Chapter Text
Parrot stood at the threshold of his new school. His wings fluttered, eyes darting around. He was waiting for the student council leader, according to the email the school had given him.
He felt odd out here alone. Students were passing by him, giggling at the lost parrot demihuman. He shifted, moving his glasses.
Not the best first day.
Then somebody ran up to him. Parrot couldn't tell what species the man was, but given the membrane on the other's wings, Parrot guessed he was a bat
“You're Parrot, right?” The other asked, tilting his head, “I'm Leo, head of the student council! I'm showing you around.”
Leo looked… Nice enough. Not that Parrot trusted him. Looks could be deceiving. “Alright! I'm just gonna walk around and show you some places, if people walk up to you, try to ignore them, this school is full of nosy people,” Leo's voice was a gentle thing, filling the awkward silence between them.
Parrot followed Leo through the school. Unstable Academy was huge and filled with different things. Wardens, creakings, ghasts, voidlings. A specific voidling was perched upside against a locker, a crown somehow still sitting on his head.
He saw Parrot and stared, making Parrot want to go faster away. While Parrot was still trying to not focus on the voidling, somebody bumped into him.
The person had long purple hair which stopped as the small of his back. He wore very pristine clothing,and a crown was also on his head. What was with this school and crowns? He snarled at Parrot. “Watch it, birdie!” He yelled, enough for the whole hallway to hear as he shoved past.
“Rude… he bumped into me,” Parrot grumbled as he caught back up with Leo. “That's Wemmbu. He's always like that,and trust me, there's worse."
Parrot didn't question the sentence. He started walking beside Leo instead of behind. Better chance of not getting lost. Plus, the crowd of students seemed to part for Leo.
None seemed scared… More of… Respect. “Here's the cafe! Everyone sits around here during 0 and free periods.” Leo started walking to a specific table, “You can sit with me and the other council members.”
Parrot almost argued. The fact he was sitting by them made him think others would see him as desperate. He didn't want that. But, then again, he didn't want to be alone. Leo immediately sat beside a tanned man. The guy has poofy curly hair and grey eyes. The part which Parrot mostly took in were the horns. They curled up, like a waterbuck’s antlers. At the base, they were a dark teal, and as you went up, the color turned lighter, almost glowing. He also had fins, blue ones. A leviathan.
Weirdly, enough, he had sea goggles around his neck as well.
Parrot took a seat in the middle of two people. A girl on the left with brown hair, half up, half down. She had pink eyes and bunny ears that twitched when she looked at Parrot.
The boy on the right with brown hair, mismatched eyes, and squirrel ears. His tail twitched as he talked to the guy in front of him.
Before Parrot could assess the person who the squirrel was talking to, Leo cleared his throat and said, “Could y'all maybe… Introduce yourself?”
The leviathan immediately side eyed Leo, annoyance on his face. “I'm Nufuli…”
The bunny girl leaned in, chirping happily, “Jumper!”
The squirrel smiled, little dimples appearing, “Derapchu.”
“Woogie…” Said the person in front of Derapchu. He was a polar bear, who was fidgeting with his furry hands.
Parrot then turned to the last person, the boy sitting across him. He had brown hair with a purple bandanna on. In the middle of the bandanna, there was a yin and yang symbol. He also had a necklace with a yin and yang symbol. And, on his purple gloves, the left had yang, and the right had yang. He also had floppy puppy ears and a tail.
“I'm… Wifies.”
Parrot nodded, noting each and every single one. Jumper immediately started talking again. To Parrot.
“So, what do you think of Unstable Academy? It's a nice place, isn't it?”
“Yeah… It's nice…” Parrot blinked slowly at her energy. She kept talking, with Derapchu butting in from time to time. But Parrot kept noticing things from Wifies. He kept… Staring.
Parrot didn't think before he spoke. Just opened his mouth. “Do you have a problem?”
Wifies immediately flinched, before shaking his head no. Nufuli glanced over at Wifies, before muttering to Leo. Leo shoved at him. Parrot immediately felt guilty.
“Sorry.”
“What?”
“I snapped at you. I'm sorry.”
The whole table went quiet. Parrot always did this. He was starting to get ready to leave when Derapchu laughed and said, “PAY UP, NUFULI! I TOLD YOU!”
Nufuli groaned before throwing a crumpled 20 dollar bill at Derapchu. Parrot blinked before Woogie explained, “They bet on if you'd be nice or not.”
“And I won!” Derapchu said loudly, some people looking over.
“I'm going to act like this is normal…” Parrot muttered, shaking his head. Derapchu was still celebrating when the bell went off.
“What class do you have next?” Leo asked, almost immediately.
“Uhh… biology,” Parrot said, becoming nervous. “Oh perfect!” Leo sounded delighted, “Nuf?” The leviathan immediately looked at the bat, “Take him to biology class, okay, thank you!” Everyone split off except for Nufuli and Parrot.
It became silent as Nufuli took a long sigh out. “Okay, follow me.”
Nufuli nudged past Parrot, which the shorter immediately scrambled to follow. Nufuli was quick, knowing the school area quite well. But every so often, he'd check behind him if Parrot was close behind.
Parrot felt as if the silence was… awkward. So he decided to start the conversation first, “Sooo, Nuf, are you-” before he could finish his sentence, the leviathan turned to him.
“Don't. Don't call me that.”
“... Okay. Sorry.” Nufuli blinked at Parrot before scowling and continuing. Parrot wasn't giving up. Nufuli was pretty interesting and he wanted to know more about the taller man.
“Soo… how long have you known Leo?”
“... Since we were kids.”
“That's cool! Favorite subject?”
“Marine Biology.”
“Favorite person?”
“HD.”
“Who's that?”
“My girlf-” Nufuli stopped himself, heat going to his face, “Stop asking me questions.”
Parrot blinked, rolling his eyes but keeping note of almost everything. Nufuli stopped abruptly, making the winged man almost bump into him.
Nufuli opened a door, holding it for Parrot. Parrot stepped in and immediately wished he didn't. There were two kids arguing about who was a better fighter. One of them was Wemmbu. The other was a dark skinned man with black dreads and horns. He also had a black blindfold.
The teacher glanced over at Parrot and Nufuli, “Oh, you must be Parrot! Thank you, Nufuli, you may go sit.”
The leviathan slipped off, going to sit by a brown haired girl, who immediately started talking to him, with Nufuli listening absently.
“Hmm, you can sit by Spoke,” the biology teacher said, gesturing to a voidling with a rainbow bandana. The voiding waved, clearly excited.
Parrot awkwardly sat beside him. Spoke immediately turned to Parrot, grabbing his hand in a forced handshake. “You're Parrot, right? I'm Spoke, I heard so much about you, I heard you from Tai and Leo, Tai is the voidling with a crown, he's friends with my older brother Mugm, I don't know if you know him, he's a pretty good fighter I have another older brother, Minute, but enough about me! You look so cool, are those wings real? Do you need those glasses?”
Parrot blinked. He opened his mouth to answer a question—which one? He couldn't answer that— but instead said, “You talk a lot.”
Spoke blinked before laughing loudly, making somebody look pointedly at him. “You're funny!”
Parrot sighed, looking away. This school was going to be a mess.