Chapter Text
It was quiet, for one library a bit too much. Maybe because she was the only one currently in it, besides the librarian who was sorting books at her reception desk. Perhaps it was better that way, since there would be no loud noises to disrupt her ongoing journey for a biology book for her project.
The (h/c) haired girl already had five thick books piled up in her arms, blocking her view of where she was going. So she turned sideways and started to rumuge the shelves from the start of the large bookshelf.
“Ha! There it is!” she quietly exclaimed as she spotted the dusty book that was squeezed between other two thick books. The girl carefully placed all her books on the library floor. She pulled out the book with a bit of force and dusted it off.
Did really nobody use this book or does this place just get dusty easily? She shook her head and stacked the enormous book on her already big pile. “How will I stuff all these books into my backpack…?” questioned herself, but shook her head. She guessed she would find out eventually.
She crouched and slid her hands under the pile. “Woah-” she gasped at the heavy weight of her book pile sending her backwards. The girl heard footsteps ahead of her, assuming it was the librarian going to check what the hell is going over here.
As she collected herself, she began to walk down the book aile. But as she took another book, the unbalanced pile wobbled and the book she just took fell and sprawled out on the floor. It didn’t sound like it hit the wooden floor, more like leather.
“Shit- I apologise for dropping my book-” Y/n went to apologise but soon stopped herself, in front of her wasn’t the older librarian lady, but a person so tall she had to crane her head up to see who it was.
And it was none other than …… Jotaro Kujo .
‘Great, I might as well start calculating my hospital bill…!’ she panicked as she froze in place. He only stared at her with his eyes with no emotion. “Watch your stuff before you knock somebody down with it.” he sneered at her and walked past her silently.
The girl sighed and closed her eyes for a few seconds. This went way better than she expected. Now… time to check out these damned books and go home!
*at the lockers, 1.st p.o.v.*
Now that the books were taken care of, I could go home and take a nap. Nothing sounds better than that, right?
As I was taking off my school shoes, I noticed the hallway parting like the Red sea. As far as I knew, Moses didn’t go to my school… The once loud chattering turned into hushed whispers. I continued to do my thing, since this obviously has nothing to do with me.
While I was tying my second shoe on, I felt multiple pairs of eyes staring at me like I had two heads. I looked up and now I realised why this was all happening. ‘No! Not him again!? What the fuck is going on!?’ my mind set off all the existing alarms known to mankind.
Is this my last day seeing the light of the day?
“This fell out of your book while you dropped it in the library…” he said in a monotone voice as he outstretched his hand with one teared page of the biology book. “Oh, thank you….?” I replied awkwardly as I grabbed the paper sheet out of his hand and folded it into a small square and stuffed it into my jacket pocket.
The delinquent just tipped his hat and walked from where he came from, the students looking at him with evident fear in their eyes. As he left the hallway, those same eyes were now casted over me. I clapped my hands and rushed towards the exit of the school. I really didn’t want to know what kind of rumours I will hear tomorrow.
After rushing out, the cool breeze hit my face. I could feel many pairs of eyes still on me. ‘Why are they making such a big deal out of this?! Sometimes I don't get these people…’ I thought as I walked to my house. The streets were bustling with other students going home and most of them were in a group, laughing and chatting about whatever.
My house was thankfully near the school so I didn’t have to take a train or go on a bike. It was in a small street that mostly had older people living in it. The old people had this obsession with cherry blossoms since almost every house had at least one tree in the front yard.
I didn’t complain since it did make the street more colourful and lively. I walked to my house and sighed, “Finally…” I said as I took out my key and opened the wooden fence doors. I walked to the doors and unlocked them too.
“Mom! I’m home!” I shouted as I took off my shoes and put on slippers. I closed and locked the doors. “Hi sweetie! Lunch is ready!” mom exclaimed from the kitchen and I put my bag against the wall.
“So how was school?” mom asked as she untied her apron and hung it on the little hook on the wall in the kitchen. I recalled the incident with Jotaro today but I chose not to tell her that specific part.
"Oh you know, nothing special… I had to get all the books for the upcoming biology project on marine animals and tomorrow the professor will be assigning us which we had to research.” I told her as I ate lunch.
“Really?! That sounds really exciting Y/n! You know, back when I was in high school, when we got a project that required researching an animal or something else, we used to go to zoos or sanctuaries and do some of the research there! We always asked the zoo keeper to tell us something about the animal.” mom said with a warm smile as she put her chin on the palms of her hands.
