Chapter Text
High school is supposed to be a great time. You’re supposed to make friends, have fun, do absolutely everything but what the teacher tells you to do. It should be great.
Instead, it’s already the third day and Mitya, quite frankly, has had enough.
And it’s not even his fault!
It’s the teachers’! Who in their right mind, on the first day, would end their introduction to the class with “and by the way, this guy over there, yes, that one, good thing you’re all looking at him, yes this guy. He has a condition and the principal and his aunt had asked to inform you all of it since it can be a little unnerving. In short — he dies sometimes.”
She even used that exact words! Well, maybe not that exact ones, but she did say that he will “occasionally drop, like a dead person, and be completely unresponsive, like a dead person, but fear not, he’s not dead and in the meantime we have to make sure that he will not die until he regains consciousness. So let’s all do our best looking out for dear Dmitry.”
That was possibly the worst description of narcolepsy he has ever heard. He doesn’t ’drop dead’, he falls asleep. Which is different! Vastly different! And he doesn’t look like he’s dead, he looks like he’s asleep, because he is. You know, he breathes. And most of the time (like nine out of ten? Something like that) even if it’s just by a few seconds, he can sense a sleep attack coming and he’ll have enough time to lay down on his desk and have his impromptu nap without any issues. There’s no point in fretting over him! It’s not like he’s in any danger at the time. Well, he could be, if he fell asleep on a driveway or something, but at school, in a class, there’s really nothing that could harm him.
Though, he will admit, it was reasonable to inform the class that he would fall asleep unpredictably, even in the middle of conversation, because, well, sometimes it can look like he fainted. He doesn’t, because fainting is caused by the sudden disruption of blood flow to the brain, which then causes the brain to shut down, while his sleep attacks are caused by insufficient levels of orexin, the main neurotransmitter responsible for staying awake and his brain doesn’t shut down, only falls into a different state which is sleep. Vastly different internally, even though the outside appearance might be quite similar at first glance. So he can understand explaining to his new classmates that there’s nothing to fear, he’s not fainting, he’s just falling asleep.
But did the teacher have to phrase it like that? No, she didn’t. Where did she even get that ‘dead’ part from? Last time he checked, it’s called NARCOlepsy not NECROlepsy, sleep attack, not death attack. There’s no NECROlepsy, because death is a pretty permanent state and there’s no condition that will make you repeatedly fall dead. But maybe the teacher got it confused? While the meaning is vastly different, the words are similar. Maybe he should give her some slack. But then again, the school got his charts and he’s sure that there’s no ‘death attack’ listed as his symptom.
Or maybe she confused cataplexy with catalepsy? Because the first is listed as one of his symptoms and the latter was the main reason for premature burials in the past. Maybe she was confused what it meant and tried to search it up but typed it wrong and got different results? Although Mitya’s pretty sure that when his aunt went to discuss it with the principal she explained it all.
On the other hand his aunt had called his condition The Curse of Death in the past, so maybe he shouldn’t put that much hope in her. Maybe it was even her fault, who knew if she didn’t describe it like that to the principal!
At the end of the day it didn’t matter why she did it, it mattered that she did. And now every single one of his new classmates looked at him as if he would just drop dead right then and there even after three days and having already seen him go through multiple of his sleep attacks, including one when he went up to the board to solve a problem. Luckily that one was a short one, lasting for just a few seconds and had him only slurring out some incomprehensible words and the chalk falling out of his hand and shattering on the floor. So they all saw that while they certainly could be annoying, the attacks were harmless.
But no, even when he tried to explain it all, trying and failing to describe the brain’s inner chemical workings and how they were failing in his brain, all his classmates still looked at him funny. And to add insult to the wound, the teacher had introduced him as Dmitry, which, well, technically was his name but no one called him that! So he was Dmitry the Dropping Dead Guy instead of Mitya the Sleepy but Cool Guy. Great way to start off his high school career, just great.
He already knew that the next four years were going to be miserable. He was a social person, he needed people to interact with on a daily basis otherwise he would go insane and with how his classmates reacted whenever he tried approaching them… He’ll be Dmitry the Mad in just a week!
Technically, he still had Valeriy to interact with on the breaks, but Valeriy came with that fact that he knew his uncle and also knew about Mitya’s tendency to skip medications (they made his head hurt, amongst other things, and really, some sleep never killed anyone so it was alright if he just skipped it once or twice) so sometimes Mitya just wanted to avoid him. Well, at least he was nicer about the medication than his aunt (she had forcefully shoved it down his throat on multiple occasions, maybe he should report her for child abuse) but being confronted by Valeriy was still far from the best experience in the world. So it was understandable that he would want to spend some time with other people sometimes.
