Chapter 6

After reporting to the officials what had happened, Sakura refused to give me one second by myself, and I was okay with that. Even more so, I was relieved that no one had contacted my family about what had happened. I wasn't sure how any of them would react that I had ran away from the situation, or that it even happened.

Time passed by, and before I knew it, the dreaded day came.

"Tami! Tami! Wake up!" my little brother squealed.

My hands clutched onto my blanket as I tugged it closer to my chest. My knees pulled into my chest so that my legs would submerge under the blanket. The last thing I wanted to do was to wake up, or at least, I didn't want to wake up today of all days.

I knew what today was. To be honest, I had been up for hours, not getting a minute of sleep. My heart was still racing knowing what could happen the moment I stepped into that school. If there was some way I could, I would stop it by pretending I was sick or that I had overslept.

"C'mon Tami!" Ollie pleaded. "It's your first day at U.A, and Mom made you dinosaur chicken nuggets for lunch."

My eyes shot open, looking my brother right in the eyes, regretting it immediately. In the past, things would've been a lot different. I was the morning bird of the family, just so I could see Mom before she went to work and tried to help her around the house. Ollie would sleep in until the very last minute until I would literally drag him out of bed and shove him into the bathroom to get ready.

Today, it was as if we had swapped places. For the first time, Ollie had his brown hair combed to the side while he wore his simple black uniform, consisting of shoes, slacks, and a polo. Only, something seemed different about his uniform, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it until I saw a little gold pin on the collar. It was something that was optional for students to wear as it was simply the school's emblem. Because of that, he never wore it.

Ollie pulled something from his pant's pocket and handed it to me. I pushed myself into a seated position and looked at it, finding a red tie in his hands. "Mom said you can wear this red tie with your uniform too!"

I looked back at Ollie, seeing his eyes glued to the red tie. His chocolate-colored eyes sparkled as his smile widened. It was that moment that made it seem as if he was going to be the one going to U.A, not me. That was how excited he was for me to be going to this new hero school.

If it wasn't for the dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets my mom had already prepared for my lunch, I wouldn't have gotten up. I might have found a way to get out of it, but that little thought left the moment I saw that look on Ollie's face. Because he had no Quirk, this would be the only time someone in our family had a chance of being a hero.

The last thing I wanted to do was for him to be disappointed in me for not trying to do what he wanted. If I did, I would wipe away all the hope that was left in him. After all, seeing his big sister make it in gave him a little bit of hope that he'd have a chance of making it into U.A. too.

I couldn't take that away from him.

"Make sure mom packs extra ketchup packets in my lunchbox," I told him as I took the tie from his hands. "I'll be out in a bit."

~*~*~*~

After breakfast, Mom had Ollie and I stand in front of the door to take pictures of us. I tried to show some sort of excitement, but I don't think it could've matched Ollie's in the slightest. It was hard just to keep him still. I could tell he was excited, but it wasn't for him to go to school, it was for me.

"Tami, what's wrong?" Mom asked as she pulled the camera from her face, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear as she looked at me, seeing through the forced smile I tried to give. She was wearing her uniform for work, which she should have already left for. "Are you nervous for U.A. or something?"

I opened my mouth to answer when someone knocked on the door. I sighed in relief, glad I didn't have to come up with some sort of lie to tell her to put her mind at ease.

Since I was already at the door, I turned around and opened it up without looking to see who it was. That was because I already knew who was there. Opening the door, I realized I was only partially right. Standing outside were two kids my age. The first was my friend, Sakura Sakai, who wore every part of her school uniform. Her gray blazer with green stripes accented on the shoulders, lapel, and sleeves hung nicely over her white button down, with the tie perfectly wrapped around her neck. She paired it up nicely with a pair of long black socks—different from the black tights I wore—with her green skirt looking a bit shorter than it should.

One thing stood out about my friend. Her long ebony hair was pulled into a side braid with a green flower pinned onto the top of her head. Despite the strict dress code, she must've found a loophole.

