Chapter Text
“Ymir Goldhull!”
I looked up to see my AP Biology teacher, Miss Hanji, crouched in front of my desk and staring at me with wide eyes behind her wire-rimmed glasses. I had been spacing out again and even if I wasn't the only one that hadn't been paying attention, I was the most obvious by propping up my head with my arm and staring at the clock.
“Uh-yeah?” I answered, removing my face from my hand and removed my elbow from the desk to sit up straight.
“Were you not paying attention to what I was saying?” she asked.
“No,” I answered honestly.
“So does my teaching bore you then?”
“Your teaching doesn't. Just the subject,” I replied. Her face fell a little at that and I almost felt bad. Miss Hanji was one of those few teachers that actually enjoyed their job and really got into the curriculum. She tended to stray onto the subject of genetics a lot but she wasn't a bad teacher.
“I see,” she said as she stood up. For a moment, I thought she was going to scold me but then she smiled brightly at me.
“Maybe it is now but I hope that by the end of the year I manage to pique your curiosity! There's just so much to learn about this world's organisms and the chromosomal growth of-”
And with that, she walked back to the front of the class and continued to ramble. I propped up my arm once more and leaned my head on my hand but this time made sure that I was at least looking interested.
~{*}~
It had been about about four months since I transferred to Rose Academy from Maria Preparatory School. The schools did not necessarily rival each other; it was well known that Rose Academy was more of an academic school while Maria Prep seemed to put all of their resources into their sports department.
A couple years prior, most schools in the state had made their teams co-ed and I had been on the baseball team at Maria Prep. We called ourselves the Titans and we were really good. I had left at the end of my Sophomore year and they had already been undefeated for ten years running. It would have been a lot longer but ten years prior, a seventeen-year-old boy by the name of Levi Heichou entered Rose Academy and joined the baseball team. It was said that not only was he a player, but more of a coach to the rest of the team than the actual coach himself. That year, Maria got wiped out at the championship.
Levi Heichou eventually went on to play Major League baseball and he broke several records. It was even said that he matched the skill of Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson. I looked up to him as a sort of idol in my life, most likely because of the rumors about his criminal past but he had still become successful. He was a strange man seeing as he was a short man that had French ancestry but a Japanese last name. Whatever his oddities, though, he was still well known as on of the greatest baseball players of this generation. However, in the middle of the season last year, he had managed to hurt his knee and decided to take some time off. He hadn't been heard from since.
My time at Rose Academy had showed me that they still revered him even though he had not even come back in the past ten years. The baseball team was still popular but in all frankness, couldn't even make it into the tournament. The very first day I came to the school, I was approached by a perpetually angry looking boy with piercing green eyes.
“You're a Titan, aren't you?” he asked me. There was a blonde boy beside him who seemed somewhat embarrassed at his friend's behavior.
He put a hand on the green eyed boy and said, “Eren,” but the taller boy shrugged his hand off. I sighed.
“I was a Titan. I go to school here now, not Maria,” I answered actually managing to be somewhat civil.
The boy, Eren, apparently didn't care about civility.
“What are you doing here?”
“Well, mostly to learn,” I replied, hitching my book bag up. Judging by his face, I surmised that he expected me to say that I was spying or something.
Eren clenched his fists and drew himself to his full height. “Just so you know, this is the year that we defeat the Titans! I swear on it!”
I could have really cared less so I started to walk past him and said, “Great. Brownie points for you.”
The look of shock at my apathy was almost comical. It wasn't until later that I found out that he was Eren Jaeger and a Senior. His past three years in high school had been dedicated to beating the Titans in baseball but they sucked. We hadn't ever considered them to be a rival the past few years solely for the fact that they didn't make it to the tournament. Not that it mattered. I had decided to never play again so I honestly didn't care.
~{*}~
The bell rang, signaling the end of class. We all gathered our books up and started to shuffle out of the classroom as Miss Hanji shouted our homework at us.
My next class was English. The classes here were a lot tougher than they were at Maria but I was able to keep up with the work just fine. It was better this way. I needed to be challenged, especially since I had decided a long time ago that I would be going into Criminal Justice.
I reached my locker and opened it to see the familiar bare, metal walls. The only things I really kept in my locker were my books and my skateboard. I never really gave much thought to adorning the insider of my locker but the lack of pictures just signified that I had not made much of an effort to be social here. Even back at Maria I was never really close to anybody. Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie were the closest I had to friends but since they were a grade above me and not all that social themselves, we never really socialized outside of baseball. However, I've never been one of those whiny people that wished they had friends. I just didn't care. People were alright and all that but most of the time they were stupid and selfish. Not that I was an exception, I was just the only one who didn't fool myself into thinking any differently.
There was, however, one person that could almost make me change my mind.
I placed my Biology book in the locker and took out my English book before shoving it into my back pack and closed my locker before walking down the crowded hallway. There was a table at the end of it with a sign that read “Donations for Fire Relief”. I knew about the fire that took out a whole bunch of houses the previous week but I knew that there weren't any casualties. The booth had been there for a while and was usually manned by people that were on their free period. It didn't really concern me so I when I reached the end of the hall, I turned right to head to my English class.
Just as I was passing the table, a clear voice spoke.
“Would you like to donate something to help the families that lost their homes, Ymir?”
I turned towards the speaker and saw it was none other than Krista Lenz standing in front of me.
Now don't get me wrong, I've never been the type of person that spent my time thinking about a single person endlessly if I found that they wouldn't be of use to me later. But Krista had always been kind to me even when I when I was a rotten person to begin with. Ever since day one she had always made an effort to talk to me with just little questions like “How are you, Ymir?” or “It looks like it's going to rain. I hope you brought an umbrella, Ymir” or even, “I hope you aren't getting sick”. It was annoying but I wouldn't fool myself and say that I had more than a little developed a crush on her.
