cats don't always land on their feet (soraru and mafumafu story)

3

tick... tick... tick...

sigh... this class is so boring...  i thought as i tried not to fall asleep. i wouldn't be this sleepy if i were sitting beside mafu though.  i glanced over at him. he sat at the opposite side of the class, i was in the left back corner, he was at the front right corner, diagonal from me. he sat beside amatsuki, who was another great friend of ours. the two of them did a lot together as well. we all had plans to do something that afternoon, i didn't entirely want to go, though.

we had a relatively large friend group at school. however, we were always divided into smaller groups. for example, urata, shima, sakata, and senra, were always together no matter what; amatsuki and 96neko were always bringing their nintendo switches and little game consoles to school to play against each other; luz, eve and sou were the pretty boy trio. they were super popular. they were always together and everyone always wanted to be around them. however, luz had become student council president and was usually pretty busy so it'd often be just eve and sou together; araki, nqrse, and meychan were the troublemaker trio. everywhere they went, disaster followed, whether it be intentional or not, something strange was always happening to them; and last but not least, mafumafu and i. i was mainly only ever around mafu, but at the end of the day, all 14 of us were super tight and loved and cared about each other deeply. it felt like mafu tied our whole friend group together though, and i don't think most of us would've been friends if it weren't for him, given how different our personalities are and our social standings within the school.

            
***

this class was always so boring. the teacher had gone completely off-topic. he began talking about cats, and how they always land on their feet. he made a comment, however, about how if they fell from a very high place, they would not be able to land safely on their feet. this brought up an entire discussion and arguments amongst the students.
i was very confused, to say the least.
what does any of this have to do with math...? shouldn't we be discussing what's gonna be on our test...? i thought as i closed my eyes and leaned forward on my desk, i looked at our teacher writing nonsense on the board. slowly, i started closing my eyes and i fell into a light sleep.

"soraru..."
i heard a voice.

"soraru? are you okay?" something poked my shoulder, which caused me to jolt awake.
"huh?!" i looked beside me. sou looked at me with concern.
"ah! im sorry! i didn't mean to startle you!" sou said in a gentle voice.
i stretched and yawned, "it's all good, man," i grunted slightly, "what's up?"
"o-oh, nothing! you were suddenly passed out on your desk and i got worried!" sou said with a little laugh at the end.
"ah, yeah, thank you for waking me up, hehe!" i laughed in embarrassment.
"are you ready for the test?" sou asked
"ahhhhh... no. not at all honestly."
"hehe, me neither, im quite nervous-oh, thank you Sir!" sou said as the teacher came by and placed a test on sou's desk.

the teacher handed me mine as well and i thanked him, and he continued handing tests out to the rest of the class. i looked at the test in front of me, a five-page test, all double-sided. you've got to be kidding me, i thought in disbelief. i glanced at sou, who looked like his soul just left his body. i felt like i had a serious déjà vu. this all felt very familiar...
"heh, you okay-?" i asked.
"i don't even know what i'm looking at right now," sou replied in a monotone voice.
"don't worry, you'll do great," i said trying to raise his spirits.
he nodded hesitantly, "let's just do our best..."

***

"times up! everybody come hand in your tests now," the teacher shouted from the front of the class.
i stood up from my desk and headed to the front to hand it in. the class was all gathered into a big mess at the front of the class, so i stayed back a bit until it cleared up.
    "soraruuuu!"
    i turned around saw mafu running towards me, with his test in hand. his face looked normal but the tone of his voice seemed distraught.
    "ah, mafu how do you think you did-aGH!" i said as he tackled me with a hug. he started whining and mumbling something and i pushed him away from me lightly.
    "whats wrong with you?! what's the matter?" i said a bit annoyed.
mafu whined quite loudly, "i didnt know anything on this test! im gonna fail! i had to guess on everythingggggg!"
as he said 'everything' he melted to is knees and slammed his hands on the floor dramatically, causing a scene. embarrassed by him, i pull him back to his feet and try to quiet him down.
    "im sure you did fine, mafu. lemme see," i said taking his test from his hand and comparing his answers to mine.
    "oh, we have the same answers?" he said with a tear that had formed in his eye during his dramatic fall to the ground, "well it seems we will both do great then! high five!"
    that was a quick change in his mood, i thought as i high-fived him and handed in our tests.

we went opposite ways to get back to our desks. i sat back down and felt a pair of eyes looking at me. i looked up and saw mafu at his desk looking back at me, smiling. a little confused, i smiled back, and he smiled even more from that. from where i was, i couldn't hear what was said, but i noticed amatsuki said something to mafu. his lips read something along the lines of 'what are you smiling at?' and he turned to look back at me as well. he waved enthusiastically with a big smile on his face. i was about to wave back but the teacher had begun scolding mafu and amatsuki for not paying attention, and i could tell from mafu's posture he was holding in a laugh, and that made me laugh a little too.

the teacher continued talking about who knows what and that was my cue to daydream. the class was gonna end soon so i leaned back in my chair and relaxed. i glanced over at sou, who was still in shock from the test.

"how do you think you did?" i asked with a little smile.
sou slowly turned to look at me, "i left half of it blank. i studied the wrong thing."
"oh dear, well..." i scratched the back of my neck, "i wouldn't stress too much, you get really high marks on everything else! i'm sure this won't have a big impact," i smiled.
"yeah, i suppose..." he looked down at his notebook in front of him.
i smiled and looked out the window on the other side of me. clouds were starting to flood in the sky, and thoughts were starting to flood in my mind.

***