Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Three young children (two girls, one boy) were sitting down in a bright pink room. Purely based on first impressions, you could tell immediately it was the room of a little girl, from all of the Barbie and monster high toys, kid drawings on the wall, butterfly stickers scattered on the walls and so forth. It was a spacious room and under the floor was a pink flower rug that the kids were sitting on.

The first girl, with brown wavy hair in pigtails and small angel wings, was waving a pink wand toy around and laughing.

“Look at what Aunt Rin got me!!”

She enthusiastically shouted as she was showing off her new gift with an eager smile. The other pale girl, with long black hair who notably wore a mask over her mouth and nose, stared with fascination before saying:

“That’s so cute, Sanno! WAIT!! Do you have other wands??”

The girl nodded in response. She stood up and grabbed two plastic wands, handing them over to both children in the room. The tan-skinned boy was biting his nails and looking at the brown-haired girl as she was handing him the wand.

“Thank you…”

The boy let out a small smile and spun it around, fixated on the object provided to him.

“Aiden. If you spin that around so much, you’ll get dizzy!”

The masked girl warned him though she still had a teasing tone. His green eyes darted towards the girl and immediately, he stopped spinning his wand.

“Oh. Sorry…”

He placed the wand down, though still placing it beside him.

“Hey hey, it’s okay! Let’s play fairies!! It’ll be fun!”

Sanno grabbed both of their hands and forced them into standing up. Both children clutched their wands and started playing to their heart’s content.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seven years later, Sanno had applied to the prestigious Royale High school. It was the best high school in the city and within the top five best high schools in the entire country. Even better? What species you were didn’t determine whether you’d get accepted or not. You could be anything you wanted! Humans, mermaids, different types of fairies, werewolves, vampires and even guardian angels such as herself.

Sanno worked hard to get accepted into such a school. She aced the entrance exam, behaved in a mature though kind and charismatic way to the board members, rarely hesitated on the questions except when she almost accidentally rambled about something irrelevant. But regardless, her efforts paid off and the school had accepted her amongst hundreds and quite possibly thousands of applicants.

Today was her first day, she had to make a good impression on everyone. As there was no specific uniform for this school, she decided to dress herself up, wearing a light pink cardigan with a matching skirt, a collared white shirt alongside a black ribbon tied neatly in a bow, white plain socks and Mary Jane shoes! A bit formal? Yes. But it was cute and she figured that if she was going to school, she wanted to fit the part. She tied her brown hair with pink ends in pigtails and after doing all of that, she observed herself in the mirror with a smile!

“Sannooo! Breakfast is ready!”

A voice announces from downstairs. Sanno’s eyes darted to the big suitcase on her big pink bed and then at her bedroom door.

“Coming, Aunt Rin!!”

She grabbed her bag and suitcase before running downstairs to the dining room. Only to see that Rin had organised some cut up food and placed it in two bowls, one for Sanno and one for herself. Sanno put her hands near her mouth, shaking slightly for a moment as she stared at the bowl but Rin nodded. Slowly, Sanno sat down next to Rin and with the spoon and fork, ate the food.

“Nervous?”

Sanno reluctantly nodded.

“A little… High school’s a big deal, Aunt Rin. I don’t want to mess it up like I did with middle school!”

Rin laughed light-heartedly to herself and then put her hand on her shoulder.

“You’ll do great! I know you will. You’ve been making a lot of progress and you know that if there’s any concerns that you can call me! Besides, if you ever feel home sick, you can stay here for the weekends.”

Sanno let out a small smile and acknowledged her Aunt’s presence.

“I-I’ll be okay for now, I think… I need to be positive about this! But if it gets to that point, I will! I’ll call and text you EVERY single day too! I wouldn’t want to leave you in the dark!”

Rin was eating the fruit from her own bowl as she was listening to Sanno. She then stopped to pat her head.

“I can trust you, Sanno! You’re a good kid, your mom and dad would be very proud…”

Sanno tapped her finger and though she was nearly done with her fruit bowl, she stared down at herself before using her hands to drag it next to Rin’s.

“...I don’t think I want any more.”

Rin glanced at the bowl Sanno moved away from herself and then at Sanno. Rin didn’t straight up frown at this, though she had a slightly sad look in her eyes for a moment before giving her niece a reassuring smile

“Alright, that’s okay. But you really are getting better! You know that?”

Sanno started fidgeting with her hands but regardless, she nodded.

“...The carriage is going to be here any minute now! I should be heading off now, right? It’s my big day isn’t it?”

She stood up, organised her glasses and took both her suitcase and school bag rather quickly, even astonishing Rin. But she cleared her throat and nodded.

“Yes, Sanno. It is your big da-...”

And seemingly right on cue, Rin could hear a traditional but tiny bell blaring near their home. Cautiously, she stood up and gazed outside the window to see a beautiful pink carriage in the neighbourhood. Rin grinned slightly watching how shocked the neighbours appeared at the sight before turning back to Sanno.

“It’s coming right this way, Sanno! Get ready!”

That immediately jumped Sanno to run up to Rin and give her a strong but well-intended hug.

“Bye, Aunt Rin. I’ll have lots and lots of fun, promise!! I love youu!”

Rin returned the hug, albeit less tighter than Sanno’s but when the hug was finished, she gave her a kiss on the forehead.

“I love you too, sweetie. Have fun but don’t push yourself!”

“I WON’T!!”

Sanno shouted as she ran to the front door to prepare for her new journey into the setting of High School for the very first time.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Upon getting out of the carriage, waving to the driver and following the directions to the courtyard, Sanno was immediately hit with the inevitable realisation that there’d be a lot of people in the same area. She looked on as more people arrived, smelling the fresh breeze of the September wind. Sanno was immediately fascinated by how diverse people were here. There were various species and the outfits each person wore was more fascinating than the last, admittedly it made her question her decision of wearing more ‘formal school’ attire. Some people were already hanging out in groups and the staff members with badges firmly stood across the courtyard, which was nearly enough to intimidate her.

But what really caught Sanno’s attention was this girl standing in a corner isolated from the rest, carrying this huge black parasol. She had black hair messily tied in braids and very pale skin. As for the girl’s attire, she wore these laced fingerless black gloves with matching tights and short cape, this black dress with a corset too. The thing that charmed Sanno the most though? Her hazel cat-shaped eyes. She couldn’t help but stare at the girl in the distance. To Sanno, she looked really pretty, attractive even, and she felt her face warming up. She shook her head as a desperate attempt to snap out of it and started fidgeting with her hair anxiously.

Sanno tried thinking of the things she would tell Alice and Aiden all those years ago, mostly something along the lines of ‘we should try to be happy even during hard times!’. Her mind was fixated on the words that came out of her own mouth as a child. If she retracted those words and refused to follow her own advice, that would make her a hypocrite, right?

In fact, what would those two say if they saw her worried about high school of all places? Sure, groups were already forming and she knew basically nobody here. But at the same time, she recalls Aunt Rin’s advice to not rush things… If there’s anyone in the world she can trust at the moment, it’s her.

However, her train of thought was interrupted when a tall lady in a beautiful rose-coloured gown and reddish-blonde hair tied neatly in a bun steadily walked over to the crowd. Her heels were loud, her angelic halo shined like the sun and she had a relaxed look on her face. Sanno recognised her immediately as the Head Mistress of Royale High, and the crowd migrated to leave room as she moved towards the very middle, scanning everyone as they patiently waited for her to speak.

“Good morning, students! It is an honour to see each and every single one of you arrive at the castle’s gates for the first time today. High School is a nerve-wracking time in a person’s life, not only due to the social challenges that come with being a teenager but also the workload and a new environment. But fret not, I see potential in every student that walks through this very institution! It’s truly magnificent to have a system where your race, species, disabilities and so forth don’t determine how well you’ll do in li-...”

The Head Mistress immediately stopped when her eyes darted at a couple older students spying on the assembly, giggling. She clapped twice and a megaphone appeared right in her hands. She gestured to the attendees to cover their ears (to which Sanno did) before shouting with megaphone near mouth:

“GET TO CLASS!!”

She handed over the megaphone to a staff member before clapping twice again, causing the object to disappear right in front of everyone’s eyes. Despite covering her ears as instructed, Sanno's could feel her ears ringing into her head. The Head Mistress cleared her throat and sighed.

“Now then, you’ll be organised into groups by different staff members, to get a tour around the school, be assigned your room numbers and have the opportunity to socialise amongst yourselves! When your name is called on our register by our staff members, please go to where they are! Beginning with our co-head, Mister Scholz.”

A man with dark red hair and wings with the appearance of a phoenix walked to the center of the room, holding a board and announcing names in alphabetical order.

Sanno’s surname began with an S, so she waited patiently to hear her name get announced, internally praying her voice doesn’t crack in front of the hundreds of people she’s going to be spending the next 4 years with. Petrified by her own imagination, she frantically grabbed a bottle of water from her bag and chugged a big sip down her throat.

That was until a particular name rung in her ears:

“Alice Ainsworth?”

Sanno glanced around, wondering whether she was imagining the name in a daze. Until the pale girl she was staring at raised her hand and bluntly stated: “...Here”. With her umbrella still unfolded, she strolled over to the co-head and stared directly at him. However, Mr Scholz seemed unfazed and even gave a small smile despite his firm appearance.

No way… is that… really Alice? One of her two best friends from when they were only children? It has to be, she has the same hair colour, skin colour, eyes, she seemed to also be a vampire… Perhaps that mindset was stereotypical? Vampires are stereotyped to have such qualities. They don’t all bear the same features. Yet Sanno felt it in her beating heart, her body felt warm and her mind felt at ease knowing that she knew who at least somebody was in this place…

She spent some time pondering, maybe they’re in the same group for the tour? If not, maybe Sanno could talk to her when they have the free time. Does Alice even remember her after all of these years? Probably not. Knowing Alice, perhaps she was able to find friends of her own. She remembers Alice being friendly and a warm individual despite her circumstances, not to mention she’s really good-looking, even now.

Okay, maybe Sanno was getting ahead of herself. She can’t just assume things about people or claim a girl is good-looking after not talking to her for years, who does she think she is? She’s way ahead of Alice’s league in comparison!

“Now then, your head of Pastoral Support: Mrs Locke.”

A dark skinned woman wearing halo braids and glasses waved and smiled at everyone, also carrying a board. She cleared her throat and with a slightly chirpy voice started announcing all of the names.

Not in the same group as Alice. That’s fine, she can still make friends regardless. Sanno’s aware that relying on a singular person who she knew since she was a child wasn’t going to exactly cut it, especially since they weren’t in the same tour group. That might make things complicated down the road. No matter, she doesn’t need to go in head-first just yet.

Sanno’s eyes darted to every single part of the room, until she turned to her left. In the distance, she saw a dark-ish green haired boy looking at her. She couldn’t see his appearance exactly but from what she saw, he also had this zebra coloured extension and a really messy haircut, almost as if he had done it himself. Upon closer inspection, he also wore this black eyeliner with some glitter.

However, despite the edgy-looking appearance, he didn’t appear to be staring at her with any malicious intent. It wasn’t a dirty look at all, not even a blank stare. More like he was attempting to analyse her, just like she was doing.

To alleviate the awkward tension, Sanno gave the kid a little wave and a smile. His eyes widened with excitement and he reciprocated with an awkward smile and wave of his own. Sanno's smile widened and she gave him a subtle thumbs-up, which was her way of saying ‘if we’re in the same group, let’s hang out’.

The kid tilted his head and fidgeted with his extension but he still had a small grin on his face as he examined her.

“-...Fujimoto. Do we have an Aiden Fujimoto?”

He blinked and his attention immediately darted to the teacher in question. He muttered something under his breath before raising his hand and moving out of the crowd seeming slightly panicked. In fact, Sanno saw him almost tripping over his own feet in the process.

“Mbmb- Here, here!”

He announced loudly, panting like he had just run a marathon. “Mb”? Must be some random noise he made when attempting to catch his breath. …Aiden too? This must be some fever dream. How could she not recognise him??? Maybe he recognised her? It seemed that way. Sanno rubbed her eyes, baffled that the person she was seeing in front of her eyes was that timid child from all those years ago.

The first thing one would notice about Aiden is that he wore accessories, a LOT of accessories in fact. Necklaces, a studded belt and matching bracelets, even more bracelets that were kandi and even decorations on the belt. Hell, even his black boots were decorated with colourful stickers. But at the same time, seeing the outfit made Sanno’s heart feel warm. To her, that 10-year-old-child Sanno knew was alive and thriving.

The register sometimes felt like it could go on for centuries. But that thought of her voice cracking remained at the very back of her mind, taunting her. Sanno didn’t want to waste her drink right now but there’s a lot of people that would be staring at her, perhaps even judging her.

A couple of the freshmen that came out already appeared horrified, and who could blame them? Sanno can’t, that’s for sure. She could feel sweat forming on the side of her head as her mind ran in circles. Sanno fidgeted with her hands and started that breathing exercise that Aunt Rin taught her a couple of years ago, it really comes in handy.

She could hear students whispering amongst themselves, notably a long-haired girl in a beret and a short blonde haired girl. Though they were quite near her and she couldn’t hear what they were saying, they had grins on their faces and were letting out quiet giggles amongst themselves. What could that mean? Were they laughing at other people? Would they laugh at her if she messed up?

No, no. Maybe they’re laughing at something else, it’s not always inherently malicious. Just as she was attempting to reassure herself…

“Fusako Sano?”

Oh no. Sanno’s throat felt blocked. She can’t drink now, that’ll drag the silence. But if she thinks too much about this, then the silence will be dragged further and she won’t make a good first impression. She slowly raised her hand, cleared her throat and said:

“Here, Miss!”

She stood up and moved amongst the crowd to get to her space. Sanno could feel the glares on her as she navigated through people, uttering a few “excuse me”’s as she moved over to the very center. At least she wasn’t the first name to be called? At least her voice didn’t crack. However, she cleared her throat again. She stood there awkwardly for a few seconds before Mrs Locke calmly obtained Sanno’s luggage and enthusiastically whispered:

“Poppy’ll take care of your luggage for the time being, okay?”

Sanno looked up at her and with a small smile, nodded to the kind member of staff standing with pride next to her. She walked a few steps over to Aiden, to which he responded by running straight to her and clasping her hands.

“Holy SHOOT-... it’s… it’s really you, Sanno!! I had a feeling! The eyes, the hair, your outfit, everything… it just SCREAMED “Sanno, my best friend in elementary”! You’re here, Alice is here in another group, isn’t this just all so…”

Aiden was shaking and had a huge grin on his face as he swayed left to right. Though this was slightly overwhelming, Sanno couldn’t help but feed off some of Aiden’s energy at the same time. It felt… almost infectious.

“I-I barely recognised you, Aiden!! You look so… different!”

Sanno admitted, astonished by the new appearance. Aiden fidgeted with his extension.

“I was feeling in the dumps and whatevs so I decided: why not get a new and hella cool look? Gotta… let all these people see my aura and colours from the inside and whatnooot!”

Aiden announced with pride. However, he started making big gestures with his hands, attempting to get the point across to Sanno. However, just from looking at Aiden’s appearance alone, she understood. She understood all too well.

“You really accomplished that, Aiden. I mean it!”

Sanno placed her hands together as she observed her childhood friend. He bashfully smiled and moved his right hand frantically.

“Pssssh, thx!! If I’m going to a school that’s SUPPOSED to like us, then… yeah!”

She blinked a couple times at Aiden’s speech. ‘THX’? Does he mean ‘thanks’, maybe? She’s usually seen people text ‘TY’ as an alternative but hey, you never know. Unless that wasn’t what Aiden was talking about? But if she asked, that’d be rude! She could feel the tension rising up from her body the longer she remained silent, so she asked the glaring question that had been in her brain/

“So, what have you been doing since middle school? I wish I could’ve gone to the same one as you but-”

Noticing Sanno’s immediate guilt, Aiden placed a finger next to her mouth and said as he stared at his companion.

“Shhhhh…. I knoooow, Sanno. Chillax a little, got it? You know of how much I LOVED that play, right? Weeeell, I got into the drama club and my love for theatre BLOSSOMED!! We did some plays, the one in charge thought I was good, I worked my ass off to get here cause the drama course here is SUPER great and here I AMM!!”

After explaining and talking at a pretty fast pace, he removed the finger and re-organised the chain on his left shoe as Sanno waited patiently. He stood back up to see the guardian angel in front of her remaining fairly still. Aiden observed his surroundings before sighing in relief.

“So, what have you been doing all this time then?”

Sanno fidgeted with her hands before nervously laughing.

“Nothing much! I mainly focused on my academics: English, maths, history, science… I hope I don’t sound like I’m bragging but that’s been going… really well for me.”

Aiden’s smile grew and he let out another sigh in relief. He rubbed one of his eyes and glanced at the other people in their tour group, before glancing back at Sanno and giving her a big thumbs-up gesture.

“Good job!! …I know there’s a drama club in Royale High that goes on every Thursday lunchtime from 12pm to 12:50pm. I read all about it… twenty times? Yeah. Heard it’s totes going to look good on my record when I become a performer on the stage!”

Sanno’s eyes widened in fascination as Aiden talked.

“So that’s what you want to do?”

Without ANY hint of hesitation in Aiden’s actions or words, he nodded up and down and announced to her:

“HELL YEAH!! There’s also musicals that happen from September to March in this school too?! You SO know I’m going to audition. Auditions usually happen… end of September. So I’ve got…”

Aiden turned back to count on his fingers and do the maths in his head, to Sanno, this felt like forever but once he was done, he turned back and claimed:

“Two weeks. I hope to god my roommate isn’t some jock who’ll laugh at me when I try to belt, I think I’d move schools right then and there!”

He stated jokingly, Sanno tilted her head. Would he really move out of a prestigious school like that? Probably not. But before she could ponder on that, the Head Mistress put her hands together in a relaxed position to announce.

“You have all been arranged in your tour groups! If you haven’t already, may I ask all students to hand in their luggage to your designated staff member? They will hand it over to our secretary assistant who will place them in your designated dorms. Now then, have a wonderful first year at Royale High school, all of you!”

One by one, each staff member escorted their group to a different section of the school and the chatter amongst the students grew as they were taken to their new life.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mrs Locke started with the ground floor of the main establishment. She would explain the room rather briefly and then scan around the room for any confused expressions or raised hands of any kind.

“As far as assemblies go, we tend to differ between the courtyard or main royale hall depending on the factors. Fortunately, it’s a rather sunny day, so we were able to use the courtyard this year.”

Every time she did show them a new location or dropped packets of information, a couple students would ask questions to her, to which she’d eagerly respond to every single one. For example, this ginger haired kid in a pink and blue varsity jacket raised his hand frequently.

“So… if it’s raining, we’d have to do PE sessions in… here?”

Those were the kinds of questions he liked to ask. But Sanno saw the value in having those questions answered, particularly by a non-judgemental teacher. It eased not only his mind but likely over half the students in the room too.

When the drama room was exposed to everyone, Aiden raised his hand in a flash, shocking even Sanno.

“SOSOSO- this is where drama club would take place and where rehearsals for musicals take place?”

Sanno could see Aiden visibly shaking, like his theatre kid heart was about to burst out of his body any minute now.

“Yes! Performances for both extracurriculars would take place in the main hall, as it is more spacious for you all.”

After a few seconds of what looked like Aiden geeking out in his head through Sanno’s perspective, Aiden grabbed Sanno’s hand and whispered.

“Can you BELIEVE it? That main hall is HUGE… we could do ALL sorts there, maybe even Phantom of the Opera.”

Sanno noticed the shimmer in Aiden’s eyes. Though she isn't as big of a theatre kid as he is, she’d be willing to learn about plays and musicals through association. To Sanno, Aiden’s enthusiastic demeanor about theatre was the equivalent of seeing a kid on a sugar rush. Not wanting to kill the conversation, Sanno decided to contribute to the best of her abilities with her little experience.

“Aunt Rin and I went to see it once. It was really good and-...”

Immediately after processing that information, Aiden’s eyes widened and his grip on Sanno grew tighter… albeit unintentionally. Sanno used a finger to touch Aiden’s hand, indicating to him to soften his grip, to which he did.

“Sorrysorry… but you did??? I’m totes jealous…! If you ever get tickets again, make sure to get a third ticket for me, okay?~”

Aiden gave a playful smirk and wink to Sanno, clearly teasing. Regardless, Sanno would be more than delighted to keep that in mind. From her little reunion with Aiden, she knows her Aunt Rin and Aiden would still be on good terms. She’d also adore to see him again after all these years.

During moments where the students would walk to the next section, Aiden and Sanno found themselves absorbed in their conversations. Though Aiden was without a doubt the more talkative one of the two, Sanno found his ramblings and opinions of musicals she’s barely heard of fascinating.

“So Phantom of the Opera’s your favourite musical?”

From all of the chat about theatre, that was the first assumption that came into Sanno’s mind. Aiden was particularly chatty with that musical, after all. Why else would he be so passionate about the topic if it wasn’t his favourite.

Aiden placed his hand on his chin, contemplating on that statement…

“Eh. Not too sure what my favourite is, I like a bunch of them! You’d be surprised. Phantom of the Opera is up there though! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a romance kinda guy. Most romance makes me want to pull my HAIR out and throw up at the SCREEN but Phantom of the Opera is the EXCEPTION. The fans are SOOO annoying though. Not to be negative or anything but the people who HATE Christine Dae with every fiber in their being just-”

Sanno put her hand over her mouth and then responded:

“Waitwait! People HATE Christine?!”

Aiden nodded aggressively and raised the volume of his voice slightly.

“Yeah!! Insane, right?? People say she's dumb and nothing else when she is 100% more than just a stereotypical damsel in distress. Hell, the ENTIRE point of the musical is that we see her develop as someone MORE than that!! How do you-... miss the point that badly?!”

“It’s like they watched the entire musical with their eyes closed! Christine isn’t dumb, she’s naive. She’s a sheltered teenager who lost her father who also promised her ‘the angel of music’! She’s yearning for the strength to cope with that loss! She’s actually really strong!”

As the conversation progressed, she could feel herself connecting to her childhood friend again like they did in the past. She recalls having these conversations, though the roles were practically reversed, where they’d talk passionately about things they’ve watched and the games they would play together.

Sure, they were talking about musicals and theatre in comparison to kid shows they watched on television but the fiery energy was similar, if not identical to those memories. Truly, it felt wonderful.

As the tour progressed, they bumped into another tour group, the tour group of Mr Scholz.

“Good morning, Mr Scholz. How has your tour group been?”

Mrs Locke asked with a pleasant expression on her face. Mr Scholz, though not as expressive as the pastoral support head, wore a curious look on his face.

“They’ve been wonderful, it appears my explanations have been clear. In fact, we were just-...”

As the teachers were socialising with one another, she saw Alice in the distance, looking longingly somewhere. Sanno would’ve followed her gaze but instead, her sight was fixated on the girl she had known all those years ago. Aiden tapped Sanno’s shoulder before attempting to wave at Alice himself.

However, no matter how many gestures Aiden tried using to get her attention, it was no use. Alice was still in her own little world.

“Alright. We best be off now. It’s a delight we crossed paths, Mrs Locke. Take care!”

Mr Scholz raised his hand to indicate a wave of farewell to her. However, just as the students were leaving, Aiden seized Alice’s hand and with the other, gestured a thumbs up.

“Hi.”

Understandably, Alice was rather taken aback by this notion. She glared at both Sanno and Aiden with slightly furrowed brows before reclaiming her hand.

“...Heyyy.”

Alice rubbed her hand, repositioning her silver ring and exchanging a few blinks at the two people in front of her. Sanno perked up at the sight of her friend in front of her and waved at her.

“Alice! It’s been a while!! I’m Sanno and this is Aiden, how have you been?”

Regardless of Sanno’s attempt at conversation, Alice’s glare remained unfazed, much like your ordinary unmoving statue. Though the tense stare was occasionally broken up by natural blinking. After a long and uncanny staring contest Sanno didn’t agree to, she placed her arms to her side, walked a little closer to them and with a neutral tone, stated:

“It’s Shade now, by the way.”

Before taking a few steps back and following her tour group as per usual. Sanno blinked a couple of times herself, rubbing her eyes and then longingly gazing at the girl as she walked away.

“Damn, not even a ‘oh I’m good, how about you’? Also, I must say… Shade’s a pretty sick name. Sounds like an online name some Evanescence fan would come up with though.”

Aiden made some unfiltered commentary after Shade had left the room, verbalising his thoughts. As he noticed his friend zoning out, Aiden clicked his fingers in an attempt to get her attention.

“Sannooo…? Yoo-hooo…”

When that attempt was unsuccessful, he concluded on violently moving his hand over her face. She made a small ‘eek’ sound before glancing to her side to detect that it was just Aiden.

“Oh! Aiden… Sorry, I was in a whole world of my own, haha! Let’s go with Mrs Locke, okay?”

Aiden quickly covered his mouth and his eyes darted to the side before returning to Sanno. He nodded in approval to her idea before leaving the hall to follow the tour group.

In fact, as the tour was slowly forming to a close, a school bell loudly and suddenly rang throughout the building. Shortly after this, every single student exited their individual classes, some in groups, others on their own. Sanno was standing with some of the other first years over the platform with stairs directly leading to the cafeteria. She peeked at the older students chatting amongst themselves, listening to music, rushing to the lunch queue to buy whatever they required to fill their stomachs.

She looked on with fascination as she was inspecting various species coming together: Siren-like beings, angels, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, zombies, fairies, the list goes on! What really caught Sanno's attention was an eldritch yet humanoid boy with multiple eyes. When he and a humanoid sea girl entered the room, the lunch ladies looked taken aback. However, they relaxed as the friendly-looking sea girl wearing all black appeared at the front of the queue.

Nonetheless, Sanno's observing was cut short when she heard her tour leader clap her hands three times. She swiftly turned around and looked up at Mrs Locke attentively as did the rest of the students.

"Students, the tour has reached its end! We do hope sincerely that you enjoy your time here! Now then, please go to the Front Office to pick up your luggage and dorm key! Poppy will assist you and answer any questions that might plague your mind. If you fear you'll get lost on your journey, please take a look at our board which has the full school map. Do we have any questions?"

Mrs Locke scanned around the room and silence filled the air. Gathering this, she put her hands together and smiled at everyone.

"Welcome to Royale High!! If there are any concerns, my office is straight to your left. Please enjoy your time here!"

She raised her glasses and then peacefully exited the hall straight to her office. A couple students immediately moved in the direction of the front office or sprinted to the school map meanwhile others walked in the direction of the courtyard. Aiden and Sanno glanced at each other, questioning what they should do from that point forward. Sanno looked at the school map to which Aiden followed her gaze.

"Soooo, we going?"

Aiden asked. Sanno fidgeted with her hand briefly and then nodded in response. Aiden grinned brightly at his friend and they both went to the Front Office.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fortunately for the both of them, the queue wasn't necessarily as long as either of them were anticipating. However, as they were waiting for their turn, Sanno intended to start conversation with Aiden.

"Aiden? What do you remember about our time in elementary?"

Upon hearing that question, Aiden slowly turned to face her. After some processing, Aiden finally cleared his throat.

"Well, you and Alice- I mean Shade were cool! Even now, you two were the best people I've ever met in my life. We were SUPER inseparable! We were massive outcasts though."

Sanno's wings lowered in pity at that last part. Speaking of which, she never truly considered how it all affected Aiden in the long run all these years. She assumed that maybe he moved on from her. Hell, maybe he might've forgotten her. They hadn't seen each other or socialised to one another for a while, after all. 

"Are you... okay? A-After everything that happened, it must've affected you, right??"

Aiden started biting his nails on his right hand as he wondered what to say to her, barely managing to form eye contact with her.

"...Kinda. But I don't..."

The silence was growing at fast rates, and both of them knew that. Sanno placed her hand on Aiden's, in case he needed comforting in any way. Thoughts ran through her head as she looked at him with a pitiful expression: was he okay in middle school? Did he manage to make friends outside of that? Did the torment and outcast reputation escalate? Regardless, she was willing to listen to all of it. Aiden stopped biting his nails and put his hand over his mouth as his gaze was also fixed on Sanno.

"Geez, Sanno! Don't stare at me like that! I'm fiiine~ Do you still care what these pricks think? Is that what you're worried about? Seriously! I don't give a damn what those bland preppy kids say anymore, that was years ago! Besides, I doubt most of 'em are here of all places anyways and if they are, I won't let any of them talk smack about you, that's for sure!"

He quickly removed his hand from his mouth and grinned brightly from ear to ear. A smile grew on Sanno's face as Aiden motivated her. Admittedly, it was embarrassing. Usually, she was the person doing the pep-talks and spreading positivity. It felt humiliating, almost.

"...Thank you, Aide-"

Just as Sanno was about to say something, they both realised they were at the front of the queue. The lady at the front office seemed somewhat distracted, tapping her finger a couple of times. She had pink long hair organised in big pigtails and alongside flashy makeup, had stickers plastered all over her cheeks. She saw a name labelled on the woman's shirt though: Poppy. Looking at Sanno, Poppy looked up.

"Oh, hi! Welcome to Royale High! Name?"

Poppy looked really excitable, like her heart was about to burst from her body at any second. 

"Fusako Sano."

She nodded and typed at rapid speeds on her computer, before printing out a small card. Sanno couldn't help but stare at the pretty pink printer as it meticulously and smoothly released the card from its holder. Poppy quickly grabbed it and sniffed it.

"Oooh, I love this time of year! The smell of fresh IDs fills that printer by the time September hits! ...Sorry was that weird? I-It doesn't matter!"

Noticing how awkward the conversation was getting, Poppy placed the card on the counter, stood up to grab a dorm key and then stationed that directly next to the card. Sanno could feel sweat rolling down her face, slightly overwhelmed by this lady sitting down on the desk. 

"Here you go! Your luggage is just on the side there. Try not to lose your ID and key...! It's not easy making replacements for that kind of stuff, haha!"

Sanno took the ID and key regardless, putting her hands together and nodding.

"Thank you, Miss!"

She got her luggage and decided to wait for Aiden to complete his process too. To her surprise, he got the task done pretty swiftly and immediately went up to her.

