A small white rabbit with a blue collar hopped onto the bed, the blankets adorned in a snowflake pattern.
Rising from her slumber, the sun gently rested on a young girl's awakening face as she reached over for her glasses. She placed them on the bridge of her nose, noticing how much dirt had accumulated. With a spray of glass cleaner and a small towel they were once more crystal clear. Putting the glasses back on, the girl looked down at her furry friend on her bed. "Snowball, how did you get out of your cage?" said the girl to the rabbit, slightly annoyed. The creature simply looked to the side.
"Hm?" She blinked and checked her alarm clock beside her bed, the face reading exactly 13 minutes past 8. "My alarm isn't working again," she sighed. "Thank you for waking me up, Snowball," said the girl, gently picking up the rabbit and bringing him back to his cage. Wandering to her dresser, she looked in the mirror.
Her name was Mei-Ling Zhou, and today was her first day of high school. It was slightly nerve wracking, but nothing she couldn't handle. Noticing the small photo stuck in the frame of her mirror caused Mei to smile; it was of her and a classmate, Genji Shimada. The photo was taken at the school sports fair in 5th grade. She knew Genji just barely, but enough to have formed a rather big crush on him over the years since elementary school. He had taught her how to do origami on their first day of 2nd grade, something she remembered to this day. Genji was nice and sweet, but also brave and not afraid to speak his mind. The problem was, Mei was so shy around him to the point where he barely knew her besides being the girl he had shared tons of classes with.
Getting ready for school, Mei threw on her favorite color: blue. Blue skirt, blue choker, blue denim jacket with fuzz on the collar. The only thing that wasn't blue was the red topper on her snowflake hair pin, and her plain white shirt. It wasn't the best outfit, but it worked. "Snowball, be good while I'm at school. We had a great summer, but now I must go back to my studies," Mei smiled, petting Snowball, her arm through the cage. Snowball's eyes seemed to shine as if to say, "Good luck!" Making her way to the kitchen, Mei was greeted by...nothing. Her parents worked long hours and started their work day at 6 AM. They worked for Lucheng Interstellar, the city's premier space industry. Popping some toast in her mouth, Mei was ready to go, slipping on her boots.
Mei walked quietly on the sidewalk to school. Her fuzzy trimmed boots shuffled, causing her dark brown hair tied up to shift at any sign of motion. Looking at her phone, it read 8:20 AM. School didn't start until 9 today, unlike the usual time of 8:30. Wednesdays were late start days, when all the teachers would get together in the morning to discuss any important matters about their lesson plans, school events, and the like. It was sort of an odd choice for the first day of school.
The young Asian girl pulled out a piece of paper, scanning it over. Her daily schedule. She had Drawing, Geometry, World History, Lunch, Yoga, AP Chinese, and AP Environmental Science, in that order. She was relieved to have her favorite subjects in the latter half of the day. It made the day easier for her.
While she was very good at all of her classes, in middle school she was constantly teased on by Amelie and her posse for being smart. Growing up being bullied by her, Mei had learned it better to stay quiet in class and let her knowledge shine through the assigned homework material.
Mei had been hoping to start a club this semester, the Environmental Club. Perhaps someone would feign interest. She had no friends to call her own, not even from elementary or junior high. Since Overwatch High School served students from all the different schools in the surrounding area, hopefully some new faces would love to be part of her clu-
Mei's thoughts were broken as a fellow freshman in an aviator jacket and orange shorts flew past her. Does she know it's a late start day? Didn't everyone read the school rules and manual front to back? The sprinting girl was fast- fast enough to be a solid member of the track team. "HEY, WE'RE GONNA BE LATE!" called out the girl in a thick Cockney accent. Mei blinked, hesitating before responding in a soft voice, "No, we're not…"
Unable to hear her, the girl slowed down and walked alongside Mei. "What was that, love?" she panted, catching her breath. Mei swallowed. Direct contact with people was still very foreign to her. "I-I said, we're not going to be late, because there's a late start today. We start at 9 on Wednesdays, according to the manual."
Lena smiled, looking relieved. "So we're not late, then? Thank heavens. Time seems to slip away from me a lot. Name's Lena Oxton," she extended her hand. Mei stared at it for a moment before realizing the spunky Brit wanted to shake hands. "O-Oh! Hello, I'm Mei-Ling Zhou. Just call me Mei," the fair-skinned Asian girl nodded, shaking her hand. Would this be a trusted confidante in the future? Mei hoped so.
