Chapter Text
School sucks, especially when you couldn't care less about the lessons, the teacher or the other students. School sucks, it's boring, and Zoro wishes he could sleep without being noticed, but the teachers are used to his sleeping habits by now and they placed him at a desk on the first row in order to watch him at all time ; so Zoro has to stay up, or else he'll get another hour of detention, and he doesn't particularly want to stay an hour more in this hellish place that is high school.
He's a senior now, and he's actually done with the school system. He cannot wait to get the hell out of here, and finally forget about his studies for the rest of his life. He doesn't care for books, or class, or random knowledge, or math – math, what even is that ? So we're mixing numbers and letters now ? No, Zoro doesn't care about any of that. He would abandon right there, right now, if he didn't know his uncle would beat his ass if he bailed on school now. And Mihawk is still terrifying, so Zoro stays. He stays and he waits for school to be over.
After class, he meets up with Luffy, Usopp and Chopper, and they all go eat an ice cream together ; then, once they're gorged in sugar, they go to their secret place. It is in an old desaffected warehouse that Franky turned into a comfortable squat. They're not worried about being caught ; the place is owned by Kaya, Usopp's girlfriend, who unofficially gave it to them so they could play some music. Last year, they created their own band, the Strawhats. Their little group of friends met each other because of their passion for music, which made them all bond. Luffy, Zoro, Usopp and Chopper are childhood friends who met during a music class at their small neighborhood event, and who stick together ever since ; they met Nami later on, in middle school, and they all realized they needed her to organize their lives when they started to talk seriously about creating a band. Brook is an older guy, who lived in their neighborhood and who also was their music teacher in high school. No matter his age, he still became their friend and joined in. Nami introduced them to Carrot, who was in the music club and had an amazing voice. Franky is Brook's best friend, and he joined in when he realized they were looking for another guitarist and bassist. Robin is Franky's wife, and even though she doesn't really participate in the group's musical activities, she still hangs out often enough with them to be considered a part of the group, and she promotes the group on social medias, taking pictures of them during repetitions and handling their official twitter account. This merry little group of friends bonded over chaos, music, stupid ideas and basic high school delinquency (it's fine, Brook participates to most of it an never snitches on them to the other professors). Zoro doesn't know where he would have ended up without his friends, and he doesn't even want to imagine. His crew is like his family, and he only ever feels at ease when he's on stage with them, his guitar in his hands. Together, they went on tour during the Summer ; Carrot sang, Zoro and Franky played the guitar, Luffy beat his drums like never before ; their popularity swelled unexpectedly and they quickly became well known in their school, then in town, then on internet.
They are stuck, these days, however.
Carrot is no longer a part of their group ; she had to move away with her family, and decided to quit the band, saying that she will be too far away to keep singing with them. It saddened the entire crew to see her leave ; they remain friends, of course, but it's different now that she's gone away. They still call each other over skype quite often, at the very least. Carrot's absence leave them without a singer in the band, and their fans were very disappointed to learn that. The group has been on hiatus ever since Carrot left ; sometimes, Zoro poses as a singer, since he doesn't have a bad voice, but it always make him feel uneasy, so he doesn't do it that often.
When they arrive at their place, they find the rest of the crew all together. They're all immersed in their own activities ; Brook pulled out his violin and plays a mindless melody, watching over the others : Nami is at the desk on her calculator, probably counting their gains from their short holiday tour. Robin is on her phone, a cup of tea in her other hand, and she carefully scrolls down her twitter feed, answering to some fan questions while she's at it. Franky is tweeking his guitar's cords, tuning them properly. Zoro sits in the couch next to him, grabs a soda on the table and stays there, silent, while the conversation starts buzzing around him. He absently listens to the chatters, his eyes closed ; he's about to fall asleep when Brook suddenly agitates himself :
« Yoh oh, I forgot to tell you ! A new kid will be transfered in your class, Zoro. »
« Yeah ? » the guitarist answers, uninterested. « Who even cares ? »
« It's quite mysterious, really, » continues Brook, as if he didn't hear him. « Only the principal and a few trusted teacher know about who he is. There seems to be quite the interest surrounding him, yet no one really knows who he is. »
Zoro shrugs and goes back to his half-sleeping. There's a new kid, so what ? He's probably going to be as dumb and uninteresting as the others. The guitarist has nothing to do with the rest of his class, as he's seen as a delinquent, and he doesn't care for them in return. It will probably be the same thing with this new kid, whoever he is.
* * * * *
So, there's a new kid at school, and his arrival is quite the event in Zoro's class.
