The lunch bell rings after an uneventful fourth class. He'd sat and stared into space for fifty minutes while the teacher reexplained a trigonometry concept to her students. Which is a shame because instead of taking the opportunity to relearn reciprocals, all he'd done was think about that girl again until the bell rang.
Mikey flexes his fist inside his pockets as he walks out into the flooding hallway. It's still sore from having to fill in his chem exam so quickly. He didn't even have time to thank Kisaki before class was dismissed.
His head turns to look for him, but a beefy arm is slung around his shoulders, obscuring his vision.
"Looking for me?" Pah asks around a grin.
Mikey feels himself smiling back as Peh joins, throwing another arm over Pah's.
"Yeah," he lies, allowing them to lead him downstairs. They pass Baji's floor on their way to the cafeteria and Mikey still can't help scanning his eyes around the halls for her.
When they reach their table, Hakkai and Mitsuya are sitting while Yuzuha yells at them. There's a biology exam with Haikkai's name on it in her fists. "What do you even do in class?" she huffs, shifting her seat on Mitsuya's lap. "Sit around and wait until it's over?"
"That's what I do," Mikey answers, reaching over to clasp hands with Mitsuya and then Hakkai.
"Do you also repeat bio?" she asks, showing him the red 28% on her brother's exam.
His eyebrows lift in surprise. He doesn't remember getting anything lower than a 40.
"Can't say I do," he admits, sending a sorry smile over at Hakkai as the table fills up. Baji, Kazutora and Chifuyu walk in, cracking up when they spot Mikey.
"How's your face?" Baji asks, lips stretching around his sharp teeth. "Still fucked?"
Mitsuya raises a slit brow. "What happened to his face?"
Kazutora is laughing too hard to explain, so Chifuyu fills them in. "We were all gonna get Baji and skip third, but Mikey walked inside the classroom and busted his ass in front of everybody."
Peh and Hakkai start laughing at Mikey's expense.
"Wow. Thanks for the invite." Pah says dryly.
"Seriously." Mitsuya mutters.
Now Mikey feels like he deserves slamming his face on the tile. Truthfully, he wanted to hang with Baji, but he'd brought Chifuyu and Kazutora along because they're closer to him than the other guys.
"Are you okay?" Yuzuha asks.
Mikey rests him cheek in his palm while the rest of them continue laughing. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Mikey!" Emma calls from his left. Mikey turns to see her rushing up to him with Draken trailing behind her. "Are you okay? Draken told me you fell really hard."
She grabs his aching chin and tilts his face to inspect it. "Ouch!" he hisses, "Yes, I'm fine. Let go of me!"
"Do you need some ice?" she asks before he nudges her hand away from his face.
"What I need is some lunch," he says, rising off his seat to get in line.
"Woah, careful," Draken warns, steadying him on his way over. "Wouldn't want you slipping again."
He scowls at Draken who only winks in return. His friends line up behind him, pretending to trip with their sneakers squeaking obnoxiously.
Mikey endures another fifteen minutes of their incessant teasing before he finally gets to sit down and eat. They served fried fish with stir fried vegetables today. This is one of Mikey's favorite meals, but he can barely enjoy it with his friends around.
He wouldn't drag it out this long if any of them fell on their face like him. In fact, he wouldn't add insult to injury in the first place.
Emma complains about her skirt having a loose thread and Mitsuya offers to sow it back for her upstairs, so Hakkai and Yuzuha follow them, and then Pah gets back in line for seconds with Peh trailing closely behind. Soon it's just the five of them again.
Kazutora smirks at Mikey from behind his napkin.
Mikey stirs his miso listlessly. He just might drown him in the soup if he says something smart.
"You got some cute girls in your algebra class, Baji," he mentions, winking at Mikey.
Baji snorts into his milk. He'd almost suffocated during lunch because he was trying to laugh and swallow at the same time. "There are no cute girls in any of my classes." he replies.
"What about the one who came in with us?" Chifuyu asks, trying to jog his memory.
Baji licks the film of milk off his upper lip, eyebrows knitted in deep thought. "Oh, that guy?"
Kazutora and Chifuyu erupt into a fresh set of giggles.
"Guy?" Mikey repeats. He knows Baji wears glasses, but does he actually have trouble seeing? "Are you fucking blind? That was a girl."
"You sure?" he asks over Kazutora and Chifuyu slamming their fists on the table, laughing their asses off.
Draken shrugs. "All I know is Mikey lost his shit after seeing her and then proceeded to wipe the floor with his face." He says, clapping his hand on Mikey's shoulder. "Way to make a lasting impression."
Mikey sucks his teeth as he shoves him off. "Whatever."
"Wait, are you for real?" Baji asks, "Mikey's got a crush?"
"Shut up." he says and just before any of them can respond, the bell rings. Chifuyu and Draken take to clearing the tables while Kazutora follows some second-year girls to their fifth period.
Mikey rises so he can begin his tread up the stairs by himself, but his best friend is right on his heels.
"So," Baji mutters, slinging his backpack on. "What's the move?"
Mikey blinks. If this dumbass actually thinks he's going to allow him into his romantic endeavors, he's dumber than he looks.
"The move?" he remarks, spite laced into his words. "The move is go to fucking class and stay out of my business."