Flea

Chapter Twelve

Maeve grimaced properly, and she pinched the bridge of her nose. Things were spiralling quickly, so she should try to control the situation as best she could now to stop it spreading. Lying had never come easily to her, anyway. The nurse strode to the door and closed it, before saying,

"It's okay, Iida, c-calm down. Mineta, I wouldn't recommend being that.. direct.. to your teachers, especially in front of the entire class. Try to think more about how your words will affect others before you sp-speak."

He didn't look apologetic in the slightest, the little brat. Maeve continued irritably, her throat rasping painfully with every word.

"The villains were telling the truth. My mother was a drug dealer active about 13 years ago. I've never met my father, but he was also involved in illegal activity. My dear old mum was abusive, hence the scars." She held her gloved palms up to the class.

"Heroes rescued me at a young age and I've been here ever since. UA doesn't have the official capacity as an organisation to adopt children, so Aizawa stepped in given I'd already been staying with him. My parentage isn't widely known, so I'd prefer it if you kept this discrete. People might not be willing to let me help them if they knew I inherited my quirk from villains. Some of you saw in the USJ just how effectively it could be used for destruction instead of healing. I'm not.. I'm not proud of my past." 

Maeve wasn't used to being at a loss for words. She couldn't believe she hadn't seen this coming, especially given she'd warned Nezu Pezu about exactly the situation panning out in front of her. The events of the last few days had driven it out of her mind. Which was embarrassing, given she was supposed to be a genius. 

Who would've thought it was Bakugo who decided to bail her out. 

"So her parents were villains, who gives a shit? Isn't the sports festival coming up? Shouldn't we be worrying about that instead of our teacher's fucked up personal lives?" He said all of this leaning back in his chair at an angle that made Maeve wince. She couldn't heal spinal injuries, if he fell backwards and was paralysed, that was it. 

"Yes, as Bakugo eloquently put it, there are bigger things to worry about than my history, as fascinating as it is. The UA sports festival is right around the corner."

Nobody seemed keen to let the matter drop, but she steamrolled forward anyway. There wasn't much time to get through a lot of information. 

"Even though we just suffered a villain attack, upper management want to demonstrate that our crisis management protocols are still tighter than All Might's hero costume. They're planning on doing that through the sports festival, which means it's still on. Lucky for you guys, unlucky for me."

All this standing at the front of the class was tiring. Maeve desperately wanted to drag a chair over to the lectern and sit down, but there weren't any. 

"Lucky?? Needing to risk getting killed by villains to be in a stupid sports festival doesn't sound very lucky to m-"

Maeve interrupted Mineta with a roll of her eyes. 

"The sports festival is your greatest opportunity to get your name out there. It's one of the most widely watched events annually, we're not going to cancel it because of a few villains."

"All the top heroes will be scouting for us as sidekicks, right?" Kaminari asked. Maeve nodded.

"The festival also serves to imitate the competitive nature of the hero profession," she said, her eyes flicking to Midoriya momentarily. He looked quite intense, which she thought wouldn't suit him. Maeve was pleasantly surprised. 

"You'll gain experience and popularity if you outshine your peers and get picked up by a big pro. It's a pretty cutthroat business you guys have your sights set on. The festival happens once a year, so you have three tries to make a name for yourself. Try not to fuck it up."