A Life Worth Living (Aizawa x OC)

11 - Lunch Break Jump Scare

Later that day, as Himari left Recovery Girl's office, it was almost time for the lunch break, her rumbling stomach already urging her to make a pit stop at the cafeteria.

Fortunately, Chiyo had already taken notice of Himari's rather questionable sense of direction, resulting in her providing the woman with detailed instructions on how to get to the school cafeteria. A foolproof instruction in Recovery Girl's opinion.

Well, it turned out that her understanding of foolproof was different than Himari's.

Somehow, the orientationally challenged former heroine managed to get lost in the endless hallways of U.A. High. Again.

But luckily, her aimless strolling was soon interrupted by the shrill ringing of the bell, indicating that the lunch break had officially begun, which caused students to swarm the previously empty corridors within a matter of seconds.

Not willing to openly display any weakness, Himari went into stealth mode and inconspicuously started to follow students who seemed to be on the way to the cafeteria, keeping her head down and secretly hoping that none of her colleagues would spot her in this uncomfortable situation.

There had already been enough embarrassment for today.

It didn't exactly contribute to her intention to stay undetected that the students were gawking at her, but she couldn't blame them since unknown people at school grounds were a rarity, and an unknown adult could only mean two things: either it was a hero or possibly a new teacher.

Simply ignoring the stares, she unsuspiciously continued to follow the young boys who were walking in front of her with a safety distance, trying to make it look like she was coincidentally heading in the same direction.

As the sign of the cafeteria finally came into sight, Himari had to make a conscious effort to not let out a scream of victory, satisfied that her absolutely hilarious plan had worked and had safely navigated her to the destination.

Despite the lunch break just having started minutes a few minutes ago, the cafeteria was already crammed with people, which crushed Himari's hopes to quickly snatch some food and eat in peace and quiet.

Too many people. So noisy.

Knowing that skipping lunch was not an option if she wanted her stomach to remain quiet for the rest of the day, she reluctantly accepted her fate.

Her eyes scanned the crowded hall, spotting the other teachers neatly placed at a table in a secluded area.

Present Mic was gesturing vividly, making the impression of being in the middle of a narration, whereas most of the other teachers were primarily focused on the food placed in front of them, absent-mindedly nodding their heads now and then in affirmation to whatever Mic was saying. Nemuri seemed to be the only one who actively listened and chimed in.

For a second, Hizashi's volume got out of control and she could even hear bits and pieces of the story he was telling, but Nemuri immediately intervened and reminded him to pipe down.

Himari couldn't help but smile at the sight.

It was something so perfectly normal. A boring scene out of a boringly normal day.

Normality.

She hadn't had the pleasure to experience something normal for a while, and she genuinely enjoyed to see that, except for what had happened to her, life seemed to be as normal as it had been before everything had been turned upside down from one day to another.

But somehow, she felt out of place in this normality. There was nothing she'd loved to do more than simply returning to that normality as if nothing had happened at all.