Just two kids hanging out

After dropping us off Morgan gave me the memory card I thought she was only joking about all this time. I mean, it's been around two months, I think, and she's only now giving me the memory. Her excuse is that she did indeed intend for it to be a joke, but got it for me anyway as a reward or something. She doesn't know what she's rewarding me for, but she's rewarding me. Doesn't matter, what does is that I got an amazing memory for an amazing camera. That's what I've been occupying myself with while Mina tries to solve the simple problem I presented to her. It's not that incredibly hard it's just complex and requires insight. I think she's struggling though, if those groans are anything to go by. She had made herself right at home on my bed, complimenting its softness before unpacking her books. She requested Math first so this is where we are right now.

"I can't find X because I don't know what a is" she's scratching her head rather aggressively right now. "But I'm supposed to find a with these numbers"

"Well yes," it sounds far harder than it actually is.

"I don't get it"

What follows next is a thirty-minute explanation on how she should solve the problem, with each step being explained as simply as I could manage. I've never tutored anyone before in my life and seeing Mina still struggle makes me think I'm a terrible choice for her, but after I took the time to explain in detail as well as solve the problem with her, she got the hang of it, so I am not a terrible teacher. Good to know.

"Are you usually home alone?" She asks, already distracted from the work she's supposed to do.

"How about I answer that when you solve that problem"

"Oh come on"

"Gotta focus"

She huffs but doesn't protest, probably deciding it best to just get things over with. No one actually likes math so I understand the struggle, but if you know how to do the stuff it's pretty fun. Say that to any normal kid and they'll think you're messed up in the head, but it's the truth. The minute you understand how it all works, it stops being this thing you loath and becomes something you can actually enjoy. The only times I have a problem with math is when I find a needlessly complex problem and that's made even worse by the teacher wanting us to use this long solution to the problem when it doesn't need to be that long.

Twenty to thirty minutes pass before Mina proudly presents me with her notebook, the five problems I had tasked her with solving had been completed. I do believe she's proud because she finished sooner than she thought she would be able to.

"Now you need to answer my question" she declares happily. "And a question for each problem I've solved correctly"

She's making a game out of it now, huh?

"Okay, then you get four questions because you messed up on the last one" I point out.

"What? I did what you told me to" she's baffled and her face is quite funny.

"You did and you didn't" she did do what I told her to, but not exactly what I told her to do. "Yes you did divide everything by the highest power, but you were supposed to divide everything by the highest power under the fraction bar"

I point out her mistake by circling the highest power as well as the highest power under the fraction bar. I understand the mistake she made, as I used to mess it up like this as well. Using the highest overall power and the highest power under the fraction bar are drastically different as the answer will vary.

"Instead of dividing everything by x⁴, you should have decided everything by x³ because it is the highest power under the fraction bar" if she did this on the test the entire thing is wrong and she's be losing points due to a dumb mistake. Though it is the most common mistake in this subject.

She's disappointed and kinda peeved about it because it was a mistake that could have been avoided, but she fixes it pretty easily, just repeat the same steps and divide by x³ this time.

"Okay done" the paper is back in my hand and Mina asks for her question to be answered.

"Yeah yeah," she's very persistent. "No, I'm not usually home alone. This must be the second time I think"

There's always someone here when I get back, whether it be Alissa, Israel, or Morgan, one of them is always present.

"And in about an hour or two Alissa is gonna be back and cause a scene" as she always does. You can always tell when she's back because she's a very loud person on purpose. Either that or she comes bursting into my room with an announcement or request.

"You got siblings?" Oh yeah, the first time I'm mentioning my cousin

"Cousins" I shrug. "Morgan is the oldest of us, obviously and our caretaker"

"So you're just living with your cousins?"

"Yup"

"I don't know why that sounds so fun to me" she laughs. "But it does sound like fun"