I smiled at her and giggled, “Thanks for the suggestion mom! I hope that I get an animal that the local aquarium has…” I said as I ate the rest of my food and picked up a plate and dumped it into the sink along with the utensils.
“Mom, I’ll be in my room. If you need me just call alright?” I said to her as I walked out of the dining room and picked up the heavy backpack with both of my hands. “Oh God-” I grunted as I dragged the backpack up the stairs.
I entered my room and dragged the backpack to my bed. I closed the doors, jumped on my bed and grabbed the backpack and threw it on the bed in front of me. I unzipped the (f/c) backpack and I pulled all the heavy books out.
There were four books in total, two of them biology books and other two were animal encyclopaedias. Since I didn’t know what animal I’ll be getting, I got the books that had more general information on most marine species so after I get my animal I can find more specific books.
The teacher did tell us that all of the third graders will be working on the same project and that all of them will be getting the same animals. He did say we can work in pairs but we didn’t have to (and if you do work in pairs you have to have separate papers).
Everyone in class will get a different animal so I hoped I would get something easy and maybe just maybe team up with somebody from a different class!
I skimmed over the pages of the four books but I got tired and stacked them all on my table. I went to my nightstand and turned on the small lamp. Then I walked to the light switch next to the doors and turned it off. I always liked when my room was dimly lit, it was better than the harsh yellow shine from the ceiling light…
I got dressed in my pyjamas and got ready for sleep. I walked to my bed and checked the small (favourite animal) themed calendar. “Today's tuesday so that means only three days untill weekend! Thank God…” I murmured as I got into my bed and snuggled into the duvet and my many pillows.
‘Today sure was weird…’ my mind wandered to the certain delinquent I bumped into today. I shivered from the mere thought of him. I just hoped I didn’t see him anymore since I do want to live the rest of my life. I shook my head and thought of something more fun. And with that I wandered off to sleep.
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The next day was dull and boring. I talked to a few of my classmates that I had in my class while we had lunch break. By a few classmates I ment two just to clear things up. They were super nice but we only spoke in school and helped each other with homework.
The only exciting thing that had the whole class bouncing on the seats was our biology class. The teacher laughed at our excitement and he said we are the most thrilled class for this project.
He pulled out a small hat that had small folded pieces of paper in it. He stirred the papers with his hand and walked to each student so they could pull out their animal. Everyone unfolded their papers and started to talk about what marine animal they got.
I heard my classmates discussing what they got and what I heard some got a stingray, sea horse, beluga, blue dragon, orca and many more. The teacher stood in front of me and there weren’t many papers left in the hat.
“No peeping Ms. L/n.” the teacher jokingly said as I averted my gaze from the hat once I put my hand in it. And as soon as I felt a small paper I grabbed it and pulled it out. The teacher continued to pass around the hat.
But being the impatient person I am, I unfolded the paper and read the animal I got.
Dolphin
Okay, great… I smiled at the paper and sighed. This will be a piece of cake! After a few minutes everyone got their animal and the teacher decided to let us go home earlier. “Sounds good to me…” I murmured as I packed up my bag and grabbed the small paper.
But I was soon stopped by a hand on my shoulder.
“Hey, Y/n what animal did you get?” the girl from my class asked me. Her name was Aiko and from what I knew she was in the school choir. “Oh hi Aiko! I got the dolphin, what about you?” I asked her while folding the small paper into its original form.
“I got a dumbo octopus… Not really something I was looking for…” Aiko said as her green eyes trailed to my folded little paper in my palm. “What do you say we trade? I’m sure the dumbo octopus will be more exciting to research for you than a dolphin hehe…” she said as she tidied up her short bangs nervously.
I stared at her for a few seconds in confusion. “I’m sorry Aiko but I don't want to trade. Maybe you can ask somebody else from the class. I heard that Harumi got a narval!” I told her and her expression flattered.
“Oh okay, thanks for letting me know! But if you change your mind we can always switch.” she laughed and walked past me. I didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye to her…
I said goodbye to the teacher and as I walked out I saw Aiko whispering something to a group of girls. Whatever, it's none of my business. And like bolts of lightning the group of girls ran away from Aiko to who knows where. I walked out the doors and headed to my locker. I put on my shoes and put the school shoes in the locker. As I closed the locker a face appeared next to it.
