Noticed (Villain Academy AU Paperhat)

2 - Surprise

The portal immediately closed behind Black Hat, leaving the room completely silent.

"Woah..." Dementia held her head in her hands, lovingly staring into the space where Black Hat once stood, seemingly not focused on anything but her daydreams.

Flug looked at her proudly, happy that she got noticed too and she won't have to be jealous of her friend. He really didn't need a possible conflict with his only friend.

The scientist brushes off the thoughts about what happened, looking up at the teacher, who just stared at the already-a-corpse of the hero, unsure of what to do. The bag-headed man decided to speak up, not comfortable with all the silence surrounding him, though dreading all the attention he'd have to call to himself again. He hid his invention in his deep sweatshirt pocket.

He coughed into his fist, beginning his speech: "U-u-uhm... S-Should we continue with the aw-awards then?..." His voice trembled with his knees and he resisted the strong urge to hug himself.

Finally, all the students began to whisper to each other, still not confident enough to step closer to the body. The prodigy kept staring forward, too afraid to turn around and meet so many people's gazes. Dementia didn't seem to share his anxiousness, smiling wickedly while looking at the students over her shoulder.

"Well..." The teacher looked up to the clock right above him, scratching his chin in a thinking manner. "We actually have no time left. You're all dismissed."

Normally, everyone would get excited, but right now they all seemed worried or perplexed, slowly turning around, still talking to each other quietly, then finally heading out of the room. Pft, and they call themselves villains? Yeah, a bunch of villains got scared because of a corpse of some foolish hero, how silly.

Dementia began to turn to leave too, but Flug stopped her by placing a gloved hand on her shoulder.

"I don't want to be in a crowd right now, let's wait a bit, okay?..." he whispered, looking off to the side.

"As you wish, Fluggie!" Dem turned back to him, thinking about what to say to her unsure friend. "You know, that was hella cool. I didn't know you were so good at shooting! You scientists don't have shooting lessons, do you?" she praised, finally getting her mind off Black Hat for a little.

"Erm... You're right, we don't get any... t-target practice. I just... kind of... calculated that in my head?" the scientist answered, feeling as if his explanation was far from optimal and very awkward. "Uhm, did you see if any people had their phones out?" he switched the topic, looking even more nervous because of a bad hunch he suddenly got.

The girl thought for a moment, then nodded.

"Do you think they were filming?" he continued, the question almost rhetorical with how obvious the answer was. Didn't make it any less daunting though.

Dementia stared into blank space, her eyes squeezed slightly. Then she looked as if she remembered something, and, judging by that cheesy look on her face, that something wouldn't be anything he wanted to hear right now.

"Becca was probably filming from the start. She films everything," she laughed, not seeing anything bad in the situation. "Hah, everyone's going to talk about you for a whi~ile."

That was probably true. Flug almost immediately recognized the name "Becca" from controversies earlier - Dementia couldn't help but tell him, of course - and he knew she had a decent following throughout their academy, being a blogger. She could somewhat be called the head of the students on social media, even.

The bag-headed man let out a sigh. He just had a taste of a normal day without any bullying whatsoever, which was a breath of fresh air, but now he was going to get a lot of attention. Some would be jealous of him too, to make matters worse. That isn't good for him at all - his bullies are going to remember him for sure.