"Miss much more, and I'll expel you. I know your situation, but that won't stop me."
"I…know. Sorry. Really."
Senji stood in the entrance of their new school, shrinking under the lecture from their homeroom teacher and legal guardian. They had missed nearly two weeks of the start of the semester, getting sick and wrapped up in job-related things. Money was getting tight, and with the stress Senji's other bad habits were ramping up. Aizawa noted the bags under Senji's eyes, sighed, and sent them off to class.
The school campus was much larger than the middle school Senji had attended. They managed to find their classroom, and after a moment of preparation entered the room. Thankfully the rest of the class was pretty lively in whatever they were discussing. A tall student in glasses acknowledged Senji and directed them to their assigned seat. They had missed class introductions and all that first day stuff, which was a plus. They had also missed a lot of school, and that was sure to draw attention once the other students noticed Senji's sudden appearance. Thinking about this managed to keep them from thinking about who was seated directly behind them, for the moment at least.
Class started shortly after, with Aizawa briefly introducing Senji and stating that they were in a special program with UA. The class was instructed to suit up and head to one of the training areas. Senji waited awkwardly outside while the others got changed, not needing to do so. One of the girls came out of the room, and quickly eyed Senji up and down.
"Hey, you're in a special program, right?," the bubbly girl asked. Senji momentarily froze up at the sudden interaction.
"Uh, y-yeah. Sorry, I don't know anyone's names," Senji trailed off, hoping the girl would offer an introduction.
"Oh, right! I'm Mina Ashido," the girl happily offered her name. Senji quickly noted her appearance, pinkish hair and skin with dark eyes. "Wow, there sure are a lot of cute boys in our class."
"Hm?," Senji raised an eyebrow, not particularly interested in this subject. Thankfully, or maybe not, a familiar ex-classmate interrupted the two before the girl could elaborate.
"O-oh. Hello, um," the freckled boy stuttered. He recognized Senji, but couldn't seem to recall their name. The other students were filing out of the changing rooms, and started heading toward the training area. The other ex-classmate shouted something at the pair as he shuffled by.
"Let's catch up while we walk, yeah?," Senji offered, both relieved and struck by a new wave of anxiety. They struggled to recall the boy's name, too.
"Sorry, I'm not the best with names."
"Midoriya Izuku! But most call me Deku," he answered a little too fast. The nickname sounded more familiar to Senji.
"Like the tree in Zelda?," Senji tried to make an association so they'd remember the name. The boy was obviously confused by the reference, though. "Um, I go by Senji I guess."
"R-right. I guess your last name would be a little weird to use, with our teacher being Eraserhead?," Deku just dropping hero names through Senji off for a moment.
"Yeah, a little," Senji laughed nervously and the two grouped up with the other students. Some sort of assignment was explained, and the students were split off into pairs. Deku's group was one of the first to go, which left Senji without any familiar people to talk to.
"So, you're in some special new program right?," another new classmate had shuffled over and initiated conversation. There was a screen displaying the activities of the two active groups for the students to watch. Senji kept their attention mostly on the screen, but glanced at the talkative classmates.
"Yeah. It's more of a medical-focused study," Senji answered their question without much thought. There were two idiots fighting on the screen, a frustratingly similar scene for Senji. This time though, Deku was standing up for himself a little better. And Senji was curious to see how he'd gotten into UA when he was supposedly quirkless before.
"So you know those two from middle school?," a red-haired boy had joined the conversation. Senji saw him chatting with her less than friendly acquaintance earlier.
"You could say that, I guess."
"You guess?," this time, another blonde dude. His outfit was sort of flashy, but in a dorky way.
"We went to the same middle school, but I didn't talk to those two much."
"Makes sense, if Bakugo's been like that the whole time," the two boys laughed a little at that remark.
"Yeah, I mostly avoided him. Had a few fights though," Senji blurted the last part out and instantly regretted it. The small group around them had gotten super interested at that part. Senji ended up missing most of the next few rounds of student training, trapped in the increasingly lively conversation. Aizawa, or pro hero Eraserhead, rescued them by instructing them to visit the medical station. Their special program instruction was starting now, with the injuries the training students had managed to get.
They were nagged a little by the school nurse, and pro hero Recovery Girl, before being set to work treating minor injuries. It was only then that Senji noticed Deku's rather severe injuries. Bakugo had a few scrapes, and stormed off before Senji had to deal with him. Once the others were handled, Recovery Girl sat down to observe Deku's condition. He had passed out, but his injuries were easily treated with her quirk. Recovery Girl gave a brief explanation of his quirk, and the drawbacks. It was a powerful one, similar to that of All Might. But it's power was often too strong for the boy, so he wound up in the nurse's station quite a bit. Senji made note of that information, and promised to keep things confidential about student information. They checked on Deku, and another teacher had come to check in on him. This teacher looked to be in pretty rough condition, health-wise, but Senji was pretty sure of their identity. Senji was dismissed and sent back to class, where they ended up drifting off more than once.