Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 17: Research

Izuku had spent the entire day so far researching online schools while Mom was at work. She'd tried to stay home, but she'd had to leave early yesterday because Izuku was too useless to stay out of trouble, so Izuku wasn't about to make her miss work again , just so he wouldn't be alone. Thankfully, she'd listened when he pointed out that he wouldn't be doing anything besides sitting on the couch all day, which he didn't need two arms for anyway, and she'd left after she made him promise to keep the door locked. He was just happy that he wasn't holding her back.

In any case, if he was able to transfer to online school, he'd have to get used to being home alone during the day, since Mom obviously couldn't afford to quit her job. There weren't that many online schools, and those that did exist were mostly some sort of mixed format where students still had to show up once a week. That would probably be better than going back to Aldera, since he would only have to deal with bullies occasionally, rather than everyday, but something told him Mom wouldn't see it that way.

The whole point of him going to an online school was so that he wouldn't have to deal with having classmates, so if he still had to attend classes, even infrequently, Mom would worry about how he was being treated. Izuku hated it when Mom had to worry about him. She didn't deserve having a garbage son like him, she deserved a son she could be proud of, a son with a quirk.

But that wasn't going to happen, so it was Izuku's responsibility to make sure she worried as little as possible. That meant that he couldn't just put up with weekly bullying, since Mom might not believe him if he lied and said his classmates were being nice. That left him to find a school that was entirely online. There were only two schools that did not require in-person attendance. One of them seemed almost like a traditional school, where students showed up in video-chat classrooms at set times and turned in homework every day just like Izuku was used to at Aldera. There were two problems with that school, however. The first was that it seemed to include group projects, which might lead to Izuku being left out at best and cyberbullied at worst. The second was that it only accepted new students at the beginning of the semester, which meant that Izuku would have to stay at Aldera for several months until he was able to transfer. He couldn't do that to Mom.

That left Izuku with his final, and only, option. It apparently had options for everything from grade school until the end of high school and was entirely remote. According to their website, Izuku would just read articles and watch lectures associated with each lesson, then take tests and do assignments to test his learning. He would be able to work at his own pace, so he wouldn't have to worry about how stupid he was, he could just go slower than average. He did have to complete each semester class within six months, but that sounded like something he could handle. And Mom wouldn't have to worry about him having classmates that would bully him!

There was only one problem. He would have to pass an entrance exam.

He could take it at any time, so he wouldn't have to worry about going back to Aldera while he waited for the new semester to start, but...was Izuku really smart enough to pass? Kacchan didn't even get straight A's and he was so much smarter than Izuku! What if he took the test and didn't pass? Would he have to go back to Aldera? Mom would be so disappointed! He really was the worst son, wasn't he?

He ignored the voice in his head that said that Eraserhead thought he was smart. Eraser had just been being polite when he saw Izuku's notebook, there was no way he actually thought Izuku was intelligent. But Eraser wasn't worried about being polite, so he could be telling the truth...

Izuku shook his head. That was too confusing. It was just easier to firmly remind himself that he was an idiot, just like Kacchan and his teachers always said, and leave it at that. That way he wouldn't get his hopes up. When he inevitably failed out at the entrance exam, it would still hurt and Mom would still be worried, but at least he would already be expecting it. It was for the best.