Of all the things I could do, I wasn't allowed to do the one thing that I wanted to do. I saw it; me running up to a stormy Marco and kissing away all his angry tears and hugging him and telling him I was sorry and he'd say sorry too and we'd both start crying all over again. It would've been awesome. Hell, it would've been the best of everything and then some.

But, the thing is; that's not how fights are resolved. It's not like how it is in the movies where they fight and then someone chases someone else across the ocean and then it's all kisses and cuddles. It's not like that at all. It's so stressful that your head just wants to implode because you're mad and hurt and then you're mad because you're hurt and you should know that you're better than all that.

Heartbreak? More like headache.

Also, I didn't think Marco would exactly appreciate his irritating and super flirtatious team captain slobbering all over his face with a mixture of drool and tears. Especially not without an explanation. And there it is; the fact that I was going to have to look for the right time to tell him, and that was on top of the effort of telling him I liked him.

How lucky was I though, I wouldn't have to worry about that for a while. Although my hormonal teenage mind kept going back to that dilemma like an ex-alcoholic visits his local pub out of habit.

I stood up off the ground, using the wall as a leaning tool to prop myself up. I sighed, walking slowly around the corner of the school back to my friends at the table. By some miracle my bag and lunch were still in place. I don't think you understand just how amazing such an occurrence is; my bag and my lunch, both untouched by my friends.

At least, it seemed amazing until I walked towards a table of suspiciously guilty looking people who avoided my gaze as I realized something.

"Oh my god are you fucking with me?! Why is there shit on my bag? Really?" I looked around to the faces that were biting back their laughter. "You honestly didn't even try to save my stuff? You're all heartless." I growled, not caring if it was their fault or not.

"Wow. This day just keeps getting better." I said, picking my bag up by the strap, not bothering to deal with my now disgusting lunch. Christa smiled over at me apologetically.

The rest of the day? It got even better.

When the bell rang I went to my next lesson, math, with my freshly scrubbed bag which I held at arm's length, not caring if I looked stupid. I wasn't fucking touching bird shit. I walked into the classroom and over to my desk, only to find pencil shavings all over it. And when I say all over it, I mean it seemed as though someone had literally tipped a trashcan's worth of shavings onto my desk and it was already spilling off the sides.

I whipped my head around, looking for the culprit who was going to get their ass kicked out into the main street. Frustrated that I couldn't find them, I picked up the trash can at the front of the class and swept all the shavings into it.

My teacher, Mr Harkforth, walked into the classroom just then as I was on my way back to my desk. His voice droned on and I ignored him talking about blah de blah and kicked my bag under table, not wanting to open my bag to get my mostly unused jotter out. I went out to the front of the class, silently judging anyone that dared to look at me, so that I could get a sheet of paper to doodle on. Math was great; it didn't include working. Thanks, Mr Harkforth.

"Kirstein!" I jumped as the teacher shouted my name. I turned to see him scowling at me from behind an usually tidy desk. For what must've been the first time in ever, he was clean. He dressed like a teacher should; decently. His eyes weren't drunkenly bloodshot.

And that meant that the hippie teacher that smoked dope between classes was actually planning to teach us today. And it was all thanks to his divorce papers that would be signed later on today, or so my sources told me.

"Yeah?" I asked him.

He narrowed his eyes at me, spitting as he spoke. "While you're out here in front of the class, explain how to solve the problem on the black board." He pointed to the board which had a seemingly simple math question.

Keyword: seemingly.

I had to find two numbers. Two simple fucking numbers that had to add up to this and multiply to give that. Why the hell did I need to use the sine and the quadratic formula, huh? And why the fuck did he think was funny to make me rewrite the entire bloody sh-bang when no-one understood because they weren't paying attention?

Now, I'm not one to hate on math, I know we'll use it later in life. But this? This question? It sure as hell wasn't worth me making an idiot out of the class and myself just because my teacher was having a bad day.

And, uh, I may have told him that and got sent to the principal's office? If he had just sent me out, I would've ditched school and went home because I just wasn't up for this shit. Screw my team and basketball practice. But as my incredible luck would have it, he had a quiet, studious girl with glasses, white hair and huge boobs "escort" me to the office.

I pretty much ignored her the entire way there. It wasn't like I knew her, and even if I did, well this was me we're talking about, and I'm not exactly a social person with a "yes we can!" attitude. So instead, I sulked with my shitty bag tossed over my shoulder because I was way beyond caring and I let me shoes squeak on the tiled floor as we passed classes, eventually reaching the hallway with the principal's office. I heard the girl mumble when we arrived at the door and turned around.

"What?" I snapped at her.

She glanced over at me coolly, as if she could scare me, pffft.

"I was just saying, it wasn't really fair of him to make you answer that question so many times. By the looks of it, you've already had a pretty crappy day already. Both of you could probably use the distance between you to get those sticks out your arses."

Did she really just say crappy? Like did smart people even use words like that? I know Armin didn't, and the real Marco never swore. Still, it was kinda cool. For her level, anyway.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But then again; can you expect anything else from this shit hole? It doesn't exactly promise smiles." I grinned at her, taking my sweet time in not going into the office.

"You know, those pencil sharpening didn't get onto your table by accident."

I rolled my eyes at her. "Yeah well, I figured that-"

"When I got into the classroom, I saw Sam Peterson walking away from your desk. Do you know him?"

Ooooof course it was him. That bitchy trio just had to go out of their way and into my classes, especially to make my life hell. I could feel my jaw tensing as I realized I was grinding my teeth.

"I sure do. And uh, thanks for telling me."

I felt a jolt when I looked at her eyes, and not the good kind. They looked just like the nurse's eyes. But to my relief, there weren't as dead looking and this girl clearly wasn't a nurse.

"What's your name?" I asked her.