Sakura was the only person I had expected to come, so seeing that she had someone with her made my muscles tense up. True, I had seen him a few times before: the first at our exam and the second time at the mall. His orange hair stuck in every direction as he wore his signature bright smile. Like Sakura and I, he wore the school uniform, only he was missing the tie, had his blazer unbutton, and wasn't wearing a skirt. Of course, he couldn't wear a skirt. That would've been ridiculous. He was a guy, so he wore green pants instead.

My eyes widened in realization of this. He was going to the same school as me. Now that I think about it, both him and his friend were both going to U.A. I looked around to see if his brunette friend was around, but luckily, there was no one else around.

Knowing that there was only going to be one boy with us should've put me at ease, but I was still going to have to walk to school with a boy.

"Tami-tan! You look amazing! Are you ready to get going?" Sakura asked.

I tried to open my mouth, but nothing came out. All I could do was feel my hands tremble. It was all because of that boy Sakura was with. He knew what happened at the mall, that I ran from danger rather than faced it. How would the other students react if they realized I did that, that I didn't act like a hero and just ran away? Maybe that wouldn't matter, but there was a problem. I remember telling him I wasn't a hero when I took down that "villain" during our exam. What if he figured out that I didn't want to be at U.A? Would my secret of not wanting to be there get out?

I know that shouldn't have bothered me, but it did. I mean, I felt out of place already, but the moment my family found out, I was afraid to see how they'd react.

Someone tugged on my blazer, forcing me to look away. Standing beside me was my little brother, Ollie. His eyes were locked onto the orange-haired boy as he leaned closer to me.

"Who's that?" he asked.

As if hearing his question, Kaito knelt down to Ollie's height and reached out his hand. "Name's Kaito Oba. You must be Tami's younger brother, Oliver, right?"

Ollie shook his hand and leaned closer to me, whispering in a voice that only I could hear. "Is he your boyfriend?"

My eyes widened at the thought as my face grew redder than the ketchup I'd use for my dinosaur chicken nuggets. Luckily Kaito didn't seem to notice, but even if he did, I quickly turned away to look at my mom who was standing there. Her camera was still glued in her hands. When she made eye-contact with me, her smile widened.

"Why don't I get a picture of you and your friends before you all head off to school?" Mom asked.

I didn't say a word as I felt an arm wrapping around my shoulders. Before I could even process what was going on, the door shut behind me, and I was stuck in the middle of Kaito and Sakura. Only one of them knew how much I hated my personal bubble being invaded and kept her arms to herself. The other one kept his arm wrapped around my shoulders.

Normally, I wouldn't mind. I would feel uncomfortable because it was a guy, but I wouldn't have tensed up much as I was now. All I could do was think of what that woman did to that man in the mall.

All it took was some form of physical touch. I still didn't know what Kaito's Quirk was to know if he needed some sort of touch to actually activate it. Still, I wanted to be cautious, and I couldn't quite do that when he had his arm around me.

Why couldn't people let me have my personal space?

"You guys are so adorable!" Mom squealed as she took the camera away from her face and looked at us. "You kids have fun at school today. Study hard. Tami, don't forget your lunch."

I nodded my head as I slipped out of Kaito's grasp and picked it up by the door, and shrugged my pink back-pack over my shoulders. Once I had everything, I looked back at my mom, who looked to be on the verge of tears. Happy tears.

"My little baby's growing up," she cried.

"Mom," I groaned, before I walked over towards her and gave her a quick hug. I could tell the gesture shocked her for a moment, but I had to calm her down somehow. "I'll come home after school. Promise."

She relaxed and wrapped her arms around me, placing her head on top of mine. "Okay sweetie. Just have fun. Work hard."

I nodded my head before breaking from the hug and giving her a reassuring smile.

