"...For this assignment, you'll be working with a partner that I'll randomly choose from the computer..."
When the teacher mentioned the last part, almost everyone in the classroom groaned as there's a good chance that they'll be stuck with someone who won't do their fair share of the work, has quirks that might annoy them, has a hatred for them, the list goes on.
Kamui Hier, on the other hand, didn't mind the fact that the English teacher is going to assign partners rather than letting everyone choose who to work with. She, along with her younger brother, Leo, transferred to Emblian High School, with Elise at Zenith Middle School, just a month ago due to Xander's and Camilla's new jobs that are quite far from their old home. And in the time from September to early October, Kamui isn't familiar with most of her classmates in her grade besides Leo and her old childhood friend, Silas.
Unfortunately for her, neither Leo nor Silas is in her English class. From the decently large class of twenty-seven, she can recognize at least four: Owain Griffith, who she can recognize due to him somehow being friends with her brother and his 'colorful' personality (as Leo puts it lightly). Inigo Bellerose as he flirts with almost every girl he sees, including Kamui at one point. Oboro Tachibana, who gives a nasty glare whenever she's near someone who's from Kamui's old district, Nohr. And the last one she can recognize easily that's been dubbed as Mr. Perfect by several of Kamui's classmates (even Silas): Tsubaki Miyazaki.
With the exception of Tsubaki, Kamui has made at least one conversation with her classmates that she recognizes, though short ones. So if Kamui gets paired with one of the four she's familiar with, the most trouble she would have is with Tsubaki due to the fact that they didn't have a conversation before and she can only go off by rumors on how he acts (show-off, picky on every detail, etc.), whereas Owain is easier since he gets along with her and her brother, mainly the latter.
As she heard the teacher, Annias (or Anna for short) typing on her computer, Kamui swore to the gods that she overheard Anna quietly laughing to herself. Kamui wasn't the only one who heard their teacher's laughter as some of the students were whispering to each other that the pairs the computer has chosen were going to be… 'quite a show' as one student put it.
"Okay, class. Since there's an uneven amount of students in here, one group will be working in three, so let's name your partners starting with the group of three," Anna announced as she started to read off the names from the computer.
Oh gods, don't let me be in the group of three, Kamui begged in her mind. Potentially working with one stranger doesn't bother Kamui, but two?! No way!
Fortunately for Kamui, her name wasn't called out for the group of three. Safe.
But the rest were pairs, and she doesn't want to be paired off to someone who refuses to cooperate with her.
"Inigo and Peri," Anna said, stopping to read off the computer as she heard the light-blue haired boy scream 'NO' before slamming his head on the desk. "You'll be fine," Anna added as she continued on to the list.
Peri? Kamui assumes it's the girl with cotton-candy colored pigtails as she squealed when she heard she's being paired with Inigo. Well, at least one girl is happy to be paired with Inigo unlike most of them in this class.
"Anyway, someone in here is lucky to be with Mr. Perfect," Anna announced as several people were gasping on who would be with Tsubaki. "And that lucky student happens to be Kamui Hier."
This is going to be interesting, Kamui thought as she's thinking about how the project will go for her with Tsubaki. Well, at least she's not paired off with a total stranger (AKA: doesn't know his/her name).
As Anna is continuing to announce the assigned pairs to the class, Kamui turned around to see Tsubaki two desks behind her, smiling and waving at her, with the sandy blonde replying back with the same gesture. So far, not too bad.
Five minutes later, everyone in the class has been paired up and Anna is currently going over the assignment that's going to be due in a month from today. November 10th to be precise. Everyone is following along the paper Anna handed out a few minutes ago as the red-head is pointing out the important details in the assignment.
The assignment is that the students has to write a short story that's at least three pages long. Seems too simple for everyone.
"However, when your partner is done writing a paragraph, whether be it a description or a line of dialogue, the other one has to write the next one," Anna explained in detail. Already, she can hear some groans and comments on how one partner can ruin the story with a horrible paragraph and that they need to be with their partner for the whole assignment. "Hey, hey, hey. I know it sounds like torture..."
"It's already agony for me!" Inigo commented, pointing to Peri who has already moved next to his desk.
Ignoring that comment, Anna continued, "But I feel that this is unique way of getting everyone to have their part on the assignment rather than letting one person doing the entire project. And nobody wants that scenario to happen. Am I correct?"
"Yes," everyone answered to their teacher.
