Izuku's guide on how to survive middle school

Step 8

Stay away from the popular kid
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The third year of middle school is a drag. Everyone is getting impatient. They want to get out of here and start making same real progress on their dreams. The opportunities they are looking for are out there. Why must they be stuck in this sad excuse of a school? All they want is to get out there and make a name for themselves. They better know it's too early for that.

Everyone want to be a hero. That's how it is. Everyone is aiming for UA, the most prestigious of hero schools out there, and we know it. We will all have to compete against each other, one way or another. Be it the grades, the written exams or the entrance exam, one day we will have to betray whatever bond we have built over the years and fight for what we want to be in the future.

Of course, for me nothing like that stands. I have no bonds with special people to throw under the bus. Not that if I had, I would. But that's not the matter.

Everyone is talking so big on friendships these days, when in truth, everyone is hiding a knife behind their back, ready to strike the moment someone shows weakness.

Or the moment they realize they can use that weakness to raise themselves higher....

Now then, I think it's time for me to tell you a story.

The story of mine and Kacchan's friendship throughout the years.

It's no secret amongst our classmates that we used to be childhood friends. The nicknames, our mothers going after both of us the moment they entered school grounds. Everyone with a brain could figure that out. The signs were all there.

When younger, we used to be close. Maybe too close to be honest. We basically grew up together. We were like brothers.

You see, our mothers knew each other way before we were born. I dare say they were best friends. When they learned that they would be having children at the same time, they decided that they would do whatever they could so that we would grow up to be as close as they were. And, for a while, that had worked out.

The nickname I had given him, Kacchan, was due to younger me not being able to properly pronounce his name. As years passed by, it just stuck, much to his current self's displeasure.

Kacchan was older than me. Not by much really. But it was enough for him to view himself as the older brother. He believed his life long goal would be to protect me. I remember when we were kids, he used to take that role very seriously.

And, maybe this is when it all started. When that ego of his started building up. That feeling of superiority over anything and everything at once. You know how it is with young kids. The older you are, the more powerful you feel.

People used to praise him back then for being such a good kid and helping out his friend. Kacchan was a young prodigy. Too clever for his own good. He always wanted to prevail. When normal babies started to walk at the age of 1, Kacchan was already running.

Back then, everything was oh so more simple. Just me and my friend against the world. Nothing could stop us really.

When you are this young, you don't have to care about quirks. We just watched from afar the older kids using theirs and tried to guess what our superpowers are gonna be like.