Chapter Text
Today was the day. Ectoplasm announced during class that he would finish grading their exams during his planning period and give them to Aizawa to hand back before they went home. Kaminari tried not to get his hopes up. He wanted to believe that he did well considering how hard he worked, but he couldn’t handle another let down. He was still trying to wrap his head around the dyslexia thing. Even with his friends’ encouragement, he still felt defeated. Like he had a weight placed on his back that would never get any easier to carry.
So, when Aizawa gave him his graded test, Kaminari took a deep breath and schooled his expression. Here goes nothing , he thought. Kaminari flipped the test and felt his heart skip a beat. Written in red ink in the upper righthand corner of the page: 76%. A ‘C’. He had never gotten a ‘C’ on a math test. Ever. Kaminari flipped through the pages of the exam, looking at every little correction. He couldn’t believe it. He felt butterflies in his stomach.
It took every ounce of self control for Kaminari to stay in his seat. He wanted to jump up and cheer and run around the room and shoot sparks into the air. But he contained himself until Aizawa finished handing the tests back and dismissed them for the day. He immediately got up and bounced over to the rest of the squad as people started filing out of the room.
“Whaddya know? Looks like studying does work!” Ashido said as she showed off her test. A big ‘85%’ written in the corner.
“Heck yeah! Maybe we should do this more often!” Kirishima said. Kaminari peeked at his test and saw his score of 88%.
“Uhh, maybe a more casual version of what we did. I don’t think my brain could handle doing that every night,” Ashido countered.
“I don’t think any of us have the attention span for that tbh. And I’m more than happy with a B+,” Sero said.
“You idiots don’t have the attention span for anything,” Bakugo said. “Which is why it would be literal torture to keep babysitting your study sessions.”
“Aw, don’t be like that, Bakubro! The study bender helped you too! Looks like someone got a pretty good score.” Kirishima said. He pulled up Bakugo’s arm to show off his test: 94%.
“Get off me, Shitty Hair! I could do just fine without you. Hell, I probably would’ve done better. I only lost points on stupid little shit.” Bakugo turned to stuff his test into his backpack and spotted Kaminari bouncing on the balls of his feet. “Hey, Sparky, gimme that.” He said holding a hand out for Kaminari’s test.
“Ooo yeah I wanna see how you did, babes!” Ashido said excitedly.
Kaminari handed over his paper quickly. He was nervous for his friends’ reactions. They all did a lot better than him. Bakugo held the paper so they could all see. He opened his mouth to say something, but Kirishima was faster.
“OH MY GOD, DUDE!! THIS IS INSANE!!!” Kirishima stepped up to Kaminari and crushed him in a massive bear hug. “You killed it, man!”
“We are SO going out tomorrow. Kami Party time!”
“So proud of you, man! You deserve it!” Sero gave Kaminari a high-five once Kirishima finally put him down.
“Thanks guys! I mean, it’s not great, but I’m proud of myself I think!” Kaminari said with a tentative smile. He turned to Bakugo to thank him and take his test back, but paused at his expression. He stood staring coldly at the test he gripped in his hands. It looked like he would rip the paper in half any second.
“Damn right it’s not great. The fuck do you have to be proud of, huh?” Kaminari’s smile slid right off his face. The rest of the squad looked at Bakugo, confused. “You got a ‘C’. After all of that. HOURS of my time EVERY NIGHT for over a WEEK. Teaching you shit you should have learned a month ago.” Everyone who was still lingering in the classroom went quiet. “The BEST you could get was a ‘C’?! And this is after reading and rereading questions, going over every answer, and taking the ENTIRE GODDAMN CLASS PERIOD to finish?! Either I’m a shit tutor, or you really are fucking hopeless. And it looks like everyone else got pretty decent grades, so I guess we know which one of those statements is true.” Kaminari’s blood ran cold. When did the room get so small?
Bakugo stalked closer to Kaminari, the paper in his hand starting to smoke. “What a colossal waste of my time. Did you pay attention to a single thing I tried to explain to you? Or did it all just fall right out of your empty-ass head? We spent an hour and a half TWO DAYS AGO going over how to graph this! How the fuck are you still in this school?” Bakugo slammed the test down on the nearest desk. Kaminari flinched hard. He felt frozen in place. “Oh! You have dyslexia and ADHD and BLAH BLAH BLAH. What the fuck ever. You’d still be dumb as a bag of rocks without ‘I can’t read’ disease,” Bakugo mocked. Denki felt a tear roll down his face. What was happening? Why couldn’t he get himself to say anything?
“BAKUGO, WHAT THE FUCK?” Someone interrupted. Denki couldn’t tell who. As soon as Bakugo’s attention shifted off of him, he ran.
Somehow, without air in his lungs, Denki ran. Out of the classroom, down the hall, and into the nearest bathroom. He stumbled into the stall farthest from the door and sunk down against the wall. He couldn’t see. He kept wiping his eyes but the tears didn’t stop. He had never felt this way at UA. Only at home. His stepfather was going to find him. He tried his best on the test. He checked all his answers and read carefully, but it wasn’t enough. His best wasn’t enough.
Denki gasped. He kept gulping down air and coughing it back up. He was too stupid to even breathe correctly. Everything was so loud. He was being so loud. He was going to be found.
—--------------------
“BAKUGO. What the fuck is the matter with you?” Kirishima stepped in front of Bakugo before he was able to follow after Kaminari.
“MOVE ROCKS-FOR-BRAINS. Am I not allowed to be pissed that that dumbass used me and still ended up failing?”
“No, actually! You’re not allowed to be pissed at that!” Ashido stepped in. “First of all, he didn’t fail. And second of all, he didn’t ‘use you’.” She said in air quotes. “You inserted yourself as the leader of our study sessions of your own free will! All we asked was for you to join us, you’re the one who decided to play teacher.”
Before Bakugo could respond, the door to the classroom burst open. “I just saw Kaminari run into the bathroom sobbing. Does anyone know what’s going on?” Jirou stood in the doorway looking concerned.
Bakugo rolled his eyes. “Fuckin’ crybaby.”
Sero grabbed Kirishima’s shoulder and pulled him away from Bakugo. “Come on, man. We gotta find him.” Kirishima took a breath and nodded in agreement.
“This conversation isn’t fucking over, Bakugo.” Kirishima spat before running past Jirou and out the door.