STARTING AT A NEW SCHOOL HAD NEVER FELT SO NERVE-WRECKING FOR ZINNIA. And yet at the same time it felt horribly familiar, like walking on egg shells trying to avoid attention, to avoid any sort of notice.

It was different, but at the same, it was something she was as used to as breathing.

The anxiety hadn't failed to continue gnawing in the pit of her stomach, chewing at her innards and threatening to send her spiralling to nausea. It raked at the back of her chest, as if scratching against her heart, pressing on her lungs as if to squeeze all the air from her grasp.

And yet, just as she did at her old school, she managed to shove it into the back of her mind and continue, expression blank and her gaze purely upon navigating through the sea of students that were sprinting past her, as if there was some great spectacle back out the front of the building that was of everyone's interest.

Undoubtedly, if she was attending the same school as Kirishima, she wouldn't have any fears. But it did her no good to contemplate those small factors when she was already walking through the gates of what may very well become hell.

Yes, she was a pessimist, but it was much better than falling prey to naivety.

Her attention was upon locating her homeroom, though as she walked she took note of the many classrooms along the way. A building with each of its years on its own level from first to third respectively, Zinnia walked past numbered rooms and allocated subject premises until finally, right at the furtherest end of the hall was a door labelled 1-F, which was Zinnia's particular room if her particular paperwork was anything to go by.

The room was a simple setup of plain, wooden desks with matching chairs, seating thirty students in what was perhaps a little closer proximity than Zinnia had felt necessary. The walls were bare, the blackboard up the front roughly wiped of chalk, aside from the date in the bottom right corner, a rough, carelessly written seating allocation presumably from the teacher, and the faint hints of last year's residual farewell message remaining upon the dusty board. In fact, there were scuff marks across the linoleum floor, a layer of dust covering both desks and chairs, as well as a kind of musty, stale odour to the classroom that showed a lack of common maintenance.

It was sign enough that corners were cut when it came to cleaning, and perhaps in a sense that contributed to the lower fees of the school.

At least, Zinnia hoped it did.

But she certainly didn't expect it to.

There were already students in the room, Zinnia noted as she found a group of about seven rather regular looking girls gathered in the back right corner of the room, closest to the windows. All dressed in the red and black uniform of a tartan skirt and blazer, all with appearances that reminded Zinnia of some of the most normal people she had met. People like her parents and siblings. Not a single one of them had visible peculiarities derived from quirk development, no scales, no strange hair colours or mutations at all.

And just like her siblings, these girls of brunette, blonde and black hair assorted were laughing and gossiping vainly.

Zinnia let out a breath as she looked down at her paperwork to find her student number, which was numbered 29, back row, second from the window right where those girls were. In fact, they had surrounded the desk and the one in front of it, making for an unpleasant situation, should Zinnia choose to broach it.

Well, it looked like she either had to kick them out from her desk or just choose some other until her allocated one was freed up. Neither was particularly preferable, but given the facts, Zinnia opted for the second choice. She chose the desk in the opposite corner of the back and sat herself down. She pushed her glasses further up the bridge of her nose and pulled out one of her extra textbooks from within her bag.

It looked like her wish for a study-based classroom might be a hard ask, but if she just kept her head down and studied, she hoped that would be enough of a deterrent to these vain-minded people to have them just write her off as a bookworm and forget she even existed.

Minutes ticked by and the sounds of approaching footsteps began to mix with the ceaseless gossip and chatter from the group of girls in the corner of the room, and with every passing minute, Zinnia was praying more than anything else that she was just imagining their voices growing louder and louder. A couple of boys of modest appearances were next to filter into the room, and beyond the brief glance they cast the seating arrangement on the blackboard they simply continued with their chatter as they descended into a set of seats just two rows in front of Zinnia.

A meek girl with chestnut locks and lop bunny ears was next to take up a seat in the classroom, just a seat in front of Zinnia's allocated desk, and she had quite the hard time actually getting the group of girls to shuffle away. The unpleasant rebukes, whines and sneers from the girls painted a very clear image of the personalities, and it proved to Zinnia that her assumptions had been quite right. The bunny-eared girl got her way eventually, though she still had to deal with the group's loud carry-on going over the top of her head, which, Zinnia suspected might hurt if her ears were as sensitive as a normal rabbits would be.

Eventually however, as most of the desks were filled with regular looking students, save for the odd few mutation-quirks visible in the room and the clock overhead finally reached 9am, the door slid open one last time to allow a rather unkempt looking man of forty-something years inside. Dressed in an untucked button up shirt and dress pants that had probably never once been ironed in their life, it was combined with a poor attempt at combing his blonde hair back. But beyond that, there was no hiding the lack of desire the man had for even being here in the classroom at that moment.

