Mind Boggled

Chapter 12

IMPORTANT, IVE GOTTA ADDRESS SOMETHING

So sometimes I'll have people's thoughts just, randomly, no name attached. Like:

"Whoa, what the fuck?"

"I'd hit that."

"Can I get a yo holla in the house?"

Like that. And a lot of times, people immediately are like "I bet this is Monoma!!!" Or "Hey, this must be Hitoshi!!!!"

No, stop please you're killing me and I want to bash my own head in.

Harper hears EVERYONE'S thoughts. So when I do that, it's more than often just some random person around in the general area. Don't assume it's someone you know. Unless I make it super obvious who it is, it's probably a stranger. If she's in a hallway when it happens, you can assume not everyone in said hallway is in class 1-A. If it happens in the middle of a mine field during the sports festival, it's pretty obvious that 1-A, Monoma, and Hitoshi are not the only people venturing through the minefield. Thanks for coming to my ted talk. 

Third person pov

How was she still alive? This was a question Harper often times asked herself, no matter the situation. She could be doing something as domestically bland as paying for groceries, and she'd still make the same inquiry. This time, however, she was serious. Dead serious, pun intended. She had absolutely no idea how she and Iida had made it out of that race, let alone managed to place high enough that they were moving on to the next round. Even now she was in shock. How was her luck this bad? Legitimately, she was considering dropping out. 

The only thing stopping her was the fact that she wasn't sure whether or not her quirk had been announced. During parts of the obstacle course, it was impossible to hear Mic's voice over the roar of the crowd. That, and they drifted pretty far from the arena in general. Harper could still hear their thoughts. Though it was hard to pick out individual ones without it sounding like one static-y storm of noise, she was quite sure none of them had really been about her. She hadn't made it in the top ten, but she wasn't in last place either. Harper was with Iida, right smack dab in the middle. Average.

"Seriously, go ahead." Harper urged as Todoroki patiently waited for a very conflicted Iida to make his decision. Kaminari and Momo both flanked him, the blonde looking unconcerned as he grinned while the Wii remix blasted through his mind. Momo's smile was polite, but she was full of unvoiced worry and self-doubt. Harper knew they'd pass. Todoroki was a powerhouse on his own, and Kaminari was a box of energy sitting and ready to discharge. Momo could create a plethora of items, and with Iida on their team for speed, they'd be near unstoppable. Maybe it would give them all a much needed confidence boost. Even Todoroki could use one.

"I don't want to leave you. You helped me so much..." Iida frowned. "It would be dishonorable of me to simply leave her like this, even if this is a competition. I doubt I would have pulled through the first part of the festival without her. I can't just... no, I won't!"

"You're not leaving me, Iida. This is a competition, and I want to see you win anyway. We both know you'd be perfect on their team. I'm not combative." Harper urged, making sure to keep and and all exhaustion and impatience from her tone. She really didn't want to compete anyway, and that fact alone would put a damper on any team she tried to join. The will was half the battle. Skill was the other, and she had neither. Not to mention the fact that this was a cavalry battle. She didn't have the strength to carry anyone, and she didn't have enough friends to be carried. It was that simple.

"She's smart. She knows she and Iida on a team with two wild cards from another course will do them no good. She's being mature about the whole thing. It's a nice change." Todoroki's thoughts should have been flattering, but they really weren't. She just blew a piece of hair from her as Iida gazed at her with a stricken expression. Poor guy looked like a kicked puppy. It almost made her care. Almost.