There is always one of those dark days in a person's life that they would rather left forgotten.

   Well what better way to start that off with than my first day of school?

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𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝘀𝘁, 𝟳:𝟰𝟱

   The night had passed and I woke up that morning buzzing and jumping with excitement over my first day. It's never often for the child to wake her parents up to get read for school, but in my defense, my parents had kept me cooped up in our house for who knows how long, so getting to go outside and talk to people was more than a special occasion.

  Luckily the most time consuming task, my hair, was already done as I still held in the braids my mom had given me the night before. After my mother's story about her home country, I had instantly cherished the twisted braids that hung from my head. The pink knots symbolized so much to her, and I felt honored to wear them and learn about the history. Although, my one critique would have to be the way they made my pastel pink hair seem darker. For the longest time, growing up I hated the color of my hair. I constantly wondered why I couldn't be born with a less...loud color.

   It was when I was looking at my braids in the mirror that was in our living room where my mom came out and found me. "Love, stop messing with those; they'll come undone," she warned. I instantly moved my hands to my sides and just admired the braids without touching them, but with the occasional shaking of my head because I liked the sound they made hitting each other and my face.

   "Ready for school?" My dad asked, walking into the kitchen and grabbing his coffee and breakfast. I eagerly nodded yes and held onto my brand new, yellow backpack that matched the yellow button down on my elementary school uniform.

   "Mateo, please walk her in when you drop her off," my mom said. She packed my dad's lunch before heading out the door with us. Today was only a half day, but that didn't stop my mom from still trying to take every precaution she could to keep me safe.

   "Ey, she's grown enough to go to school she doesn't need me to walk her," my dad argued. He was the parent to think I was 'grown' since I could talk.

   "She's only five, and I don't want her getting lost. Just walk her in, please." It was clear my mother wasn't giving up on this until my dad gave a tired "Fine," and walked out the door. My mom stopped to give me one more goodbye hug before sending me off. "Be safe, amor. Remember not to talk to any strangers or adults, stay inside until your Papi comes to get you, and don't hurt yourself outside." I hugged her back and gave her a reassuring agreement before heading out the door.

   "Oh also remember," my mom called as I was heading out to the car, "we have the dinner party tonight, so be home on time."

   "Si, máma!" I waved her goodbye then ran the rest of the way to the car where my dad waited. It wasn't often at all that my parents allowed people to come over, so the special occasion party was always a big highlight of my childhood. Even though it was only with two other people and it was rare that my parents let me go off on my own or talk to anyone, I could hope by then they would have had a little trust in me.
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   My dad and I rode in silence all the way to the kindergarten. It was normal, though. My dad wasn't much of a small talker and I was five, so who could expect me to hold the bulk of a conversation. I could have asked him about work, but he was an accountant, so not much to ask about.

   By the time we got there, my dad did as promised and walked with me to the doors and to my classroom. I spent a while looking at the walls, impressed with the large beams that held up the white ceilings. My dad hurried me along to the classroom door with the name "1-A" written in bubble letters.

   My dad stopped there and talked to me. "Now majita, your mother told me about what you talked about. I want you to know that your heritage is who you are. Where you are is because of what me and your mother sacrificed for you. We did this because we want you to have a good future, so it's on you, Tallulah, to not screw it up." As a little kid, I had to admit it was stressful to hear that. But it wasn't like it was anything I hadn't heard from him time and time again. I knew since I could talk that I had the responsibility to not make my parents' sacrifices worthless.

   Young me silently agreed to my father's terms and kept my head down while he talked. We made it into the small, colorful classroom that my dad left me at. A bunch of parents stopped to tell their kids goodbye or talk to the teachers, but my father simply pat me on the back and left without a thought.

   The classroom was about halfway full with kids my age sitting in their seats. I walked around the room that was lined with five by four rows of small chairs and desks that would only fit small children. It didn't take me long to figure out that the cards sitting on the seats that read students' names were organized alphabetically. I quickly found my own desk and sat down, double-checking the name tag that read "T. Rosemary". I looked down at my lap where my hands had held each other out of slight nerves. It wasn't like I got nervous a lot, but come on, the first day of school was enough to get anyone a little anxious of the unknown.

   I felt a tap coming from the desk behind me, and turned around to see a good with dark green hair and violet eyes looking at me. "My name's Magami. What's yours?" She asked.

   Hey a friend! I smiled at her and answered, "Rose—"

   "What's in your hair?" She asked before I could finish my own name. I could tell she didn't actually care for my name anyways, and just wanted to pry about my hair, not that I minded. I mean, yeah she was a little rude about it, but at the time I was so happy to talk about what my mom told me that I grew eager to tell the girl about them. "They're a type of cornrows. In Cuba they—"

   "Cuba?" The girl interrupted again, this time a look of confusion playing on her face and slight distaste in her voice. My mom and dad pronounced the name with their heavy accents, so that's how I grew up to learn it too. But this girl made it very clear to correct me and pronounce it how she does.

  "Oh I know where that is," a know-it-all boy chimed in from the seat in front of me. "It's a bad place. They have terrible morals and hurt their people over there. My dad told me Japan is about to go to war with them because they have to be stopped." I didn't think any of what he was saying was true, and boy was I ready to call him out on it to.

