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

Chapter 18

"Okay, class, here's how things are going to go this time," Aizawa-sensei explained in his usual monotone voice. "As you know by now, this is your last practical exam at UA. If you fail this, you might as well just not take the pro-hero license exam and save everyone the hard work."

The past three days had, once again, been filled with the most mind-numbing academic exams Ochako had ever taken. She'd worked hard to study with her friends and had even gotten to sit in with Bakugo, Kirishima, and Kaminari as they brushed up on what they had learned. She knew Bakugo was incredibly smart and got close to the top grades on every test and she'd hoped she could pick up a little from his methods of study.

Unfortunately, he was about as patient of a study partner as one could imagine. When they went over things, she often remembered the lesson and was able to complete the practice work in front of her. Kirishima, on the other hand, was terrible at recalling their lessons (seriously, did he only ever sleep in class?) and Bakugo was getting angry any time he had to repeat his explanations. And he always had to repeat his explanations.

Ochako had no clue why he always agreed to study with these boys when they frustrated him so much but she was starting to think that he actually liked spending this time with them, even when he was yelling about how to translate the same sentence for the fourth time.

Now those awful exams were behind them and it was the day of the practical exam. As usual, Aizawa-sensei had brought them out to the training grounds

"What you're going to do is pair up into teams of two. Once again, your partner is your choice. Take this seriously," he eyed Deku while saying this and Ochako saw him shrink back slightly, "This isn't a time to test your skills with someone new. If you haven't figured out who would be the best choice for you to partner with for an exam by now, I don't even know what I've been teaching you this whole time."

"After you choose your partner, you will come up, team by team, and choose from five different scenarios you would like to be tested from that you feel is best suited to you. All of them are rescue missions. All of them will be challenging. You are being given every opportunity to shine in this exam. Treat this as though it were your final exam because, technically it is at this school. Do not hold back. Go all out. Plus Ultra or whatever."

"Plus Ultra!" the class screamed back at him and he gave them an unimpressed look.

"You have 15 minutes. Pick your partners."

Ochako swept her gaze around the class, feeling a little apprehensive about her situation.

After the look Aizawa-sensei gave him, she doubted Deku would pick her. She'd worked with Toru in the past but she couldn't say they'd been effective together. The same went for Mina, Shoji, Aoyama, and most of the rest of the class as well. There was only one person who she knew she should be taking this exam with but she wasn't sure if he'd be willing to team up with her.

Bakugo had never purposefully grouped with her in class. That head nod a couple weeks back had been the only time it had seemed like he wanted to and since then he hadn't even looked at her when choosing partners. She was fairly certain he had been so insulted by her ignoring his offer last time that he was unwilling to extend another invitation to her.

Ochako wasn't sure what to do. She scanned the class again, seeing that a few teams had already formed, one of which was Deku and Todoroki. None too surprising there.

She spotted Mina, who still was without a partner and was about to approach her when a large, warm hand wrapped itself around her wrist.

"Where are you going round-face?" Bakugo said, squeezing her wrist a little harder.