"You going? Cause if you are, can I have your phone number? I totes need to call someone constantly if I'm paired up with a jockie, I'm telling you! I couldn't survive a day if otherwise!!"

He put both his card and key in his pocket, took out his phone before going on the contacts app and handing it over to his reunited friend. Without hesitation, Sanno typed in her number, her name and gave the device back to him. Immediately after getting his phone back, he squealed and tightly hugged her.

"TY TY TY!!! You're just as great as you were when we were tots!! I swear I'll NEVER forget youu!!"

Hearing Aiden shout acronyms out loud as she was almost being suffocated was something Sanno wasn't quite expecting from her first day at this place, but it was still a pleasant surprise nonetheless. He was stating all of this in such a melodramatic tone, as if they were never going to see each other ever again. But that's to be expected from a drama kid, right? At least, she hopes so. However, after a few seconds, he released Sanno.

"I'm so glad you're here, Aiden! I really am, I hope we're in the same classes, that'd be a miracle!"

Aiden put his thumb up, approving of the statement that just came out of Sanno's mouth.

"TOTES!! I'm going to get my luggage and stuff set up, I also kinda need to rest for tomorrow... IDK how long my brain's gonna be able to handle social interaction... CYA!"

He grabbed his heavy luggage and though he struggled to lift it temporarily, he raised his arm up and walked away nonetheless. Sanno had a feeling Aiden would experience arm cramps for days afterwards, but maybe it was best she didn't say any of that out loud. Relieved that she definitely has a friend that has her back in this place, she let out a sigh and walked away merrily with her own luggage as well.

One thing that sparked Sanno's interest about Royale high is the dorm system. She was currently on her way to the dorm room so why not read that manual again? To her memory, she has read the manual they provide to you as you walked in for your interview about 40 times. Though she can't necessarily remember the exact number from the top of her head. She reached it out of her bag and read the section relating to dorm rooms again.

"It is our mission as a Boarding School to ensure that all students get a comfortable bed and that their dorm is in safe conditions. Upon walking in, you will already be greeted with the following: a bed, desk, bullet-in board, wardrobe and schedule board. You will be given a roommate and you will share your dorm room. However, you will be provided your own rooms which are of equal size. Upon leaving the bedrooms, you shall be greeted to spacious living quarters in the middle. You shall decorate the rooms as you please as long as it doesn't cause a disturbance, both parties agree or it isn't appropriate.

As far as bed covers and wallpaper goes, they are completely custom. You had already informed us of your options through mail. If you would like changes, please inform us! This is all without pay in your freshman year and/or if you're under benefits due to complicated financial situations."

Sanno practically memorised that section in particular, she had been dreaming and fantasizing about having a dorm bedroom and staying with someone the same age as her. She was completely aware that Aiden wasn't going to be her roommate, as opposite genders couldn't be roommates at Royale High. Regardless, she was excited and curious to see who could possibly be staying with her. Sanno had dreamt of the day she could be roommates with someone, like in all of the movies. She never thought that could possibly be reality, though. Her outfit was sure to make a good impression, she just needed to be confident.

And most importantly, she needs to be herself. That's what Aunt Rin always said, after all.

She was in the dormitories building already and she could already feel her heart racing from anticipation. Sanno felt like some kind of princess in this big castle, all the dreams and games she played as a child infiltrating into her life all in big swoop. Her hand was still holding the manual as her arm was positioned straight at her chest. The more she listened to her heart, the more energy it took to hold back loud squeals and spin around the entrance. Though the place wasn't necessarily crowded, people were still huddled into groups, using the elevators, sitting around or walking loudly up and down the stairs. Even she knew it was best not to cause loud disturbances like that on her first day.

She slowly took a few deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling slowly. Sanno awkwardly stood in the middle of the room for a few minutes and quite frankly, she was starting to feel dirty looks and stares from the students. Shaking her head as a method of controlling herself, she finally decided to move up the stairs. She quickly managed to memorise her dorm number, it was 323.

It was thankfully not the top floor! In fact, it was the middle floor. In a way, that was exactly how Sanno liked it, she got some exercise walking up and down the stairs everyday but not too excessive that it would result in someone collapsing. Could she fly down with her angelic wings? Yes. But Sanno didn't want to cut corners like that. Instead, she wanted to use this as the opportunity to get herself into shape! After all, Sanno had been spending all summer holiday that wasn't attending the interview reading manga, spending time with her Aunt and sleeping in her room.

As she got up to Floor 3 of the establishment, she followed the door which had a very sparkly sign stating: "ROOMS 300-325". It was near the end though that wouldn't faze her in the slightest. Most people's dorm doors were beautifully decorated. Some with stickers, others with labels indicating the names of the owners, plausibly so people don't get numbers mixed up. There was nobody else in the hallways. As a result, instead of walking, she wanted to skip merrily across the hallway. This is the first time she was ever going to be here, she might as well make the first time a good time, after all. She knew it was far from the last time she'd see these halls but that wasn't her top priority. Her top priority was this dorm.

After around 30 seconds of joyful skipping from the teenage girl, she had found the exact door. Dorm Room 323. This was the exact room she was going to relax and sleep in, alongside one other person whom she is unaware of. She gulped, the nerves of staying with a stranger creeping up to her. Although possibilities invaded her head of what kind of person she would be living with, she shook those thoughts away the best she could. This was what she dreamt of, she needed to be as optimistic as humanly positive, no matter what. Besides, her roommate is probably just as nervous as her! They could bond based on the shared emotion.

With that in mind and with key in hand, she opened her new sleeping quarters.

Sanno's mind was immediately put at ease when the dorm room was exactly as the manual described. Upon entering, she was greeted with the spacious middle room and a door in front of her that led to a balcony. The colour pallet of the small kitchen part was a nice blue and pink. The shades weren't too bright to the eyes though not too dark that it seemed a gloomy sight. The television was massive, the couch looked comfortable and there were even bean bags where friend groups could gather around to watch shows, football games and so forth. In addition, the counters and tables were so wide that you could place anything you wanted to on them!

On opposite sides of the room, there were two doors. presumably to your individual bedrooms. Sanno had not a clue on which bedroom she wanted, especially considering she hadn't seen her roommate quite yet. Because who knows? Maybe they'd want a specific room and if Sanno picked one already, she'd be stealing the room said roommate would've liked. 

No, that'd be stupid. The manual said the rooms would be of equal size! Besides, there's the custom wallpaper and mattresses. Surely, if the roommate were to come in and just enter some room, they'd immediately notice the wallpaper and mattress wasn't as they requested. Just as Sanno's mind was just about to relax, a tall girl would walk out of her room.

Yet, it wasn't just any girl, it wasn't a stranger. It was Shade.

She blankly stood frozen in place, though her eyes were slightly widened from shock. Sanno's round and already wide eyes also widened further, it was partially due to shock though it was also due to another emotion: joy.

Without thinking, Sanno placed her luggage down and immediately ran over to her childhood friend, caressing her in a huge hug.

"Alice!! It's you, it's REALLY YOU!! We're roommates, can't you believe it?!"

Sanno jumped up and down in excitement, no longer being able to contain this bubble of energy she had been repressing since her eyes laid on her at the courtyard. Shade grabbed Sanno by the front of her shoulders and gently moved her a few steps away. It was at this point Sanno had realised she crossed a boundary, to which her natural response was to get down on her knees and put her hands together.

"Sorry sorry!! I guess I just... wasn't thinking. But this is great, it really is!! First, I'm able to befriend Aiden and now you. Isn't this just so exciting?! We can finally reunite again and have fun like we used to!!"

Shade walked over to Sanno, grabbed her wrist and helped her up.

"It's fine. You could request for a hug first, and it's Shade."

Sanno stared up at Shade, who stood tall in comparison to her small stature. She laughed nervously and started to mess around with her hands.

"O-Oh! Okay. Right! Got it! Forgive me, Ali-... Shade! I'll get used to that, promise. If that's what you want, of course! To be called Shade!"

In response, Shade let out a small annoyed sigh, opened her room door and continued to organise her belongings. Sanno's wings perked up and she swayed to the right, curious to see what Shade brought with her. In response, Shade made what could only be described as tense eye contact with her. Sanno stared straight back with curiosity behind those eyes.

"...Hey, Shade. Were you going to avoid me and Aiden all day if we weren't paired up as roommates?"

Shade grabbed a black notebook and a pen, brushed over Sanno's shoulder as if she weren't present and sat on the sofa. It was at this moment Sanno realises that she had never asked Shade the important question, that could potentially explain her odd behaviour.

"Do you remember us?"

That immediately stopped Shade in her tracks, she peered up at Sanno, who was standing directly in front of her.

"...Mhm."

She admitted before going back to the same activity.

"Aren't you happy?"

Sanno asked, moving the bean bag to sit and observe her childhood friend up close. That immediately triggered Shade to close her book and place it down.

"I don't care about that. I've moved on. You should too."

Shade coldly said, each sentence progressively growing more venomous, at least that's how it felt to Sanno. However, she had no intention of faltering.

"Are you sure? I know it's been years and all but I'm sure we can... reconnect!! It's been a while and I'm certain that we probably still have a lot in common, even if it doesn't... look like it."

She had a somewhat forced smile on her face and used her awkward hand gestures to suggest that she means fashion for the last part. Shade raised an eyebrow before sighing once more.

"We have nothing in common. Furthermore, I'm not going to spend my time here relying on others like you."

Sanno was about to make some similar optimistic sounding responses. However, she quickly gathered that if she continued that approach, their conversation would be repetitive and this whole venture would be practically hopeless. Regardless, Sanno had one last trick up her sleeve.

"...Shade, let's make a deal."

She requested. Shade's cold glare returned to one with more neutrality, indicating to the guardian angel that she was listening. Sanno had high hopes that this could work, she just had to sound convincing. Sanno stood up, adjusted her back posture alongside her glasses and stated with as much confidence as she could muster:

"Right...! You think that by befriending me and Aiden again after all these years, you'll be weak and seen as codependent? Well, I beg to differ! Here's the deal: You can pretend that you have no relations to us from childhood, that you have just met us today. We can hang out with you and you can hang out with us that way! I'm sure little to nobody else from elementary would remember us as childhood friends unless they had photographic memory somehow. Even so, I'm sure you can make other friends too! You're really pretty and in a place like this, I'm sure there's many goth vampire girls who like the stuff you like! Basically, we'll pretend we don't know you from childhood if you become friends with us again. Win win! Deal?"

Sanno immediately sat on the beanbag, revealing her right hand and patiently waiting for a handshake. A small smirk appeared on Shade's face as Sanno's demeanor nearly completely changed, though when she sat down, that neutral expression returned.

"...Would Aiden agree?"

Without any hesitation, Sanno reacted with a nod. Following the nod, Shade moved her upper body forward and reached her hand out. Quickly, Sanno took Shade's hand and they both shook firmly.

"Deal, I guess."

After hearing those words, Sanno stood up, raised her clenched hands and cheered.

"YAYYY!!! You WON'T regret this! Trust me, I will be the bestest friend you'll EVER meet in your entire life, we are starting from scratch!! Starting now, I will know you as Shade, the girl who I TOTALLY didn't know as a kid! You will know me as Sanno, the girl who you TOTALLY didn't know as a kid. I'm a pretty good liar too, I could convince some people! Aiden aspires to be an actor, he could probably lie too! EEEEKK!!"

Shade covered her ears and placed herself at the very corner of the sofa, eyes still fixed on the enthusiastic and energetic girl in front of her.

"You should sort out your luggage."

Hearing those exact words, Sanno clutched her hands together and bowed down.

"Okay! Thank you! You're amazing, Shade! Really!"

Sanno grabbed her luggage and ran straight into her new room, squealing loudly much to the displeasure of her new roommate who's totally not her childhood friend's ears. 

Speaking of her room, Sanno was delighted to see that the light yellow wallpaper filled with cute imagery such as simple boats, teddy bears and balloons scattered looked exactly as she wanted. Was it childish for her to request something like that at the age of fourteen? Maybe. But she loved it, and that's all that matters. Besides, not like anyone else apart from Shade and Aiden will see it anyways. Sanno's bed covers are full of cute pastels and illustrations that give off the appearance of patches. Within those 'patches' would be drawings of cute cartoon animals and ribbons.

However, Sanno knew deep down she couldn't necessarily fangirl for too long. She brought her luggage at the center of the room, opened the case and started organising all the things she brought with her. She brought a couple cute blankets, her brown teddy bear, her music box, several cute trinkets, accessories and decorations for her desk. Of course she also bought essentials such as clothing, her own toothpaste, shoes and whatnot. 

To motivate herself, Sanno placed her phone on the desk and with low volume, decided to play some calming music as she was placing everything in their rightful spots. Embarrassingly enough, Sanno took several breaks during this process due to the sheer amount of things she brought as she was convinced she would 'need' everything just in case. After around 2 hours, Sanno completed everything. She removed the bows and hairbands from her hair, allowing her wavy brown hair to flow down. She placed some possessions in the bedroom drawers as well, just to be safe. Sanno sat on the bed, positioning her teddy bear on her lap as she remained there deep in thought about her new life.

On her first day, she was immediately faced with some hardships and challenges. But Sanno wants to remain hopeful no matter what possibly happens, like she has done many times before.

After all, that's what they would've wanted, right?

Chapter Text

It was late at night, a woman in her 20s was peacefully sleeping on the side in a double sized bed. The cream curtains were closed, all the lights were off and the entire bedroom was flower themed. A little girl with tiny angel wings and a lack of a halo snuck her way into the room, intentionally avoiding the floorboards. She was trembling in her pink pyjamas and clutching onto a teddy bear.

"Auntie Rin....?"

The girl finally spoke, though her voice sounded croaky. Nonetheless, she was loud enough to wake the woman up. She rubbed her eyes, rose up from her sleeping position and upon turning on a bright lamp, noticed the girl in front of her.

"Sweetie, what are you doing up so late...?"

She asked in a gentle tone. The girl took a few steps forward and opened her mouth to only hear no words come out. Instead, she erupted loudly into tears. Instantaneously, Rin got out of bed to carry the girl.

"Awww, are you feeling home sick? Is that it?"

No response came out of the girl's mouth, at least not for now. She continued to sob loud, Rin stroked the back of her head and returned on the bed, cuddling the little girl. Rin looked to the side and then back at the kid, displaying a small sympathetic frown on her face.

"...Mommy... daddy... where are..."

Rin moved the girl so that she was sitting on her lap. She rubbed her eyes, attempting to calm herself down but to no avail.

"...They're just going away for a little bit. But it's okay, they'll come back. Mommy and daddy are very strong people! Want to see something?"

Rin paused during the first half of her statement and talked in an uncertain tone. However, her gentle and clear tone returned as she asked that question. The little girl nodded inquisitively and had a small smile on her face, though tears were still streaming in her eyes. That prompted Rin to grab something from the bedside table: a gold music box embroidered nicely with pink ribbon. The girl's mouth had a very open sideways oval shape as she was exposed to this beautiful box in front of her.

"This helped me go to sleep all of the time... you just click this little button and..."

The girl's eyes paid attention to how Rin was handling the box. She spun a dial of some kind, clicked the middle to which a beautiful ballerina with angel wings appeared. A classical melody spread throughout the room and into her ears. The girl placed her hands on her ears and stared at the figure inside the box for what felt like forever before Rin's voice chimed in one last time.

"Would you like to sleep here tonight?"

Rin asked, rubbing the girl's palm in circles to try and calm her further. The girl nodded, grabbed her teddy and drifted to Rin's arms, She gave a sad remorseful smile to the girl before pulling the covers over, remaining in the exact same position until she drifted to sleep.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sanno found herself struggling to sleep during her first night at Royale High's dormitories, that feeling of being away from home eating her away. It was a feeling she was familiar but discomforted by all at once. She attempted to calm herself by hugging her bear, but to no success. She saw on her pink bear shaped clock that it was 2:34 AM. She had gotten into bed approximately four hours ago but even so she wasn't able to shut her eyes. 

Maybe she needed some food to calm her down, like a glass of milk. There was a section in the manual that mentioned they put a big carton of milk in that fridge first thing yesterday for everyone and that when the first one goes off or runs out, you can order more. She put on her glasses, rose out of bed, got out of her bedroom door and just when she was about to walk to the kitchen part of her dorm, she saw Shade at the balcony, elbows on the rail and head raised up.

Slowly, she walked to the balcony opposite the front door and stood beside Shade.

"Hi."

Shade's head turned to face Sanno, she tilted her head and her eye shape lowered to get a better view of the girl near her.

"It's 2 in the morning. Sleep's essential, not gonna gain anything by being up this late."

Sanno's mouth opened, about to call Shade out on her 'hypocrisy' up until Sanno realised that vampires are nocturnal by nature. It could very possibly be rude to say such a thing. Shade looked away from Sanno to get something out of her pocket and what came out was a packet of cigarettes alongside a black lighter with some silver decoration. Sanno took a step back and was stunned at the vision of Shade actually attempting to smoke a cigarette.

"Not like you to not be talkati-..."

Shade's speech was immediately cut off when she saw the shocked look on Sanno's expression.

"Y-You're fourteen, right?! Maybe thirteen or fifteen? I can't stop you or anything but you really really shouldn't be smoking that!! What about your lungs? You could even cause second-hand smoking too, Aunt Rin told me all about that!!"

The angel flapped her hands about, talking at a rather fast pace and sweating profusely. Shade's usually neutral and off-putting expression almost faltered at the sight, though she still managed to maintain her composure.

"I'll be fine. I'm not smoking indoors or near you. You should get inside and close the door, then."

Shade pointed to the doors, lighter still in hand.

"But even then, you CAN get cancer, right?? I've read that vampires are immortal and all but you guys can still get lung cancer and a load of other diseases like everyone else! I don't..."

As Sanno rambles to her, Shade's eyebrows furrowed slightly when Sanno mentioned vampires. But nonetheless, she cleared her throat.

"We can. Chances are severely reduced, the immune system of a vampire is resilient. Diseases are the last of our concerns."

Though Shade's voice was incredibly monotone, there was a hint of confidence and wisdom in her answer. Sanno looked to the side, hand on her cheek. She was astounded by what Shade was telling her, but a part of her knew that she couldn't object. After all, she wasn't technically incorrect, though that didn't rid the worries Sanno felt regardless.

"Just get to bed. You know you're gonna regret not getting enough of your slumber."

Shade's tone sounded almost... concerned? Though it was difficult to tell as her voice always sounded displeased or completely neutral. Nonetheless, Sanno nodded and left the balcony, closing the door on the way out. She got a glass from the cabinets and began pouring the milk from the fridge, though she only filled half of it. For a second, she swore she could see Shade looking behind her as she was smoking that cigarette. 

Maybe Sanno was just exhausted out of her mind and imagining things... or maybe that's Shade's strange way of being worried. Not like she can tell the difference with her vision feeling dazed from the lack of sleep. 

She focused on the task at hand, drink the milk, let that calm her enough and collapse onto the bed for the morning. She set her clock to go off at 5am, after all. Three hours of sleep may be inadequate and highly unlike her, though three hours was better than no hours. She'll take whatever she can get.

With that in mind, she finished the milk, placed the glass next to the sink for herself to clean in the morning and finally got tired enough to go to bed.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sanno's alarm blared loudly at the time of 5:00 AM. However, that was just what she wanted. Breakfast was to start at exactly 7:00 AM, where you could get food at the cafeteria, socialise or get errands sorted before school hours truly began. Though she was aware of this, Sanno simply adored waking up early for as long as she could remember. To start her day, she brushed her teeth and gave herself a pep-talk:

"Fusako Sano. You can do this. You can DO THIS. You've already got friends, even if the circumstances with one of them is a little complicated and she's probably going to end up getting lung cancer in 50 years!! NO!! Do NOT be negative! You are smart, top of your classes for years and you're strong, really strong! Yeah."

After proclaiming to this and pointing to herself loudly in the dorm bathroom mirror, she returned to get dressed for the day.

For her outfit today, she decided to express herself a little bit more than she did for the tour. Sanno decided to wear a button-up yellow shirt, however she made sure to wear a high white tank top underneath! She also wore a cute pink jacket with matching baggy shorts, leg warmers and yellow trainers. She tied her hair in the same two pigtails as she wore yesterday but she used white bows rather than black ones. 

Ultimately, upon finishing the mundane tasks, Sanno's first thing on the to-do list was to call Aiden. She grabbed her phone and dialed his number! Though it took about 40 seconds for Aiden to pick up the phone, the awkward tension of the phone ringing ceased when the fatigued voice of Aiden began to talk:

"Hello? Who dis...?"

Over the phone, she could faintly hear him yawning.

"It's Sanno!"

On the other line, Aiden, who was lying in bed on his side had the phone in one hand with his other arm on the pillow.

"Ohhh!! Sanno!! Yeah, yoo-hoo. You woke me up... J-Just give me a minute."

He put his phone on speaker mode before placing it on the bedside table to stretch his arms and let out a loud yawn, before finally getting out of bed and barely managing to stand on his own two feet.

"Aight, I'm up now...! How's the dorm and roommate stuff going, by the way?"

Sanno immediately perked up when Aiden had asked that question, as she was just about to discuss that topic. However, Sanno placed the phone close to her mouth and said in the most quiet and clear voice she possibly could.

"Aiden, you won't believe this... Shade is my roommate."

Immediately after hearing that, Aiden looked at his phone with his jaw dropped.

"OMGOMG- NO WAY!!! Like, you're being serious?! What was she like? What did she say?"

The sound of Aiden's perky voice couldn't help but make a small giggle release from Sanno's mouth.

"Well, she said the reason she was ignoring us was because she didn't want to 'rely on others'. Sooo, I told her that we could make a deal! We can still be friends with her. However, the fact that we knew each other from childhood will remain a BIG SECRET! You and me could still be childhood friends openly, just not you and Shade or me and Shade... D-Does that make sense?"

As Sanno was chatting, Aiden was getting ready for the day, putting on accessories and getting his outfit on. For today, he wore a black and green striped shirt with baggy jeans consisting of band names and symbols, not to mention black fingerless gloves with a lot of bracelets and necklaces.

Silence for what felt like eternity to Sanno and short for Aiden progressed. Aiden raised his eyebrow and looked to the side, attempting to process what he was being told.

"So, we have to pretend that we just met her yesterday, right? At the tour?"

Sanno sighed in relief when Aiden finally spoke up and made an energetic "mhm" sound with her mouth!

"Ahhhh... that'll be... weird but I can go along with that. I'm not an aspiring actor for nothin'!"

Aiden grabbed his phone and went inside his dorm bathroom, still having it on speaker mode as he continued to get ready. Sanno could hear the sound of Aiden opening and locking a door. She also noticed that he muted though he quickly unmuted his phone again.

"...How's your roommate?"

Sanno asked out of curiosity. Almost instantly, Aiden let out a huge annoyed sigh and tapped his fingers against the clean sink.

"Oh, don't get me STARTED!! First time we see each other, he laughs at me for the way I dress and calls me an 'emo', as if HE looked any better. He then stares at me as I'm unpacking and laughs more when he sees that I brought a plushie with me!"

Despite being in a dorm with not so thick walls, Aiden was expressing this noisily and with pride, as if his roommate just never existed to begin with. However, that wasn't necessarily Sanno's focus. Hearing the last part made Sanno raise her voice herself.

"He LAUGHED at you for bringing a plushie with you? But they're super cute!! I still have Mister Cuddles and he still helps me go to sleep at night!"

Sanno heard Aiden aggressively slam his hand against the sink.

"RIGHT?? Not like he could say much! He's such a dork, and NOT in a good way! I bet the second he walks out of the dorm complex that some jock is gonna come out of literally nowhere and force him into giving lunch money like those stupid disney channe-"

"I HEARD THAT!!"

Though Sanno could clearly tell that the male and nasally voice was coming from another room, it was loud enough for the phone to pick it up from her side. 

"GREAT JOB, KAT!! DOES THE GOOD HEARING MAKE UP FOR THAT TRASHY EYESIGHT?"

Sanno covered her mouth, taken aback to hear her once-doormat-of-a-friend getting argumentative with someone.

"It's actually KATSUKI. If you're going to slander me, do it CORRECTLY!"

Aiden rolled his eyes and returned back to his own room. She could hear him messing around with the placement of his phone as he was doing so, he must have pretty good audio for it to pick up a lot of the sound that he was making.

"...There, got that out of my system. Now then, see ya at Breakfast! Bring Shade with you too, if you can. Cya!"

His fatigued tone he had at the start of the call returned slightly, though to Sanno, this made sense with the negative rant Aiden had spewed about his own roommate prior.

"Okay, I will! Bye!"

And just like that, both of them hung up the call.

Sanno placed her phone in her school bag and strolled over to the middle of the dorm room to check if Shade was still there, and there she was! She did a small jump and waved proudly at Shade in an attempt to get her attention, Shade looked up and though she didn't reciprocate the wave, at least that was a sign that she was acknowledged! Shade was sitting down on the couch, drawing something on that black notebook. Sanno attempted to peer over to see what Shade was drawing, but she protectively covered the book before Sanno could see the interior.

"Hello, Shade!! Are you okay?"

Shade glanced at her, tilted her head and shook the pen about in her hand.

"It's a work in progress, don't spy."

She stated in a blank and displeased tone before turning away from Sanno to continue her artwork. Sanno looked away, with the intention of respecting her roommate's privacy, but she still spoke nonetheless.

"I seee! I get that, I get that!! Well... about our deal, how about we meet Aiden at breakfast? You actually get to talk to him and stuff! He'll adore you! I mean y-you've got the same... dark look, kind of. His outfits have more colour but you kind of..."

Realising that she was unsuccessful in getting the message across, Sanno sighed at herself in annoyance...

"F-Forget that! Uhm... I'll clean the glass from last nig-"

"Already did that."

Shade chimed in. To Sanno, this confirmed that Shade was still surprisingly listening. She eyed the shaking and quivering Sanno up and down before closing the notebook.

"...Let's get food now. We might as well."

Sanno's eyes widened and she let out a squeal.

"REALLY??? Okayokay!! Let me just..."

Following that, Sanno ran into her room, grabbed her school bag and returned to Shade like a puppy after fetching a toy.

"There!! I'm ready!! I'm ready!! Are you??"

Sanno went from shaking of nervousness to excitement, the energy just never truly drains from this girl, does it? Shade grabbed her school bag, which was decorated to the brim with gothic-like decoration. Shade raised her head up and down. This was the cue for Sanno to grab Shade by the hand and lead the way!

This was quite the drastic gesture, though Shade didn't necessarily object to it, verbally or non-verbally. Sanno ran through the hallway, but was decent enough to let go of Shade's hand as they approached the stairs.

"I don't want you to fall and break your bones! There there..."

Sanno ushered her hands, implying to Shade that she was allowed to go down, to which she complied. However, Shade would've gone down the stairs anyways. Sanno stood right next to her as they were on their journey to the cafeteria. Shade's cold expression was still plastered on her face in complete contrast to Sanno's happy wide-eyed self. 

After taking the stairs all the way to the ground floor, they travelled over to the lobby to which Sanno noticed someone.

It was Aiden, about to doze off from exhaustion sitting down against a wall. Sanno went over to him and sat down on the floor right next to him.

"Hey, Aiden!!"

Shade tilted her head slightly. Despite having only seen him temporarily, he appeared energetic and eager at the tour. Aiden slowly turned to Sanno and rubbed his eyes, a small smile forming on his face when seeing his friend.

"Sannoooo....! How are y-"

He looked up to see the tall and slim figure of Shade standing right over him, looking down on the two of them. Aiden gulped and clasped onto Sanno's hand in fear.

"Oh, hello Shade! You've met Aiden, haven't you?"

Sanno winked and nudged very un-subtly to Aiden. He looked at her for a moment and then back at Shade.

"Yes! D-During the... tour! It's nice to talk to you more..."

Aiden stood up. Despite wearing platform shoes, they were still not enough to increase his height to Shade's level. He slowly raised his hand, hoping for a handshake. Shade took a step closer and instead of grabbing Aiden's palm to shake, grabbed his fingers and gently shook...

"Yeah. Hi."

Shade smiled from ear to ear, though the smile didn't quite reach her eyes. Not to mention, it looked downright uncanny, with her teeth exposed. Aiden held his mouth for a moment, fighting the urge to laugh. But this wouldn't last very long. Shade immediately returned to her neutral expression as Aiden was cackling loudly from the top of his lungs. Sanno darted around the room, praying that nobody was watching the awkward scene that was occurring in front of her very eyes. However, before Sanno could dwell for a second longer, Aiden's laughter came to an end as he wiped a tear from his eye.

"Pffft... you're still great even after all this time!!"

He stared at his finger, realising that through wiping that tear, he wiped some of his recently applied black eyeliner away. He blinked a couple times before looking back at his friends. Sanno felt as if she was living in a weird dream, perhaps not a straight-up fever dream but a strange dream nonetheless. 

"Let's get some food."

Shade suggested. Sanno nodded without any hesitation at the notion before adding:

"Yes... we should...!"

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Most of their time was spent after buying the food was sitting in the courtyard and talking. Aiden fell asleep during the second half of the experience, but even then, he was way less talkative than yesterday. Perhaps he didn't want to give away the whole thing with Shade, perhaps he was simply exhausted as Sanno essentially forced him out of bed, she doesn't quite know. She talked the most out of the two, mainly discussing a book she had read the week prior. Aiden was out of the loop, though he contributed with a few interpretations he came up with from the top of his head, Shade said very little (as usual) but the things she did say felt meaningful too.

Shade asked questions, likely to keep the conversation going: "why did the protagonist do this?" "how was that thing incorporated into the book?". It certainly kept Sanno talking, but outside of that, her mouth was essentially sealed. Maybe when they spend more time together, she could get Shade to be more talkative! Though at the same time, Shade's quiet demeanor that was intimidating to even Aiden gave Sanno the opposite effect. To her, oddly enough, it made Shade more charming to be around.



The intercom went off, as indicated by two distinct beeping noises. The Head Mistress' voice spread throughout the entire school with the following:

"Good morning all students! It is now 7:00 AM, therefore it is Breakfast hour. To those that have just risen from your slumber, YOU'RE LATE! ... *Ahem* To all Freshmen, please make your way to the main hall to receive your planners after eating your breakfast. Do have a wonderful day, thank you!"

