Gym class didn't last for too much longer after testing was over. Though, there was still one last notable occurrence before class was dismissed...

Every monster present? They'd been paired up. As in, pairs of two. It'd been mostly based on Undyne's own judgements, and she had faith in them given she didn't take no for an answer even a single time.

"But-"

"No buts! Sparring is ESSENTIAL to promote a monsters growth with their offensive magic! I've paired you all up with partners fit for you! If issues arise, I can always swap them around!"

There had been a few monsters left out of it, but that was because she needed further... Deliberation. Those monsters being: Clover, Susie, Matt, the dog, Kanako, and Noelle. The reasons for each of them respectively being as follows. She didn't know what exactly Clover's magic could do, Susie and Matt couldn't use magic so she wasn't sure how to pair them, similarly to Clover Undyne just didn't know much of what the dog could do, Kanako's magic had been significantly more powerful than any other monster present, so pairing her up with one of them would be unfair... And Noelle just didn't have any good opponents, beside Kanako and one other monster. Kanako couldn't be paired up with her for obvious reasons, and Undyne had already matched the other fire user up with a different monster.

"I'll call you all in during study hall for further questioning. ANYWAYS! EVERYBODY! GET ACQUAINTED WITH YOUR NEW PARTNERS! CLASS, DISMISSED!"

Undyne nigh sprinted out of the gym, and almost collapsed when she got outside. Even after doing this two times in the day, it still wasn't any less exhausting. She really hoped it wouldn't be this nerve wracking to deal with kids once she got used to it...

...

"So who do you wanna go to for study hall?" Kanako posed the question to both Clover and Noelle.

"Mr. Boom."

"Mr. Alvin!"

Both of them very slowly turned to face the other.

"What?"

Yet again, they spoke in perfect unison...

"...I guess there's only one way to settle this." Kanako posed seriously and brought her paw to her chin. "Are you two ready?"

"R-ready for what?" Noelle played along.

"What are you talkin about?" Clover did not. He quickly caught on after Noelle glared at him. "W-wait, you don't mean...!?"

"Are you both thinking what I am?" Kanako leaned forward with a stoic, dramatic expression.

"...Rock, paper, scissors." All three of them spoke in complete unison.

"Right, bring it on then! Best out of three y'hear!?" Clover's entire body rolled with the motion as he brought both arms to bear. One hand below and open, and the other above and closed.

"This'll be over in the first two turns." Noelle smirked deviously.

"ROCK!"

"PAPER!"

"SCISSORS!"

"SHOOT!"

Rock against rock...

"Guh!"

"Mmm... Shockin. Whatever!"

"ROCK!"

"PAPER!"

"SCISSORS!"

"SHOOT!"

Paper against rock!

"Haha!"

"Gah'dangit! It ain't over yet!"

"ROCK!"

"PAPER!"

"SCISSORS!"

"SHOOT!"

Rock against rock!?!

"Are you just gonna only throw rock!?"

"Now why would I tell ya that?!"

"ROCK!"

"PAPER!"

"SCISSORS!"

"SHOOT!"

PAPER AGAINST SCISSORS!?!

"Wh-wha!?"

"Hah! Get's em every time!"

"No! It's not over yet! I will win this!"

"That's what they all say!"

"ROCK!"

"PAPER!"

"SCISSORS!"

"SHOOT!"

Scissors against scissors...

"Perhaps... You are a more worthy opponent than I gave you credit for." Noelle faked a pant.

"Likewise, however, I'll end this next turn!" Clover readied himself once again.

"ROCK!"

"PAPER!"

"SCISSORS!"

"SHOOT!"

Scissors... Against scissors... AGAIN.

Kanako was literally biting her claws. The two combatants didn't even bother to exchange words amidst the blows.

"ROCK!"

"PAPER!"

"SCISSORS!"

"SHOOT!"

There was... No way... Paper, AGAINST PAPER.

"What is going on!?" Kanako asked in, somewhat genuine fear.

"ROCK!"

"PAPER!"

"SCISSORS!"

"SHOOT!"

...Rock against rock.

"There's... There ain't no way..." Clover muttered.

"ROCK!"

"PAPER!"

"SCISSORS!"

"SHOOT!"

