A/N: My car literally just died, what a depressing start to the morning. Boohoo. Here's the third chapter because if it makes others happy well at least that'll make me a little happy

Three
When Girls Gossip

The chance to talk later did not come around. Their classes had been particularly demanding that day and the section they started reviewing in the new unit—in depth female and male anatomy—was especially embarrassing. Everyone in the class seemed to be affected by the awkward subject, all except maybe Bakugo who for all intents and purposes really didn't appear to care in the slightest. Mineta was the other exception, in that he seemed far too interested in the subject material.

After class had finished, Deku, Shoto, and Bakugo were off to their work studies with Endeavor, while Ochako went to hers. In the back of her mind she knew that Deku likely wouldn't return to the dorm tonight since Endeavor's agency had its own built in sleeping quarters. Tomorrow he and the others would come in for a half day due to their work study…she knew she'd not see him until tomorrow and more so than that, she knew she wouldn't be able to have any sort of real conversation with him until after class tomorrow and even then he might have more work study work to do.

She had been briefly stopped by Aoyama who'd wanted to discuss The Wizard of Oz with her, much to her horror. She knew next to nothing of the book and any similarities it had with the film, which she also hardly remembered. Thankfully, Aoyama had let her go when she'd said she had to get to her work study, but she knew that she'd get cornered by him again. Ochako was going to have to dedicate an evening to the books Wikipedia page later on.

All through her work study that evening, Ochako felt distracted and slow to respond. Thankfully, they weren't doing anything that required laser point focus, but still, her inability to focus was bothersome to her.

At last, at the end of the day she, Tsu, and Nejire were all changing out of their hero attire and back into school uniforms, did Ochako feel like she was starting to focus a bit better. Her mind was still focused on the day's earlier events and the events of yesterday as well. As she slid out of her costume and started absently buttoning up her blouse, did she register that Tsu had asked her a question.

"What?" She asked blankly.

Tsu gave her a quizzical look and tilted her head to the side. "What's up with you today, Ochako? Ribbit."

Ochako felt a blush rise to her cheeks and swiftly shook her head trying to redirect saying, "Oh nothing! Nothing! Everything is fine, I'm just uh, flustered by the new health unit that we're doing!" Tsu gave her a skeptical look in response.

Nejire suddenly inserted herself into the conversation. "Hey, hey! Are you talking about the super awkward sex ed unit they make you do in first year? I remember that! What do you think about it?" She asked, stopping mid removal of her costume to come over and look at the two younger girls.

"Uh, yeah…I'm guessing that means you had something like that too in your first year?" Ochako asked with a blush and looked away from Nejire's mostly naked form. She quite liked Nejire, but her sometimes ditzy inquisitiveness was not only intrusive but overbearing. It didn't matter if Nejire was stark naked and in front of a boy, if she heard something that she didn't know or that made her curious she would insert herself into whatever it was and have her curiosity sated.

"Yeah! It was a long time ago though, but I remember almost everyone in class being very uncomfortable about it. Poor Amajiki was so gloomy during the entire unit that he hardly talked to anyone. Even to Togata!" Nejire exclaimed and raised a finger to her lip, quizzically.

"We just started it, ribbit. Nobody seems to be excited about it except maybe Mineta," mused Tsu as she started to slide into her skirt and apply her stockings.

"Oh hey hey! I know him! He's the one they call Grape Juice!" Nejire exclaimed, clearly pleased with herself for remembering someone she'd only met in passing.

"He's kind of a pervert, ribbit," Tsu stated in a very matter-o-fact way.

"Every class has one!" Nejire smiled then returned to getting dressed herself.

"Are you sure that's it, Ochako? You seemed kind of flustered this morning, ribbit."

Ochako dropped the shoe she was about to slip on. Oh great, she remembered. I knew someone had to notice. What do I say? She thought to herself nervously as she sloppily grabbed her shoe and tried to get her foot into it.