She was probably one of the most popular people in school, if this school even had popularity contests. It was partly because she was small and cute with blonde hair and probably some of the most gorgeous blue eyes I had ever seen. The other reason was because she was the kindest person you would ever meet. She was nice to everyone all the time and never said a cruel word to anybody. If this school had ever had problems with bullying, it stopped when Krista decided to come here. She was always the advocate for the weak.
These two reasons put together were enough to make most men fall in love with her. I always heard that she was perfect “wife” material.
But something about her “always do good” act sort of bothered me. As much as I liked her, she was too perfect. Nobody did good things all the time for nothing in return.
“Why?” I asked bluntly. She looked a bit taken aback.
“Well, because they lost everything...” she said slowly.
I looked behind her at the booth where another girl, who I think was named Sasha. She was famous for stealing baked potatoes from the school cafeteria at the beginning of the school year, was looking at the two of us. I looked back down at Krista.
“So...you are trying to do a good thing?” I said. It wasn't so much a question as a statement and she recognized that and said nothing.
“And with Potato Girl? Why? What do you stand to gain?”
The look on her face changed from confusion to defiance. She didn't say anything but her face was surprisingly easy to read. I realized then that she didn't do things to just be nice. Sure, that was part of the reason, but she also wanted to be known as the nice girl. While she already had an image of being a sweet, innocent person, she was making sure that she was still building up that image. Almost like she was doing it for the honor of it all.
“Whatever,” I sighed as I swung my backpack off my shoulder. I unzipped the front pocket and took out my wallet. I was secretly glad that she had selfish reasons for doing the good that she did. Up until this point, she had been unapproachable because she had seemed so far above normal people. She was even known as “God” at Maria.
“So, you are going to do something good too?” she asked challengingly. I had just called her out on her motives and now she was doing the same to me. I smirked. She was smart.
“Yeah,” I said as I pulled out some of the bills in my wallet. I had just gotten my biweekly allowance from my parents so I was loaded at that moment. “One good turn deserves another right? I expect that since I did something nice, something nice will happen to me.”
I pulled out a couple bills out and handed them over. Krista's eyes widened when she saw the double zeros on them but before she could object, I put my wallet back in my backpack and zipped it up before walking away. It was a cold trick and I knew that she was smart enough to figure out if she wanted to fall for it or not. I counted silently to myself. Just as I started to think that she wouldn't take the bait, I felt a hand on my arm.
“That was a dirty thing to do. If you wanted something from me, you should have just asked,” Krista scolded as I stopped and turn towards her. She still had the money in her hand as if she meant to return it.
“I wanted to intrigue you,” I said. I debated on whether or not to say what I wanted to next but I was never one for tact. So instead of beating around the bush, I looked around to make sure that nobody in the hallway could here us before I bluntly said, “Would you have gone out with me if I had outright asked you?”
Her expression was so comical that I could have laughed if I hadn't been so worried about being rejected. I put my hand in my pocket and leaned away from her as her faced turned a deep scarlet.
“What?” she asked in a small voice. I had to admire her for not looking away from my face but I wanted nothing more than the excuse to look away and blush myself.
“I won't repeat myself.”
We stood there just staring at each other. The late bell rang, but I didn't really care about my next class. It was another silent battle of wills with each of us as embarrassed but this time, I decided to not pursue things any farther. She probably got asked out multiple times in a week and if I was honest, probably wasn't even interested in girls.
“Whatever,” I sighed and started once more to my class, “Keep the money. It could buy some kids clothes or something.”
“Wait!” she grabbed my arm once more and turned me in her direction. I raised my eyebrows at her.
“You're a Titan right?”
I sighed. Of course she knew of my previous school.
“Was a Titan. If you haven't noticed, I've changed schools,” I said gesturing to the hall around us. I somehow knew this was going to be about.
“Our baseball team is co-ed too.”
There it was. I didn't know she was on the baseball team. I wavered for a moment thinking that I should give baseball a try again but then I remembered why I had quit in the first place. I sighed but before I could say anything, she charged ahead.
“We didn't get to play you guys last year but we did come and see your championship game,” she said, “And you're really good.”
“I'm not joining the Scouts,” I said bluntly, “I left Maria for a reason.”
“It wasn't because of baseball. I saw you and you always looked happy while you were playing,” she said stubbornly.
“You watched me?”
She averted her eyes, embarrassed, but pressed on, “If you try out, I'll accept your offer.”
My eyes widened when she said that. Did she actually mean that she would go out with me? But then I narrowed my eyes in suspicion.
“You know that if I try out, I will get on the team,” I said.
“That's your choice. All I said was that you had to try out,” Krista replied. That was true. There was really no commitment to stay. I didn't really even need to try.
“But, you have to honestly do your best. And I will know if you are giving anything less than one hundred percent.”
Fuck. I was honestly beginning to wonder if this girl was psychic or not. But all I had to do was try out and it was a free date with the famous Krista Lenz. It didn't seem like an unfair deal.
“Fine. I will do it,” I said.
She gave me the most genuine smile I have ever seen and clapped her hands together.
“Great! Try outs are this Friday at four on the field. I will see you then!”
She was so genuinely happy that I couldn't say anything before she skipped back down the hall. She suddenly stopped and looked at the money her hand as if she just remembered she still had it. She turned back to me but I waved her off.
“Keep it,” I said turning around to walk to my next class, “I meant what I said about the kids clothes.”
I was already late for English and no doubt that Mr. Zakarius would be pissed but at that moment, I didn't really care. I had somehow managed to score a date with the girl I had been crushing on for months and if that wasn't something to celebrate, I don't know what was.