Burn

6 - apprehension

Last time in Burn:
"How did you make your boyfriend so angry?"

(haha)
...

If it were anyone else besides Shouto, god knows what I would've done to them last night. Or maybe it'd the other way around. I sighed heavily and sunk my face into my pillow.

"Good night," Shouto called out softly. A few seconds later, only little slivers of moonlight faintly illuminated my line of sight. Having nothing better to do, I briefly scanned my bedroom. As soon as my eyes fell upon my school uniform (crisp and clean for tomorrow), I thought about the events that had elapsed throughout the week.

The entrance exam.. my classmates.. the quirk apprehension test... Drama Queen... so much has already happened and the school year has barely started. How was I ever going to live through all this?

I must be a simple person. Not really. I don't know. It depends. Maybe I can barely think for myself, because on one hand, I have people to care about me. On the other hand, there's people like my dad and Drama Queen that are my sworn enemies for life. For one, I wish my life were simpler, if not myself. And then there are people like Izuku and Uraraka. They're so genuinely nice and open to everyone and I'm just a big fat pessimist with no apparent goal ahead of me. How was I ever going to stand out? Heck, I'm not even the only person who doesn't speak; there's this animal guy who's too shy to! My life was better when my biggest concerns was trying to outgrow my twin brother and persuading my mom for a pet dog (still don't have one). When did becoming outstanding become such a chore? I just want to succeed.

And with that depressing question in mind, I somehow drift into sleep.

And with that, I wake up to a morning of... screeching and the sound of thumping around on hardwood floor? It mag seem weird but one of my biggest pet peeves is some person who can't control the weight of their footsteps. Unfortunately, due to my morning fumbling and grumbling, this led to an annoyed Shouto, a traumatized cat (that Shouto obviously brought in from somewhere— when?), and me, nothing short of a few scratches here and there. I'm tempted almost, to say that the scratches didn't come from the cat. It's not true, of course.

Oh, and the hallway's a bit disturbed, by the way. In other words, exposed to the elements. But who cares, I think to myself, this house has already gone to ruins. In more ways than one.

...

We arrive to class fashionably late, and when the activity of the day is announced I feel like I just can't get a breath away from the commotion: "Quirk apprehension test."

All Might continues, "You will be paired with someone— each team has been methodically chosen already." Class groan. Mostly Mina, Kaminari, and Kirishima.

"Two teams will be pitted against each other in an abandoned building simulation. The goal for the hero team is to touch the villain's bomb before time's up, and the villain is simply to make sure this doesn't happen." There is nervous and excited chatter, and that thing, where my heart thumps faster, and I feel on edge, and I can't help but smile and anticipate, happens— my competitive spirit. And now I know I can't get a breath away from the commotion, but living within the commotion is exhilarating nonetheless.

To my actual surprise (I don't dare identify what kind of surprise I feel), I'm paired with Shouto, as we're "naturally a pair", and Aizawa-sensei would like to analyze both of our quirks— the extent, how they can coordinate, the weaknesses, and the like. I don't really like it. I feel like I'm being compared to my older twin brother again. I feel like I have no identity in my own, always in the shadow of the prodigy who got into Yuuei via recommendations—