"Hey hey! You missed your tights Uravity. Do you really want to put on your shoes without your leggings on?" Nejire pointed out, making Ochako blush.

"Oh, right," she mumbled in response and dropped the shoe again and hastily began digging through her bag to get her stockings out and on.

"Ochako," Tsu said softly and crouched down next to her clearly flustered friend. "Are you okay? Ribbit."

Her hands were shaking as she slid on her tights, which she desperately hoped that Tsu didn't notice. "Of course I am! It was just that lesson they went over!" Stockings on, she rushed putting her shoes on again, dropping one in the process.

Suddenly Nejire was in her face, pointedly looking at her. "Uravity I think Tsu is right. I think something's up with you. What's up with you?"

"It's nothing!" Ochako snapped but instantly regretted the sharpness of her words. She sighed, "I'm sorry…it's just with that stupid sex education stuff and something embarrassing that happened yesterday with Deku that I feel off."

Tsu was quiet but Nejire practically squealed in delight. "Oh with Deku?! What happened? Oh look at your face, it's getting all red! Do you like him? Does he like you?" She asked gleefully. She still wasn't fully dressed and was crouched at Ochako's side, her head tilted to once side expectantly.

"NO! No, I do not like him! There was just this thing with Ashido at school yesterday where she pulled up my shirt in front of Deku and Kirishima and it was embarrassing! That's all!" Ochako explained nervously, half covering her red face with her hands. She was in real danger of nervously activating her quirk and starting to float away.

"Who's Ashido? Do I know her?" Nejire inquired.

"She's one of our classmates, ribbit," Tsu supplied, "is that what you and Deku were talking about this morning before class?"

"Oh oh! You were talking together, alone before class?! Are you sure you don't like him?" That did it. Ochako let out a little "eek" and then inadvertently began floating up and away from the two girls.

She floated upside down and squeezed her eyes shut, willing the moment to pass, though she knew that Tsu and Nejire would still be there, waiting for her to explain her behavior.

Great, I really did it this time. Now they definitely know that something is up, she thought to herself while she floated. She suddenly felt something warm and damp wrap around one of her ankles, tugging her upright and back down to the ground. Guess I can always count on Tsu to prevent me from floating away. I really need to work on my quirk activating and floating up and away when I get embarrassed, Ochako thought worriedly as she was tugged back down.

"Got you, ribbit," Tsu said just as Ochako became weighted again and landed on her backside with a gentle thud.

"Did I make you float away? Sorry Uravity, I just wanted to know about what's bothering you," Nejire said with a smile once Ochako opened her eyes to see the periwinkle haired girl looking at her.

"It's okay…" Ochako started but paused. What did she tell them? That she was so concerned about embarrassing Deku that she went uninvited to his dorm room and walked in on him masturbating? No, better to keep it short and cut out that part. "I was just worried that by having myself accidentally exposed that I'd embarrassed him or made things, well, weird between us. He's my friend so I didn't want that so we just talked about that this morning because I think he'd been avoiding me all yesterday. I wanted to…uh, er, clear the air. Yeah, I wanted to clear the air."

"Clear the air? That makes sense!" Nejire nodded and stood back up to resume getting dressed. All this time and she'd only managed exchange her sports bra for her actual bra. She really was easily distracted. "But Ochako, if you did like him, I bet that would be okay! It's okay to like somebody! Friends can like each other too," Nejire said with a soft smile. Ochako briefly wondered if she was alluding to personal experience and her thoughts drifted to both Togata and Amajiki.

"Nejire is right, ribbit. It'd be okay if you liked him or anyone for that matter…except maybe Mineta, ribbit," Tsu added with a wrinkled nose at the thought of Mineta. Ochako laughed at that.

"I know, but we're just friends," she asserted but even as she said it and tried to make it as convincing as possible, some small part of her whispered "liar".

I'm not lying. We are just friends. I am not lying…right?

