Chapter Text
I’m in the bathroom doing my hair, completely engulfed in my reflection and the strand sticking to my forehead. I don’t notice my papa walking by until he speaks, startling me.
"Ooh! Who you lookin' so good for tonight, Toshi?" He raises his eyebrows at me. I hold back a gag.
"No one."
"Where are you going?" He asks, he's getting less patient.
"Nowhere."
"Ok, Hitoshi. Do you have a date or something?" Is he mad? Why does he care so much?
I roll my eyes.
"What's with the attitude? I just want to make sure you're safe." He sounds sad. Fuck, I didn't mean to make him sad.
"I know. Sorry," I hesitate. "There's a class thing that I have to go to."
Just a little white lie never hurt anyone.
"Ohhhhh," he drags out. "That's why you didn't wanna tell me! You're embarrassed." He talks in a baby voice, I try not to roll my eyes again. He reaches to squeeze my cheek but I slowly push his hand down. As he continues cooing, I decide my hair looks fine and I need to leave. I grab my keys from the table and the first scarf I see from the rack as I walk out. I yell goodbye from the porch and lock the door. I can still hear him cooing inside.
As I hop into my truck, my phone rings. I answer without looking. There's chatter on the other side.
"Hello?" No answer. I go to hang up when I see who it is calling me. Tokoyami. "Hellooooo?"
"Shinsou!" Kaminari shouts. I pull the phone back from my ear. He starts talking again before I can answer. "Where are you, man?" He's laughing and everyone in the background is too. I feel like I'm being mocked.
"I'm leaving now," I answer despite myself.
"Well hurry up and get here! Party doesn't start 'till-" Someone else says. Sounds like Ashido but Kaminari cuts her off before she can finish. "Hold on." I hear Tokoyami yell after him but the noise in the background continues to fade as I assume he walks away. "Sorry."
"It's fine but I need to go, I'm driving."
"Right. Okay, I'll see you when you get here," He hesitates, "Hitoshi." He hangs up before I can respond.
"What the fuck?" I say to myself out loud as I set the phone down. Fucking weird.
I don't really want to go to this thing, and it's not required like I told Papa, but it is polite and, unfortunately, I'm cursed with good manners. Ashido is singing-- and somehow convinced Tokoyami, Jirou, and Kaminari to back her instrumentals-- at a club tomorrow night and everyone in the class agreed to meet up in the auditorium and help them rehearse. Like I said, I don't want to go but for some reason Kaminari really wants me to be there and Tokoyami is my friend so here I am, in my pickup truck, at 9 p.m., going back to school on a Friday night.
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When I pull into the auditorium parking lot, I see Kaminari's car parked way in the back. I know it's his because it's a bright red and ugly PT cruiser. Even under the dim streetlight, I can see the stupid grill smiling at me. I park a few spots down from him since it's the only section of the lot that's not under trees and it's snowing. Maybe he's smarter than I thought.
By the time I get inside, I'm cold, wet, and grumpy. I kick the heel of my shoes on the rug and hear chatter coming towards me. I try to dry off the best I can but snow only melts. I take off my jacket and scarf but there's not a coat rack so I'm just awkwardly standing, wet, with my clothes on my arm when Ashido, Kaminari, Jirou, and Uraraka come around the corner.
They all stop when they see me but no one says anything. Finally, Ashido comes up to me and takes my coat and scarf.
"Here, I'll show you where the coat room is." She makes an exaggerated gesture for me to go ahead and the others laugh as they open the big double doors in front of them. I look back to see what's behind the doors, but I'm met with Kaminari already looking at me. We make eye contact and he practically jumps. He hangs his head and rushes behind Jirou. I turn back and follow Ashido down a hallway.
"So what were you guys doing out in the hall anyway?" I ask as we walk.
"Um," She pauses. "Waiting for you, but don't tell Denki I told you that! We needed some equipment anyway." She shrugs. I find this weird. Why do they want me here so bad?
"Oh.. alright then."
Ashido takes a key out of her pocket and opens up a door to our left. She, again, gestures for me to go first. I step into the room and reach to take my coat from her. I hang it next to the others while she hangs my scarf. We can hear laughter and talking from the other room.
