We scrambled to change and dash to the back courtyard. I couldn't help but admire how fancy it all was. There was a sand box, a pristine red running track, crayon-green grassy fields, the works.

Mr. Aizawa was waiting with his arms crossed and a stopwatch in hand. We lined up in front of him and waited.

"You've all had your PE assessments done, correct?" Several nods. "It was school policy not to use your quirks, right?" Again, true. It seemed only fair. I began to dread the fact that the first day of school was going to be an exhausting PE day. "Bakugo, come here."

Bakugo was told to stand inside a white circle, then handed a softball.

"How far was your maximum last time you did a ball throw?"

"67 meters, I think."

"Try doing it with your quirk."

"Okay, man…" With a burst, the softball raced forth like a cannon. Bakugo seemed proud of himself and while intimidated, I was happy for him. Mr. Aizawa held up the measurement device. It read 700 meters.

"You've been told to hold yourselves back your entire lives." He said, "Today, we'll be doing a quirk assessment test, where we'll figure out exactly what you can do and what kind of potential you have."

Everyone began whispering, excited. Midorya looked sick. I was uneasy; I'd never used my quirk plainly like this, in fact, I didn't use it much at all. It wasn't just stage-fright, I had no idea how this would go for me.

"This isn't a game." Everyone quieted down, "This isn't for fun, this is serious. I'll be ranking you and whoever comes up last will be deemed a lost cause and immediately expelled." I felt myself pale. I… I had never considered that once I was in, I would still have to fight for my place here.

"You can't do that!" Someone exclaimed, "We all got in, fair and square."

"I can, actually." Mr. Aizawa was exactly as scary as I remembered. "So I'd suggest you quit complaining and focus on getting a good score. Tenya, Ida. You're next on the ball throw."

Deku definitely looked like he was going to faint, so I placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't forget to breathe." I advised quietly as the students went forward to throw their balls, "I'm nervous too but…" He turned to look at me, beyond worried. I grinned sardonically, "Nothing to it but to do it." He stared at me for a moment.

"You're right." He said quietly, "There's no use worrying about it, I should focus my energy on the test."

"Manderly."

"Oof, my performance ought to make you feel better." I jogged to the circle with no hesitation and took the softball. I ran through possibilities, but we were told we had to stay inside the circle, which meant there was really nothing I could do to give myself a leg up. I threw the ball with all my might. I got about 40 meters, it was embarrassing. No one made fun of me, though. Instead, everyone was watching with rapt interest to see where they stood amongst their peers. It wasn't just Deku and I who were concerned, though the big power types seemed to be having fun.

Deku was last and his legs shook as he took up his spot. He took a breath, calmed, then got a fiercely determined look in his eye. And… 30 meters. Yikes.

"What?" He said, looking at his hand, "But… my quirk."

"I erased it."

As if he weren't already frightening, our teacher took a turn right into a horror movie character. His eyes were glowing red, hair lifting off his shoulders, and his scarf floated around him like he was submerged in water. We were probably all quaking in our sneakers, or that's what i liked to think, because I sure was.

"Wait a minute…" Midorya pointed like he'd spotted a rare bird, "I recognize those goggles." There were a pair of faded yellow goggles hanging around his neck, under the scarf, "You're Eraser Head!"

"Who?" I was glad it was someone else who asked. I'd feared everyone here knew every hero ever.

"The Erasing hero." Ida provided, "You wouldn't have heard much about him since he tends to stay out of the spotlight. I believe his quirk allows him to remove to quirk of anyone he's looking at."

That… was oddly fitting.

"Tell me, were you planning on breaking your body again?" What? "Letting someone else clean up your mistakes?"

"N-no!"

"If you can't do anything useful without incapacitating yourself, you're only creating another victim for your comrades to save. But go ahead." He closed his eyes and returned to normal. "I've returned your quirk so get it over with and see how well you fare in the next tests."

"What's happening?" I asked quietly as Deku geared up for another throw.

"Midorya's quirk seems to give him incredible strength," Ida explained quietly, "At the cost of breaking his bones. His performance at the entrance exam was a grisly sight."

"Oh jeez."

I looked away when Deku threw, not wanting to see him break.

The ball flew over 700 meters. He turned to Mr. Aizawa and we simultaneously realized that only one of his fingers was broken. He gave a pained grin.

"See? I can still keep going."