The two beeping sounds rung again, indicating that the announcement had concluded. Hearing of this news, Sanno looked at both Shade and Aiden. Shade nudged the sleeping Aiden in an attempt to wake him up, he opened his eyes and observed the room around him. He stood up, rubbing his head violently and clinging onto the wall for dear life.

"A-Are you okay, Aiden?"

Sanno also stood up and grabbed Aiden by the hand.

"Yeah yeah... I'm just taking my sweet time to wake up! ...Why did you wake me?"

He turned to the still sitting Shade with a confused expression on his face, speaking fairly slowly and patiently.

"We need to go to the main hall. For Planners."

Shade pointed to the door leading indoors to show Aiden where he (vaguely) needs to go. Sanno nodded awkwardly in agreement and despite Aiden attempting to go off on his own, Sanno's hand clutched onto his.

"Nonono! You might collapse if you move too quickly on your own, let's go together!"

They were in the direction of leaving the outdoors, meanwhile students were entering the outdoors, laughing as they ate their breakfast meals and having long conversations with one another. Sanno even noticed the sea girl and eldritch boy holding hands as they were enjoying their breakfast. It put a calm smile on her face to know that people of all kinds could get together in such a manner.

Luckily, the castle and cafeteria was shockingly spacious. Otherwise, the sheer amount of students in one place would probably give the casual claustrophobic person nightmares. Since it had just turned 7am recently, not a lot of people were sat down in their tables quite yet. As they walked past the cafeteria, she had noticed Shade cover her nose and mouth with a slightly discomforted look in the eyes. A part of Sanno understood why this could potentially be the case. After all, she knew from elementary that vampires would sit in the very end of cafeterias for a reason.

Upon entering the hall, what greeted them was Mr Scholz with a calm and formal expression on his face. Shade put both hands to her side and in an instant, drew her left hand for him to shake, to which he confidently did. Aiden and Sanno looked at each other, concluding to do the same thing. Though the shakes he gave to both of them weren't as firm, Sanno still understood that the guy appreciated the sentiment.

"Show me your student identification cards."

He said in a deep yet clear and relaxed tone. However, his presence and aura alone was enough for all three of them to conclude that this guy was someone to respect, this was someone they needed to follow instructions from. As a result, all three of them displayed their cards. He clicked his fingers to which three gold and white planners appeared in his other hand as if they were always in his grip. He handed the planners individually before stating:

"They should have your schedules on them for the day, not to mention a contents page for organisation purposes. If there are any questions, do enter my office and I'll answer them as thoroughly as possible. Have a great first day."

He turned to them with a small yet beaming glow in his eyes. Just as those three were about to leave, a group of rowdy boys burst into the room.

"Maaan, you can't be serious about going in here first!!"

The brown haired boy with a puffy jacket spoke up first, eyeing a ginger haired guy wearing a blue and pink varsity jacket.

"No, Ginji... I-I was just thinking that if we get our planners here first, then... uhm-"

The guy had a mesomorph-like structure, despite presumably being 14-15 years of age. However, despite looking sporty, his voice sounded shockingly squeaky and somewhat high-pitched in comparison. 

"Who even cares? I just want to meet with Mai after this, she already came here, knowing her. She's been awake since 4:30 in the morning, y'know?"

The blonde guy with a white eyepatch over his right eye coldly interrupted the two, under the assumption it was going to be a one-sided argument. He had his arm crossed, with his other hand holding onto his phone and checking the time with an annoyed expression on his face. This seemed to have quickly shut them up, however. There was one other guy who was right next to the strong boy, a dark-skinned man with black hair with bright blue ends wearing a black turtleneck and dark blue denim jacket.

During this whole interaction, Aiden was particularly fixated on staring at the blonde haired guy. She didn't really know the reasoning behind this, neither did Aiden as of right now. Regardless, that was without a doubt the most alert look Sanno had ever seen from him. Meanwhile, Mr Scholz glared at them with a look of distain on his face. Not wanting to be involved and having slightly bigger priorities than watching the co-head telling off a bunch of popular people, they left the hall. 

To lighten the mood, Sanno started the conversation:

"So what did you guys choose for your exams? I chose Psychology, Geography, Business studies and French!"

About a few seconds after Sanno said her options, Shade opened her mouth.

"Psychology, Art, German and History."

Sanno immediately perked up when she heard 'psychology', rummaging through her planner to look at her timetable. Upon finding it, she looked for the word 'PSYCHOLOGY' and checked the room number alongside her teacher. Shade opened her planner as well.

"Do you have... Mrs Kolby?"

Shade scanned her planner for a moment before turning back to Sanno and nodding.

"DOES THAT MEAN WE'RE IN THE SAME CLASS??? Eeek!! That's great!! Aiden, what about you???"

Aiden was tapping and fidgeting with the cover of his planner but when his name was brought up, he raised his head up and made eye contact with the both of them, still analysing his schedule as he did so.

"OH! I did Drama, Music, French and Food Tech."

Aiden opened his planner to his schedule though he positioned it in a way where nobody else could simply peak their head to see what was written. As for his exam options, Shade was definitely not surprised with the first two options he had stated. To her, Aiden was always a bit of a theatre kid, as if his scemo attire wasn't giving that part away. But she blinked upon hearing the last two.

"French? Food tech?"

He covered his face with the planner, flustered.

"H-HEY! Are you saying I can't cook?? I TOTES can cook! I even got high marks in Food Tech!! Besides, you're the one doing History! That's so like... one of the WORST options someone could choose!"

He let out a clearly exaggerated sigh before continuing to observe the timetable on his own planner.

"...Keep that attitude up and you're gonna burn your dorm down on the first week."

Aiden immediately slammed the book shut, still holding it in his hand.

"As if YOU could do better! I'm GREAT at cooking food! You're DEFO just jealous of me!"

Sanno smiled seeing Shade act sassy with such few words. Aiden was possibly emotionally sensitive but she could tell there was no malice behind the words. How could there be any malice behind someone like her after all? Maybe deep down, she is the same girl from all of those years ago... That same girl whom despite wearing a mask at all times, you could still sense a smile in the eyes. That same girl who would dress up in Sanno's princess costume whenever they had play dates, that same girl who you loved being around.

No matter how cold Shade is, Sanno couldn't help but feel warm, almost too warm.

Chapter Text

"TOTES!! I'm going to get my luggage and stuff set up, I also kinda need to rest for tomorrow... IDK how long my brain's gonna be able to handle social interaction... CYA!"

He grabbed his heavy luggage and he could feel the cheer amount of strain that was transpiring in his arms. After a bit of struggling, Aiden grabbed both hands and lifted it up highly before leaving the front office to be on his way to his dorm room.

Despite looking somewhat smug on the outside, his mind was spiralling in circles on the inside. He was dreading the thought of who his new roommate could possibly be, he knew for a fact that he definitely didn't want to be in the same room with a jockie for 4 years of his life. Not only are jockies highly unhygienic and gross, but they'd tell him to shut up and judge him for singing musical songs. This would especially be unbeneficial for the upcoming auditions for the royale high yearly musical in two weeks, which just so happened to be 'The Little Shop of Horrors'! Not being able to belt in his room because of an obnoxious roommate would totally ruin the whole thing, he could not tolerate that.

However, that thought process was quickly disturbed when his arms began to cramp. BADLY. He grinded his teeth, attempting to cope with the sudden pain that was rushing into his arms. It was at this moment Aiden had came to the realisation that he probably packed way too much for the average person to bring into this bag and he was facing the very consequences of his own stupidity, to which he let out a loud sigh of annoyance right near the entrance of the dormitories.

Aiden opened the entrance and was finally able to make it to the dormitories building, to which he was immediately hit with dirty looks from some of the students standing around. To be fair, he knew that to them, he likely looked similar to an elderly man attempting to walk up stairs and failing miserably. Quite frankly, he felt discomforted and offended by that thought. Speaking of stairs, he saw a staircase leading up to the other floors of the dorm. He temporarily placed his suitcase down to check his dorm key, that had the following room number of: 354. That was enough to make up his mind. If he took the stairs with this overcrowded luggage then his arms weren't going to be the only thing in pain.

He walked over to the elevator and noticed some freshmen crowding around the elevator with their own suitcases. Aiden couldn't wait too long, he was well aware that if he kept this up, then he'd probably break a good couple of bones in his arms. However, Aiden knew just what to do to ensure his place in the lift before anyone else, it was what he would describe as a 'brilliant genius plan'. All Aiden had to do was wait for the elevator doors to slowly emerge for him to execute.

He stared tensely at the top of the elevator which showed the number. He saw the numbers going down, much like a countdown. Floor 3... Floor 2...

Aiden's right hand began to grip tightly on the luggage, prepared for what he was about to do.

Floor 1.

The doors opened. This was his cue. Quickly and without a second thought, his left hand grabbed the suitcase and he threw the suitcase right in the middle of the elevator, ensuring it wouldn't damage the lift itself. Understandably, freshmen took a couple steps away from the elevator to ensure they didn't get hit and Aiden waltzed right into the elevator, securing his place and rubbing his wrist muscles to ease the pain. If he wasn't getting judgemental glares before, he was definitely getting them now, and he was aware of this. He slowly got on his feet as others walked into the lift, staring at his own feet.

When the lift went all the way up to Floor 3, he left with luggage in one hand and key in the other. Right... Dorm Number 354 was what he needed to look for. He scanned the room, noticing that all the doors had sparkly signs stating what room numbers were behind the door. Aiden spotted the door with the sign of: "ROOMS 351-375", the walk wasn't far and he had already crossed the hardest parts of this journey. He dragged his luggage to the door and looked around the hallway to identify the number he was looking for.

He discovered Dorm Room 354. Finally, he had done it. He had gone all of the way here carrying this stupid case for this exact door. Without hesitation, he used the key to open the door and then proceeded to close the door behind him. Aiden positioned the suitcase to the side and put his hands on his knees, panting heavily. After everything, he made it and now he can finally unpack his suitcase without thinking about that stupid journey ever again.

Aiden looked up to see a platinum blonde haired boy with glasses. He wore a bright multi-coloured checkered sweater. However, despite the colours being fairly bright, they had this dull and oddly corporate looking feeling to it, much like your average school logo or office job lounge room. The boy also had dark blue trousers with stripes organised diagonally, looking much like pyjama bottoms. Upon seeing the green haired person in front of him, the boy let out a loud and ear-piercing cackle.

"I got paired up with THIS?? This has... got to be a prank!!!"

From what that guy had said alone, Aiden's eye had begun to twitch.

"A prank...?"

The boy snickered, putting his hand partially over his mouth as he did so.

"Yeah!!! Applying me in the same room as some emo looking guy... That hair stylist clearly did a poor job with the HAIR!!"

Aiden crossed his arms and eyed his new roommate up and down. For someone that looks nothing like a jock, he sure as hell is judging him as if he is one. He used his finger to move a strand of his hair away from his face.

"I did it myself, for starters. SECOND OF A-"

"Really? I CAN TELL!!! PFFFT..."

The guy continued to cackle his heart away at the sight of Aiden, to which he quickly grinded his teeth in annoyance and moved a step forward.

"Well, YOU can't say much! Your hair looks like you hadn't had a shower in weeks, that sweater is completely unorganised in colour pallet and those socks totes haven't been washed in god-knows-HOW-LONG!!"

Following what Aiden said, the guy walked a step forward as well.

"Your accessories look like they require an EPILEPSY warning, the little doodles on your shoes look atrocious and I bet people spit on you whenever you walk into a room."

The blonde haired kid scanned Aiden's outfit and pointed at the flaws as he was speaking.

"I bet teachers love you and students despise you! You look like the type of MF to remind the teacher about homework and give them apples whenever they so much as tolerate you!"

"I bet teachers and students despise you. You talk like a Malibu American teen who's always on their phone. If I wasn't looking at you right now, I would've concluded that you were a blonde."

"Oh, EFF U!! You sound like a nerdy guy from the EIGHTIES, BASTARD!"

Aiden moved away, putting both middle fingers up as he walked away to open his dorm door and prepare his things. In the distance, he could hear the obnoxious guy going on some kind of lecture. To be honest, Aiden didn't want to hear the sound of this guy's voice for another moment, perhaps unpacking could ease his mind.

After Aiden had successfully organised all of his accessories, the sound ceased completely. He sighed in relief to himself and continued with what he was doing. Aiden took a huge bracelet maker from out of his bag, presumably the thing that had made it so heavy all of this time. He placed it on the side of his desk, leaving some room if he needed the space to write on pieces of paper for homework purposes. 

As he was looking through the stuff he had packed, he had discovered a light and dark brown plush that looked like a dog with floppy ears. He placed it onto the pillows and gently pat its head. Behind him, he could hear the same cackle that he heard when he had first walked in. When Aiden turned around, he saw that his roommate had been watching him unpack his stuff.

"YOU... YOU STILL OWN A PLUSH?? At the age of FOURTEEN?!"

Aiden stomped right next to the door.

"Were you watching me the whole time?! Ugh, you're totes a weirdo... You probs hug a plush to sleep too, at least I'm honest about it."

The guy was just about to open his mouth and he pointed directly at Aiden, but nothing came out. Aiden couldn't help but show a teasing grin on his face.

"I KNEW IT!!! HAHA!"

Just under a minute ago, his roommate was the one that was laughing at him. Oh, how the tables had turned. When Aiden noticed the embarrassed and extremely uncomfortable look on this guy's face, he stopped.

"Heyy, nothing to be ashamed of! What's your name?"

The guy gave Aiden a somewhat distrusting and uncertain look.

"...Katsuki Maeda? Why?"

Aiden giggled after he had introduced himself.

"No need to be so formal!! Could've just said Katsuki! Tell ya what, I'll call you Kat, okay? Since we're roomies and all."

Katsuki shook his head violently at the suggestion.

"Don't you dare. Just call me Katsuki, Kat sounds unbelievably childish."

He scrunched his face up a little at the thought. 

"That suits you even more then!"

Aiden grinned, though this time it wasn't necessarily a teasing one, moreso an enthusiastic one. Katsuki rubbed his head with his hand, knowing he's going to never get it through this guy's thick skull at this rate. 

"...Whatever you want your deluded mind to believe. I'm going to watch some television, don't interrupt me."

Katsuki stomped away and sat on the couch with the remote in his hand. Aiden monitored the guy for about a minute before returning to his own dorm room to organise his pieces. Exhausted, he removed all of his accessories, which admittedly took quite a bit of time to complete. After that, he sorted all the accessories into designated drawers: one for his bracelets, one for his necklaces, one for gloves and one for rings.

Luckily, the wardrobe already had a bunch of clothing hangers where you could place your stuff, to which he did. For about an hour, he spent his time with the wardrobe hanging clothes, categorising clothing in the right places: Trousers, short sleeve tops, long sleeve tops, pyjamas, you get the drill. After finishing, he looked in the mirror and used his fingers to flick through his somewhat uneven eyebrows. However, the work was not done yet. He needed to add his final touch to the wardrobe: stickers. Bright, colourful and dumb looking stickers. They looked much like the type of stickers elementary school teachers would give children for being well-behaved, as a matter of fact. He applied these stickers all over the wardrobe, bullet-in board and desk. It was an absolute mess by the end of it.

But that was exactly as he wanted. "A clean room is a clean mind", right?

Chapter Text

The loud sound of a bell chimes throughout the outdoor playground. A tall and elegant nature fairy wearing bright colours and a long skirt claps her hands in a rhythm, which all the elementary age school children follow. She announces in a loud and clear voice:

"Alright, children! Recess is over...! Please line up in your year groups!"

One of the first children in the 2nd year of Elementary school to get into that line was a brown haired guardian angel with cute hairclips and a bright pink backpack wearing round glasses, she had her hands behind her back and with a smile, waited patiently for everyone else to follow in her direction. However, behind the girl, she could hear vague and vicious whispers from the other children. Out of curiosity, she peeked behind her to see some of those whispering children... looking at her? Oblivious, the girl waved cheerfully as they gave disgusted stares at her before looking back at the teachers and waving to them as well.

The nature fairy teacher gave a small wave back at the little girl in the front before clapping her hands in the recognisable rhythm again.

"Now then, please return to your classes with your teacher! Thank you!!"

One by one, each and every year group was dismissed, with the little girl's year being one of the earlier ones to leave. She put her hands together in a prayer like stance as she skipped along the stairs, though she ensured she didn't skip too fast so she wouldn't lose her teacher. Whilst she was doing so, another little girl snuck up behind her, attempting to get her attention but to no avail. Well, until they were standing right next to the bright classroom door full of doodles. The kid tapped her shoulder, causing the angel to turn around.

"Hi!"

The friendly angel waved to the kid now standing right in front of her, the trembling kid looked at the angel reluctantly and made sure not to stand so close to her.

"Sanno... i-is it true...?"

The girl tilted her head at this statement.

"Isss what true?"

The child slowly took a couple steps near her and whispered in her ear:

"Is Alice infectious...? It's just uhm... Kao said that vampires have diseases and that they can spread if you're really close to them... he said you... might be infectious too and..."

She stared at the child that was 'warning' her of this, tilting her head further before shaking her head.

"No way is that true! She isn't sick at all...!"

After hearing that, the child looked over at a blonde haired boy, who was laughing with a load of other children in the classroom. He looked at the two kids standing near the doorway, leading the terrified kid to gulp.

"H-He wouldn't lie about that. His dad's a vampire hunter, Kao w-"

"HEY!! Don't stand too close...! Don't wanna get rabies or something, do you??"

The blonde haired boy shouted across the room before covering his mouth, however the girl could tell that the boy was snickering. The kid quickly ran over to sit down on the floor in a corner, the girl shrugged to herself before sitting down on the floor next to her two best friends.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fourth period of their first work day at Royale High was commencing soon and it just so happened that Aiden and Sanno were in the same biology class. Shade had art class! Luckily for Sanno at least, art and biology were fairly close to each other in the hallway, so they were able to walk towards their respective classes together.

"Maths class after a break is TOTES BRUTAL!! It sucks you guys are in the higher sets, maths was the subject I got the lowest marks in!! The entire class is full of JOCKIES too, it's like they WANT me to suffer!"

Aiden bit his nails, looking ahead rather than making direct eye contact with his two friends.

"It's okay, Aiden!! Try to think of one good thing about that class. It helps! After all, there's always at least one good thing about everything!"

Sanno smiled and stated with confidence, attempting to reassure him. Aiden stopped in his tracks, with his hand on his chin as he considered what she had said.

"...The teacher isn't that bad! But even then, she gave me weird looks that ENTIRE time!! At least she didn't yell at me?"

"That's the spirit!! See? Once you look to the bright side of things, everything works out!"

He scratched his head, attempting to wrap his head around last period. Sanno hadn't fully noticed Aiden completely stopping in his tracks, but Shade did. Shade walked up to Aiden and tapped his shoulder, successfully getting his attention. Shade pointed directly forward and Aiden's gaze tried following where her finger was. She bluntly told him:

"You're going to be late."

Aiden blinked before the realisation shook his entire core.

"CRAP, YOU'RE RIGHT!! SANNOOO!!! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE!!!"

He shouted in a melodramatic tone and sprinted right up to Sanno until he was beside her. Sanno's wings rose up in surprise but Aiden did a little wave and said in a calm tone.

"Hi." 

Sanno waved herself but before she herself could take in Aiden's sudden change in mood, Shade pointed to one of the classroom doors:

"...My room of study is here. Bye."

They both turned around, however they didn't have enough time to return the farewells as Shade had already walked in. They didn't exchange any words for the rest of the journey but the entire time, Sanno saw Aiden continuing to look straight ahead for the door and nothing else. After about 20 seconds of this deafening silence, they both finally found the door. Aiden had let out a long sigh of relief, as if he was holding his breath for that 20 seconds. From that alone, Sanno was surprised he didn't get hiccups. Then again, there were a lot of things that surprised her about Aiden.

He gazed at the door and stood over to the side so Sanno could enter.

"Alright!! You first!"

"Nonono! Aiden, you go first, I ins-"

"Come on, Sanno!! YK the saying 'ladies first', right??"

"Really, Aiden. There's no need to treat me like that, we're friends, not strangers or romantic partners!!"

Another awkward silence illuminated the both of them. Aiden's eyes darted to the side and he reluctantly moved, allowing Sanno to hold the door for him. If there was anything Aiden knew about Sanno after all these years, she is shockingly resilient. Seems that part of her hasn't changed.

"TY!!"

He gave a childish and energetic grin to her as he entered the biology classroom, Sanno followed in shortly after and what immediately shocked her was how much equipment and materials were around. There was a (obviously) fake skeleton structure representing the human body, pictures of wings, horns and tail anatomy on the walls, Notably, there were these small biological telescopes on every table. On the board showed the names of every student in the class and where they were supposed to be sitting, a couple of students were already sat in their assigned seats, others (including Sanno) were looking at the seating plan.

She walked to the front with seating plan locked in her memory and scanned all the tables to deduct where exactly she'd be sitting.

"Good morning."

Sanno heard a male voice with a heavy British accent and when she rotated to find the source, she saw an adult man wearing glasses with scaly teal skin. Though startled at first, she smiled and waved to what looked to be her new teacher.

"Good day, sir!! I was just... trying to see where I sit, that's all. D-Don't mind me."

He had his arms clenched together and his eyes squinted.

"Name? Surname and forename?"

"Sanno, Fusako Sano."

She gulped, the stare he was giving her admittedly intimidated her. Many questions were in her mind: Was Sanno wasting his time and frustrating him? He mumbled the name over and over: "Fusako, Fusako..." Calmly, he reached out with three of his five fingers and pointed at the table at the bottom right of the room.

"There, Fusako. First chair to the left."

Sanno readjusted her left bow that was still in her hair to ensure that it was in the correct place.

"Thank you very much, but you ca-.. you can just call me Sanno, you don't have to...-"

But before she could get through to him, he was talking to another student and not remotely paying attention to Sanno's presence. Knowing there was nothing to be done as of right now, she sat in the place the teacher assigned her to. Next to Sanno, there was a black long-haired angel girl dressed formally with a long sleeved collared top, a black and dull brown knitted sleeveless jumper. Not to mention a matching beret and brown pleated skirt. She was chatting and giggling with a girl with short red hair (that also had a blonde fringe). Unlike the first girl, her outfit wasn't quite as formal. The other girl wore a black buttoned shirt that was almost off-the-shoulders but not quite. In addition, she had grey shorts and black tights with a rose pattern that matched her choker.

Sanno observed the seating plan once more so she could see where Aiden was sat, he saw his name on the bottom center. She looked over to see him setting up his stationary. His pencil case was a simple black and white one, albeit with a lot of colourful stickers, a couple small keychains and... not so well-drawn doodles. In fact, she herself could barely tell what they are! However, Sanno didn't necessarily have the heart or courage to tell Aiden that he wasn't skilled in drawing.

After he had finished, Aiden turned to Sanno and waved. She mouthed the words 'are you okay?' to Aiden and despite the fact it took a few attempts for him to comprehend the letters forming in Sanno's mouth, he gave her a reassuring and enthusiastic thumbs-up in response.

The students chatter mostly stopped by the time the royale high bell chimed, indicating that class has officially begun. Without wasting any time, the teacher turned off the projector board and walked on other to the whiteboard. With a black whiteboard pen in hand, he wrote the name: "Mister Baines" 

"Good morning, class. I am Mr Baines and I will be your biology teacher for this year. First of all, does anyone volunteer to hand these books to each and every individual student?"

Without hesitation, Sanno raised her hand up high! In fact, she had done so for every period she had been in so far, as she found it great to help someone in need! Besides, it's not like anyone else really wanted to. Mr Baines took notice of this and he looked right at the enthusiastic guardian angel.

"The books are on my desk."

He used three fingers yet again to point directly at some dark green books. Sanno stood up from her desk and walked over to the books, handing them over to everyone individually. During this period, the classroom roared in chatter amongst themselves. When Sanno went to Aiden's table and gave him a book, he gave his friend another goofy thumbs-up.

"THX!"

Aiden told Sanno. She smiled before replying with:

"No problem, glad I can help!"

Sanno looked around and saw the two girls she's sat next to staring at both her and Aiden. Perhaps they were waiting for their book? She went to their table, handing that table their books and placing a book for herself. At this point, she was finished. Sanno went back to the middle to place the remaining books on Mr Baines' desk. He saw him writing something on the whiteboard in the same neat handwriting he used when writing his name. He wrote the following:

Name: Your Name (Forename Surname)
Class & Room Number: Biology - 2217
Year Group: Freshmen/1st Year
Teacher: Mr Baines

"Now then, please write what's on the board in your book. Write your own name, of course."

A dark skinned guy with blue ends to his black hair raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"So do we just write 'Your Name' in the white part of the book?"

This comment from the guy resulted in a few snickers and giggles around the room, including from the two girls sat next to Sanno.

"Write your own name. First and Last name."

Mr Baines repeated himself in a neutral tone, sounding like a broken record looping the same sentence over and over. Regardless, Sanno brought out her trustworthy and sparkly pink pen with multiple colour options. Sanno pressed down on the black pen option and as asked, wrote down "Fusako Sano". It should be common sense to write your own name after all, right?

"Now then, time for the register."

Mr Baines held a piece of paper and despite getting water all over it from his hands, the paper didn't seem remotely affected. He raised his glasses up and had pen in hand as he called everyone's names. Through this, he learned that the black haired girl was named Mai Fujioka and the blonde haired girl was named Amberlyn Raynor, though when the blonde girl's name was called, she raised her hand and said with a slightly sassy tone.

"Uhm, it's Amber."

To that, Mr Baines' eyes squinted before he nodded.

"Understood, ...Amberlyn."

Next to her, Sanno could hear Mai and Amber talk to themselves immediately after Mr Baines'... not so ideal response.

"Amberlyn is such a gross name, anyways."

Mai remarked to the girl, hand near her mouth to ensure that the teacher wouldn't hear what she was saying, though it was clear enough for Sanno. The fact Mai had a very distinct posh accent didn't necessarily help Sanno as far as overhearing their gossip goes.

"Right...? My mom's a bitch, anyways. She insisted to my dad that Amberlyn was the way to go because it was 'cute and unique'."

Amber rolled her eyes and said the last part in a mocking high pitch tone, clearly imitating her mother's speech. Mai smirked and looked right at Amber.

"It's alright, Amber is adorable, at least. Attempt to look on the bright side a little! Remember what I said? Nobody likes a downer, that's why-..."

Sanno didn't do a very good job hiding the fact that she was listening to their conversation, not to be a snooper but because she didn't necessarily have anything to do. After all, she had finished the task assigned to her. Mai rotated her chair to face Sanno, who was sat right next to her.

"Hello, the ribbons in your hair look gorgeous. Where did you get them?"

Mai complimented Sanno in a high-pitched and overtly friendly tone, her brown cat shaped eyes gazing up at the bows that were in Sanno's pigtails. Amber also turned her chair to observe their conversation with a smirk on her face.

"Uhm, thanks! My Aunt got them for me at a local shop she's well-acquainted with! I love your beret as well, it's cute!"

Sanno answered Mai's question and gave a compliment to the girl in return.

"Vintage then...!"

Amber chimed in, her smirk growing as she said that. Sanno nodded.

"Mhm!! Oh, I just want to double check... is my left bow positioned right?"

The two girls stared at Sanno's left bow, which was slightly tilted and needed some readjusting, they faced and whispered very quietly to each other for a few seconds. After they were done, they made eye contact with Sanno and Mai spoke up with a charismatic smile on her face:

"Yeah. Just right."

Sanno put her hands together and nodded.

"Phew, what a relief! Also, if you don't mind me asking, what were you two whispering about...?"

Amber had her palm on her cheek, clearly bored of the lesson itself. She turned to Sanno and told her:

"Nothing much, you should get on with the work anyways before Mr Baines gives us a yelling session!"

They both laughed after Amber had said that, Sanno had joined in on the laugh, assuming it to be a light-hearted moment. However, something deep in Sanno's gut was warning her that the laughing wasn't one of kindness or of inclusion, quite the opposite. It was a laugh of cruelty and of exclusion. Regardless of those thoughts and that subconscious feeling Sanno was experiencing, she tried all that she could to push those thoughts away. Surely, these girls aren't trying to be mean, right? It's not like they're insulting her or hurting her or anything, they're doing all the things friends would, right? Talking, laughing, complimenting hair accessories, that's all the things girls do when they like each other!

So maybe she's just overthinking it, not everything is out to get her. Sanno knows for a definite fact that Amber and Mai had been friends before Royale High school but it's just the first day! Maybe she could become friends with them too!

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shade had walked into art class to see a fairly short lady with vitiligo skin and very curly hair tied back in a ponytail. The woman had angelic wings without a halo, making her a guardian angel. She also had what appeared to be a prosthetic right arm. Much like Shade, the woman also dressed in very gothic like attire, though with a lot of paint colours splattered on her dress, it definitely made the entire outfit more colourful in comparison to Shade's. The room was filled to the brim with art equipment, consisting of multiple canvases, water colours, paintbrushes, you name it! Shade walked up to the woman to ask her the following question:

"Where do we sit?"

The woman fidgeted with one of the many silver necklaces she wore before telling Shade:

"You can sit wherever you want, just as long as you focus on your true creativity!"

She said in a calm motherly-like voice. For someone who dressed goth, this woman was quite warm, guess that makes sense for someone who's an angel, regardless whether they had a halo or not. Shade looked around for a second before concluding to sit at the window seat in the bottom left side of the room. However, in the corner of Shade's eye, she saw a couple students surrounding this blonde haired guy wearing a white eyepatch who was contemplating where to sit. It was the same guy from the main hall where her, Sanno and Aiden were getting their planners from Mr Scholz.

In particular, there was this brunette haired girl who kept invading this guy's space and begging him to sit next to her, he looked visibly uncomfortable for a second but cleared his throat.

"Margot, I've got a girlfriend! I'm a faithful man so if you don't mind...!"

