Can't Choose

Chapter Five

Izuku speed walked to class, arriving early. He slipped through the doorway to Class 2-A, seeing that a few people were already inside. One was the tall, broad-shouldered guy that, as Izuku had seen during practice, was one of the fastest sprinters on the track team. There was another boy there, slim and very well-composed. He had bicolored hair and eyes. Izuku's attention was immediately drawn to the red scar on the left side of his face, though. He wondered what that was about. The third was a girl with her black hair up in a ponytail.

All three of them were talking together; about what, Izuku didn't know. He hesitated to approach them, but before he could say a word, the teen with the scar noticed him.

"Midoriya, right?" he asked, staring coolly at the green-haired boy.

"Y-yeah," Izuku said, very nervous about this. Kirishima was the only person in his class that he'd really spoken to, and these people didn't seem nearly as easygoing as the grinning, red-haired boy.

"Shouto Todoroki," the boy said, knocking Izuku out of his thoughts. He nodded, but before he could think of anything to say to the others, the taller guy stood up.

"Midoriya! I must introduce myself!" he said, startling Izuku quite a bit. "My name is Tenya Iida. A pleasure to meet you!" He held out his hand, which Izuku shook cautiously. Izuku heard a slight chuckle from behind Iida, so he glanced over and saw that the girl was laughing at the interactions. She saw him looking at her and smiled up at him.

"I'm Momo Yaoyorozu," she said. "Nice to meet you, Midoriya." Izuku smiled back, feeling a little bit more at ease. He wanted to say something, but was interrupted when he saw two other people come into the classroom from the corner of his eye. All four of the early group glanced over to the doorway.

It was Kirishima and Bakugou. Kirishima was smiling, as usual, and Bakugou was scowling at him, though Izuku noticed that the anger that he always saw burning in the blond's eyes wasn't really there. Well, now it was back, since Bakugou had noticed Izuku was watching him.

"What're you looking at, shit nerd?"

Kirishima groaned and rolled his eyes. "Don't be rude!"

Izuku sighed. Even though the blonde hadn't particularly liked him at any point in their childhood, the words still stung a little. Behind him, Iida had gone on about how Bakugou should be respectful to Izuku, while Todoroki simply glared over at the blonde-haired boy.

Bakugou disregarded everyone else's reactions, walking up to Izuku. "Out of the way, you damn Deku." He then shoved Izuku out of the way to move to his seat. Kirishima followed, shooting Izuku a sympathetic look as he passed by, as well as a slight smile. Izuku smiled back, just a little, understanding exactly how Kirishima felt. Bakugou was like a ticking bomb.

Izuku sighed and decided to sit down and look over his notes for a bit before class. However, he couldn't stop glancing ahead of him at Bakugou, who was actually smiling at Kirishima as they spoke. It was almost jarring to Izuku, the stab of jealousy he felt. What did Kirishima have that he didn't? Izuku had been trying to be Bakugou's friend for all of his life, and all he'd ever gotten in return was a bully.

Izuku shook his head, trying to rid himself of his selfish thoughts. The fact that Bakugou even had a real friend was a good thing. Besides, Kirishima knows how to keep him in check. They were a pretty great pair.

His time with his thoughts was over soon after he came to that decision, as Iida called for the students to get to their seats before class started. Izuku pulled out his notebook as Mr. Aizawa entered the room, taking notes on some of the things the teacher said.

"Today we will be starting a project. This will be a partner project. I know that many of your other classes are focusing on sustainable practices and natural disasters, so you will be designing a model city focusing on said practices. You will present these. The research stage begins today."

Izuku glanced up from his notebook after he finished jotting down the instructions. He could already see students glancing around, making eye contact with each other, choosing their partners.

"Ah, yes, I forgot," said Mr. Aizawa. "I'll be pairing you up."

The whole class groaned, but Mr. Aizawa ignored it, picking up a paper on his desk. "Listen carefully. I'm not repeating anything." Izuku, along with the rest of the class, diverted all their attention to their teacher.

"Ochako and Ashido." Izuku's eyes darted around the classroom, identifying who the two students were. A round-faced, brown-haired girl, and an eccentric looking girl with light pink hair. The pink-haired girl was turned around in her seat, leaning to the side to smile at the other girl, who was sitting in the back.

"Jirou and Yaoyorozu," Mr. Aizawa read next. Izuku already knew both of them, so he didn't need to look around.

"Kirishima and Midoriya," One desk away, Kirishima looked over at Izuku, flashing a bright grin. Izuku smiled back, though he noticed the soft growl that came from the boy sitting in front of him. Huh.

The rest of the names were read off, and soon everyone was paired up. They had rearranged their seating so they sat next to their partners. Mr. Aizawa handed out paper instructions to all of the groups, and Kirishima and Izuku started reading theirs.

After they finished Kirishima looked up at Izuku. "What natural disaster should we do?"

"Um... I wanna do tsunamis..."

"Cool! Let's do that, then."

Izuku nodded, and the two began their research phase. When class ended, Kirishima told Izuku to meet him at lunch to decide when they were going to have time to work together. The two then left the classroom, moving on to their next classes.

A/n: Hi, guys! Sorry, this is even shorter than usual, I just wanted to get something out before I leave for a trip, since I'll probably be too busy write much. Anyways, have a great day, guys!

-Lavender