I don't know what the high school system where you're from is like, so I'll quickly explain how it is where I'm from, since it's the same in the story.
High school is a three year 'pre-education'. It's not mandatory. After elementary (Which are from 0-9th grade) you choose if you want to go to high school or not. A student in each year of high school has overall name, but since I don't want to translate that I'll just use the American/English names: Freshman, Junior and Senior.
When you're in high school you choose a line to 'specialize in'. For example if you want to be a doctor, you'll choose Math as your line, because this line has the requirements to get you in to medical school. If you want to be in, let's say, communication, you might choose social studies etc. Other lines(Which was in my high school) is language and science(Broad term, but the line mainly focuses on biology, chemistry and physics). These lines are what you primarily focuses on in you high school experience, but there are also mandatory classes, which every student have to have in order to graduate.
In three years you have one class, which consist of the same 25(Random number) people. These people are people who have the same line as you. That means that all your classes will be with these people, except for the elected extra classes that you have to choose one or two off.
Hope that helped explaining how things are in here!
-X-
"Armin you're shaking, relax a little" Eren said and placed a hand on Armin's shoulder to calm him down. Mikasa glanced sideways to see if Armin did as he was told. He took a deep breath and nodded.
The three of them was walking on their way to school. It was their first day of high school and they were all pretty nervous. It was Friday and they had to go and meet their new classes today.
It was a big day, not everybody chose to go to high school. Eren hadn't thought he would go. He had intended on becoming a butcher and he didn't need high school for that, but just before the end of 9th grade he had chosen to apply for the local school, Maria High.
Eren looked at Mikasa to see if she was nervous, but if she were she covered it quite well.
Eren's mom had taken him and Mikasa out shopping a week before school start and they had brought new pencil cases, bags, other school stuff and first day outfits.
He had been a little reluctant of the last, he hated clothe shopping.
"What does it matter what I wear? It's high school not kindergarten. I don't have to have new clothes for that" He told his mom when she showed him a little too formal shirt.
"You just don't want to look like you're trying too hard" Mikasa said as she came out of the changing room, laughing at him, because that was exactly why he didn't want to wear clothes, that were obviously new, on his first day of high school.
Mikasa's not much of a girly girl, but once you take her shopping for clothe she jumps right into the stereotypical image of a female shopper, just as much as Eren became the perfect image of a stereotypical male shopper.
They were both wearing their chosen clothes today. He had gone for some regular black jeans, and a white creamy T-shirt. Mikasa had, after countless hours of debate with their mother, chosen denim short and a loose navy green tang top. She was going to attract all the guys in their new class, especially since she cut her hair. She used to have very long black hair, but it had started to annoy her, so she cut it short. She had had their mom cut it just under the ears and it suited her. Not many girls could get away with a short haircut like that, but Mikasa rocked it.
Eren looked away from Mikasa and watched Armin instead. He wasn't breathing as frantically as before, but he was looking straight ahead with a look of horror.
They arrived at the school twenty minutes before they should meet, so they found a bench outside and waited. The sun was baking and made them sweat a little.
"You're still not relaxing" Mikasa said to Armin who hadn't gotten the hunted expression off his face.
"I know. I'm just so nervous, I don't know anyone"
"You know us" She said with a hurt expression
"Yeah, I know! But that's not what I meant. We're not going to be in classes together." He seemed kind of panicked now.
"I've never known anyone besides you guys, what if they don't like me? What if they are going to, you now, bully me?"
"Listen Armin! They are not going to do that. This is high school, people are more mature here than those idiots from elementary. People here, are here of their own free will, they chose high school. That means they are here to learn, just like you, me and Mikasa. They most likely have the same interest as you, so for what would they bully you? They will probably worship you because you're so smart! If someone's going to get bullied it'll have to be me. I'm not smart, so I probably won't fit in as much as you, but you don't' see that line of thoughts stopping me from being exited for starting high school!"
He gave Armin a big smile of encouragement "Besides if, and that's a big if, they are bullying you, I'll kick their asses!"
"I will too!" Mikasa added. They were both very protective of Armin. Armin was very smart, which meant that he understood things earlier than most people their age. That meant that Armin developed opinions about complicated stuff far before anyone they knew and he was passionate about them, so he often chose to state them. Armin was mind wise beyond his classmates, so whenever he said something he would get beat up because their classmates didn't understand what he said and therefore didn't know how to respond and that made them resort to violence. They often thought that Armin was making fun of them for not understanding what he had said, even though he wasn't that kind of person.
That was how he and Eren had met.
Eren thought back on the first day they had met, it was in kindergarten on the playground.
Eren had come outside early so he had gotten a swing, one of the more popular playthings, which he currently was standing on while he swung back and forth. He was looking around and had seen a kid with blonde hair sitting on a bench close by, with a tiny book. Eren observed the blonde guy, because he thought that it was kind of weird to sit and read a book when they had gotten permission to go outside to play. All the other kids was scattered on the playground doing all kinds of stuff like building castles in the sand or playing Family or Tag.