'Everyone, take your seats as outlined on the blackboard, no ifs or buts.' The man, evidently their homeroom teacher, instructed. 'I want it done in the next sixty seconds, or I will begin issuing out the first detentions of your high-school debut.'

Zinnia let out a breath as she tucked her book straight back into her bag and promptly picked herself up out of her borrowed seat. Needless to say, the group of girls in the other corner appeared to be rather displeased with the instructions, but did as they were told, with no lack of sass on their part.

What was possibly more unpleasant than finding her assumptions proven correct was the rather cold sneer she received from the two girls she walked past to take up her allocated desk, the taller brunette of which happened to own the desk Zinnia had borrowed at first.

The bunny-eared girl turned her head slightly at the sound of Zinnia's book bag clunking heavily as she set it on the hook of her desk, a slight tremble to her form as she dared a glance at Zinnia following her unpleasant altercation with the other girls. Zinnia merely cast the blackboard a glance to site a name for the girl who appeared to be one of the most tolerable in the room.

Seat twenty four was called Kobayashi Ritsuna, apparently. If she could read the sloppy chicken-scratch of the teacher's properly, that was.

'Good, you got that sorted out quick enough. My name is Kida Shinsuke - your homeroom teacher - and I "welcome" you to this fine, quirk-restrained establishment. Don't wear it out, please. It's easier on the both of us that way' Their homeroom teacher stated as he lifted a piece of chalk from the blackboard shelf and proceeded to scrawl his name in the corner of the blackboard right above the date. 'Let's cut to the chase. I'm not good at memorizing a lot of names, or faces, handwriting, or even numbers for that matter. That is why I have assigned you specific seats. It will make my life easier, and I would greatly appreciate it if you will, for the duration that you are my students, mark your seat number on all written pages and assessments instead of your name. If you feel the need to write your names as well, then knock yourselves out.'

And a second later, Kida lifted his gaze to cast the room a wide sweeping scan, before he roughly crossed out three names on his attendance sheet.

'Seat's seventeen, twenty and twenty five appear to be too preoccupied to turn up to class on time, and it will count as their first absentee if they do not turn up by the end of first period.' Kida proceeded to announce as he flipped the attendance book shut. 'I will be informing you all now, unless you can provide either an explanation letter from your parent or guardian, or a time-sheet from your employer if on the off-chance that you actually do land a part-time job, you are only allowed ten absentees without proper explanation before you run the chance of ending up expelled. This is the school policy, not mine. So if you have any complaints down the track, I'm not the one you will need to barter with.'

Zinnia was fine with that. She could provide any of those at a moments notice.

But judging by the sudden flinch and worsening trembling of the girl seated right in front of her, it was not something she could manage.

'Good. You can all introduce yourselves during your own time between classes.' Kida dismissed as he leaned back against the wall on the left side of the blackboard. 'Timetables are already distributed within each of your desks. We don't provide maps or tours of the facilities, so you will have to use your lunch break to find your classrooms ahead of time. Or ask a senior, if you can.'

A few of the students made a move to lift their timetables from within their desk, but they were cut short at the exasperated sigh that escaped Kida.

'You don't need them right now.' Kida stated as he reached over to grab a book from atop his desk at the front of the room. 'First Period is English, so pull out your textbooks and flip to page thirteen. You have sixty seconds.'

And everyone did as they were told, all in varying degrees of proficiency.

For the first class, Kida merely read out from the textbook in his grip and lazily jotted down the occasional note here or there. He didn't ask any student to answer any questions, didn't bother looking up from his book, and as Zinnia listened and watched, she noticed that he didn't once reprimand a student for failing to pay attention, or even seem to care about it at all.

The students in seat's two and three directly in front of Kida were playing on their phones and exchanging emails through the whole class, and he didn't even say a word about it.

And just as the clock reached 9.40am, ten minutes before the end of first period, Kida snapped his textbook shut and discarded it back onto the teachers desk.

'And that covers activity one of the first unit.' Kida stated as he buried his hands in his pockets on the way towards the classroom door. 'I want the completed worksheets on my desk first thing tomorrow morning. Eight hundred words minimum. And please, write your seat number, not your name.'

Without any further instructions or even any remark at all, Kida sauntered right out of the classroom, leaving the bulk of the classroom at a loss of what was even going on.

The class remained silent for the first few minutes, perhaps out of suspicion that their homeroom teacher was just going to come back at any second, or just because they didn't know what they were supposed to do. However, as the intermission bell rung, and Kida didn't come back, it became more than clear that the teacher had just lectured what he needed and left.

The rest of the classes were, unfortunately, more of the same.