A few hours later, Ochako and Tsu were piled into Momo's room, spread over her enormous bed. Mina, Hagakure, and Jiro were also there. Some books and other various study materials were spread like a smorgasbord over the bed as well. Momo was leading a study group, or perhaps a more apt term was gossiping group.

The girls usually gathered a few times a week or more to study and spend time with one another. That had become harder recently with the work studies, some of their study sessions became more of social catch up sessions for them. While they did complete studying and homework, they also caught up on gossip and girl talk.

Thankfully Ochako's recent adventures with Deku were not on the menu. Instead, it seemed to be all about all the girls—aside from she and Tsu and maybe Jiro too—crush's on Shoto Todoroki. It seemed that most of the girls were smitten with the two toned boy. In all honesty, Ochako wasn't entirely sure why. Sure he was very pleasant to look at, but she found him to be a bit cold and closed off for her to want to fawn over him. His quirk was impressive and he was pretty but aside from that, she liked Todoroki as a classmate and friend and nothing more.

"He's just so thoughtful! I dopped my book the other day and he picked it up for me without hesitation!" Hagakure exclaimed gleefully.

"I'm not sure that counts as anything other than being polite," Jiro countered as she twisted one of her long ear lobes around her finger. Ochako snuck a glance at her and wondered if she too had a crush on their classmate. All of them had admitted to thinking he was extremely attractive, but Jiro wasn't one to swoon over him like Mina, Hagakure, and Momo. In fact, she was more often quieter in their group conversations than she and Tsu were. Always on her phone, in fact. Who are you on the phone with, she wondered to herself before dismissing the thought and assuming that she was probably composing music or doing something music related.

"Oh come on Jiro! Has he ever picked up a book for you?" Hagakure asked in annoyance.

"No, but I can't remember ever dropping one near him," she quipped.

"Besides, Kaminari would probably be there picking it up for you, right?" Mina teased with a mischievous look.

"Pfft, no," muttered Jiro mostly to herself and looked away.

"Shouldn't we be studying, ribbit?" Tsu asked as she flipped through the pages of her study book. "I keep getting the seminal vesicles and vas deferens mixed up."

"They'll be plenty of time to learn that later," Mina said with a smile and rolled onto her back. She stretched languidly and said, "I want to talk more about Todoroki."

"Why? He doesn't seem to notice that we exist!" Protested Hagakure.

"Well in your case Hagakure, you are invisible," Mina pointed out.

Hagakure gave a frustrated sigh. "You know what I mean!"

"I think Tsu is right and that we should focus on studying. This is a lot of information to memorize," Momo said softly as she too looked through her notebook.

"You're just being all serious because you've got a big old crush on him and don't know how to ask him out!" Mina giggled.

"No! I am simply saying that it would be in our best interests if we assimilated this information now instead of leaving it for the last minute," Momo defended, though there was the beginnings of a clear blush on her cheeks.

"So serious!" Hagakure chided.

"I'm simply saying that—" Momo began only to be cut off by Mina.

"You just have to be direct Momo. Like tell him that he's hot and you want to go out!"

"And how well did that work out for you, Ashdio?" Jiro chirped with a side glance at the wild haired pink girl.

"Oh shut up! So it didn't go the way I wanted it to…at least I did it," Mina snapped back defensively.

"You asked him if he wanted to go to out sometime and he asked you why you wanted him to go outside. You're clearly not even on his radar," Jiro said with a devious expression on her face as she continued to twist her earlobe round and round her finger.

"Yeah, okay…so you're just going to have to be more direct, Momo. Tell him he's hot and that you'd like to have a date with him!" Mina suggested with renewed vigor.

"He'd probably take the date part literally and ask you which date you meant," huffed Hagakure.

"He's not stupid! He'll know," Mina argued.

"Ladies please! Let's just do some actual studying, please," Momo sighed.

Ochako saw the blush in Momo's cheeks and wondered if she too felt flustered and hot when it came to Todoroki like when she thought about Deku. Her eyes widened at that thought and she let out a little squeak that drew the attention of the other girls.

