Text"Raaaaaaaaarh!"
Aizawa-sensei had been right when he'd said that extending ones Quirk was absolute hell. All of them had been through intense exercise before, with training and gym classes pushing them to the limits of their physical abilities. Izuku in particular knew the pain of a serious work out, as that had been his entire life for ten months before receiving his life changing power.
This though, this was in an entirely different level.
Quirks were just biological extensions of the body, no different to an arm or to a leg, natural as breathing, and could be improved like a muscle, given enough use and honing. Just like a person, if they kept running, would be able to continue running for longer and longer, for wider distances. The way to push one's self with a Quirk was simply to use it more and more.
The drawbacks to Quirk usage though, was quite different. Overusing a Quirk gave its user a serious drawback in most cases, and they were fundamentally limited in what they could do. While an arm could be trained for strength, show, or just vanity, Quirks were a lot more streamlined, and had less versatility when it came to extending the use of one.
Mina, for example, could generate Acid, and the only way to extend her Quirk was to keep generating that Acid, over and over again.
Only downside was, when she used her Quirk so much, she lost her own natural resistance to it, meaning she could feel the effects of her power, on a more tolerable level, on herself.
And it freaking hurt.
"Ooooooow!" She hissed, secreting more and more of her corrosive liquid from her palms against the rocks in front of her. Her task was to erode as many of the rocks as she possibly could before they took a short break. At least fifty was her target, and she was to push beyond that fi she could. Failing to do so, according to Aizawa, would result in extra remedial lessons, on top of the ones that he was already giving her.
Did he even sleep at night? Mina had to wonder, if he even functioned like a regular human being at all. At this point, she wasn't sure if it was a well documented logical ruse or not, though she was certainly not even going to risk the possibility of doing more for even a slight second. So it was with her every single ounce of strength that she pushed herself well past her limits, and forced herself to keep her Quirk active for as long as absolutely possible. Despite how badly her skin stung, and how much pain she was in, she was refusing to back off for even a second.
Plus Ultra, after all.
Izuku wasn't letting the thrashing he was receiving from the transgender male Pussycat member Tiger - And that dude, as it turned out, could seriously throw a punch - Slow him down. While Izuku was certain to push his body to the limit, to mould his bestowed power into his own ability, the Hero he fought against was simply more experienced, and was easily putting him down time and time again. Determined to take on all the Strength Enhancement type Quirk users by himself, Tiger was both willing, and also very capable of doing so, keeping every single one of them at bay as he fought them off, evading them and countering each attack with his Pliabody Quirk.
Strength Enhancement types, Mina felt, did have some pretty cool powers. Simple yet versatile, they were pretty lucky in the number of things that they could do. Plus they were powerful, and often pretty flashy too. Still, as much as Mina did admire those who had those straightforward augmentation powers, she was very happy with her own Quirk. For all the issues that it did bring with it, she did like everything that he power let her do. She enjoyed how unique it was, and how, with training, her power would truly be a deadly power against Villains, and give her enough versatility to do what she wanted to.
So even though it hurt, she continued to pool as much Acid as she could within her palm. She wasn't able to generate a huge amount though. As she continued to use her Quirk, subsequent pools of the corrosive liquid became less and less effective and corrosive overall. It was because of this that she needed, according to Aizawa, to extend her Quirk.
Taking a sharp breath inwards, she took a step forward, and threw what little liquid she had managed to make, at the pile of rocks that she had been splashing with Acid all morning. While comparatively little compared to what she'd been able to produce earlier, it was still enough to at least dissolve some of the earth in front of her. She'd managed to erode about two thirds of it now, though the final third still looked like a mountain.
Her throbbing palms allowed her to feel her own blood pumping throughout her hands. "Oooooww..." If she did have one distaste towards her own Quirk though, it was that the drawback to overusing it freaking hurt.
Still, as a ranged Emitter type, her task wasn't too different to Bakugou's, which was exactly what she'd been hoping for. Looking over towards the blonde haired boy to whom she held genuine animosity towards, she saw that his hands were submerged in heating water, while he roared and kept activating his power within said water. How exactly this was helping him to extend his Quirk, Mina didn't have even the first clue, but what she was sure about from watching him was that he was struggling, just the same as everyone else.
Her initial plan had been to confront him during their session, but since they had all been so busy, she hadn't had the chance to do so. Her new plan involved waiting for their break, where she then would demand that he answer her questions regarding himself and Izuku. Since they were both under similar instructions, actually getting him to engage in a conversation wasn't going to be difficult.
She would get to the bottom of their hostility with one another, even if she had to take a few explosions to the face to do it.
Break time arrived. With just a few minutes to spare, Mina had succeeded in her assigned task, though her hands felt nothing but numbness and throbbing pain. Her breathing was ragged, and sweat was running down her forehead as she used her knees and arms to support her hunched over torso. Heavy breathing made its presence known, as everyone took in deep inhales, and let out loud exhales as their bodies craved oxygen.