"I'm Rico, figures you wouldn't know that after having class with me for almost two weeks already, Typical jock."

She waved and walked away before I could ask her if she remembered her position as squad leader.

I stared at the brown door with the nameplate gleaming at me as I dreaded my fate.

I sighed dramatically. "If Nemo can touch the butt, I can open this door." I made my way into the office.

Sadly, she spotted me before I could turn around and get the hell out of there.

"Jean! Kirstein, right? Good to see you! Come in, come in, don't the cold air in. It's getting much colder lately, you know? Take a seat won't you? I just got everything refurnished this year, isn't that exciting? Oh, and sorry; don't mind the mess, I'll be needing to do a little clean-up before anybody important comes along."

She said all that before I'd even opened the door fully. Maybe it would be more accurate to describe it as shrieking. And it seemed even more so like that as I saw the piles upon piles of Titan football merchandise strewn across her office. Apparently it didn't matter to her that they were the opposing team of her school.

"Ah, right. I'll just sit here then…" I froze when I saw someone sitting in the other chair beside the one I was reaching out to, my hand hovered in the air as freckles twitched and eyes glared daggers at me. At least, that's what I'd been expecting.

Marco looked up to me with a pleading look in his eyes that said "Please help me. I will do anything; I will clean your skunk with tomato juice for you for the rest of your life if you please just help me." Yes, he really did look that desperate. Clearly he'd been here for long enough to realize he wouldn't be getting out of this room for quite some time yet.

Heaving a sigh and taking one for the team, I sat down the red leather chair and gave Marco an encouraging nod. We might be fighting, but then again it wasn't actually between us. This was Reiner's and Marco's business; even if I had somehow gotten myself included in the hiss fit.

Hanji grinned at me from behind her desk.

"It's lovely to be here, isn't it? Why are you here actually, Jean?" She said it cheerfully, as though she wasn't about to punish me which I had the feeling she'd forget about instantly.

"I just got into a fight with Mr Harkforth. He was taking out his anger on the class so I stood up to him and he sent me out."

She nodded thoughtfully, her brown ponytail bobbed and her glasses glinted in the light of the window to our left.

"Yes, he's going through a divorce at the moment, did you know? I assume you do since everybody knows everyone's business around here. Then again, I might consider firing him since he's a shit-stain on my school's reputation."

And that was exactly why people put up with Hanji's antics.

Some time later, Marco and I had somehow survived holding back a laughter fit.

"Well, thanks for coming in! It's always nice to see my old trainee soldiers in such a lovely environment. To think that I own it all!" She cackled and slammed the door behind us.

I glanced over at Marco, grinning and about to start laughing but stopped when I saw he was frowning.

"What's the matter?"

He shook his head and looked back the door in confusion.

"Did he just call us soldiers?" He frowned slightly, his eyes were wide in disbelief as he processed what had just happened. People tended to feel a little spaced out after talking with Hanji.

"Yup, it's just like I told you. We used to be soldiers and we used to kill man eating giants." We both began to walk to the P.E department, seeing as we both had basketball practice.

I sighed, recalling how I'd already told him so much, and yet it was only now that he actually considered it. Damn teachers, ruining children with their persuasive and brainwashing powers. I wished I had that kind of power.

"The Titans are the opposing football team, though, aren't they? Why would he have their merchandise?"

He looked up at the ceiling as we walked, the sounds of our shoes squeaking filled the empty halls. School had been over for some time now. Marco was wearing a rolled up plaid shirt with a black t-shirt and jeans. His bag with slung over his back and he tugged at the straps, allowing me to watch very closely at the movements of his freckled biceps. Where else were there freckles…? He licked his lips and leaned over to me, making me jump.

"Oh, uh, sorry, what?" I plastered a fake grin on my face.

As distracting as he was, I also had to focus on him, rather than what he was doing in my head. I sure was a healthy teenage boy all right.

"The merchandise, why would he have another school's stuff?"

"Uh, oh- because before, in our past life, she was like really and I mean really obsessed with the Titans and uh, yeah that's basically it."

"But weren't they supposed to be man eating monsters, according to you?"

"They were. Did you see how crazy she was? Do you even consider doubting me on this?" I raised my eyebrows and looked him in the eye. He turned away with a slight grimace.

"Crazy is an understatement. No-one normal could talk for that long and not pass out from lack of oxygen. And did you see how fast he spoke? I just nodded sometimes because I didn't even know what else to do."

I tilted my head. "What were you even in there for anyway?"

He groaned. "I was still mad and I kicked over a garbage can outside. I was made to clean it up by Mr Levi and then go to the headmaster. And tomorrow I get to help the janitor out with garbage can duties, yay." He slapped my shoulder. "And then there's you with "oh, I just saved my class from an evil teacher" and he didn't even blink!"

"He?"

"Yeah, it's Mr Zoe, right?" I looked at him blankly.

"You know what I kinda just assumed Hanji was a woman. I don't even know if that's a first or last name. Oh my god Marco, I'm regretting everything I've ever said in my life what even is this?!"

His laugh echoed out into the hallway as we reached the locker room, practice had already started so it was empty. Our only hope was that Erwin would understand that we'd been under the wrath of Hanji-the he/she I was now confused over.

I laughed with him, because it's just ridiculous how easily we could forget that we'd even fought and because you know, my life crisis was pretty hilarious.

Marco flung his bag onto the shoe rack and began to undress. I quickly checked my phone as a distraction. Surprisingly, I had a new message that I'd apparently gotten after school finished.

From: Sasha's waifu

Heyhey-so we figrd out hw 2 fix Marmar.

I sniggered at the nickname. I hoped it would stick for a while.

Were gona hv a séance dude!

I gawked at my phone with my mouth hanging open. What the actual fuck was he on?!