"What was that Ochako?" Asked Mina curiously, moving to her belly and perched on her elbows to look at her.

"Oh, nothing!" Ochako said too quickly for anyone to overlook.

Jiro raised an eyebrow at her, her attention no longer on her phone. "What was up with you and Midoriya today?"

"Yeah, you were like shouting something. Were you fighting?" Hagakure asked.

"Bakugo bumped into him and then he ran out of the classroom saying he had to go to the bathroom. It was a bit odd, I agree," Momo recalled and also shot Ochako a curious look.

"Then you just rushed right out after him, huh? Wonder what that was about," Mina said with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

Not good, she thought to herself and realized she was once again at great risk of accidentally activating her quirk. Then they'd all know that something was indeed up. Just breathe deeply, Ochako, in and out, in and out.

"Well if you hadn't made it weird by basically flashing him yesterday I wouldn't have had to go talk to him!" Ochako blurted out. The other girls' eyes widened.

"No way," Jiro said dropping her earlobe.

"For real?" Hagakure exclaimed.

"You flashed him, Mina?" Momo asked.

"I did not flash him. I pulled up Uravity's shirt to show off her abs since she was being a badass and Deku got stuck staring at her. That is what I did. It was Midoriya who couldn't stop looking at her," Mina explained as if it was the most casual thing in the world.

The conversation turned back to Ochako.

Thinking fast, she replied with the first thing that came to her mind. "It wasn't just Deku; Kirishima was there too. It was embarrassing for everybody and awkward enough for Deku that I wanted to apologize to him about. That's what I was doing this morning." Hopefully her hastily put together distraction would be enough to redirect the conversation.

"Kirishima was there too?" Momo asked.

"That seems kind of rude, Ahsido," Jiro admitted with a glance at the pink haired girl.

Ochako felt a wave of relief wash over her. The conversation had been successfully redirected…until Hagakure spoke. "What did Kirishima do when that happened?"

"He didn't stare like Midoriya did," Mina replied without missing a beat. The girls all directed their attention back at Ochako who felt her heart skip a beat.

This is bad! I need to get them to think about something else but if I change the subject now they'll know something is up, she thought to herself in a panic. Again, she felt like she was getting very near accidentally activating her quirk and becoming weightless.

Thankfully, Tsu came to her rescue. "That seems weird, ribbit. Why would Midoriya stare and not Kirishima? He did see it happen, right?"

Mina sat up and glared at Tsu. "Of course he saw! He just wasn't gaga eyed for it like Midoriya was."

Something in the way Ashido brushed Kirishima's presence off struck Ochako as odd. She seemed very intent to brush over his presence. Perhaps she should dig deeper into that.

"If I remember correctly, he looked at me for maybe a second and then looked at you, Mina," Ochako pointed out.

"So?"

"So…while Deku might've been looking at me, Kirishima was staring at you," Ochako said triumphantly as she saw Mina's face shift slightly and the tiniest of blushes form on her already pink skin, "why would he do that when you were making a point of showing off my bare skin?"

"Kirishima was staring at you?" Jiro asked, now shooting Mina a suspicious look.

"He does look at you more often than not when we're in class," Momo mused.

"Does he? I never noticed! Tomorrow in class I'm going to have to watch for it," Hagakure exclaimed in surprise.

"Didn't you two go to middle school together, ribbit?"

Now a true blush colored Mina's cheeks as she clearly struggled to come up with some sort of response. "We did, yeah, but so what? He looked at me, doesn't mean he's into me or anything. So we knew each other before, doesn't mean we're dating or anything."

"So, there's nothing going on?" Jiro asked, a sly smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.

"You mean like there's nothing going on with you and Kaminari? No! There is nothing going on between Kirishima and I!" Mina protested angrily. However, the growing blush on her cheeks told a different story.

"Hey, don't pull bolts for brains into this. Just because he's an idiot who I've pointed that out to multiple times before doesn't mean there's something going on between us. Besides, he's too busy leching around with Mineta anyway," Jiro snapped back.