Honestly, she had pushed her Quirk to the absolute brink, and she didn't think that she could generate any more Acid even if she wanted to. She'd gone far beyond her limits. Going further wouldn't improve her endurance, resistance, or her Quirk at all. All she'd succeed in doing was hurting herself, in the same way that hitting a punching bag after a person's knuckles started to bleed served to achieve nothing but self-harm.
The same was true for virtually every single student. Their bodies needed just a bit of time to recover, for their Quirks to reset, and regrow, before pushing themselves once again. That at least was the logic behind the break here. A lot of the students did seem surprised that they were even permitted to have one, half expecting to be pushed until the sun went down, or until they collapsed and were unable to even move.
Some students were already at that point anyway. For some students, like Kirishima, Ojiro and Tsuyu, whom all had Quirks that had effectiveness dependant on their physical state, the training was brutal, and more painful than it was for those who had Emission type powers. For them, unlike Emitter types, they weren't focused on extending their Quirks activation time, but the overall effectiveness of their Quirk. Which, in Kirishima's case, meant getting the crap kicked out of him over and over again while he tried to maintain his Hardening. All of them were covered in batters, scratched and bruises from their training.
Other cases included those like Kaminari, Sero, Mineta and Yaororozu and Mina herself, all pushed well beyond their normal bodily limitations. Like the pink girl, the Electrification, Tape, Pop-Off and Creation Quirk users were reaching a point where their Quirks were overall less effective and producing far less, all due to their overuse of their powers.
Then you had someone like Izuku, who, despite being as tired as just about everyone else, was in a small clustered group with other Strength Enhancement types, be them from Class 1A or Class 1B, all going over various methods of improvement, and making notes on the new Quirks that he'd seen today. The only person from his own class in said group was Rikido, someone he barely ever interacted with, but was doing so in order to discuss new attacking methods and ways in which they could push their Quirks.
"Is he... Always like this?" One of the Class 1B students questioned, clearly taken aback by the sheer amount of muttering, ideas and note taking that the green haired boy was doing. If Mina recalled, that particular student had the Quirk called Swivelling, and he was someone who Tiger had taken on as well as Izuku.
"You tend to get used to it." Rikido responded, long having adapted to the personality quirks of Izuku, as everyone else in Class 1A had.
"This dude's freakin' crazy."
Mina hadn't expected anything less from her boyfriend, managing to smile lightly at the sight of him and the four Strength Enhancers all grouped up. Of course he'd leap at the opportunity to compare tactics with other Strength Enhancement Quirk users. He'd leap at every single opportunity he got to get another person's perspective on how best to utilise a Quirk like theirs. She'd also thought he was a little bit crazy when she first started getting to know him, but that had all changed so dramatically when she learned, everything he did was simply in pursuit of becoming an amazing Hero.
The fact did remain though... He was a Hero in Training who didn't seem able to stand up for himself against his childhood bully.
Which returned Mina to her self-imposed task at hand - Getting information out of Bakugou and figuring out what on earth his problem was. How exactly she was going to go about doing that, she didn't really have the first idea. Her plan basically started and ended at just outright asking him, she hadn't thought about exactly what it was that she was going to say to make him spill the truth about the whole mess.
After a few moments of internal debate, she just decided that she'd wing it. Whatever happened, happened.
Scanning around for him for a few seconds, Mina spotted the Explosion Quirk user sat on his own by one of the rock piles that littered the area. He was fairly far away from everyone else, having gone out of his way to avoid having to socialize with anyone else.
Which was absolutely perfect for Mina. She wasn't going to have to deal with other people asking what she was doing talking to him, or have to have this no doubt destined to be argument right next to other people, or have to put up with other people telling her to back away from him when this devolved into shouting.
It was just her, and him.
She made a beeline right for him, which overall only took about thirty seconds to reach him. She had to go around a small group of Class B students who had all sat in a square on the ground with crossed legs, and another student who was just laid down on the floor, sprawled out wide. She stepped over that particular one, and then made her way right towards Bakugou.
His gaze or glare, whatever it was at that moment, was down, towards the ground in front of him. Primarily, it seemed like his focus was on healing and recovering his strength and stamina, and getting the feeling back into his hands so he could generate his sparks once more. Mina stepped right in front of him, looking down on the sat down teenager, and waiting for him to look up at her.
For a few moments, he didn't make any movement whatsoever, either because he didn't notice that someone was stood right there in front of him, or because he simply didn't care, and wanted them to get the message that he simply wasn't interested in whatever it was that they wanted him for. Mina didn't move though. She could have said something to him, to get hold of his attention, but she didn't, because frankly, she didn't want to say anything more to this guy than was absolutely necessary.
With a groan, and then finally looking up at the person in front of him, Bakugou growled and looked up at Mina, glaring her right in the eye. "What."
