Rule #45: Clean up the mess you made
It was odd going to school, but not going to class. Whilst her classmates were busy with schoolwork and internships, Toru— dressed in her old khaki gym shirt from Kunugigaoka Junior High and a pair of high-waisted denim shorts—was frog-marched by the headmaster over to the cafeteria where she was met by Lunch Rush, the school's chef.
"For the next two weeks, you'll be working with Lunch Rush in the cafeteria; preparing meals, cleaning dishes and serving students!" Nezu chirped, before waving fare-well.
"Uh, right…" Said Toru as the rodent-bear skipped off to do who knows what, "I look forward to working with you" Toru bowed to the Pro Hero who in turn gave her two thumbs up in reply. He then presented her with a hair net, a pair of disposable gloves and an apron that read: 'Go Beyond! Plus Ultra!' in flowery lettering.
The apron was a little large on her small frame and Toru felt a little bit like a kid playing dress-up in her parents clothes. After tying the apron around herself like a present, Toru was quickly herded towards the back of the kitchen where a small box TV sat mounted above the microwave.
Lunch Rush silently gestured for her to wait in front of it as he reached up and turned the TV on. The black screen gave way to the faded image of two fast food workers dressed in cheesy company uniforms. They wore baggy striped shirts, poorly folded paper hats, and the fellow on the right wore the widest face-cracking smile that Toru had ever seen on a human being. It was almost like he believed he could cure cancer with that smile.
The title card showed one worker wiping down the front counter as he grinned like the world depended on it, and the other worker sat on the counter, with his pants riding low and showing his butt-crack to the camera. The title simply read:
THE STORY OF STUPID AND STUDIOUS
"Stupid is friendly but he doesn't follow directions well…" Prattled the narrator as Stupid hopped off of the counter and turned to wave enthusiastically at the camera. "…Now Studious always does his job by the book…" Here, Studious waved at the camera whilst Stupid blew his nose into his cloth and then proceeded to wipe down the counter with it.
"…This is how the book says to do it: wipe left to right…" Another title card popped up, this time it pictured an image of Lunch Rush pointing up towards the words above him:
REMEMBER TO ALWAYS WIPE LEFT TO RIGHT!
"Looks like a big order just came in. 'Let me help, guys!' says Studious…" Studious was shown helping one of his co-workers with preparing the order of food. "…'But wait a second! Where's Stupid?" The video cut to Stupid sitting on the toilet and laughing jovially at something he read in the magazine in his hands. "…What do you know about that?"
Zooming out, the camera showed that Studious was now in the stall next to Stupid. "Let's see what happens here!" Studious made to leave but turned back to the sink with a overly dramatic shrug. "…'Uh oh! I was in such a hurry to get back to work, I almost forgot!" The next Lunch Rush title card popped up:
REMEMBER TO ALWAYS WASH YOUR HANDS!
"That'a boy, Studious!" Studious cheerily—and a little creepily—vigorously washed his hands. "…'Hey there Stupid! You're supposed to wash your hands after using the facilities!' Studious scolded Stupid who turned to leave the bathroom without washing his hands.
'Ha! No way, Studious! That's for squares!' " Stupid fired back, drawing the shape in the air.
The screen then transitioned into Stupid and Studious next a line of colour-coded wheelie bins. Both workers had a variety of rubbish bags in their hands, but it was Stupid who made the first move. He went to put all of his bags in the one bin before Studious intervened. "…'Hold on, Stupid! That's not where they go!"
REMEMBER GENERAL RUBBISH GOES IN THE RED BIN!
Here, Studious picked up two black bags of general rubbish and put them in the red bin at the end of the row.
REMEMBER RECYCLING GOES IN THE YELLOW BIN!
Next, Studious tipped the paper, plastic bottles and aluminium cans in to the yellow bin in the middle.
REMEMBER GLASS GOES IN THE BLUE BIN!
Studious poured the small bin full of empty and chipped glass bottles and other items into the blue-colour wheelie bin.
REMEMBER COMPOST GOES INTO THE GREEN BIN!
The last bin in the row was the smallest and was filled with decomposable food scraps such as egg shells and onion peels.
Following her introduction to Lunch Rush, the tour around the school's kitchen and all of the etiquette lessons fit for a lady that were drilled into her head, Toru found herself traversing the halls looking for the dance hall in which the last half of her punishment was to take place. That was, if she could find the blasted room in the first place.
"Goddammit! Where is it?" Toru muttered under her breath as she readjusted her bag strap over her shoulder and triple-checked the directions on the piece of paper in her hands for the umpteenth time since the bell had rung for the end of the school day. Navigating the school halls when they were empty were a hassle in of itself, but when they were full of bustling bodies way taller than she was? She may as well have just thrown in the towel, to be honest.
"Hey! Do you need some help?" A bored voice called from above her, breaking her from her frustrations. Glancing up Toru saw that the older teen in front of her was a student (if only recognisable by the rumpled shirt and tie that hung loosely around his neck like a noose). His short and wiry build meant that he was one of the few people Toru didn't have to crane her neck back just to look at him.
Dark beady eyes peered out at her from their perch above his crooked nose and beneath the bright pink hair buzzed down to fuzzy stubble that encompassed his head like shorn cotton balls. Another thing to note was that from beneath his school uniform, Toru could have almost sworn she could see a multitude of mouths decorating his skin; from his neck to his palms and back again.