"ANOTHER TIE!?" Noelle shouted in absolute disbelief. Rock, against, rock.

"ROCK!"

"PAPER!"

"SCISSORS!"

"SHOOT!"

...

.....

............

"N-no... This can't be... How could I have lost!?"

"You fought well. Stand proud Noelle, you were strong." Clover played triple rock again, and Noelle played scissors.

"...That was insane!" Kanako managed to squeak out.

...

After, by far, the most riveting game of rock paper scissors Clover had ever played in his life, they finally went to study hall. At Gerson's room, because HE WON. After that TEN, ROUND, LONG, game of a best out of three rock paper scissors match, he had claimed sweet, sweet victory. Silver lining to his already golden cake? Noelle wasn't even upset about it. She was laughing, as was Kanako. As was he, that was hilarious. It was hard to be upset when something so ridiculously unlikely happened right before your eyes.

"What even are the chances, honestly?" Kanako was smiling widely as she held a crayon to a blank piece of paper. She had wanted to draw, but after... THAT, she just couldn't put any focus into it.

"Heck if I know, math ain't m'strongsuit." Clover shrugged.

"Really, really unlikely." Noelle shrugged as well. "Anyways, I actually have homework to do on the first day, so... I've kind of gotta get to doing that."

"Seriously?" Kanako stared at her in shock.

"...Yup. You know how Mr. Migs is."

"No, actually, I don't." Kanako made a pouty face and twirled her crayon around. "Amnesia, remember?"

"...Rrrrrright. Well, Mr. Migs gives out a lot of homework. It's usually pretty short, but he doesn't pull punches even after break."

"...Huh."

"NGAHHH!!!"

Clover almost molted out of his feathers.

"GERSON!!!"

"Quiet down will ya? We've got study hall."

"...Oh yeah, my bad."

Clover brought a hand to his chest to steady his heart. Noelle looked at him a little funny, but Kanako's attention was on the fish herself.

"M'god..." Clover breathed out shakily. He didn't usually get scared that bad, maybe he was a little on edge? He certainly did have reason to be if the Captain of the Royal Guard had wanted to ask him some questions for some reason. Given he was, you know, the seventh fallen human.

"You alright there Clover?" Kanako gave him a cheeky look.

"...Just fine." He side eyed her.

"Alright! Hey, you three!"

Within moments, Undyne had managed to zip from one side of the class, all the way over to the corner that the trio had been residing in.

"Uh, yes? Mrs. Undyne?" Noelle looked up at the fish who towered over the three of them.

"You're all coming with me. I had to search half the school for all of you, and I'm not waiting any longer! ...Probably should've just kept you in the gym, but whatever!!! I need to work out what the heck your groups are going to be!"

"...But I have homework I need to do." Noelle protested weakly in place of the entire group. Clover wanted to try and give her a reason as well, but it dawned on him that he didn't have one besides wanting to be in Gerson's room for study hall.

"BAH! So what? Just do it over at the gym! Come on, up and attem runts!"

...

Begrudgingly, the trio followed after their teacher through the halls. Mostly wordlessly. The previous energy they'd had sort of got gutted.

"ALRIGHT! Now wait here for a bit! I'll be back with the others soon!"

She slammed the door shut behind the three of them, leaving them in the room with one other monster.

"Well, ain't that one helluva coincidence?" Clover muttered to himself. Susie was sitting against the wall.

"What was that Clover?" Kanako's ears perked up in his direction.

"Ah, nothin much." He shrugged. "Just noticing our acquaintance here." And then thumbed in Susie's general direction.

"...Oh. Well, whatever."

Noelle tilted her head curiously at her friend. "So... You're not gonna go say hi?"

"...No? Why would I? She was mean to Clover for no reason. I don't really care about her."

"...Wha? Kanako, did you just get amensia, or did you hit your head really, really hard?"

"Hey." Clover elbowed the deer.

"Ow! Sorry, sorry! But, come on! You tried to play nice with literally everybody just a few months ago. What's going on?"

"That honestly just sounds like a lot of effort." Kanako shrugged indifferently. "I dunno why I'd do that. If somebody doesn't wanna be friends, getting all up in their face isn't gonna help much with that."

