Pins and Needles | Todoroki Shoto | S/H

Welcome to U.A.'s Hero Course

・・・　・・・　・・・

     "Huh?!" 
     She blinks, glancing around the courtyard she had forgotten she was in.  Whatever their teacher had just said surprised the class.  
     "We're free to do what we want about the circumstances of our students.  Welcome to U.A.'s hero course."  It seemed like a powerful line, but (Y/N) was just confused.  She'd missed everything leading up to it—daydreaming, as usual—so she wasn't really sure what the hell that was supposed to mean.  
     ...but as soon as she tuned in, she tuned back out again.  One of the girls in the class was shouting about something or other.  She knew it was probably a good idea to learn their names.  Or, if she could convince her mom that she was struggling to make friends, maybe she could drop out and go to a normal high school.  
     "Hey," the pink-haired (and pink-skinned) girl beside her says, nudging her arm.  (Y/N) blinks and refocuses.  "We're moving."  
     "Huh?  Oh, thank you."  
     "What's your name?  I'm Ashido Mina," she says quickly with a happy smile on her face.  (Y/N) awkwardly tries to match it.  
     "Uh, (S/N) (Y/N)," she says back.  "What... are we doing?"  
     "A 50-meter race."  (Y/N) scrunches her nose and brow.  She hated running, and she wasn't sure who her partner would be, so she wasn't positive she could latch onto them.  She and Ashido ended up next to each other, though, and Ashido seemed like she was going to run with her actual legs, so she was okay.  5.5 seconds for both for them.  
     The second test was a strength of grip.  She did fine on that one, much better than middle school.  Next was the standing long jump.  They did that one alone, so she didn't do particularly well.  Repeated side steps was also done alone for 60 seconds.  For the ball throw, all she could do was just hope to throw it.  There was a long-distance run, she copied somebody for that, sit-ups that she could copy since they had partners, and lastly, a seated toe-touch, which she did just fine on her own because she was flexible.  
     Speaking of flexible, she thinks, head looking down as her mind tunneled and spiraled into another 6-hour train ride of thought.  They were gathered in the courtyard again, though she wasn't really sure why they couldn't go back inside by now, but then again, she wasn't really thinking about that at all.  
     "Hey, look at that, you got third place!" Ashido says, excitedly punching her shoulder and bringing her back to their current world.  She blinks a few times, looking at Ashido and then the scores.  "And you didn't even use your quirk!  That's insane."  
     "Huh?  Oh, yeah, insane."  She narrows her eyes at the scoreboard with a slow nod.  First was Yaoyorozu Momo and second Todoroki Shoto.  She had no idea who either of them were.  
     "By the way, I was lying about the expulsion," the teacher says.  (Y/N) snaps her head over at Ashido.  When was expulsion mentioned?  But then she realized she'd been spacing all morning, as she usually did, so she probably missed it.  She had a tendency to do that.  

     She didn't go home directly after school.  She lived with her mom on the weekdays and visited her dad on the weekends.  They had divorced.
     She stayed at her sister's house, whining about the upcoming training off-campus in a week.  Her mother drunk herself half to death every Monday evening, so she didn't want to go home.  Then the next morning, she went back to school.  The teacher for English was kind of fun, so he could grab her attention some of the time.  She didn't pay attention to anything else until everyone was standing up.  
     (Y/N) looks over, seeing yellow bags being picked out by students.  Everyone was jittering with excitement about costumes, which confused her because she'd never been contacted about costumes before.  They were steered to the changing rooms.
     What came out of that bag was probably the most ridiculous thing she had ever seen.  Baggy jeans that would be a bitch to run in, a black T-shirt, and a disgustingly ugly cardigan.  It looked like a 30-year-old outfit that would be used to go a modest church dance, but it was supposed to be a hero costume.  Quickly, she stuffs it right back into the bag.  
     "I am not wearing whatever that is," she whispers to herself.  It was pretty clear her mother had sent it in since that was exactly the outfit her mother tried to get her to wear... constantly. 
     Tank tops were too inappropriate, dresses were too inappropriate, shorts were too inappropriate, leggings were too inappropriate; crop-tops, low-waisted pants, V-necks, swimsuits (guess who swam in a full outfit of clothing).  Almost everything in the world was too inappropriate or too trashy, like camo, wifebeaters, most black clothes, clothes with designs or print that wasn't a pattern, floral patterns, tribal patterns (she had no idea what 'tribal pattern' even meant).  It was a pretty long list.
     "Where's your hero costume?" Ashido asks her, seeing her emerge still in her gym clothes.  
     "They... sent the wrong thing," (Y/N) says quickly.  "I must have submitted something wrong or maybe it was mixed up.  I'll just wear this until I can get it sorted."  She sighs.  Maybe if she didn't have a hero costume, she could get expelled.  She didn't want to go to this school anyway.