Chapter Text
Keith began idly twisting the loose thread that hung from his black jeans, desperately trying to pass the time. The teacher had been gabbing on about God knows what for what seemed like an eternity now. Keith had somehow managed to take attentively jot down a few notes in the beginning of the class, but had lost any motivation about halfway through and the notes had mostly just evolved into mindless scribbles. His lack of motivation mostly stemmed from the fact that he could not care less about his high school education and the distracting snickering coming from the group of jocks behind him. The leader of this group, was the famous Lance McClain. Lance was your typical popular, high school football star. Last fall, he scored the winning touchdown at states and his popularity soared, earning him praise from practically every student attending Altea High. So of course, his already major ego, skyrocketed as well.
Keith generally would choose to ignore the irritating laughter and absurd name-calling and instead boiled silently with rage. He knew giving any sort of reaction, would just supply them with the attention that they so desired. But today... today was different. Keith was already having a rather shitty day, and the all-too familiar jock’s voice was suddenly just too much for him. He swung his head around to face them, his long hair brushing over his MCR tee. He put on the angriest face he could muster whilst still trying to not appear like a complete moron.
“I swear to fucking-” Keith was stopped short as he continued to stare at the smirk plastered on Lance’s face.
“Language, Mr. Kogane.” The teacher gasped, dramatically. He fought down the urge to shoot her an ugly glance in response and instead continued to glare at Lance. His deep blue eyes held a childish gleam.
Wait, lance had blue eyes?
Keith had never noticed that before.
“Anyways class, I will be assigning each one of you partners for the upcoming project.” Mrs. Allura declared.
Keith sighed and returned his attention to the front of the room. Mrs. Allura drew a piece of paper out of the podium shelf and began reading names off, one by one, untill she reached his.
“Keith Kogane and Lance McClain.”
Keith blinked and lifted his head, making sure he heard correctly. He then turned to look over at the boy behind him. Lance sat, mouth agape, completely dumbfounded. His possy then suddenly roared with laughter, only confirming Keith’s fears even further. Lance sunk in his chair and combed a hand through his messy, chestnut hair. Keith let his head hit the desk. His day could not possibly get any worse.
The bell rang shortly after Keith had decided that his life was now over, but he decided to stay behind to protest. As he stood to gather his things, he felt a shoulder brush past his own. He looked up and met Lance’s gaze. His surprised expression quickly morphed into a wicked scowl as he growled and sped past him. Keith could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he stormed to where Allura sat perched on top of her desk.
He detested the idea of working on a project with any of his classmates, much less Lance. Keith had been in school with the narcissistic moron ever since middle school. Lance had always been better than him at everything; football, math, even art class. It was like Keith could just never win. And as much as he hated to admit it, Lance was also much more handsome than Keith had ever been. Keith refused to admit this to anyone since he assumed others would just claim he was envious.
Or worse.
He was afraid others would even say he had a crush on Lance.
The idea put a nasty taste in his mouth and he decided to dismiss the train of thought all together as marched towards the teacher.
“Mrs. Allura, can I talk to you about my partner for this project? I just really think-”
“Keith, I already know what you’re going to say. And no, it’s too late in the game to be assigned a new partner now. I’ve been talking about this project for about a week now, you should’ve asked me in advance.” Allura stated, her blue earrings swung profusely as she spoke.
“But what if I just switched partners?” Keith asked, desperately trying to find a way out of this nightmare.
“I’ve already assigned the topics to each pair and entered them into grading rubrics.”
Keith groaned in defeat.
“So there’s no way I can get a new partner?”
“Unfortunately. Sorry Keith.” She said, hopping down from where she sat. She grabbed a few pastel notebooks from the large desk and started towards the door.
“You coming? I have a meeting to attend and I can’t leave you in here without a teacher.”
Keith cursed under his breath and finally nodded, making his way to the door, solemnly.