He gave a grin to his brown haired male friend before sitting down next to him. However, people were still chatting to him regardless. The blonde haired guy wore a peacock green fleece jacket, a white graphic tee and some casual looking trousers. This guy notably wore a golden tag necklace alongside what looked to be an expensive watch. People were quickly gathering around to this one guy trying to talk to him or asking him if he could sit next to them like lost sheep. Quite frankly, Shade did not see the appeal for this guy. He looks like your stereotypical rich white guy with blonde hair and an eyepatch which to some girls, makes him look 'badass'. That was when Shade remembers even Aiden staring at him. There's no way this is Aiden's type, it can't be! The standards, especially for a scene kid like Aiden, can't surely be that low, right?

But there is something that's bothering her about that possibility... Aiden has a strong hatred for 'jockies', in his own words and this guy over here purely based off appearances is the walking stereotype of a 'jockie'. There's no way Aiden would be into someone like him. If that's the case, why was Aiden so fixated on staring at him when those guys were walking in a room? There has to be an explanation, right? You don't just observe a singular guy, at least not Aiden anyways. He hated eye contact...

However, Shade can't help but feel as if she recognises this guy from somewhere. Perhaps she saw him during the interviews for royale high? Perhaps they live in the same area? There's no way, Shade is very well-off in terms of money but not to the extent of buying golden accessories likely in the thousands. Her thought process was interrupted by the loud bell, telling Shade and everyone else that class had officially begun.

"Welcome to your first official day at Royale High! It's very nice to meet you all. I am Mrs Keaka. Since this is your first lesson in my class, I want you all to spend the entire lesson creating something. You don't have to show it to the class afterwards but it'd be great if you could!"

Margot, the girl who was talking to that guy earlier, raised her hand.

"Yes?"

"So it could be... anything? Anything at all?"

Mrs Keaka nodded and placed her hands together.

"Exactly...! You can draw, paint, make a sculpture, anything! Your only rule is that it isn't inappropriate. This will not only be a fun and relaxing lesson before lunch for you all, but a great way for me to get to know your styles too! After all, art is the closest we have to getting inside people's minds. Does anyone have any other questions?"

The room filled with silence, to which Mrs Keaka sighed in relief.

"Okay, have fun. I'll put on a timer. You have 45 minutes."

She dialled a small black clock on her desk to the 45 minute mark. After completing this action, she placed it down and you could faintly hear a small clicking noise from the object in question. After finishing this task, Mrs Keaka hummed some tune to herself and read a book. Shade sat there for a moment, debating on what she could possibly draw. She tapped her pen for a few moments until an idea had appeared inside of her brain. Confidently, she stood up and alongside a few others, grabbed a palette, glass of water and a paintbrush from a counter. She went over to the paints and with the brush, applied the colours of: blue, yellow, black and white to said palette, dipping her brush in the water every time she had added a colour.

After completion, she sat back down and started drawing. For about ten minutes, she had fully immersed herself with painting on the canvas. Shade was admittedly disappointed every time she had to break her own immersion to add clean water to her glass. However, some of the other students weren't taking the activity as seriously.

In particular, he saw that blonde guy everyone was fawning over at the sculpture section of the room, giggling with a couple people as he was attempting to sculpt a person. Shade couldn't necessarily tell what he was carving out with the clay but she had a feeling that it probably was going to be terrible by the time he had done. The person next to him wasn't doing much better, he was sculpting something... not so 'appropriate'.

"That is the most inaccurate dick I've ever seen, Ginji!"

The blonde guy said, repressing the urge to erupt in laughter as a means to not get his friend in trouble.

"You can't even use clay properly, blondie! Why did you even take art?"

Ginji asked, holding back the inappropriate clay defensively. The guy looked up, deep in thought and then shrugged with a stupid smirk on his face.

"Free easy subject where I could just not do anything! Art shouldn't take too much effort, right? After all, it's 'subjective' according to art geeks! How can you even grade something that's allegedly subjective, anyways?"

He rolled up his sleeves after finishing that tangent, grabbing a small and very pointy object to carve some kind of face on the clay structure he was creating. Ginji just stared at him.

"...Are you sure you're sober?"

He said with a sarcastic and joking tone to his friend. In response, the blonde guy turned to him with a slightly annoyed look on his face, though you could tell he was also in on the joke.

"No shit sherlock...! I wouldn't come into my first day here if I wasn't, I'm not stupid."

When Shade was listening to the conversation, she couldn't help but doubt the blonde guy's claim about 'not being stupid'. Art? An easy 'free' subject? Was he completely out of his mind? Did he not read a single part of the art curriculum from any of the websites or pamphlets before choosing that subject? Shade simply rolled her eyes at the irresponsible boys talking confidently to the point where the entire room could likely hear them both. Besides, Shade had to focus on her painting.

There's no way these guys got into this school through scholarship. Daddy's money, it had to be. Not just for this blonde guy but for his equally as stupid friend. This was seriously what people were romantically attracted to? It baffled her, truly.

"Hiiiii, what are you drawinggggg?~"

All of a sudden, a girl with lilac wolf cut hair alongside what looked to be a robe of the same colour. However, it was still short enough that Shade could see the girl's black boots alongside striped tights. She spoke lazily, dragging out her words in this strangely dreamy tone. Shade stared blankly at the girl, turning her canvas to the side so she couldn't see it.

"Work in progress."

Shade's eyes darted to the side to see the two boys mumbling something whilst working on their clay structures. They were... looking at Shade specifically?

"Waaaanna see mine?"

The girl asked Shade, swaying left in right. Though the girl's moments were slow, Shade could tell that the girl was ecstatic, strangely enough. To her, it was as if Sanno's movements were in slow motion. Out of plain curiosity, Shade nodded. She was just about to stand up but before she could go over to see, the girl moved her canvas from the other side of the room to all of the way where Shade was stood. Accepting defeat, she remained in her seat waiting as this girl moved a whole canvas recklessly to Shade.

When Shade could actually see the canvas, she quickly realised that what the girl had produced was nothing like Shade was working on. The girl had used a lot of different water colours throughout the entire canvas that to the average person, it appeared like she threw a bunch of cans of water paints on a canvas to see what would stick. Noticeably, there was also glitter that consumed the entire painting, everywhere. She had used all kinds of glitter: silver glitter, golden glitter, rainbow glitter, you name it.

"...Oh."

Was all that could come out of Shade's mouth. The tone in which she said it was a strange combination of her usual monotone voice, confusion and surprise. The girl smiled and pointed directly at one of the glitter patches on the canvas.

"I like the preeettttyyy shiny stuff."

She drawled, putting a really deep emphasize onto the word 'pretty' in particular. Despite the canvas looking messy, the disorganisation and the girl's strange methods of expressing what she had created added some charm to the whole thing. 

"I can tell."

After Shade blankly said those words, she had realised how stupid of a response this was. This girl, who had worked so hard to show Shade something she was really proud of, was getting the most blunt responses she could possibly get. But the girl seemed unbothered by this and with a grin, introduced herself:

"I'm Sophieeee. Hiiii!~"

Oh, so this girl was trusting Shade enough to give her name, she might as well return the favour.

"Shade."

Shade reached her hand out, expecting for Sophie to give her a handshake. However, instead of shaking Shade's hand naturally, she grabbed Shade's wrist with a tight grip and shook it up and down. Understandably, Shade flinched at the harsh physical contact but Shade's face stayed mostly neutral throughout this bizarre exchange. Afterwards, Sophie removed the empty canvas that was sat next to Shade's and replaced it with her own, sitting next to Shade. She turned her head to see Sophie looking at her, some glitter already staining on her hands and sleeves.

So this girl was going to be sitting next to Shade for the rest of the lesson, cool. Despite everything, Sophie didn't seem to have ill intent, so this was no setback. Shade continued painting very meticulously for the next 20 minutes that she had remaining to finish her painting. Sophie peered over her shoulder, head tilted much like a magpie for the good majority of the time.

It was finally the last stroke of this painting. After everything, Shade was done. She had finished the painting. Knowing Sophie had waited patiently to see this, Shade moved her seat so Sophie could take a look. What Shade drew was a pale blue butterfly with hints of black and white to its wings as well. Sophie was gawking at it for quite a while, barely saying a word. She clutched onto her silver glitter and dotted bits of it throughout the butterfly's wings.

"Huh...?"

Shade's blood ran cold, fearing that Sophie had ruined the painting somehow. Who knows? Maybe she grabbed some paint and struck it or added some inappropriate doodle. But when she tilted her head to see Sophie's edit, she had noticed small but beautiful patches of silver glitter on the butterfly wings, making them stand out. Sophie pointed to the glitter she had included, like a toddler at the back of a car as it drives by a farm.

"I like this! Prettyyyyyy...."

She let out a sigh in relief and moved her seat back in its original seat to get a closer look. Just to be safe, Shade tilted her head and gave Sophie the following warning:

"Don't touch it any more. The paint is drying. Yours is dry by now though."

Shade had pointed directly at Sophie's painting, which had been standing there this entire time. Sophie had finished the activity pretty early on, after all. When Shade went over to check what the timer was saying, Mrs Keaka was already out of her seat. Scanning to see where her teacher had gone, she saw Mrs Keaka looking at Ginji's... 'artwork', you could say.

"Now what was the only rule I gave you on this assignment?"

Ginji shrugged and said in a voice mocking Mrs Keaka:

"Your only rule is that it isn't inappropriate!!"

Some people sitting around the clay table were holding in their laughter, others stared blankly at the chaos occurring.

"...Yes, that is exactly right. Though I am of the strong belief that a clay structure of... *Ahem* male genitalia isn't exactly what one would consider 'appropriate'."

Mrs Keaka cleared her throat and then crossed her arms, tapping one of her prosthetic fingers.

"And I don't think having an amputee as a teacher is appropriate either, but here we are!"

The blonde guy who was sat right next to Ginji covered his mouth, looking up at the teacher. She stopped tapping her finger and her composed expression turned into one of frustration. She twitched her eye before pointing at the door.

"Right, if that's the way you want to be, then get OUT of my classroom and go straight to the Headmistress' Office this instant. We will not tolerate this behaviour."

Mrs Keaka said bluntly, trying to sound as calm as possible yet making it clear to Ginji what she wanted him to do. He rolled his eyes and snickered at the woman slowly losing his temper.

"I didn't even do anything! You just don't want to admit that I'm right!"

Ginji confidently said with the most idiotic and cocky smug you could possibly imagine. Mrs Keaka grabbed Ginji by the wrist, forcing him to stand up.

"O-Oi!! You can't hurt me, my mom will get you FIRED for assault if you-"

"I'm not going to hurt you. We are going to the office together and that's that. I won't be too long, everyone! The office is quite near, fortunately."

She gave a friendly smile to the rest of the pupils in the room before leaving the room with Ginji with her. It was just like she said, Mrs Keaka didn't take too long. Mrs Keaka took approximately 2 minutes before returning without Ginji, looking just as relaxed as before.

"Now then..."

Mrs Keaka grabbed her clock and stopped it, ending the entire activity about a couple of minutes earlier than anticipated.

"I apologise for that! Now then, who wants to show their art to the class?"

Sophie raised her hand up, waving it from left to right to get the teacher's attention. She gave a small smile at Sophie's enthusiasm.

"Okay, get to the front."

She moved to the side, allowing Sophie to stand up and carry her entire canvas to the front of the classroom. Most of the class looked dumbfounded at the bizarre art piece that she was displaying in front of everyone. To everyone else, it looked as if the girl had simply gotten lazy with the project. Mrs Keaka seemed more than pleased.

"How beautiful!! That's... a lot of glitter. Do you need help with-"

Even though Sophie was covered head to toe in glitter, with different types all over her dress, she violently shook her head.

"Oh, okay! Well, I adore it. Colours have more meaning than most people think, the colours someone uses can say a lot about a person and their inner spirit! This art piece uhhhh... name?"

"Sophieee!"

She announced with a large smile on her face.

"This art piece Sophie has drawn represents that very message perfectly, well done! Anyone else want to show their pieces?"

And just like that, Sophie ran back to her seat, canvas in hand. She placed it down, staring endlessly at the glitter in the painting. A couple of other people showed their artwork though after Sophie's, Shade blocked out everything else of that segment. Quite frankly, she wanted this lesson over with already. Shade finally focused on the lesson when Margot raised her hand again:

"Isn't there... a register?"

Mrs Keaka blinked a couple of times blankly when Margot asked that question before rapidly getting the register up on her computer.

"Y-Yes! Thank you. Uhm... Alice Ainsworth?"

"Here."

Shade answered. Mrs Keaka asked for a couple of other names, though there were none that particularly stood out. Apart from one.

"Kao Carter."

The blonde kid wearing the eyepatch raised his hand.

"Here, Miss."

Immediately after announcing his presence, he stared directly at Shade.

Kao Carter, how can she possibly forget him? He was essentially royalty in elementary school, he had full control of that school with an iron fist. Kao could sway everyone's opinion in whatever way he wished, one bad rumour from his mouth and it was game over. The most frustrating part? Nobody has even come close to knocking him off his throne, partially because his father was the top donator of that school, expelling him would be detrimental. So he could essentially do whatever he wanted, and he made sure to always rub it in Shade's face specifically.

Seeing him look so calm, seeing him look so unfazed, seeing his position of 'school royalty' follow him wherever he went made her blood boil. Shade should've recognised him: The obnoxious voice, the smug rich boy attitude, the way girls would stare at him in admiration, his immature behaviour with Ginji and essentially letting him take the fall... This had Kao's name all over it and she didn't even realise until now. 

It was at this point Shade had recalled when he was in that main hall with his stupid friends, when Aiden was staring at him... Did Aiden recognise him right then and there too? Was that why his stare lingered to him specifically, why he looked... almost alarmed at the sight of him?

What about Sanno? Did she know? There's a 99% chance she has no idea. If Aiden knows, has he already told her? If not, should Shade be the one to tell her that Kao, the boy that had ruined all three of them without a hint of remorse, was back? 

...No. Sanno was so excited to be here. In fact, she hadn't changed in the slightest since their time together in elementary school. Shade had a sickening feeling in her gut that this news would completely destroy any semblance of optimism Sanno possibly had within her. It would completely crush her, and the thought of Sanno completely upset would ruin her, it'd all be way too much... Even if she wanted to, Shade was certain that she'd sound like a piece of garbage no matter how she worded it.

When the bell rang for Lunch, Mrs Keaka dismissed everyone. Kao stood up from his seat, as did everyone else. A sharp breath left Shade's body when he finally had left the room, when the eye fixed on her had disappeared from sight. When she was just about to grab her art piece, she found that the piece, bottles of glitter and Sophie had completely disappeared from sight, as did everyone else. Shade grabbed her bag, stood up and walked over to the clay table. Where Kao was sitting, Shade noticed a clay structure of a vampire with overly long hair, nails and fangs with an evil-looking expression on its face. Shade had clenched her fists and gritted her teeth at the blatant stereotype invented with clay right in front of her. Out of rage, she seized the clay, ripping it apart violently until you couldn't tell what it was.

Afterwards, Shade had her head in her hands, her gaze fixed on the now destroyed structure right in front of her...

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sanno and Aiden had left the room after Mr Baines had dismissed them. Luckily, they were able to navigate the crowd without much problem, holding onto each other's hands as they did so. After being left to their own devices. They ventured across the hallway to meet up with Shade in her art classroom.

"That was... real boring..."

He grumbled, incredibly underwhelmed by the lesson itself. Sanno pat his shoulder.

"It's okayy!! If it makes you feel better, I had a great time!!"

Aiden tilted his head.

"Ehhh...? How? The people I was sat next to wouldn't even talk to me, they just ROLLED their eyes! MFS... What about you though?"

Sanno's eyes widened upon being asked the question.

"Oh, they were really nice!! The two girls were already best friends with each other but they complimented the bows in my hair! We didn't talk much but they seem friendly..."

She gave a beaming smile to Aiden, to which he grinned back.

"That's TOTES sick! The look of them gave me a bad feeling but good to know they're not being asshats... Now then, Shade was... in that room, right?"

He pointed directly to room 2201. Sanno turned to him and then the room, she checked the number. Her eyes widened in recognition. Without a hint of hesitation, Sanno nodded approvingly at Aiden. Aiden checked the peephole of the door to see if class was still ongoing, but he saw that everyone else had left. Shade was still in the room, heads in hands at one of the tables. He looked at Sanno and gestured to the door with his thumb.

"She looks... exhausted, or stressed. I can't tell... Hey, Sanno, can you-"

Sanno nodded once more.

"On it!"

She burst the door open to greet Shade. Slowly, she raised her head up to see the guardian angel staring right in front of the door with Aiden nervously behind Sanno. Shade's eyes frantically looked around the room and took a few deep breaths.

"Hey, Shade! Everything alright? If you need to talk-"

"I'm fine."

Shade sighed and without saying another word, walked right past Sanno and Aiden. He bit his nails and attempted to follow after her.

"Shadeeee, where are ya-"

"I can't go to the cafeteria. I'll be in the courtyard."

Aiden looked on at the vampire girl as she completely ditched the both of them. Sanno tried looking at the table to see what could've caused Shade to appear that upset, but all she saw was pieces of clay scattered across the table. She turned to Aiden again, who was looking stunned next to the door and not remotely focused on Sanno. She walked over to the clearly worried Aiden and grabbed his hands.

"It's okay!! I'm sure she's just exhausted, let's leave her be for a bit and I'll try talking to her at the dorm later to see if anything is wrong!"

His eyes darted to the side before going back to Sanno. He took a deep breath and nodded.

"Yeah, you're right... I'm totes overreacting...! Let's go to the cafeteria and get something to eat!!"

Hand in hand, they both walked down the stairs, now embarking on their journey to the Royale High cafeteria.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Upon going to one of the tables with the food she bought alongside Aiden, Sanno's senses were immediately hit with disarray. The sounds of other students chatting and laughing was nothing new, the lights being painfully bright was also nothing of the ordinary for Sanno. In fact, angels quite liked light. So that was a positive for her! Having to navigate hundreds of people and hearing the ear-screeching sounds of people eating and chewing aggressively on their food was the worst part, it always has been for Sanno. After sitting down with her legs crossed, she let out a huge breath though both of her arms were covering her ears.

"You K?"

Aiden mouthed to Sanno, over-exaggerating his mouth so Sanno could process what he was asking. She slowly nodded with her lips quivering. After collecting herself, she let go of her ears and decided to start eating two pots of strawberry yogurt, which was definitely lacking in comparison to what Aiden got. He was eating his spicy noodles in a bowl covered to the brim with tomato sauce, almost to a shocking extent. He stared at what Sanno was eating for lunch and used his fork to roll a couple pieces of noodles.

"You into spicy food? Not to be naggy or anything but don't think those yogurts are gonna keep you filled up."

He smiled jokingly and waved the spicy noodle attached to the paper fork at her face. She shook her head.

"No, Aiden! I'll be fine, really...! Thank you for offering though, that's nice of you!"

Aiden placed his fork back with the bowl and gave a thumbs up.

"NP!"

His smile remained as he was eating his food, staring at Sanno who was taking relatively small bites, her eyes glancing back and forth from Aiden to the cafeteria ladies.

"Sanno, heyyy! Do you remember that game we used to play where we jumped over 'lasers' in the playground?"

Sanno's attention turned straight to Aiden again, she put her paper spoon down and tapped the table with her hands a few times but when she realised what Aiden said, her face contorted to an expression of recognition.

"YES!!! I remember!! There were these lines on the courtyard because the older kids played basketball there sometimes and we used to... jump over the lines to avoid 'lasers'. Is that what you're talking about?"

Aiden nodded.

"YUUUP!! That's the one!! I was so crap at that game, we had to make a new 'three strikes' rule because I was such a KLUTZ and could NEVER get to the other side! You were GREAT at it, you were one of the fastest girls in our year though, so guess that explains it."

He shrugged, still eating his food. However, seeing how overstimulated his friend was, he attempted to eat with his hand covering his mouth. As Aiden was eating, he could feel a piece of paper hitting his head. He investigated the source to see a friend group giggling at this from another lunch table. Aiden opened the paper and immediately after reading it, looked back at the people responsible.

"Oh EFF OFF!!"

He shouted before crumpling up the paper again and throwing it right back at them. He sighed, appearing rather agitated. Sanno peered over to see the friend group still giggling before looking right back at Aiden.

"Are you okay?"

He was rolling his spicy noodles around with the fork. When asked this question, his smile returned.

"Oh, TOTES!! It's that bitch-ass Kao... You remember him, don't ya? The things he said about us?"

Sanno's body language stiffened at the mention of that name.

"...Kao?"

Aiden gritted his teeth slightly, the conversation and tone shifting to something serious.

"Yeah. Dunno if you had the same thing happen to you too but... When I went into middle school, the rumours he spread about me..., it never left. People STILL believe I crap my pants to this DAY because of that bastard! And that isn't even the worst thing he said! Gossip is complete BS 70% of the time, how do people treat it like gospel?!"

At first, he paused a lot of his words, aiming to correctly word what he wanted to tell Sanno. But then Aiden riled up into this sudden outburst of rage, though it wasn't necessarily unwarranted either. By the end of it, he placed his head in his hands, embarrassed. He let out an annoyed sigh and then crossed his arms.

"Sorry, it's just..."

Sanno placed her hand near Aiden's and shook her head.

"No no no! It's okay! I-I get how you feel. Same thing... happened with me too. I didn't know anybody from elementary school but even then, what he said... it spread to everyone! He went to a completely different school to us after elementary! It was like no matter where we went, Kao's words followed us..."

Aiden looked down, seemingly having a revelation.

"...Could that be why Shade was so upset? Because the rumours have spread all the way here too?! Ugh, the things he said about her were even worse..."

He mumbled to himself frantically after that possibility appeared in his mind, spinning that fork around slowly as he did so. Sanno stared down at the one finished yogurt and the second one that was barely touched. She placed the opened and almost full yogurt carton inside the empty one.

"I'm going to put these in the bin! Be right back, okay?? Uhm... Aiden..."

With her right hand, she took out her phone and opened her notes app, before handing it over to him. He tilted his head.

"Write down as many musical recommendations as possible for me. I-I can't guarantee anything but I'll try to check out as many of them as possible!! You know your stuff and I don't, so I could trust you to give me good stuff to watch..."

Aiden's grouchy mood immediately ceased when Sanno finished what she wanted to say.

"Oh, TRUST ME!! I KNOW what good theatre looks like!!"

With phone in hand, Aiden passionately began typing out what Sanno had requested. After seeing Aiden distracted, Sanno stood up and walked over to the nearest bin to throw the yogurts away. She was just about to walk back to Aiden when she saw a big table of freshmen talking.

"Ginji got Detention?"

The black haired boy with dark blue ends that Sanno saw in the main hall. 

"Yeah!! Probably. The teacher was nuts, she grabbed his arm and everything, you could even see the red mark too."

The blonde haired guy answered, sounding rather passionate. Another boy at the table nodded.

"Mhm!! I was in that class. Eh, she's a guardian angel with a prosthetic arm though, probably some war veteran who totally went..."

The boy circled his index finger to the side of the head, indicating that she went crazy or cuckoo.

"...When do you think he'll return back?"

The ginger haired boy asked, fidgeting with the food he was eating. The blonde haired guy shrugged sarcastically.

"Beats me!!! God, this sucks... Ginji getting detention on the first day, I'm running out of eyepatches and I don't think I can trust some random nurse to supply some for me, my father isn't answering the phone. I'm having the worst day."

He crossed his arms, looking exhausted and somewhat miserable. A couple of the boys patted his back in reassurance.

"It's okay, I-I'm sure we can... still hang out after school. Me and Ivan were going to go bowling... You and Ginji could come with us. I-If that's okay, Ivan."

The ginger-haired kid spoke up. The dark haired boy, who's name seemed to be Ivan, agreed with the statement.

"Yeah. Me and Draco don't mind you two coming if that'll cheer you up! We got you, man..."

Sanno couldn't help but overhear the entire conversation, despite never talking to any of these boys personally. She placed one hand at her chest and the other above her head, forgetting that there was no halo there. In fact, no halo was ever on Sanno's head to begin with, she wasn't an ordinary angel at all. She was born a Guardian Angel, she was born 'wrong'. Hearing teenage boys talk about her own species so negatively was something she had grown accustomed to, but it still hit badly every single time regardless.

Why was she even listening to a bunch of freshmen whom she barely knew? Maybe it was the way they were all gathering around in pity for this one blonde haired guy that drew her in to eavesdrop. This was only the first day and they were treating this guy as if he was a person to be pitied, some martyr that everyone needed to adore. There was no way approximately 9 guys knew this person so personally, right?

...Now that she thinks about it, the blonde haired boy looked very familiar to her. The way these boys admired him, the expensive accessories, the clear exaggeration of emotions and events. No way... this can't be...

"Bowling is so much fun, can I come??"

One of the boys asked, the blonde haired boy look straight at him.

"Of course you guys can. I'm sure Draco and Ivan wouldn't mind some extra company!"

He smiled, looking at the two of them. Reluctantly, Draco conceded.

"Yeah, Kao... they can come..."

Kao... So it WAS him! Of course it was him, it was always him. By getting into Royale High, he could easily spread and twist whatever story he wanted to. When you're pressured so much about being apart of a high-status boarding school, it's natural you'd find someone to look up to. Being in one of the top schools in the entire country, being one of the most popular freshmen there too, one twisted story or one phone call could change everything

Yet, at the same time, there was a part of Sanno that felt... sorry for Kao? Last time she saw him, he had both eyes in-tact and the scars she could see despite the presence of his eyepatch looked rather fresh, like whatever had happened was recent.

Not to mention, if this was the same Kao from all those years ago, surely he would've done something more petty or direct. From Sanno's memory, he was the kind of kid who'd trip you over and act as if he had nothing to do with it. He was the kind of kid who'd punch you but would say that you hurt him first. Kao was a lot more of a physical threat, the rich parents and rumour spreading being added bonuses, if you will. That's who Kao was.

But that doesn't mean that's who Kao is. Aunt Rin always told her that children who were bullies would realise their wrongs and become better people as they grow up. That if she ever were to see Kao again, then he would be a changed person. Maybe not completely, but changed nonetheless.

With that in mind, Sanno had decided to do something unexpected, she wanted to talk to him. Sanno wanted to see for herself if Aunt Rin's advice back then would apply here, this could possibly be her only chance to decide for herself for once.

She readjusted one of the bows in her hair again, took a couple deep breaths and walked right up to Kao's table. She smiled and gave a friendly wave.

"Heyyy, Kao... right?"

Despite only having one functioning eye, it still felt just as menacing to look into as it did 7 years ago. Kao glanced at his friends, stiffening his body language before squinting his eye.

"...Yeah?"

His tone sounded confused and judgemental. Sanno could feel her body shaking subconsciously, as if anything was enough to make her cry any second now.

"W-Well, hi! I'm Sanno... from elementary... Fusako Sano..."

The rest of Kao's friends look straight at him, some having smirks and others sharing a confused expression. The conversation was filled with silence so tense you could cut it with a knife and quite frankly, getting a combination of stares like this nerved her.

"You know... the pink one whom you would call a nerd everyday. You liked to put gum in my hair and stuff because you sat behind me."

Kao's eye widened a little, as if he finally recalled who she was from that information. But his expression still looked cold.

"Cut to the chase. What do you want? An apology?"

Sanno quickly shook her head and flapped her hands a little.

"N-No!! You don't... have to apologise! Not... right now, you don't. I was just wondering if uh-... if we could be friends? You don't have to, of course! I don't wanna force you to-..."

Sanno was grasping at straws in a desperate attempt to maintain Kao's attention. He covered his mouth, his eye glancing over to his friends once more, who were all now smirking at the sight of seeing this girl panicking within his presence. Not being able to hold it in, Kao released a laugh, his hand still on his mouth with the other on his chest attempting to stop himself. The rest of his friends were giggling but none were laughing nearly as loudly as Kao was. He wiped a tear from his eye.

"You can't be serious. You... want to be my friend?? Geez, you're still the same childish nerd from all those years ago!! You think just because I sat behind you in 4th grade that I'm entitled to be your friend?? ...God and don't tell me you're still hanging out with Alice and Aiden too! Wouldn't be surprised if you contracted all kinds of diseases from being near a vampire like HER for so long!"

She gulped and her body was only shaking more and more violently...

"Well... I am still... friends with... Aiden but-"

"Why? Because literally nobody else wants to hang out with you? Is that why you turned to me?"

Kao quickly retorted, having a small smirk on his face as he did so. Oh god, this was happening again. All over again... No, there's no way this was happening, there was no way Kao was humiliating her in front of nine other boys like this.

"No, I just... I-I recognised you and-"

"So? I recognise people but you don't see me going up to random lunch tables and acting all buddy-buddy. Admit it, Sanno. The only reason people even tolerate you anymore is because you give everyone homework answers when they ask, nothing you do will change that."

Sanno froze there, attempting with all of her might to hold in the tears. She didn't want to give Kao another reason to laugh at her, not now, not again, not ever. She worked so hard to get better, to not care what other people think of her anymore, to not let what happened to her define who she is... Yet, Sanno could feel herself crumbling in this moment, realising that everything she had done so the cycle of bullying wouldn't repeat itself again was for nothing. She took a few steps back and attempted to compose herself, especially now that she could see more heads turning over to the scene right before their eyes.

"S-Sorry..."

Was all that managed to come out of Sanno's mouth in that moment. Kao turned away from Sanno, eating some of his food before he gave her an icy glare and stated in a demanding tone.

"...Get lost already."

Chapter Text

Two young children (one boy, one girl) were sitting down on a pink flower rug. They were both inside a bright pink room full of children toys scattered around the place. The dark haired boy, looking no older than nine was biting his nails and his teary eyes were darting throughout the room in a desperate attempt to avoid the brown haired girl sitting right next to him. She noticed this and gently tapped his shoulder.

"A-Are you okay, Aiden...? What's wrong...?"

The little boy stopped biting his nails and resorted to keeping his mouth completely shut, lips sealed tightly that you swore you could see his upper lip straining with pain.

"Do you... want to play fairies again? It's your favourite game, right?"

As he vaguely heard the little girl's cheerful but concerned tone, the boy still didn't say a word. Regardless, the girl stood up and grabbed the plastic wands, placing one down right in front of his feet and keeping the other for herself. She then sat down to where she was before, waiting patiently for him to respond. The boy's head hung low and as the silence progressed, he couldn't hold back his feelings anymore. The tears that had been present within his eyes before finally escaped, his body trembling as they did so. 

