SENIORITIS (Ishimondo)

6. Rules (Broken)

[TW: graphic violence, food insecurity
Mondo is a lovely gentleman though
There's angst this chapter]

Taka had been caught staring.
It was the middle of chemistry class, everyone had split off into pairs to work on assignments. While Mondo and Leon stood at one of the back tables, Kiyotaka sat at the front grading.
It was a mindless task at that point, and during the late parts of class Taka's eyes began to wander. Specifically to Mondo, who had taken off his jacket, leaving him in a tank top that hung loosely over his frame.
He knew it was immoral, but good God so was the sight in front of him- Mondo's muscles tensing ever so slightly as he wrote, one hand scratching roughly at an exposed collarbone....
That simple article of clothing was making it very hard for Taka to think clearly.
Leon, however, had noticed the prolonged gaze. He tapped Mondo and pointed discreetly towards Taka, which made the boy flush with shame and look down.
He'd been caught staring.
He tried to grade papers without any sign of emotion, knowing Mondo and Leon were most likely talking about him now.
Taka already knew Leon basically hated him, he'd given the baseball player enough detention slips to write a best selling novel series. What if he was telling Mondo all sorts of horrible things about him? What if Mondo didn't want to be around him anymore?
They'd had a lovely study hall that morning, going over all the work they'd done that weekend, talking, laughing. It was the happiest Taka had felt in a long time.
'What if he never spoke to me again?'
The bell cut off his train of thought, which was probably for the better.
Taka glanced back up at the duo. Leon was hurrying out of the classroom as soon as possible, presumably to get to baseball practice, and Mondo was putting his things away. Somewhat neatly.
Taka smiled, reminding himself that Mondo does in fact have a soft side.
He gathered his things, leaving graded work on the teachers desk.
Mondo came up to meet him, sliding on his coat as the majority of students filtered out into the halls.
"Hey, bro. You going to detention with me again today?" He asked.
"Unfortunately I am not in charge of detention today, you will be sitting with Hina, and if you give her any trouble Mondo I swear I-"
Mondo laughed.
"Calm down dude, m'not gonna bother her like I bother you. Maybe I'll get some work done, we'll see."
"Mm..." Taka hummed, pleased. "I see, you only like torturing me, is that it?"
"Not just you. But you're the most fun." He paused, seeming to not want to leave Taka's side. "You're usually rushing to the bus by now, got somewhere to be?" Mondo quizzed, stalling.
"Actually, yes. I meant to go grocery shopping on Sunday, but the rain made it impossible." Taka glanced out the window. It seemed to be somewhat nice outside, a little cloudy but not bad.
"Sounds exciting as shit dude." Mondo said sarcastically.
"Language..."
There was another long pause.
"Well, gotta get to that detention you gave me." He gave Taka finger guns.
"You deserved it! You weren't listening to the lecture!"
"See ya later, kiyodai!" Mondo laughed, waving and leaving the classroom.

+

Mondo huffed, sinking into the detention room chair.
He had this overwhelming sensation that something bad was going to happen.
Aoi Asahina (or Hina, as she liked to go by) was nice enough, allowing him to keep his personal device for music only, but he was still anxious. Why was he so anxious?
Mondo pulled out his literature essay and continued on his rough draft from where he'd started that weekend.
It wasn't going well, to be honest. The amount of crossed out words and carrots and misspellings alone were enough, not to mention Mondo had stopped writing mid sentence and had NO IDEA what he was going to say.
A voice in the back of his head told him 'Give up, screw homework, you're not smart enough for this fancy ass school anyways'.
Mondo suddenly pictured the page marked up in red ink with Taka's neat, small script around his words, detailing the changes he should make. He was suddenly flooded with motivation.
This was fixable.
If he could get the rough draft done in detention today....that would score him some major friend points.
Mondo pulled out an entirely fresh sheet of paper, intending to use what was legible and scrap the rest.
He put on his headphones and clutched a fresh pencil between his thick fingers.
It was go time.