𝐇𝐨𝐩𝐞'𝐬 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭 | Inquisitormaster & Zsquad| Danganronpa

☆𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟎☆ || 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐱 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞

FRESHMEN YEAR- NOVEMBER

Girls massed around the bulletin board, and it was almost impossible to see over the sea of girls with anticipation and excitement rushing through their veins as if it were their blood. Not even standing on my tippy toes and craning my neck combo could work against the formation.

"What's it say?!" Skye grabs Erza's arms and shakes her aggressively. She'd given up on standing on her tippy toes although she was practically bursting with excitement for the answers.

"I'm trying," admits Erza as she narrows her eyes at the board and leans a bit forward.

Kat, Jade, Darkness, and I stand away from the crowd. As the minutes pass, the students leave with them, some triumphant with the results and some walking away with sour glares, animosity radiating off of them as they mutter feverishly. When a space empties, I push up from the wall and amble over to the board. My eyes scan over the contents, getting a brief reading of a flyer for a play, a winter dance, and some other stuff like the track team that I didn't care about. Then, they catch on the cheerleading roster...

"... I got in," I say in utter disbelief, rereading the name beneath Candi's and above Junko's: my name.

From beside me, Jade glances over the list and gives a small scoff. "I didn't, thank goodness."

"Me neither," Darkness agrees. A breath of relief comes from her, and I swear I see an invisible sweat disappear along her temple.

We— as in I— took a quick picture of the list before heading out of the school. Since it was an early dismissal for "fall break", nothing much happened today. I use the sounds around me to navigate as I look down at the list more clearly. Candi, Kat, Skye, Charli, and I made the team. I would feel bad for Darkness and Jade, but they both seem more than fine about the fact that they didn't make it, which I can adore honestly.

Echoes through the halls fade out and the sweet, musky smell of leaves invades my nostrils as we step out of the building and into the outdoors. The trees' usually dark bark was paling in the cooling weather, the branches sprouting like veins from the trunk. Leaves of varying hues piled up at the foot of these trees and created cushions for comfortable spots. Someone was buttoning up their blazer, buttoning up their sweaters, and tightening their scarves at each turn, I subconsciously adjusted mine when my eye caught them. We walked down the path to the dorms, the gravel and leaves crunching beneath our feet with each step. I bore my phone into my pocket right when we arrived at the building.

The building was empty when we stepped in. The door shuts behind us, echoing through the silence and vacant lobby. Not waiting any longer, Jade breaks from us and tosses her bag onto the sofa, she lets out a light sigh. Skye follows after, wandering to the back of the couch, throwing her bag over, and flipping over onto the couch as her bag thunks against the ground; we could hear everything inside clattering together. Sighing exaggeratedly, Skye crosses her legs at her ankles and folds her hands upon her abdomen.

We're all sitting in the lobby in the blink of an eye. I lean against the arm of the sofa, improvising it as a seat. Silence shoulders the room with the occasional ruffle and discrete cough from one of us. Awkwardness creeps up beside it, and I can sense it lingering on the hairs of my neck. No, I'm not letting this get awkward already; we just got here!

"Why don't we do something?" My thoughts run wild in my mind, coming up with several ideas we could do to take part in since Halloween is over and we're only waiting for the jolly season ahead.

"Really?" Skye sits up, using her arms to maneuver herself to where she's leaning against the opposite arm of the couch whilst still comfortably sprawled out on the cushions. "Like what? Pumpkin pickings?"