"Great. Now, to make this assignment easier for you and your partner, I suggest putting your short story on a Google Drive document or a similar program so you won't have to always be physically be with your partner. As for what type of short story to write..."
Kamui ended up jotting down several scenarios for the short story as she knew Tsubaki might ask her what type of genre they would go for. Just as long as horror isn't involved. Wait, like that would ever happen. Most of scenarios usually involve heartwarming moments between friends, romance between two people that started off as rivals, and one involving a family with a harsh environment on the inside despite having everything a kid would want.
"Hmm… Maybe the last topic seems harsh..." Kamui muttered to herself as she tried to think up another scenario that doesn't sound too mean-spirited. "What if… what if this character has to choose between two-"
"Kamui?" Anna cut Kamui's train of thought that the sandy blond ended up dropping her pen on the floor and let out a small gasp before picking her pen up.
"Uh… Yes?"
"It's great that you're eager to start the assignment right away, but try to keep your volume down a bit."
"Oh. Sorry about that," Kamui apologized. She wonders how Anna could even hear her despite her talking a bit quietly than usual. Maybe she does have a hawk's hearing. Or a dog's.
"It's fine. We have five minutes before class is over, but do you have any questions that doesn't involve switching partners?"
Well, now's the time. Kamui thought as she placed her pen on top of her journal.
"Yeah, I do. Does the topic have to be school appropriate?"
"Anything is fine as long as it doesn't involve sex or harsh violence," Anna answered Kamui's question before asking the rest of the class, "So, does anyone else have any other questions?"
Nobody responded for five seconds, indicating that they either have no more questions at this point, or simply because it's Friday and everyone wants to go home and do nothing for the rest of the day. Hey, it's the last period of the day for everyone here.
"Alright!" Anna happily exclaimed. "The remaining time is yours, and I suggest using it to get your partner's contact info."
As soon as Anna sat down in her chair, half of the class bolted out of their seats and sat next to their partner, pulling out their phones from their backpacks or pockets and asking their partner for their phone number, or just saying 'hello' and attempting to make a conversation. Kamui was about to get up from her desk to sit next to Tsubaki, but the red-head already made his way to an empty desk next to Kamui, setting his backpack on the ground.
"Uh… hello," Kamui started to speak to him.
"Hello to you too, Kamui," Tsubaki replied back. "Like the teacher said, you're really lucky to have me as your partner. I'll make sure we'll get a perfect grade on this assignment."
"Great," Kamui smiled as she pulled her phone from her hoodie pocket. "So, can you give me your number so we can contact each other?"
Tsubaki didn't answer as he nodded 'yes' to Kamui before taking her phone and typing in his information on it. As Tsubaki is doing that, Kamui ripped a part of her notebook paper and wrote her contact info with it to give to her partner.
As she handed the small slip of paper to Tsubaki, the red head asked, "Do you have something planned after school?"
"I don't," Kamui replied as she got back her phone. Other than binge watching hilariously bad romantic comedies with Elise, nothing too important. Besides, the bad movie night can wait until tomorrow. "Did you want to discuss about what we should write for the short story? Because I had several topics in mind..."
"I had some ideas as well. We obviously don't have the time to discuss them here," Tsubaki pointed to the clock that has the minute hand almost at the 6, which means there's at least one minute before class is over. "So, I propose we meet at Rose's Thorn at 5 o'clock. Does that seem fine to you?"
"Yes it does!" Kamui happily answered. "My older sister, Camilla, actually owns the place. I better message her about you so she doesn't get the wrong idea."
"What does that mean?" Tsubaki wondered.
"Let's just say… She's a bit… protective of me, especially around boys she isn't familiar with."
As in, Camilla is fine with her siblings, one of her co-workers Jakob, and Silas being around with Kamui whenever Camilla is nearby. Any other boy… Not so good and really need to impress Camilla the first time, maybe second if she finds something interesting about that boy.
"But I'm sure Camilla will like you," Kamui reassured Tsubaki as the bell ringed, all the students rushing out of the classroom and going home. As Kamui got up from her desk, she said to Tsubaki, "Okay, then. I'll see you at Rose's Thorn! Later!" before leaving the classroom with her belongings.
Not too shortly after Kamui left, Tsubaki packed up his belongings and left the classroom and entered the hallway with the other students rushing to either to the bus loops or the front of the school, waiting for their parents to pick them up, walking home, or just simply drive off if they're lucky enough to own a car. As for Tsubaki, he has to take the public bus to get home.
