Airhead | Bakugo Katsuki

Chapter Seventeen

The next day at school passed faster than she had anticipated. Maimi had done her best to catch up on the work she missed and trained all the harder, despite her muscles being weak from yesterday. She carried her smile through the halls, happy to have reunited with her friends even though, Bakugo still hadn't bothered saying anything.

"Hiya, Aizawa!" Maimi said, entering her homeroom after school had ended.

Maimi wasn't too used to being in the barren room and every time she did happen to be in the classroom in its empty state, it was with Bakugo. Her eyes fell to their desks, her heart heavy as she couldn't quite place she felt.

It wasn't an unusual one though, she experienced it annually on the same day. Loss was a terrible thing, and even if she didn't fully understand it, she knew what that longing was from the way it rumbled in her chest.

Yet, she couldn't bring herself to say anything to the boy either. Even if it should've been him to say something first.

"You're late. Sit down, we need to cover a lot today."

Bringing her attention back to the present, she ran over to her teacher and took the spot next to him. She pulled out her pink notebook as well as her favorite glitter pens her grandma got for her and gave a grin to Aizawa.

"I'm ready, sir! I studied very hard today, did you notice?" Her eyes gleamed, "I got like five whole questions right!"

"...Out of thirty." He added.

Giving a breathy laugh, Maimi turned back to the worksheets Aizawa had laid out. She read over every question, the little things she had managed to learn appearing in her head as she studied them.

"I want you to complete these three papers, try to do them yourself but ask me if you get really stuck."

She nodded her head, meeting her teacher's eye again, "Yes sir."

As she turned to her work, Aizawa watched as she began. His eyes scanned her, from the bruises on her hands and arms to the knots on the back of her head. She was a mess, that wasn't new knowledge to him. But he grew more and more bothered by her as the days went on.

"Aizawa, Can I borrow your calculator if possible please?"

He narrowed his eyes, "Watanabe, do you own a calculator? You borrow mine every time."

Fiddling with her fingers, she dropped her eyes, "Uh, no."

He took a second. Watching as she grew uncomfortable and took the moment as he saw it.

"Why don't you know any math. Any subject matter for that case."

The girl froze. The air in her throat vanishing as she turned back to the desk, not wanting to meet his eye any longer. No one else in the class had bothered to question or even think as to why Maimi knew so little, and she liked it that way even if she came off as an idiot.

The truth of it became embarrassing as Maimi became more welcome into the true reality of how people live.

"After my mom died and my dad left, my grandma didn't wanna send me to school anymore. I haven't gone since I was seven."

Silence fell over the two as Aizawa tried to process it. Desperately, Maimi turned to him; wide-eyed and concerned, her heart sat in her stomach.

"I know it's bad but I promise I'm trying, please don't tell Principle Nezu, I want to be good, Aizawa, I want to be a good student! I told you, I got five right today remember!"

She didn't cry or get any more flustered than she already had been, but Aizawa could see how desperate she was to not be kicked out. Was being a hero that important to her?