   I turned to face the kid in front of me. "Well actually—"

  "So if you come from a bad country why are you here? Are you a spy or something?" The girl asked.

   If I could get one sentence in!

   "Don't be crazy, Magi," the boy said. Finally someone was talking some sense into her. "Why would they send a kid as a spy? It's probably her parents."

  "What?" I spun around to the boy in front of me. I honestly didn't know what to say to him. This all seemed so stupid. Who gets this pressed because a little girl comes to school with braids‽

   Finally the argument stopped when an adult we assumed to be our new teacher, stumbled into class. The kids' eyes all followed the short, dark haired adult as they cautiously rushed to the desk and set down their bag and collection of folders. They made their way to the front of the desk and opened their mouth to introduce themself to the class. "Hel—" That's as far as they got before the school bell rang loudly. The person in front of us flinched hard at the noise, clearly nervous out of their mind but pushed through.

   "Uh- so as I was saying, my name is Dr. Lunar, and I am supposed to be the—uh the school medic. Although, it looks like your teacher isn't going to make it today, so I guess I'll be watching you kids for now. Which is fine because I can do this. Looking after a few kids isn't that bad; it's not like children your age are all that mean, right?" They smiled at us before some kid in the back row threw a paper airplane at Dr. Lunar's head and stuck in their short, black hair. Their smile fell as they muttered something under their breath and pulled out the paper.

   "Oh stars, give me strength.." they said before speaking towards the room. "Okay! Who's up for some icebreakers? I'll start: as I said I am Dr. Echo Lunar and my Quirk is called Aura which gives me various abilities that I use to help the kids here. I can see the auras around anyone I look at, and that can tell me how you're feeling and what kind of treatment would respond best to you." It was clear they were putting in a lot of effort to at least get us to refrain from throwing things at them, and I liked that. I enjoyed their energy and somewhat calmness that they gave off, and the idea that we could trust them.

   "Ok now how about one at a time you all stand up and introduce yourself to the class, okay?" they said. It was in that brief moment that I lost all trust in Lunar for making me do this. I would honestly rather take a razor scooter to the ankle then share with the class a little about myself. I tried to turn my focus onto anything else, and paid attention to the introductions of my classmates. They all had such cool and interesting Quirks which seemed to be the one thing they would share. But..I didn't have a Quirk yet. What could I share about myself? These kids already didn't care for me, which usually isn't something I care about, but before I learned to not care what a few ignorant kids thought, I used to. I was young, and this was the first time I had been around a bunch of people, so I just wanted to get through it.

   It was finally my turn to put myself on the line and receive proper ridicule from the class of merciless five year olds. I could already feel my knees shaking when I stood up. My arms wrapped around myself to keep the shaking from spreading around my body and causing myself to be noticed more. "Uhh..," how am I supposed to start? Why can't I remember what anyone else said? "My name's Rose— Rosemary" wait wasn't I suppose to start with my first name‽ How could I mess up already? "And—" before I could finish, I could already hear the kids around me discuss with the kids around them.

   "She's supposed to be from Mexico?"

"No no, she's from 'Cuba'." 

   "Ohh, the bad place."

"Real bad." 

   "What's with her hair‽ How does she wash it?"

"She probably doesn't." 

   "Oh my mom and dad told me all about those kinds of people."
I knew what they were referring to. Cuba wasn't exactly a place you would want to raise a family in or even go on vacation to. Ever since Quirks started popping up, it's been a cruel county by basing everything on what Quirk you were born with. And its military force wants to spread that ideology across the planet. That's why my parents left, and it's why they try not bring up the topic. But these kids were nailing it into my head that the place I'm from is scary. I just wanted it to stop.

   Shut up, shut up! Just stop!

   It was like their whispers and talk became a thousand times louder. I knew kids could be naive and mean, but wow I wasn't expecting for them to outright tear me down on the first day. And why did I care so much‽ Yeah, their talk was super specific and hurt like hell, but my mom did my hair, and I liked it. So why at that moment did I hate my braids?

   "And what else, Rosemary?" I looked up to see Lunar smile at me, but they provided no comfort. I looked away from them and the kids by turning my head down to my desk and sitting down.

   "And nothing."

   So yeah, my first day kind of blew. I got my first taste at a little childhood bullying, and I learned to grow ashamed of who I was while my parents made me feel even more stressed. It felt like things couldn't get worse, and it was only the first day.

   Go me.

A.N:
Poor Rose. Hopefully her day turns up soon, but we'll just have to see. I wanted to try and make the context as real as possible with the research I've done. Once again, I am not Cuban, so if you see anything not accurate, please let me know. I hope you all liked this chapter and stay tuned to see what happens.

Here we see our main character on her first day of school. For the chapter question, do you remember your first day?

For me, I remember starting kindergarten with a very competitive game of Duck, Duck, Goose. In my defense, the winner got candy, so could you blame me?

Character Spotlight: Dr. Echo Lunar
(Original) Quirk: Aura

Fun fact: they spent the beginning of their career as an on sight medic for Rose's local elementary and middle school until moving on to practice recovery at hero schools.

Thank you for reading, and as always, until next time ≈