Acceptance AU [OLD, DON'T READ]

3•25•20 // 1

    "Mija! Mijo! Wake up!" Sylvanna called from the bottom of the stairs, at around eight am.
    Up in her room, Aphmau groggily opened her eyes. In the room across from her's, Ein took off his headphones, glancing at the closed door from his computer desk.
    Aphmau checked her phone, seeing a good morning text from FC. She smiled, texting him back.
    Ein turned off his PC, fixing his hair in the mirror. His headphones always messed it up a bit. He was still in pajamas, despite being awake since six am playing Minecraft.
    Opening her closet, Aphmau grabbed the purple hanger on which her school uniform hung. She changed quickly, excited. It was the first day of her Freshmen year.
    After Ein changed into his uniform and texted his online buddies about how thrilled he was to be starting highschool, he took a last glance at his jet black hair in the mirror and headed downstairs.
    "Hey Ein. Is Aphmau awake?" Zack asked. He was making breakfast, pancakes, while Sylvanna made sure the kid's backpacks had everything they needed.
    "I dunno." Ein shrugged, sitting at the table. Just as he said that, Aphmau ran down the stairs. He watched as she made it to the last four, tripped, and fell face-first onto the carpet.
    Sylvanna rushed over to her, as Ein burst out laughing. Aph was fine, and soon joined in the laughing. The family sat down and ate breakfast together.
    "It's a big day, kids! First day of highschool." Sylvanna said brightly, taking a bite.
    "I'm excited." Ein said, at the same time as Aphmau saying, "I'm scared."
    Zack laughed, "It'll be fine. Don't worry, highschool isn't as scary as you think. Trust me. I know moving back here and ending homeschool is a lot. It's different. Just have fun today." He said.
    "Thanks Dad." Aphmau said, smiling. They finished quickly, and got their backpacks.
    "Bye kiddos! Have a great first day!" Sylvanna said, waving as they walked down the sidewalk.
    Aphmau ran ahead, the wind blowing fall-coloured leaves everywhere. She laughed, excited once again.
    "Slow down Aph!" Ein called, chasing after her. He laughed, too, as they approached the school.
    They slowed, walking up the huge white stairs to the front fountains. They were in a crowd of kids now.
    "Pheonix Drop High... awesome!" Aphmau squealed, taking out her phone. She took a picture of the front of the building.
    "Are you gonna take a picture of everything?" Ein asked jokingly.
    "Yes!" She said, taking a picture of his face. He laughed.
    "Y'know you can't have your phone in class, right?"
    "Yes..." She fake pouted. They walked around a bit, looking for a main door or something similar.
    Someone bumped into Aph, making her bump into Ein. He fell on the ground, and she fell into someone else, who caught her.
    "AHH!" She cried.
    "I'm sorry- I didn't mean to run into you or your friend." The person said who'd caught Aph. She and Ein looked at him, as Ein stood back up.
    "I-It's okay." Aphmau muttered, surprised. She stood up properly, "Thanks for catching me!"
    "Ah, no problem. I'm Garroth, by the way." The guy said, offering a smile at them.
    "Nice to meet you Garroth! I'm Aphmau!"
    "I'm Ein." He smiled back.
    "Again, I'm sorry for running into you. Freshmen, right?" Garroth asked.
    "How'd you know??!" Aphmau exclaimed.
    "I know most of the people here by face. Plus, you're short." He said, laughing. Aphmau pouted.
    "Hey!" She said. Before she could come up with a good retort, the bell rang. All at once, hundreds of students flooded in through the main doors, the three kids getting swept up in the crowd.
   
