Chapter Text
Zanka woke up like any other day. He turned off his 7 am alarm, got up and took a quick shower to start his morning. He promptly got out and chose his usual outfit which consisted of a white undershirt and a blue cardigan thrown on top, as well as baggy black pants to accompany it. Zanka never had the energy to put his hair up so he kept it down once again, his bangs framing his face, possibly to hide the eyebags of countless sleepless nights. Once done, he made sure everything he needed was packed into his school bag and headed out.
The house in the morning was always eerily quiet, his father practically lived in his office at the Nijiku law firm and his siblings followed alongside him; it was rare that all four of them were in the house at once. And yet, Zanka still said a small goodbye upon leaving the house, simply out of habit.
The dread of the school day was weighing on his consciousness every step of the way. He couldn’t help but to think about the past, such simpler times. You know, Zanka actually used to be kinda popular among his peers back in middle school, known as the ‘know it all’ and commonly placed with all the other talented kids in his grade or as he liked to call them, the ‘naturals’. Of course, his classmates never had an inkling of an idea that he studied until his hands couldn’t move anymore, but he just wanted to feel special for a bit, was that so wrong? He was even seen as the golden child in his family for a while. Though he’ll be the first to admit he was kind of an asshole back then, when all the praise got to his head. But that all changed starting high school. Zanka just couldn’t keep up. After all, he was just an average Joe, who was he to compete with the talented?
The brunette takes a deep breath before entering his morning calculus class. He never really got to know anybody in his school, hell let alone his class! Most of what he had to go by was whatever he had heard from his surrounding classmates. All he ever did was focus on his studies and his projects, so much so, that he never even considered socializing to be important, but all that mentality did was give him lonely classes. Well, Zanka wouldn’t necessarily consider himself lonely. He just simply chose to be alone, not lonely.
In any case, he sat down and got his calculus binder out, ready to take notes for the lesson, next was his pencil, but… it was… gone!? It was packed for sure this morning, right? Zanka looked around his school bag, under his desk, even his binder just in case. His pencil case was there, yet his pencil was nowhere to be found?! Kind of the important part! It was likely he left it on his desk last night after completing his homework. Stupid Zanka. The brunette's mind raced to find a solution, but his best bet would be to ask someone to lend him their pencil. The question is, who?
Zanka looked around his class, everybody was talking to one another, all in their own little groups. Dammit Zanka! couldn’t you have been a little more social?! I mean, surely, nobody would care if he asked to borrow a pencil, right? It’s just a pencil! But even so, he keeps looking around, in hopes to find whoever looks the nicest? Or at least one that won’t judge him. His eyes end up drifting to one of his classmates, though he wouldn’t consider this one to be on the nicer side at all.
Jabber Wonger.
He has long, dark brown dreads with a caramel skin tone, his outfits were what most would consider ‘alternative’ yet there was always a common theme of purple in every single one. He’s never paid much attention to him, but from what he can gather from the few times he has, he’s a bit of a weirdo, but also incredibly smart.
Jabber seems to be the only other person currently not talking to somebody which means that he’s the perfect target and in turn Zanka won’t become a public humiliation if this somehow goes poorly. But something inside Zanka keeps telling him Jabber’s different. He just can’t pinpoint what. And while this classroom is full of teenagers, Jabber still stood out to Zanka. And so while he still had the confidence, Zanka stood up and took a deep breath, filling his lungs as he walked over to Jabber, who was just a few desks across the class.
He taps him on the shoulder, “ Hey, sorry, could I borrow a pencil?”. Zanka just hopes his voice sounds stable and he doesn’t look like he’s been stressing about this for the past 5 minutes. Jabber perks up, and turns towards Zanka a little confused. Until suddenly it seems as if he processed the question being asked and responded with a smile. “Huh? Oh, sure thing dude!” Zanka smiles back at him, distantly he couldn’t help but note how pretty Jabber’s smile is. But! In a totally normal way! This was completely unrelated to how sweaty his palms were and how fast his heart started beating. Just stress! Jabber promptly takes a pencil out of his case and hands it over to Zanka. “Don’t lose it aight?” Zanka, upon being flashed with Jabber’s smile again, quickly takes the pencil, “Yeah, of course, thank you.” and scurries away to his desk as class begins.
Equations were being written on the board and Zanka was simultaneously taking note of them, not missing a single detail. But, multiple times in this class, Zanka found his eyes slowly drifting towards Jabber. He couldn’t keep his attention away from him, no matter how interesting that calculus board was (supposedly)looking. The teacher was writing a few things Zanka had already noted down so he took that chance to sneak a peak at his classmate once more, yet this time two magenta eyes met his turquoise. And to add, a big, smug, smile was plastered all over said classmate's face.
He had been caught.
Zanka’s mouth goes slightly agape as he feels his embarrassment crawl up his neck. He quickly glances away to look at literally anything else but the man currently staring at him. But it seems his attention should’ve been aimed at the board as he hears a faint yell. One that sounds oddly like his name…
“Zanka! Alive over there?” Zanka quickly snaps out of his trance to look at the teacher then the board then back at the teacher again.
“Oh, yeah! Sorry ‘bout that professor.. What were ya askin’?” He tried to play it cool.
The teacher just sighs, clearly disappointed, but continues on anyway. “The question on the board, what’s the answer?”
Zanka takes one last glance at the board and figures it out pretty quickly. “ x = 3, sir.”
His teacher smiles, “Thank you, now continuing on with…”
And his voice fades into the background once more. The brunette is left sitting with his thoughts, thoroughly embarrassed. He looks back at Jabber, who saw the whole ordeal, and his smile got nothing but wider and smugger! If that’s even a word! Zanka’s embarrassment finally reaches his head as he becomes as red as a tomato. He places his hands onto his face and tries to bury himself in them in hopes that his hair might hide him. Meanwhile, he can hear a faint snicker coming from Jabber's side of the classroom.
Stupid Jabber and his stupid smile!