As the two girls conversed (rather hesitantly on Mei's end, at least) they made their way to the front of the high school. The school itself was a drab white with orange and black highlights, all three being the school colors. There were a few shiny metallic accents here and there, but nothing too flashy. Mei couldn't put her finger on it, but something about the school exterior screamed as a mixture of modern and military-like inspired architecture. It looked more like an army reserve than a high school. In front of the entrance lay an outside mingling area with benches and bike racks.
At a bike rack stood a rather menacing looking large Islander boy with his dyed white and black hair tied up in a messy ponytail, and a shorter (but not by much) skinnier boy hung around him. Both of them had their own (beat up) bikes and were dressed in grungy clothing, clothing that almost looked haphazardly sewn together in a frenzy.
But the moment Mei saw the lanky boy, a feeling that she only could describe as "hopeful fear" ran through her chest and mind. He had pale skin and blonde hair that looked almost singed on the tips, as if it had been on fire. It almost looked like his skin was covered in a light layer of dirt or soot. Mei was too far away to see any more details of his exterior other than he was wearing a sort of ripped white tank top, and that his grungy torn hem camo pants had various patches on them. One of them looked like a smile, causing Mei to smile as she locked eyes with him.
This blonde boy was in the middle of talking. "An' then I threw one of my stink bombs, an' it went KA-" As he spoke, he felt eyes watching him. Near the end of it, he noticed the admirer and his mouth just…stopped working.
"It went what, Jamison?" his large friend muttered out impatiently, not noticing Jamison was distracted.
"Ka-boom…" Jamison said slowly as he saw her smile at him. He felt as time itself had slowed down, everything in slow-motion. Continuing to stare at the wall long after the bespectacled brunette was gone, his friend lifted a hand and waved it around in front of Jamison's dazed state, grunting loudly to get his attention.
Jamison shook his head comically, coming back down to Earth. "U-uh, mate, I gotta run. Got art class an' all. Wouldn't want to miss all that…dry paint action, y'know, bye Mako," he said with a mischievous grin, making his way to the doors the girl had just gone through.
-❄️️?
Lena hastily took Mei's class schedule out of her hands. "Oh, smashing! We have our first class of the day together, Mei! Art class!" Mei smiled in response, content she would have a familiar face with her for at least one hour of the day. "A-mei-zing! Haha…" she mumbled, still slightly shy. Lena chuckled.
The two chatted for a bit, finding their lockers and putting their things away. Strolling along the busy hallway, Lena wasn't looking where she was going. Sure enough, she smacked right into someone. Being thrown back to the ground, Lena winced, rubbing her head. "Ah, sorry abou-"
"Oh my gosh, are you alright?!" a British accent replied, worried.
Hearing the voice, Lena looked up at the opposing figure. Amber eyes, long red hair, cute freckles, slightly taller. Who was this girl? Lena's stare bore into her very soul.
Mei's awkward cough brought Lena back to reality. "Um, Lena, are you…alright?" Lena brushed herself off, grunting. "I'm sorry for bumping into you," the redhead offered a hand. Lena felt her face flush before hesitantly latching their hands together. Once standing, she fixed her composure. "Don't worry about it," Lena laughed, her face still slightly red, not letting go of the other girl's hand. "I'm Emily," the redhead said with a warm smile, gently squeezing Lena's hand to signal she was ready to let go. Flustering, Lena quickly let go. "Lena! I'm Lena. Lena Oxton," she laughed nervously. Emily made a small smirk, giggling.
Looking at the clock, Lena almost jumped, "Aw, rubbish, it's time for class, I'll see you around, Emily!"
The ginger haired girl simply nodded and waved, a light blush on her cheeks.
Trying to ignore the heat on her cheeks, Lena bumped Mei with her elbow. "Let's get to class, yeah?" Mei nodded, a small smile on her face. They were cute together.
-❄️️?
Upon entering the art room, Lena and Mei were taken aback by the amount of different art plastered to the wall. It seemed like this room was home to many different types of art classes. Mei wished she had such talent. However, she was not very good at drawing people. She was more-so with animals and still life as well as sculpture. For the life of her she had no idea how to shade, though. She was by no means an artist.
Lena, on the other hand, wasn't too bad with art. She preferred pop art and did a bit of it on her notebooks beforehand. Mei felt slightly undertalented here. It was strange (yet welcoming) to not be the smartest person in the room. Scanning the room, the two girls sat at a lone table. Everything was well and good until Mei looked at who was in the doorway.
"Mei-Ling Zhou, is that you, est que vous?"