"Hey! Anyone home?" He clicked his fingers in front of her face. Toru blinked rapidly as she was brought out of her musings.
"Uh, yeah, um…" Toru stumbled over her words as she stepped back a little, "I'm, uh, looking for…dance hall 3-G?"
"Oh hey! I'm heading that way too, just come with me!"
"Uh, okay…" Toru readjusted her bag once more and hurried to catch up with the boy as he strode away.
"So…what'cha in for?"
"Huh?" Toru glanced up at the boy who remained slouched over as he moved. He looked eerily like Aizawa-Sensei when he did that, actually.
"The dance classes, what'cha in for?"
"Oh, uh, I, uh hit someone a bit harder than I meant to" Toru fibbed.
"Really?" He laughed, "That's pathetic!"
"He's in the hospital" More specifically, the morgue. Toru thought.
"Oh. Shit. Yeah, no that's more like it"
"What about you?"
"Hm?"
"What are you in for?"
"…Oh look! We're here!" The teen avoided her question and ducked inside the large door with the number engraved on the front. What is it with UA and large doors? Toru thought as she easily dismissed the older teen's avoidance of her question. It's not like she actually answered his questions anyway, not truthfully at least.
Inside, Toru found herself nervously sheltering in one of the back corners of the chapel-sized dance hall as the other delinquents filtered out into familiar groups that clustered together around the hall. A large stained glass window depicting a field of flowers, sat amongst a clutter of frosted windows at one end of the hall.
One wall was dedicated to floor-to-ceiling mirrors and wooden bars ran the circumference of the room, broken up only by the doors. Several posters were scattered along the white-washed walls; some of them promoted long-forgotten productions whilst others showed cheesy motivational images like the cat hanging from a tree.
Two loud claps brought the class to attention and drew Toru's focus towards Midnight who stood at the front of the room, not in her hero gear, but instead in a retro dance outfit. She wore a bright red leotard that stuck to her body like a second skin, underneath that she wore purple tights and matching leg warmers. A long stretch from what she usually wore and yet it still seemed more inappropriate, for some reason.
"Alright class!" Midnight called, "You all know how this goes, but let me break it down for you new timers" The class seemed to collectively groan as Toru shrank back a little at the reaction. "Right! So for the foreseeable you'll be gathering here, at this time everyday after school to practise your dances. You'll be able to use them outside of those times if you wish, but everyone—" Here she sent a pointed look towards a blonde girl on her left, "—must be in attendance and participating. Got it?"
"Yes, Sensei" The class droned, many of them rolling their eyes before they moved off into their little friendship groups.
"Right, now let's see, who hasn't got a partner…" Midnight prowled amongst the clusters of students as they pretended to work, until she came upon the small girl hiding in the corner. Tightly clasping Toru's shoulder, she pulled her out of her little cubby hole and directed her over to the other students, ignorant of Toru's increasing nerves "Hagakure why don't you go with…ah!Oishii, c'me 'ere!"
Glancing up from her sweaty palms, Toru came face to face with the taller teen who brought her to the dance hall. "Toru, Oishii. Oishii, Toru" Midnight introduced the two, unaware they had already met but had not exchanged names. "You two will be partners this year—ah! I don't want any excuses!" Midnight cut Oishii off when he went to retort.
"…Fine" Oishii drawled, "What'll we be doing?"
"Hmm…" Midnight turned back to the rest of the class as they waited for the answer. Quickly whipping out a scrap of paper from the pouch at her hip, Midnight announced what style of dance the class would be doing. "Tango"
"C'me on! Seriously?" Several grumbles sounded from the class, most of them from the guys gathered.
"What the hell is that?"
"Figure it out" Midnight snarked.
"Great, thanks, wonderful teaching, Sensei"
Day two of cafeteria duty saw Toru continuously chopping and peeling vegetables for the lunchtime rush. Lunch Rush didn't seem to talk much, if he could at all, but Toru enjoyed her time with him anyway.
Despite the lack of talking, his loud personality more than made up for what he didn't (or couldn't) say. And let's not forget, the little hand-held radio that sat above the sink and always seemed to be rattling some kind of old rock 'n roll station—not that Toru minded of course.
Day three had Toru scrubbing down a multitude of tables and running up and down the cafeteria with a mop and single bucket of soapy water as her weapon of choice.
Day four found her elbow-deep in soapy water as she scrubbed down the mountain of dishes that were used by both staff and students. Although the kitchen was stocked with an industrial washing machine, Lunch Rush had defended that a little bit of elbow grease wouldn't hurt anybody. Or at least that's what Toru had understood the gestures and pointing to be.
Day five saw Toru serving her fellow students, dressed in a hair net and apron as she bustled about the kitchen, dancing around Lunch Rush who seemed to produce more meals than even humanly possible in such a short amount of time.
Oishii had grinned at her grouchy appearance framed by the little pick-up window that separated the kitchen from the rest of the cafeteria. Over the past week during their little dance classes, Toru had quickly learned that as lazy and chilled out as Oishii appeared to be, he was also rather quick-witted and sharp-tongued, usually teasing her much like a sibling would. Of course, no one could deny that she gave it right back to him.
On the sixth and seventh days, Toru had been made to come in earlier to help prepare all the meals for the students who boarded at UA. Many of the dorm rooms had their own working facilities that the students used throughout the school week, but the school also provided the students with free meals over the weekends.
The week after, it was rinse and repeat. And soon enough two weeks had flown by.