The kid is transfered in the middle of the school year, with no explanation, and no one really knows anything about him. People talked about him for days before his arrival, and when finally he came, everyone was curious about this blonde, long and scrawny teens. He looked completely uninterested when he introduced himself as Sanji Vinsmoke, but his name made quite the sensation among the other kids in class ; the Vinsmoke were known for being one of the richest, shadiest family in the country. No one really knows how they became this important and this rich, but everyone thinks it's shady business. Usually, the Vinsmoke kids attended the biggest schools of the country, so why was this kid in particular here ? He sat next to the window, kissing the back of the hand of the girl sitting next to him in passing, then proceeded to be completely uninterested in the lesson all day – Zoro knows, because he watched him all day, like an idiot, like the rest of his class. He watched because he was curious, and because this kid was weird. At lunch time, he watched as the new kid – Sanji – stayed alone at his table, only taking out a bento from his bag and eating silently. At this time, Luffy arrived and threw himself at Zoro, who pestered him for bothering him all the time ; after Luffy came Usopp and Chopper, never one without the other. Soon enough, the boys started kidding around, being loud and annoying ; Sanji didn't say a thing, barely threw them a look. Luffy noticed him, all alone, and when he invited the new kid to eat with them, Sanji let out a flat « No, thanks, » before leaving the room to go God knows where. As Zoro initially thought, this kid looked weird.
The new kid is now making a habit out of disappearing in thin air during lunch time. Luffy, the obsessed ball of energy and friendliness that he is, has been looking for him everywhere, but can never find where he hides ; the kid must be good at hide and seek. He always comes back for lessons though, and even though he looks bored all along he still takes careful notes. He seems to be the kind of student who doesn't have to make a lot of effort to be good in school and to remember the lessons.
Tch. Asshole.
The new kid doesn't meddle with anyone. He's generally really nice with girls, even have a few conversations with some of them, but he doesn't hang out with them. And he doesn't talk to any boy at all. He basically turns a blind eye to anyone's offered friendship ; some kids in the class starts to say he acts all-mighty because he feels superior to them, since he's so rich ; the rumor spreads really fast, and soon enough no one talks to Sanji. The new kid becomes the ghost of the class.
Zoro doesn't talk to him either, but he's still curious. He finds something odd with this kid, and he wants to know what it is exactly. Luffy is also still obsessed with the idea of becoming Sanji's friend, so they often cross path ; Zoro starts noticing things about him, like the way he always has a delicious looking bento, or the way he wears his uniform, like a suit, and how it doesn't look ridiculous on him. Zoro notices that he often taps on his table as if he was playing the piano, and he is easily irritated, given the way he crushes his pen in his hands when he hears some kids talk shit in his back. He never acts on his anger, however ; he looks like the kind of guy who has a strong hold on his emotions.
Until that day.
Zoro fucked up, earlier today, by not wearing his uniform properly and crossing path with the principal. He got an hour of detention for it ; the principal is kind of a maniac about the rules of his school. Ugh, anyways ; Zoro never respects the rules, and always gets hours and hours of detention. He's kind of known in his high school for the amount of hours he's done. When Zoro gets to detention, today, though, he's surprised to see the new kid, already sat at a table, looking bored out of his mind. Zoro doesn't really know how to react to his presence there ; first of all, what did he do to get here ? This scrawny little guy, always looking proper and shit, what is he even doing here ? Did he meet the principal at a wrong timing ? Sanji raises his head and looks at Zoro being a curtain of hair ; his eyes are taunting him, fiery. Zoro doesn't really know how to act, so he acts stupid, as always when he doesn't know what do to. He acts stupid by looking at Sanji agressively, taunting him back.
« What are you doing here ? » He growls.
« Detention, stupid, can't you see ? » Sanji answers, his voice mad. Zoro is actually surprised ; the guy looks like he has it in him. Oh, if he's another trouble maker, they are going to have so much fun this year.
« What did you even do to get here ? » Zoro asks, actually getting curious. Curiosity kills the cat, but Zoro is a freaking tiger, and he's not scared of the new kid.
« Kicked some idiot's face in, duh. Asshole was bothering a lady. »
Zoro doesn't know what to get out of this answer. He stands there for a second, stunned ; this tiny, flimsy guy got himself into a fight in the first week of his arrival ? Somehow he should have thought about that earlier. Luffy has a gift to find the troubled people. After a second Zoro seats a few tables away from Sanji, and the hour passes in silence. The atmosphere is weird ; Zoro wants to say something, and he feels like Sanji wants to talk too, but no one is saying a thing. After an hour, Zoro leaves the room, finally free from detention ; Sanji stays behind, and doesn't even spare him a glance when he leaves.
Zoro doesn't really know if he likes the new kid, or if he hates his guts.