The Right Wrong Turn || Tendou x Reader

Chapter 1

Your hand raised against your will. You hadn't meant to do it, not consciously. The atmosphere of the classroom was stiff and claustrophobic, and you were hyper-aware of the eyes trained on you. Nervously, you fidgeted within your seat, eyes downcast. You hesitated with answering, but the prompting of Sensei pushed you to express your thoughts. You thickly swallowed a lump, mustering the courage to speak up in front of your peers. You let out a breath, open-mouthed and prepared but the obnoxious scoff of a cherry haired boy interrupted you.

"One second!" He blurted from the other side of the classroom, oozing confidence. He was wrong. It was five seconds. Your eyes scanned over the question projected on the whiteboard. 'How long after a lightning strike can the thunder be heard, if you're a mile away from the strike.'

"Ah. Our dear Guess Monster has once again blurted the answer." Sensei mused, an unamused tone gracing his features. The red head's eyes narrowed at the nickname.

You could have stayed silent. You didn't need to correct the teacher, nor did you need to correct the student. You knew better than to speak up. But you couldn't stay silent to such a blatantly incorrect statement. It bothered you greatly.

"Um, actually, Sensei, it's five seconds," You said, knots twisting in your stomach.

"It's one second," another student seated next to 'Guess Monster' rolled his eyes. You didn't know the red head's real name. You were barely aware of his presence in your class. You caught a glimpse of him every once in a while, and his presence was far from hidden, but it had never crossed your mind that he was anything more than a fleeting sentence in the hallways. The way his eyes narrowed at you when you corrected him sent shivers down your spine. Maroon eyes locking with yours.

You unclenched and clenched your hand in your lap, apprehension filling the room. You weren't one to fear others, but the Guess Monster made you uneasy.

"Actually, [Y/N] is right." The teacher clicked his remote and the slide changed, adding a sentence under the question. Five seconds.

You should have felt proud, but instead you just felt worse. You hoped you were incorrect, remembering an answer from a different lecture. Then you could have moved on with the knowledge that you were wrong. There was a strange sort of humiliation in being correct when someone else wasn't.

You felt the eyes on you for the rest of the lecture, and made the mistake of meeting them as you packed away your stationary at the end of class. You inhaled deeply and plugged in your headphones as you waited at the door for the bell to ring and the day to end. You weren't the first out the door. You never were. More aggressive students pushed their way through, those that had to get to sports or after school clubs. You walked silently, feet shuffling along the dirt coated floor of the highschool.

Shadows danced at your feet, fingerlike tendrils trying to grasp at your heels, only to shy away as you stepped into the light of the setting sun. Golden rays shone off your nose, and you shielded your eyes with your palm. Wisps of lilac and grey floated across the sky, a gorgeous evening colour. Chimneys blew smoke, and the cascades of darkness went almost unnoticed as you walked through.

The pretty sky was what you chose to focus on. It was a strange contrast to the rest of the neighbourhood. Slanted houses, unkempt lawns, weeds struggling to overtake the road, only to be pushed back when a car flew through the street, blowing past the stop sign. Newspapers and fast food wrappers cartwheeled across the street, and leaves were swept up by sudden gusts of wind, dropping as fast as they had begun to fly.

It was depressing. And definitely not where you were supposed to be.

You had taken a wrong turn somewhere. You picked up your speed and removed one of your earbuds, allowing it to dangle against your chest. You searched as you walked, for a street sign. A landmark. Something to tell you where you were. You were going to be late for work, and what was your excuse? That you had turned down fifth instead of sixth, and walked for half a mile before realizing? An incredibly likely story, considering you had worked there for almost three weeks. Negative thoughts clouded your mind as you settled with the realization that you would be fired. Or at the very least written up. Your grace period would start again, and you'd be that much easier to terminate.