Which was impossible, because, as he already established, everyone was avoiding him.
He was slowly starting to mourn his fate when in the middle of math class on his fourth day of school a girl suddenly burst into the class, breathing heavily. Her hair was all over the place, which was quite the shame, since Mitya could see pearls in it and no one just puts pearls in their hair, if they do something like that they usually also do a nice hairdo, which obviously takes a lot of time, so it meant that all of the girl’s hard work was destroyed by her supposed frantic run to the class.
She wore a loose white button-up shirt with loose sleeves, the first few buttons were unclasped and one of the sleeves slid off her shoulder. Her teal skirt had multiple ruffles and reached all the way down to her ankles. The rim was dirty and there was even a footprint in one place. Though, most noticeably, she wore even more pearls on her body than in her hair — a pearl necklace, multiple pearl bracelets, a pearl anklet, a few pearl chains around her hips and earrings that looked like fish fins and had pearls at the tips.
And most curiously, Mitya had never seen her in class before. Perhaps she was sick the last few days? Or something else had impacted her arrival?
“Sorry, I’m late!” She wheezed out. “I couldn’t find the correct room, this school is so big and that’s no excuse, I’m really sorry, but—“
“Young miss,” the teacher turned towards her, silencing her immediately. “Please, just step in and take a seat. What is your name?”
“Oh, yes, yes,” she quickly scrambled for the closest empty desk which was the one right next to Mitya’s in the front row. No one wanted to sit in the front row so it was always empty, as long as there was more space in the class. Mitya only sat there because most teachers asked him to so they could better observe him if something happened. Normally he would probably argue more, but none of the other students would really welcome him in the back so he just sat in the front. Technically, only the ones who were actually in his class and shared homeroom with him got the whole ‘dropping dead’ talk, but word travels fast and so soon everyone with whom he shared any subject knew of his condition and tried to avoid him.
The girl started pulling out her pencils and pens — all teal with plastic pearls glued to it, Mitya was starting to notice a theme — then pulled out a notebook with printed seashells and pearls — yeah, definitely a theme — and then hesitated, trying to reach into her bag again — it was teal and had a keychain with a seahorse, swan and a dog, though all the animals had pearls instead of eyes.
“I didn’t get the chance to get my books from Alyosha…” she mumbled under her breath, deflating momentarily. Then she shook her head, composing herself again, stood up and bowed lowly in front of the teacher. “I apologise — I am unprepared for the lesson. You see, my friend was the one who bought the books for me and I was supposed to pick them up before school today but I— But that’s no excuse! I should have took it into account that I don’t know the city that well and I even told Alyosha that I could totally manage this… But that’s no excu—“
“Miss, just sit down,” the teacher pointed down at her desk and she immediately shut her mouth and sat down, looking only at her pearl pencil, not meeting the teacher’s gaze. “And what is your name?”
“Vodyanitsa. Vodyanitsa Rusalka,” after her words the teacher noted something down and then went back to the board, returning to his explanation of the problem.
Mitya had already done it and so he already knew how to do it, so instead he turned to the far more interesting thing in the class — Vodyanitsa. A pretty peculiar name, though one that matched her pearl aesthetic, he supposed. Even her surname matched it!
She had opened her notebook and started writing down what was on the board but it was clear that she was struggling to make sense of it. Well, Mitya supposed, everyone would have trouble trying to comprehend a problem that was almost completely solved and which’s first half and the original inequation had already been erased because there was no more space at the board. She could look at the numbers and x’s for as long as she wanted but without the inequation she wouldn’t get it.
“Here,” he reached out over to her, nudging her with his own book. “It’s the twenty sixth example on page fifty seven.”
Vodyanitsa hesitated for a second before accepting the book. “Don’t you need it?” She asked, opening on the correct page.
“I already did all the examples for today’s topic,” and several next ones too. It’s not his fault he finished earlier than everyone and went ahead out of boredom! “I don’t need it but you could probably use it, right?”
She nodded, “thank you”, and then as if as an afterthought added. “I’m Vodyanitsa, but you can call me Vodya. Nice to meet you.”
He chuckled a bit under his breath, as if he could have any question as to who she was after her splendid introduction, but smiled regardless. “I’m Mitya.”
Vodyanitsa held her hand out to him. Mitya’s sure she did that. He even reached out to shake it, but really, he was acting more on autopilot than really thinking about what he was doing. He was just giving the book to the new girl, what was her name? He was sure he knew that… She was saying something right now and there were other voices, all muffled together, as always when he—
***
Vodyanitsa was going to have a great year!
