With that, Mr. Aizawa opened the towering front doors of our new home.
"It's one class per building. Boys and girls are seperated by wing. The right wing is for the girls, and the boys' wing is on the left. However, the first floor is a common space."
We were standing inside of a medium-sized living room, with columns in between the tall windows. A bunch of couches surrounded a table; they looked comfortable, but a bit tacky. There was a large TV, and a big decorative bunch of flowers, and even paintings. This part was on a carpet, big and fuzzy and green that my feet almost sunk into as we stepped inside. Where the carpet ended the dining room began - five tables with four chairs each, a big kitchen space, all facing big windows that faced out onto the lawn for a nice sunny wake up call. I didn't say anything but I was fighting against an extreme sense of disappointment...compared to my home, at least, it all seemed so modest.
"The dining area, baths, and laundry facilities can be found here," Mr. Aizawa was saying while we looked around.
Mina cheered "It's spacious! It's pretty! It's so new, and there's sofaaaaasss!" She pumped her fists.
"There's even a courtyard!" cried Sero.
Uraraka started to swoon with excitement. "It's a freaking mansion!" she cried, while Iida called out her name. "Uraraka!" I shook my head a bit.
Mr. Aizawa led us upstairs for a tour of the bedroom floors - we had an elevator to get there, actually.
"Your rooms are on floors two and above. On each floor, there are two groups of four rooms; half for boys and half for girls, up to the fifth floor."
Even the hallways outside our rooms were pretty nice, with a big row of lights on top, mail slots and name tags, doors that unlocked with electronic keys, giant windows, thick carpets.
Mr. Aizawa opened the door of the first room on the second floor and showed us the dormitory space. It was about the size of a closet or a backroom in my home - just a bed, desk and desk chair, chest of drawers, and a small balcony.
"You each have your own private room. Each room comes with an AC unit, a bathroom, a refrigerator, and a closet. It's quite a luxurious space, if you ask me," said Mr. Aizawa.
"There's even a veranda!" cried Midoriya, exploring it as we all followed him around.
"These rooms are about the size of my closet back home, but I'll manage," I sighed to myself.
Behind me, Uraraka swooned once again. "I'm living in a mansion!" and Iida called her name once more.
Mr. Aizawa handed us a map of our room spaces. "The allocation of rooms is just as you see it here. The luggage we had each of you send before hand has already been delivered to your rooms. For the time being, use today to get unpacked and arrange your rooms. Tomorrow, I'll give you an explanation of how things are going to operate from now on. That is all. You're dismissed!"
"Yes, sensei!" we all chorused, eager to get to unpacking.
I looked at the map. My room was on the fifth floor; I would share my suite with Asui, and on the opposite side were Todoroki, Sero and Sato. Well, at least they were all quiet sorts. It was a relief; I'd imagined trying to share a floor with Kirishima or Kaminari, who, kind as they are, are quite loud.
I got to unpacking my boxes. I still felt that ten was scarcely enough to supply my needs. How on earth would I make do with so little? I had spoken to mother about it, earlier that day, and been forced to make every rational cut I could think of. I was still feeling a little stripped down to the Spartan level. And I was even more disappointed in the lack of boxes, because unpacking them was at least something to do.
Now that the excitement had worn off...now that I was stuck alone in my room unpacking...that stress we'd laughed off before was starting to come back...
I mean, we were all gonna be living together for a while...and things felt so awkward, after what Mr. Aizawa said. It was hard to talk, really...
There was a knock on my door after I'd finished. I peeked out and saw the other girls, excepting Asui, standing there and smiling.
"Hey, Yaomomo, you got a minute?"
Kaminari was balancing on the edge of one of the sofas and chatting with Midoriya. "Whew! The circumstances might not have been pretty, but getting to live together like this is pretty exciting, don'tcha think?"
"I'm beat," grumbled Kirishima.
"Common living arrangements!" Iida was yelling. "This too is a form of training to raise our cooperative spirit and polish our discipline!"
"Take a chill pill, class rep," said Sero.