    "I can't- get- it- open!" Aphmau complained, desperately pulling at her locker. Ein watched, laughing. In the time she'd been trying, he's already found his locker and put away his stuff. The halls were starting to empty, and the late bell for homeroom could ring at any second.
    "Don't laugh! Help me!" She said, getting frustrated and kicking the metal. It clanged, but nothing opened.
    "Fine- but I don't wanna be late. I know where the homeroom is." Ein said, taking a turn at the locker. Despite his extra werewolf strength, it wouldn't budge.
    The late bell rang, and Aphmau groaned. Great, now she was late on her first day.
    "Need help?" A voice said from behind them. They turned around.
    "Yes- My dumb locker won't open!" Aphmau grunted, giving it a dirty look. The person, a werewolf, laughed. Ein joined in.
    "I can help. Sometimes the lockers here get stuck, you just gotta pop it like this-" With a single movement, the locker opened.
    "Ahh! Thank you!" Aphmau cried, jumping up and down, "What's your name?" She asked.
    "Rylan. Though- We should probably get to homeroom. What homeroom d'you guys have?" Rylan asked.
    Ein spoke up, "Room 302, we have the same one." He grinned, glancing at his sister.
    "Same, you guys can walk with me. I have some friends in the class- Oh, and don't worry about being late. I'll explain it to the teacher." Rylan said, as they started walking.
    "Yay- Oh, I'm Aphmau! This is Ein, he's my younger brother." Aphmau chirped, her energy never waivering.
    "Younger? But you're shorter. By a lot." Rylan said bluntly. Aphmau stuck out her tongue.
    "Freshmen?" Rylan asked.
    "How does everybody know?!" Aphmau asked.
    "Well this is a pretty small school- and town in general. We all know eachother, for the most part." Rylan explained.
    "Oh... I didn't think about that." Aphmau laughed. They reached the classroom, now maybe four minutes late.
    They walked in, interuppting the teacher taking attendance.
    "Rylan? Why are you three late? And don't give that first day excuse-" The teacher started.
    "Sorry sir. They had the locker problem, and they're Freshmen so they couldn't have known." Rylan told him.
    "Alright, just take your seats so I can continue attendance. You two, you're glad they showed up. The lockers here are a pain..." The teacher trailed. Aphmau, Ein, and Rylan found seats in the back, and Rylan sat next to a werewolf with green hair who seemed to be a friend.
    "Wait-" Ein started, about to ask a question directed at Rylan.
    "The teacher called me they. I get questions about it a lot, don't worry." Rylan said, staying quiet so the teacher wouldn't hear them talking, "I'm Genderfluid, so I use any pronouns."
    "Oh, cool!" Ein said, "I'm trans, so I understand the pronoun questions... I got asked a lot in middle school why my teachers called me 'he.'"
    Rylan smiled at him, "You pass really well- I couldn't tell at all." She complimented. Ein grinned.
    "Aphmau Bravura?" The teacher called.
    "Here!"
    "Ein Bravura? Another one?"
    "Huh? Oh- here!" Ein called, snapping his attention back to the teacher. He listened casually as more names were called.
    "Rylan Wasa? Right, know he's here..."
    A few more names passed.
    "Daniel James?" The werewolf boy with green hair called out in response, sounding timid.
    "Here!"
    Ein doodled on the front page of his notebook, noticing just how many werewolves and Meif'wa were in the class.
    "Travis Val- Valcrumb? Valkorm?" The teacher stopped, unsure of how to pronounce the last name.
    "It- It's Valkrum!" A shy-sounding boy with white hair and glasses called out.
    "Valkrum, ah, thank you. And that's everybody! Alright, everyone, listen up!" Heads turned, and Ein closed his notebook, looking up.
    Rylan and Daniel stopped whispering to eachother, as Ein had just noticed they'd been doing. Aphmau snapped out of la-la-land.
    "Alright so, when the bell rings, I'm going to take you all to the field. If you're a Freshmen, you might wanna pay attention because I'm going to explain what's happening." A few more people directed their attention towards the teacher.
    "Today is the clubs day, and club leaders have set up their stands out on the field. You're all going to be walking around and looking at different clubs, and deciding which ones to join. After that, you'll all head to your last class of the day."
    'Clubs... huh, I wonder if there's one for videogames?' Ein thought.
    'Ooh please let there be an anime club!' Aphmau thought.
    The bell rang just a few minutes later, and everyone piled out of the classroom.
   
