Izuku watched as Aizawa slapped down a small stack of paper on the podium across from him. "Do you know the reason I asked you to stay here?"
Izuku nervously stared down at the papers as answers popped up in his head by the dozens. "Not really…"
Aizawa had asked him to stay after class right before lunch, but the reason was unclear. He's been doing everything correctly, like completing homework assignments, arriving at class on time, and excelling in his hero studies. What could he possibly be doing wrong?
"It's your homework assignments." Aizawa took his time to selectively pull out a few English worksheets to hand to Izuku. "Only English class."
Izuku scanned the worksheets and looked up in shock. How could he be failing English class if everything was completed? All the answers were written in their correct corresponding sections, so nothing should have been wrong. "B-But I've been completing everything!"
"Yes, that's true. However, it seems like you're just completing the assignment for the sake of it. You don't seem to grasp the rules that go along with learning new languages like grammar, punctuation, and vocabulary, just to name a few. Have you been studying English or have you been pushing it to the side?"
"Er... Pushing it to the side mostly... It's been difficult trying to finish all the homework assignments every night."
Aizawa let out a deep sigh and shuffled through some more papers before looking Izuku straight in the eyes. "Look, I know you're a smart kid and you can probably do everything yourself... But you can ask for help. It doesn't kill you. With that being said, you can thank one of your upperclassmen for volunteering to tutor you."
"A tutor?"
"You met her before." Aizawa waved towards the Class 1-A classroom door.
Izuku stared at the door curiously and watched as Nejire sauntered in through the entrance. Izuku's stomach buzzed around with nervousness as he made eye contact with her. "Uh... Maybe I don't need a tutor, Aizawa sensei. I think I can handle these assignments on my own-" Before Izuku could continue, Aizawa cut him off with a wave of his hand.
"Nope, too late. She graciously offered to help you out, so you're stuck with her until your grades improve. You're going to study with her every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday during lunch in this very classroom. And behave while she's around." Aizawa left the classroom, leaving the two of them behind.
Izuku stared at Nejire. He saw her before, but up close was a different story. Her silky periwinkle hair swirled behind her like a flag in the wind and her blue eyes shone like a bright star in the sky. Simply put, she was mesmerizing to look at.
"So... It looks like I'm your tutor starting tomorrow." Nejire watched as he continued staring at her. She waved his hand over Izuku's face and called out his name. "Hey, you there?"
"Oh, yeah!" Izuku shook his head and cleared his throat. "I spaced out for a bit, that's all…"
Nejire put a hand over her mouth and giggled. "Alright, introductions were easier than I thought it would be. And don't worry about a thing, I'll take good care of you, okay?"
"Alright, I'll try my best to learn quickly."
"See you tomorrow then! Make sure to be here on time!" Nejire waved goodbye to Izuku and exited the classroom.
"Yeah, see you!" Izuku rapidly blinked in confusion and replayed what she just said to him over and over. "Be here on time? But I'm in this classroom all day."
Izuku sighed and made his way to the cafeteria with mixed feelings as he thought about the events to come.
The next day, the period of tutoring slowly approached lunchtime. Izuku couldn't help but count every second leading up to the tutoring session. It was nerve-wracking to think Nejire was going to be the one teaching him.
Which begged the question, why wasn't Mirio, Tamaki, or even Yuyu his tutor? Weren't they more than adequate to teach him? And didn't they seem like better tutors? It made no sense why Aizawa chose Nejire to be his tutor. But as Izuku thought about those questions, lunchtime arrived.
"Izuku, are you going to eat lunch with us today?" Uraraka walked up to where Izuku was sitting, bringing him back to reality.
"Not today... My grades haven't been doing well, so Aizawa sensei assigned a tutor who's going to help me out on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays until my grades go up. It's unfortunate, but at the same time I guess I need it…"
"Oh, that seems to be it..." Uraraka frowned but understood that it was Aizawa's doing that he couldn't eat lunch with them. "Then I'll see you after lunch!" With a wave goodbye, she left the classroom with Tenya and Todoroki.
