Viridity

6

The day you returned to your school, the crowd of students parted for you like the sea had parted for Moses.

They kept their eyes on you, and it was annoying. A part of you wanted to just use your quirk to turn your skin invisible and avoid their stares, but you knew that wouldn't help.

So you just let Shiho, Mikoto and Fumiko coddle you. Truth to be told, their company certainly helped you. You didn't feel that same suffocation you felt at home. Instead, you felt at ease.

Maybe because your house reminded you of your loneliness, while your friends constantly reminded you that you were not lonely.

Regardless, you appreciated their presence.

As the teacher walked in for homeroom, she nodded at you, offering you her condolences without speaking. You preferred it that way, honestly. Everytime someone said, "I'm sorry to hear about your mother's death."

You were hit with reality.

And as a person who was always coddled by your parents, you never had to face any problems. So for you to face reality and its problems, was so scary that you would much rather build your own world where everything was fine and dandy.

But you couldn't keep running away, you told yourself. One day, you will have to face everything. It's best if you start early to prepare yourself.

Yet, another reality that you avoided was that, time still went on.

But you were forced to face it when you had to give your finals not even a few weeks after you had just lost your mother. The teachers sympathized with you, but you couldn't just leave the finals. They were crucial and you would be unable to move onto the next grade if you didn't pass them.

You didn't do that well on your finals, in your opinion.

But to cut yourself some slack, half of your second year was spent in the hospital and you didn't exactly study that well regardless of attending school. And the suffocating atmosphere of your house made it unable to focus on some last-day studying.

But regardless, you passed your exams and somehow still got grades better than half of the class. Your teacher commended you for that, and you would have been somewhat happy if only your sister hadn't shown you her grades.

She also gave her university exams a few weeks after the funeral, yet...

2. [Last Name][Sister Name]

Second place, from just studying in the last days of her exams and having attending little to no classes throughout the year due to your mother's sickness... while you...

5. [Last Name][Name]

Fifth place. Despite having studied quite a bit in the beginning of the school year.

Less. Less. Less.

You are always less than her.

In terms of intelligence. In terms of appearance and grace. In terms of street smarts. In terms of her quirk.

You are always less than what she is.

You fucking failure-

Your thoughts are cut off by a tuft of red and white entering your vision. He stands in front of you, placing something on your desk.

Your eyes fall upon what he just put there. A small cookie bag, filled with cute [Favorite Flavor] cookies, "Huh?" Was all you managed to say as he looked intensely at your face to figure out your reaction.

"My sister made these. She told me to give it to a friend or classmate, but you're the only one I know." That was probably the longest sentence he has said since the start of middle school.

"O-Oh... Thank you, Todoroki-san... Please thank your sister as well." He stared at your face with even more intensity, until you finally gave him an awkward smile. Seeming satisfied by your smile, he nodded to himself and took his leave.

Despite it not being his intention, he managed to pull you out of your pit of self-loathing. You gingerly picked up the cookie bag, and stared at it.

It was pretty.

Something you would have seen in a shoujo manga. Or even those cute confectionery shops.

That seemed to evoke a genuine smile from you, and Todoroki managed to catch sight of it as he walked away. For once, a feeling of satisfaction bloomed in his chest.

He was somewhat proud of himself for making you smile.

————

The second of year of middle school had come to an end.

And your career worries were beginning to plague your mind once again. At first, you consulted Riza about what she was planning on doing. She told you that she was going to try for the hero course, and it somewhat made sense.

She had a good quirk; the ability to control calcium. That meant that she could practically mold her and frankly, anyone's bones into whatever she wanted. She could also grow her teeth to become sharp and pointy, and she could also control anything made of marble and chalk.

You wished her good luck and ended the conversation.

The next people you asked were your friends, Shiho, Mikoto and Fumiko. Shiho planned on following her family footsteps and become a shrine maiden. While Mikoto wanted to be a engineer like her brothers, since she had a quirk that allowed her to study the properties of anything she touched in complete detail.

Meanwhile, Fumiko wanted to try out for the hero course too. But she wanted to try Shiketsu High instead of the usual UA Academy, because according to her, "UA's just too mainstream for me. I feel like it's too famous among the media. I can't handle all that spotlight, not to mention their motto 'Plus Ultra' is so cringe... Get it?"

You did get it. But a part of you wanted to admit that you wanted to go to UA, you wanted to become a hero and finally be someone worth pride for your parents. You didn't want to always be the lowest among your siblings.

While your brother was a police officer and your sister was becoming a psychologist, you didn't want to be the only one who had a boring, blue-collar job.

You wanted someone to look at you in awe, just once. You wanted your father to be proud of being your parent, even if it only once.

You just wanted to be good enough, even if it was only once.