Chapter Text
The students fidgeted in their seats as Aizawa shuffled up to the podium. He was carrying a thick stack of papers, and looked even more tired than usual. Something must be up.
Either that or he was up all night grading papers and forgot to grab a coffee, but either way, none of the students were willing to push it until they knew what was going on.
Aizawa slapped the papers down on the table, making the students jump. “Good morning, class. Thank you for being in your seats on time.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, you’re going to be getting out of them in a second.” He picked up the top sheet of paper and held it up for everyone to see. “Today, we’re changing up the seating assignments. No switching, and no complaining; these seats were chosen based on knowledge of your behavior in the classroom, as well as a few personal accommodations. If we find that we need to adjust things further in a week or two, we may consider it. Until then,” he handed the stack over to Hagakure, “This is your new seating assignment. Take one, pass it down, and don’t lose it. Once you’ve gotten your copy of the new chart, pick up your things and switch.”
The classroom exploded into activity, the more energetic students moving first while the calmer ones waited for the room to quiet down. A few minutes (and one or two bruised elbows) later, the classroom was almost completely rearranged. Not everyone was being relocated—there were some, such as Bakugo and Asui, who had been left in their original positions—but for those who were, the change was significant. Some students were moved to the front; others to the back. Midoriya and Kirishima’s places were swapped, and various other students were shuffled around to accommodate the changes.
The end result was that Uraraka, Iida, and Todoroki were now in the first two rows, where they could see the board and hear the teacher more clearly, Shoji was moved to the back of the classroom, where his bulky frame would no longer block Jirou from being able to see the board, and Midoriya was no longer directly behind Bakugo’s back—a state of affairs that would probably help both of them to focus better in the long run.
All in all, it was a decent switch up. Whether it worked well or not remained to be seen, but as he looked over the modified classroom, Aizawa found himself satisfied with what he was seeing.
~Three days earlier~
”Preferential seating?” Uraraka blinked. “What do you mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like,” Aizawa said. “We’re moving you to a new seat, one where you should be able to hear better, or at least follow visual cues. It’s a basic accommodation that’s given to all hard of hearing students.”
She frowned. “What’s wrong with the seat I have already? I like it there.”
He sighed. ”Well, let’s see. Right now, you’re sitting all the way in the back corner of the room. You’re behind several students who are taller than you, and in a position where the sound is likely to bounce off the wall. You are, quite literally, in the worst spot for a hard of hearing person in the entire classroom. Frankly, if we’d known you had a hearing problem, we’d never have placed you back there in the first place.”
She swallowed. “But sensei, somebody’s gotta sit back there. And besides, I- I’m not so sure I want to sit in the front. I don’t want everyone staring at the back of my head, you know?”
Aizawa huffed. “You don’t have to sit in the front to sit in a better location.”
“I guess that’s true.” Her face scrunched a little in thought. Eventually her shoulders slumped and she gave a little sigh. “I guess I can move if you really think I need to. It’s just, I—well…”
Heaven save him from teenage awkwardness. “Spit it out, Uraraka-san.”
”I don’t feel like I hear bad enough, sensei!” She blurted.
He raised an eyebrow. “Come again?”
Uraraka ran a hand down her face. “That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?” She sighed. “I just- I know what my audiogram says, and I know we even confirmed it with that second hearing test, but I don’t really feel hard of hearing, you know? It just seems like a lot of fuss to go to the trouble of changing the whole room around just because I have a little trouble when it’s noisy.” And I don’t know if I want the attention that comes from suddenly changing seats out of the blue.
The eyebrow went up a little higher. “And who says we’re changing it around just for you?”
She blinked at him. “You mean you’re not?”
He snorted. “Your seating assignment is a part of what sparked it, but once I got started, I noticed a good number of little details that needed to be changed. By the time I was done, I found that nearly two thirds of the class needed to be shifted around for one reason or another.” He shot her a wry look. “Don’t worry; you’re not the only one who’s switching seats. No one’s gonna single you out—they’ll all be too busy trying to figure out why their seats were switched to bother.”
She giggled and glanced to the side. “It was that obvious, huh?”
He snorted. “Only to someone who knows you.”
~Now~
Uraraka still wasn’t sure if this was really necessary, but she had to admit, it was easier to follow what was going on in the classroom. Having most of the class behind her, she could actually hear them when they talked, instead of the conversations being pushed away from her all the time. It didn’t make a huge difference in how much she could hear the teacher, but she found that she could focus better because she didn’t have to look over four other people’s heads to be able to see.
And okay, yes, maybe she also didn’t have to focus quite as hard to follow what the teacher was saying.
That still didn’t mean she needed it.