He hugged the girl and started crying.

"I-I miss her... I miss Alice so much, Sannoo!! Wh-Why did she have to go??? I want to play fairies with you and her!! Did I... Did I do something wrong again??? I'm a screw-upp..."

His voice grew shaky and nearly incomprehensible as he sobbed into her arms. The girl shook her head in denial and tightly hugged him back.

"No!! That will NEVER be true, never EVER!! Auntie Rin said that 'sometimes people move away'. I-It sucks LOADS but it's okay!!"

She pouted and retorted the boy's previous statements, clearly taking it better than he ever could. The boy started to fidget with his old yet oversized shirt, making eye contact with the girl.

"O-Okay...?"

He asked, still weeping and getting wet tears all over his shirt... She nodded.

"Yeah!! Wanna know why? Cause no matter what, we'll always have each other!! Who cares about what people like Kao think, right?? He only called you a screw-up cause he's mean, not cause it's true. Bullies are big liars!!"

The girl smiled so widely at the little boy as she said all of this, sounding light-hearted and upbeat about the whole situation. She laughed a little to herself. It was such a friendly and inviting laugh that he couldn't help but smile and laugh alongside her... Despite the girl's tone being nowhere near serious, he could tell that she was being genuine, that she had meant every single word, that she was confident with this advice.

She cautiously placed her hand on the little boy's shoulder and took out her plastic wand.

"Now what do you say, prince Aiden?? Shall we go on a new adventure in princess Alice's HONOR??"

He stared at the wand that still laid on the floor and seized it, wiping his tears and snot using his sleeve. He stood up with pride and put his thumbs up.

"Y-Yeah!"

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Being requested to write down musical recommendations by anyone, let alone one of his two best friends, felt like an honour. Aiden had a lot of musicals in his head he could recommend to just about anyone. He started off with some simple musicals most would've heard of (such as Wicked, Les Mis, Cabaret) but started working his way down to more 'obscure' territory. Okay, Adamandi or Ride the Cyclone aren't technically 'obscure' but they're obscure in his eyes and that's all that matters.

As he was typing all of his recommendations for Sanno, he recalled all of the happy memories they had together. Even when Shade wasn't around, they still had a fun time. She was always so bright, bubbly and full of life despite everything. Even when Kao was involved, she remained positive and friendly to everyone, especially him. Aiden never thought that he'd see Shade or Sanno ever again, he always told himself that they were a distant memory, something he might as well move on from, much like grieving a lost loved one.

But now that doesn't have to be the case, not anymore. Now he's got friends again, people that care again. He finally has a reason to-

"Well... I am still... friends with... Aiden but-"

"Why? Because literally nobody else wants to hang out with you? Is that why you turned to me?"

Aiden quickly snapped out of his hopeful trance when he heard some kind of one-sided argument break out in the cafeteria. Usually, he'd dismiss such an experience but the voices sounded familiar, almost to an uncanny extent. He couldn't help but place the phone deep into his pocket, ensuring its safety first before turning his head to observe what was happening.

That's when he saw it, Sanno getting humiliated and mocked by this blonde haired boy. The boy was sat down at a table with a bunch of other male friends, seeing some repressing laughter and others looking discomforted, whilst Sanno was barely standing on her own two feet.

"No, I just... I-I recognised you and-"

"So? I recognise people but you don't see me going up to random lunch tables and acting all buddy-buddy. Admit it, Sanno. The only reason people even tolerate you anymore is because you give everyone homework answers when they ask, nothing you do will change that."

'Recognised you'? The smug yet icy tone, the blonde hair, being surrounded by a bunch of people like flies. There's no way this is Kao Carter, right? He did look familiar when he was in that hall getting his ID, but Aiden shrugged it off! How could he have shrugged it off like that?! Maybe if he just took a slightly closer look, maybe if he wasn't tired that morning, maybe if he stayed in the hall a moment longer, he would've connected the dots. Yet he didn't... Unlike everyone else, the perpetrator being Kao didn't intimidate Aiden in the slightest. Regardless, he isn't going to let this happen.

"S-Sorry..."

He stood up and speed walked to the scene, navigating past other tables and some onlookers as he did so. The thought of seeing his best friend in such a fragile state, being humiliated by some guy just because he thinks he's above everyone else, it made him sick to his stomach, without a doubt. 

"...Get lost already."

Kao had looked away from Sanno after coldly demanding her to go away. No, he doesn't get to choose when he wants to stop this, he shouldn't be getting away with this. Aiden had successfully arrived directly at the scene, standing right in front of Sanno.

"What in the absolute hell is wrong with you? You think just because your redneck dad is rich that you can just pick on people whenever you feel like it?"

Aiden gritted his teeth slightly and when Kao slowly turned around, they were both face to face. Aiden knew without a doubt that this was Kao but seeing him up close for the first time in years felt bizarre. Regardless, he still looked similar. The expensive clothing, that obnoxious greenish blue colour he was wearing and a piercing light teal eye with blonde eyelashes. Only thing that was different? He notably had a white eyepatch covering his other eye, though one could see a vicious scar under said eyepatch.

Kao's eye scanned Aiden for a moment and covered his mouth slightly.

"...Aiden, is that you? You've developed a big mouth, I see."

A nasty smirk grew on Kao's face.

"I see your big mouth sadly hasn't shrunk at all."

Aiden had crossed his arms, his eyes occasionally darting to a frozen and distressed Sanno.

"...How was middle school for you, Aiden? A little birdie told me that a certain someone brought a knife on middle school grounds. Considering your whole emo get-up, I can't say I'm necessarily surprised."

Aiden raised his eyebrows and for a moment, almost broke his composure... Why did he feel the need to bring that up? Was Kao going for the gut punchers assuming Aiden to still be that timid kid from all those years ago? Two can play at that game, Kao Carter.

"Okay first of all, I'm not emo! If you're gonna make fun of what I'm wearing, at least get the name right. You haven't changed one bit! The only thing that's different about you is your eyepatch and clearly, you had that one coming a mile away. Quite frankly, I'd go as far as to say someone should've beaten your ass years ago, and I don't say that shit lightly."

For a single subtle moment, Aiden could see Kao's composure breaking at the comment about his eyepatch. After Aiden had said that, more people had their eyes on the event, though none stood up from their seats to interfere...

"Tell that to your friend, she hasn't changed one bit either. If she's crying over this, what do you think is gonna happen once she turns into an adult, Aiden? She'll think that everyone in the entire world will want to be her best friend. Do you have any-"

"Oh yeah because everyone totally wants to be your best friend, Kao! At least Sanno's going to go far in life, where are you going to end up? You spend your time hanging around people that draw dicks in library books and public bathroom walls. Hell, everyone only tolerates you because they know damn well you'll throw another one of your pathetic temper tantrums if they so much as utter the word 'no' to you! What's your plan after high school anyways? Depending on daddy's money for the rest of your life? You're not six anymore, get a grip!"

Aiden shouted loudly and with very little pauses in his sentences. Kao slammed his hand on the table for a single second, appearing unfazed by what Aiden was saying on the surface. It made Draco jump slightly from his seat for a moment. If Aiden had any genuine concern for this douchebag, he might've jumped too.

"At least I've got friends. The only people that don't spit in your direction is a nerd who has the brain of a 5-year-old and a lowlife vampire who would kill you if she had the opportunity. Now, if you're finished with your unprovoked rant on me..."

He turned back to his friends, one of the boys next to Kao snickered at the scene and chimed in.

"Don't come into school tomorrow, Kao. The second he gets his hands on a weapon, he's targeting you first!"

The rest of Kao's idiotic friend group laughed. Aiden clenched his fists. For a second, Aiden was actually considering the possibility of punching Kao in the face. He's got one eye already, might as well make him lose the other. But when he turned to see Sanno shaking violently and beginning to cry, Aiden's face softened and he removed that thought from his brain.

"Believe whatever you want but I actually care about my life, unlike a certain someone! Have fun being alone, I guess."

Aiden rolled his eyes at the group and gently grabbed Sanno's hand.

"...Let's go, okay? Don't listen to that asshole."

He whispered to her, she vaguely nodded in response. Even if she didn't, seeing her distressed state was more than enough to tell Aiden that she needed to get away from here. With Sanno next to him the whole time, he grabbed both of their bags and left the cafeteria, storming over to a certain room with the sign 'SEND CENTER' above the door. The entrance corridor was long, full of pictures and schoolwork from the special needs students covered to the brim with stars.

Following that corridor, the room had a couple big tables full of drawings and school books. Students were eating their lunches together and laughing with some of the staff members. A sophomore with their black hair in a wolf cut immediately noticed the two of them waltz into a room, standing up and walking over to them.

"Is everything okay? What's wrong with..."

The sophomore asked with a concerned tone. They held a penguin plushie with one arm, using their other arm to point at Sanno. Aiden would've gotten annoyed with this person, but he could tell they weren't being malicious with the question at hand.

"I just need some time alone with her, so she can calm down and-"

"I know some breathing exercises."

A junior year student admitted with enthusiasm, clearly wanting to contribute. But just when he was about to stand up alongside the other student, a member of staff sat him down.

"That's very nice of you, Monty. But I think these two need their proper time to regulate. Same applies to you, Jean. The quiet room is to your right."

The teacher pointed directly at the door with the sign 'QUIET ROOM' on it, decorated with moons and stars. Jean fidgeted with the penguin toy in their hand and sat back down next to the male teacher. They continued eating their lunch. Some groups looked at Aiden and Sanno with pity, whilst others either were used to this chaos or were so focused in their conversations. Regardless, Aiden nodded and entered the room with Sanno, closing the door behind him.

Immediately, they were both hit with a dark and spacious room, containing bean bags, a sofa, tents and even buckets full of blankets, fidget toys and plushies. The colours were generally muted and if Aiden had to describe it, there was a dark sleepy blue energy with the place. The only thing he could really hear was the sounds of Sanno hyperventilating. Now that they were alone, Aiden could finally regulate her mind and comfort his best friend.

"Sanno... try to follow my breathing, okay? Alright... inhale and exhale for three seconds each. Breathe in... breathe out... breathe in... breathe out..."

Aiden spoke softly but clearly for Sanno, so she could process everything in a proper manner. He sat Sanno down on the floor (to which he does as well), so they could directly face each other and Sanno could follow his breathing better. He paused for three seconds each time, to further ensure this. Sanno attempted to follow his breath the first couple of times but she found that she wasn't succeeding. Still shaking, she suddenly hugged Aiden tight and began to sob. 

"I'm sorry- I-... I thought that if I-... Aiden, you didn't have to do that, You really-... I could've-... I'm so pathetic!! Kao was right, I-..."

Sanno's words were nearly incomprehensible, she was attempting to construct her sentence in a way that made sense to Aiden, though it appeared her distressed mind and tears weren't making the task easy. Aiden wrapped his arms around Sanno in return, cautiously and softly rubbing her back as she sobbed.

"Shhhh.... don't listen to him. Don't listen to anything that comes out of that rich prick's mouth, Sanno. I know that's easier said than done but... Sanno, listen. You're better than him. You're kind, you're totes fun to talk to and you're really smart. You're top of the class in a lot of subjects and even after all of these years, you're as wide-eyed as ever! He can say you're immature all he wants but you're genuinely, and I don't say this lightly, the most strong and badass person I've ever met. Seriously, who cares what people like Kao thinks anyways? He's a complete dimwit. He's gonna die sad and alone! You on the other hand? Hell no! You're not gonna be all alone like him. You know why?"

Aiden pulled away from the hug and grabbed both of her hands, rubbing them with his thumbs and grinning at her.

"Cause we'll always have each other! I mean, I know for sure I'll be there every step of the way! I-If you want, of course. You're still your own person at the end of the day!"

Sanno's wings spread out a little bit though her entire body still trembled slightly. Aiden took a couple steps back, wanting to give Sanno a bit of time to take everything in first.

"...Alright Sanno, if the breathing thing won't work, how about... fidgeting with something? Shifting your mind like that defo helps! Wait here..."

Aiden stood up and walked over to the buckets, looking through them to find some plushies Sanno could possibly use. Sanno's eyes were completely on Aiden, still struggling to form a proper sentence. She tried moving forward to get Aiden's attention, opening her mouth. But no matter what, nothing ever came out. One thing that stuck out about Sanno in childhood was her attachment to her teddy bear named Mister Cuddles, she often had it in her school bag at the very least. Maybe if he could find something similar, then that could calm her down, make her feel sentimental, possibly.

When searching, he discovered a cute fluffy teddy bear with a calm blue bow wrapped nicely around its neck. Though it was slightly smaller than Mister Cuddles, Aiden believed it should suffice temporarily. He returned to Sanno and handed her the stuffed toy, to which she held tightly around her arms. Aiden's eyes moved to the door and then back at Sanno.

"Hey, Saaaanno! IDK if now's the right time to ask this but do you want me to leave you be? Cause like..."

She profusely shook her head in response to Aiden's question. He blinked and then sat back down.

"Right! If that's what you want, then it's settled! I'll stay for as looong as you'd like! I'll be like... your support buddy...!"

He moved his position so that he was sitting right next to Sanno, who was barely making eye contact. Aiden had a bright smile on his face and they just sat in silence for a while, really absorbing the relaxing atmosphere of the room. Sanno was still clinging onto the teddy tight but as time went on, Aiden could sense that her breathing was slowly returning back to normal. If he wasn't trying to be silent for her sake, he'd let out a loud sigh in relief. 

Aiden didn't know everything Kao had said to Sanno or what lead such a harsh confrontation to begin with but he didn't need to know. He hurt his best friend and that alone is enough to ruffle his feathers. Besides, it's Sanno! If there was anything he knew about her, it was that she was a good person, a bit too positive for her own good but a good person nonetheless. For a moment, he thought about Shade. How would she react if she found out what happened to Sanno? Would she get upset? Would she even care? After all, to him, Shade didn't appear that interested in either of them at all. She hadn't seen them in years up until literally a day ago, and she certainly didn't seem to be the sentimental type!

Maybe Aiden was simply overreacting, letting everything swirl around in his mind like this was going to drive him nuts for the rest of the day and he knows that. None of that mattered right now, what mattered was being there for his friend and if he can't even succeed at that, why were they even friends to begin with? 

"Everything alright...?"

A chirpy voice whispered. Aiden looked up, wondering who walked into the quiet room, only to see Mrs Locke! He was the kind lady teacher that toured them around the school. Aiden cleared his throat.

"Sanno is... she's... having a moment. Listen, you're not gonna believe me and the first thing you're probably thinking is "oh Aiden is using it as an excuse to skip class". Believe whateeever you want but-"

"Hey... does she need a friend with her? Is that what you're saying?"

Mrs Locke asked in a concerned voice, running her fingers down a strand of her curly black hair. Aiden let out a cathartic sigh and nodded. Mrs Locke cleared her throat and put her hands together.

"Right... can I get your full names please?"

Aiden bit his nails and looked at Sanno, who wasn't necessarily focused on her surroundings.

"...I'm Aiden Fujimoto. Fusako Sano's my friend over here. We're both Freshmen sooo... Wait! Lemme make... your job easier by..."

He grabbed both his and Sanno's bags, rummaging through them for their planners. After finding the new planners, he turned the page to both their schedules and handed them over to Mrs Locke so she could get a closer look.

"It's Tuesday week A. It'll be fifth period once lunch is over."

Mrs Locke grabbed a quill and using the schedules as a reference, wrote down the information she needed. She handed the planners back to Aiden once she completed that task. She meticulously folded the paper and placed it inside her pocket.

"I'll request for your schoolwork to be brought down here immediately! If you need help of any kind, our lovely SEN staff are more than keen to assist you. Thank you, Aiden. you're a wonderful friend for sticking by her like this."

She smiled warmly at the boy sat down on the floor. Aiden couldn't bring himself to look at Mrs Locke in the eyes, or even look at her at all. He covered his mouth and cleared his throat.

"...No, thank you. Really."

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An hour or so passed since Aiden and Sanno had stormed into the SEN section of the ground floor. At last, they were in the main room together doing the work that they needed to catch up on. Aiden found himself struggling, even though all he had to do is write basic French sentences. On the other hand, Sanno was completely immersed in whatever work she was doing. She hadn't said anything since crying to Aiden. His and Mrs Locke's worries were alleviated when Sanno started working immediately after she received whatever was assigned to her. 

Yet, Sanno's angel wings kept twitching and she didn't look necessarily calm. In fact, Sanno appeared strangely absent. Aiden could see with his own two eyes that she was physically present, she was sitting right next to him in the main SEN room, after all. However, she was far from mentally present outside of writing answers on some school worksheet, that's for sure.

"Is she... okay now?"

Aiden went from observing Sanno to observing the source of the sound. It's the same sophomore kid that was worried about them an hour ago. They pointed at Sanno before continuing to fidget with the penguin plushie in their arms.

"...Sanno's just deep in some kinda school mindset, if you-.."

He was about to continue his sentence until they saw the person tilting their head in confusion.

"She's doing her work, I mean! Man, I probs sound like... SUUUPER confusing RN, don't I? Sorry, sorry!"

Aiden continued, attempting to summarise the sentence in a more precise sense. The sophomore stood up eagerly and took a seat next to Aiden, placing their penguin teddy neatly on the table. However, they left their worksheet behind in their own table.

"I'm Jean! Hi. This is my plush Mary. That's... Sanno, according to you. And your name is?"

Jean pointed straight at Sanno and then their finger moved to Aiden. He blinked and cleared his throat.

"I'm Aiden! Nice to meetcha, Jean. Sick name!"

Aiden's hand clenched into a fist, intending to do a soft fist bump. However, Jean didn't really have the same idea in mind. Instead, Jean prompted for a handshake. Without a second thought, Aiden fist bumped... Jean's palm. He looked at the individual for a moment and let out a huge gasp.

"OMG I DID NOT JUST-... Did that hurt?! I was trying to do a badass fist bump and it-..."

In response, Jean shook their head.

"No... it's okay! It didn't hurt. It just... felt weird. Mr Fieldwick said that using handshakes is better as fist bumps encourage violence."

That was enough to cause an awkward pause in their interaction. Aiden covered his mouth, attempting to hold in his laughter. Not at Jean though, moreso at the absurdity of that statement. Luckily, he restrained himself and cleared his throat.

"Wait *ahem*... Oh man... THAT'S defo a new one for me! Never heard someone say that in my entire life! But if you want a handshake instead, here you go!"

Smiling, Jean reached their hand out once more for a handshake. This time, Aiden actually reciprocated and returned the handshake! Their smile widened and they grabbed Mary, placing it on their lap.

"Thank you. How a-"

Before Jean could finish their sentence, Sanno suddenly stood up, positioning her pen upright next to the worksheet. She was about to leave the room until Jean grabbed her hand.

"Sorry but... you can't leave without staff permission. I am of the mindset that you're... freshmen? Both of you? I've never seen you before and-..."

Sanno gulped and cracked a nervous smile at the sight of this random person next to her. Her eyes temporarily darted to Aiden but then returned to Jean. Carefully, she removed Jean's hands away from her own and messed around with her own pink jacket.

"Yes. I-I... am. I just wanted to go to the library, is there-"

"There's books over here. Mostly work books though: Biology, english, maths revision books... Is that what you're intending to-"

Seeing where Jean was pointing to, Sanno walked over there and grabbed plenty of books from the shelves, placing them all down on the table. Aiden's mouth was open, astonished by how much books Sanno was getting and carrying all at once.

"Heyyy, Sannooo...! Did you finish your worksheet?"

Aiden asked, her head turned to face Aiden and slowly nodded.

"There's word searches and colouring books."

Jean explained and pointed to another shelf, attempting to direct Sanno. She tapped her finger on one of the book covers, Aiden grabbed a word search book and placed it directly in between Sanno and Aiden's seats on the table.

"I remember you were SOOO good at these, Sanno! Word searches were like your specialty! Since you're done with your work, how about we do a word search? That'll be fun, won't it?"

Sanno kept tapping her finger, eyes fixed on the books for what felt like a while for all three of them. Without saying another word, Sanno started stacking the revision books in subjects and then organising each individual stack in alphabetical order. Aiden and Jean observed, not having any intention of interrupting Sanno's thought process. Well, that was until she attempted to carry the majority of the books herself. There was no way Aiden was letting anyone, let alone his best friend and someone as small of a figure as Sanno.

"Sanno, don't! You could like... drop the books and REEEALLY hurt yourself. Let me..."

He took around half of the revision books she was trying to seize all at once and put them away for her, to which she followed suit with her other half. She cleared her throat.

"Thanks... really! My head is just..."

She peeked at the books, taking a closer look at the covers themselves in contrast to the words themselves. Jean stared at the two of them. They took Mary away from the SEN table it was placed on, lips trembling. They pointed towards the SEN exit.

"I'm... I'll go do my work at the dormitory."

Jean announced in a croaky voice. Sanno turned to face them.

"But you said we couldn't wander off during period hours without the permission of a-"

"I'm a sophomore. They wouldn't want me doing it at the dorms but they can't stop me."

Sanno and Aiden faced each other with surprised expressions. Jean looked quite young for a sophomore, being approximately Sanno's height and having what could only be described as a baby face. However, Jean's voice was deep and airy, which made them sound older. Aiden knew that it couldn't be helped, that someone couldn't necessarily control how they look in contrast to their voice. Jean wasn't mean, so why judge them at all?

"Aight then! Cyaaaa!"

He (alongside Sanno) waved at the sweet person as they clutched onto their backpack with anime keychains and speed walked away. Sanno grabbed some highlighters and randomly skimmed through the pages of the word search book in front of her until landing on a specific page. Aiden watched as Sanno floated her hand around the highlighters, debating on which one she wanted to use. Just before she was about to make her final decision, her head turned to Aiden.

"Do you want to do this word search with me?"

She asked with a subtle smile on her face. Aiden's eyes widened and without any sign of backing out, he nodded.

"Hell yeah!! Can I... have the green one?? Just like old times!!! This is totes the best!!"

Her smile extended and matched her eyes seeing Aiden's enthusiasm. He seized the green highlighter, and after a couple seconds, Sanno took the yellow highlighter. Aiden's eyes investigated the sheet, attempting to get a head start over his best friend. Upon further inspection, he found that it was an Autumn/Fall themed word search:



Swiftly, Aiden had found the words 'CAMPFIRE', 'AUTUMN' and 'STARGAZING'. He aggressively pressed his highlighter over them before Sanno could notice and crossed the discovered words off. She heard the sounds of Aiden violently using his highlighter and turned to see that he had already found three (fairly obvious) words. Honestly, Aiden was expecting Sanno to complain about how he got a head-start but instead, she held in a laugh and continued on as if nothing had happened.

Aiden was quick with finding words but Sanno was quicker. It took them about 15 minutes in total, though for Aiden, it felt slightly quicker than that. The experience was exhilarating, to him, it was essentially the 'find this word before Sanno' game. If there was any game that required a piece of paper that Sanno was skilled at, it was wordsearch. Aiden recalls her finishing complex wordsearches (at least for a primary school level) in under 10 minutes, whilst he was always slower than everyone else. He'd finish wordsearches at that level after 40 minutes, as a matter of fact.

Shade was somewhere in the middle, maybe around 20 minutes? He never picked up on exact times but that's what it felt like. With finishing word searches, it always came in the order of: Sanno, Shade, Aiden. That's for sure.

Was he jealous? Not really. Okay, a little bit but not to a spiteful extent.

It didn't really matter that much anyways. After a while, Aiden flat out gave up and started highlighting random 'words' that weren't on the word list. For example, he highlighted the word 'ORGAN' (albeit in a weird manner but to him, it counts..), 'RAW' and 'ROT', which just so happened to be right next to each other! A bit of a creepy coincidence but it's not like he's the one who invented this wordsearch, after all. He also highlighted 'IDEAL', funnily enough. That word is completely unrelated. As Sanno was fixated on the right side of the paper, he drew a BIG star with his green highlighter at the top of the page.

"Oh! Is that a star, Aiden? You should be a little more gentle with that highlighter, it might break! Royale High did state in the manual that we have to pay for broken property. Look, I'll-... I'll show you! If you want..."

Aiden blinked at her a couple of times, she hardly said a word for quite a while. However, she appears to have her familiar friendly and cheerful tone.

"Like this...!"

On the right hand side of the page, Sanno drew a small but cute smiley face, pressing down on the paper more gently and being  with the highlighter. After that, her smile faded slightly as she looked at the scrambled words.

"...You good?"

Aiden asked as a general question. This was the first time in the past hour she spoke with complete clarity to how she normally spoke.

"I just... I can't find this last word."

He looked at the word list at the bottom center of the page to see which word hadn't been crossed out.

"Red?"

Sanno nodded. Aiden scanned the page for about 15 seconds until he found it near the top. This time, he wanted to take Sanno's advice on being soft with the highlighter and smoothy crossed it in the midst of the jumbled words. Just like that, they were finally done with this wordsearch page.



Aiden got the words: AUTUMN, CAMPFIRE, FOOTBALL, GOLDEN, HALLOWEEN, HARVEST, OCTOBER, PUMPKIN, RED, SMORES and STARGAZING. Eleven words out of twenty four. 11/24. Sanno got the remaining 13. She seemed to have realised this too, since she had a beaming smile on her face.

"Good job, Aiden!! When we last did this, you could only get a quarter of the words at most! You must've really improved since elementary."

Hearing those words of encouragement admittedly made Aiden feel less ashamed of himself. To be fair, he could never get mad at someone like Sanno. He knows that no matter what she says, she always has the best intentions in mind. Now that he thinks about it though? Almost half out of someone who's probably in top set for everything is something to be proud of... at least by his standards!

"THX, some of them are a real piece of cake but bring diagonal or the phrases being backwards into the mix? It's like something in my brain seriously DIES!"

The both of them laughed at that statement.

"It's okay. I practice word searches every week, just to get my brain going."

Sanno was kicking her feet and had her hands fidgeting together on her lap. Despite the happy outgoing appearance, something in Aiden's brain kept telling him that he still needed to check on her, that she was still sad. Maybe she's just quieter than usual? Maybe it's the fidgeting? Though he didn't know for sure, he thought it'd be best to ask.

"Are you okay, Sanno...? Feeling better?"

Upon being asked that question, she stopped making eye contact with Aiden and nervously laughed.

"Yeah...! I mean... I'm not... 100% fine but I'm okay. I'm not stereotypically that sad, I promise!!"

Her tone sounded cheery. However, Aiden felt that it was too cheery, even for Sanno's standards. Her wide insincere smile exposing her teeth didn't quite help to reduce his worries. In fact, it had only made his own anxieties revolving around his friend rise. Yet, Aiden didn't want to pester her, not at this moment. She didn't need a therapist friend trying to psychoanalyse her right now, she needed a friend to lie her shoulder on.

"Sannoo... I... wrote down the musical recommendations, by the way."

Aiden said, in an effort to make her cheeriness genuine. He removed Sanno's phone from the pocket he stuffed it in before, handing it back to its original owner.

"You kept it?"

She tapped her finger against her phone case repeatedly, holding it in both hands now. Aiden blinked and let out a tiny laugh.

"Duh!! Didn't want you worrying about your lost possessions!! What kinda friend do you think I am?"

His laugh only grew louder and more genuine. Sanno didn't laugh as confidently as he did, but a part of Aiden's gut could tell that she was becoming her usual self again. Sanno placed the phone in her bag, ensuring its safety once and for all, and made eye contact with Aiden.

"...Can we do more word searches?"

Sanno's voice asked timidly. Aiden scrambled through the pages of the word search book that was sat out in front of them, before finding a difficult one.

"Hell yeah!! You're yellow and I'm green again, yeah?"

She nodded and seized the yellow highlighter with her right hand, indicating that she was prepared to begin. Aiden followed suit, and that was then they started again.

Aiden hates wordsearches, if he had to be honest. He always had. Anything relating to words that wasn't a script was a huge no-go for him. Aiden was always more of the colouring book type. Regardless, this is what Sanno is yearning for, at least in this moment. For Sanno, sitting next to a trusted person in a table and doing word searches is the equivalent to how Aiden feels about doing a duologue. That feeling, you may ask? Excitement, enjoyment, yet a sense of vulnerability all at once. There was no way he would take that away from her...

Aiden hates wordsearches, but if doing wordsearches meant spending quality time with his previously troubled friend and lifting her spirits?

Then he'd do thousands of them in a heartbeat.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to the clock in the middle of Shade and Sanno's dorm room, it was 3:46 PM. Shade was wearing her pyjamas (an oversized black shirt alongside black and white plaid shorts) and a silver moon necklace. She was at the center sitting on the sofa, colouring in a butterfly from her notebook. The butterfly she was drawing had dark royale purple wings with white circles, black around the corner and a bit of yellow at the very bottom.

She had been spending the past few hours repeating insect related facts in her brain. It was easier that way, to think about nature and its inhabitants than sentient people. Shade finds that bugs prioritise their own community rather than individualism, bugs have their own little rules and routine that they stick to, and they're loyal to one another. Of course, they get into fights. What being doesn't?

Her drawing session was interfered when she heard an obnoxiously loud knock on the door. Shade hid her notebook under the sofa and drowsily walked over to the door. Rubbing one of her eyes, she opened it to see Aiden. Shade let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey, Shaaade!~ Did you miss me???"

Aiden had a bright smile on his face... and the colours of various colouring glitter pens all over his hands and black chipped nail polish. 

"Good afternoon, Shade! Or... evening. It's almost evening, technically speaking."

Sanno slowly moved towards the door, revealing herself to the vampire. Shade looked to the side, the thought of making eye contact with Sanno felt nauseating at this moment.

"...Hi."

Shade wanted to say that in a more enthusiastic tone, but it fell flat again. There was a strange tight sensation in her throat as she was meeting Sanno and Aiden face-to-face since lunch, socialising with them more was only going to worsen that feeling and she knows it. Aiden's eyes darted to Sanno before looking back at Shade with a skeptical look.

"Sanno... you gonna call Aunt Rin?"

He asked in a bright prompting tone to Sanno. Her eyes widened and she turned to Aiden!

"Yeah!! I can't believe I forgot! I'll do that right now. I'll be in my bedroom, okay?"