Two guys came up to Armin. They didn't look like they had the best of intentions.
"What is this" one of the guys said and flicked the book.
"A book" Armin had said, looking puzzled. It was clearly he thought the guy was some kind of stupid, since he didn't even know what a book was.
"I know that, idiot!" The guy said in an angrier tone. The other guy chuckled and knocked the book out of his hands, so it fell to the ground and closed. Armin didn't even look down. He had gotten a scared expression. At this point, Eren was considering getting involved, but wasn't sure if he should.
"Bu…but why did you ask if you already knew?" Armin had stammered. His logic easy to follow, but just made the guy angrier.
"You're stupid."
"I'm not" He stammered again. He at least tried to look as though the guys weren't intimidating him.
"Yeah you are. You're so stupid they punished you by making you read. You aren't even allowed to play" Said the other guy and laughed of his insult.
"I'm not and they didn't! I read it because I like it. I don't want to play your stupid games anyway, books are fun and exciting!" He looked the guy straight in the eyes, which was probably a mistake, because he jumped on Armin, so they both rolled around on the dirty ground.
That's when Eren jumped in. As soon as the boy had lunged forward to tackle Armin, Eren had jumped of the swing and ran to his aid.
Eren grabbed the shirt off the boy and pulled him of Armin and punched the boy in his face. The guy, who had started harassing Armin, joined the fight and it became a sort of three way fight where everybody hit everybody. They were split up, when an adult saw them; the three were lectured afterwards on how violence never was the answer. They were only kids, so no one got injured except for a few bruises here and there. All three of them was horrified, when the adult told them they would call home and notice their parents of their behavior. They were told to sit in each room and wait for their parents.
Eren had sat in the room he was giving for about fifteen minutes when the door opened and Armin had come in.
"You're not supposed to be her. I'm being punished" Eren told him. He smiled at him, because Armin had looked really guilty and Eren didn't think he should be feeling guilty of anything.
"I know, I just wanted to say thanks. For helping me. I'm sorry you got in trouble" He looked at the ground.
"It's alright. They were being farts." Eren said, because he was in kindergarten and fart was a suitable swearword. Armin had even chuckled at that.
"What's your name?"
" Armin" He still looked at the ground.
"Hey Armin, I'm Eren. Nice to meet you" He had stretched his arm out so that they could shake hands.
They had been silent after that and Armin had sat there until Eren's parents came to get him. Eren didn't get in trouble with his parents when he had told them the situation, although they said that next time he had to get an adult instead of starting a fight.
The next day Eren sat down beside Armin, who again sat on the bench reading his book. Eren had looked over the shoulder to see that it was a picture book, with a few sentences out from every picture. Eren couldn't read yet, at the time he only knew how to spell his own name, but Armin, although slowly, read every single sentence in the tiny book.
"Hey" Eren had said to him. Armin had looked at him with surprise as though he was shocked to be approached by Eren.
"Hello" He closed his book, cautiously looking at Eren
"Do you wanna go home with me tomorrow? I just got the new Crash Bandicoot for my playstation! I thought we could play it together" Eren had said proudly.
Armin had agreed that he would, but he had to talk to his parents about it. Eren had talked to his own parents and they had giving him a note with their phone number on, so Armin's parents could call and arrange them having a play day.
Eren smiled at the memory, if he hadn't jumped into that fight he and Armin probably wouldn't be sitting on the bench outside Maria High being best friends.
"Thanks guys, I appreciate it, but I'm still nervous" Armin said
"I know, I'm also nervous! It's exciting though" Eren said as he took out a pack of cigarettes.
"You know smoking is bad for you guys!" Armin said as Eren passed one to Mikasa
"How do you even buy those? You are only 16!"
"They don't card you at the station" Mikasa said as she lit the smoke.
"I don't understand why you two even started, it's not like it taste good does it?" Armin shook his head, never approved of the filthy habit.
"It doesn't taste that bad" Eren said, because every kid who smokes at the age of sixteen tries to convince people that it's not that bad, even though it is.
"It's simple actually" It was simple. Eren had started because he wanted to look cool and tough and he thought he did just that when he was pulsing on a cigarette. He had started a year ago. Mikasa had started because she wanted to see what the appeal was, and because Eren did, she continued.
"It looked interesting. Why would the adults keep smoking if it wasn't? So I tried it and it is interesting! I've told you before Armin" Not a lie, but not the complete truth either, because Eren really just wanted to show people that he wasn't afraid of something like a cigarette although people said it was dangerous.
"Yeah Yeah, hurry up and finish we need to be in there in a minute"
They went inside the school and found their way to the auditorium, where they would meet and get information regarding their classes. The three of them sat together on the back rows. Their principal, Erwin Smith, held a welcoming speech and told that he hoped they would get the best out of the next three years. When he was done, a polite applause filled the auditorium.
"Right. So you might have noticed that you guys are the only ones at the school at the moment. That's because our juniors and seniors, starts on Monday. We have done it like that, so you can get used to the school before it's filled with too many people." He smiled brightly before he continued "The only exception is the tutors, who you are going to meet in a minute. They will show you around and tell you a little about the school. We are going to split you up in a moment, so you can meet your classes. The tutors will announce the classes and when your class is called you will follow the tutor to a classroom."
