||-||-||

"Wait, so you're saying that The Hero Course of 1A is full of nutjobs and that you're gonna leave?!"

Delyse hummed and took a long sip of her milkshake. She leaned back into the cushioned seat and glanced nervously at the cafe counter, where the servers were subtly - not really - staring at them. It was obvious that her conversation had dragged their attention towards her, and that she had to be careful with what she said now. Many people applied for a spot in the class, and her saying she was going to leave so casually may bring bad news, especially if she was too mentally ( and physically ) exhausted to activate her quirk.

"Yeah? I mean, don't get me wrong, it's a great opportunity and all, but it's not really my thing. The only reason I joined was that I thought Kirishima would need some support, but I can see he's making friends just fine... just fine."

"Well, I think you should continue! You said that you made some acquaintances, right? Right! What were their names? Jokoyami and Tirou?"

"It's Tokoyami and Jirou. And you forgot Momo, she was pretty nice too."

"Exactly! so you can't just leave them like that! Not after they worked so hard to enter as well!"

"I dunno-"

The girl turned her head to face her other friend, her hands flapped about furiously and her face was red in concentration. Even though the phone screen was glitchy, you could see that the conversation was bothering her greatly.

"Zero! You tell her, I can't be the only one here who disagrees with this!"

The said girl stopped eating her cheesecake and looked on tiredly. Her hands moved up in a lazy motion, both girls watched her intently for an answer. They were going to need to if the only way you'd get her opinion was by translating her poor sign language.

'If Delyse doesn't want to, then she doesn't have too. Of course, I think you should think it through first, take it from someone who quit hero school too early. See how I ended up?'

She gestured towards her Wacdonalds Uniform. Delyse grimaced and nodded, she didn't want to end up like that. She'd rather be caught seen in a clown costume then... that atrocity.

"You got a point, I see what you mean there, Jenna."

Jenna huffed proudly and hit her chest. Her long black hair swung around at the force.

"Of course you do! I'm always correct, you should've learnt that by now!"

"Yeah, okay. Please shut up now."

Jenna pouted. "Aww, come on Delyse! Stop being such a party pooper- Oh, Daniel's calling me now. Gotta go, talk to you guys later, Bye!"

She gave a small wave before the line went dead. Delyse's tall posture disappeared and slumped considerably ( Zero snorted ) into her seat. She sighed.

"What am I meant to do then? It's obvious that these years are gonna be difficult with the way things are going so far?!"

Zero nodded. 'What's bothering you about it? You can tell me.'

Delyse groaned and clasped her head in between her hands, her swinging legs came to a standstill."It- It's just so frustrating! Why do I feel like it's just... not what I'm meant to do? Don't take this personally, but I just think the heroes nowadays kinda suck. They grovel at the ground for money, and if the government tell them they're not allowed to do something, even if it means someone dies, they listen! It's just twisted, and I'm about to join them in being twisted. That is if I even survive."

'Well, you could be different. You've always talked about how you like it when people thank you for helping them?'

"Still! It's just... I don't really want to be too successful. I know I have potential, I'm not gonna pretend I don't, but I just can't see myself doing something like that? Does that make sense?"

Zero pursed her lips and reluctantly nodded her head. 'Maybe you just haven't found your muse yet?'

"My muse? what, like 'Time is Running Out' muse or?"

'Don't play dumb. You know what I mean, every hero has some sort of muse. It's what keeps you motivated, for instance, a business tycoon with their money. Maybe you just haven't found your muse yet?'

Delyse gritted her teeth. Where the hell was she meant to find a muse? Why did everything have to be so difficult?! It was bad enough when the only text message she'd gotten over the weekend from Kirishima was one saying he had to cancel his movie marathon with her ( Something about meeting up with Dumb-Pikachu-Charger-Fucker over at the arcade ), then finding out that her half-sister - and not to mention the only person who ever understood her life struggles - was moving to Australia? Life wasn't panning out very well for her, and it was getting on her goddamn nerves.

She growled. "Then when the hell am I gonna find a muse? I'm getting impatient!"

Zero shook her head and let a rare smile onto her face. 'At your own pace, Delyse. In the meantime, why don't you try to enjoy this experience? Make some new friends or whatever normal people do. You only ever have me, Jenna, Mina and Kirishima. Expand, have some fun.'

"What the actual fuck is wrong with you? Where did you put my friend and why are you following me?"

       'Oh, shut up. I'm trying to do this thing called being normal.'

                                           "Fat chance you'll ever be."

Zero slapped her across the head and scoffed at the pained whines from the brunette. 'I didn't even hit you that hard, you big baby.'

                                          "You'd be surprised, granny."

                                                   'Don't call me that.'

