Rejected Stones

Laying Mortar

This document beta'd by kylekatarn77

3: Laying Mortar

I am different, not less.

—Dr. Temple Grandin

The teacher frowned as he set the test on Izuku's desk, 78% circled in scarlet ink. "I'm disappointed, Midoriya. Your grades are usually a lot better. For someone who says he wants to get into UA, you're sure not showing it."

Izuku guiltily tucked the test away in his binder, his face burning as red as the ink. It wasn't actually a terrible grade to get, all things considered. The test had been a difficult math exam, covering the basics of trigonometry. Izuku glanced up at the teacher, but they'd already moved on to lecture the other students.

Suddenly, a wad of paper bounced off the back of Izuku's head. Cringing, he turned around to see Bakugo leering at him from a few desks back.

"Well nerd, have you just given up on life yet? You can't even get good grades. Guess you should just give up on getting into UA. Or better yet, try. Runts like you will make it easier for someone like me to get in with the competition so weak."

"I-I-I've just been really b-b-b-busy, Kacchan, I d-d-didn't study enough and-"

"Whatever. It doesn't matter. It just shows that someone like you can never hope to measure up. UA will laugh your application right out of the building." With that, Bakugo went back to goofing off with his friends. He'd been out for a few days after the Slime Villain attack, but after a bit of moping Bakugo was back to his usual self, claiming he'd fought a villain so tough even All Might had struggled to defeat him.

Izuku glanced at Bakugo's desk, where his own test had been haphazardly thrown into his folder. His score was 98%. Normally, Izuku was a match for Bakugou, at least academically.

"But if I fall behind here, I'll never catch up to Kacchan," Izuku muttered to himself.

The problem was, he really was very busy. In the month since he'd met Mei, he'd spent hours a day helping her find salvage or working on the Power Armor (now up to MK III). Plus, he'd started physical training, using a plan he'd found on the internet called "The Hero." It called for 100 sit ups, 100 push ups, 100 squats, and a 10k run every day, plus a rotating daily routine of other exercises like weights or specialized training for various muscle groups. It left him physically exhausted by the time he got back home, usually very late. And that had left little time for studying.

Until now Izuku had simply coasted on his already solid academic foundation. He'd never found most of his classes particularly hard, and for the most part, the amount of studying he'd done had been excessive. But both Kacchan and his teacher were right: If he wanted to get into UA, his grades needed to be the very best.

At the end of the school day, Izuku decided to run to Mei's home, which was about 5k from his school. This gave him time to think and consider his next steps.

"Hatsume?" he called when he arrived at her shop. He'd stopped once to grab an old toaster he'd seen sticking out of a dumpster, and the run had taken him longer than usual. Despite that, she wasn't home yet, so Izuku sat down and pulled out his textbooks to do some studying.

After about 20 minutes, Mei barged in, her bag bulging with various objects she'd scavenged. She took differing routes home everyday to find new and interesting things to bring back to strip for parts, and seemed to have a rather impressive haul today, including a large piece of sheet metal.

"Ah, Midoriya! You are Midoriya, right? Well great, you're here already. Did you manage to figure out the power drain issues on the-"

"Hatsume, not right now. Come on, we need to study," Izuku said, patting the bench next to him. "You can help me with math."