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It was the first day of Freshman year. Like every single stereotypical Middle Schooler going into High School, Usopp was totally nervous. Of course, he knew all his friends would be there, and, of course, he knew in the end it would be okay. But a change of environment was always scary for him. Especially since it marked the first half of his journey into adulthood, finally getting more responsibility.
He walked into his campus, astounded by how large it was. It was indoors, complete with stairs and hallways upon hallways, littered with lockers. Each locker had a congregation of teenagers, dressed up like they were trying to impress some important figure. His brown ears flattened against his head, taking in his own outfit. The student wasn’t very into fashion, as most of his friends weren’t either. He chose to wear some brown overalls, a green T-shirt, topped with a green beanie, and his sneakers. Pretty good if you asked him.
Zoro, somehow, had found Usopp’s locker before his own. The tiger perked up when his friend shouted his name, waving him over. It seemed like Sanji hadn’t arrived yet, although he seemed to hear her name everywhere he turned. The brown-cat couldn’t go down a hallway without hearing a murmur about blonde hair and blue eyes.
“Have you seen Sanji?” Usopp asked, bracing himself against the neighboring locker to open his own. The combination was easy enough to do offhandedly, something he could remember with ease. It popped open and he tossed his bag to the ground, pulling out book after book to stack inside.
Zoro looked down at him, remaining stoic faced as he always did, “She’s around here somewhere,” his eyes darted around before landing back on his friend, who looked up at him with a confused gaze, “She’s changed a lot.”
“Well, yeah, it’s high school now,” Usopp shrugged at that fact, kneeling to zip up his backpack.
“No, like, she’s changed, changed,” he widened his eyes to prove his point, trying to cement something inside his friend's head he didn’t understand. Usopp hadn’t seen her over the summer as much as he wanted to. They were all friends, a little trio, but it wasn’t a trio when the Vinsmoke family rushed her out to Paris to see her grandparents all summer. Sanji promised to Email him, but it wasn’t often. Instead, the cat spent his summer hauling around sandbags for his older neighbor, in exchange for crisp twenties.
He hadn’t changed much, but it was enough. His body filled out with more muscle, as did Zoro too. Their change happened more in eighth grade, while Sanji remained the same. Oval-faced and annoying. The boys sky-rocketed in height, leaving her to be one of the shortest in their class. Maybe she began to overcompensate and instigate more play-fights with them because of it, but Usopp wasn’t complaining. He enjoyed tussling with his friend.
“Saying the word twice doesn’t do anything, idiot,” Usopp grumbled, standing up and slinging his backpack across his back, adjusting the straps on his shoulders.
“Well,” a voice interrupted Usopp’s incoming thought, “Here’s thing one and thing two all dressed up I see.” He turned, letting his mouth hang open at the sight.
Blonde hair, which he didn’t realize was so long, flowed down past Sanji’s shoulders. Small deer horns poked through strands, with her ears flattened back. Her bangs, which had always fallen and hidden her crystal eyes, were clipped back with a large pink clip, with a pair of sunglasses pushed behind her ears. Eyebrows were thinner, eyelashes were thicker, lips were shinier. Freckles dotted her cheeks, painting her rosy with hints of blush. There was a pearl necklace around her neck, which he never noticed before. Were her collarbones always so… pronounced?
Then his eyes stopped at her outfit. It was a white floral tank top, with a form-fitted cardigan. The cardigan was an off white, almost cream, that buttoned with one button just above the neckline of her tank top. It showed off a body that wasn’t there before, a body he didn’t realize Sanji could have. A pink skirt, which matched her hair clip, adorned her waist and stopped short of her knees, showing off shiny calves. Calves that he had never seen so … bare.
When did Sanji- one-of-the-boys-Sanji, who always was the first to get herself dirty, who always picked a fight- turn into one-of-the-girls-Sanji? Who looked like a dream? Who smelt like perfume instead of- of whatever she normally smelt like!
The deer narrowed her blue eyes at Usopp, “Is he okay?” A slim and manicured hand slid up to her sunglasses, pulling them from her head, letting longer strands pushed behind her ear fall to frame her face. Sanji lightly shook her head, tucking a hair behind her ear as she folded the glasses and held them by her hip.
“He’s in shock,” Zoro commented, clearly unaffected by this whole thing. How could he not react? Sanji wasn’t Sanji! She was replaced with a girl! I mean, Sanji was a girl, but she was also Sanji . She was like a little sister to Usopp, not- not whoever he was staring at now.
“Shock?” She repeated.
“Yeah,” he rolled his eyes, “Because you’re hot now.” Usopp let out a strangled noise at his words, to which the blonde flushed a bit. The new tone of pink, different from her makeup, fit her face so much. It was perfect. She was perfect.
“Shut up, you stupid moss!” Sanji raised her hand and her voice, whacking him in the head. Typically, he would have fought back, throwing her to the ground and fighting until one of them tapped out. But instead, Zoro shrugged and walked off, not giving it another thought.
Leaving Usopp alone with an angel.
He pressed his lips together as she looked at him with a scrutinous expression, “Are you gonna be weird like him, too?” She asked, raising one of her curled eyebrows.
“N-No! You’re not hot! I mean- you’re not not hot, but you’re not hot- You’re attractive, sure, but all my friends are attractive- E-Even Zoro!” Usopp blurted out, realizing his mouth tasted eerily like a foot.
The blonde deer simply stared at him, slowly blinking as he finished his rambling, turning red in the face. His deep skin was tinted with a blush as he sighed, leaning forward and pressing a palm to his forehead, “I give up,” Usopp looked up at her through his eyelashes, “I think you look nice, Sanji. Different, but nice.”
Her cheeks burned with a fierce blush, worse than his as they made eye contact. It traveled up her temples and down the bridge of her thin and crooked nose, framing her like she was a rosy porcelain doll. She looked cute, utterly cute.
“Thanks, Sopp,” Sanji whispered, as a bit of blood started to drip from her nose.
The brown cat stood up straighter and stared at her nose, “Uh, Sanji…”
“It’s chronic,” she continued to whisper, watching him with that same cute look.
“Are you gonna, uh, fix it?” Usopp cleared his throat and pressed his fingers to his neck, itching it slowly.
“...It’ll go away,” she murmured.
They stared at each other in silence that the student could only describe as awkward. One of them had to break it after the two-minute mark, but as Usopp went to speak, he stepped to the side a bit. His head knocked into his open locker door, causing it to swing back and promptly smack him dead center in the face. The cat gasped and found his knees buckling, sending him falling over.
Sanji gasped and covered her face, cringing at the blood getting on her hands, “Usopp!?”
“I’M FINE!” He shouted, scrambling up and hitting his forehead on the locker, “Stupid locke- GO AWAY!” Usopp grabbed the door of the locker and slammed it shut, standing and brushing his legs off.
More students than he would have liked looked over to this exchange, staring with curious gazes. And Sanji was staring too, concerned, worried, and kind of amused. It made him ashamed and, God, could she stop looking at him? It was burning him! Slowly, Usopp began to back away from the scene of the crime, before he turned and sprinted down the hall to his first period.
He was going to avoid her like the plague to avoid that again. No longer was Sanji one of the boys, no, she was one of the girls.