"Serana Aihara and Walter Michaels."
'Shit.'
'God damnit.'
Both Malachi and Serana cursed their luck as they realized that they weren't going to be paired up together to do the project.
Both students were fairly smart and they worked very well together, ensuring that they would have turned in a great assignment and had fun along the way.
But Professor Andrews had unfortunately dashed all their hopes and dreams of a smooth ride.
Since they were the smartest in the class, the chances of them doing all of the work for their partner was almost a certainty.
Serana could already see that the oaf she's been partnered with was so excited that he nearly jumped out of his chair.
Leaving Malachi alone in the wind and anxiously waiting to see who his partner would end up being.
When the professor got to Mal's name, he briefly paused to search for him and became awash with fear when he realized that he was no longer wearing his sunglasses.
"M-Malachi."
"Hm?"
"About what I said before… about the glasses… you don't need to pay that any mind. You're free to put them on if you like." He said with a nervous smile.
'Please! Put the god damn glasses on so that I can get through a class without feeling terrified!'
Unfortunately, Mal simply gave him a confused stare as he rested his chin in his palm.
Sensing hopelessness, Dr. Andrews just decided to try to get through the rest of class without ruining his underwear.
"Alright, Mal your partner is…"
In the seconds before Malachi's partner was announced, every student in the class held their breath.
The girls in the class desperately wanted to be paired up with Mal, and they weren't exactly hiding it.
Their intense stares were piercing the body of their teacher, as if they were trying to will him to say their name and set them up for a possible marriage.
The guys were desperately hoping to be paired up with Malachi so as to leech off his meteoric fame.
Malachi had always made himself unavailable before but if they were forced to be paired together, they could use this as an opportunity to get in good with him and skim some of the benefits of his fame and fortune.
Someone like Malachi was certain to have plenty of women around so if they became friends with him, they'd surely receive some of the spill over poon, right?
With their motives, aligned, they all held their breaths as they waited to hear their names fly out of the professor's mouth.
"Annalise Gray."
The disappointment among the students was immeasurable and they slunk down into their seats in a depressed manner, not even caring to hear who their actual partners were.
Malachi's eyes scanned the room for the girl who was supposed to be his partner and found her sitting in her usual seat by the window.
"I thought my luck was bad but it looks like yours was even worse. Wasn't expecting you to get paired up with the scary goth girl." Serana whispered jokingly.
"Shut up." Mal said as he rolled his eyes. "There's nothing wrong with her."
Malachi's supposed partner was a young woman of 22 years of age with pale skin and short black hair.
Her bright violet eyes were half closed and unfocused as she stared out the window, her face showing a mixture of extreme drowsiness paired with sheer boredom.
Both of her ears contained several silver piercings and a pair of earbuds as well, which she seemed to have spray painted black.
As Serana had alluded, Annalise had a bit of a goth aesthetic paired with a rather tomboyish appearance.
She wore a black hoodie with a skull on the back that seemed to be a few sizes too large for her, and her plump yet slender legs were being squeezed to death in a pair of ripped black jeans.
On her feet she wore black boots that had been painted with the names and initials of various bands and musicians, and they seemed to be fairly well made.
Eventually, Annalise felt like she was being watched and found Malachi staring at her intently.
She immediately became uncomfortable, as she had never had any interaction with Malachi before and didn't know why he would possibly be staring at her.
Taking out her earbud, she gave Malachi a slightly irritated look that would normally be enough to scare anyone off.
"Can I help you with something? Why the hell are you staring at me so hard?"
"You're my project partner." Mal said, unfazed by her unfriendly demeanor.
Suddenly, Annalise made a face as if she'd just heard something dreadfully shocking.
"We have a project??"
"Jesus."
-
On the other side of town, Minoru was drunkenly stumbling out of a casino while mumbling profanities at the 'cheating machines'.
To him, there was no way that he shouldn't have won at least a few grand or so with all of his gambling skills and knowledge.
The only logical explanation was that those crooks who ran the place were purposefully sabotaging him so that he could not collect what he so rightfully deserved.
'Doesn't matter, as long as I keep working for that asshole then the money will never stop rolling in.'
Bzz Bzz!
Just as Minoru crashed onto a nearby bench, his burner phone began to vibrate and he immediately knew who was calling.
Pulling out the device, Minoru immediately tried to sober up and put on his most professional tone of voice.
"Ahem, Hello Mr. Heller, how can I-"
"It's over, you are no longer needed."
Believing he may still have been inebriated, Minoru rubbed his eyes hard before requesting clarification. "Sir, what are you-"
"As of today I am terminating our contract. You are an unneeded expense that I no longer require as I have found other methods to procure what I want."
Suddenly, Minoru stood up and began yelling into the phone.
"Y-You can't do this! W-What about severance pay or-"
On the other side of the line, Alex Heller burst into a fit of furious laughter. "HAHAHAHAHA!!"
"Severance? You should be glad that I'm letting you keep your life! I'm in a good mood today so do me a favor and don't fuck that up."
Alex's tone suddenly became considerably less friendly as just hearing his voice sent chills down Minoru's spine.
"This is the last time we will ever converse. Dispose of the phone as you've been instructed and forget that you ever met me. If I find out you are talking to anyone that you shouldn't then I am going to put you in the fucking ground."
Before Minoru could utter a single word, the call disconnected for the last time and he was left alone once again.
"Damn it... damn it!!"
He hurled the phone at the bench and it immediately broke apart into several pieces.
"This is all that bitch's fault! She made things so difficult for me that he cut me loose!"
What other explanation was there?
If Sei had only welcomed him back with open arms then none of this would have happened and Minoru would be rolling in money by now!
"You think you're hot shit just because some punk kid plays with your dirty old body..?" Reaching in his jacket, he pulled out a silver flask containing nothing but vodka.
After taking a sizable gulp, he wiped his mouth as he vowed to teach her a lesson by any means.
'You think you're too good for me... I'll show you!'