Lena looked up from doodling in her notebook to see a tall girl who was as thin as possible except where it counted. Her hair was a deep black with a hint of blue. She wore a light purple (slightly unbuttoned to show a bit of cleavage) blouse along with a short yet flowy black skirt. Walking over, the girl stood next to the seated Mei with a coy smile on her face. Her long black fingernails drummed on the table. Looking closely, Lena noticed the girl was wearing red spider earrings along with a matching ring. Behind the girl stood two other girls, presumably her friends and partners in crime.
"Hello, Amélie…" Mei looked away, a face of defeat on. The slender girl smirked. "I see that you managed to make it here. If you were twice as smart, you'd still be an imbecile. Au revoir." Amélie turned away and walked to a table on the opposite side of the room with her friend. A soft sigh escaped Mei's lips. Tracer blinked and narrowed her eyes. "What was that about?"
"She, um, she's always been very rude to me, along with her friends…" softly spoke the fair-skinned girl. "I've known her since 4th grade, she stole all my friends by making up nasty lies about me," Mei said while adjusting her glasses. Lena frowned, looking at the girl, noticing a tall boy with green hair walk into the room. Mei's face went 3 shades of red at the sight of him. "Do you know that chap?" Lena looked at Mei, smirking.
The bespectacled girl sighed. "Y-Yes, I mean, not very well, but…"
"Oh really? Then what's his name?"
"Genji Shimada," Mei blurted out without thinking.
"Hey, Mei, is this seat taken?" Genji had walked up since Mei's thoughts had wandered, grabbing the chair in front of her. He had a rather charming smile on his face.
"No, please, sit with us!" Lena said loudly, grinning like a mischievous cat. Mei covered her face with her hands. Suddenly, a familiar voice called from across the room.
"Genji, sit with us!" shouted Amélie, a smirk on her face. The petite girl arose from her seat, walking over to him. Genji turned his head, looking at her. "Oh, Amélie, hello there. I was just about to sit with Mei," he smiled, not aware the French girl was trying to manipulate him. Once Amélie realized Mei had a crush on him in elementary school, she had made extra effort to make sure Mei never got a moment alone with him. Amélie probably didn't even like him.
Amélie rolled her eyes and smiled sweetly. "Oh, Genji, I know, but Mei here has her own friend to talk to. I have no one," she pouted, dragging him to her table. Lena scoffed. "You already have your own two leeches," she mumbled as the two of them scuffled away. "Doesn't that do your nut in?" she looked at Mei. Mei shrugged, speaking quietly, "I'm used to it."
Before the two had a chance to converse further, the bell rang, signaling the beginning of class. All attention was on the teacher. "I presume you all know what class this is. My name is Mr. Howell, and I'll be your teacher for..." the older man picked up a piece of paper, mumbling under his breath before continuing. "Introduction to Drawing, great…"
The man was about to continue even further before the classroom door opened. In walked the messy haired blonde misfit Mei saw by the bike racks earlier. Mei felt her eyes narrow slightly, she absolutely hated people who came in late. Mr. Howell raised an eyebrow, muttering in annoyance, "What is your name, young man?"
The blonde, who wasn't much shorter than the teacher, itched his head. "Fawkes, sir. Jamison Fawkes."
"Mr. Fawkes, you're late. I like my students to be on time." His eyes glanced towards the only free seats in front of Lena and Mei. "Sit down, over there," he nodded his head towards the table.
Jamison quickly nodded, before plopping down in one of the chairs.
As the teacher droned on about the basics of the class, Jamison noticed who was sitting in front of him. It was the small bespectacled girl from earlier, the one he thought was rather…attractive, to put it bluntly. He usually didn't like the nerdy quiet types, but there was something different about this one. It was like he physically felt her calling out for help. Help about what? Shit if he knew. She just looked so forlorn. Which didn't make much sense to him, because she seemed to be sitting with her friend. Every so often, Jamison would glance at Mei. Usually she was looking at the teacher as he talked, but a few times he saw her eyes dart to the other side of the room. After a while, Jamison realized who she was looking at. A strange looking fella with green hair. Green hair? Why would anyone think that was a good idea?
A polite cough distracted the Australian punk, locking eyes with Mei. She was smiling nervously, trying to hand a syllabus to him, her small hands decorated with blue snowflakes on her nails. Jamison automatically smiled wide, feeling a sudden warmth just seeing her smile. "Ah, thanks," he mustered, taking the sheet, their fingers brushing for a moment. Her hands (or fingers, more accurately) were ice cold. It wasn't even cold in the room, yet somehow they must have been cold as ice. He looked at his own hands, warm and covered in a slight layer of dirt.
