Izuocha's Love Stories

IN ORBIT (CHAPTERS 3-4)

CHAPTER THREE

The next day was overcast.

Puddles from the previous night's storm riddled the path to the classroom building, but luckily the rain held off as the students walked to their classes. Izuku found himself walking with Aoyama. The twinkling boy skipped nimbly around the water on the ground, not letting a single drop soil his uniform or immaculately maintained shoes. Beside him, Izuku numbly splashed through every puddle ahead of him, paying no mind to the wet spots showing on his red high-top sneakers.

Izuku was thinking, and he had been thinking since the previous night. He'd gone to bed thinking, fallen asleep thinking, and woken up thinking. Izuku had continued thinking, blinded by his thinking, until an enthusiastic Aoyama called out to him, and Izuku realized they had already reached their classroom.

"We need to get inside, silly boy, or we'll be late!"

The two boys had been the last to arrive. Instinctively, Izuku's eyes scanned the room. He found Uraraka standing near her desk, talking with Iida and Tsu. She had angled herself towards the doorway. Upon seeing him walk in, Uraraka caught his eye and sent him a tiny, endearing smile. He warmly returned the look. Uraraka and Izuku must have shared thousands of smiles since coming to U.A. This one felt different, although Izuku couldn't explain how. It only lasted a second. Then Uraraka resumed her conversation, and Izuku went to his seat.

They hadn't talked about what happened last night. When the rain had slowed to a sprinkle, they had abruptly broken off from each other with Uraraka quickly thanking him again for his help. They'd said a hurried "Goodnight" to each other, went to their respective halves of the dorms, and that was that. Izuku hadn't been able to fall asleep afterwards. A new door had been thrown open and Izuku was desperately trying to unpack everything beyond it. The boy didn't know what time he had finally drifted off, but as soon as he'd woken up this morning his mind had been racing again. Part of him didn't want to talk to Uraraka about this. Izuku was still trying to sort through these feelings. What would he even say to her?

Class started in the normal way: Iida announced for everyone to sit down, and Aizawa Sensei tonelessly read through the day's agenda. Their homeroom teacher had barely finished speaking when Present Mic burst into the room, impassioned and hopping ready to begin the day's English course. The Voice Hero's manner was brash, but Izuku was grateful for any excuse to get out of his own head. He dove into the classwork. English wasn't his best subject; the concentration the topic required was a welcome relief.

Once Present Mic's time was up, he gleefully dished out homework, left the room, and was replaced by a coolly confident Ectoplasm. The hero loomed, omnipotent, over his cowl. "Good morning. Do you remember our last lesson?" There was a reluctant shuffling of papers and pencils as the students braced themselves.

Definite integrals. Again.

Izuku stuffed his brain full of numbers, equations, and numerals until the bell signaled lunch.

He was starving. He'd skipped breakfast that morning, and Izuku wasted no time filling his plate with Lunch Rush's unbeatable food. He slid into an empty lunch table. Just as he was breaking apart his chopsticks, Uraraka sat down across from him. They both looked at each other. She smiled, he smiled, then they were joined by their friends, and the seats filled around them. For the rest of the lunch period, everything felt just as it always had. Uraraka goaded Iida into going off on one of his fervent tangents. Mina and Kaminari aired their frustrations over the increasing complexity of Ectoplasm's equations. Kirishima and Testsutestus had an eating contest. Jiro discussed guitar chords with Tokoyami. The time was filled with friends and classmates, all unwinding after the first half of their stressful academic day, refueling for what the afternoon had to offer.