The first day of school fell on the anniversary of my parents' deaths. The newspapers always ran a story about them on the anniversary. My parents had killed hundreds of people, my mother used them in twisted experiments, my dad was just the muscle to help her when things got rough. His quirk had been an earth style quirk, like mine. My mother's quirk was the ability to fuse cells of other living things and she used it to create freakish monsters, fusing them together to try and make better beings. Detective Tsukauchi had to leave early and apologized profusely for not being able to drive me on my first day of school.

               I made it to school without incident. A few students were discussing the anniversary of my parents' deaths, the end to the era of terror, the end of Mad Scientist Rayne. My nerves got the better of me as I picked up on their conversation and I hurriedly ducked into the girls' restroom. Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to enroll in a hero academy, but I wanted to be a hero, I wanted to save lives to try and atone for all the lives that had been lost due to my ignorance. I should have known they'd discuss villains more than at other schools, it was only natural, studying villains was probably part of the curriculum. 

               My hands trembled as I reached for the faucet and turned on the cool water before splashing some on my face. I took a deep breath in an attempt to calm myself. The voices and cries of all my parents' victims I'd heard but never investigated echoed through my mind, the ones I could have saved and didn't. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and bit my lip as I was met with my mother's dusty golden eyes, they lacked the intensity that hers held, they appeared more woeful, defeated, penitent and my hair, the same charcoal color like my fathers was thick and fell past my shoulders in two loose ponytails. Even though they were dead, they still haunted me, every time I looked in the mirror, I was reminded of them, reminded that I had let them get away with murdering innocents and reminded that I had killed them. Could I truly be a hero, when I'd already taken lives?

               "Hey, are you okay?" A pretty girl, with long black hair that she wore in a ponytail that seemed to stick up to the side, asked me curiously as she approached one of the sinks next to me to wash her hands. "You don't look so good."

               "First day jitters." I lied easily before grabbing a paper towel to dry off my face.

               She finished washing her hands before offering me her hand in greeting, "I'm Momo Yaoyorozu."

               "Ava Tsukauchi." I accepted her hand. Since my parents' names had been released to the press, once I started staying with Detective Tsukauchi he gave me his surname to use to protect my identity. His seniors at work agreed to treat it as if I were in Witness Protection and came up with all kinds of federally approved doctored documents for me to assume my new surname.

               I found out she was in the same class as me and followed her to our classroom.  Most of the students were already in their seats. A boy near the front of the room in the farthest row from the door with pale dusty blonde hair had his feet kicked up on his desk like a delinquent and was being reprimanded by another boy with dark hair and glasses. Yaoyorozu showed me which desk had been assigned to me, I took my seat at the very end of the delinquent's row unable to get a look at his face. I caught the tail end of a threat he'd issued to the boy with the glasses and frowned. It was the first day of school and he was picking fights with people.

               Glasses was on the move, he had way too much energy, it was draining just watching him. I fixed my gaze out the window trying not to think about that night eleven years ago. The metallic scent of blood mixed with the rot, decay and staleness from the basement lingered in the back of my mind making me feel somewhat nauseous.

               A deep blue gym uniform with a big white UA on the front and white and red accents on the sleeves smacked me in the face startling me from my daze. I struggled to catch it before it could fall to the floor and blanched as I spotted a man with a mane of dark shaggy hair, tired bloodshot eyes and scruffy facial hair, who I assumed was our teacher, staring me down. I'd missed his introduction and now all of my classmates were staring at me. How long had he been trying to get my attention?

               "Put these on and meet me outside." His tone sounded annoyed as if he'd repeated himself one too many times. I followed the rest of the girls to the restroom to change into the gym uniforms.

               "Are you sure you're okay?" Yaoyorozu asked me quietly from the stall next to mine as we hurriedly changed.

               "Yeah, just spaced out a bit there." I sighed. "He didn't happen to tell us his name before I got clobbered, did he?"

               A few of the girls giggled at this.

               "Shota Aizawa." Yaoyorozu took pity on me.

               "Thanks."