She smiled to the both of them, Shade nodded.

"...Noted. I'll withdraw as you do s-"

"Right! Bye, Aiden! I'll try to talk later!"

Upon hearing that, She was playing with a piece of her messy hair and making room for Sanno as she ran off into her bedroom with her phone in one hand. Shade couldn't help but keep her eyes on Sanno whenever the girl was far away, analysing her body language and her actions. Shade didn't know why she did this, she had no idea why she did anything, really. In fact, Shade was so fixated on Sanno that she didn't notice Aiden still remained at the front door. He took a couple steps closer and announced quietly:

"Kao's back, Shade... He's here."

That was news Shade already knew. Aiden had no idea that Shade knew this prior, but at least he was telling her regardless.

"...Does Sanno know?"

Shade asked with an uneasy and stuttering tone. Aiden looked behind him, at the inside of their dorm room and back at Shade.

"Look, I know you're... different now. You've changed, I'm not gonna act like you haven't. But listen. You might not give a single damn about us but just-... don't be mean to Sanno, ok? Kao was being a total jerk to her today, I... she's having a hard time. She really needs us right now."

Aiden had his arms crossed and was itching his cubital fossa. From his tone alone, Shade could tell he was being serious, that he meant every word he was saying. Shade started fidgeting with her necklace, making eye contact with Aiden, who's eyes quickly wandered away. She nodded.

"Mhm."

Was all Shade could muster up. Regardless, this seemed to alleviate Aiden's concern.

"Good... knew I could trust you. You're not the same but like... you look like a total badass!! I'll cya around!"

Aiden did a finger gun gesture with both his hands to Shade and then walked away. Satisfied, Shade closed the dorm door.

What did he mean by "you might not give a single damn about us"? Was he attempting to imply that Shade presumably doesn't care? As a matter of fact, how could she not care? They were her friends, after all. If they were inhabiting a more trusting and tranquil world, with no war, with no discrimination or sadistic people, maybe things would be different. Maybe everyone on the planet would be different, without a single exception. 

Not like that's possible. That's wishful thinking, no doubt. Something a naive person like Sanno thinks, that the world is a great and happy place. She acknowledges that everyone around her lives in blissful ignorance, covering their ears to the sounds of suffering, everyone except her. Yet, Shade sometimes wishes she could cover her ears, to live in blissful ignorance like the guardian angel whom she's sharing a room with.

What's the point of thinking all of these things? It doesn't accomplish anything, nothing is accomplishing anything. Shade sat back down on the couch, removed the notebook from between the sofa and continued drawing again...

"-...I've settled in fine, Aunt Rin!! You remember Aiden? He's here! he looks really amazing too, has these colourful stickers and necklaces, green hair too. He loves musicals a lot, Phantom of the Opera seems to be one of his favourites...
Oh, you want to know who my roommate is..? Well, you remember Alice, right? Her name's Shade now! Cool, right? ....I don't reeeally know why, but she prefers Shade. So that's what I'm sticking with. That's what friends are for! That's what you told me!
...She dresses in a lot of blacks, has cool makeup and she's just so... admirable! She has those eyes you could swim in all day if you wanted!! S-Sorry, was about to go on a weird ramble there. How are y-..."

From Sanno's door, Shade could hear her loudly having a conversation with Aunt Rin. "Admirable"? "Eyes you could swim in all day if you wanted"? Sanno was talking to her aunt like a best friend more than a legal guardian, as if she was gossiping about a guy she had a crush on. Shade attempted to block it out until Sanno continued.

"Kao's attending Royale High too, Aunt Rin. ...You know, the guy who put gum in my hair a lot when I was younger?
...No no, he didn't hurt me! Physically. He was pretty mean to me when I went up to him, I thought- I thought he changed so I wanted- to try and talk to him.
...You know schools don't do anything, Aunt Rin. Y-You remember Lennox, right?"

Shade was finishing off the colours... all she needed was to shade the purple some more. Undeniably, blocking out Sanno's voice was near impossible for Shade. It was... nice to listen to? Maybe nice isn't the right word, but pleasant? Reassuring? Shade knows Sanno's alive, guess that's a good thing. It's probably just that... surely.

"...THAT'S A GREAT IDEA!! The leaflets did say there's one in the school, that's genius! Thank you thank you thank you! I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow. I love you, Aunt Rin!"

Alright, so it seems Sanno was wrapping up her phone call. Shade had finally completed her drawing to the best of her abilities! About a couple minutes later, Sanno finally exited her bedroom to see Shade fidgeting with a purple colouring pencil in hand, face covered by her notebook.

"Hey, Shade...!"

She waved excitedly at Shade. Sanno was already dressed in some yellow buttoned up pyjamas with cute pink bunnies patterns all over.

"...You wanted to see it, right?"

Sanno tapped her finger against her chin, trying to recall what Shade was referring to. For a moment, it seemed she had completely forgotten, until she noticed Shade's notebook and the coloured pencil in one of her hands. She shook her head up and down.

"I remember! You told me not to spy on you drawing because it was a work in progress! Does that mean you finished it? Can I see it?"

She tilted her head so Shade was able to see her face. But there was no need, Shade stood up from the couch and walked over to Sanno, showing her the dark purple butterfly that she drew, though Shade still had her hands on the notebook and didn't give it to Sanno. Sanno's mouth was wide open, like she had just seen God himself appear right in front of her eyes.

"Did you REALLY draw this?? It looks SO CUTE!! What kind of butterfly is it???"

Shade cleared her throat.

"...It's a Apatura Iris, that's its scientific name. The Purple Emperor Butterfly. It's a male."

Sanno tapped her finger against her cheek.

"A male? Wait, how can you tell what the gender of a butterfly is? I probably should read more books about butterflies and insects as a whole, shouldn't I?"

She 'mumbled' the last part under her breath, though it wasn't necessarily a quiet mumble either. Shade pointed to the drawn wings in the notebook.

"The colour and pattern of its wings indicate as such. Male purple emperors have the darkish blue and purple wing pattern that I had drawn. Female purple emperors have brown wings. July is the time period where males go up to big trees flashing their butterfly wings and competing for females. They're like most birds in terms of seduction, peacocks being the most notable example. Allow me."

Shade frantically went through the pages of her notebook, before finally showing Sanno two drawing of a peacock with excessive notes about them in Shade's neat handwriting. One side diagram and another front diagram showing the tail opened or closed.

"Peacocks have a couple names. Peafowls, Pavo Cristatus or the female term: Peahens. Depends on who you talk to. Most call it peacocks, however. Males tend to be the ones with the larger tails, as they flash them to seduce the females. Some people are intimidated by peacocks due to this, hence the informal term: "Pavophobia". I believe that they're beautiful creatures, it shocks me that within a world of war and bloodshed that some's biggest fear is... peacocks."

She was pointing to the tails and her notes as she was explaining all of this to Sanno. As Shade was rambling to her heart's content about certain animals, Sanno had her fist near her mouth, and a bright glow in her eyes.

"I didn't know you knew so much about birds and butterflies, Shade!!"

Sanno took her fist away from her mouth and clasped her hands together with a friendly smile. Immediately, Shade closed her book.

"...I wouldn't say I'm an expert. Why are you... in your pyjamas anyways? You have to be down for dinner in an hour, correct...?"

Shade placed her book down on the kitchen counter and took a packet of ham out of the fridge. Sanno looked down at herself and blinked a couple of times, it seems she finally processed what exactly she was wearing.

"W-Well... It'll be fine! There were some other people in pyjamas yesterday, nobody really judged. We essentially live here now and it's not like I e-..."

Sanno cut herself off almost instantly, causing Shade to raise an eyebrow. After about 10 seconds of awkward silence between the two, Shade shrugged and began to open the packet of ham she took out.

"Can't stop you, was just puzzled."

Following that, Sanno let out a huge thankful sigh.

"...I'm going to bed."

Shade didn't know how else to end this conversation. The tension that was brewing temporarily made her feel uneasy and skeptical, though she'd rather not push it. Sanno nodded.

"Okay, get some rest!!"

Sanno waved at Shade as she took the packet of ham and entered her dorm bedroom, closing the door behind her as she did so.

Chapter Text

"Cut to the chase. What do you want? An apology?"

"N-No!! You don't... have to apologise! Not... right now, you don't. I was just wondering if uh-... if we could be friends? You don't have to, of course! I don't wanna force you to-..."
his eye.

"You can't be serious. You... want to be my friend?? Geez, you're still the same childish nerd from all those years ago!! You think just because I sat behind you in 4th grade that I'm entitled to be your friend?? ...God and don't tell me you're still hanging out with Alice and Aiden too! Wouldn't be surprised if you contracted all kinds of diseases from being near a vampire like HER for so long!"

"Well... I am still... friends with those two but-"

"Why? Because literally nobody else wants to hang out with you? Is that why you turned to me?"

"No, I just... I-I recognised you and-"

"So? I recognise people but you don't see me going up to random lunch tables and acting all buddy-buddy. Admit it, Sanno. The only reason people even tolerate you anymore is because you give everyone homework answers when they ask, nothing you do will change that."

"S-Sorry..."

"...Get lost already."

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was the early mornings of 5AM. Sanno was sitting stiffly at her desk studying, pieces of paper containing her notes and revision books were scattered everywhere. She kept glancing at one of the psychology books for a while: 'Queen Bees and Wannabes'. Sanno watched Mean Girls about a year ago and bought the book after hearing that's what the 2004 movie was inspired by. In hindsight, she questions if reading it would've been beneficial before entering High School.

Who is she kidding? What's the point of dwelling on things that could've happened differently? Bargaining, they call it. She read about it in some of the hundreds of books about grief Sanno received, most of their titles being a blur. Yet, Sanno couldn't help it. Maybe if she was more observant like Shade, maybe if she had Aiden's confidence, maybe if she was in Kao's shoes... Maybe if she was nicer towards-...

Sanno was hit with that pain in her stomach she had adapted to, but she didn't have a single clue on whether that was guilt, her never-ending hunger, or both. 

"Morning, Sanno."

Immediately, Sanno gathered that the source of the voice was behind her. Naturally, she stood up and turned towards her. It was Shade! She was already dressed in her usual goth get-up, albeit with a bird nest hairstyle in contrast to the usual plaits.

"Good morning, Shade!! Hiii... h-how are you?"

She spent a while looking at Shade's new hair-do. Not in a negative way, but in a very positive way. Almost to an excessive extent? There's just something about the style that really suits Shade. Not only does it compliment her outfit, but her bone structure and makeup. Sanno would stare at it forever, if she could. 

Shade inquisitively peered over Sanno's shoulder to see the mess her desk was in. Her eyebrows furrowed before grabbing the cigarette pack.

"I'm... ok. You should get dressed, you'll be tardy if not."

She warned Sanno directly. Her eyes immediately widened when the word 'tardy' was brought up, shivers going down her spine.

"I don't want to be tardy!! Nobody would ever let that go and you know it, thank you Shade!! Thank you thank you THANK YOU!! You're the best!!"

Sanno raised her voice with a combination of panic and gratitude. Without thinking twice, she speed walked to Shade and gave her a massive but comforting hug. She let go of the cigarette pack and flinched. However, Shade's cheeks turned red and her eyes looked away. Sanno lifted her chin up to see Shade's reaction and let go of the hug pretty quickly.

"S-Sorry, was that too much, Shade? I wasn't trying to-... I was just so glad you told me and- and-"

"No- No, it's tolerable, I-... Get ready. Quickly. That breakfast queue will be lengthy later on."

Shade's lip were quivering and she still wasn't making eye contact. The scenario was awkward, so perhaps it was for the best that Shade instantly defused the situation and didn't let Sanno finish her rant. They both knew it likely would've made things worse than they already were.

"You're right, you're right! I'll-... I'll get ready and then go to Aiden's dorm to wake him up! I'll be as fa-"

But before Sanno could finish, Shade slammed the door and walked off, leaving her pack of cigarettes behind.

Sanno hadn't noticed initially. Instead, she prioritised getting ready for another day at Royale High. But first, she needed to check her phone. Sanno hadn't checked since she and Aunt Rin's conversation last night and she wanted to see if Aunt Rin had said anything to her since then. Fortunately she did! Yesterday at 7:36 PM, she had sent the following message:

"dont forget to apply for the anti-bullying committee! love you sweetie x"

...Oh shoot, she almost forgot! That was Sanno's plan for today! She insisted upon it. To fulfil her own promise to herself, Sanno concluded that she needed to make a good impression today with her outfit. It didn't need to be anything flashy, just something that really gives off 'friendly and approachable'. After all, nobody would want a bully in the anti-bullying committee, right? After looking through her clothes, she decided to dress in overalls with a pink floral-patterned blouse. To warm herself up, she wore some matching tights and a yellow jacket because it was Autumn.

After getting dressed, she searched for her hairbrush. Firstly, she checks her desk and her desk drawers, no luck. Next, she checks her luggage... which was also unsuccessful. "If I was Sanno from yesterday, where would yesterday's Sanno place it?" was her main thought as she was pacing around the room. Who was she kidding? She is still Sanno. That still hadn't changed.

Sanno had her head down at the floor, which was when she noticed Shade's cigarettes that she had dropped.

Now, in this moment, Sanno knows she should be informing her friend that she forgot a possession of her's, that's just common sense. If that's the case, if she knows that is morally the right thing to do... then why does she kind of want to smoke right now? Not that she's ever smoked a day in her life, she knows the risks, she knows that it wouldn't make her feel better overall. Not to get addicted, not because she actually thinks it helps. No, just because she wants to try it.

Her hunger had been causing her so much pain, she hates the sound of her own stomach growling in agony. She heard somewhere that smoking could suppress one's appetite, for a little while. That would be nice, actually. Comforting, even. Again, Sanno would only do it once and never again but wouldn't it be amazing not to feel or hear it for a single hour? 

Maybe if she smoked something in front of people her age, maybe being a teenager (hell, maybe even being alive) would be just a little bit easier...

A knock on Sanno's bedroom door could be heard:

"Are you decent?"

Shade's voice asked. Sanno's eyes moved away from the uncanny cigarette packet and she was now focused on the door.

"Yes! Hold on!"

Sanno applied a smile on her face and opened her bedroom door for Shade. She immediately entered to seize the cigarette pack that Sanno had been contemplating over.

"Forgot. I'll be at the balcony with the door closed tight. Use that time to brush your hair..."

Shade pointed at her hair and walked back to her original position, standing face to face with her roommate. Sanno's smile widened and she slowly nodded.

"O-Ok!"

Sanno affirmed in an obnoxiously chirpy voice. Ok? Ok? Even SHADE noticed that her hair wasn't brushed?? What does Shade think of Sanno NOW?? Does Shade think that she's unorganised and a bad roommate who can't look after her own stuff? Sanno isn't messy, right? She's mostly great at keeping herself together, that has to count for something. Okay then, it's settled. To prove Shade wrong, Sanno WILL find that brush, if it's the last thing she ever does in her entire life.

Her next place to search was the bed drawers. Conveniently, she had discovered them when she first unpacked everything after the tour day! Opening up the drawers, much to her relief, she discovered that is exactly where she put her hairbrush. Rushing herself, Sanno seized it back and began to brush her hair, walking over to the big oval shaped mirror in her dorm room as she did so.

She contemplated on what hairstyle she should do today. Space buns? Pigtails? A ponytail? Plaits, even? The options felt nearly infinite! Perhaps she could even leave her hair down? No, that's too little effort. They'd think she isn't taking it seriously at all! Nobody would want that. Knowing this thought process would drive her nuts if she dwelled any longer, Sanno put her hair in a side ponytail with a yellow scrunchie to match her jacket and called it a day. Hey, at least she's putting some effort into it! Better than nothing, right?

After that, Sanno checked her bag to ensure everything she needed was there. Sanno's planner, her limited edition pink and blue smiggle pencil case with a scented ball to match, a first aid-kit, a couple dork diaries books and a piece of paper for the anti-bullying committee. It was all there. Enthusiastically, she placed it on one of her shoulders and exited her room to see Shade standing there with her bag too.

"...So we're waking up Aiden?"

Shade asked. Sanno responded with a nod.

"Right!! I called him yesterday but I think we should start adapting to his dorm too! Because we're all best friends and best friends should trust each other."

She explained with confidence. Shade's lips began to quiver slightly at the last statement. Sanno tilted her head.

"...Is everything alright, Shade?"

Her tone softened. Shade clutched tighter onto her bag and tilted her head up and down to indicate a 'yes'. However, Sanno had this dark feeling in her gut that it was very much the opposite. Regardless, Sanno's smile still remained. Maybe she can make Shade feel alright if she just keeps being her normal self.

"Ok! Let's go!! In the meantime, I need to tell you something, okay??"

And just like that, Sanno grabbed Shade's hand and left the dorm room, locking the door behind them. Instantly after this, Sanno opened her mouth again, not to Shade's surprise.

"So I have an idea, right?? I don't know if I told you this but... Kao's back and he... he's still the same. But I talked to Aunt Rin and I think what I should do next is join the anti-bullying committee!! Think about it, I don't have to make the situation awkward by telling members of staff about it but I can also prevent any more bullying from happening to everyone, including you and Aiden!! Isn't that amazing? You guys don't have to get picked on ever again!"

Sanno remembers the dorm number Aiden had told her yesterday. Dorm 354. Much to Shade's surprise, it wasn't a long walk from their dorm, which was Dorm 323. So by the time Sanno had finished her rant, they were right in front of the dorm.

"...I don't-..."

The vampire was close to responding reluctantly to Sanno's idea, before nodding.

"Mhm... we're here now. So what's your next step? Are you-"

Shade's question was cut off by Sanno gently knocking on the door four times. She had her arms formally placed in front of her as she waited at the porch for an answer. The door slowly opened, revealing a blonde haired boy wearing glasses and a science club badge on his collar shirt. Sanno cleared her throat and nervously introduced herself in a friendly tone.

"Hi! Uh- Kat, right? Aiden's told me a little bit about you! I'm Sanno... Aiden's friend! This is Shade... also Aiden's friend! We just wanted to see if-"

"It's Katsuki. He's awake, if that's what you're wondering..."

Katsuki rubbed his eyes, barely awake himself from the looks of things. Shade blinked at him a couple of times and tilted her head inquisitively, making the boy gulp. He tapped his foot and his eyes darted over to Sanno.

"Can you tell him to not pass out on my bed or sing Disney musical songs whilst I'm studying? I am of the strong belief that my ears-"

"It's Little Shop of Horrors, Kat!! For the last time! Gosh, for a nerd, you TOTES don't understand the art of musical theatre! Maybe you sh-..."

Aiden was bickering from inside the dorm but as he was dashing towards Katsuki, he noticed that both Shade and Sanno. Immediately, he blinked a couple of times and waved at the two like an excited little kid.

"SANNO!! SHADE!!! Heyooo! I see you're meetin' my adorable dweeb roomie over here!! Right, Kat?~"

He teased whilst Katsuki was standing right there.

"For an emo, you're so childish. How do you of all people have friends?"

Katsuki yawned. Aiden's face tensed at the word 'emo'. Realising that he was going to go on a long rant, Sanno loudly cleared her throat and pointed directly at the science club badge that was on Katsuki's person.

"You like science??"

The question made Katsuki's body language stiffen and he answered the question with a skeptical tone.

"...Yeah? What about it?"

Instead of looking at Sanno, his eyes turned to Aiden, who had a smile on his face as he observed the conversation.

"FAVOURITE SCIENCE TYPE, GO!!"

Sanno shouted, pointing directly at the confused and stumbling Katsuki. After a small moment of silence, he pointed back at Sanno and answered with confidence.

"Biology. What science do you pref-"

"Psychology!"

She said cutting Katsuki off, albeit unintentionally. Shade began to eye Aiden, who seemed to be focused on Katsuki and Sanno bonding.

"...Favourite psychologist."

"Hmmm... Jean Piaget, maybe!! If it weren't for him, all schools would be incredibly different and I respect him for it!! He's the one who invented the concept of 'four stages of development'. BUT his ideas were only implemented in school systems back in the 1970's and 1980's!!"

The guardian angel had her hands together, swaying herself forward and back as she was dumping psychology information on Katsuki, who's mouth was in a circle shape. His face grew from one of shock to a small and dodgy smile. 

"I'm ju-... just astonished that there's girls out there that actually enjoy science! In my personal experience, I had never heard or seen angels express interest in that kinda fie-"

"Speaking of science, don't ya have a club meeting you gotta go to like... right NOW? They like doing those meetings reeal early, it's such a joke!"

Aiden managed to grab his school backpack whilst telling Katsuki this. His eyes immediately widened and he froze in pure horror. If you had told Sanno that Katsuki was reacting to seeing a dead person, she wouldn't necessarily think you're lying...

"SHIT! SHITSHITSHIT!!"

Katsuki impulsively yelled out as he ran away from the dorm to frantically grab his shockingly cramped backpack.

"...You swore."

Shade stated as her only sentence towards Katsuki with a slightly teasing tone.

"SHHHH SHHHH!! OUTTA THE WAY, SCIENCE CLUB AND CUB SCOUTS MEMBER COMING THROUGH!!"

He used his fingers to let out a ear-piercing whistle, instantly making the other three cover their ears and move out of their way, much to Katsuki's relief. Seeing the opportunity, he sprinted out of the room at shocking speed, leaving Sanno and Shade stunned.

"...He did that yesterday too. And he calls ME loud, what a downer!!"

Aiden sighed and left his dorm, being the one to lock the door behind him.

"You've only known him for... two to three days, Aiden."

Shade crossed her arms. Hearing that promptly made Aiden open his mouth, about to say something but restraining himself. He bit his nails for a while before finally talking.

"B-BUT... he is!! TRUST ME!! He is the GRUMPY bears of the Carebears franchise, the Eeyore of Winnie the Pooh! I showed him a video of a man breaking his singing robotic bear and HE said "that's not funny because it's a waste of money"?! HELLO?? He has a TON of expensive shit in his room, he does NOT have room to talk! He also said he hates Disney because it's 'unrealistic'."

When quoting Katsuki, Aiden's voice changed from his ordinary voice to a nasally and mocking tone.

"...Damn."

Was all Shade could say regarding the topic.

"Poor bear..."

Sanno muttered to herself. Her reaction drove Aiden to come up to her specifically and put his hands on her shoulders.

"It's okay, Sanno. It was for the best."

Aiden replied in a very over-dramatic and joking tone, which made Sanno giggle and her body language relax. Aiden grinned and grabbed both Shade and Sanno's hand. Shade clasped tightly, almost crushing Aiden's hand.

"OW!! Geez, you coulda just-"

Shade softened her grip almost in an instant, to Aiden's joy. He cleared his throat and held his hands that were clasped to his two friends up in the air.

"RIGHT! Let's go!! That queue is gonna get HELLA long veeery soon!"

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sanno's day had been going ordinarily so far. Something felt off about the whole day, though. As Sanno walked past, she couldn't help but notice some whispers amongst students as they looked directly at her. It was tense and uncomfortable, but perhaps it was mere coincidence. At least that's what Sanno was thinking after all. Maybe they weren't talking about her specifically, maybe the other freshmen are discovering their friend groups and cliques, albeit a bit early but nonetheless, that was a possibility.

It was Psychology 4th period on a Wednesday. Psychology was her favourite subject, and the subject she gained the highest marks in during her middle school examinations. Despite this, she found herself not paying attention as much as she should. Sanno wasn't completely checked out but she kept tapping her pen and staring with anticipation at that clock on top of the board.

Time moved so slowly when you focused on it, and time flies fast when you're disregarding it.

That's it! She just needs to pretend that clock doesn't exist. Don't think about it, don't think about lunch, the anti-bullying committee, Kao... screw all of that! Just focus on the lesson at hand, that's what she needs to tell herself. When it's lunch, THEN she can think about it.

"Sanno..."

A voice called to her. The tone suggested that this person had been calling her name quite a couple of times. Her head turned to see Shade next to her.

"You need to focus."

Shade suggested. Sanno cleared her throat and whispered to Shade:

"I know I know... but today's a big deal! I've prepared everything that I'm going to say to the anti-bullying committee and-... I'm so... I just can't stop thinking about it...! Wouldn't it be amazing if I got in and managed to help you guys?"

She smiled at Shade and started kicking her feet. Shade's eyes darted down and her lips were shaking. After some tense silence between the two, her eyes looked intently at Sanno's pen.

"...Your pen tapping is loud. I don't like that."

Sanno noticed where Shade was looking and started fidgeting with her hands.

"R-Really?? Are your ears okay?? I seriously didn't mean to upset you, I'm just... in my own little world! Haha..."

She still attempted to maintain a quiet volume between the two so they wouldn't get in trouble. Sanno let out a nervous yet forced laugh and gulped, a bit of sweat rolling down her face. Shade placed her own pen on the desk.

"Mhm. It's all good, don't... don't worry about it. Just start making notes... you'll be ashamed if you don't."

Shade hesitated, her eyes refusing to make contact with the person she was talking to. With a quiet and shaky sigh, she grabbed her pen again and focused on the teacher actually presenting the lesson in front of them. Sanno blinked a couple of times and attempted to do the same.

...But to no success. Shade's reaction, in fact, only made Sanno feel worse. There was this strange pit in her stomach, like she had done something wrong or had hurt Shade's feelings in some way. Sanno is aware that Shade has a mind and world of her own, that she has her own problems to go through, just as everyone else. Regardless, Shade was her friend, and if she can't make Shade happy then what kind of friend is Sanno? A bad one? An inconsiderate one?

Does Shade hate her? Does Shade think SANNO hates her, even? Is she just trying not to hurt Sanno's feelings and that's why she's not telling her about what she thinks of her or what she's doing wrong? Does she not feel SAFE to say anything to her? These questions kept spiralling through Sanno's brain, and all she could do was try to listen to the teacher.

That was interrupted by another person though, a guy wearing a grey and red spiderman t shirt, a red jacket and a chain necklace, tapping her shoulder over and over again.

"Oi, oiii...."

Sanno turned to see the guy sitting next to her tapping his finger loudly on the desk.

"Yeah? Do you need help?"

Upon that question being asked, he removed the sunglasses he was wearing indoors from his face, holding it in one hand.

"Is it true that you have a shrine dedicated to Kao cause you have a massive crush on him?"

A second after that was asked, Shade turned towards the two of them to listen in the conversation. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw who Sanno was talking to.

"H-Huh?? No! No, it's not true! Sure, we've never been... that close but I'm not... I don't-... like him like tha-"

"Oh come ooon! No way you never had a crush on him! Every girl I talked to has liked him at least once! Let me tell you somethin'... Kao definitely has a thing for creepy stalkery nerdy gi-"

He rolled his eyes and shouted in a brassy voice. From the tone alone, you could tell he wasn't being serious about any of it, particularly for the last part he was trying to whisper to Sanno personally. However, before he could finish...

"Kao is all yours, Ginji..."

Shade rolled her eyes back at Ginji, matching energy. His eyes widened and he looked around the room using his own body, mouth wide open with shock.

"Y-... I'M... I'm NOT... I don't like him like THAT!! I don't like MEN like that, that's disgusting! He's TAKEN! Maybe you... maybe YOU'RE the gay one!! Yeah!! You look like it, you-..."

Ginji kept stuttering and fumbling on his words as he struggled to desperately defend himself from Shade's allegations. He clutched onto his glasses and grinded on his teeth when he couldn't think of anything else to say... Shade had her mouth covered and Sanno was looking at the scene with an astonished expression on her face.

"Keep telling yourself that..."

Shade mumbled. She continued on with her work as if nothing had happened, whilst all Sanno could do for the rest of the lesson was stare at Shade in admiration...

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The royale high bell finally chimed throughout the school. Sanno let out the biggest relieved sigh, as if she had been holding her breath for this exact moment. Other classmates did the same thing, but not for the same motivation as Sanno. They've been waiting to get lunch because they're hungry, Sanno's been waiting to apply for the anti-bullying committee. Everyone stood up and grabbed their bags as the teacher dismissed the entire class. Instead of walking directly out of the classroom, she walked up to the teacher.

"Hello, Miss! Do you know where the anti-bullying committee room is?"

Sanno asked politely, bag around her shoulder. The teacher with a black ponytail, glasses and wolf ears smiled at the girl in front of them.

"Yup! It's located at the ground floor. After taking the stairs, it's approximately four doors to the left. There's a sign up, so you'll know when you see it."

She put her hands at the front and nodded.

"Thank you very much!"

Just as Sanno was about to leave, Shade walked right up at her side and stated in a quiet tone.

"Remember, me and Aiden will be at the courtyard when you're done... if he doesn't get lost."

Sanno nodded and as she was leaving the room, told Shade:

"Okay, got it! It might take a while, so... yeah! I'll see you afterwards! Promise!"

With confidence, she got her pinkie finger out in front of Shade for a pinkie promise. But instead of reciprocating, she glanced at Sanno's finger with visible confusion.

"...Right. Goodbye, Sanno."

Shade did a small wave at Sanno before leaving the classroom, leaving Sanno hanging with that pinkie promise. Nonetheless, she wasn't going to let that ruin her mood. Shade probably just had no idea what the intention was, doesn't matter. She waved at the teacher and then left the classroom herself.

Unsurprisingly, the crowds walking downstairs were loud and rowdy. Sanno used both index fingers to cover her ears, though didn't reach her arms up; bumping into people before an application would not be a good look, that's for sure! Hearing the muffled sound of teenagers talking and teachers telling students to not run in the halls wasn't much of an issue. It was sounds she adapted to by middle school. But the sound of people getting snacks out from their bags in the middle of the hall and some eating in the corner, even when muffled, was a sound that made her gag.

She made an effort to block those noises out, fixated only on the path ahead of her. Sanno cautiously walked down the stairwell and into the middle of the ground floor. Now what was the direction her psychology teacher told her to go in? Around Four doors to the left, right? Sanno's whole body swiftly turned to the left and there it was, the door! The bright sign of 'Anti-Bullying Committee' instantly allured her, Sanno's wings lifted up out of excitement and she impulsively decided to walk in.

Inside was what looked to be a relaxing lounge room full of anti-bullying and mental health awareness signs and around 10 students gathered around a table... painting each other's nails, weirdly enough. 