He does have a driver's license, but there's only one car in his home and the car is rarely home whenever Tsubaki is awake due to his father's job. And whenever the car is home on a school day, his father wouldn't even let Tsubaki use the car for just one day and insists that he drive Tsubaki to school and be picked up by him, which Tsubaki refuses for… reasons.
Even then, he didn't mind taking the bus to get home from school. Tsubaki entered the public bus, swiped his bus pass on the transaction machine before taking his seat close to the front door of the bus. As Tsubaki pulled out his phone and started to input Kamui's contact info, he spotted Inigo and Owain entering the bus, alongside with a girl with absurdly long red pigtails named Severa who had her headphones on; possibly to not listen to the conversation between the two.
"Come on, Owain! I'd rather have demon face as my partner than Peri!" Inigo begged his blonde friend as they took their seats.
"Sorry, Inigo of the Azure Skies," Owain replied, pulling his phone to see if his partner, Oboro, has messaged him. "We must uphold the teacher's promise of not switching partners. Besides, Peri is ecstatic to be by your side, so at least you'll make her smile. Isn't that your job?"
"I guess so, but still! Didn't you hear what she said as we left class?"
"Something about how she declared that you two would be together for eternity? Didn't you say that you'd want a girl to say that to you?" Owain smiled as he asked Inigo.
"When I was six!" Inigo fired back to his friend. "I didn't want someone as crazy like Peri to say that to me."
"It'll be the only time you'll hear a girl say that," Severa added as she can clearly hear her two friends over her headphones.
Inigo didn't say anything after that as he heard both Owain and Severa laughing, along with some people who caught on to their conversation.
Not too shortly after, the bus started moving and the people that were still standing quickly sat down. Tsubaki would normally read a book to pass the time as it takes twenty minutes to get to his stop, but instead, he's thinking about what Kamui said earlier on her older sister, Camilla.
He did meet her once a few weeks ago while he was studying for an exam in his History class and the two of them had a conversation about the relationship between Sigurd and Deirdre during the Jugdral War; the main focus on his test. Tsubaki talked about how Sigurd's and Deirdre's marriage indivertibly caused destruction over the continent but eventually saved it due to their children, while Camilla focused on their romance and how tragically it ended. When their conversation was over, he can remember Camilla saying:
"That was quite fun chatting with you. We should do this the next time you visit."
Also, during that conversation, they never gave out each other's name, though one of the workers mentioned that he was lucky to have a conversation with the owner of Rose's Thorn. And today, not only did he learned about the owner's name thanks to Kamui, but the fact that she and Camilla are actually related to each other!
Still, he's a bit worried about what might happen in less than two hours because of what Kamui said.
"She's a bit… protective of me, especially around boys she isn't familiar with."
It might sound silly since Tsubaki has already met Camilla before, but now he wonders if the friendly tone with Camilla might fade away once he's around Kamui. Or worse…
"Stay the hell away from my precious Kamui, you imperfect man!"
There's no way she would ever say that. Right? Tsubaki worridly thought as he heard the text message tone from his phone. He looked at the screen and saw Kamui's name on there with a message:
Kamui: Just mentioned you to Camilla and she's eager to see you. She said she has already met you. Is that true?
It didn't took Tsubaki a few seconds to reply back to Kamui.
Tsubaki: Yes. Two weeks ago to be exact.
Kamui: No way! Anyway, are you planning to bring your laptop with you? That is, if you have one… (That's a dumb question -_-.)
Tsubaki: One, I do have a laptop like most people. Two, I'll bring my laptop with me, so don't worry about bringing yours. And three, that question isn't dumb, I promise.
Kamui: Alright then. Just be yourself and Camilla will really like you. See you at 5! :D (Oh, thank the gods...)
Tsubaki sighed at the last message as he has heard this advice from others multiple times throughout his life, and only tried it half of the time with varying results. Some were happy, others…
You must be perfect to get everyone to at least respect you. Anything less than that, then you're worthless. Remember that.
"Of course I do," Tsubaki muttered to himself, remembering the words that are engraved in his mind.
I'm never less than perfect. I'll never be that as long as I live. Not today, tomorrow, or the days following that.
Good. Keep it up.
Author's Note: This is also on AO3 if you want to view it there. It was suppose to be released on Tsubaki's birthday (2/7), but it ended up being a bit late.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!