Second period was Math, and Kida taught it in much the same manner, with no assigned homework given for that subject, and third was Japanese, assigned with another essay due the next morning. Both classes ended at least ten minutes before the intermission bells, with Kida just dropping his teachers books and wandering off when he had enough. But by that point, the class was more or less used to it and had reduced to chatter and gossip by the end of third period.

Even with lunch break following shortly after, with the optional classes left for the afternoon, as her timetable outlined, Zinnia was, sadly, growing even more disappointed with the so called teaching methods employed at the school.

Zinnia's Physics and Biology Teacher – who only introduced herself as Horie-sensei – was a greying woman with her human-face replaced with that of a barn-owl and had a distinct limp that kept her feet firmly planted right at the front of the science hall. She not only refused to write notes on the board, mumbled all her lectures and got visibly angry whenever someone would raise their hand and request she speak up even just the slightest.

And if possible, the Computer Technology Teacher - Akagi Noboyuki - was a painfully slender, balding man with horn-rimmed glasses and a hunched back, combined with an unnecessary white lab coat and the infuriating need to repeat his every instruction anywhere up to ten times in increasingly louder volumes, and higher octaves. That wouldn't necessarily be a problem if his starting volume and pitch wasn't near-identical to a shrieking twelve year old CoD Player on headset as it was.

However, there was one thing that Zinnia did learn out of all those uncomfortable classes.

And that was that the bunny girl from the desk right in front of her own in their home classroom happened to be in both her science classes, and appeared to be the only one who could hear Horie at all. It was interesting to note, and if the frantic scribbling of the girl's pen over pages was enough of a giveaway, it appeared that she was at least trying to make the best of her schooling as it was.

But with Akagi's incessant shrieking at the end of final period ringing repetitively like a vicious wave of tinnitus through Zinnia's head, she wasn't inclined for anything more than bailing straight for the door.

She wasn't looking forward to meeting the teachers for her remaining selected curriculum courses, but it was on the horizon.

As it was, Zinnia was sure the other teachers would be more of the same tired, disinterested teachers with painful issues that would undoubtedly have everyone except for the most determined drop out altogether.

The faint ringing of her cellular phone from the pocket of her tartan skirt drew Zinnia's attention away from the swarm of students practically fleeing the building along with her. Her breath escaped her as she managed to retrieve her device, all while earning a couple painful knocks from careless students trying to get past her.

She didn't bother to look at the screen of her phone, since she already knew who it was on the other end of the connection.

'I thought you said for me to message you if I had a change of plans.' Zinnia didn't hesitate to speak as she answered the call, of course without actually issuing a proper greeting in turn.

And on the other side, she received an amiable chuckle in response.

'Hello to you too, Zim.' Kirishima greeted her. 'I take it you're out of school already?'

'I think you mean finally.' She corrected with a sigh. 'It was horrible.'

'Oh, rough day? Kinda the same here, too.' Kirishima groaned dramatically. 'I'm practically dying for a burger right now. You up for grabbing a bite before we head back?'

Zinnia couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her upon hearing his remark.

'Sure, where do you want to meet up?'

'The usual's not too far from where your school is, I think. I'll be down there in maybe quarter of an hour?'

'Sounds like a plan.'

'Awesome! I'll see you there!'

And with that, the line promptly disconnected, drawing a faint breath from Zinnia as she wandered down the streets towards the fast food restaurant of Kirishima's most common nomination.

The colour that saturated the afternoon light began to touch faintly with golds and oranges, tainting the otherwise grey city of concrete a dusty brown. The cool chill in the air was present even now, and the more Zinnia walked and weaved between people to head to her destination, the more it felt like the cold was biting into her flesh.

Thankfully, Kirishima arrived five minutes after her, at the very latest.

Slightly out of breath from what was undoubtedly the usual run to try and beat her here, her friends wry smile was prompt to appear when he spotted Zinnia already seated at their usual table, with his usual order already sitting on the table.

'Sorry, I'm late, aren't I?' Kirishima remarked as he dropped himself into the empty seat opposite hers. 'You didn't have to order for me.'

'I usually do.' She dismissed.

'But what if I wanted something different?'

'Umm, I'm pretty sure you told me what you wanted over the phone, which is what you always end up ordering anyway.'

A prompt snort escaped Kirishima before he actually started grinning broadly.

'You're right. Thanks, Zim.' Her friend responded as he unwrapped his burger before promptly taking a large bite out of it.

If Zinnia wasn't already so used to Kirishima's fondness for meat in general, she probably would have questioned just how much he looked to be enjoying that burger of his. But of course, she was, and all she could do was shake her head in bemusement as she absent-mindedly prodded at her salad with a fork.