Izuku sighed and took out some of the English worksheets Aizawa had given him this morning that he had somehow failed before. He didn't want to admit he got some problems wrong, but the obvious need for a tutor proved him wrong. There was a lot to catch up on, but it was true he knew little about the English language. It was hard to learn another language as difficult as English. But with this under his belt, he could probably communicate with American heroes. That is if he ever met one.
As for the lunch problem, Kaminari had offered to bring his lunch to him. How he figured out that he was getting tutored was a mystery, but from what Izuku could gather, Nejire must have told him while she was waiting outside Class 1-A's classroom since he was trying to flirt with her. Or maybe Kaminari was an omniscient being.
Suddenly and slowly, the door to Class 1-A slid open and Nejire stepped in. With a curious expression and a glance around the room, her eyes settled on Izuku. A bright smile lit up her face as she made her way over to the desk next to him. She set her lunch tray down and scooted the desk over until she was right next to him. "Hello, student! Are you ready to learn from your tutor today!"
"Please don't call me that... Just Izuku is fine." Her presence alone made his heartbeat quicker, but with her so close to him, it made it so much worse.
"Okay, Izuku! Then let's get started! What do you need help with?" Nejire looked down at the papers scattered across his desk and picked one up.
"Aizawa sensei said it's all about my English assignments, so I'm guessing these are the worksheets he wants me to correct. There's a small stack of newly printed ones I have to fill out and submit to him too. The ones that are scattered on my desk are the ones that I failed before. It's true that I don't understand most of the material, but I was kind of hoping that by finishing the assignments it would help maintain my grade-"
"Hey, hey." Nejire tapped Izuku's shoulder a few times to cut him off from his muttering monologue. "Cool down for a hot few seconds. We just need to take this nice and easy. Just like ice!"
"Er... Interesting analogy."
Nejire smirked but didn't take her eyes off the paper. "Don't worry about a single thing! I'll teach you everything you need to know about English! And maybe some other questions you have about me or just about living life."
"Uh..." Izuku closed his mouth. Oddly enough, she was being really friendly, despite the limited time they spent with each other. In fact, he was expecting their first tutoring session to be awkward and silent.
Which happened as Nejire silently read the worksheet to herself. Izuku couldn't take his eyes off her as he gazed at her strikingly beautiful features, though he had no time to concentrate on that as she lowered the paper and looked at him. "Okay, so after reading this worksheet, it looks like Aizawa sensei wants you to understand what prepositions are. At least that's what this worksheet is about-"
"Heyo!" Kaminari slammed the door open, making both of them jump in fright. "I brought you your lunch, Izuku! And hi, Nejire! You're looking as cute as ever!"
Izuku stared at Kaminari in shock, and then back at Nejire. "You know Kaminari?"
"No, I've never met this boy in my life..." Nejire trailed off as she tilted her head in confusion until a light bulb lit above her head. "Oh, wait! I remember now! You're the kid who tried to shamelessly flirt with me yesterday!"
"Oh, haha. Very funny." Kaminari put Izuku's lunch tray down on a separate table next to Izuku and turned his head to look at Nejire. With his hand in a phone shape, he put it next to his ear and shook it. "Call me if you ever want someone to talk to! I'm always free and down to hang out with you!"
"Yeah, yeah. Now I have a student to teach so if you could kindly leave us alone." Nejire reminded as she rolled her eyes. However, a smile was present on her face.
"Okay, fine. No need to be so pushy." Before Kaminari left, he made a goofy face by sticking his tongue out at them.
Izuku watched as the door closed and the once loud room returned to being quiet. So his intuition was right about Kaminari flirting with Nejire.
"What a silly kid... So where were we?" Nejire looked down at the piece of paper she was holding. "Right! Prepositions! They're a bit confusing, but I'll make them simple and easy to understand! They're words that appear before pronouns or nouns that show how they relate to the rest of the sentence like at, near, into, through, or for. There's more of course, but that's the ones I could think off the top of my head!"
Nejire put the paper down on the desk and looked over at Izuku to see if he was paying attention, but he was just staring at her. She reached over and tapped his nose. "Boop."
Izuku shook his head to snap out of his intrusive thoughts. "Sorry... You were saying something about prepositions?"