                                "I'll call you whatever I want, granny."

                                                            'I hate you.'

Delyse giggled and picked up her school bag. "Sure, hon. If you hated me you wouldn't be trying to sort out my life problems," she looked at her watch and her face paled. "Shit, I'm meant to be home by 7:30, something about new neighbours but I need to go now because I'm going on a small detour. I'll catch ya later."

Zero nodded at her and sipped at her drink. It wasn't uncommon for the 19-year-old to be called after school by her former-underclassmen for advice. Today was a slight exception though, as it was usually fashion or homework advice. It was a change that Zero was having a slightly hard time adjusting to, but she knew she'd get there in the end. She had, after all, been in the same predicament herself, so she was trying to stop Delyse from making the same mistake she had, despite the girl having a valid reason to discontinue her journey.

She only hoped that the young girl would find her reason to continue before she gave up. She had to.

                                                                                                                       Didn't she?

                                                                   ||-||-||

"Okay, just don't make a sound, creep up the stairs and act like you've been asleep this whole time. You'll be fine, Delyse, just don't speak your thoughts out loud and you'll be fine! No turbo-Kermit mom chasing you, just nice food and an introduction to random people who you'll probably never talk to in your lifetime. Every little thing is gonna be alriiiiii-"

       "Delyse Janet Keire, where in heavens name have you been?"

                               Shitshitshitshitshitohfuckwhatthehell-

"Hello, mother dear! What wondrous, fine weather we are having this beautiful day! Would you like me to make you some tea? Perhaps some coffee would do-"

Gabrielle groaned and pinched her nose. "Please, don't even start your charade. I don't care what you do at the moment, just get yourself to look presentable for the new neighbours. They're having dinner with us tonight."

"Oh, okay then. When are they coming?"

                                                                                                             "15 minutes."

Her eyes widened and jaw dropped to the ground. Okay, what the actual hell. She looked like shit! Her hair was wet with pond water ( don't even reason with her, she felt hot and the pond looked amazing ) and her mascara was dripping down her face. She'd left her blazer somewhere in Narnia, and her blouse was sticking to her like glue. She didn't even want to think about the state of her shoes, she probably should've taken them off before cannonballing into the water but whatever.

"... well then."

Gabrielle could only sigh in exasperation. "Go have a shower before they get here-"

The doorbell rung. Delyse paled. Gabrielle licked her lips nervously and when Andy came through to open the door they could only stare and gape in horror. This was it, they were doomed. Say goodbye to good neighbour vibes.

"Seems like they've come early! Why do you two look so terrified? Nevermind."

He opened the door and began to smile at the visitors, but he was blown away by incredibly loud screeching.

"OLD HAG, WHY DO I HAVE TO COME TO SOME RANDOM EXTRAS HOUSE?! I HAVE BETTER THINGS TO FUCKING DO THAN THIS-"

"DON'T FUCKING SWEAR AT YOUR MOM YOU LITTLE BASTARD!"

Our protagonist squinted slightly, wondering why the male's voice sounded so familiar. She grunted in annoyance when she realised her fathers back blocked her view of the newcomers, thus stopping her from seeing the visitors faces. Andy nervously cleared his throat.

"Masaru, please don't interfere with the argument-"

Andy cleared his throat again, and only then did the woman realise that the person interrupting her argument wasn't her husband. Her glowering face brightened up into a motherly smile, and her dark red eyes shone like polished rubies.

"Hello! sorry for turning up like this, children can be so bothersome these days!"

Gabrielle chuckled and bowed towards her in greetings. "It's fine, I have to deal with the same thing. Children are a completely unpredictable species!"

She laughed. "Oh! I forgot, please come in! Delyse, be nice and come out and say hello!"

Delyse gulped in apprehension. "O-Okay..."

She shuffled forwards and gave a swift bow towards them. "Hello, I'm Delyse Keire. It's very nice to meet you..."

"Mitsuki Bakugo, but you can call me Mitsuki! My family will be moving in next door, I hope we get along!"

                                                                   ||-||-||

I feel like the quality of my writing is deteriorating and it's actually so annoyinggg xd

Shout out to @FirstmasterMavis123 who's the creator of Zero! Thanks for letting me use your oc, cause that literally gave me the idea of letting Delyse use sign language and yaaayayayaya! 

9. Most Embarrassing Memory to date?

When I fainted after trying to hold my breath for too long ( cause I had the hiccups ) and my face fell flat into my friend's pineapple pizza. Turns out my crush was in the room and when I woke up he tried to help me go to the nurses' office and I puked all over him. I also had a nosebleed and I bled all over my friend's pizza. RIP. Pizza, you will forever be remembered. This was in Fourth Grade, so that was a long time ago. Still scars me though.