Noelle looked at her like an alien had just swapped places with her.

"...Huh???"

"Well, Kanako might not be up to it, but I've got a few questions I need to ask em." Clover waved to his friends as he spun in Susie's direction. "You two have fun workin that out, or whatever."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Oh, uh, okay?" Kanako gave him a thumbs up.

...

Susie rolled her eyes as Clover's boots clacked against the wooden floor.

"And what do you want?"

"Nothin much, just wanna ask you a few questions."

"I don't care, leave me alone." She grunted.

"What's with you? I haven't even done anything to you and ya seem determined to hate me. Don't think I didn't notice that glare you were givin me during gym."

"I said." She stood up to her full height. "Leave me alone."

Given she was almost twice as tall as Clover, it was a pretty good intimidation tactic. Unfortunately, Clover was not the kind of person to buckle under threat of physical violence.

Clover returned her gaze evenly, he did not take a step back nor forward. "All I want to know is why you're so upset with me. I'd rather not spend my first day of school makin enemies."

"...Look Clover, I don't need you pleading with me. I'm already in a poor enough mood as is."

"..."

"How about I put it like this? You don't want to make any enemies? Alright. Then how about this? Back off, and I won't bite your face off."

Clover stared unamused at the monster before him, but eventually he relented and looked away. "Fine. Just don't give me any grief, and I won't give you any trouble either. Deal?"

"Whatever." Susie crossed her arms and leaned against the wall.

Good enough for Clover. He'd leave her alone, and she'd leave him alone. That "whatever" basically equated to a sure as far as he was concerned. He didn't bother to respond, he just turned back towards his friends and waved at Susie.

...

"Why did you want to talk to her anyways?" Kanako asked Clover absentmindedly as she scribbled out a drawing of... Something.

"I just wanted to know why she was bein such a prick." Clover rolled his eyes as he spoke. "I'd like to think we came to an understanding."

"So how come you're scowling like that? You don't uh... Look that upset normally?"

Clover brought two fingers to his own cheeks. "Huh." He manually pushed his face back into place a few seconds later. "I'unno."

"You alright?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Anyways, do you think I could spend the night?"

"Oh, yeah, sure, why not?" Kanako smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

"Did I hear the words... Sleep over!?"

Kanako flinched as Noelle shouted right into her ears. "Ow."

"Oops, sorry!"

"It's fine. Anyways, yeah! Sleep over. Me and Clover had tons of them over the break, you can totally join us if you want to!"

"Awesome! How soon is it gonna happen?"

"I mean, Clover can just come home with me. Mom can just write his mom premium mail. Soooo... Right away?"

"Oh, okay. I guess I'll be there a few hours later then?"

"That sounds good." Clover nodded and rolled over. When would Undyne be back...?

As it goes, ask and you shall receive.

"FINALLY!!!" Undyne shouted as she kicked open the doors. "THAT TOOK FOREVER! ALRIGHT EVERYBODY! GET UP!"

The trio's eyes met, a real quick mostly silent conversation ran its course, and they all stood up.

"First up, I'm gonna need to speak with you Domerian."

"...Then why did you have everybody get up?" The dog, Clover supposed, Domerian, asked Undyne.

"Because! Because.. Because I need you all to group up! For now, just trust me on it!"

Clover, Kanako, and Noelle, all did not believe that. But none of them bothered to challenge her on it.

"Well??? You heard me! Go on!"

"Well, come on then." Clover motioned for his friends to follow him and started towards the center of the gym. They agreed with minor complaint. That minor complaint being "I still haven't finished my homework..."

Clover was reaaallly starting to question how qualified Undyne was for teaching. Maybe she could be helpful in like, an assistant role? But she didn't quite seem to have the... Skills to deal with the requirements of the job? Perhaps it was best that she was a gym teacher... Cause he was starting to get the idea that it was more so about magic practice rather than some kind of physical work out. Which, made sense.

"Don't even say anything."

Clover was rudely brought back from his ruminations as Susie and Matt took their place about five feet away from Clover's group.

"Oh yeah don't tempt us." Kanako sarcastically remarked.

Susie just rolled her eyes. Matt frowned, though he also tilted his head a little bit.