-❄️️?
Soon enough, the class was half over after the teacher went over the syllabus. Jamison and Lena both personally loved the first day of classes because it usually meant you spent the entire period reading a piece of paper, spacing out, and getting no homework. Today, though, the syllabus was rather short, and a few copies seemed to have what appeared to be coffee stains. This teacher instructed them to practice drawing whatever they liked the rest of the period.
Drawing circles upon stripes, Lena hummed as she worked. "So, Mei, are you any good at drawing?" The fair-skinned Asian girl looked at her sketchbook perplexingly, struggling to draw a bird. "I'm…subpar," she murmured. Jamison's amber eyes darted over to Mei's work. "It looks…" he started to mumble. Mei looked up, blinking, not hearing what he had said.
Jamison froze. "Ah, uh, killer. It looks killer," he said, nodding slowly and glaring back at his own paper, scribbling messy smiley faces and harsh patterns that sort of resembled explosions. Mei looked confused, ignoring him. "Lena, what are you drawing?" "Ah, I'm drawin' just circles and stripes," she shrugged, looking at her paper. Her newfound friend tilted her head. "It reminds me of pop art, I think that's the correct term?" Mei said ponderingly. Lena smiled. "Thanks! I don't draw still-life very well, but I can draw a mean pop art piece!" she laughed, getting her blue and red pens out to fill in some of the stripes. "I think I need some paint, too," Lena said, getting up and running over to the other side of the room to get her supplies.
Mei, on the other hand, felt like any art she did was less than stellar. She was good at coloring those detailed coloring books designed for adults. She had a few of the pages on her wall in her room. Mei had tried to get into jewelry with her hair piece. She made it in middle school, while her elderly grandma was in the hospital. Her grandmother helped her make it. It meant a lot to Mei, especially since-
Mei's thoughts were interrupted by the blonde boy speaking up. "So," he peered over at her paper, "Mei, nice name." The bespectacled girl looked at him, confused. "Um, thanks," she mumbled. Where was this guy trying to go?
"Mind if I call ya snowbunny? Ya nose makes ya whole face look like a mad rabbit, and you look ready for winter with that fuzzy jacket," Jamison smirked a bit, a bit of venom in his voice. Mei felt her heart droop. THIS is what that feeling of hopeful fear was about earlier! The boy seemed like he may be a friend at first, but it would soon turn to a no-good bully.
The small brunette narrowed her eyes, focusing on her work. She gave the bird she was drawing a thorough scribbling, destroying it from existence. Instead, she worked on something new on a new page. Jamison took note, ruffling his own crazy head of hair. "What're ya drawin' now, snowbunny?" he watched.
"A rat," Mei replied sternly, putting detail into the rodent, giving it wild and crazy hair and bags around its eyes. In its paws was a circle with a familiar smiley face on it, a lit fuse connected to it. She then drew various piles of trash around. "A junk rat, to be specific, because your beady little eyes make you look like a rat," Mei snapped, tearing off the paper from her pad and throwing it at him. The bell rang as she got up, grabbed her things, and huffed out of the room.
Lena bumped into Mei on her way out, holding a small bowl of red paint, some splashing onto her shoes and shirt. "Oh rubbish, how am I gonna get this out?!" she said, looking at her shirt and setting the bowl down. Running to her seat to look through her bag, Jamison was still at his seat, looking at the picture Mei had drawn. As soon as his eyes had noticed the stink lines she had scribbled, Jamison let out a loud cackle, startling half the room. "She's perfect," he snickered, neatly folding the paper and putting it in a folder in his bag.
-❄️️?
Mei's first day of high school had been fairly well so far. She had met a new friend (Lena), got to practice some geometry, and in World History, the class discussed the country of Antarctica. Of course, Mei's mentions of hoping to build something there "to help our eco system" were met with snickers of disapproval, but she shrugged it off. Mei even got to spend some time with Lena during lunch. However, Lena had a few clubs in mind that she wanted to start applying for, so the two went their separate ways.
Bringing her empty lunch tray to a nearby garbage, Mei made her way to the school library. She wanted to see what kind of books were on the shelves, maybe do a little studying. Walking down a long corridor, the young Asian noticed that inside the library was a small tucked away door past a few bookshelves. Opening it slowly, to Mei's surprise it seemed to be a small empty club room. Most of the club rooms in the school were either already existing classrooms, or small rooms with their own dedicated club. Looking around, Mei stepped inside.