    "Hi Rylan!" A girl werewolf called, as Daniel and Rylan approached her.
    "Hey Dottie. Where's Blaze?" Rylan asked. Today he was wearing the guy's uniform. With some help from the principal last year, he owned both uniforms.
    "I think he went to find a ball- Maria was with him." Dottie said, her voice as light a floaty as ever.
    Daniel blushed, "Where did they go?" He asked.
    Dottie pointed in a direction, "They went over by the baseball club stand!" She said, talking over the growing noise around them as more people filed outside.
    Daniel ran off to find the other two, and Rylan and Dottie continued talking.
    On the other end of the field, Garroth met up with some of his friends.
    "Hey Laurence, hey Dante, hey Aaron." He greeted.
    "Oh hey Garroth, how was baseball camp?" Laurence asked.
    "Good. How was soccer camp?"
    "Eh, it was boring. I love soccer and all, but I already know how to play." Laurence explained.
    Dante spotted someone and ran off, without saying anything to the others.
    "Huh? Where's he off to?" Aaron asked.
    "Dunno." Garroth said.
   
    "TRAVIS!" Dante yelled, running up to him. Travis whipped around and saw him, grinning.
    "Dante! Hey! I'm a Freshmen now!" He said excitedly, high-fiving his best friend.
    "Hey Trav! You're gonna love it here- have you seen all the clubs yet?" Dante asked.
    "I've seen a lot! There's a theatre club- but I've been too scared to talk to the leader heh..." Travis admitted.
    The two childhood friends continued chatting, everyone around them walking from stand to stand.
    Over by the edge of the field, where things were less crowded, a small group of three stood. Two girls, and a boy.
    "Listen, Sasha, there's a reason I've always skipped these. Why do we even have to be here? You're the only one oogling someone-" Zenix complained.
    "Shut it, Zen. I'm not oogling, dickhead. Just looking for her." Sasha snapped. Grace laughed at his expense.
    "Ugh, I wanna go inside. It's too fucking bright." Zenix mumbled, squinting.
    "Stop complaining, it's fucking annoying." Sasha said. Zenix growled.
    "D'you see her yet? 'Cos I'm still doubting your description of, in your exact words, 'she looks like pink vomited all over.'" Grace said.
    "Hey, Grace, you shut up too. I'll tell you when I- there she is!" Sasha said, pointing out a darker Meif'wa with bright pink hair and pink boots instead of the navy blue shoes that were part of the girl's uniform.
    "Her? She's the girl you're seeing?" Zenix growled, slightly disapproving.
    "Oi, shut the fuck up. She's more hardcore than you'll ever be." Sasha dissed.
    The pink-haired Meif'wa spotted them, and sneakily watched them for a minute, taking in their details.
    Sasha had long, silver hair, and had just smacked Zenix in the arm after he had said something. Zenix was rubbing his arm, his dark reddish hair flying in the wind. All three of them were in school uniforms, so nothing interesting there. Grace, the tallest with shoulder-length black hair, was laughing at her friends.
    The Meif'wa decided to go up to them, ignoring a few looks she got at her boots. The uniform was bullshit anyways, in her opinion.
    "Hey Sash." She greeted, tail swishing, a slight genuine smirk on her face.
    Sasha abadoned her attempts to cause Zenix bodily harm, "Nana- hey. Sorry about Zen, he's being an ass." She said.
    "Haha, nice. So these are your friends?" Nana asked, slipping her hand into Sasha's.
    "Yeah. This is Grace, the actually cool one. She's the leader of the Shadow Knights. And that's Zenix, the dumbass." Sasha explained.
    Nana laughed, "Dope. Nice to meet ya, Grace and dumbass."
    Zenix grumbled.