The atmosphere had changed quite a bit, going from playful girl talk to charged bitchiness. It was time to call it a night.

"I'm sorry I brought it up. I didn't mean to upset you…let's just call it a night for tonight," Ochako said with mock frustration. Secretly, she was extremely pleased that Mina had taken the Kirishima bait hook line and sinker.

"I agree with Ochako, ribbit," Tsu agreed.

"Alright, we'll have to do some more studying tomorrow, and by studying I mean actual studying," Momo said with a sigh.

Slowly the girls gathered up their belongings and headed their separate ways. Considering that Mina was on the same floor as Ochako was, the two shared a somewhat awkward walk back to their respective rooms.

Just as they stepped off the stairs, Mina stopped and said, "That was low bringing Kirishima into the convo."

Ochako stopped and looked at Mina's downturned mouth and her narrowed eyes. She really did appear to be upset that Ochako had brought him up. Filing that away for further analysis, she said, "I'm sorry Mina, just you bringing up Deku and the whole flashing thing, it made me very uncomfortable. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings though." She bowed a little in apology.

Mina sighed and started walking toward her dorm. "Yeah, yeah," she stopped and looked pointedly at Ochako and said, "there isn't anything going on between Kirishima and I. We went to middle school together and that's it. If there was, I would've said something because he is hot."

Ochako snorted in disbelief at Mina's boldness. If only she could find such boldness.

"In his own strange plain way, I guess Deku's kind of hot too," Mina mused with a naughty grin and wink in Ochako's direction, "Night Ochako." She left Ochako standing alone in the hall, feeling very flustered.

She thinks Deku is hot? Wait, does she think that or did she say that just to mess with me? Why do I even care? What is wrong with me? Her thoughts were full of angsty adolescent turmoil as she managed to break out of her stand still and walk to her own room. She didn't bother to turn the lights on once she was inside, instead sinking down along the door and land in a slump on the floor.

She sat there, brooding to herself about the day and about the girl time they'd had which had turned out to be awful. What a day.

"Get it together, Uraraka," she whispered to herself and pulled her legs up to her chest, to cradle herself. Why was being a teenager so hard?

There was a buzz in her pocket then and she reluctantly pulled out her phone to see who was messaging her. It was probably Tsu checking in or maybe one of her parents. She flipped open her phone and dropped it when her eyes read who the message was from. The message was from Deku!

Her heart suddenly beating a mile a minute, she groped for her phone and accidentally dropped it once, twice, a third time, excitedly activated her quirk and made it weightless and watched in fury as it began to float away from her. "Release," she practically snarled and caught the phone as it fell.

She opened the phone and saw two messages from Deku. One was an image of him smiling along with an enraged looking Bakugo and a tight-lipped looking Todoroki. She could vaguely make out what looked like something flaming in the distance and assumed that that was probably Endeavor in the distance. The second message was just text and read:

"Sorry we didn't get to talk today, assuming you wanted to talk, that is. I hope you had a good evening, Uraraka. I'll see you tomorrow!"

She could practically hear his voice reading the lines to her as her heart hammered excitedly in her chest. Calm down, calm down. It's just a text message and just Deku being Deku, she thought to herself though she couldn't help the smile that was tugging at her lips. He'd texted her, that meant that he'd thought of her! In fact, he'd thought of her enough to take a selfie with murdery Bakugo, and Todoroki to boot! Would they talk tomorrow? Did he want to talk? Did she want to talk tomorrow?

The more she thought about it the more excited and nervous she became. It was the only thing on her mind as she changed into her pajamas and got into bed. What would they talk about? What was there to talk about? Maybe about how her heart had started to beat alarmingly fast when she thought about him…no, that wasn't a subject to bring up.

As she lay in bed, she remembered Nejire's and Tsu's words, it'd be okay if you did like him and not for the first time since coming to UA, she wondered if he might think it was okay if she liked him too.