“Hey.” the girl said with a smile. “Hey…?” I said with an raised eyebrow. ‘Who is this, again?’ I thought in confusion. I think I saw her in that group of girls Aiko was talking to a few minutes ago. “I’m Yamaguchi Mayumi! I’m from the other class.” She extended her hand to me as she introduced herself.
I shook it carefully. She had dark brown hair that was pulled into a low ponytail and she had bright brown eyes. “Oh I’m Y/n L/n, Nice to meet you Yamaguchi.” I told her as we both headed to the exit of the school.
“So, L/n, did you get the animal you were going to research for the biology project?” Yamaguchi asked as she swept her ponytail off her shoulder and looked at me with curiosity. “Yeah I did-” “What animal did you get?” She interrupted me.
“I got a dolphin…” I told her while looking at her weirdly. “Really?! That’s amazing! I got a seahorse…” Yamaguchi sighed dramatically as she covered her forehead with the back of her palm.
“I mean seahorses are really cute?” I said to her, ‘Why does everyone have a problem with their animal all of a sudden?’ I thought. “You know, we can switch our animals-” Yeah how about no.
“No thank you Yamaguchi. I don’t plan on switching with anybody.” I told her firmly. She stopped in her steps and looked at me in beliverement. “B-But why not?” Yamaguchi asked me with a confused expression.
I sighed, “Listen, you are the second person that asked me the same thing and I don’t understand why all of a sudden everyone wants to switch.” I told her with annoyance in my voice. Her innocently confused face morphed into an angry one in a matter of seconds.
“You think you are so much better than us, huh?” she snarled at me. My eyes widened in surprise - “Huh, why would you think that?”. She laughed and rolled her eyes, “Stop pretending you are stupid! You just want Jotaro-kun to notice you!”
What in the hell does Jotaro have to do with any of this?
“Wh- Why would I even want him to notice me?” I asked Yamaguchi as I took a step back from her. I knew something was off about her. “Who knows, but I remember what happened yesterday in the hallway. You probably tore that page on purpose didn’t you!” Yamaguchi pointed a finger at me.
“Listen Yamaguchi, I don’t like Jotaro, I never had feelings for him in the first place.” I explained to her but it seems that it went through her one ear and out the other. She rolled her eyes once again, “Whatever you say L/n, just don’t think that this is the last time you’ll be hearing from me.” she spat at me.
I gulped, “Alright… Goodbye…” I said to Yamaguchi as I started to speed walk to my house. That shit was scary… Does she really think I have a crush on Jotaro? That guy can make you piss your pants with just one glance… Yeah no thank you.
As I got home, I was hoping to eat like a starving dog, but I lost my appetite after talking to Yamaguchi. Mom wasn’t home so after taking off my shoes I went straight to my room. I took off my bag and placed it next to the bed.
“Time for some big brain thinking…” I said as I grabbed the heavy books that I borrowed yesterday. I started marking the pages with anything that had a connection to dolphins with little paper notes. I did for a few minutes until my mind wandered off to the conversation I had with that Yamabitch.
“Stop pretending you are stupid! You just want Jotaro-kun to notice you!”
Alright, since I have a brain I did some prodding on what happened with Aiko and Yamaguchi and came to a conclusion. Jotaro got the same animal as me to research for the biology project, which is a dolphin.
And they (by they I mean Aiko, Yamaguchi and probably their friend group) think that I don’t want to switch with them because I like Jotaro. Which is completely not true, I just want to do my project…
Do they think I’ll ask him to work in pairs with me!? As if! I'd rather do everything on my own, And Jotaro doesn’t seem like the guy who likes to work in pairs either… I hope that by tomorrow things get cleared up because if they spread this rumour about me and it somehow gets to Jotaro I’ll be damned! But enough of my overthinking…
I need to mark up just a bit more pages and then I’ll go to sleep. Tomorrow I’ll ask mom about that aquarium she was talking about a day ago. There is a new one that opened a few weeks ago just a few streets away from my house, so I’ll have to check the ticket prices. I think it’s called ‘The Sea Life Aquarium’.
‘Eh, I have a whole day to research all of that…’ I thought as I closed all the books and placed them on my table. I dragged my hand across my face in exhaustion as I walked towards the bathroom to get ready to sleep.
Once I got ready I turned off the desk lamp and jumped on my bed. “This biology project has been swimming in my head the whole day… Time to dream of something relaxing…” I murmured as I closed my eyes, snuggled into my pillow and let my mind wander to the lands of dreams…
But a certain jet-black haired guy will unintentionally make sure that her entire day doesn’t go as planned as she wanted…