Yeah, for sure! The greatest year!
Right?
She— Well, her journey to Shneznograd had its… complications, let’s go with that, but it was all going to be alright now. Even if… Even if it was a little hard to feel like that after what she already had to go through.
Because she lived so far away from any civilization, she decided that she has had enough. She told her parents that she was moving out — just for the school year, and it’s not that she didn’t love them! But rather because she was the only teenager in like fifty kilometers. She loved all her family very much, but all her cousins were younger than her by several years and everyone else was so much older.
They agreed and she was going to start her high school career in Shneznograd thanks to Alyosha’s help. He helped her so much… Found an apartment for the best possible price, handed in all of her documents that she sent via mail. Bought her books… She couldn’t come quite yet during the summer, she was only going to come a few days before the school year officially began. If it weren’t for Alyosha… And he was already doing so much with his granny, taking care of them both… Well, at least he had Odette to help him out and soon Vodyanitsa would join them both in Shneznograd. It was going to be great.
Well…
The first thing that went awry was the car. Her uncle Shram was going to drive her to the train station. With how far from anything they lived it was impossible to just go there. Part of her family was away for some business so that only left them one car and when it was time to go it turned out that… It broke.
But there was no need for despair! She simply called Alyosha and Odette and told them that she’d be coming a few days later. It took her uncle two whole days to repair the car, but finally it was as good as new! She’d still have a day before the school began, perfect to meet Odette and Alyosha, get her books and keys to the new apartment and get ready for the next day — her first day at her new school, well, her first day at any school.
She was homeschooled for her whole life, with how far everything was that was the only logical thing. Though when she was little she thought that perhaps she would go to the school in Alatyr, the nearest town to her home but… Well, Alatyr was struck by an awful disaster and now there was no school. Good thing Alyosha and his granny managed to make it out…
Anyways, when she finally came to the train station it turned out that the rails had been damaged and no train could make it there. And since their station was a very remote one and it would take some time to repair the rails… She had to go back home and call Alyosha saying that she’d come a few days after the school starts.
“It’s fine,” he said. She could hear Tugarin in the distance so he probably wasn’t at work. That’s good. She would feel even worse if she interrupted him when he was working, she knew how busy he was…
“You sure? Won’t I get in trouble? And what will everyone think?” What if people thought she was weird? She wanted to make new friends, that was the whole point of her moving out, but if everyone thought she was weird…
“They will think that you’re lucky because you got to have a longer vacation. Trust me, Vodya, no one is really looking towards the school starting, other than you. It’s not as exciting as you think.”
“But it’s a wonderful new experience!” Alyosha had already told her countless times that it wasn’t that fun and he must know better, seeing as he had attended actual school all his life and since he was a year older he had already experienced a year of high school. Odette also shared his sentiment, but Vodyanitsa couldn't help it, she was excited and she was worried of how everyone would see her.
So she decided right then and there that she would make the best first impression on her actual first day! She could still salvage it all.
She didn’t really know how to make a good first impression though… She hardly ever met new people. She would ask Odette for help. From what she gathered, the girl was popular, she would know how to best present herself. Still, Vodyanitsa felt a little awkward about asking her. They weren’t that close of friends, they only met in person once, when Alyosha invited her over for the winter holidays. They were certainly friends, but…
Normally she would ask Alyosha, because asking Alyosha was just natural, but Alyosha didn’t exactly care about how others perceived him, so he wasn’t suited for this kind of thing.
So Odette it was!
But she didn’t want to disrupt her… No, Vodyanitsa couldn't just call her and ask her for help, they weren’t that close yet. She’ll ask her in person, when she would know for sure that she wasn’t bothering her during something important. Both Alyosha and Odette were supposed to pick her up in Shneznograd and this didn’t change even with her coming a few days later.
Or so she thought.
The train broke in the middle of the ride, making all the passengers wait for a replacement and when she finally arrived it was almost midnight. Odette had already gone home (something about her mum not letting her stay up or something) and only Alyosha remained. She felt so bad, forcing him to stay up so late but he had the keys to her new apartment and she didn’t know her way around the city…
“It’s alright,” he said. “It wasn’t your fault.” But she still felt awful. She promised herself that she would make it up to him somehow, maybe take him out for ice cream? No, that was too little, with how much he helped her… She’d think of something better soon, she was sure of it.
