Hot-Headed (Now also a podfic on spotify!)

Chapter 3

The rest of the first day of school went mostly without incident.

Aizawa-sensei had allowed the class to watch out the windows as the first-years took their physical/quirk assessments. Ochako's heart squeezed in nostalgia as she thought back on their first day as first-years. Aizawa-sensei had seemed so intimidating back then. 

Things had been so different for her as well. Back then, she'd only cared about becoming a well-paid hero so she could pay for her parents to be able to live a more comfortable life. 

Now things had changed. Her parents had begun to get more business just due to being associated with her name. She hadn't even graduated yet and she was already helping them live an easier life. 

Of course, she still wanted her parents to live comfortably— maybe even not have to work at all eventually— but she knew that they wanted for her whatever made her happy. 

Deku had inspired her in so many ways to want for more than just money. He made her want to become a better hero, to push harder, to care about the people they were saving.

She'd smiled warmly remembering how absolutely dreadful he'd been in their first day assessments. When she'd glanced at him, though, he was busy already scrawling the new students in his notebook. It was no surprise.

The new students this year had impressed her. Another hot-headed boy with an interesting quirk had that same "eat shit" attitude she knew other people had. This boy could illuminate any part of his skin but was already using his quirk in such interesting ways such as pinpointing all of the light he could muster into one place in order to make something like a laser. He was truly prodigious. The problem was, he knew it and was also an arrogant ass.

Ochako considered that Bakugo had not cooled his arrogance down so much as risen in skill to fill that big head of his. He didn't really talk big with nothing to back it up, which was part of what made her so apprehensive about this... quarrel he'd decided to take up with her.

She had to admit that it was partially her fault. If she had backed down or played it off, he would've likely let her slide or gone on ignoring her. She just didn't want to be the person who did that anymore or passed by anyone's notice, even if that notice caused her trouble.

After the first-year assessments were over, Aizawa-sensei had surprised them with something of a pop quiz, asking them about the quirks of the new students and how they could improve them or better utilize them. 

And of course,  there Deku was with most of the answers. He'd only been picked a couple of times, though. Everyone already knew he could understand and assess quirks better than anyone. It was every pro hero's job to be able to do the same.

General academic courses wouldn't start today while they got into the ins and outs of what was expected of them. So Aizawa-sensei, and then a handful of other teachers spent the morning outlining how their final year would be spent.

More internships, more rigorous tests, more training. More, more, more! Plus Ultra indeed... And at the end of the year, they would take the most important exam of their lives. Their true hero license exam. If they didn't pass it, they wouldn't become pro heroes. All of this time at school would have been wasted. Makeups weren't a thing in the real world.

Ochako had felt rather overwhelmed by the time they broke for lunch. When she'd looked around, everyone had an exhausted expression as well.

She'd eaten lunch with Deku and Iida as she always had. 

In the cafeteria, Bakugo had sat with Kirishima and Kaminari, thankfully. But he had thrown her occasional looks that read, to her, something like, "I will end you."