Mr. Aizawa gave a terrifying grin.

The toe-touch and grip strength tests went by uneventfully. I did pretty terribly at the long jump, not to mention I got sand all over my clothes. Then came the 50 meter dash. I felt a swell of anxiety rise in my chest as I realized this was one where using my quirk would absolutely give me a leg up. I didn't want to be kicked out. Not after everything we'd done to get here.

I was paired with Bakugo of all people. He braced and I kept an eye on him as I listened for our mark to go.

"Ready?" Called our teacher.

"Bring it on!"

I just nodded, waiting.

I began to inhale as the teacher called "go!" and explosions started at my classmate's palms.

Everything stilled.

I jogged over to the other side of the track, since I didn't want this to last too long, lest I feel the effects too strongly. As soon as I was there, I breathed normally again.

I flinched at the sound of Bakugo's explosion behind me. I heard whispers and stared at my shoes.

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?" Bakugo demanded, just a few seconds later. He really was fast. I gave an insecure smile and shrugged. "Next!" Called Mr. Aizawa, so we moved out of the way.

"Is your quirk teleportation?" Uraraka asked me as I rejoined the group.

"Well…"

"No," Deku answered for me, seeming to be thinking hard, "Though none of us could see her move, she was still a little out of breath and you can tell her stance changed. You did run, didn't you?"

"You're good." I said cheerfully, feeling self-conscious, "Yeah, I jogged."

"JOGGED?" More than a few classmates exclaimed.

"Enough noise." Mr. Aizawa said, "We're moving onto the side steps. We want to see how many cycles you can complete in a minute." Great, another one where I had to use my quirk. Luckily, he had another of his devices recording, so it wouldn't look like I was cheating.

I was lucky to be in the second half of names called, because I saw some of the others and gauged what a high score would look like. People seemed to be averaging about thirty five cycles, one cycle being the movement from center to one line, back to center, to the other line, back to center. A few people used their quirks to push themselves in the correct directions more harshly, so the highest score was around sixty five, just over one cycle per second. If I could match or beat that, I'd be set. Ugh, it sounded exhausting though. And I couldn't take my time like I wanted to, since I knew for a fact I'd need my quirk for the final test. Jeez…

It was my turn and I took my place, uncomfortable at all the analytic gazes on me.

The timer started. I turned and confirmed,

"Now?"

"What's she doing, her time already started!"

"Move!"

But Mr. Aizawa met my eyes, calm,

"Yes, now."

I nodded. I inhaled. Everything quieted and stopped. Going quickly as I could, glad no one would see how out of shape I was, I repeated until I reached seventy. I exhaled sharply, letting everything rush back, panting.

"You still have time left on the clock, Manderly." The teacher told me.

"I'm gonna tap out or I'll be out of commission for the last test." I told him.

"What?!" A boy with yellow hair and electric powers cried, but our teacher just shrugged.

"Alright, then."

As we trudged over to the running track for the final test, I got some water from the water fountain and splashed my face.

"You alright?" I looked up to see the frog-like girl, Tsuyu Asui. She cocked her head and I smiled gratefully.

"I'm more out of shape than I thought." I confessed, walking alongside her, "Asui, right? But yeah, I'm good. Just one more test."

"Call me Tsu." She encouraged, then, "Speed and endurance." Tsuyu seemed glum, "Not my strengths."

"I wouldn't be too worried, no one here can beat you in agility, and you're way above average on everything else." She gave a genuine, if surprised, joyful look at me.

"Thanks, Juniper!"

The rules were explained. We'd go five at a time; each runner would have a marker of a different color. Every time we completed a lap, we'd mark the sheet Mr. Aizawa had set up. We had to complete as many laps as we could in five minutes. I grimaced.

"Manderly, Bakugo, Ida, Uraraka, Midorya. You're up." Ah, crap. I was hoping to do my averaging trick again. I had the very distinct feeling that Mr. Aizawa knew exactly what he was doing by making me first; it was his way of telling me to give it my all, not what I thought would be enough to be passable.

I decided it must have looked cocky to take my time starting last time, even though I knew I didn't need the whole minute. So I'd start right away this time, and pace myself. This was one where I could easily cheat, but what would be the point of that? I wanted to stay, yes, but not at any cost.