The guilt of already making Alyosha do so much was also the reason that she declined his help in getting to the school the next day. She had a map in her phone, how hard would it be to get there? Alyosha said that it was no trouble at all, he could totally come pick her up, but he always said that about everything. No, Vodyanitsa had already asked him for so much, she would not be causing him any more trouble.
Still, she decided to reserve double the time that it would take to get to school the next morning. Just to be safe.
Once Alyosha left and she was all alone with her thoughts again she realised one more problem — since she didn’t get to ask Odette, she had no idea how best to make her introduction the next day. But there was no point to panic!
She’ll just… do her best. She’ll be friendly and… And she’ll wear all her best pearls! Her family always complimented how nice she looked whenever she went all out with the pearls, so it surely would work to make a good first impression. She reserved even more time in the morning to get the chance to braid the pearls into her hair.
And she looked absolutely fabulous the next day. She twirled in front of the mirror one last time and went out feeling all giddy inside.
The school was close, just a fifteen minute walk. She would surely get there easily, with some time to spare. Alyosha was waiting for her there, with the books she should have picked up from his place the day before but couldn’t because of the train. It was all going to be great!
Until she realised that she forgot to charge her phone the day before and it had turned off in the middle of her walk, leaving her without any map at all.
“No, no, no, no, no!” She lamented, trying desperately to turn it on again, even though she knew that it was pointless. It didn’t matter! She would just have to ask someone for the way there!
But everyone looked so busy, walking so fast and not paying her any attention when she tried to approach them… And the few people who she actually managed to ask gave her such roundabout instructions that she could hardly understand them.
It wasn’t long before she spotted on a clock by one of the nearby shops that it was already a few minutes past the beginning of the first lesson. Vodyanitsa wanted to cry — surely, all her efforts at a good first impression were lost now! But she wouldn’t cry. She would get to the school no matter what! She just needed to ask one more person!
She was sure that she was running in circles after an hour or so. And to make matters worse, she had slipped on her own skirt and now it had an ugly footprint at the rim. To be honest, the whole rim was dirty… And her hair was starting to get loose from all that commotion. When she caught a glimpse of her reflection in one of the windows she almost wanted to go back and get ready all over again, but then she’d be even more late! Besides, she wasn’t even sure if she knew how to get back at this point. She was truly lost.
She really wanted to cry now.
Somehow, with the help of a very nice granny, she managed to make it just as the third lesson of the day was beginning. Which left her with a new problem — how to get to her class.
Alyosha wasn’t there, the bell had already rang and she wasn’t foolish enough to assume that he would just ditch class, especially since she failed to show up for two hours now. But the school was big and she didn’t really remember her whole schedule. Resigned, she turned to the lady at the reception and asked for help.
The lady wasn’t the nicest and Vodyanitsa’s smile had almost slipped off completely during the whole exchange, but in the end she persevered and had her schedule printed out to show for it!
Now, finding the class…
In theory, it should be easy. It was class E209 so the ninth class on the second floor of the E complex, right? The problem was, she had no idea where the E complex was. The lady at the reception had pointed her to the left, but there were just complexes B and C, no E or even D in sight. Just great.
She ended up just running around the whole school trying to find the correct class. What wouldn’t she do to have Alyosha now with her! He would surely know where to go. Maybe she should just wait for the lesson to end and then find Alyosha. Or Odette, she was at the school too and she surely would be able to help.
But, somehow, she actually managed to find the E complex before she had to resort to that. Apparently, instead of branching off from the main hall, like the other complexes, it branched off from the second floor of the C complex. Why? She didn’t know, but at least she finally managed to find her class.
She burst in, immediately apologising. The teacher looked really annoyed, he asked for her name and told her to sit down. She quickly started scanning the room, looking for an empty place — there was one in the first row, how lucky she was! She wondered why no one had sat there. It surely must have be the best place with how close it was to the board and the teacher. But well, she would gladly take it!
Vodyanitsa started to unpack. Pencils and pens and a notebook, all things Alyosha told her to bring, and of course — the book—
She didn’t have the book.
Alyosha had it.
She should have just waited for him.
But there was no going back. The teacher was looking at her expectedly, no doubt waiting for her to take out the book. She had to apologize for not bringing it! But she was already late… She should explain her behaviour, even if it wouldn’t change anything and was no excuse at all…
“Miss, just sit down,” the teacher ordered and it was only then that she realised that everyone was looking at her. Her ruined hair, her dirty skirt, she was standing out like a sore thumb. She quickly turned away and pierced her gaze into the desk, she couldn’t stand looking at anyone right now. Why was she so embarrassing?! “And what is your name?”
“Vodyanitsa. Vodyanitsa Rusalka,” the teacher noted it down. She was sure he was going to say something about her whole behaviour but luckily he just went back to the example on board.
