My Hero Academia: Next Gen

Chapter 49: What They Know

^ Classroom Seating Chart

Eri's heart was beating so quickly by the time she reached her classroom, dread filling every fibre of her being. She didn't even know why she was nervous, it wasn't as though Mr. Kaminari was going to spill her entire childhood to her class. Still, the prospect of the questions somehow leading to her past made goosebumps appear on her arms.

When she peeked into the room, thankfully only a few people were in there. Okabe, Karada, and Kagayaku, each sitting in their own areas of the classroom. Okabe, who was the closest to the door, looked up when Eri came in and smiled.

"Hey, Eri," she said kindly. "You're here early."

"Yeah, I had, um, a meeting and didn't get to finish lunch so."

"Who were you meeting?"

Eri averted her eyes and made her way to her desk. "Just, um, some of the teachers. Mr. Kaminari will explain a bit to you guys."

Okabe furrowed her brows but didn't say anything else, instead getting out her notes. Karada greeted Eri quietly as she passed him and she gave him a small smile in return. She was glad he was one of the quietest students in her class. In fact, everyone who was in class early were the ones who tended to be on the quieter side.

Kagayaku saw Eri as she sat down and noticed the distracted look on her face but said nothing.

The rest of the class slowly trickled in as the start of class neared. Eri did her best not to attract attention to herself, but that became difficult when Matsumoto and the rest of her friends came in calling her name.

"Eri! Where did you go at lunch?" Matsumoto asked loudly as she sat down behind her. "You never came back!"

A few eyes drifted over to her, and Eri ducked her head a little bit. "Uh, sorry, Matsu. Midnight called me out for a meeting with some of the teachers."

"The teachers?" Torredo asked, frowning. "What was it about?"

"Mr. Kaminari is going to explain in a moment," Eri said, not wanting to get into the topic so early.

Torredo looked at her carefully, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly. Eri's cheeks heated up under her gaze, and she glanced away at the front of the classroom. "Are you okay, Eri?"

"I'm fine." Eri gave them a forced smile. "Just... It'll make sense in a minute or two."

Finally, the whole class was in their seats and Mr. Kaminari came into the room. He had his signature smirk plastered on his face as he smiled at the class. "Good afternoon, everyone! So, last class, we left off with our pop quiz, so I'm gonna hand those back to you now. I gotta say, most of you did pretty dang well on this one." He started to hand back the quizzes, giving everyone little compliments and pieces of encouragement as he went.

When he came to Eri, he said, "Great job, Eri!" before leaning down and saying in a lower tone, "I'll ask everyone near the end of class, okay?"

She nodded back. "Thank you." Part of her was glad he was going to wait to break those news, because otherwise no one would pay attention to the rest of class and would just ask her question after question. No, thank you, she thought.

"What did you get?" Matsumoto asked, leaning over Eri's shoulder.

"Hmm? Oh, fourteen out of fifteen. You?"

Matsumoto pouted. "How did you get such a good mark? I only got ten out of fifteen. I really didn't get questions three and four."

Torredo nodded. "I got question four wrong, too."