The Next Generation

C15: Return to School

The day after the attack on the USJ was tiring. Optimus was late to school, so Aizawa yelled at him. Despite his injuries, he let nothing get in the way of his job. He was wrapped in bandages, and he took more yellow bag naps, but he was there. Regardless of the earful he got, Optimus was happy about it.

The teachers tried to distract the students from recent events and act like everything was normal. It was their hope that things would soon go back to normal. They were slammed with general course studying all day and no hero work. They got their fair share of hero practice the day before. Like he did every day, Optimus struggled through those classes, but he was happy to say that he was getting better. Every so often, they would approach a topic that Optimus had already thoroughly studied, and those moments were always a breeze. It lightened his mood.

At the end of the day, Optimus left his weekly report of textbook questions on Mr. Aizawa's desk. They'd decided after a while that Optimus was too much to handle with quizzes and such, so he just wrote Mr. Aizawa any questions he had about any of the textbooks. Sometimes Mr. Aizawa actually answered them, and other times he just left a few question marks.

"What's that?" Momo asked as Optimus set the stack of twenty seven papers down.

"Oh, my homework," Optimus answered.

Momo frowned. "Which one?"

Optimus shouldered his bag. "I didn't do very well on the written exam, so Mr. Aizawa has been tutoring me. This is extra work."

"Oh," Momo gaped. "Is that why you always have so many books with you? I didn't realize. It looks like a ton of work."

The two of them walked out of the classroom.

"Yes, but I don't mind. I usually enjoy it," Optimus admitted.

Momo kicked Mineta when the short boy sneaked up on them from behind, but she didn't avert her attention. "Yeah? That's surprising. You didn't peg me as the reader type."

Uraraka poked her head in. "Optimus is a reader type?"

Optimus nodded.

"He's also a great leader," Ojiro spoke up. "And combatant."

"Yeah," Tsu agreed. "So the better question is what is he bad at?"

Bakugo scoffed. "Breathing."

"Okay, well, I should be going," Optimus decided as their class started to pile up around him.

"Oh!" Momo grabbed his shoulder. "I actually stayed back with you to ask, but I got distracted. We're going on a class shopping spree to the mall to de-stress after yesterday's events. Wanna come with?"

Optimus looked around at their eager faces. "Sure."

"Yeah!" Kirishima pumped his fist. "This is going to be the most manly shopping trip ever!"

Everyone started chatting excitedly and talking about what they wanted to get, so Optimus looked for someone who could answer his question without causing a big commotion.

"Hey, Midoriya," Optimus walked over. "What is shopping spree?"

"Oh, uh... it's like when you go buy a bunch of stuff," Midoriya explained.

Optimus nodded. "Oh, okay. Thank you."

"Hey..." Midoriya rubbed his chin. "You know, this isn't the first time I've noticed you didn't know what something was. Why is that?"

Okay, so he asked the wrong person.

"I don't know," Optimus shrugged, feigning ignorance. "I've just never heard of it."