"What is her problem, anyways? Ever since being here, this bitch likes to act all high and mighty. She says I can't be in the hair and beauty club because I'm "rude"... and when I tell her that her boyfriend cheated on her because she's a prude, she cries to the school counsellor. Maybe if her head wasn't in books all of the time, her boyfriend will actually want to be with her."

Most of the people on the table were girls. The one sat at the middle was a girl with honey brown hair and cat ears. Notably, her hair was in a poofy gyaru styled ponytail. The girl was also wearing a pink cardigan, a leopard print dress with pink ruffles, patches and a huge pink bow in the middle. She was painting the nails of a tall pale boy dressed in emo attire with the black haircut to match, who stood out as the only guy amongst the group. The girl was the one rambling about this specific situation.

"Hell yeah, bro! Go off, Claudie!"

The guy spoke up, surprisingly having an approachable and chill voice in comparison to the harsh and blunt tone of the girl doing his nails.

"She's so annoying!!! Like, just because her mom is a teacher here doesn't mean she's ABOVE everyone else! What a weirdo!!"

A blonde haired girl wearing similar fashion to the girl in the middle affirmed.

"GOD forbid you're honest as well, Claudia! She's such a-"

As one of the other girls who's painting nails is talking, she ended up seeing Sanno in the corner of her eyes. Immediately, the entire group turn to see the guardian angel stood behind the room entrance.

"Uhm... can we help you?"

A girl dressed in purple filing her nails asks with a rejective tone. Not noticing the tension of the room, Sanno cleared her throat and put her hands together.

"Hi! Sorry to interrupt your break but... I was wondering if I could apply for the anti-bullying committee, by any chance? I heard applications opened today and I want to apply!!"

The group stared at each other, dumbfounded by this random girl. Claudia sighed and temporarily stopped painting the guy's nails.

"...Fill in the paper thing over th-"

She pointed at a uncannily vacant desk covered in nail polish with several pieces of paper. As the girl suggested this, Sanno grabbed a piece of paper out from her bag and handed it over to her.

"I wrote everything here! I don't know if it covers everything from YOUR perspective so to be safe, I wrote at the back too!"

She stated confidently with a proud smile on her face.

"Duuude, that's sick..."

The black haired guy added, acknowledging Sanno's dedication. When opening the piece of paper, the group was immediately hit with a bunch of gel pen decorations, doodles and a long essay written in neat handwriting by Sanno herself.

"Dear Anti-Bullying Committee,
I am Fusako Sano, I am 14 years old and I am a freshmen. For as long as I could remember, there was nothing I loved more in life than spreading positivity, kindness and sticking up for what's right. That's what Anti-Bullying is all about, right? Helping those in need, being an optimistic member to the community and ensuring that our community is a safe place. People like to talk about how horrible bullies are or when we realise there's a problem, it's too late and the victim had already done something drastic like take their own life. However, I think the most important aspect of all is to prevent bullying before it happens. Bullies are the way they are because they're struggling themselves, I believe we should all lend those that are in pain a helping hand before it gets to that point. We should also help victims speak up too, tell them they're not alone, so that something can be done before they turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms like self-harm or drugs to cope with the pain.

You're probably asking yourselves right now: why should we accept Sanno of all people? What does she have to add? First of all, people have told me I'm a very positive and approachable person! I also have experience! For example, I was part of the student council in my middle school and I would do volunteer work or group sessions to help those involved in bullying! I'm also very passionate about the subject, and believe my personal experiences and knowledge can benefit the group in a variety of ways! Thank you for reading all of this and have a fantastic day!
From, Fusako Sano."

The group exchanged glances at one another. Some were fighting the temptation to laugh, others looked baffled. The guy though? He had a huge wholesome grin on his face.

"Oh hell yeah, we love that stuff! Claudia here is so good at helping people!"

He glanced directly at Claudia, who was rubbing her head with one of her hands.

"Really? Is she the committee leader then?"

Sanno was waiting in anticipation for everyone's responses, particularly Claudia's. After all, she did seem to be the leader of this entire thing. But it's never bad to ask these things, right?

"Yeah, man! She's awesome, I'm kinda vice president and stuff... wicked, huh?"

The guy still had his hand on the table, waiting for the paint to dry. Claudia let out another sigh and seeing that his nails weren't necessarily done, she grabbed the red nail polish and continued to work on them.

"Angel, stay still. You need those nails to be all shiny. They go perfectly with your belt, I seriously don't want them ruined."

Claudia's harsh tone was almost completely gone when talking to Angel. Sure, she still sounded flat but Claudia had this somewhat playful tone with him, something you'd do if you were joking with a best friend.

"Yes ma'am!"

He joked right back, trying to maintain his concentration on his own hand. 

"Heyy... everything okay?"

It was then Sanno was starting to feel the thick tension. The lack of response regarding her application didn't necessarily give Sanno a positive feeling... they could've just forgot though.

"Sako, or whatever your name is... you're not part of the anti-bullying committee. Denied."

Claudia announced rather blankly, as if it was just an ordinary thing for her. ...Denied? Surely, deciding something like that should take time. Yes, no response now was stressful but Sanno was moreso expecting a "we'll look over it and let you know" kind of deal in contrast to a straight up 'no'." At the bare minimum, getting her name right would've been nice too. However, Sanno knew she had to suppress any negative feelings she might be experiencing.

"Oh! R-Really? May I ask why?"

Sanno stuttered, trying to remain static and composed.

"...Gel pen, really? Adding doodles and gel pen to an application form? You have to be kidding. Plus, you're just not suitable for the club."

Claudia explained, not looking and barely acknowledging Sanno's existence to begin with. Nonetheless, Sanno knew she still needed to know more, she needed clarification.

"Not suitable? M-May I ask how? So I can... improve my mindset and know what it is you need for the club?"

She kept her hands together, fidgeting frantically with her fingers in the process. Some of the girls looked Sanno up and down in disgust like she had picked her nose in front of them.

"You're corny. You would cry if a bully insulted you, and with that attire? Assist at the library and elementary schools or whatever you nerdy puppy-eyed angels do. That's where someone like you belongs anyways..."

After saying that, Claudia let out another annoyed sigh. 

"Claudie, Claudie! Paint my nails next! I want that cute royal purple you got, that'll totally suit me!"

One of the girls begged her. Instead of enthusiastically accepting, Claudia gave the girl a grossed out stare.

"Don't call me Claudie..."

She demanded in a frustrated yet exhausted tone.

"Oh, yes ma-"

"Not you, Angel. The red's coming along well, see? It does suit your belt. Keep your hand still a little longer, it needs to dry."

She cautiously placed the lid back on her red nail polish and walked over to one of the chairs to grab two different lunch plates. One of them for herself, and the other for Angel.

"Claudie, is the garlic in the burger this time???"

"No? You're a vampire, Angel. You are not dying over some useless garli-..."

On the way back to her seat, she stopped in her tracks to give another dirty look at Sanno, who was still standing there.

"The hell are you looking at? Leave. I need to have my lunch."

"But Claudia! Paint my nails pleeease! Why do you always do Angel's first?"

The girl pleaded yet again. Claudia turned to her as she was placing her own food down.

"Because I can? Is it really that big of a deal? If you've got a problem with that, then you can do everyone a favour and leave r-..."

Realising that she is not welcome into the environment and the argument that was about to take place in the room, Sanno concluded that now was the time to leave the premises before she weirded out the members even further.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As promised, Sanno took the journey to the courtyard, where Shade and Aiden were supposed to be. Sanno was looking around for the two of them, no luck. A minute passes and that's when Sanno decides to sit in the corner. Shade and Aiden were waiting in the long queues, that's probably it. But quite frankly, Sanno didn't want to go inside that cafeteria after the hellish experience from yesterday. Not to mention all the loud chewy noises of people eating, the sounds of packets opening, the sound of cutlery. She refused to put up with it today.

Just as she was thinking about that, she heard the sounds of Aiden and Shade talking as they were walking right towards her. Right, she doesn't need to think about all that... not right now. As long as they don't ask questions.

"Heyyy!! Sanno! Settle a debate for us, will ya? Is water wet?"

Sanno blinked a couple of times at Aiden, processing what he had just asked her.

"Aiden, clarify how water is wet."

Shade requested, holding two bowls of sausage pasta. Aiden turned directly towards Shade with a baffled look on his face.

"Because water is a liquid, DUH!! When you touch water alone, it feels WET! You defo haven't-"

Aiden retorted to Shade's argument that water isn't wet.

"Water isn't wet, scientifically speaking! Water is a substance, wetness is a property, meaning water isn't inherently wet, right?"

Sanno proposed, finally replying to Aiden's... pretty absurd question. Shade smirked at him before placing both bowls down on different sides of Sanno and sitting down with legs out. Aiden remained standing for a bit, eyes darting at the two of them as if they betrayed him downright.

"But I... you.. You CAN'T be FR!! You don't think water is wet? I thought water was wet for my entire life, I... you're making me question my entire existence!! I might as well just... go!"

Aiden declared in his eccentric joking tone, clinging onto one of the royale high poles tight.

"...Guess I'll eat your food then, Aiden."

Shade remarked in a joking tone.

"NO!!"

He shouted, swiftly sitting down and grabbing onto his bowl of sausage pasta for dear life.

"I swear I was JOKING!! I'd be a MESS without you guys TBH, I'm not throwing it all away over a stupid debate like "is water wet?". That whole thing was super stupid anyways!!"

Defeated, Aiden began to messily eat his sausage pasta. Sanno covered her ears and began biting her lip.

"I'd... I'd be a mess without you two as well! I'm so glad that we're here together and that we can spend our time like this, really!"

Sanno let out a small nervous giggle. Seeing that Aiden was eating his sausage pasta, Shade proceeded to follow suit. After a couple of bites and some moments of silence between the trio, Shade placed her bowl to the side and looked at Sanno.

"...The anti-bullying committee."

Instead of framing it like a question, Shade phrased it more like a demand or ominous threat of some kind. Aiden's eyes glanced at the both of them, still digesting some of the sausage pasta he was violently eating.

"Oh yeah!! How'd that anti-bullying thing go?? You were super focused on that like... ALL day! Shade was telling me about it!"

Sanno's wings raised a bit at what Shade was saying but she didn't seem all that bothered. Aiden's rephrasing of the statement definitely helped. Sanno repositioned herself into sitting down in a criss cross position, intending to get comfortable.

"Oh! That! It... well... I didn't get in. I showed them my essay and tried talking to them but they said that I wasn't suitable enough. The leader told me that I'd be better off as a library or elementary school assistant, too! She phrased it like it was an insult but I don't think of it as a bad thing. That isn't a... bad thing, right?"

She played with her hair, looking at the two with them with uncertainty. In fact, Sanno could even feel sweat rolling down her face from the thought.

"I guess not. It's... It's good, it's... mmm... ehhh.. it's... eh."

Shade was twirling her fork, trying to portray what she wants to say right. As she paused, she found herself making eye contact with Aiden a couple of times. After what felt like several minutes of awkward silence as Shade stumbled with her words, Aiden finally spoke up.

"What a PRICK! EFF whoever that leader is, being a library and elementary school assistant is BADASS! Do BOTH if you wanna, that's even more COOL! TRUUUST me, Sanno. They're totally missing out, they're defo just mad that you're great and a bundle of joy meanwhile they're gonna live the rest of their lives working 9 to 5's! Then again, that's more of a late stage capitalism issue than a them problem, so maybe that wasn't the BEST thing I could compare that to but yeeeah!"

After going on that mini tangent, Aiden was biting his black poorly painted nails.

"...Mhm. What Aiden said, Sanno."

Shade agreed. Sanno awkwardly nodded to the two of them as they tried desperately to make their friend feel better, but to no avail. It felt bizarre to Sanno... Aiden told her something similar yesterday when calming her down after the event with Kao and it helped her then, why isn't it helping right now? Is the situation just different? Is it the way he said it...?

"W-Well! Enough of THAT. Wanna know what I think we should do?"

With a grin, Aiden grabbed his backpack consumed with bright badges and showed the two of them an uno set.

"UNO!!! I got it from this cool chick friend! She talks like a snake but isn't a snake and she owns a BUNCH of cool shit and stuff! I saw the uno set in her bag and BEEGGED her to give it to me! She said yeah but after I told Shade the story, I thought about how sad she looked and now I wanna like... give it back."

He frowned as the thought played in his head again, but he violently shook his head and placed the packet in the middle of them.

"You got another friend? That's really cool! Maybe give it back to her at the end of lunch?"

Sanno suggested. Aiden pouted his lips, thinking about what Sanno had just told him. After he was done, he nodded in approval.

"You're RIGHT!! But hey, let's play at least one round! I haven't played uno in a LOONG time... I still know the rules! Do you know the rules, Shade?"

Aiden and Sanno's attention went over to Shade, who was continuing her journey of eating the sausage pasta.

"Is stacking allowed?"

Shade asked. Without hesitation, Aiden did a thumbs up gesture!

"Hell yeah! Why not? Let's do this!! May the best uno player win!!"

Chapter Text

"Aliceee... Good morning..."

A honey blonde haired woman's voice hesitated in a soft voice. She knocked on a little girl's bedroom door, which was open wide. The bedroom was spacious but unlike the decorated hallway, it was lacking in colour and life. The only toy visible was a doll-house, the room's windows were covered to the brim with what looked to be hundreds of bulky books. It didn't look like a kid's bedroom, more like some library with a bed. The woman was shaking with fear as she took a couple steps into the room.

"Good morning, Miss!"

Located at the bed was a tall pale black-haired girl carrying a doll who looked similar. She yawned and opened her mouth wide, which immediately caused the woman to swiftly cling onto the door.

"You do-... Alice sweetie, get ready! It's... time for school."

The woman looked away from the girl and began to bite one of her fake nails anxiously. Seeing this, a light brown haired man with small glasses walked over and stood right next to the woman.

"Alice, don't call your mother... 'M-Miss'."

He gulped when looking at the girl, causing her to tilt her head for a moment but she let out a small sigh.

"Sorry... It's just... she isn't my-"

"Don't talk like t-... just... put that face mask on. Quick."

He yelled the word 'PUT' before immediately retracting back to a shaky tone. The girl took off the bed covers and placed the doll down, patting its head before looking in her bedside drawers. The girl could hear whispers amongst the two adults but that didn't matter to her at the moment. Fortunately, the girl successfully found the black face mask and put it on, causing both adults to sigh in relief.

"Now, get dressed. I'll be making breakfast downstairs, okay?"

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was officially classed as NIGHT-TIME on Royale High school grounds. Shade had already taken a long nap during the evening hours, as she naturally thrived during the dark hours of night-time. Did she adapt to the requirements of needing to sleep in the night and wake in the day? Absolutely. Regardless, vampires were still nocturnal creatures by nature, and there's nothing that can be done to completely change nature, she was always going to be most energetic during night hours.

It was 10pm, the hour where Sanno usually settles down for bed. One thing Shade has quickly observed about Sanno is her strict and consistent routine, they're rather similar in that regard. But during this hour, something was different. Shade exited her room from her evening nap to see the angel mumbling something incomprehensible to herself, their fridge and all the kitchen cabinets wide open. Shade took a few steps closer, attempting to discern what she was doing exactly. But Sanno swiftly turned around.

"Oh, hey Shade!!"

Sanno greeted her in her usual over-the-top chirpiness. One thing that was apparent to Shade was that Sanno was carrying cans of food.

"...Heyy. What are you-"

Shade was about to ask but Sanno placed the cans down on the counter temporarily.

"Oh! Just organising! It seemed pretty jumbled so I thought to fix all of it... made me feel a little sick!"

Sanno admitted with a small yet strained laugh. Shade couldn't help but linger on that last statement... does she mean sick in an exaggerated sense or in a literal sense? Just as Shade was thinking that, that sickening feeling ironically returned, the uncanny feeling that something was wrong. Yet, words and cues feel completely jumbled. Ever since what happened at lunch with the anti-bullying committee yesterday, Sanno had spent more of her time outside of school hours studying. Shade likes studying but not to the same extent Sanno does, to spend all of her time studying would be too draining for Shade's liking.

In all honesty, Sanno as a person massively confuses Shade. She's so loving and caring, so full of life and still optimistic despite everything. At least with Aiden, she can somewhat understand what occurs in his mind and why he says the things he does. With Sanno, it feels like a complete mystery. The happiness she expresses is so bright that it's suffocating, that it feels plastered on or fake in some shape or form.

So why? Why is she so happy? Why does she adore this planet so much when it has given them three so much pain? Why does she adore a world where innocent people are seen as 'disposable'? Why is she always in a whole other land of her own where she believes nothing bad could ever happen?

The question Shade should probably be asking is: Why can't she be like that?


...By the time midnight hit, Sanno was finally asleep. As usual, that interaction went nowhere. Shade prefers if Sanno falls asleep at 10 PM on the dot or at least stays in her dorm. It means they don't have to have another awkward interaction where Shade essentially messes up everything she tries to say. Interactions are sometimes a blur for Shade, she hates dragging them on yet hates it when they don't escalate anywhere. 

Maybe the best thing to do is to take a midnight walk, to take her mind off practically everything. After all, most diurnal people had fallen asleep by now. So what's the harm in that? To her memory, nocturnal species don't get into big trouble if they wander late (under the condition they stay safe and aren't harming anyone, of course). Recognising that it was a late autumn night, she slipped on a black leather jacket alongside some lace fingerless gloves, placed a couple of her belongings in her pocket and left the dorm, locking the door behind her.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shade had no specific destination or anywhere to specifically go, at least at first. She was strolling through the halls, listening to some music by Bauhaus through her earbuds. To her, it feels rather awkward walking around halls at night alone without any music or sound to accompany it. As she was strolling, there were nocturnal people in friend groups sitting in corners or tables talking and laughing amongst themselves: certain wolf types, other vampires, owls, tigers...

It's great everyone has their friend groups, especially at night. Shade merely glanced at them, being fixed on random people for too long wasn't going to do her any good, she thought. In actuality, seeing people happy like this nearly disgusted her. It felt degrading, like a whole mockery designed to humiliate Shade specifically. Why was everyone energetic and enthusiastic except for her? Even with a friend group, she's alone.

But there was something that made Shade stop in her tracks. On top of one of the poles was a small tv that reported on things such as the news. It was a quiet tv, as it was night hours. But the subtitles moved across the screen. What was the miniscule television showing? Some random live bidding show. As expected. It was late at night, what did Shade think that television was going to show? Something that would prove her right somehow? 

What is 'right' anyways? What makes something right or factually correct? There's science and psychology, of course. But do we know these things for certain? Maybe nothing is truly accurate, including science study books and statistics. What makes those things reliable? She knows the world itself is far from reliable, does that mean we can definitively say anything else is reliable?

"What you looking at?"

Shade's head looked down to see a friend group in front of her, all with disgusted looks on their face. One of them asked that question in a demanding and annoyed speaking voice. She removed one of her earbuds and tilted her head, glaring at the group.

"My head was up. You're down."

She explained in a neutral tone. Could she have delivered or worded that differently? Probably. Shade crossed her arms and turned the other way, intending to walk away. She was about to place the other earbud back in until she heard one of them snicker and say:

"What a bitch. That's vampires for you."

The group laughed, under the presumption that Shade couldn't hear them. She returned back to face them and all their demeanors switched from confident to their teeth chattering in fear. Not wanting to cause further conflict on this night, she faced the other way and placed the earbud back.

Shade fidgeted with a black gemstone ring on her finger, attempting to regulate herself after that confrontation. She continued her stroll, this time with the intention of travelling to the courtyard. Hopefully, little people are outdoors due to the cold and dark night. That may attract some, but hopefully not as many. She can't help who she is, Shade can't help that she was born this way... it's not like she can change who she is. She should be proud of who she is as a vampire, the culture and fashion is something she adores. Yet, it still hurts. She's adapted but it hurts.

With that in mind, Shade could really use a cigarette... She hadn't smoked all day and to Shade, it was abundantly clear that it was agitating her. What's being agitated going to do? It won't change anything... In simple terms, she needs to really get rid of those overwhelming nerves for a while.

Unlike before, this walk felt long and tense, so tense you could probably cut through it with a really sharp knife and it still wouldn't be enough. The only thing on her mind was smoking a cigarette, sitting on her own for a while and then getting everything organised for the morning. Fortunately for her, Sanno had already organised all the food before going to bed herself. She'd need to adapt to where everything is because of this, which is admittedly a pest. At least she contributes something.

At least Sanno contributes to anything. She raises her hand up in class all of the time, holds the door open for people, always checks up on everybody... what contributions does Shade make to the world...?

By the time she made it to the courtyard, she didn't bother grabbing her cigarette packet. Instead, her back was against the wall. The only action she could do was slide down on the cold grass and sink in her own thoughts... Shade closed her eyes and clung onto herself, craving for a hug that was never going to arrive in the first place. Sinking in a pool of self-doubt was easier than fighting back against the tides, it always has been.

...Realising what she arrived at the courtyard to do, she opened her eyes, beginning to scramble through her pockets for the cigarette pack and lighter. Upon finding them, she seized a cigarette from the pack, used the lighter and positioned the cigarette to her mouth... inhaling and exhaling. As she continued this, Shade looked up at the sky, which was near pitch black apart from some beautiful sparkling stars that scattered across the canvas. Shade was fixed at the sky, exhaling the smoke right up at it. Even so, the smoke couldn't hide her hollow and exhausted facial expression.

"The relief of giving into destruction".

Chapter Text

"Aiden!! Hiii!"

The voice of a young girl yelled with enthusiasm over a small boy's phone. She was located sitting down on a cream living room chair, the sounds of a children's television network serving as background noise. Next to her was a woman in her late 20's watching the show, but still turning to the girl often.

"Hey, Sanno..."

The boy replied. He was located in his bedroom, which was cramped and around the same size as the average bathroom. The bed's covers appeared unwashed and the walls paint was clearly outdated, slowly being drained of its colour. There wasn't much decoration to the room, apart from a few plushies, pieces of candy scattered across his bed and clothes that were beginning to pile up on the floor.

"I'm so happy Auntie Rin lets me use her phone to talk to you!! Are you using your mom's phone??"

She asks, kicking her feet whilst sat down. The boy couldn't help but stare at a light on the roof of his bedroom as it flickers. It doesn't flash from completely light to dark, it's moreso a quiet light that keeps slowly dimming out before creeping back in.

"...Aiden?"

The girl tilts her head, asking with a slightly uneasy tone that snapped the boy out of his trance.

"Yeah?"

He questions, indicating to the girl that he wasn't paying attention to her question.

"You using your mom's phone?"

The boy continued biting his nails, struggling but making an effort to keep his full attention on the girl's voice and answering the question at hand.

"...No. It's... mine."

He answers, pausing for a short amount of time before finding what he was aiming to say. 

"...Miss Grey said that when we go to different middle schools, we won't speak together ever again! Auntie Rin says that she's wrong and that we can be friends no matter what, and Auntie Rin knows best but-"

The girl moves slightly further away from the woman next to her and whispers into the phone:

"You won't... go away after going to big school, right? Pinkie swear?"

Her voice sounded shaky and distressed, but still repressed, not wanting to disturb the woman who was looking at the television for a little while. The boy's lips quivered and he shook his head.

"No. N-Never ever! I want to stay with you forever and ever... Pinkie swear!"

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was Sanno's second lesson in Biology class. The room was filled to the brim with teenagers chatting amongst themselves in their seats. However, there were a few students that stood up so they could walk over to their friends. Particularly, there was this one guy who was walking over to Sanno's table. She recognised him as one of the guys in Kao's friend group from Tuesday, the guy who hosted that one bowling hangout alongside the jock ginger guy. However, Sanno could barely remember names from that day, that wasn't necessarily the thing she prioritised on, after all.

However, Mai and Amber were having a conversation right next to her:

"Ugh, thank god it's Friday! I CANNOT wait for tomorrow...!"

Amber told Mai. Mai was readjusting her black and white plaid beret, which matched nicely with the blazer she wore today. But when her friend said that, Mai turned to Amber and nodded with a small smile.

"Agreed. Ginji's dad is letting us have drinks for free too, it's gonna be so bougie...! Who knew he was so-..."

Mai paused. She nearly finished her sentence until she noticed the guy stood right next to them at their table.

"Ivaaaan! You still up for tomorrow?"

Amber waved and put her fist up, attempting for Ivan to fist-bump her. With a relaxed expression on his face, Ivan gently returned the bump and moved one of his braids away from his face.

"Yuuup. You think I'm gonna ditch? If there's anything you gotta know about me, it's that I never ditch last minute..."

He crossed his arms and smiled. As he was glancing at Amber, it was then he noticed Sanno sitting directly next to Mai. Ivan did a small wave gesture at her.

"Heeyy... Fusako, right? You good?"

He grinned at Sanno, walking over so he was right in front of her. Sanno was decorating her notes inside of the biology work book. She figured since Mr Baines hadn't objected the first lesson that it was alright for Sanno to continue, as long as her notes were neat and organised, right? She placed her yellow glitter gel pen down and waved at Ivan.

"Yeah! I'm okay. You can call me Sanno, by the way! It just rolls... off the tongue better."

Mai and Amber turned towards each other, before staring at the pair inquisitively.

"Ahhhh... kk. Sanno it is! Sooo, about Kao, don't take anything he says personally. He's just-... well, he's been grouchy since the eye incident. He's a really cool guy though, trust. Kao isn't being fully serious the majority of the time, you get me?"

Ivan explains. Mai's face turns to one of confusion but when the 'eye incident' is mentioned, she slowly nods and places a small smile on her face.

"Mhm! Couldn't have said it better myself, Ivan."

Mai agrees. Despite this, she looks away from the scene and reaches out for her pen about to start her biology work. Sanno tapped her fingers on the book's paper a few times, attempting to process what she's being told. When her eyes dart to the side, he sees Aiden observing the scene with a suspicious expression on his face.

"Y-Yeah... I'm not mad at him!"

Maybe these people have no idea about Kao's past bullying and they genuinely believe that. If that's the case, Sanno feels sympathy for them. They all seem like very kind-hearted people, all things considered. They're just hanging out with a guy who isn't as kind in comparison... or perhaps Kao had changed temporarily in middle school years? Sanno couldn't help but wonder about that and Kao as a whole. Why is he so cold and spiteful? Is there a way to make him realise what he's doing is wrong...?

"Cool! No drama, no drama. To make up for it, how bout you come with us to the Temple Club tomorrow night? One of our friend's dad owns the nightclub and he's lettin' us in, free of charge and not to m-"

Ivan had his fist out, attempting for Sanno to bump it as some form of gratitude. But before he could finish his invitation, Mai and Amber turned to him astonished.

"Ginji said that his dad can only let 6 people in for free, remember?? Higher than that's suuper sketchy."

Amber cut Ivan off before he could finish, fidgeting with her long sleeved white shirt. Mai placed her pen back in her fancy pencil-case and made direct eye contact with Sanno before saying:

"Yeeeah... apologies, Sanno. Maybe some other occasion."

Mai had a firm expression on her face. However, every once in a while, a small grin would form on her face before disappearing. Sanno gave a bright smile to the group and shook her head.

"That's okay! I-I'm not the type to really... go clubbing! I've never been to a nightclub before."

When Sanno hesitantly replied with that statement, the trio exchanged glances and Amber covered her mouth.

"No way!"

She loudly blurted. Mai's eyes widened slightly and she tilted her head.

"Reeeally? That's cute! I'll definitely tell Ginji to let you come next time, kay?"

Hearing that made Sanno feel chirpy. Though there was this small sickening feeling in her gut that something was not quite right, perhaps that was just the hunger or feeling anxious about clubbing. But if Sanno knows anything, it's that it doesn't hurt to try things for the first time, especially when other people are there to guide her!

"...Okay! I can't wait! What are-"

Before Sanno could ask or talk to them any further, the Royale High bell loudly chimed, indicating that the 1st period was over, and that break was starting. Mr Baines had one arm behind his back but with his other hand, he had three fingers scanning the whole room and then pointing directly at the door.

"You're all dismissed. Have a wonderful day."

He announced to the students. With no further ado, everyone was promptly leaving the room. Sanno was about to speak to the trio but by the time, she got her stuff together, they had all already left. Aiden ran up to Sanno and tapped her shoulder.

"Heeeeyy, Sanno!"

He waved at his best friend and grinned at her. Sanno finally relaxed her shoulders and waved back at him.

"Aiden!! You won't believe what just happened!"

His grin grew wider and without warning, he grabbed Sanno's hand tightly.

"WAITWAIT!! Let's go to Shade first! Tell me on the way there, I gotta know!"

Before leaving, Aiden moved a strand of Sanno's hair away from her face. They exchanged happy expressions at each other and then left the room, waving goodbye at Mr Baines, who was too concentrated on science revision sheet materials to notice.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So this guy named Ivan walked up to my table! He's a friend of Mai and Amber... and Ivan told me to not take what Kao said personally! He was going to invite me to this club tomorrow night but Amber said there wasn't 'enough space'. It was completely okay because I'm not really into the whole nightclub lifestyle!"

As Sanno was explaining the events of biology class, Aiden's eyes were looking away and he was biting his nails with an anxious expression on his face. Noticing this, Sanno stopped in her tracks.

"You okay, Aiden?"

Hearing this, he stopped too and turned directly towards her. Realising that he was biting his nails, he quickly hid his hand in his pocket and blinked a couple of times.

"Yup! Yeah! I'm fine...! Well... ehhhhh, fine's not the word. Got a reeeally bad headache that's TOTES gonna eat me alive! ...HBU?"

Aiden used his other hand to rub the side of his head, grinding his teeth as he did so. Sanno looked through her massive school bag and grabbed a packet of pills, handing it over to him in an instant. He observed the packet inquisitively.

"TYLENOL!! You're a LIFE SAVER, OMG!!! I need that SOO bad RN!!"

He obtained his bottle of water and swallowed two pills down as fast as possible, with the hopes that it would make his headache go away quicker too. Aiden sighed in relief and handed the Tylenol packet back to her. Not being able to remain still, Aiden started pacing around in circles and whilst doing so, Shade was standing right there with hands relaxed to her side. 

"OH! Shade! Heyooo!"

"Hello, Shade!! How was German??"

