Chapter 14

43.5K 2.3K 1.5K
                                    

Third person pov

After the high that came from realizing they'd won wore down, they all realized that they were absolutely nothing short of ravenous. Well, Harper had gotten over their win far before, but decided not to mention anything until Hagakure and Kirishima were done whooping happily and clapping Shinso on the shoulder. Said purple-haired teen was grinning so widely his face looked as though it would split. "Maybe this is what it's like to have friends." His thoughts pondered. It was actually pretty depressing. "Not that they'd ever really want to be friends with me. I'm... me." 

Sad as it was, Harper could relate to it. She wasn't a positive or particularly fun person to be around. That didn't stop Hagakure from insisting the four of them eat lunch together, nor did it stop Iida from cautiously inching her way with anxiety painted clear as day across his face. "Does she even want to talk to me? No, why would she. She's probably upset I got first. I should have been on her team. No, then we would have lost. Nothing makes sense. I can't-"

"Congratulations, Iida." Harper said once he was close enough. The teen jumped slightly as Harper offered a tired smile. It felt fairly genuine to her, but she could never be too sure these days. "I knew you'd do well on their team, and I was right. You got first place. Good job, man."

Iida smiled at her. It was definitely a real one this time. She invited him to come sit with her and the other three she'd gotten wrapped up with, but he declined politely. He made an excuse about already promising to sit with Midoriya and Uraraka, but she knew that wasn't actually the case. He didn't want to interrupt her time with her 'new, better friends'. It caused a pang, but she wasn't sure how she could insist without giving herself away or seeming like a complete and total annoyance. You win some, you lose some. She had to let this one go.

"Milk, milk, milk!" Ochako darted past her, shooting a quick congratulations verbally as she did so. Harper spun around to follow her with her eyes, brows furrowed. Was she lactose intolerant? No, she was getting milk, not rushing off to the bathroom. Maybe she just really liked milk. Though, there were times when Ochako would retrieve her vast amount of dairy-filled cans only to not touch them at all. In contrast, Harper had witnessed her chug four in almost less than a minute in the past as well. Maybe it depended on her mood.

"Come on, Harper! Before the lines get too long!" Kirishima called from where he and their other two companions were waiting. "Holy shit I just called out. To her. With my voice. And told her to get over here. This is insane. Like, normal-friend stuff insane. She looks really tired... I should ask if she's okay. I'll definitely pay for her lunch and drink. I wonder what her favorite snack is. That way, I can start carrying it around! She'll never be peckish with me around. That would be so manly."

Harper trudged over tiredly. A part of her desperately wanted to forfeit this entire thing. It was confirmed by Aizawa's thoughts that her quirk had indeed been announced during the obstacle race as a reflexive quirk, which meant she didn't have to worry about that part anymore. But she'd already made it so far. Of course there was no way she'd win. She'd learned a lot of useful things in hero training, and her quirk usually gave her a pretty good heads up, but that only did so good. If she got placed against someone like Todoroki or Bakugo, she was fucked. Hell, pretty much everyone in her class could easily take her down.

Harper still didn't know who she was up against. She'd seen the brackets pop up on the jumbo-tron, but there were question marks in place of where their names should have sat. The suspense was frustrating. Everyone was full of tension. The cafeteria would've been unbearably loud any other day, but the chatter was at a minimum with most people shoveling down their food. Most were sulking over their loss, but a lot were frantically trying to figure out who they might be up against and what they could do to win.

Mind BoggledWhere stories live. Discover now