"It's chaotic" that's the only word that can describe this life.

~~~~~~~~

"Zen!"

Just as I had expected of Lissa. She's hardly in the house for a minute and she sees the need to jump onto my back, almost sending us both to the kitchen floor and spilling ketchup everywhere. She's extremely lucky I've gotten used to her antics by now that I know how to not make a mess when she tackles me. Of course it is when I decide to come down for some food for Mina and I that she returns so full of energy. Mina is just left to sit at the bar with this brow raised in question as Alissa starts telling me about one thing or another and how she did not blow up the lab this time. Meanwhile, I continue to make my sandwich as if she were not clinging to my back and so deep into her story. Hey, I might as well make her one too because she'll find a way to steal mine if I don't.

"Bologna or cheese?"

"Cheese"

Shouldn't have asked, she always chooses cheese.

"Friend of yours?" She asks, and I'm sure she's blatantly staring.

"Have some manners will you" she's right there, why not just introduce yourself.

"We're long past that, Zen" she pats my head, finally gets off me, and takes her sandwich. "I'm Alissa"

That is when she finally switches to Japanese, making very sure that Mina knows that she knows all of my terrible stories and should she be interested her door is not too far off from mine. With that, she promises to stop by later before retreating to her room, probably off to try something dangerous again.

"She's short"

The snort I let out almost has me choking on my food because that is not what I had expected. Of all the things she could have said regarding my cousin, she decides to address her height?

"Hey!" Alissa shouts, appearing out of a nearby wall and scaring the life out of Mina. "I'm still growing you know, I'll be taller soon just watch"

This time I do choke, as the food goes down the wrong pipe and I'm left clutching a bottle of water for dear life. Mina is on the floor, having fallen off her stool when Alissa popped up and now she seems stuck between laughing and being concerned for me, but eventually the former wins that battle and she's laughing with me. Either at herself, me, or Alissa who we can hear mumbling about the unfairness of the world.

"Holy cow she scared me" Mina snorts. "How does she do that?"

"She has an amazing quirk that she abuses" I can't even begin to count the number of times she's popped out of walls all over the house and the number of times Morgan almost punched her for popping up on her like that. It's all pure reflex and the fact that the thought of being clocked in the face isn't enough to have Alissa stop is astonishing.

"Does she do this often?"

"All the time"

"Man, she'd give me a heart attack"

That's what I say all the time. One of these days she's gonna put me in the hospital. Because I'm so used to her thoughts that I barely acknowledge them even when I know they're getting closer and she surprises me by just appearing.

"But it does seem like an amazing quirk" Mina states and she would be absolutely right. I'm not entirely clear on the exact details still, but from that phasing alone her quirk is awesome. It would be cooler if she could bring people into her personal space, which is something she says she's working on.

Now if only Israel would explain his quirk to me. All he said was Alchemy and the first thing that popped into my mind was Edward Elric and his use of alchemy. But there is no saying his works like that. Can he pull a pole out of the ground?

I'll pester him about it, eventually

•••••••••••••••

"Ha!"

A loud bang rings through my small class as Mina happily slams her test papers down on my desk. I'm sitting here, halfway through some good mac and cheese only to have some papers slammed on my table and almost send my box of juice to the floor. I'm not entirely surprised as I had heard Mina approaching a mile away, her thoughts just full of positivity because she did amazing on our latest test after the weeks of studying and tutoring.

"90 and 86," she says proudly, her history and math test on display for me. "Watch me get full scores next time, hehe"

"Good job" is the only thing I can say because it seems like the best thing to say. She got good grades, she's proud and happy, so yeah. She did a great job and she'll likely ace it next time too. When she says something she's gonna do it so it's only a matter of time.

"I did an amazing job" I have no idea where she found a chair but she's got one and sitting opposite me. Is she allowed to just walk into my class, even when it's lunchtime? "And it's all thanks to you, you're a great tutor"

I very much doubt it, but I'll let her be. If I disagree it'll start a debate that will end with me losing because at some point I'll lose energy and just give up.

Usually, when she pops up during lunch she does most of the talking because I'm prone to choking unless I focus entirely on my food. That's exactly what happens now as I'm even more invested in my mac and cheese because I quite enjoy mac and cheese.

"You know, you always have these little juice boxes" Mina points out, holding one of said juice boxes as if it was something to marvel at. "It's kinda funny because you look like a child when you drink it"

"I like the juice" don't go saying I look like a child because I like juice. Don't disrespect me like that. "The juice is good, don't judge me"

"Hey, I am not judging, just making an observation, know the difference"

Good argument.

"How many of them do you have?" She wonders as she's already spotted two on my desk and likely the one sticking out my bag that's so close to falling.

"Five because I get thirsty"

I don't get what's so funny about my answer, but she's trying not to laugh at me. Why is my answer funny? I have five juice boxes because I like my juice and I drink a lot.

"What?"

"Nothing" she could barely get the word out as it is.

"Then why are you trying not to laugh?"

"No reason"

You don't laugh for no peculiar reason, Mina and I don't get why "five" makes you laugh. What's so funny?

Then I find out she just finds the thought of me randomly pulling out a juice box amusing.

"For some reason I imagine an angry fox sipping on this tiny straw"

What is wrong with you?