To Love, To Lose, To Leave

Chapter Fifteen

Thursday (Class 3-A, English)

Izuku was already worn out by the time English rolled around. He could tell his classmates shared his sentiment—Mina and Kaminari were already murmuring to each other about what they want to eat for lunch, and a lot of the others were taking quick naps at their desks to try and get some energy to make it through the rest of the day.

When the classroom door opens, Present Mic waltzes in with a bright smile on his face. His hair isn't in its usual updo—instead, it's worn down in a braid, with various flower clips and pins attached at random spots.

"Good morning, listeners!" he exclaims, a wide smile on his face.

"Oh my gosh, did Eri-chan do your hair?" Uraraka squeals, eyes wide.

Mic's grin grows wider, and he gives a thumbs up. "Correct, Uraraka! She wasn't feeling too well so I stayed at the apartment with her and we played some dress up."

A wave of coos fill the air, and Izuku can't help the smile that makes its way onto his face.

Ever since they rescued Eri, her personality has only been blossoming more and more. On top of that, going to a school and interacting with kids her own age has been helping with that a lot, too. She's come a long way—from not knowing any sweets other than apples to loudly proclaiming to Izuku that she wants to color on his arm and clinging onto his arm to prevent him from running off.

Not that he would run off. Eri's too cute when she's in her coloring moods, carefully coloring in the scars along Izuku's arm and making all sorts of patterns and creatures with them.

Hopefully she won't stop that habit, Izuku muses to himself.

"I know that we've all hit that point in the term where everything is bleh, so we're going to do a simple in-class assignment for today," Mic says. Even without using his Quirk, his voice is naturally loud, easily projecting across the room. "Today, you all will make a bucket list. Now, for anyone who doesn't know what a bucket list is, it's a list of things you'd like to try and achieve at one point in your life. Some examples of what you can put on a bucket are to learn a certain skill, win a certain competition or prize, visit a certain place, or do a certain thing. Your bucket list needs to have at least six items on it. Once you finish, you'll all take turns coming up to the front and reading out one of your points, then writing it on the board in English. If someone said something you wrote down as well, you cannot present it when you come up. If somebody who went up before you presents a point that's the same as yours, pick a different one. If you're feeling a bit stumped, feel free to ask your classmates and discuss amongst yourself."

With that, Mic takes a deep breath. Almost by reflex, the entire class brings their hands up to their ears, covering them tightly.

"NOW STARTTTTTTTT!" Mic's voice bellows out, clear and loud even with Izuku's ears covered.

"Thank God I haven't gone deaf yet," Sero jokes, bringing his hands down before flipping open his English notebook. There's a wave of light chuckles before everyone starts to devolve into idle chattering, some of them crowding around one person's desk and talking, while others wrote in their notebooks, diligently focused.

Izuku taps his pencil against his notebook in thought.

A bucket list, huh?

Izuku's mind conjures the image of another one of his notebooks—opened on his desk in his dorm room, the handwriting shaky and scratched over and erased, the paper wrinkly in texture at randomly scattered dots.

Izuku shakes his head. Now's not the time to think about that—

Present Mic claps his hands three times. Izuku's head snaps up, as does the rest of the class, quickly falling quiet. Todoroki stood at the front of the class, notebook in hand.