I braced along with the others, and activate my quirk when they began to move. Oof, I was tired already. The other bursts had been relatively short, but that combined with the actual physical exertion, I knew getting through this one would be tough.

I passed the others, admiring their foot work and different strategies, from going all out from the start to pacing themselves. Their faces were fully concentrated on their task. I'd never been in a class where everyone was this driven and interested in what they were doing.

I jogged the first lap, marked my yellow marker on the piece of paper, glanced at everyone, shivered.

I jogged a second. Marked it. My muscles were tense and complaining.

I walked the third. Marked. Then walked the fourth. Marked. I tried to jog the fifth, but switched back to walking halfway. Marked.

These guys were fast and their endurance was excellent; I didn't know how many they'd be able to do. If I did poorly on this one, with my quirk, it would reflect poorly on me. So I couldn't cut corners. I kept going.

By the tenth lap, my lungs and legs were on fire and it was hard to keep my eyes open. I was halfway to finishing the eleventh when…

I exhaled sharply and my knees buckled, barely staying upright. I could hear the ones not running talking from across the track, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. I felt ready to collapse. Damn it.

I flinched as Ida and Bakugo blazed past me. Deku ran by a few seconds later.

"Are you okay?" Uraraka stopped when she reached me, but I waved her off.

"Go, go," I panted, "Get your laps in, I'm good." With a determined nod, she did just that. I straightened. Ida flew past again and I winced, nearly losing my balance.

I walked around, around, until I reached the starting point. I marked my eleventh lap. I checked the time. Quite a bit left. So, still walking, I kept going around the track, sticking to the outer side to avoid getting trampled by the rest. I hoped what I'd done would be enough. This was a huge track, and by their progress, well, I just wasn't sure.

I ate half the time left finishing my twelfth lap. Just enough for one more, if I hurried a bit. Gritting my teeth, I jogged. I felt ridiculous, I was easily the slowest, I was deliriously tired. Only a fourth of the way in I had to stop and switch back to walking. The time was counting down, I had thirty seconds and a quarter of the way left. No use trying my quirk; it was rare, but when I stumbled out of it like that, I knew sustaining it again wouldn't work until I got some solid rest. It was my sign that I was overdoing it.

Ten seconds! Crap!
I moved to jogging and tried to up it to running but my knees wobbled and my lungs burned.

Time ran out when I was just ten paces away from the sheet.

"Ah, crap." I wheezed. I handed my marker back with a little nod and got a bottle of water with the others.

"…Juniper?" I blinked, realizing I'd zoned out, staring at the grass. I turned blearily to Deku.

"Hm?"

"We were just saying that you look like you could sit down." Uraraka explained.

"Ah." Right, I had to answer, "Thanks, but I'm okay." If I sat down now I'd fall asleep for sure. I held back a yawn, "I can stand."

"Nonsense." Ida said, "It'll be another ten minutes before the others finish and we get the results of the test, there's no reason not to sit."

Normally, I'd agree with him. But Mr. Aizawa had made such a point of not letting ourselves be incapacitated… I'd drop at some point, but I had to wait until after the results, or I knew I'd lose a lot of points.

"There's a tree with some nice shade over there, I'll make that my spot." I said with a tired smile. Uraraka thought it was a great idea and joined me. I leaned against the tree trunk, crossing my arms, while Uraraka sat in the shade.

"This is so nice!" She sighed, " We have a good view and since we went first, it's all over with!"

"That is nice." I murmured. A thought occurred to me, "Hey, would it be okay if I asked you a favor?"

"Of course!"

"Um, when Mr. Aizawa calls us, or it looks like he's about to, I need you to pinch me as hard as you can."

"Why would I do that?!"

"Ah, I overdid it." I confessed sheepishly, "And I want to make sure I'm focused for his final lecture."

"Well, okay." She accepted, "If you're sure…"

Though I was standing, arms crossed, back pressed against the uncomfortable bark of the tree, I also happened to be exceptionally talented at sleeping anywhere, anytime. This came doubly after a day like today. Somehow, I drifted off, holding my pose.

A sharp pain in my forearm made my arms slip and legs buckle. I stumbled to straighten myself.

"Coming!" Uraraka yelled, glancing to make sure I was up, "Good?"

"Perfect," I yawned, "Thank you."

We were led back to the classroom and told to sit. I eyed my desk with mistrust; it was far too comfortable a sleeping spot.

Our rankings were projected onto the board.