The both of them stood next to Shade, waving at her and bouncing on the spot with high energy levels. Shade crossed her arms and started messing around with one of her rings.

"Hey. German was nice. Small class, teacher is nice, I guess. It makes me dread English."

She states to the two of them. Sanno puts her hands together and turns directly towards Shade with a chirpy smile!

"I'm excited for English, actually! I love literature especially, learning about different interpretations and styles of writing has always reeeally intrigued me! Teacher was a bit strict yesterday. But I'm sure she's just a little tired! Working in a school like this probably uses up a LOT of energy, I can imagine...!"

Shade awkwardly nodded to Sanno's rambling, a small pause between the trio broken by Aiden's loud sighing.

"KAO'S in the same English class as me!! Maths is next and he isn't in the same class as me in THAT, phew... but there's this guy who sits behind me and he is SO annoying! He is a TOTAL jockie, to top it all off! "Hey Aiden, is it true that your parents are cousins?" No WONDER he's in bottom set maths!! He thinks wearing sunglasses indoors makes him look SUPER rough when he just looks like a SUPER loser!"

Aiden crosses his arms and rolls his eyes, mocking the guy in question. Shade makes eye contact with Sanno and then tells Aiden:

"Ginji, probably. He asked a similar question to Sanno, he likes pissing people off and following Kao around."

"Yeah! He accused me of owning a shrine... but maybe if we-"

Sanno's eyes glanced to the side, seeing Kao and Mai in the hall together sharing a passionate kiss on the lips. Aiden and Shade followed Sanno's eyes, Shade gagged and looked away meanwhile Aiden hid behind Shade.

"EW!!! EWEWEWEW.... GROOOSS!! Do that shit in PRIVATE or somethin'! I'm gonna need to bleach my eyes after seeing that! BLEUGH..."

Aiden stuck his tongue out and put his index finger near it to show his disgust. Shade's head rotated to both Sanno and Aiden.

"When do you think they're going to break up?"

She asks the two of them in her usual blunt demeanor. Regardless, it sounded more like a rhetorical question or a joke rather than a legitimate query. 

"SOON, HOPEFULLY!! Holy crap..."

He replied, fidgeting with his zebra coloured hair extension. As for Sanno, her reaction was completely different. Unlike Shade and Aiden, she didn't look or feel disgusted at all by the sight. It was moreso a combination of happiness and jealousy. She's delighted that Mai is able to find happiness in someone, especially in a romantic relationship. However, there was something in Sanno that yearned for that same feeling, a yearning she had felt for a long time. Sanno gulped and put her hands behind her back.

"...We should go to class now! We don't want to be late at all, right?"

She tilted her head. Aiden started biting his nails again...

"I have to WALK PAST them to get to my class!! That's gonna be so-"

"I'm coming with you."

Before Aiden could finish, Shade grabbed his wrist, making Aiden flinch. He blinked a couple of times and shook his head.

"No no no! I can TOTALLY handle myself! Defo...! Just-"

"Sanno, go to English."

She briefly shook her head towards Sanno, trying to lead her away. Sanno's wings went down and she used her hands to fidget with a strand of her hair

"I can come with-"

"You'll likely be tardy if you do. The Maths department is on the top floor, so just get to English."

Sanno tapped her foot and looked behind her on a couple of occasions before staring back at Shade again. Sanno nodded before reluctantly turning around so she could head to English on time. During the whole journey, Sanno contemplated on what excuse Shade was going to tell that teacher. Sanno knows she couldn't tell the truth because it wouldn't be a good excuse but she's aware that lying to a teacher is bad too... what a dilemma.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A tense moment of silence filled the duo. Nonetheless, they both know where they need to get going. Aiden gently took Shade's hand away from his wrist. After seeing this act, Shade took a couple of small steps away from Aiden but still remained close to him anyways. She couldn't help but look at Aiden with an unreadable expression but Aiden refused to let his eyes meet someone else's. 

"We need to go."

Shade prompted him. That caused Aiden to somewhat slip out of his trance, as he finally turned towards her. He nodded.

"Yup! Time to go to maths!"

Aiden's grin returned. He wasn't going to go straight up to Mai and Kao, that wasn't the plan. However, he also wanted to show the message that Kao wasn't going to upset or affect him. Not this time. He's different now, and Shade is going to see that with her own eyes. Is that last part a bit pathetic? Yeah. He gets it. But he doesn't need protecting. He never needed protection despite Shade's insistence in this moment.

But maybe Shade doesn't care. Is she just doing this so she can act like she cares even though she's shown that she doesn't? He doesn't need to think about that right now, he just needs to focus on getting through the day... and then he can relax on the weekend.

They both begin walking through the hallway, on the way to Aiden's maths class. Temporarily, he had one of his ears covered. The loud chatter amongst students, the squeaky floor, hearing the electrical sounds of the lights buzzing around like bees, this headache only worsened things.

"BRUTEEE!!!"

Kao shouted mockingly, clearly aimed at Shade. He laughed and then his attention returned to Mai briefly. In response, she giggled and exclaimed jokingly:

"Haha, geez! You're going to make someone seriously snap at you if you keep this up!"

Instead of confronting him, Shade still continued on with her walk. Aiden followed but not without giving Kao a dirty look and raising his middle finger up. Yeah, that'll show him, Aiden thought. That'll show Shade he's changed for the better. She's changed, so has he, and there is nothing Kao can do to revert him back to what he was. 

For the entire journey, Shade wouldn't mutter a single word. Instead, she seemed to focus on the destination above all. Meanwhile, Aiden could still hear the buzzing and screeching lights, the sounds of footsteps marching in many directions towards classes. The voices of teachers disciplining students in the staircase and halls, the voices of students laughing and play-fighting. It all made him sick, as if he wasn't already sick enough from those-...

It was at this moment he asked the following question to himself: what would Sanno do in his shoes? That was easy. She'd still engage in conversation and block out the bad stuff. That's what Aiden thinks. That's what she used to do, and it's not like she's changed much. But that's good! Sanno hasn't lost her good heart and nature, he hopes she'll never lose that about her. Ever.

"We're here."

Shade's voice calmly announced to him. Funnily enough, through all of the noise, Shade's noise felt distinct. She had a calm voice and the noises she made felt necessary, unlike the rough noises of everything else occurring in his ears.

"RIGHT! TY!! Have fun in English! By-..."

Before Aiden could wave goodbye, Shade had already vanished from the crowd. Before he could contemplate further on this, he heard the teacher's voice saying his name:

"Morning, Fujimoto."

She greeted him! Aiden turned to her and waved to her with an awkward smile.

"Morning, Miss...-"

He paused, realising that he had already forgotten her name, despite having her class yesterday during last period. Aiden's aware he should've memorised her name by now, since he had looked at his timetable multiple times during his first week. Aiden resorted to moving towards the spacious whiteboard, as he could see her name written on it. He continued with his greeting as if nothing had happened:

"Howells! Miss Howells!"

Miss Howells was a cat species, as indicated by the classic cat ears. She had short light blue hair styled into a bob, which was how Aiden personally recognised her from the other teachers he's had so far. As a result of recognising her through appearance, his brain hadn't recognised her by name. She tilted her head, her expression unreadable to Aiden.

"Didn't get lost this time, I see. Do you plan to keep that up?"

She remarked with a slightly relieved tone, indicating to Aiden that she was happy with this improvement. His eyes beamed and he placed his hands on his hips, proud of himself.

"YES, MA'AM!"

Aiden blurted out, smiling at her as he walks over to his chair. The only reason he remembered where he sat? It was because of who was sat behind him... But like Shade said, he's just trying to get on his nerves for the sake of it. He didn't want to give that Jockie the satisfaction of an argument, that's just a whole other level of desperate.

Regardless, he wasn't willing to let anything ruin his day. The weekend was coming up and Fridays are usually the most relaxed days as far as schools go. As he was setting up his pencil-case, he fantasized about what his weekends will be like now that he has friends. Maybe they could hang out and go out places! It didn't have to be anything expensive or impressive, it could be as simple as going to charity shops or to a local cheap cafe. Hell, sitting on a park bench and eating snacks would do nicely. Yeah, it would be great if he could go watch West End musicals in person every week. But that didn't matter to him, not at all.

Just as long as Sanno and Shade were with him to some capacity, he wouldn't have it any other way.

The Royale High bell rung, telling everyone that 2nd period had officially started. Aiden glanced behind him, to see that the guy was in fact, not here. Was Ginji (according to Shade) not in today? He let out a very loud sigh in relief at the thought. Aiden faces forward so that he could pay attention to the lesson.

"Good morning, first year students. We'll start with the register:"

Miss Howells announces. She turns on the digital projector, showing the class register for everyone to see. 

"Heidi Ashton."

Was the first name called. The register contained a table showing the names of all the students in this specific class. When Miss Howells clicked onto the girl's name, everyone could see her ID photo on the right side distinctly. It was at this moment that Aiden's heart dropped. His photo was taken post-interview, exactly like everyone else's. However, Aiden had just dyed his hair the day before he attended that interview, and the dye turned out brighter than originally intended. To simplify, that meant his entire class was going to see his hair when it was neon green rather than the darker shade it is now. 

As people's names were being called, a few students quietly chuckled at some of the... not so appealing pictures which were around a month old. Aiden was feeling tense, not because of the thought that people were going to laugh at him, but because he himself would be embarrassed just looking at it. But what's a little bit of embarrassment going to do to him? The feeling will pass in under 2 minutes time no matter what, his name was early on the register, so this was just a temporary experience.

That was what he told himself, until a classmate dressed in a red and black football themed jumper burst into the room without any warning, phone in one hand. 

"See ya at break, blondie!!"

He said in a really smug voice, laughing as he did so. Oh god, wearing red clothing, sunglasses indoors, brown hair, this was Ginji. AKA: the annoying jockie guy who sits DIRECTLY BEHIND HIM!! Aiden's name was about to be clicked on right in front of him. Ginji was never going to let this go! However, he wasn't looking at the board at the moment. There was still hope that Aiden could escape the situation whilst Ginji was half distracted.

"Aiden Fujimoto."

And there it was, the photo. Not only was Aiden's hair neon green, his black eyeliner wasn't nearly as well drawn as it is now and if you looked a little closer, you could see some pimples.

"...Here."

Unfortunately for Aiden, it was at this exact occasion that Ginji had finally paid attention to the room. Ginji walked a few steps, about to enter his seat, until he turned around and saw the embarrassing photo of Aiden right in front of his two eyes. His eyes darted to Aiden, then the photo again and Ginji covered his mouth.

Regardless of his attempts, it only took 2 seconds for Ginji to release a loud laugh.

"NO WAAAYYY!!!"

With the phone in hand, he quickly snapped a photo of Aiden's embarrassing ID photo before Miss Howells could proceed to the next person. She crossed her legs and arms, giving Ginji a very unimpressed look.

"And why are you late, Imani?"

She inquired, eyebrow raised. Ginji put his phone in his pocket and snickered.

"I got lost, Miss! Pffft..."

He continued chuckling to himself and went right to his seat as the register continued. Ginji placed the sunglasses on his head and used his foot to slowly rock Aiden's chair, attempting to get his attention. He's so lucky that I'm medicated, Aiden thought to himself.

"I thought you looked like the grinch already but hoooly shit! Was that your idea for Halloween, Aiden? Eeeehhhh??~"

Ginji kept mocking Aiden. At one point, from behind, he even ruffled Aiden's hair. This immediately made Aiden flinch. Ginji clenched his fist and used that to cover his mouth, which was making an o shape, eyes widened.

"Ohhhh!!! Did I scare you? Everything okay at home?"

The pitch of his voice increased, clearly not asking that from a concerned perspective. Ginji was about to ruffle Aiden's hair a second time, until...

"Ginji Imani."

As if on cue, Ginji returned to his seat and instead of his eyes widening out of excitement, they widened in horror. On the screen was a picture of Ginji from a month ago, his hair was longer, messier and he had a bunch of pimples and a large plaster on his cheek. 

"Here."

He mumbled quietly, teeth grinding out of embarrassment. Miss Howells continued on with the register. Aiden looked at the photo and then back at Ginji. 

"OH... EM... GEE... Is that a pic for an interview or a mugshot?"

Aiden whispered, but it was just intentionally loud enough for Ginji to hear him. Fight fire with fire, they say. If Ginji's going to humiliate him for his ID photo, he might as well match energy. Ginji immediately stood up.

"Y-You... You can't do that!"

He shouted, pointing directly at Miss Howells. She turned her chair in Ginji's direction.

"Do what? I'm calling your name on the register, Imani. That's my j-"

"Then why are you showing everyone our ID photos??"

Miss Howells raised her glasses and an eyebrow at Ginji, looking at the boy with a confused expression on her face.

"I'm just doing the register, Imani... now please sit down before I take you to the office."

She demanded softly. Ginji let out an astonished gasp, shocked by what he was being told. He crossed his arms and tilted his head, clearly not budging.

"Do you have ANY idea who my mom is? I swear to god, I wi-"

"Ginji, chill...! Past is in the past, we're not gonna hold your ID photo against you, man. You're cool."

Ivan reassured Ginji. He had his arms crossed and was rocking on his chair with a grin on his face. There was a lot of stuff in Aiden's mind right now. For starters, who does Ginji think he is? Trying to use his mom against a teacher like that? That tactic stops working the second you leave middle school let alone high school or adulthood. He wishes he could say that to his face but saying too much and getting involved would mean getting Ivan's attention... and Aiden wanted absolutely nothing to do with Ivan. Nothing at all.

"But Ivan, you don't-"

"Seriously, man. Kao's gonna be bummed if you get lunchtime detention again this week, let alone on a Friday! He was real excited to see you."

Much like Aiden, the rest of the students were watching this conflict go down, intrigued. Honestly, most of them were just relieved that they were wasting lesson time. The less maths work they do, the better. Ginji turned to Ivan and reluctantly sat down, struggling to form a counteracting point to that statement.

"Thank you, Ivan. Now, let's complete this register and then crack on."

After the register was completed, it felt like your ordinary maths lesson, for the most part anyways. Oddly enough, Ginji wasn't heckling Aiden as much. But that's not to say he didn't neglect this seemingly huge priority all together.

Things were rather uneventful for the first 10 minutes of the lesson. Miss Howells was teaching the class about decimals, which was something that drained Aiden's brain to no ends. She attempted to explain how they worked but with very little visual guides or diagrams. If there was anything teachers needed to know about Aiden, is that he is very much a visual learner.

Numbers just by themselves feel jumbled to Aiden. To him, trying to explain numbers or anything mathematical to a class without visual guides feels like the equivalent of speaking a foreign language without any translation or indication as to what the words could mean. If it wasn't for the Tylenol he took, his headache would've significantly worsened.

"Now class, you have 3 minutes to work out and answer this question. Write it down in your textbook and then-"

0.5 x 0.8 was the question shown on the projector. Aiden attempted to listen to Miss Howell's instructions but it was at this point that Ginji started kicking his chair. At first, he ignored it, passing it off as Ginji wanting to annoy him but it was persistent. He couldn't keep his mouth shut anymore.

"Can you stop that? You're totes gonna break my chair."

Aiden asked, intending to sound as unbothered as possible to little success. A smirk grew on Ginji's face.

"I'm not kicking that hard! You're such a sissy!"

Ginji jeered. Knowing he isn't going to get a useful response out of the jockie, he turned back around and attempted to answer the question. Ginji continued to kick, but Aiden wouldn't give in this time. Not like Ginji was going to acknowledge anything or stop if he asked. He spent the entire time hoping for dear life that Ginji would give up on his 'being obnoxious' spree. Fortunately, after a whole minute passed, Ginji stopped. Aiden presumed that he gave up, oh boy was he wrong...

Aiden attempted to work out the question on his own terms, unaware of how to work it out. 0.5 x 1 would equal 0.5. So surely, it's got to be lower than that, right? But then, what is 0.5 x 0.8 if it's below 0.5...? Who was Aiden kidding? Of course he had no idea what he was doing. This is all so foreign! No wonder he got bottom set in Maths. He doesn't know what's going on in the slightest! Most people weren't even bothered enough to work on the question. Instead, they all talked amongst each other. 

That was when Aiden remembered, he owned a calculator! A very cheap and nearly broken one, but a calculator, nonetheless. It was in his bag, all he had to do was grab it out, calculate the question and maybe his brain could put two and two together... somehow. Not the best plan, but it was a plan! A questionable plan is better than no plan at all. His body turned around and he was about to grab the calculator from the front pocket of his decorate bag until...

He saw Ginji beginning to open the zip of his bag.

"...What the hell are you doing?"

Aiden blurted out, not with the intention of intimidating Ginji into stopping, moreso out of sheer confusion as to what he was even trying to accomplish. Ginji moved his hands back to slouch on his desk and responded with the following:

"Making sure there's no knife in there, duh."

Ginji sneered. It was at this point Aiden had wished he brought a knife. Not really, he wishes to be anything but here right now, not to bring a weapon. Aiden quickly grabbed his bag to ensure Ginji couldn't reached and then raised his hand.

"Yes, Aiden?"

She walked right in front of his desk, hands behind her back.

"...I got a really bad headache that feels like it's gonna burst. Can I go to the nurse just to check it isn't anything serious?"

Miss Howells crossed her arms, eyes glancing at the lights and then slowly nodded.

"You may. Be quick please."

"TY-... I mean thank you!"

This was his chance to get away from the room, mainly Ginji and Ivan. He expressed his gratitude to Miss Howells, wrapped his bag onto his shoulder, stood up and swiftly left the room without even glancing back.

Aiden's plan now? Well, there wasn't really much of a plan. So much for 'a questionable plan is better than no plan at all'. He had the whole hallway to himself and no clue what to do with it. What do you even do with power? He didn't want to abuse his time or skip lesson, necessarily. He just wanted to get away for a bit, not for too long. Ten minutes at most, maybe. But what could Aiden possibly do with 10 minutes to himself? Especially during class-time period in school.

As he was walking in circles, he could hear the lights tormenting his ears once more. The sound was quieter in contrast to previously, but it was still present, painfully so. His ears weren't the only senses feeling violated by his environment. Aiden began to feel dizzy, unusually so. Was it stress causing this? Is it the medication? He was unsure, the answers felt out of reach to him, a wall was blocking him from discovering the causes and he hated that. If only he wasn't-...

Maybe Aiden just needed to cool down, go to the toilets. Just in case he faints, throws up or his body and brain do something else that's stupid. This is all going to pass soon. That's what Aiden thought to himself. Aiden stopped walking in circles, this time he had a destination to go to. He tried recalling where the male bathroom was. Out of every location in the building, apart from the hall, courtyard, SEN and drama area, the male bathrooms was probably a place he familiarised himself with the most... or that was the purpose anyways. 

Great, Aiden's sick and he's got a terrible memory. That's just what he needs. Aiden slowly and cautiously walked near the staircase, wanting to continue with his search for a toilet or just a location he can regulate in for a second. That was until he saw a strange sight.

It was Sanno! For whatever reason, she had exited her English class and is skipping across the hall cheerfully. Midway through her endeavor, she stops midway through the hall and squeals, kicking her feet and clenching her fists as she did so. 

This was a strange sight for Aiden. Was the dizziness really impacting him to the extent of seeing things? No, it can't be. He-... He wouldn't be seeing things, not now. He knows the difference between dizzy hallucinations, straight up hallucinations and reality. If there was anything Aiden could confirm to himself, it's that this wasn't a hallucination. His environment was real, the sight didn't seem too extraordinary (just bizarre at most) and apart from feeling dizzy, nothing else felt off. 

Sanno skipped around for a moment and in the corner of her eye, she noticed a disoriented Aiden clinging onto a pole for dear life.

"Aiden!! Hey! Didn't expect to see you here...!"

She ran right up to him, her angel wings rising from excitement. Even when sick, Aiden couldn't be grumpy with Sanno. Not ever. He smiled at her and let go of the pole, still standing and refusing to tumble over as if he were intoxicated.

"Heyy, Sanno! You good?"

He asked. Sanno started fidgeting with a strand of her hair, though still making eye contact with Aiden.

"Are you? You look like your whole world is spinning! I could take you to the nurse and-"

Sanno addressed with a high pitched yet worried tone. Aiden walked a little closer to Sanno, grin plastered on his face.

"Chillaaax!~ I'm fine! Just a tad dizzy, totally! You look like you're on a sugar rush, what up?"

His aim at this moment was to change the topic and to ensure Sanno's pile of stresses didn't increase. The concept of Sanno prioritising anyone else's well-being above her own was a concerning one.

"W-Well, I'm just... Aiden, this is the first of MANY weeks we're going to spend here! I love it here, with you and Shade! I never thought I'd see you two again and... even though we moved apart, I-... I never EVER stopped thinking about you two! Everything just feels like such a magical dream...!"

Sanno moved closer to Aiden and her voice got progressively louder and more hyper the more she spoke. Yet there was this hint of vulnerability too, the nice kind. Aiden nodded, completely disregarding his current condition.

"IKR?? I never stopped thinking about you and... Shade either! The amount of dreams where I saw you two in middle school... seriously! I'm glad you get me!"

They both shared a nice and joyful laugh with one another for what felt like forever. Aiden definitely wants to stay here for the rest of his life, and he believes Sanno reciprocates this feeling. They're childhood best friends, why wouldn't she? They connected nearly instantly despite the distance.

But would Sanno stay forever if she figured him all out..?

Chapter Text

It was last period on a Friday. Unfortunately for Aiden, the last period this Friday was PE, during his first week of Royale High on top of that. The freshmen boys were currently in the boys changing rooms, Aiden had entered late compared to the rest, being forced to remove all his accessories by the teacher before he could proceed.

"Hey, Kat. PLEEEASE can I use your deodorant???"

He begged Katsuki, who was using a roll-on deodorant. When Katsuki saw Aiden walk in, he froze with his mouth slightly open.

"Hellooo??? Earth to Kat???"

Aiden clicked his fingers near Katsuki's eyes, which caused him to take a few steps away from Aiden, startled.

"I'm present. It's just... seeing you without all your bulky accessories is... astonishing. Kind of a relief to the eyes, actually."

Katsuki responded. Aiden let out a huge gasp wrapped his left arm around his right shoulder, using his free hand to bite his nails.

"H-HEYY!!! I feel NAKED enough without my ADORBS bracelets and shit, no need to rub it in!!"

He shouts in an offended but half-joking tone. Katsuki's head turns away from Aiden and after finishing with the deodorant, raises his hand up to give it to Aiden.

"Here, just stop yelling in my ear."

Katsuki sighs and rubs one of his eyes with his free hand. Aiden's eyes widen and he takes the deodorant, applying it underneath his own armpits and then handing it back.

"You may be a total dork but at least you're not GROSS! You've got good... uhhmm..."

Aiden admitted, giggling as he did so. He fidgeted with his bottom lip, attempting to find the word for it.

"Hygiene?"

"YES!! Good hygiene. That's it! Read that in one of your books, probs."

He grins, pointing excitedly at Katsuki. He stands up and moves a couple of steps back.

"...Thank you, I guess. Look away, I'm changing."

Katsuki requests, Aiden turns away and nods with a lot of energy.

"Ditto that! I'm not a perv!"

Aiden nods, wanting to ensure he gets his point across in the most direct way possible. It was at that point that the two began to get dressed, both with their heads down with the intent of not looking at anyone else. Whilst they were both getting ready, they could hear some other boys laughing loudly amongst themselves.

"Blondie, Blondie! Hey, HEEEYY!! Do these new trainers look sick or what??"

Ginji from the other room shouted, attempting to get Kao's attention. After about 5 seconds of Ginji impatiently waiting, Kao turned to face him. He looked down, refusing to even glance at the rest of Ginji's body just in case.

"From the one shoe I can see... Yeah. They're very bold, fitting for you. Mine are brand new, my dad bought them for me last week!"

They both kneeled down, showing off their new clean expensive Nike trainers to one another. Ivan had already finished getting dressed ages ago, he was already in the PE clothing when Aiden had walked in. However, he hadn't left the room yet, sitting on one of the benches next to Draco, who looked concentrated.

"Wonder what sport they're gonna do first. Football, basketball, benchball, cricket, fitness... maybe even dodgeball."

Ivan pondered, saying his thoughts aloud to Draco. After putting his shirt on, he finally faced Ivan and sat down next to him, hands shaking.

"I just hop-... I want to do basketball. I noticed they had basketball equipment on Tuesday during break and..."

Draco added, lips quivering anxiously. Ivan smirked and let out a little chuckle.

"Damn, for real? Not even I saw that, you got a keen eye, pal."

Ivan complimented, both boys smiles only widened naturally from there.

"Draco."

Kao cut off Ivan and Draco's chatter, standing right in front of the two with Ginji following behind. That made Draco jolt up and clear his throat.

"You... need anything, Kao?"

Draco asked, sweat rolling down his forehead.

"Yeah, you got anything? You look like the type to have all kinds of shit on you."

Kao crossed his arms, head slightly tilted with a firm expression on his face. But if you looked closely, you can see his hands beginning to shake too. Draco shook his head.

"N-No... sorry. I was going to buy something from Yumi after last period but-"

"Seriously?? Talk about dense! You should've bought steroids at LUNCH or something, it would help you keep that muscle!"

Ginji cut Draco's fumbling words harshly, snickering after saying that last part. Draco let out a confused gasp, baffled by the presumed accusation. Ivan looked through his bag, reaching out for 2 different spare vapes he had in his possession and hanging it over to the two.

"Draco doesn't even do steroids, man. I got some spare Juuls from Yumi this morning, that'll help you two take the edge off."

Ivan explained, jumping into Draco's defense. Ginji and Kao grabbed the vapes off Ivan and sat down next to the duo. They both placed their vapes on their lips around the same time. letting out very huge puffs as they did so.

"You seriously don't take steroids???"

Ginji exclaimed, taking another puff of his vape as he did so. Meanwhile, both Katsuki and Aiden covered their own noses, the smell of vapes spreading across the entire changing room.

"Ugh... gross."

Katsuki muttered under his breath. Regardless, he still tried to prioritise getting into his PE clothing. After finishing this task, he quickly left the room to avoid the smell. Aiden was about to follow suit, yet he couldn't help but eavesdrop a little on their conversation as he did so, embarrassingly enough.

"No, I don't... I... go to the local gym and attended a lot of sports clubs in middle school."

Draco responded to Ginji's question. Ivan nodded, crossing his arms and observing Draco's movements.

"Ohh, trust me... His schedule was so packed that I'd go to that gym just to hang out!"

Ivan chimed in, releasing one of his hands to rub against Draco's arm in a playful manner. Ginji grinned upon seeing that interaction and tapped Draco's shoulder.

"Sososo wait... If you're really good at sports and go to the gym, why aren't you getting any chicks?"

Ginji questioned, moving closer to Draco without standing up as he did so. Draco turned away and gulped, his face red from embarrassment.

"O-Oh...! Chicks? I-I've never... I don't... think about that kind of thing too much."

Draco answered with a flustered and hesitant tone. 

"Come ooon!! Surely there's at least someone you find hot, right?? With all that muscle you've got, one of them's gonna want a handjob, at least."

Whilst Ginji was teasing Draco about his... 'love life', Kao's attention was on his surroundings. Whilst taking puffs of his juul, he had a calculating expression on his face.

"'All that muscle'? Is there something you want to tell us, Ginji?"

Ivan queried in a teasing yet relaxed tone. 

"...It's true, right?? Draco's got the muscle and sports schtick going on, girls love that shit! You girl-shy or something?"

Ginji hesitated on the first sentence but then regained his confidence immediately after. He attempted to touch a muscle on Draco's arm, likely to prove his own point. Kao's eye sparkled with intrigue upon seeing Aiden, tapping Ginji's shoulder to get his attention.

"Listen."

Kao demanded in a blunt tone, causing Ginji to turn around. Quickly, he whispered something directly into Ginji's ear, eye occasionally darting at Aiden as he did so. Since Aiden wasn't watching the boys as they talked (considering they were in a changing room), he just presumed that the conversation went a little quiet and decided to drop it. In the middle of tying the shoelaces of his PE trainers, he heard a loud voice near his ear.

"Grinch."

Immediately, Aiden knew it was Kao's voice. Out of some kind of subconscious instinct, he could feel a chill up his spine. Aiden stood up and turned around, arms crossed.

"Grinch? That's the best you can come up with for insults?"

He retorted and let out a loud sigh, rolling his eyes and turning around. Unfortunately for Aiden, he put his arms down to his side. As a result, his attempt to turn away from the conflict was interrupted by Kao grabbing one of Aiden's arms.

"It's a nickname. God, do all emos think the world's out to get them?"

Kao commented with a snickering and arrogant smirk. Aiden's body shook when Kao grabbed his arm, to which he retaliated by doing the same.

"Don't push it. You might get infected by all KINDS of vampire diseases, what would Daddy do if that happened?"

Aiden snapped back in a sarcastic tone. Without saying another word, Kao let go of Aiden’s arm, with Aiden following suit.

”Now… what. is it?”

He continued and paused after every word, teeth gritting and arms firmly crossed. Kao turned to his friends and then back at Aiden, his grin returning.

”You know my friend Draco, right??? The strong ginger guy over there??”

Kao pridefully pointed at Draco, who could only awkwardly wave at Aiden. He waved back.

”Well, he’s got all the traits most girl would want!! Good at sports, goes to the gym, a lot of muscle… We figured since girls… l-like you then you could… give him advice…!”

Kao partially covered his mouth, trying to hide his chuckles in between words. On the bench, Ginji was cackling hard, especially when Kao stated the last sentence. Aiden couldn’t even say anything in response to Kao’s stupid shenanigans.

”Uhm! Kao…? Girls like you, right…? I know you… have Mai but… maybe you could-…”

Draco cleared his throat, hands sweating profusely like him asking Kao for such a thing was a sin.

”…When you put it like that, you’ve got a point~“

Kao pondered aloud with a smug grin. Aiden let out a small baffled gasp, which then turned into a baffled chuckle.

”Pffft!! Quit flattering yourself! I’m not getting involved in whatever Kao-centered orgy is about to happen! Byeee!!”

Aiden speed walked away, opening the door wide and laughing to himself as he did so.

”Bye…”

Draco blurted out quietly and did a small wave gesture.