Me and the girls had got close enough to interrupt them now. "Are your rooms all set up, boys?" Mina asked. Kaminari waved hello.
"Yep! Now we're just relaxin."
"So y'know," she looked back at me and shared a grin. "We were all talking and we've got a suggestion! Let's have a best room design contest! How about it?"
Poor Midoriya, the first boy on the second floor, started flailing his arms around in a total panic. "Aah, no no way! Just wait a minute!" But he was swept along as we all rushed to the second floor and flung open his room.
As expected, the room was filled with All Might merchandise.
"It's All Might from top to bottom!" laughed Uraraka. "A geek's room if I've ever seen one!"
Midoriya huddled up, looking humiliated, by the desk. "I really look up to him is all...a little embarassing..."
Behind me, I heard Kaminari mumbling, "Oh man - what have we gotten ourselves into?"
"But this could be kinda fun!" said Sero.
Our classmates seemed ready. It was time to put all their rooms on display. And hopefully calm down all this tension.
Next door, Tokoyami had his arms folded and scoffed, "No way." Tooru and Mina got p to pushing him and got him outta the way, and we all ran into his room.
Darkened lights! Purple glowing lamps and bat wings and cloaks hung all over the place. A room filled with darkness.
"It's too damn dark! And too damn scary!"
"You fiends," he muttered.
"Hey, I know this keyholder!" said Kirishima. "I bought one in middle school.
"So this is the kinda stuff boys are into, huh?" said Mina.
"So cool!" cried Midoriya, looking at a sword.
"Get out!" screamed Tokoyami.
Aoyama, next door, had a room filled p with sparkling mirrors, a disco ball, a knight sculpture, pictures of himself, te exact opposite of Tokoyami's in a lot of ways.
"It's too bright!"
"Non, non. Not bright!" said Aoyama. "Shining!"
"Exactly what I expected," muttered Tooru.
"Way too predictable," Mina agreed.
"This is getting exciting!" Uraraka cheered. "Only one left on this floor is -"
Mineta opened his door and beckoned at us.
"Come on in. I'll show you something amazing," he leered. We all turned away.
"Let's go to the third floor!" Uraraka said.
Ojiro's was the first on the third floor. It was completely -
"Wow, it's so normal!"
"It really is normal, amazing!"
"So this is what 'normal' looks like."
"You don't have to force yourselves," muttered Ojiro, his tail slumping.
Iida's was next. It was lined with bookshelves - books everywhere, and seperate shelves for glasses.
"Difficult looking books are piled up everywhere! That's our class rep for ya!"
"Nothing strange to see here whatsoever!" smiled Iida. Uraraka laughed and pointed to his shelves. He'd piled up his spare glasses on shelves on the wall.
"Glasses, and a shit ton of them!" she burst out laughing.
"What's so funny! I've prepared in advance for any damage that may occur in our fierce training!" he replied.
Next door was Kaminari's. Lots of video games and shoes, stuff that looked like you could find it in a knicknack shop.
"So gaudy!"
"Sems like he just threw in whatever he managed to get his hands on!"
"Eh? I thought it looked good!" Kaminari whined.
Koda's was next. Mostly it was plain - but he had stuffed animals, and on the floor - a real one!
"There's a little bunny! Aw, it's so cute!"
"You brought a pet?" complained Kaminari. "No fair, that's cheatin!"
Behind us, the boys were starting to get annoyed.
"I'm not satisfied," grumbled Kaminari. "Yeah. You took the words right outta my mouth," said Ojiro.
"I must agree," grumbled Tokoyami.
"And I, as well," agreed Aoyama.
"Don't you think it's strange that only the boys have to endure criticisms of their rooms?" came the irritating voice of Mineta. "This was supposed to be a tournament, wasn't it? So it goes without saying that we can't decide the winner here until we see the girls' rooms, isn't that right? In order to determine who's got the best interior design sense in the class! We must evaluate every room equally, with all members present, don't you think?!"
Because of our challenge, the boys were getting competitive. Mina grinned. "OK, why not?"
And that was how the first ever best room design competition got started.