Considering how close it was to the end of the semester, Aoyama could understand the abrupt chaos that erupted in the classroom when Ectoplasm explained the requirements for their final mathematics project.

"Our what!?" Kaminari and Ashido screamed in unison, quickly shushed by Yaoyorozu and berated by Iida.

Among other things, there was a soft sigh from Ojiro, a 'kero' from Asui, though he wasn't sure what that meant in this situation, and a crude 'shit' from Jirou down the way, just loud enough for him to pick up. Deep down, Aoyama couldn't help but envy his more intelligent classmates in this unsightly scenario, particularly Bakugou, Midoriya, and Todoroki, who seemed to be listening with boredom, attentiveness, and indifference respectively.

"Listen closely." Ectoplasm spoke coolly over the classroom. "You will do all questions from pages 234 to 235, except for numbers 11 and 12, 29, and 36. You will have the entire weekend to complete this task." There were loud, painful and ugly groans from across the classroom as Ectoplasm continued. "Mathematics is exercise for the brain, just as P.E. is exercise for the body. As heroes, both your minds and bodies must be strong enough to take on the trials of day-to-day heroism. That way, you can overcome every challenge that comes your way."

Aoyama himself felt a surge of fear course through his beautiful veins. After all, his grades weren't exactly the best in the class.

"One other thing." Ectoplasm announced, and the room fell silent. Aoyama couldn't help but dread whatever might come next. What could he possibly have to add to this catastrophe?

"Another thing that heroes must understand is the importance of teamwork, and I am very well aware that some of you do NOT understand this concept." Half of the room suddenly erupted in uncontrollable giggling, and Aoyama had a feeling it had something to do with the hard stare that Ectoplasm had immediately thrown Bakugou's way.

Ectoplasm quickly cleared his throat as he gathered his things for the end of class, and the next sentence left the classroom in a state of madness. "Because of this, I have decided to have you all finish this assignment in pairs."

"YAOYOROZU!" Ashido screeched, waving wildly in the girl's direction. Yaoyorozu gave her a friendly smile, and Ashido was leaping over desks in order to rendezvous with her at her own desk. Kaminari went off in that direction as well in a quest to gain a competent partner.

Aoyama realized that he needed to act now if he wanted any hope in saving his math grade and passing for the semester. Turning to his immediate left, Ojiro was already looking over some of the problems with Shoji, as were Hagakure and Jirou. He might have tried to get to Midoriya on the other side of the room, but Tokoyami had already beaten him to it, and people seemed to already be talking to both Todoroki and Bakugou, so that was out. Directly behind him, Uraraka was already talking to Iida, so that wasn't an option-

Asui!

Expertly spinning around Ashido's empty desk, Aoyama maneuvered himself towards Asui, cutting himself in front of a frantic Kaminari. "Pardon, Mademoiselle, but would you be willing to partner with moi?~"

Asui blinked up at him. "Hmm. Sure. I don't mind." she croaked.

"What the hell, man!?" Kaminari shouted. "Where did you even come from?!"

"It's a secret~" Aoyama replied, placing his textbook on Asui's desk.

To be honest, Aoyama felt bad for him. Despite how nice and likable Kaminari was, people knew about his academic standing. Unless you knew what you were doing, partnering with someone with such destructive grades could be a suicide mission. Aoyama could at least say that he didn't have the worst grades in the class, even if he was still cutting it pretty close.

And looking at the classroom now, Kaminari's options were dwindling quickly. Mineta was needlessly bothering Ashido and Yaoyorozu while Satou was talking with Todoroki. Kirishima and Sero were both trying to get Bakugou to pair with them.

Aoyama would later overhear that several classmates, mostly people with average grades and including most of the people still pairing up, had directly turned Kaminari down. Again, Aoyama felt bad, but he also wanted decent grades, so he did his best to ignore the near hopeless look on Kaminari's face as he seemed to accept that whoever ended up stuck with him was probably gonna fail, which would simply end with Kaminari failing math, so it was pointless anyway.

How sad...

"Yo, Sparky!"

Kaminari's head snapped around at a speed that left Aoyama's neck feeling sore. Kaminari's eyes widened as Bakugou impatiently motioned towards his desk.

Apparently, Aoyama noted in surprise, Sero had decided to work with Mineta while Kirishima went to a somewhat lonely Kouda, who seemed to light up at Kirishima's arrival. But something wasn't quite adding up to Aoyama. To be fair to Mineta and Kouda, their grades were decent, being ninth and eleventh respectively. However, Bakugou was in the top three in academics, and he seemed to tolerate both of them well enough. Why had they given up?

Or had he told them to do so?

Either Bakugou was so cocky that he knew that Kaminari's shortcomings wouldn't hurt his grades or Aoyama was completely missing something. Something told him that it was a little bit of both.

"What are you fucking doing just standing there, you moron?!" Bakugou snapped. "Come 'ere!"

Kaminari's eyes glistened with tears of relief and joy as he scurried over desks and chairs to get across the room to the salvation of his chances of achieving a passing grade. "You're the best, man, you know that!?" Kaminari cried. "The absolute greatest!"

"Course I am." Bakugou mumbled in response, slamming his textbook onto his desk and ripping it open with far more violence than necessary.

"Aoyama?" Asui suddenly interrupted his thoughts. "We should get started on this assignment before our next class. The sooner the better, kero."

"Oh, right. Oui. Shall we get started, then~?"

It would be the next Monday evening when Aoyama would overhear Kaminari and Ashido bragging to Kirishima and Sero about being among the highest-scoring pairs as if they earned their grades themselves while Bakugou sat to the side constantly rolling his eyes at them. And if Bakugou gave Kaminari a smirk upon making eye contact, Aoyama probably imagined it.