               After changing I hurried to follow the rest of the girls outside to meet up with Mr. Aizawa and the boys. The gym uniform wasn't very flattering and did nothing for my subtle curves. I didn't have a crazy curvy body like some of the other girls in my class. Mr. Aizawa quickly informed us all we were going to have a quirk assessment test.

               Mr. Aizawa looked to the delinquent with the spiky dusty blonde hair and the piercing crimson eyes, "Bakugo, you managed to get the most points on the entrance exam." Was that his name? "What was your farthest distance throw with a softball when you were in junior high?"

               "Sixty-seven meters, I think." The delinquent responded.

               Sixty-seven? That was impressive. My furthest distance throw was thirty meters in junior high!

"Right. Try doing it with your quirk." Mr. Aizawa tossed him a softball and the delinquent headed for one of the marked circles. "Anything goes, just stay in the circle." The delinquent paused. "Go on. Your wasting our time." He seemed like a real stickler for time.

Bakugo made a show of stretching his arms with a cocky look on his face, "Alright, man. You asked for it." He grumbled before winding back his arm. He launched the ball into the air in a giant burst of explosive flames, "Die!"

Did he just say die? Who the hell is this guy?

"All of you need to know your maximum capabilities." Mr. Aizawa continued, "It's the most rational way of figuring out your potential as a pro hero." He held up his mobile device with Bakugo's recorded distance. 705.2 meters!

The other students gasped before expressing their excitement at getting to use their quirks. I noticed Mr. Aizawa smirking somewhat ominously and had a sinking suspicion I wasn't going to like what he said next.

"So, this looks fun, huh?" Mr. Aizawa grumbled, "You have three years here to become a hero. You think it's all going to be games and play time? Idiots. Today you'll compete in eight physical tests to gauge your potential. Whoever comes in last, has none, and will be expelled immediately."

What?! Is that even allowed?! I jumped as all the other students gasped in panic.

"Like I said, I get to decide how this class runs, understand? If that's a problem you can head home right now." Mr. Aizawa snapped.

"Time to waste these nerds." Bakugo smirked. He was looking down on everyone else.

I clenched my fists. I hated people like him! People who thought they were better than everyone and could treat those they thought beneath them like shit. It was villain behavior. Something about the hot-headed delinquent sparked a fire within me, brought forth a rage I hadn't even been aware I possessed.

"Don't look down on everyone else, here!" I snapped at the hot head, unable to hold myself back any longer, there was just something about him that got under my skin.

Mr. Aizawa looked to me curiously as the rest of the class jumped at my sudden outburst. I wasn't normally so vocal, I didn't like to raise my voice, I'd spent years trying to be quiet, timid and to avoid drawing attention to myself. He tossed me a softball.

I struggled to catch it, trying to keep my cool as everyone's eyes fell on me. Why the hell did I snap like that? It had to be because my nerves were shot because of what day it was and that delinquents poor attitude just pushed me over the edge. I didn't like that he'd called us all nerds and didn't seem to think he needed to give anyone in our class the time of day. Everyone worked hard to get here! Everyone deserved to be here! He couldn't just look down on us all like that!

The delinquent left the circle, bumping me aggressively with his shoulder as we passed each other, causing my rage to broil once more. I stepped into the center of the circle and dropped the ball at my feet. With my quirk, I was able to subtly shift the tectonic plates and create rapid topographical changes, mountains, canyons, craters, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis. If I focused hard enough I could make them as big or as small as I wanted. Focusing on the earth at my feet I subtly shifted the plates beneath me causing the earth beneath the softball to rise up. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath to steady my nerves to concentrate, I had to focus, I couldn't lose control, I couldn't risk an earthquake this close to the city.

"I really hate people like you! Don't underestimate the rest of us!" I snapped as I cast my hands outward causing the single pillar of earth I'd raised to snake forward creating a super thin mountain range, carrying the ball with it. The earth around me began to crack as the ball was sent flying.

I heard a faint beeping sound and looked up to see Mr. Aizawa holding his mobile device up for me to see. 802 meters! I did it! I turned to find Bakugo bristling with rage, first day of school and I'd earned myself a nemesis, an angry, explosive, hot-headed nemesis. This was not going to end well.

Video- "Dig the Crazy" By Faith Marie