"I like your scarf," She says. She sounds genuine but I can tell she isn't because my scarf is stupid. It's a pink and yellow striped cat that meows if you press its front paw, but it's been washed so many times the meow is distorted and kinda scary. It sounds more like a zombie than a cat. Plus one of the eyes fell off and Papa tried to sew a button on but he can't sew. Basically, it's a pink and yellow zombie cat that my dad named Meowvin whose bright blue button eye is crooked and falling off. I say thanks anyway.
We leave the coat closet and continue down the hallway. I wonder what was in those big doors I saw when I came in but I don't ask.
"Don't you wanna lock the door?"
"Nah," she responds, "it'll be fine, no one wants to steal a bunch of coats." She's probably right so I don't argue.
Before long we come to the auditorium doors. Everyone is laughing inside and someone is playing guitar riffs. Ashido takes out a different key and opens the doors. I hold them open for her and I hear some noises in the hallway. I keep the door open with my foot but turn back to see what the noise is. I hope no one is actually breaking into the coat closet. Kaminari comes into view and he's holding a bucket with drumsticks to his chest. His face does something weird when he sees me.
"Where were you guys?" I ask as Kaminari walks by me, but he makes some weird croak noise and moves on. Jirou follows him holding a mic stand in one hand and a bundle of cords in the other. I want to contemplate what the fuck just happened but I see Uraraka coming down the hallway dragging something. I grab Kaminari by the collar of his shirt.
"Hold this," I say as I push him against the door. I run to Uraraka and see her pulling an amp by the cord. I pick up the amp and disconnect the cord so she can take it.
"It's not that you're not strong, I just wanted to help," I tell her. She nods at me, she's out of breath.
"Feminist," She says, exasperated, "Where were you when I was pulling that thing down the stairs?" I want to ask questions but I refrain. I follow her up the stage steps and put the amp down where she tells me.
"How chivalrous of you, Shinsou," Ashido says and pats my back when I hop down from the stage.
"Very. How about you help set some stuff up?" Jirou asks. I want to say no but everyone seems genuinely nice. I'm scared they're teasing me, but just in case they're not:
"Sure, I can do that."
"Awesome, follow me." So I do.
'She leads me backstage. "Grab that," she points to a snare, "and bring it to Tokoyami." She points to him as well. I do as she tells me and Tokoyami shows me how to attach it to the rest of the set.
We do a few more laps and it's getting really hot under all the lights, so I take off my sweatshirt and toss it to the side. Ashido whistles at me. I feel my face go hot, hotter than it already was.
"Woo Wee!" She yells in my direction. "Maybe we should open these curtains up so everyone else can enjoy," She says quietly to Uraraka and they laugh. I don't think they know I can hear them. I look at Jirou beside me and she's gesturing at them. They stop laughing. Jirou rolls her eyes. I'm starting to feel like everyone is in on a big joke that I don't know about.
"What's that all about?" I ask, finally allowing myself to be curious.
"What part?" Jirou scoffs.
"Like why is everyone being weird around me? I know I'm new but I'm not that new, right?"
Jirou looks shocked. She gets up without responding and takes Ashido and Uraraka off stage with her. I look at Tokoyami for support. He just shrugs.
When Jirou gets back Ashido and Uraraka look embarrassed. They act like they want to say something to me, but they don't. Tokoyami and I have pretty much finished setting up. The mic plugged in, the drum set built, the guitars tuned. All that was left to do was get everyone in their places and open the curtains.
Jirou was nervous but trying to play it cool, Ashido was doing vocal warmups, Tokoyami was nervously playing paradiddles, and Uraraka had taken her seat in the crowd.
I hand Jirou her guitar and wish her good luck.
I walk out into the audience and look for a seat. Kaminari is waving me over, so I make my way to him.
I'm halfway down the row when I hear "Psst! Shinsou!" I look at the stage and see Ashido poking her head out. I mouth what? at her. She waves me over. I sigh, hop up onto the stage, and slink behind the curtains.
"What, Ashido?"
"Call me Mina, we need someone to work lights." She wasn't exactly asking me but I knew what she meant, she was already walking me to the ladder. She pulls it down and I reluctantly head up to the catwalk.