Homework in June sucked.

As Cassandra exited the training room, she instinctively checked the time from her phone. 3:12pm - she could spare a moment for a shower. And maybe a nap. But the unfinished schedule proposal due that evening loomed heavy over her head, and she wasted no time on her way out and back to her dorm.

"Cassie! We're going to the cafeteria, you coming?" one of her classmates called out behind her.

"Sorry, I've got work to do," she responded, waving them off. It came out more dismissive than she had intended, but she knew her friends understood.

"Yeah, yeah. Get some sleep, you look like a zombie!" another one of them called after her, and she allowed herself a smile.

"You needed to hit my head a little harder if you wanted that, noodle-arms!" she called back to him, and was pretty sure that if she had turned around she would have seen a friendly rude gesture from her sparring partner. As she began to brainstorm for her assignment, her classmates turned a separate corner, and the laughing, jovial sounds of hard-earned freedom faded away as they walked.

Class 15 of Wing Academy had done it. Three years of hero training, finally complete. Three years of homework, sparring, projects, internships, exams, and practical testing (not to mention the actual battles against villains - unsurprisingly, not on the standard curriculum list), finished with aplomb. They had all aced their third year finals, and they were all official heroes. The graduation celebration was just a formality and a show for the public - albeit an enormous one.

Heroes lived in the public eye, and the introduction of new knights of peace and justice was practically a holiday for the area around any academy or training program. The students-turning-graduates would have their moment to walk across the podium and accept their diplomas like any graduation, of course, but the majority of the celebration was more like a carnival or a festival. An entire urban fairground of games, food, and enough hero merchandise to make a collector cry. The students would mingle with the crowds, make speeches, pose for the cameras, show off their quirks to excited kids, and prove to the world that they could be its next guardians.

And Cassie was in charge of it.

Signing up to be the planner had seemed like such an obvious idea at the time. It wasn't required for a student to run graduation, of course, and if no one volunteered, the school would simply hire an event planner, but when the chance was presented in class Cassie's hand shot up like a rocket. She knew planning graduation would be a big ribbon on her resume: event management, task delegation, public relations, and more. She was confident it would help her stand out against other candidates for hero station positions, sidekick work, media opportunities, and more. Although, she had to admit the lack of enthusiasm from her classmates (even the ones usually more gung-ho about things like extra credit than her) did make her wonder if she was overestimating the rewards to the job.

No point wondering now, she reminded herself with reaffirmed resolve. After her long, pondering walk through the campus, Cassie stepped into her familiar dorm room (soon she would have to deal with the complicated feelings of leaving it behind, but not yet, not while she had work to do) and tossed her gym bag to the side. Shower first, then nap, then back to the grind.

Thankfully, third year dorms had personal bathrooms instead of the communal showers of the underclassmen, and she sighed blissfully once the warm water hit her dark skin. Her long, braided hair with streaks of dyed blond fell down her back, and she began to almost feel like a functioning human again. Although there was already plenty on her mind, she couldn't help but run through a list of the class's responsibilities that weren't related to graduation.

Training was eternal, of course. Even as much as she had to do today, she knew she couldn't slack in conditioning and sparring (even if she got her ass handed to her today by her classmates). The weeks after finals were a time to rest their brains and their spirits, but heroes never got to rest their bodies for long. It would not be a good look to show up on the first day of the job out of practice.

Speaking of jobs, most of the summer would probably be spent applying and preparing for their first real positions. The Hero Commission had final say on what heroes went where (and final say on everything else in the world of heroics), but some spots were more prestigious than others, some payed better, and so forth. The spirit of competition was alive and well in heroism, for better or worse. Cassie didn't have anything specific lined up yet - that was one of the things she had hoped a successful graduation management would help her with.

Jobs would be a summer problem, though. More pressing was Media Day. With their newly acquired full hero licensure came a slew of interviews, photos, and more. Cassie smiled sardonically to herself. Every hero's favorite part of the job - smile for the cameras. It was sarcasm for some people, but for some it couldn't be more accurate. Regardless of personal feelings, these media shoots were a very big deal. Part of the graduation ceremonies were certainly showing themselves off, of course, but the graduation physical festivities were more of a local community thing. The Media Day photos and interviews would go everywhere, and could very well make or break a hero's initial debut.

Cassie wasn't a natural charmer like some of her compatriots, but she could get by. Her schtick was more of the 'reliable, diligent young woman' vibe than anything showy, so as long as she could prove that she was hero material, she'd be fine. Good - she needed all of the bandwidth she could get to make sure graduation was perfect.

And it would be perfect. Stepping out of the shower and surrounded by steam, Cassie pumped a fist to herself. No matter what happened, she would make sure her class had the best graduation ever.

Besides, it was just a big party. What could go wrong?

A/N:

Welcome to Mortarboard! This is a MHA SYOC fic about a hero class graduation gone very wrong, and then hopefully right again. A lot of the chapters, especially early on, will be more focused on character interactions and slice-of-life stuff, but there WILL be action, especially as we get closer to graduation itself. I'm mostly going to use it as writing practice and exercise, but I'm hoping to get some good feels and action in regardless.

As such, please don't be afraid to be critical! If something on the page doesn't roll well or comes off strange, I'd really love to be told - there might be a reason for it being the way it is, but I still want to know.

Update 5/30/23: Submissions are now closed! Thank you to everone who submitted, and a list of submissions are on my profile.

Thanks for reading!