take after your father. It was a bless that he’s gone.” Sett drops his head. He doesn’t like to talk about his father, feels disappointed for him leaving even before he completed one year old. “Though he was very bold,” she finishes. “What do you have there?”
Sett hands over to her his colleague’s suit and stands up. “It’s from a friend, momma, he’s a vastaya. He is cool, has compassion. I ended up tearing up it meanwhile the fight, but it was unintentionally… Can you fix it, please?”
She smiles; she loves to grant the wishes of her single child. She holds and analyzes the shattered uniform. It’s only a small cut though shredded. “Of course, my son.” She holds his arm for a moment. “I just don’t want you to get hurt, to get into more fights.”
He bites his lips and thinks about his father.
Sett runs up to his bedroom and the first thing he does is looking at himself on the mirror, taking off his red snow cap, which reveals small, curious pointed ears, the color of his hair. He twists his mouth and grit his teeth.
His mother is vastaya, like his school’s colleagues. She has long, lowered darken ears and a large, fuzzy tail. Different from most of the vastayas, she bonded with a human, Sett is the fruit of them, but feels ashamed of letting the others know. Of being seen as an aberration, the half-breed. Already he doesn’t have much friends at school, this would end his reputation. At Solari, only the staff know about his secret and he asked for total secrecy about it, and they fulfilled it.
Sett leans on his bedroom’s balcony and observes the dark but starry sky. For a second, a blued, peculiar star releases a so strong glow that Sett could swear that it wanted to communicate with him. He observes it for a few moments before getting cold.
One day, I’ll have enough courage to assume myself, he thinks. I’ll let momma proud.