And so, Kirishima divulged all the great details of his first day of school to Zinnia, from where the classroom was set up through to the school cafeteria run by the pro hero Lunch Rush, and his homeroom teacher of questionable exhaustion. He described what he knew of his classmates, paying extra mind to compliment the strengths and gloss over what he viewed as weaknesses.

The so called Logical Ruse his homeroom teacher played on them with a void threat of expulsion was one that had at first startled Zinnia at first, at least until she stopped to consider her own placement letter from Yuuei, which hinted that dropouts weren't uncommon.

In the end, what took more of Kirishima's interest in the end was a commotion that had occurred in the middle of the so called quirk apprehension test, which was the strange and bizarre quirk of one student, who had launched a softball seven hundred meters away, seemingly at the cost of a broken finger. That was not to mention the explosive outrage of one angry blond in response, of a boy that Zinnia felt she could actually name even before Kirishima offered the name of Bakugou to help with his reiteration of the commotion.

But Zinnia sat there, brow furrowing as she thought over the boy who wound up with a broken finger in the end.

In her time volunteering her quirk usage at Hosu General Hospital, she had grown quite familiar with a broad variety of quirks purely by having to use her quirk on them in turn. Not to mention the injuries said quirks inflict upon others, and their wielders if overexerted.

But ... Kirishima had vaguely mentioned that the boy had not used his quirk at all until that moment. It was unlike Zinnia's own quirk where the skin splitting was just one of the numerous downfalls of her quirk, mild but ever present. It was unlike a lot of others where if they over-exerted, they could rip muscles, blister and burn themselves, even boil their insides if pushed too far, all depending on what their quirk was.

But to break ones finger just from one use, to Zinnia, that felt horribly wrong.

But the next words from Kirishima's mouth drew her attention away from her train of thought within an instance.

'I've been curious about something, Zim.' Her friend spoke up through a mouthful of his extra-large burger, though Zinnia was quite used to his somewhat untidy moments and scarcely noticed. 'Not that it's a bad thing or anything, but I don't think I've ever seen you eat a piece of meat before. I mean, I mentioned it to Mom and Dad that you seemed to prefer it, but I'm kinda curious now.'

Oh?

Zinnia cast a glance down at her half-eaten salad before she leaned back in her chair.

'Well, that's because I can't.' She answered, much to Kirishima's surprise.

'What? Like you're on a special diet or something?' He couldn't help but ask. 'Your quirk's blood related though, so I thought meat would be one of the important things for you to eat.'

In a way he was right... in a stupidly twisted way, of course.

But considering that Kirishima was now giving her his undivided attention instead of his burger, she guessed she had better answer his question.

'It's not that I'm on a special diet or anything, but just that I can't physically eat meat or ingest blood, regardless of how I use my quirk.' She proceeded to explain, much to her displeasure. 'Even just a little makes me violently ill. It's my quirk, and I can't really help it.'

If possible, the disbelief across Kirishima's face seemed to grow stronger.

'So that's what... just red meat?' He eventually asked.

'I can't eat red meat, pork, poultry, or even fish, and while I haven't tried anything else, I'm pretty sure it's just meat in general that I can't eat. My mom tried me on rabbit one time when I was little, and it didn't work.' She explained, prodding at her salad once again. 'But for some reason fresh unfertilized eggs are alright, so I supplement a lot of it with egg whenever I can.'

Silence, if only for a moment.

'So ... you've never been able to savour the wonders of a well-cooked steak before?' Kirishima eventually asked. 'Or even a good piece of chicken?'

'I don't even remember what meat actually tastes like.' She answered.

There was no response from Kirishima, and as the seconds began to drag on, Zinnia couldn't help but lift her gaze from her salad.

And the sight she was met with had drawn a startled squeak from her within an instance.

'You ... poor thing...' Kirishima actually mumbled, almost as if he was trying to hold back tears. 'How can you live like that?'

'U-umm, it's not that bad, really.'

But no matter her attempts at reassurances, it didn't change anything.

Because at that moment, Kirishima raised a hand to wave over a passing restaurant employee.

'Two sunny-side up eggs for my friend here!' He called out, much to the employee's confusion.

'Wait! Please don't!'

'Please ignore my friend, here!'

'K-Kiri, I don't know how to tell you this, but I can't eat the eggs here...' Zinnia tried to cut in before the employee had disappeared to pass the order onto the kitchen staff, though she knew it was pointless.

'What? But why not?'

'Because they cook them on the same hot-plate as the meat. They're basically contaminated.'

And as Zinnia's words sunk in on him, Kirishima looked utterly appalled.

--=[Submitted 9th September 2018, 4027 words total]=--

Had this typed already, marionette coming soon.