Beetlejuice and Elizabeth

13. First day of hero school

"Do you have your lunch?"
"Your favorite pens?"
"Extra graph paper?"

Mom and Kugo asked in worry. I smiled and continued to pack my bag with endless snacks that Kugo kept handing me. Mother swatted his hand jokingly after the fifth snack he handed me.

"Kugo!" She admonished. But the way her voice hitched told me she was on the verge of becoming emotional.

"Mama," I held both her hands, "everything will go great! The hard parts over now I jsut need to study hard and get good grades." I placate and she nods despite the tears leaking down her face.

"My baby, my sweet baby. Beetlejuice would be so proud of you, you know that, right?"

"Always mana." I say now crying myself at the memory of him telling me to become a great hero. "Ah! I've got to go if I want to get there early." I back out of the hug but not before kissing mom and Kugo's cheeks. I dashed out the door and then down the street as I raced to the school. I was one of the first in the classroom, the only others being a boy with two toned hair and a girl in a ponytail and the boy who spoke up during the presentation.

The boy from the presentation raced toward me and held his hand out to introduce me.

I tilted my head mockingly before walking past him silently. I had no more words to spew at the strict male. It was bad enough he made Midoriya embarrassed while already under a strenuous environment during exams.

The male screeched in surprise before trying to approach me again. "Still got a stick up your ass?" I asked sarcastically under my breath. The male stuttered before admonishing me for using such uncouth language. "Fuck off transformer." I all but hissed in true beegs fashion. Why did everything revolve around him? When didn't it?

Rolling my eyes I slipped by and toward where I would be sitting for the remainder of this school year. Unless the teacher decided to switch seats halfway through. Which is a totally asshole move by the way!

I rested my head on my propped arm while drawing pictures of various bugs and beetles. Even a small sketch of Mr Sandy was thrown in. Before I knew it class was filling in and then Bakugo and lastly Midoryia arrived. Bakugo like always put his feet on the table while leaning back. But unlike he did with me. He was not kicking the person infornt of him. How considerate I hissed in my head.

A male with multiple arms thanked me in passing for helping him during the exam. Much to my chagrin, even after everyone was in the class I not once spotted the soft lilac hair of Hitoshi Shinso making me frown.

"If you're here to make friends, leave?" A man says from the entrance. "It took you too long to quiet down. Time is precious, put these on and meet me in the field." Everyone nodded and moved to take a uniform. When we got to the female locker room I began to undress to put it on. I could hear gasps and feel the eyes on me as I pulled on the shirt.

"Do you have nothing better to do than stare at me. Bunch of perverts the lot of you." I throw the words over my shoulder and move to leave the room. Again I'm one of the first to the field. I cock my head to the side as I examine the teacher. "Pro hero, Eraserhead. Nice to meet cha." He grunts and I nod sagely. "They are taking too long." I say with a nod. He rolls his eyes and I snap my fingers. "I know right, no preservation whatsoever."

When the class does begin spilling out I notice that some of the girls are standing and pointing at me making the teacher look at me with a raised eyebrow. I lift my shoulders in a shrug and grin innocently.

"What about the entrance ceremony? The orientation?" A girl asked.

"If your going to be a hero, you don't have time for such leisurely events. U.A.'s selling point is how unrestricted it school traditions are. That's also how the teachers run their classes. You kids have been doing this since junior year, too, right?" He pulled out a device. "Physical fitness tests where you weren't allowed to use your quirks. The country still uses averages taken from results from students not using their quirks. It's not rational. Well the ministry of education is procrastinating." His eyes turned to me with a dead stare, "your scored top in the entrance exams. What's your farthest softball throw in middle school."

"83 meters."

"Try again but with your quirk." He says throwing the ball at me. I catch it and begin walking to the circle he mentioned. Throwing my arm back I launch the ball without restraint and it goes 200 meters. But in the process I did snap a tendon in my wrist making the teacher look at me in surprise.

"Doesn't that hurt?"

"No." I shake my head and walk back to the lineup. When we toe touch my body conforms until I'm laying flat with my arms much farther then my legs. When we do long distance run I'm the only one who runs the longest due to my stamina.

At the end our ranking is shown and Midoriya's is the last causing him to look on the verge of tears. "By the way it was all a ruse to get you to work harder." The teacher says in passing while he walks away.

A preppy girl speaks up and tells everyone it was obvious making me roll my eyes with a hiss. I walk off while rubbing my still healing hand. It wasn't a lie. He would really have expelled everyone. He didn't for a reason. He sees something in this group of wannabes.

Again we go back to the changing room to change back out of uniforms. Again the other girls stare, I've never felt shame or embarrassment for my appearance. Quite the opposite. They are proof that I'm living and that makes me proud. For them to judge me or pity my appearance only makes my chest hot. I send a sharp glare over my shoulders making some shudder. "I don't appreciate staring." I say slamming my locker closed.

Despite the long walk home the feeling still stayed. My chest was still hot and angry. My first steps into the house my mother could just sense it. "Is everything okay?" She asked in that same sympathetic tone she's used when I felt angry or sad. I don't know if it was the tone itself or her presence but my shoulders sank and the heat resided.

"I just. We had to change and...they just kept staring at me. It it made me so mad!" I said everything in one exhale as the anger subsided. "Beegs said my scar were proof of my survival, of being alive. And they stared at me like I was something to pity. Something malformed and broken." I cross my arms unable to say anything else. "I'm going to my room." I say quietly before leaving for upstairs.

Flopping onto the bed unceremoniously I smother my face into the pillow with a sigh.

I give a short huff of a laugh at the irony of having a bed when I don't sleep. When mother found out she asked if I still wanted a bed and I told her yes. If not for sleeping then to at least pretend that I could. Pretend I could still dream.

🪲

Kugo came over for dinner to hear about my first day and eat mothers delicious cooking. He again brought her flowers and I hid a small smile when I saw mothers reaction. Face aflame with a wide smile. Her eyes crinkling at the edges in a way that made her glow. I went back to my room with a smile and grabbed a fairly new book off the shelf to read until it was time to get back to school.