Chapter Four
A Decision and also Some Painful Stuff
I got out of the hospital a few days later after my hand had healed, courtesy of my doctor. He had a healing quirk, so the process was sped on significantly. It was cool to wear a cast for the limited time I had because I'd never broken a bone but it got really itchy under it. I was glad to have it off.
I ended up being able to hide the quirk vial given to me by Voss by keeping it in my backpack, so no worries there, but I still did look at it a few times during the nights in the hospital. I always ended up putting it away, though. I can do anything I want without help.
My mom let me go back to school the day after I was released, but she wasn't too thrilled. She was really worried about me, but I reassured her I'd be fine, even if I didn't fully believe it. I just really had to talk to Sonja about applying to Imperium and I couldn't wait any longer. I walked into school that day unusually happy, and I approached Sonja, who was talking with her friends. I tapped her arm to get her attention and her friends immediately went silent.
"Hey, can I talk to you for a second?" I asked, trying to be quiet.
"Sure!" Sonja excitedly agreed, stepping away from her friends. I heard them giggle as we walked away, but I tried not to let it bother me. "What's up?"
I pulled her around a corner and talked in a hushed tone.
"Do you know when I can apply to Imperium next? I thought about what you said and I think I should give it a shot." I told her, trying to sound believable. Sonia excitedly jumped and squealed.
"Tomorrow after school, I'll take you right to the registration office. We can take the train!" She started talking about how awesome this was and how cool it'd be to see a familiar face in high school, but I was still curious about the application process
"Yeah, cool, but how does applying work?" I asked.
"It's so easy, there's a written exam and then a physical portion where they bring you to the gym to complete an obstacle course and defeat these fake villains." Sonja explained. I see why she said I could pass on written scores alone, with no support items I probably won't be a whole lot of good at fighting the villains.
"How easy is the written exam?"
"Pretty easy, some tests we've taken here were harder." Sonja said. "Trust me, you'll be fine."
Sonja put her hand on my shoulder and smiled.
"Okay… I'll meet you at the train station after school tomorrow, cool?" I asked. Sonja nodded and smiled.
"Of course! I gotta get to class, but I'll see you later!"
"Alright, see ya." I waved and she walked back to her friends who were laughing and grabbing her arms. I leaned against the wall and slouched when I heard one of them say my name in a bitchy way. I didn't get to hear what Sonja said in response because at that point they were too far away, but I hope she defended me.
"Emmet, my man." I heard Deacon say as he walked up to me. "Just saw you talking to Sonja, you gonna hit that?"
I scoffed.
"Nah, I was talking to her about high school." I explained.
"Jesus, don't tell me you're applying to some stupid hero school." Deacon complained. "You have a run in with a villain and suddenly you think you can be a hero."
"They're still out there, dude, I'm the only one who knows what they look like." I argued. "I think I could really help the heroes take them down."
Deacon laughed at the thought. I wanted to tell him about that night in the hospital, but there's no way he'd believe me. Plus, he'd probably rat on me if he found out I had a bottle of blood in my bag.
"Listen man, I'm not sure that you'd even pass the exam to get in. It's probably best if you don't even try, you're just gonna be upset when you get rejected." Deacon told me. I furrowed my brows as I felt my face grow hot.
"I'll see you later, dude." I quickly walked away, holding back my anger.
"Dude, I'm just being honest." Deacon yelled after me. I wanted to scream at him that being honest doesn't give him the right to be an asshole, but I seriously didn't want any attention I wasn't already getting. People already were looking at me and talking about how I stormed out of the assembly and got my ass kicked. The bell rang as I was walking down the hallway and school began, making me tense up. I should've stayed home.
I walked into my first class and saw it was empty, save for the teacher. I handed in an assignment and went to my desk, burying my face into my arms. The class quickly filled up and I already heard people whispering when they were around me. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I was extremely paranoid it was about me.
The rest of the day pretty much went like that, me having to listen to people faintly talk about me while pretending I didn't hear it. I sat at lunch alone today too because Deacon was sitting with Braxton and his girlfriend, who I'm pretty sure were talking about me because I'd occasionally see them look my way. No one said anything until a kid walked past me and kicked my backpack.
I turned around and sighed in exasperation.
"Come on, man." I complained, looking at it halfway across the cafeteria.
"Whoa, calm down dude, it was an accident." The guy, someone I think was in my shop class earlier in the year, said in defense. "Maybe don't leave your shit in my way."
I looked at my backpack and gestured to it while getting up to grab it.
"Yeah, I'm sure you kicked it that far on accident dude." I said sarcastically. I tried to get to it fast to pick it up, extremely paranoid someone would find the quirk vial that was still in there.
"Don't give me attitude just because you think you're all big and tough for getting into a fight with a couple villains." The guy said while grabbing my shoulder and pushing me back into my seat.
"I didn't even do anything dude, just let me get my backpack." I said, annoyed.
"Nah, I'll get it for you." He said while walking towards it. He lifted it up and started unzipping the first pocket, so I got up and sprinted at him. He shoulder checked me and knocked me to the ground. I groaned and watched as he reached into my backpack and threw everything in the first pocket onto the ground. At this point the whole school was watching, so I was extra scared of him finding the quirk. Luckily it wasn't in that pocket, it was in a small pocket, but I didn't wanna take the chance. I jumped to my feet and tried to pull the bag from his hands as he ripped open the second pocket and threw everything out of it.
