Chapter 4: Unwarranted Confessions
Though I've officially declared war with yellow hair, the week at school was uneventful. During lunch I sat with the boys and Shouta would help me with my homework or teach me how to read the language better, while Oboro would try to find mischief, the longer I knew him the more mischievous he was becoming and I had no idea if that was me or it was him all along. Hizashi would ask if I heard any good music and I would pull out my phone and play something for him. Not a very rival thing to do, but whatever. The next week on Monday Karissa called during lunch, interrupting Hizashi singing loudly to a song.
"ALESHA!"
"What? And why the fuck are you yelling?" I immediately regret asking and answering the phone during lunch. Though no one really was around besides the three musketeers and me, the boys could see and hear everything going on. I really hate embarrassing myself, especially in front of Shouta.
"You will never guess what just happened!" Karissa loudly exclaims.
"You're moving?"
"No, try again."
"You actually cleaned your room for once in your life?"
"Very funny, but no."
"I'm out, what happened?"
"Mitchel asked me out!"
"Isn't he the weird trust fund kid that obviously put way too much gel in his hair?"
"He's not weird, and I happen to like his hair."
"Whatever, so details." And she gave details, so much and so fast that I had a hard time keeping up. I could see the boys' faces in my peripheral vision, they looked horrified and confused at the same time.
"Is she always like this?" Cloud boy asked, I didn't think it was that loud but Karissa obviously heard it.
"Who the heck is that? Alesha Jean Zinski! Did you get a boyfriend? "
"Kar, please don't say my full name, you sound like my mom. And no he's not my boyfriend, he's just my new friend I made here."
Oboro throws himself so Karissa can see him in the camera, waves and says hi. "Hey I'm Oboro, Ali-chan here is the best!"
"Uh huh, I know she's the best, that's why she's my best friend. And I'm Karissa."
"Oh there's two more," he takes my phone and shows her Shouta and Hizashi. "These are our other friends, we're at lunch right now."
"Right, huh. Ali?"
"Yes?"
"Will you call me when you get home?"
"Yeah sure."
"Ok, I'm glad you're not only hanging out with your fake cousin."
"Fake cousin?" We all asked, including me and I asked the loudest.
"Yeah, Yuuto." She explains.
"He's not my fake cousin."
"Well not 'fake' but y'all aren't blood related."
"That doesn't make him any less family."
"Ok fine, talk later."
"Yes we will, about this," making a very serious face before hanging up on her.
"What did she mean when she said 'fake cousin'," Oboro asked calmly. The other two didn't say anything but you can tell they were listening very intently.
"Yuuto and I are not related by blood, his uncle married my dad's first cousin and their child is Yuki Toyoda," I say exasperated.
"So, the famous singer is actually closer related to you than the guy who you seem to be an exact replica of?"
"Ummm Hizashi, I'm not a replica of Yuuto. But yes, not that it matters. Family is family."
"But why do you hang out with him if he's not actually related to you?" Yellow hair was getting on my nerves again and I feel like I'm going to snap at any second. Sitting in dead silence, you could feel the thick tension. Tension so thick, Oboro didn't even try to defuse in fear of backfire.
Eventually, I give in and start to explain the situation. "Though my cousin Karen and her husband and their son are very nice and sweet, they had work and didn't have much free time. When my father and I came to this country, we were under the impression that it was temporary. There was no point trying to perfectly assimilate when we were going to leave within the year. Also the reason my father asked around for temporary housing to keep the cost down was because both my parents didn't want to sell my childhood home for only a year away. Karen and her husband wanted to take us in and help but they had just downgraded their home when Yuki moved out. Yuki though he was willing to help, also would've had to move again to find a place to house both my father and I. Takashi Toyoda, brother to cousin Karen's husband, family home had tons of room and were more than happy to take my father and I in for as long as we wanted/ needed. Takashi and Akari Toyoda are Yuuto's parents. Due to work commitments they too couldn't spend as much time as they wanted to help us out. They asked their sons, Yuuto and Riku. Yuuto is older but he didn't live at home and technically is disowned by the family, political and business reasons only, so no one expected him to do much nor was he pressured into helping. Riku, the youngest and the heir to the Toyoda company, was told to help and was actually given time off in the expectation that he would help."
Taking a long breath I was about to continue, "so why do you hang with Yuuto not Riku?" Hizashi interrupted.
