Heroes, Vigilantes, and Villains

Chapter eight

I sat down at the computer, a calculator and scratch paper to my right and snacks to my left. It was my first day not going to school with Bakugo. It was the first day that I felt... safe.

Mom had already left for work by the time that I woke up. She left a note on the fridge with some money underneath it. Basically she told me to buy myself a congratulatory or condolence gift depending on how today went.

I'm taking the online school's entrance exam today... well failing it will probably end up being the better term for me to use.

I opened up the school website and went to the entrance exam page, reading through all the instructions and information one last time. The test is all multiple choice questions, with an equal amount for each section. You need at least a seventy percent to pass and make it into the school. The score will begin automatically through email right after the test is submitted. The computer itself will be out on a lockdown browser so that you can't search the answers.

I could feel the dread pooling in my stomach as I filled out the personal information and hit the start button. I worked through the questions, reading the passages, doing the math, trying to remember the events from history. Everything started to blur with time. I answered question after question until I'd finally gotten through the last of the questions.

The button stared at me dauntingly. Every question was answered and the time in the upper right hand corner was close to being out, the only thing that was left for me to do was hit the submit button. The second that I hit the button, it's all over, what's done is done and cannot be undone by any means. I stared at the button until the letters started to blur. With one last breath and all reservations signed away, I clicked the button with my cursor.

My fate was sealed.

A notification from the school appeared on the screen when I went to my email, the results just as fast as promised, I couldn't bring myself to look just yet. Instead I looked at the time... school would be let out in a few minutes from now.

I shut down the computer and got my phone from the bedside table, already pulling up my messages before even sitting down.

You free after school today?

The reply came not much later.

Corpse one: I was thinking about sleeping, but if you have a better offer, I'm all in.

I felt a small pang of satisfaction, I'd expected something like this to be the response.

Ice cream?

Corpse one: ... Let me run home and change, I'll pick you up in a little bit.

If I'd been a different person, lived a different life, I might have smiled at the message on my screen, but I was me, and the smile refused to form even if I wanted it to.

—-

A knock came at the front door about half an hour later. Hoping off the couch, I turned off the tv and threw the remote back down onto the couch. When I opened the door, a boy with tall, dark purple hair and a black bookbag was outside of it.

"Shinso," I said in lieu of hello. "What's with the bookbag?"

The boy in question had a black bookbag on his back and a permanently tired look on his face. He shrugged. "I'll buy, you help me with the new unit in math," Shinso offered.

A sly look appeared on my face as I walked out the door and locked it behind me. "Confused already?"

Shinso started walking to the stairs at the end of the open hallway. "... Fell asleep in class..."