I stood outside the door to the classroom. It was my first day- even though the school year started five weeks ago. So why was I starting school so late? Well, let's just say it had to do with a "new found deformity" and my parents feeling the necessity to send me off to be with people equally as deformed. I opened the door and stepped inside.

The room was in disarray. The bell hadn't rung yet, and so the students were socializing with each other. I slid into the seat closest to the door and waited for the bell to ring while I studied the girl in front of me with blonde and red hair.

Unexpectedly, the girl with the odd-colored hair turned around and introduced herself to me. “Heya!" She smirked, "I'm Erika! You look... new...” She pointed to the front of the room where a grizzled old man sat, "That's our teacher... he's old, and losing his mind. He's supposed to sort us into good or bad grouping... but I'm not sure he'll be able to... I mean... kinda losing his mind, huh?" She surveyed me continuing, "Anyways, I'm not sure which one I'll be, but it's supposed to be measured by your power..." She smirked again, "Mine's... not usual... But anyway..,. what's yours?"

P-power?" I stammered. "I never thought of it as a power...but what do you mean by a good or bad power? Bad as if it's insufficient?” I hoped Erika didn’t notice how I was begging the question. "It's nice to meet you Erika, but I think I better go tell the professor who I am." I walked up to the professor, unaware that my rump was glowing.

“Um, excuse me?” I enquired of the white-bearded man. “I’m a new student starting today, and my name is Fiona Applegate.” I paused, while he took a few seconds to register what I just said. He nodded, as if he agreed with my name. I turned around and just as I was going to make my way back to my seat, the bell rang.

At first the noise level remained the same. The professor tried to calm the class, but his feeble voice didn't carry. A random voice from the crowd told everyone to "Shut up". He cleared his voice and started talking.

"Alright class, we have a new student. Her name is- what was it, dear? Oh yes- Fiona Applegate. Please show her the same courtesy-" His voice dropped off.

I turned to walk back to my desk, but saw Erika motioning for me to sit by her. As I sat down, she gave me a friendly smile and began conversing with me.

“My power is odd too! You see, I had this love for poppers and confetti shooters ya'know? Anything with a loud sound that made pretty colors!" She shrugged, "Anyways, one day I was playin' with these super duper shooters, and my brother whacks me on the back! So I lose my hold on the shooter just as it's about to go off... and... I swallowed it! From that day on I've been able to do... this!” She stretched out her fingers, and out came confetti and streamers of all shapes and colors. Erika laughed, "It's quite fun! What's your story?"

I was insanely relived. I was afraid that my glowing bottom would be the silliest power here, but Erika’s gave me hope. And since she indulged me about her power’s origin, I decided to tell my short little story.

“Well, my dad owns a power plant. He was taking us on a tour of the factory, when all of a sudden I tripped over something! I lost my balance and teetered over the railing! Gravity pulled me right into a container filled with radioactive liquid. Lucky for me, I caught myself in such a fashion that only my rump was dipped in. It gets really annoying sometimes, but I'm starting to learn how to control it. I'm not doing too hot now, though." I gave a sheepish look, and it glowed brighter for a second as if responding to the emotion.

“Whoa, that’s cool!” responded a voice coming from in front of Erika. A girl wearing funky-colored accessories and clothing turned around and shared her story as well. “My powers don’t have a beginning nearly half as interesting as yours.” She said with a grin. “Mine are just biological; my whole family can do something weird with their bodies. As for me, I can do this.” And suddenly, her arm fell onto the table. I could feel my mouth drop. Just as easily as it detached, the arm flew back to its original spot. “Except I can do that with any body part, not just my arm.” She said. I was thrown aback. To imagine that anyone could take apart her own body! Or that someone could shoot confetti out of her fingertips!

My musings were stopped short, though, when the professor blew his whistle. The chatter ceased, and he had us arrange ourselves in a single file line.

“Alright ladies and gents, you all know what this is all about. So let’s just get this done as quickly as we can, okay?”

I glanced at my new friends in confusion. Luckily, Erika caught the hint and elaborated for me. Apparently, I slid in on just the right day. The school was separated into two buildings; the heroes and the villains. Today was the day when, based on our powers, we would be assigned to one of the buildings permanently.

It seemed like days until he finally reached us. But just as he was about to diagnose the person in front of me, an alarm sounded. I jumped about five feet in the air from the harsh noise.

“Aw, man! What rotten timing! Of all the days!” responded the girl with the colorful clothes.

Erika put her hand on my shoulder. “That just means that some monster or something is attacking the school.” She explained. “No need to worry- look how well Izzy is taking it!” She gestured toward the other girl.

I gave them a blank look. “So…now what do we do?”

“We fight, o’ course!” Izzy responded enthusiastically. “Do you have a Supersuit?” Another blank stare.

“I think I know where we can find one for you!” Erika chipped in.

“Couldn’t I jus-“

“No! It’s much more fun to fight in a Supersuit!” exclaimed Izzy.

-

A few minutes later, I found myself decked out in a green and blue “Supersuit”. It seemed satisfactorily enough, but Izzy kept giving me weird looks. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“You need more color…and I know just what to do!” She dashed off to her backpack and pulled out two pink ribbons. Izzy ran back, and immediately started tying a bow in my hair. “You need something to keep that long air o’ yours up!” She exclaimed. “And while I’m here…” She tied a bow around my waist as well. “All better!” She chirped.

“Uh, shouldn’t we help fight, or something?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah! Absolutely!” Agreed Erika.

-

We arrived at the scene to find the rest of the class fighting off the hideous scaly monster. Eager to get in on the action, we ran around it to try and figure out what we could do. It didn’t help, especially when we ended up running into each other and pummeling to the ground. I was on top of the dog heap, and felt the eyes of the rest of the class on me. I began to feel embarrassed, and my bottom began to glow to match my emotion. “Sorry, guys!” I pleaded as I hoisted myself off Izzy and Erika.

“Look out behind you!” Shouted Erika. She exploded confetti out of her fingertips as if that would stop the monster from looking at us in bewilderment. I merely stood there, and Izzy threw her arm at the beast.

Izzy’s arm missed, and the monster seemed to roar with laughter. Meanwhile, our fellow classmates were able to subdue the beast. We had unintentionally provided a very successful distraction. I wasn’t sure whether to feel proud, or embarrassed.

As we were walking back to the classroom, Erika asked if I had a codename yet.

“A codename?”

“Yeah! Like a nickname for when you’re wearing your Supersuit! Have you thought of one already?”

“No….” I confessed. “But…what about Glow Girl? Or Lightbutt? Or maybe even-“

“I got it!” Shouted Izzy. “You could be Firefly! You’ve got the glowing derriere and the fire-like hair! It’s perfect!”

I smiled and nodded. Firefly…I liked it!

-

Finally back in the classroom, the professor was finishing up diagnosing our powers as “good” or “bad”. We were the last three in line, and it was about time he reached us! But before he told any of us our fate, he pulled out his clipboard.

“Well, how about that.” He said. “All the spots in the Hero Building have been filled. So you three will have to be assigned to the Villain Building! Enjoy!” With that the elderly man smiled and let us be.

We exchanged glances with each other. Villain Building?! This was going to be an interesting experience…