The room had a small window with blinds, a small bookshelf (empty, of course), and a few folding chairs resting against the wall. Mei smiled. Perhaps if she were to turn this into a club room, Mei could form the club she wanted! Mei quietly left the room, shutting the door behind her and walking over to the librarian to pursue this room. "That room? It hasn't been used in years, honestly," the librarian said softly. "I'm sure if you wanted to use it, you could ask Principal Morrison or your student counselor."
"And so, I was hoping, I could use the room for my club," Mei explained to her counselor. The older woman lowered her glasses at the young Chinese's club application. "...You know we already have a Science club, right?" she asked. "Ah, yes, but this is different, this is an Environmental club, dedicated to how we can help our pla-" "Look, kid. This is great and all, but what about the member count?" Mei blinked. "What do you mean? I was going to recruit once the club is established. In middle school we-"
Mei was interrupted by a loud laugh. "Honey, I don't know what they do in middle school, nor do I care, but that's not how we do things around here. You need to have 6 total members to start a club before we can start it. That's just how it goes. Now, if you wanted to have, say, only 3 members after you start the club, that's okay, but don't expect a lot of traction." The older women put her glasses back on, pushing her blonde hair out of her face. Mei looked slightly crestfallen before perking up and nodding. "Alright, I'll do it! Thank you!" she said before leaving the room.
Armed with her laptop, Mei sat down and got ready to make a nice organized flyer and sign up list for her club. It was still the first day, surely in the next week she could find some suitable candidates for club members, especially in her Environmental Science class. With a nice powder blue border and gray text, Mei infused her favorite color into her work. No silly business, though: this was not the time for snowflake patterns.
-❄️️?
"'Ey, Mako, ya reckon you're going to join a club?" Jamison teased his friend, smirking. There was no way in hell the either of them had plans to join a club. They already spent their free time being a general nuisance to society and mucking about. The two of them sat against a wall at the rear of the lunchroom, next to an exit. This was the usual lunch spot for them, they had decided. There were no tables or chairs, just nice floor space that made your muscles ache if sat on for too long.
Mako just grunted in disgust. "Yeah, me neither, buddy," Jamison said, drinking a soda. "I bet we'd get kicked out the first day," he chuckled. Both of the boys were freshman, however, Mako was clearly older. Truth was, Mako had repeated freshman year twice already. It wasn't that he wasn't smart, it was that he just didn't care. He had his own plans for the future, and they included continuing to screw over others and steal goods, which was basically what they already did in their spare time. The two knew each other in elementary school (even though they were in different grades), forming a friendship that lasted to this day. However, once Jamison became a freshman, Mako had decided it best to finally make an effort to get out of this dump.
"Oi, so, there's this sheila in my drawin' class, right? She looks like a snowbunny, it's hilarious," Jamison snickered.
"Snowbunny?" Mako looked at him, confused.
"Ya know, a snowbunny," Jamison contested, slightly annoyed. "You've never heard of a snowbunny?"
"I think you made that up," Mako grunted, eating some subpar sandwich provided by the school cafeteria.
"I swear- ugh, whatever, she looks like a snowbunny, she's got a rabbit nose, and she dresses like an eskimo," Jamison explained, finishing his soda. "Hey, remember those supervillian nicknames we gave each other in primary school?"
Mako nodded. He wasn't much of a words guy.
Jamison opened up his folder, showing his friend the drawing that his Chinese classmate had given him. "It's a junk rat, just like when you said I said I would be Junkrat," he cackled. "Isn't that freaky?"
The larger boy just shrugged, finishing his sandwich. "Don't you remember yours? Roadhog, was it?" Jamison gave a signature grin.
Looking around the cafeteria, Jamison couldn't help but notice none other than Snowbunny herself putting a piece of paper on the bulletin board. Most of the school clubs were advertised here, and a few other social events. Jamison nudged Mako in the arm, pointing towards the young girl. "Ah, there she is, speaka the devil! That's Snowbunny," he smirked, looking her over. He hadn't noticed until now that she had a pretty snowflake hair pin in the back of her hair.
"Looks quiet, do you even know her name?" Mako retorted. His blonde friend froze.
"Ah, shit, I think it was...M...it starts with an M," he laughed sheepishly, watching the girl walk away from the board. Jamison waited a few moments before slinking over to the board to find out what she had posted. "It's a sign up list for a club," the blonde mumbled to himself, looking at the pen provided. It was blue with a small white charm on it. It looked like...a mustachioed blob? Jamison laughed a bit, Mako coming up being him and observing the poster.
"Roadie, the gal's startin' an 'Vironment club," Jamison pointed out to his friend. "Maybe we oughta pay her a visit one ah these days."