~*~*~*~

Kaito and Sakura both skipped ahead of me while I just walked behind them, cautiously watching my surroundings. U.A. was much further from home than my previous school. We had passed my old school along the way, which was perfect as I could make sure Ollie made it there safely. It worried me that he didn't have a Quirk. So many things could happen to him if he was by himself. At least I could disguise myself if something went wrong, like that day at the mall. Ollie couldn't.

Musutafa was just a huge city. Buildings rose well above us while people flooded the streets to get to work, school, or even to try to catch a hero stopping some sort of villain. It was easy to get lost in a place like this, but it was also easy for people to get into trouble too. I just hope Ollie stayed in school and would wait for me to pick him up. The last thing I needed was for something to happen to him.

"So, what exactly is your Quirk, Orangie?" Sakura asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Why Orangie?" Kaito asked. "Tami-tan gets a cute nickname. Why can't I? You know Kaito-kun sounds cool, or even Kaito-sama."

"You know what would work?" Sakura asked, looking him in the eye. "Kouhai."

I chuckled as Kaito's eyes widened in response. I never really liked adding those suffixes to names, but Sakura always tried to make it a point to give all her friends some sort of nickname. She was always pretty good at it too from what I could understand. With mine, it was a nice alliteration. Kaito was right when he said Kaito-kun sounded cool. Sama was just taking it a bit too far though, not to mention, if I remembered from Sakura's long lessons of "how to nick-name a friend" it just didn't work.

Kouhai wasn't something you'd call a friend though. It was a way of saying that you were much more superior than they were. At least, that was what I could understand from Sakura's lessons. She tried to get me to do the same when I first moved here, but I could never get myself to call people something like that as it sounded weird.

It might have been weird considering no one here really did this, but I'd rather call people by their first name. I was lucky that most people would let me do that, but I just found calling people by their last name a bit confusing. If someone had a lot of siblings, how was I supposed to distinguish them? Sure, there was Sakura's nickname rules I could've followed, but I just didn't like using them.

At first, I found them confusing, but with time, I could at least understand what she was calling others. At least I could understand what they meant in a way, even if I wasn't a fan of using them.

Apparently, Kaito knew what they meant too.

"If I show you my Quirk, you can't call me Kouhai," Kaito said as he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

Sakura smirked. She didn't need to say what was on her mind for me to know what she was thinking. Poor Kaito would find out soon enough Sakura had so many embarrassing nicknames in her arsenal. Whatever his Quirk was, she could create an embarrassing nickname referencing it.

We stood in front of him, as he stuck out his hand. When he did, I flinched, taking a step back. No one seemed to notice as Kaito and Sakura's eyes were fixed on his hand.

It took me a while to figure out what was going on until I noticed strings of yellow light wrapping around his hand. They were slow at first, but then, they started to wrap around him faster and faster.

"It's called Light," Kaito explained. "I can create light out of my hands."

Sakura looked up at him and tilted her head. "You mean to tell me that your Quirk is creating light? How on Earth did you get into U.A?"

Sakura got her answer as Kaito flicked his hand in her direction. The light from his hand shot out and slammed right in her chest, causing her to stumble back a couple of steps.

"Light has heat. If I make it hot enough, I can still hurt someone," Kaito explained.

My friend glared at him. "You little son of a bitch!" she screamed. "I can't believe you'd trick me like that!"

Kaito smirked. "Not someone you can call Kouhai, is it?"

I looked over towards Sakura, who's frown slowly turned into a smirk. "No," she agreed, "but I can still call you Orangie."

A heavy sigh escaped my lips as the two were at it once again. If school was going to be hard enough, then hearing these two bicker on the way to school, everyday, was going to make my day even longer.

Author's Note:

I'm back! This time, the kiddos are off to school! Updates will return to every other week until this "arc" comes to a close.

Question: What are your thoughts on embarrassing nicknames? Do you love them, or hate them?

Character Spotlight: Kaito ObaQuirk: LightLikes: Chocolate-filled Dorayaki

Song: Tag from Promised Neverland