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Being in a new school is always stressful. Being in a room with 20 strangers is always stressful. And feeling the sharp stare of a stranger from behind you doesn’t make it any less stressful. (But hey, what are you gonna do about it when you’re on the brink of a panic attack by just the mere thought of human interaction?)
The day seems to drag on as the bell signalling the start of lunch refuses to ring, and Ojiro’s stresses are about to burst through the roof. As Aizawa rambles on about some hero stuff or whatever, he feels like he’s having a staring contest with the clock on the wall, and that he’s losing. The clock purposefully keeping its hands in place and looking down on him, in a mocking way.
When the clock's hands finally moved and the ringing of a bell invaded his ears, he sighed out in relief. As the ruckus of chairs moving and talking broke the mostly silent class, Aizawa said something that was lost to the sounds of a fleeting class.
While everyone else was racing towards the canteen, Ojiro had already eaten too much of his own stress, and decided that he would just eat whenever he got home. He went to wander around the school and try to get a bit more familiar with the massive building.
On his travels, he found what he assumed to be the library. Having a quick scan around, he found that there was no one there except a sleeping librarian. He decided to have a look around to see if there was any book here that caught his interest at all. He quietly put his bag down on the table and went to have a look around, and quickly realised the place was massive.
As he reminded himself that his bag was being left unattended, he tried to be quick with his scanning and tried not to go too far. While looking for a good book, he also found a pretty good spot where he could hide out in here.
He finally found one about how important martial arts was before quirks developed and returned to his bag. The librarian acknowledged his presence with a friendly smile and slight wave. He returned the same acknowledgement and hoped that it wasn’t really awkward. He sat down and read for the rest of the lunch.
The bell rang again, signalling that class was going to start soon. He finished his sentence and took a note in his head of the page number before returning it to its original placement.
~
The rest of school couldn’t have dragged on more if it had tried. He ended up having to squint to try and remain focused on the lessons material, and the bell couldn't have come any sooner. As the bell rung, he packed his stuff away and finally decided to get a better look at who's been looking at him all day.
Denki Kaminari. He had quickly taken the role as class clown thanks to his loud mouth and joking nature. He was already pretty much friends with everyone in the class, except for Ojiro. The closest thing they’ve had to an interaction so far has been the constant feeling on Ojiros neck of somebody's eyes on him.
He seemed to barely have realised that the final bell had rung, and only was just packing up his stuff. Ojiro contemplated trying to start a conversation with him, he didn’t feel like the staring was anything hateful, but he finally decided to just go home and eat some food.
On his way down the corridor though, he heard a shout from behind him. “Hey!” He couldn’t quite pinpoint the voice, but he did pick up on its friendly tone. “Wait up!” He could hear running behind him as he turned around to see Kaminari.
“Sorry for not talking to you today, I was planning to at lunch but I couldn’t find you so I thought I’d catch you now” An inviting toothy grin covered his face. “It’s Ojiro, right?”
He continued walking as Kaminari caught up to him. “Y-yeah. You’re Kaminari?”
His smile grew as his classmate remembered his name. “Yeah!” His expression calmed a bit before he said “I like your tail”
Ojiro’s face turned red at the compliment. “M-mine?” Why? He kept the ‘why’ part in his head as he didn’t want to accidentally sound rude, even if he’s not exactly sure why it would be.
Kaminari hummed in agreement. As if he had heard the rest of Ojiros thought, he said “I think it’s cool how you use it while fighting, even if it’s not a particularly strong quirk on it's own”
“T-thank you” He didn’t think he had ever gotten complemented on anything before, nevermind his biggest insecurity. He couldn't just not say anything back. He took a quick look over at Kaminari to find something he at least found interesting.
The black streak of lightning in his hair caught his attention. “I like your streak” Wait, did that sound weird? It probably did, didn’t it?
Kaminari seemed to be genuinely surprised and curious at the same time. “Really?” He questioned while slightly tilting his head. “I used to cover it up," He slipped back into his usual carefree smirk. "but you know”
Ojiro didn’t fully think through his words before he said them. “Why? I think it looks cool” Though he was surprised by his own words, he didn’t take them back.
“Well, I don’t know” He looked in the opposite direction as he came up with a reasonable response. “I guess, I thought it made me stand out too much?”
He was surprised to hear that he, at one point, didn’t like standing out when all he did in UA was stand out. He wished he could have questioned him a bit more on the topic but he needed to get home before his dad worried about him.
“I’ve gotta go now. See you tomorrow?” He wasn’t sure why it was a question, but it seemed to make Kaminari happy and drag him out of some of his thoughts.
“Yeah, see ya!” He stuck his arm way above his head to wave him off as he grinned widely.
Ojiro lightly shook his head as he walked in the direction of his house.
~
As he stepped into his house, he could easily hear the tv that was turned up way too loud playing ‘Up’. “How was your first day, Mash?” His dad called to him, but not turning around.
“It was good” He replied.
His brother perked up from the couch. “I can tell, you’ve got a massive grin on your face” Though his observation was exaggerating a little, he was doing better than Ojiro who hadn’t even noticed he was smiling.
His dad looked over and chuckled as Ojiro left for his room in a huff, using his tail as a blockage to his growing smile and reddening face.