adsum | npc contact.1

[legit just bouncing with excitement to see hiro again. when he enters the classroom, she proudly hands him a large piece of construction paper.]

I drew you what happened over my summer vacation so you don't have to listen to me talk about it!

[under the bubble-lettered, glittery header of WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION BY STEPHANIE MEANSWELL are labeled drawings, the titles of which include "I became a witch but then he died but I might still be a witch," "I tricked everybody into a locked room to talk about their feelings but nobody wants to talk about their feelings," "everyone went missing for weeks and lost arms but they're okay now, I think they fought a bear?" "I learned to punch people and I almost did it," "I have a sister now!" etc etc. also she drew a cat.]

[ THERE'S SO MUCH GOING ON HERE

Hiro sets the paper on his desk and just stares blankly at it for the most part, trying to make sense of how so much happened and how concerning all of it is and why Stephanie looks so excited about it. ...Well, some of it is understandable, like the newborn baby sister and getting a pet.

But he doesn't spend the time reading every header and looking at every drawing, and instead taps a finger to his chest and cups a hand next to his ear. He'd much rather hear Stephanie talk. It would be so much less awkward that way. ]

[BEAMS well she definitely won't say no to talking.]

Are you sure? A lot happened. [perches on her chair] What do you wanna hear about?

[ Hiro looks back down at the paper like he's perusing a menu at a fancy restaurant with extensive options. People losing arms is kind of horrific, but nothing new. Maybe Steph's new sister, which makes him think of Maya, which makes him think of ...

He points to "I learned to punch people and I almost did it" because who did Stephanie get mad enough about to want to punch somebody, give him a name and he'll try to dislike them too. ]

Add. [immediately] He's a little jerk. Literally. He thinks he's some crazy super-genius that's above everyone else, but if he's so smart, why is he stuck here? He'd just be ridiculous and weird if I wasn't also sure he's one of the people that likes killing.

[thinks] You should come to one of our family meetings one day. You count, right? And you can watch everybody fight over stupid stuff.

[ Oh good, somebody easy to dislike and also easy to avoid if he doesn't draw attention to himself.

He stares at her when she asks if he counts, though. As what? family? Invitation aside, he looks a little unsure. He can imagine it'd be noisy and crowded and he'd end up sticking to Steph's side the entire time. ]

Just be careful around him, okay? And anybody else like him. They barely see us as people; when it comes to... [she sighs, shaking her head.] Which is dumb. We're all on the same team... It's time we start acting like it.

[for a brief moment, she glances at the other students. at the teacher. her voice lowers, just a bit.]

You know we're gonna get everybody out of this awful place. That means you guys, too.

[ It's easy to nod his agreement, seeing as he tends to keep his distance from everybody else in the school besides maybe three or four people. It was just easier that way, to keep his head down and be unassuming until there's something he needs to do. None of that speaks of great teamwork, but...

He looks at Stephanie and gives her a small smile; it's a brief one, and is more out of appreciation of the sentiment rather than believing it'll happen. ]

[she smiles back, for opposite reasons.]

I hope your break was nicer than mine. Did you go anywhere? There's a beach near my town, and me and my friends would always go there during the summer.

[ He shakes his head, because he's a homebody, but he tents his fingers to represent the roof of a house, and then holds up three fingers. ]

[nods] So it was you, Maya, and... somebody else! That sounds nice; I'm glad you weren't alone.

[ He nods a little, glad that Stephanie got what he was trying to convey. He's not sure if she knows this third person, but it's worth asking.

He makes a loose fist with one hand and holds it up in front of him, tracing a line from his hand straight up. Then he drops the fist to navel height and mimes stabbing with it. ]

[. . .]

Did... you spend your summer vacation living with the guy you stabbed?

[ He quickly shakes his head— he'd forgotten he has more than one knife acquaintance. Maya would sooner reopen Kouji's stab wound than let him into her house, anyways.

He points to himself, points at Steph, and repeats the knife pantomime without the stabbing. ]

[thinks...]

-- Oh! Nao? You had Nao over? [claps, both pleased with herself for winning charades and also because that is very good news.] That's wonderful! I was wondering where she'd gone off to... Did you guys catch up?

[she was gonna say "did you guys talk" but, well.]

[ He nods, and looks a little brighter for it. There was some talking, but mostly one sided, or he sat back and listened to the two girls talk.

But that's mostly all that happened, all he did all summer was lounge around the house and—

oh yeah, that too. He lifts his hands with his palms up side by side, and then mimes writing with his other hand. He had a lot of... summer homework... finals were rough... ]

Ugh, I know, right? One of them had letters mixed into all the math. Since when does math have letters in it?

[like please help she is a fifth grader???]

I wasn't able to focus much on homework. Everybody disappearing was really scary... I hope I didn't fall too far behind.

[ Hiro nods at her indignation because yeah! Algebra's being greedy, trying to be two subjects at once. There is zero chance of Stephanie's grades improving if Hiro were to help, so instead he slides the poster over slightly and points at losing arms and fighting bears. ]

Yeah, that was the "everybody disappearing" part. I really don't know what happened, exactly, but lots of people were gone for days and then came back all... I don't know. There's a giant wolf head hanging in our dorm. Crazy stuff.

[ People leaving and coming back sounds pretty normal to Hiro, considering the school is supposed to be closed anyways, but the mention of a giant wolf head makes him wrinkle his nose.

He puts his hands up by his head like wolf ears, and then gives Stephanie his best "Why the fuck are you keeping a head, that's gross" look. ]

I'm not gonna judge how the guy who had his arm ripped off copes with it. [a shrug] Besides, people who hunt put stuff on their walls, like deer antlers. My uncle always says he's gonna get the fish he catches mounted on the wall, but he never catches anything big enough.

[ Even if it's deer and fish he makes a bit of a face at that. And then a different face, that's trying to figure out how to charades a particular word, this one is harder.

Oh.

He points a finger at the poster, specifically the P in Stephanie's name, looking over at her to make sure she's looking before he moves onto the next letter:

R... E... S... E... R... V... A... T... I... V... E...

He's very grateful that her title even includes the elusive V. ]

[long pause]

Oh, yeah. That's probably important, right? Yeah. Probably.

[and then just says nothing further.]

[ PLEASE...

Hiro is a member of the science club, officially, even if it never became relevant, but maybe it all leads up to him needing Stephanie to make sure the thing is preserved properly so it doesn't start rotting and dripping off the wall. ]

I'm sure the grownups thought of that already. It'll be fine. [it probably isn't]

You seem to know more about it than I do! Have you ever preserved something like that?

9/4, hiro

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