Mikasa was looking straight forward, Eren was holding his breath and Armin was nervously stomping the ground. There were nine different classes this year, named after letters in the alphabet.
A girl with brown hair got up from a chair, she had been sitting in the front row. Two other people followed her as she got up front. They apparently announced the classes backwards.
"Hi everyone! Would class y, please get up and follow me" She said brightly. Eren felt Armin tense beside him. That was his class.
They had all gotten their letter in the start of the summer. Armin was in class y because he wanted to study science. He and Mikasa had chosen the same line, math, even though Eren wasn't that good at it. He had giving it a lot of thought and had decided that he might want to try to follow his dad and get into medical school. It was far from being a butcher, but he had always wanted to follow his dad's steps. He just never thought he had the ability. Armin had been one of the people to convince him that he wouldn't know if he didn't try. Mikasa wanted to do whatever Eren did. He had told her that that wasn't going to help her in any way. That she might end up regretting it, if she didn't do something she wanted, but she just told him that she wanted what he wanted. So he had end up saying "Whatever, just don't blame me if you one day realize that whatever you do, isn't what you want to be doing". Before they opened their letter they had both been nervous, because even though you choose the same line, it's not giving that you will be in the same class. They had opened and been relieved to see that they should be in the same class.
"It's going to be fine, remember I'll kick ass if you don't like them"
Armin gave him a half smile as he got up and walked over to the group in the front. There was a little disturbance as the rest of class y got up and left the auditorium.
A tiny, petite girl came up next with a tall guy, who looked arrogant.
"Hi guys!" She looked really nervous "So would the, ehm, x class follow me please?"
That was it; it was Eren and Mikasa's class. They got up, with about twenty other people and followed the two out of the auditorium.
"What room is for us?" the guy asked
"11. Okay guys, this way" she guided the class.
They sat down in the classroom and, Eren could see he wasn't the only one who was nervous.
"My name is Petra Ral and I'm one of your two tutors. I'm a senior in class x, so I also chose math as my line!" She smiled and gestured to the guy.
"My name is Auruo and I'm in the same class as she"
"Right, we are your tutors. That means that we are to show you around and answer any question you might have. No question is stupid, so just go with it. That's what we're here for."
"Not me, I'm just here because she is" Auruo said and looking rather bored.
"Auruo" she said and punched him in the arm. "Before we start introducing each other, is there anyone who already knows someone in this class?"
Eren, Mikasa and a few others put up their hands. She asked who the people knew and she then shuffled the seating arrangement, so no one sat with someone they knew.
Eren ended up beside a big guy who leaned in and said "Hi I'm Reiner", while Mikasa ended up beside a little girl who looked just as hostile as Mikasa usually did.
They ended up standing up introducing themselves and telling a little about themselves. Afterwards they were shown around the school and had some team build activities at the schools green area. They saw Armin once, when their class walked passed his. At the end of the day, when everybody had talked with everybody, they got their books, so they could start like the rest of the school on Monday.
When their classes where done, they waited for Armin, but got a text from him saying that his weren't done yet so they should just go home without him. They lit a cigarette and passed it back and forth between them.
"That was a pretty cool class, wasn't it?" He smiled at Mikasa as they walked.
"It was. I liked it. Petra was really nice too, not sure if I like Auruo though" she said
"I know, He's really arrogant! He probably just wants to get in her pants" he laughed
"Totally"
They walked the rest of the way home in silence and when they came home, they both went to bed early. They were both exhausted.
Some of you might, I don't know, 'sneer' at this part:
"Listen Armin! They are not going to do that. This is high school, people are more mature here than those idiots from elementary. People here, are here of their own free will, they chose high school. That means they are here to learn, just like you, me and Mikasa. They most likely have the same interest as you, so for what would they bully you? They probably worship you because you're so smart! If someone's going to get bullied it'll have to be me. I'm not smart, so I probably won't fit in as much as you, but you don't' see that line of thoughts stopping me from being exited for starting high school!"
Because in most places, high school sucks big balls. But I just wanted to tell you something before you say it's stupid or unrealistic.
It's a personal experience of mine that high school is a mature place. It at least is where I'm from. Elementary is where all the douchebags are. I was bullied and hated elementary, so I had an Armin kind of approach to high school. To my utter astonishment I met people in high school who didn't say that I was a weirdo for liking reading and learning, what surprised me more was that I met people who were the same.
I think that high school was a pleasant place, because most bullies are people who don't really do well in school(?) or want to be in a work of line that doesn't need academic properties. At least that's what all my bullies have been and done (And any other bullies I've heard of. Not that smart people can't be bullies, they just rarer I think).
That meant my bullies didn't go to high school. That also meant that most of the people who chose high school was people of genuinely wanted to be there nad yeah I don't know why I told oyu this, but I felt like it needed an explanation idk. Hope you enjoy this fic.