Glaring hard at yellow hair, "I was just about to tell you." Then I threw a napkin at his head, it bounced and he made no reaction to it like I didn't just throw something at him. "Riku, like most people, believed that since he wasn't blood related that he shouldn't be held accountable to help us out. Plus the spoiled brat couldn't stand that he had to spend time with 'the common people'," making quotation marks to show that those were actually his words. "Both my father and I couldn't even last a day with him. The day we moved in, was actually the day we spent the most time together. By dinner we were done with his shit. Yuuto noticed the hostility and offered to take my father and I shopping for food and explain the basics of how to get around. Yuuto made time, he canceled races and lost his status as king for a while just so he could help us out. My father still traveled and worked long hours and after we got settled and he had to leave me for work, my father asked Yuuto to watch over me since he didn't trust Riku to actually care or help me. Yuuto immediately said yes and took me under his wing. And before you ask, yes my father knows about the underground. Dad threatened Yuuto, well more like warned Yuuto, that if anything happened to me, he was going to disappear. Yuuto, knowing my father is ex-military and that his parents love me like a daughter, took it to heart. So yes I'm allowed to go and hang out with Yuuto and my father approves, cause my dad realizes Yuuto is actually a good guy, just hates limitations and that gets him into trouble sometimes."
"Wow" "Interesting" "Oh" they said at the same time, though it was hard to tell who said what, you can guess.
Just as yellow hair was about to respond, Shouta looked at his watch and said, "hey guys we're late to class." Hearing that we immediately grabbed our stuff and ran to the classroom.
We were reprimanded for being late by all of us having cleaning duty for a week and detention after school. Little did I know our teacher's form of detention was extreme training. Fortunately, I was able to keep up since it reminded me of training with the group. Unfortunately the boys struggled. If you're wondering why such an extreme punishment? We were almost an hour late, my story took so long that we were about an hour late to class. Then what I feared would happen, happened. I ran out of water and our teacher didn't look like he was going to release us anytime soon. Knowing that the boys were struggling and that it was only a matter of time before I felt dehydrated, I asked my teacher for a break. "Sensei, can we get a quick break to get water? "
Our teacher looked like I just committed a crime in front of him, "your break was that hour it took you all to return to class. "
"But sensei, if I don't hydrate soon, I could pass out. "
"You're going to be in situations where you won't be able to access water wherever you want, kid, deal with it or you won't become a hero. "
Not wanting to sound like a wimp, I held my tongue and pushed through. Somehow that interaction caused the guys to have a new sense of determination and pushed themselves harder. Don't ask me why, I have no clue. After maybe 45 minutes, maybe an hour, I had no way of telling time so there was no way to tell. Dehydration signs showed up and were coming on fast, I sensed though that we were almost done and since I didn't want to seem like a weak willed person. I stayed quiet. I was climbing up a rope, closed my eyes to take a breath, next thing I knew I opened my eyes and I was in a hospital like bed.
"That was a horrible fall you took, girl." A sweet old woman was standing by my bed. "I'm Recovery Girl, I'm the school nurse here at UA."
"Oh, thank you but I am fine now. I should get home before my parents worry."
"I already notified your parents, they said someone is coming to pick you up, and you're extremely dehydrated so I'm not letting you leave until you finish this IV." At that moment I realized I was hooked up to an IV that held a huge bag of fluids. "Now that you're up I'm going to let your classmates in if that's ok with you. I tried to send them home but they insisted on staying until they saw you awake."
"Umm yeah sure, I'm sorry for the trouble."
"No trouble sweetie, it was your teacher's fault for not letting you take care of yourself."
"Why would you say that? Wouldn't you side with the teacher?"
"Young one, your friends stopped everything and brought you here faster than the teacher could. And they explained the whole situation to me. I will have a proper talk with your teacher and the principal tomorrow, so for now just focus on your health." She left to go get the boys who were sitting in the hall. "You can come in only if you behave, she just woke up and is still recovering. I healed her wounds from the fall but she's still severely dehydrated." After hearing her say that I started examining myself and was still checking out my body when they approached my bed.
"What are you doing Ali-chan?"
"I didn't feel hurt when I woke, so when I heard she healed my wounds I was curious if there were any marks or signs on my body of my injuries."
"How in the world are you not in pain?" Hizashi said very loud and confused.
"Child, if you can't keep it down I'm going to kick you out again. And the answer could very well be that my quirk healed every injury and they are all gone. Or she has a high pain tolerance. I'm going with the pain tolerance because I couldn't heal everything that seemed to be wrong. On an unrelated note, did you know you had a torn shoulder?" Recovery Girl asked with a concerned face.