"Is something on your mind?" Nejire rested her head on her hands and smiled. Her cute signature smile. "Maybe something you would like to tell me? Perhaps something along the lines of how I'm beautiful? Or cute?"
"What? Uh..." Izuku turned red as he pondered what to say next. Luckily, Nejire herself cut him off and rescued him from answering.
"Nah, it's okay. You don't have to tell me that! But what's on your mind that's distracting you from learning my English lessons?"
"Er… Let's see…" Izuku trailed off before deciding to speak his mind out. "Are you dating Kaminari?"
Nejire stared at Izuku before she burst out laughing, making him feel slightly ashamed that he had even asked that question. She wiped a tear of mirth away from her eye and picked the preposition worksheet back up. "Maybe you're the silly kid that I have to worry about." Nejire teased with a grin.
"Haha." Izuku laughed nervously. He should really stop worrying about something so small. After all, he earned himself a tutor with his poor grades. Might as well use it to his advantage.
"Hey, hey! We're running out of time!" Nejire bonked him on the head with his pencil a few times to get his attention. "We have a lot to cover if we want to get that grade of yours to rise above failing!"
"How much time do we have left?" Izuku glanced down at his phone and realized they had spent most of the time talking, despite the feeling that a short amount of time had passed.
"We have a lot to do, but you know what? Since this is your first day of getting tutored by your beautiful senpai, I'll cut you some slack! But on Thursday, let's get straight down to business." Nejire stood up from her seat and grabbed her lunch tray to take down to the cafeteria.
"Alright, thanks... But before you go, I wanted to ask you another question."
"Go on."
"Why are you my tutor? Not to be rude or anything, but weren't there some more adequate tutors available for me?"
"Why would you want a more adequate tutor when I'm the best one?" Nejire asked as she puffed her cheeks out and pouted.
Izuku waved his hands around in an apologetic fashion. "S-Sorry if I hurt your feelings! I just wanted to know!"
Nejire stared at him for a few more seconds with the same sulky expression before she giggled. "Well, here's the gist of it. Aizawa sensei came over to our classroom and announced that he needed a tutor to teach this special broccoli-haired kid, so I raised my hand up the quickest! And here we are! Besides, no one else raised their hand since they weren't too keen on teaching a hero who was failing a class."
"Ouch, that hurts…"
Nejire gave him a comforting smile and put her lunch tray back down. She walked over to where he was sitting and started tidying up the scattered papers on his desk into a neat pile. "But don't mind them. I'm here to help you with everything so if you ever need any help with anything else in your life, just ask me, alright? Heck, if you need a girlfriend, I can be there for you!"
"What?" Did Izuku hear her correctly? "W-What are you trying to say?"
Nejire winked at Izuku, picked her tray back up, and made her way to the Class 1-A class door. "Well, that's enough talking. Eat well student and see you Thursday!"
"Uh... Bye?" Izuku stared dumbstruck at the door closing as she went out.
He didn't know how long he was sitting there, but eventually, he snapped out of his stupor and looked down at the neat pile of worksheets sitting at the corner of his desk.
That was weird.
Izuku let out a breath of disbelief and shook his head. She was probably joking. It seemed like a part of her personality to mess around with others.
But maybe. Just maybe it wasn't that bad to have a tutor. In fact, he was looking forward to Thursday's tutoring session.
Author's Note: I am not dead, but where the heck do I begin?
I never expected my hiatus to go on this long, but here I am… I am sorry I didn't post anything despite you guys being excited about my next story, and now it feels like it's useless to post a new story. Let's keep this short and say I've knocked down by an uppercut from life. And it feels like everything I write is kinda forced, so if you don't enjoy this story, I guess that's fine. But hey, that's no reason for me to get depressed on you guys.
With that being said, I think I am semi-ready to start posting again! If things start going well for me again, I'll definitely post more and more content! I have some exciting stuff I want to upload that I have been working on for the past six months!
Also, I'm going to try posting content from other anime shows like Jujutsu Kaisen, so if you're a fan of that be on the lookout!
With that being said, bye from your favorite writer, Out4Lunch!