"Soooooo, how long do you think she's gonna take?" Noelle innocently posed the question. "Cause she keeps interrupting me like a minute after I start trying to do my homework."

"I think she's gonna go through me next, then Susie and Matt, then you and Kanako. So yeah, probably?"

"...And what makes you think that?" Noelle raised an eyebrow.

"Well, it's pretty simple." Clover shrugged in response. "She's talkin to Domerian first, and they just learned their magic. So if she's goin about it like that, I'll probably be up next. Then she needs to figure out what exactly she's going to do with those two." Clover thumbed at Susie and Matt. "No magic and all-I can FEEL ya glaring at me Susie! I'm not even asking ya to say anything!"

He paused for a second. "Thank you."

Noelle smiled a little bit.

"As I was saying, after she's done with those two, you and Kanako are the only two... Monsters here, with no actual problems. Kanako is just... Really strong apparently-"

"You betcha!" Kanako interrupted Clover mid sentence with a smirk.

"...Bet I'm still stronger." Clover smirked right back.

"Oh yeah? You better hope we don't get paired up then. I won't hold back just cause we're friends!"

Clover looked back into her eyes, and his smirk widened just a little more. "Oh no, shiver me timbers. Whatever will I do when Mrs. Snugglebuns-"

"Hey! You promised you wouldn't say anything about that in school!"

"...Kanako?" Noelle raised the other eyebrow.

"Uhhh... N-nothing."

"Yup, nothin at all." Clover shrugged innocently. His smirk only widened further.

"...If you two say so." Noelle smiled nervously.

Kanako made her best pouty face, and Clover wasn't even sure if she was messing around this time. It was still, really funny though. He figured he should apologize anyways.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I did promise I'd never tell anybody about your..." He was about to say 'I'm just diggin myself a deeper hole here ain't I?' but he didn't quite get the chance.

"CLOVER!" She punched him in the arm.

"Ow... Didn't have ta-" she did it again.

"Okay, stop!"

"You first!" Another smack, that was starting to actually hurt a bit.

"Fine, fine! Seriously, I promise I won't talk about it." He rubbed at his arm with one hand and raised the other in surrender.

"Promise me again!" She threateningly raised an arm.

"I promise that I won't talk about... Y'know what? I'm just gonna not finish that sentence."

"Thank you."

This whole time, Noelle was just staring at the two of them bewildered and amused. "What the heck was that about?"

"S-"

"Don't worry about it." Kanako forcefully ended the conversation.

Clover leaned in to whisper after another minute or so passed in silence.

"So... Why do you care if anybody knows you hold onto me when you sleep?"

"Because-" her voice started to rise as her face turned a bit brighter (which was alarming, given she was a furred monster.) but she paused to compose her rising octaves. "Because it's embarrassing!"

"So then why do you do it?"

"I do not control the actions of unconscious Kanako, that's a whole different monster Clover."

"Then why do I still spend the night in your room?"

"A better question is why are you so difficult?"

A snrrk broke through Clover's beak.

"This is not funny!"

"Uhh, what are you two whispering about?" Noelle asked with that same hesitant smile still plastered on her face.

"Don't worry about it!" Kanako punched Clover in the arm again when she saw his beak begin to move. He got the message.

"...Right. If you say so." Noelle turned back to the paper in her hands.

"ALRIGHT! CLOVER!"

"Huh, whaddya know?" Clover rotated his arm to try and get the aches out of it. "Looks like I was right."

"Yup! You sure were, get going!" Kanako shoved him forwards with an all too eager smile.

"Oh relax, I doubt Noelle would even ca-"

"Go on!"

Clover almost fell flat on his face.

"You need to take a chill pill."

...

"Alright kid, you remember what I told you right?"

"That you'd help me figure out what exactly my magic is?"

"Close! But you're missing a little something!" Undyne clapped him on the shoulder, and he almost dropped to a knee. It would seem he had grown stronger, given he didn't just about fall over.

"...That'cha wanted to ask me a few questions?" Clover asked a bit more hesitantly.

"YUP! No better time for it! So, get ready! You get to contribute to some of the most important work in the entirety of the Underground!"

"...Okay." Clover took in a deep breath, and then let it out.

"Hit me."