"Oh that, yeah I tore it when I dislocated it during the entrance exam saving a kid from one of the robots. After I put it in place, I had pain but nothing I couldn't handle. I didn't want to risk costing my family more money so I never tried to get it looked at."
"You're telling me you did all our training with a torn shoulder and never once complained?"
"Why would I complain Hizashi? I'm sure you guys have gotten some injury during training before and had to push through."
"Ummm no."
"Oh."
"Alesha, why didn't you come to me before if you had this?"
"Honestly Recovery Girl, I got used to the pain within a week. My cousin and his friends were still training me to prepare me for school, and I didn't want to disappoint them that I learned how to bear through it."
"Not that I don't believe you, but as a child your shoulder was so injured I have no clue how you were still able to move it let alone keep up with our hero course training."
"You sure? My cousin pushes me harder during our workouts than they do here, the only reason I passed out was I didn't calculate in our detention and ran out of my water supply."
The nurse looked confused. She seemed like she wanted to say more but couldn't find the words. The guys looked the same way. After a bit of them trying to come up with something to say, a knock came at the door and Yuuto came in.
"Hello, I'm Alesha's cousin. Her parents sent me to pick her up since I have a car and didn't want her walking."
"That's smart, she's fine, severely dehydrated but ok."
"You said over the phone she fell from a great height?"
"Yes, she was climbing up our ropes in the training center and passed out. My quirk is heal, and I was able to heal almost all of her injuries. I wish I could have gotten everything, since the actual injury from the fall wasn't that severe, but she had many past injuries that kept me from healing her completely without actually putting her in harm's way."
"Past injuries?"
"Yes sir. I'm not comfortable explaining it in full detail due to HIPAA concerns. If you were her parent or if she was ok with me explaining, I cannot." I'm very happy for this HIPAA thing because I have a feeling of what injuries she's talking about and it's not just the shoulder and most are from sessions with the group. And I don't want anyone to know or those are going to stop.
"Alesha," oh my actual name, he's mad. "We're going to have a talk about these 'past injuries' on the way home. Ma'am, when can I take her home? "
"As soon as she finishes her IV and/or pees."
"Thank you for caring for my cousin." Yuuto does a deep bow, which shocked me. He never does a full bow, not for anyone. I'm in such deep shit when I get home.
"Now if you excuse me, I'm going to grab myself food and be back soon. You all can stay with her as long as you stay calm and don't touch anything." Without waiting for a response she turned and walked out.
"Alesha, start talking now." His face was one I haven't seen in awhile, not since his brother disrespected me at my birthday. He was mad and he was on the verge to kill. This my first time being on the receiving end of this look, I don't like it.
"The guys and I were in a deep discussion at lunch that we lost track of time, over an hour to be exact. Our teacher had us due an extreme training session as our detention, I ran out of water. The teacher wouldn't let me refill, something about I won't be worthy as a hero if I let a little water stop me from doing my work, I don't know. And right as I started feeling dehydrated, I got the impression that we were almost done and tried to push through not wanting to look weak or anger him and get kicked out. Next thing I know I woke up in this bed."
Yuuto takes a full minute with his eyes closed taking deep breaths. When he opens his eyes he looks at the boys, "you knew she has a problem with dehydration, why didn't any of you speak up and protect your friend!"
"Don't yell at them, it's not their fault. It's mine and the teacher's. I should've spoken up more and they were struggling themselves, it was probably hard for them to focus on anything other than surviving the training session. They're not used to the vigorous training that I am. That session actually is the closest they got to experiencing how hard of training that the group had put me through this past year."
"Yuuto sir, we are deeply sorry for allowing her to get hurt,"
"It's not your fault" I interrupted Shouta.
"Alesha, he's right. We knew of your condition and made no effort to interfere and protect you. We failed as heroes today." I wanted to cry, it wasn't their fault. They shouldn't feel any guilt for my mistake, well actually it was the teacher for not listening to me.
Yuuto sighed heavily, "don't beat yourself up too much kid. Knowing Ali she probably hid it well that she was in danger. Believe me, I have a hard time catching all the signs and I've been training her for years now. You've only known her a short while and she hates showing weakness so unless you know her well, you couldn't have known she was at risk." They still looked deep in regret, but didn't say anything. "Alesha, what is this shit about past injuries?"
"Ummm I don't want to tell you?"
"Why don't you want to tell me?"
"Ummm you may get mad and stop training me?" I avoid looking anywhere close to him cause I'll cave if I see his face, then I'll be in real trouble.
"Well I'm stopping anyway, no cars, no bike, no anything to deal with me or the group until you explain. Have fun dealing with your mother on your own." He looked like he was about to walk out, when I stopped him.
