In the midst of heartbreak, new bonds are forged.
At the end of their first year at UA High, the students rely on their tight friendships and hard work to get through finals. New alliances and friendships are made between the outgoing hero classes a...
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And just like that, winter break had come as quickly as it left, leaving my class of extras to return as second-years. Time sure did fly when you were the only living person in your house.
Over the break, I spent most of my time at the house, enjoying the energy it put out as well as the spirits within. My friends all stayed at their homes with their families before we had to move back to school, so we didn't get together often. There were times when we would video chat as a group, but those were tough to follow for me even with captions. Soon, we fell back into old habits with our group texts.
There was the massive Class H group chat that was only active if there was something important going on. I was one of few who actually viewed those texts, and it wasn't as active as the chat made up of my circle of friends.
The smaller group chat mostly consisted of humorous images sent by either Double, Snake, or Rose followed by a snide remark from Dani often comparing one of us to the image. I didn't pick up on a lot of it like Dani referring to me as "dark humor" or any of those repeated phrases for slang like "lit fam," whatever that was. It was, at its least, something to pass the time with.
Over winter break, I mostly enjoyed instant messaging with Koto. I was grateful to Marie for giving me a phone; otherwise, I wasn't sure how to handle being alone with the ghosts in the house all day. Koto helped the time go by with her own versions of these "memes" and her mellow conversations. I didn't think anyone could talk about old TV Sitcoms for an hour, but she proved me wrong within a week.
The only person to enjoy talking to Koto more than I was Cleo by a landslide. On days she found something amusing to talk about that she had already shared with me, Cleo would ask for my phone to tell Koto. As Koto continued their conversations, it grew into Cleo using my phone anytime I wasn't using it. I eventually created a separate chat for her and Cleo to spare myself the shame of Koto thinking I was that bad at grammar.
We ended up chatting more than I thought we would. Conversation after another, we found more things we had in common and more to learn. She told me all about her interest in dance and music, things I couldn't argue for or against, and I shared with her some of the deceased yet famous composers and performers I've met. Other talks were more shallow and silly, such as her failed attempts at skateboarding with her classmates, but I found myself enjoying those just the same.
I began to enjoy texting her like it was a regular activity. Day or night, we found time to message about anything and everything. Whenever I felt my phone vibrate with a notification, my heart raced just guessing what the text was. It wasn't often I made a new friend; in fact, I wasn't very good at it, but Koto was such an easy person to talk to that our conversations felt effortless.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰
Eventually, the texts continued back and forth and the winter break drifted by. We were back at UA once again, and it was a new year for everyone.