"Dude, come on!" I pleaded while wrestling the backpack from his hands, but to no avail. He pushed me again and I stumbled back. Immediately, I went back to him and with all my body weight, I ran into him, making him stumble back but not much else, he was much bigger than me.
"Why you want it so bad?" The guy taunted me while turning and reaching in further. By this point, everyone in the cafeteria was walking over to see what was wrong, and I looked to Deacon for help, but he just laughed. The guy threw a notebook at me, the last thing I had in that pocket. Then he started reaching for the front pouches.
Before he could even touch the zipper of the pouch with the quirk, I reeled back with all my strength and punched him in the nose, an instinctive reaction I had to get him to stop everything he was doing. Immediately he dropped the bag and stumbled back, holding his nose. I heard the whole cafeteria yell 'ooohhh' and I immediately knew I messed up.
"You're a dead man." He said before he ran at me and tackled me, pinning me to the floor and wailing on me. I don't remember much from before I blacked out, except for a fleeting glimpse of the principal lifting him off me.
I woke up in the nurse's office, half expecting I'd be in the hospital. I sat up, but immediately the nurse told me to lay back down.
"Hold ice on that. It's not pretty." She said, handing me the ice pack that fell off me when I woke up. I sheepishly reached for it and placed it where it hurt. Which was my whole face, basically. Both my eyes and cheeks were sore, and my lip felt like it was on fire. Along with that, I had a splitting headache.
"What happened?" I asked the nurse, who was clacking away on her keyboard.
"You got beat up." She said flatly.
"Yeah, I know, I was there." I snarked. "What happened after?"
"Well, you were passed out, so the principal brought you in here." She said.
"I don't know why I try." I sighed. "Did you guys get my backpack?"
The nurse pointed below the bed. I reached under and slid my bag over, pulling it onto the bed. Anxiously, I reached into the front pouch and thankfully found the vial untouched. I sighed in relief and leaned against the wall behind me. I looked in my other pockets and saw everything taken out was put back in haphazardly, and all my papers were crumpled up. I figured I'd take care of that at home.
"Am I gonna get punished for fighting?" I asked, wondering if it'd impact my chances of getting into Imperium.
"Not really. The other kid got suspended for a week." The nurse told me.
"What did my mom say?"
"She's on her way right now. You've only been out for fifteen minutes." I was thinking that's about the same amount of time my mom takes to drive from my house to here when she opened the door and ran over to me, hugging me and crying. She cried for about ten minutes and wiped up my face before I even said anything.
"You know if you think I look bad, you should see the other guy." I joked. My mom laughed while still crying and kissed the top of my head.
"You need to stop getting into trouble, Emmet." Mom sobbed into me. "I can't take this."
I wrapped my arms around her.
"No promises." I joked more, making her laugh again through her tears.
"I love you."
"I love you too, mom."
I got to leave school early that day, because obviously. When I got to the car, I saw myself in the mirror and stared at my face for a bit.
"Jesus Christ…" I said as I poked my bruises, wincing at the same time. Both of my eyes were bruised terribly and my nose still had dried blood in the nostrils. Also my bottom lip was split, which I could feel before, but looked worse than it felt.
"I'll take you to the doctor's tomorrow to get it taken care of." My mom said, trying not to cry anymore.
"Same guy who fixed my hand?" I asked. My mom sighed.
"Yeah. Take it easy tonight."
"I will." I paused as we passed the local high school I'll be going to if I don't get into Imperium. "Also I need to talk to you about school next year."
"What is it?" Mom asked me, sounding worried.
"I'm gonna apply at Imperium." I admitted. My mom took a deep breath.
"Are you sure that's what you want?" She asked.
"Yeah… I figure I might have a shot at getting in through written exams." I explained.
"If it's really what you want, you can."
I furrowed my brows.
"Aren't you gonna object?" I asked, acting like she was gonna say sike and say I shouldn't.
"Emmet, I've heard you talk about being a hero so many times. Even your dad told me when you were little he wouldn't be surprised if you ended up getting into a school for hero work." My mom told me. "When I met your dad, he was applying to Imperium too. He didn't, obviously. You're like him in so many ways. I hear you talk about being a hero and I hear your dad. If you want to become a hero, I want you to as well. I know your dad would be proud."
I leaned back in my seat and looked at myself in the mirror again.
"Did he ever get into fights?" I asked. My mom chuckled.
"Nope. He was too soft to fight." She said, wistfully.
"What kind of hero did he wanna be?"
"Not sure. After he got rejected, he never talked about it. It was touchy for him. I think he would have been great, even without a quirk. He was so smart." I saw tears start to fall down my mom's cheek and I leaned my head on her arm while she drove. "He was my hero."
I stayed there until we got home and walked inside, saying hi to my dog and going upstairs to my room. Immediately, I crashed into my bed and emptied my bag, taking the quirk vial and putting it in a drawer in my bedside table. I finally relaxed after a few minutes and then when to grab an ice pack to hold on my face. I'm not sure when I fell asleep, but the next thing I knew, I was out like a light.
Hey, it's me again! This was mostly a filler chapter, but I hope it still kept you guys entertained and gave you a bit more insight into Emmet and his school life. As always I hope you leave a review and let me know what you think!