"Wait! Fine I'll tell but please don't leave me alone with her."
"It was an empty threat anyway, she's almost as bad as Riku. No way I'm dumping you on her."
"Bastard, anyway. During the entrance exam I dislocated my shoulder saving this kid and I guess while it dislocated it tore and was injured worse than I thought."
"Ok, how bad? And why didn't you let anyone know?"
"First off I did let you know, that first week of training after the exam you asked if something was wrong. I told you I thought I bruised my shoulder during the exam."
"A bruise isn't dislocating and tearing up your shoulder."
"I didn't know that was what happened, I felt it pop out a bit. But I was able to put it back in and sure it hurt but I didn't think it was anything major. That was point number two."
"Ok fine, what else."
"What makes you think there was more?"
"One you're a bad liar, two you wouldn't have been so worried about me stopping group training if it was something that happened at school, and three that nurse made it a point of saying injuries. Plural. So let's have it." I hate how observant he was.
"Fine, there are possibly about five or six injuries that I didn't get looked at."
"Five or six?"
"Yeah?" I tried to give an innocent face, I don't think it worked.
"Little shit, what the fuck is wrong with you that you didn't tell anyone that you were hurt?"
"Blame the American health care system."
"Why the fuck would that explain anything? "
"In America, it costs serious money to get looked at by a doctor and the over-sell treatments to make a profit. I thought if I told anyone, I would have the family way more money than I already did. Plus mom said it was a waste of time that they don't seem serious. And"
"THE FUCK! YOUR MOM KNEW!"
"Ummm, when I got thrown from my bike last year, once I was home, my arm started bugging me. Mom was the only one home, so I asked her if we should go get it looked at. She looked me up and down once and said I was being overdramatic, then sent me to my room to do homework."
"I'm going to kill her."
"No you're not, she's not worth going to jail over."
"I could get away with it, I have a damn good lawyer plus loyal friends who would do anything I asked."
"Stop, you're not a bad guy. Killing is too far even for y'all."
"Well, I'm telling your dad. And we're going to have a word with your mother."
"Whatever, it's not worth it. She's not going to change. And dad won't get a divorce, for reasons that you know."
"I don't give a shit, she can't let shit like that slide."
"Whatever."
"Whatever one more time and I'll give you something to actually hurt about."
"Ok, sorry."
"Wow Ali-chan you're more of a badass than I thought." Turning to face the boys on my other side, I totally forgot they were there.
"I had no idea of the stuff you were going through, that had to be tough I'm sorry." My heart broke listening to Shouta, I wanted to grab him and hug and kiss him. I won't do it cause that would be weird plus I don't think he'll like that.
"Guys it's cool. My life isn't that bad. I have a loving father, a protective brother and awesome cousins that have gone above and beyond for me. Plus some nice friends like you guys who look out for me."
"Ali,"
"Don't, Hizashi. I like it better when we fight. If you start any sap shit I will lose it and hit you."
"Fine, but I'm not going to fight today. You need your strength to keep up with me."
"Whatever floats your boat." We all chuckle a bit. Recovery girl came in shortly after and unhooked me from the IV since it was empty, but wouldn't let me go until I peed. She made me drink water until I did. Once I did, I swear it was the longest pee of my life. She also told my cousin that I shouldn't come to school tomorrow and will excuse me from class. Just as I was about to argue, Yuuto gave me a look and Oboro said he would grab and drop off any homework for me. After we thanked him, Yuuto offered the guys a ride home. They accepted, we got food, listened to music then dropped them home. The guys made sure they had my contact information so they could get my address tomorrow and drop off my homework. I pray there won't be any cause I rather they didn't come over and meet my mom. Yuuto and I rode in silence on the way home. Once we got there he turned to me, "you're going to go in and pack a bag of anything you'll need for a week. If your dad doesn't kick your mom out tonight after I talk to him I'm taking you to my parents. Understand? "
"Yeah."
"Good, let's go." When we walked in, my dad started bombarding us with questions. Yuuto pulled my dad into the spare room that he used as an office and started explaining to him. I went to my room and started packing, there was no way my dad was going to kick out my mom. And I was right, what I wasn't prepared for was my dad going to the mansion with me. Guess my dad was tired of her shit too, that was one the only times I heard my dad yell. Let alone curse anyone out. But he cursed my mom out as he packed his shit, saying we wouldn't return until she started acting right. When we got to the mansion, I walked straight to my old room and passed out on the bed, didn't even undress. I was so tired.