Math. She could do math. It wasn’t her favourite subject but she was in advanced math for a reason! Algebra, she personally preferred geometry, but it’s not like she couldn’t do it. She just needed to see the original equation…
It wasn’t on the board. Of course, it probably was in the book — the book she didn’t have. But it was fine! She could figure it out… Why did it look like there were three completely different equations?! They were probably so far down that—
“Here,” she looked to the side where a boy was nudging her with the book. He looked tired, was the first thing that came to her mind — his eyes were not fully open, as if he stayed up all night and there were quite prominent bugs under his eyes. “It’s the twenty sixth example on page fifty seven.”
He was just offering her his book? Didn’t he need it? But he was still holding it out so eventually she took it. “Don’t you need it?”
She opened on the page he told her to and it was as if suddenly the world was clear again. It was an inequation, not three different equations! Now that she looked over at the board, she could make it out, but the teacher’s ‘<‘ looked too much like ‘=‘ so it wasn’t her fault. And the inequation had two absolute value brackets, so that’s where the three different inequations came from!
The boy had helped her so much, but didn’t it hinder his own progress? Apparently not, because as it turned out, he had already done all of the examples. Vodyanitsa looked over at his notebook and it was in fact all scribbled over but no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t read it. But she could make out a few numbers so she trusted that he was telling the truth. She would feel so bad if because of her he couldn’t take part in the lesson.
“Thank you,” he really was her life saviour. What a kind guy… Just like Alyosha or Odette, her friends… Right! She was supposed to make new friends! “I’m Vodyanitsa, but you can call me Vodya.”
He chuckled. Why did he— Right! She had already introduced herself to the whole class! She was repeating herself! How embarrassing, what would he think… But then he smiled and her worries suddenly disappeared. He was a kind guy, he didn’t hold that against her! “I’m Mitya.”
They should shake hands. That’s what you do when meeting new people, right? She held out her own and he took it, but when she started shaking his hand was kind of limp in her hold and when she looked up at his face his eyes were almost completely closed and not focused on anything.
“Mitya? Are you alright?” He didn’t answer. Maybe he was sick?! That would certainly explain the eye bugs… But if he was sick, then why was he at school? Vodyanitsa was almost certain that you weren’t supposed to attend school if you were sick. “Mr. Teacher, something’s wrong with Mitya!”
If it weren’t for the fact that Mitya had completely slumped down and didn’t fall off his chair only because she supported him, she would feel awful about calling on the teacher just after disrupting the class so much. But as it stood now, something was really wrong with Mitya and he probably needed help!
Maybe he fainted? But why? He didn’t look that bad, he just looked tired. But then again, Vodyanitsahad never actually seen someone faint… She should check his pulse and breathing—
“Miss Vodyanitsa, there’s no need for panic,” the teacher turned around and despite literally seeing Mitya unconscious in her arms he didn’t look at all alarmed. “Just lay Mr. Dmitry on his desk, he should recover in a few minutes.”
“What?!” How could the teacher be so heartless?! “He just fainted! We need to get him to the nurse or something—“
“No, miss Vodyanitsa. This is a daily occurrence for him. And he didn’t faint, he just—“
“How can you act like this?! So heartless!“ she couldn’t believe the teacher, how could he? Shouldn’t he make sure that all his students were taken care of? “If you won’t help, then I’ll—“
She didn’t really know what to do or where the nurse office was, but anything she did would be better than nothing! However, before she could think of her next move, Mitya stirred in her arms and then immediately shot up, getting away from her hold.
He looked… Fine. Definitely not like someone who had just fainted. If anything, he looked better than before, a little less tired. Though his face was a little red, maybe he had a fever…
“I’m so sorry! I really didn’t intend to do that, promise,” Vodyanitsa blinked in bewilderment. Was he just apologising that he fainted? “Usually I can sense it coming, but I guess now was that one out of ten times when I can’t.”
“What?” She didn’t understand. Was he fainting so much that it didn’t phase him anymore at all? It would certainly explain both his and the teacher’s reaction. But if he was fainting so much he should go to the hospital! That certainly wasn’t normal.
“This is so embarrassing…” he covered his face in his hand. “You know what, I’ll explain everything when the class’s over. Right now, let’s just return to the lesson.”
Vodyanitsa had half a mind to argue, but the teacher was looking at them both expectedly and the rest of the class too… Yeah, Mitya was right — so embarrassing. Whatever the deal was she had acted out of the norm and even pulled Mitya along.
So much for her good first impression.