Freeze Frame

Chapter 55

Third person pov

Things seemed to settle down. They trained hard for the Sports Festival, and worked hard in class as anyone might.  Lillian tore through two more bottles of eye drops. Aizawa shouldn't be proud at how fast she was going through them, but he was. She was really pushing her quirk to its fullest, and it seemed she'd extended her time before she got stomach pains by ten seconds since starting.

The festival was fast approaching, and the Meme Three was nervous. How could they not be? The whole world would have their eyes on them. It was nerve wracking. Hitoshi had had a breakdown twice now. Lillian was still numbed from the whole kidnapping and USJ thing so she just sort of laughed hysterically at times until she cried. Neito was the only one who seemed fine with it. Then again, he didn't have stage fright.

Lillian had been talking to Hound Dog everyday. They hadn't talked about the USJ. Just more about her childhood and her friends. Lillian had hesitantly explained that she was almost mad at herself for discovering it. Things had been going so well with her not-parents before, and living in an ignorant bliss had held its perks. But now... thinking of them saddened her. It made her almost sick to know what they did. That they'd simply take a child. It made bile bubble up her throat and tears sting her eyes.

But that brought them to now, five days before the festival. People were stressing. Iida's arm was boi-ing non-stop, and Ochako had shrieked twice in the span of a minute. Aizawa wasn't in the room yet, thus leaving them to their panicked devices as they fretted over the festival to come. Todoroki was trying to talk to Lillian, who was a little confused as to why he wanted to know about her parents, if she had siblings, and how exactly her quirk worked.

Outside the room, Aizawa and Mic were faced with a dilemma. 

"Please." Hound Dog pressed his hands together. "Let me be her-ruff-therpawist. I'm qualified, and she's already comfurtable with me."

Aizawa's eyes narrowed, and Mic peeked over the tops of his glasses. It was true that Lillian had taken a liking to Hound Dog. She didn't exactly look forward to talking about her feelings, but she definitely trusted him and thought he was, quote, 'really good at his job and too nice for his own good.' But with more stuttering.

"...We'll consider." Mic said after a moment. Aizawa gave a single nod. Hound Dog looked ready to collapse from relief.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were in the locker room when Ochako and Mina both let out shrieks.

Hero training was really pushing them for the sports festival, so everyone had been eager to get out of their sweaty uniforms. Lillian's locker was thankfully in the corner, so any changing she did was pretty out of view from the other girls. Her blazer was only half buttoned when a hysterical Ochako grabbed her.

"Freeze him!" She squealed, eyes wide with horror. Her gaze drifted to the open locker everyone had backed away from, and her entire body tensed. Mineta stared back with a red face and drool dribbling from the corner of his mouth. Horror immediately filled Lillian as she raised her hand to block Momo from view so she didn't accidentally freeze her too. Mineta was suddenly paralyzed.

Now that she wasn't being stared at, Lillian felt rage fill her. Mineta had been on the girls since day one!  Lillian couldn't count the number of times on both hands he'd ogled her and her friends. It was tiring and she was... she was done! Why did they have to deal with this?! Didn't Mr. Aizawa once expel a whole class?

She didn't like being stared at like she was a piece of meat, but that wasn't the real issue here. She could have dealt with it if it were just her. She'd have been fine! But these were her friends. She chatted with them everyday. She texted them in their all-girls group chat every evening after school, sometimes talking into the late hours of the night. She knew them. They knew her. They all cared about one another.