Red eyes and a fierce scowl, Bakugou had unleashed the same look he gave towards Izuku every time the two of them had to interact in any way. Considering that Izuku had been abused by his classmate for the majority of his life, and he associated that glare with incoming pain and belittlement, Mina couldn't blame him for being intimidated by it. And on Izuku, it might work. But Mina wasn't Izuku, and didn't share any of his meekness traits. Instead, she returned the glare right back at the agitated blonde haired boy without any signs of fear at all. "You and I need to have a talk, Bakugou."
A look of surprise - Or as close to one as it was ever going to be - Emerged on the Explosion Quirk users face. As it stood, he and Mina never spoke, not even on a semi-regular basis, and barely even interacted at all. Until yesterday, the two hadn't even really interacted at all, aside from that the Sports Festival, and even then, they'd barely spoken back then. Of course, Bakugou was completely aware of her and Izuku's relationship, as was everyone else after the announcement at Kaminari had unwittingly made. Interestingly though, out of everyone who had been there for that totally unnecessary public revelation of their relationship, Bakugou was the only person who was shown not to give a damn. In fact, his explosive reaction had been what had gotten everyone to back off the new couple. This had been months ago, though.
While Bakugou had claimed not to care back then, there was still some hostility from him that Mina and Izuku recognised towards them as individuals for different reasons. While it did seem at times that he had a bone to pick with everyone, this particular brand of rage was different. Like burning resentment, a whole new breed for the Explosion Quirk user.
For Izuku, he felt that once again, he'd been shown up by the same person whom he'd dismissed as pathetic, worthless, and little more than a pebble in the path to him becoming a Hero. In some ways, he was obviously jealous of Izuku for having a girlfriend, even though he'd made no effort to get involved in a romantic relationship with anyone in his entire life. It wasn't that he held any feelings for Mina, or seemingly anyone within their class, but that he saw it as a sign that Izuku was more popular than he was, a fact that caused him anger. Whenever something positive happened to Izuku, Bakugou just seemed to take it as a personal insult to him, no matter what it was, and how little it really did have to do with him.
When it came to Mina though, his feelings were more irritation focused than they were on the furious side of the spectrum. They weren't positive emotions, but they were less violent towards the Acid Quirk user than the One For All inheritor. He felt annoyance that she saw something in Izuku, angry that she couldn't see him for the Quirkless runt he was supposed to be. Irritated by her willingness to stand by him regardless of the situation. Otherwise though, he had no opinion about Mina whatsoever.
Frankly, he couldn't even remember her name. As far as he was concerned, she was just Izuku's girlfriend, with barely any other identity of her own, or factors or features that were worth any particular notice.
"The fuck do you want?" He questioned, hiding none of his dislike for the pink skinned girl. As he spoke, his fingers began to twitch, a sign of his already naked irritation. Given how his Quirk worked, it served as an intimidation tactic just as much as anything else did.
Taking a deep breath in through her nose, Mina closed her eyes as she exhaled out her mouth, before reopening her gold coloured eyes and made direct eye contact with him. "I want to know what your problem is with Izuku. I wanna know why you treat him the way you do."
Bakugou's expression changed slightly, to one that, to the closest it was going to get when it came to this guy, surprise and uncertainty. His eyebrows buried deeper into his eyes as he resumed his glare. This was the first time that anyone had ever directly challenged his treatment of Izuku. What was more, from his perspective, this question had come out of absolutely nowhere, from someone he never spoke to.
"What's it to you?"
"Aside from the fact I'm his girlfriend? Call it curiosity." Mina stated, folding her arms across her chest, and shifting her weight onto her left leg. Her eyes narrowed as she glared right back at Bakugou, not wavering in what she was doing. "Izuku's told me everything that you've done to him, and we've all seen the way you are with him. I know about all of it, so don't even bother trying to claim it's all a lie. I wanna know why you act this way towards him."
"That's none of your fucking business." Dismissing the inquiry with a harsh snap, not even waiting for Mina to finish her full sentence, cutting her off before she'd reached the final word. As he spoke, Bakugou turned his head away from the pink haired girl, like he expected that to be the absolute end of the conversation. The way he spoke made that perfectly clear.
Something Mina had already picked up on was the straight up unwillingness that Bakugou had to even talk about this particular subject, either because he was too tired, or because he simply didn't care. Maybe, beyond all doubt, he felt shame for his previous actions, and shame was exactly what he should feel, in Mina's eyes. He should be ashamed of everything that he'd done to Izuku, and that was putting it as mildly as possible. He should feel remorse and shame for his past transgressions.
Based on his personality though, she wasn't actually doubting much that it was because he was exhausted and wanted to spend his time right now recovering.
But she had absolutely no intention of just letting him get out of this discussion.
"It actually is my business, since it's my boyfriend you've just been attacking – "
"So, what, Deku couldn't fucking get the nerve to say any of this shit to my face so he sent you, Racoon Eyes? Is that what this is?" It marked the first time that Bakugou had yelled throughout this entire conversation, and as he did so, he immediately shot and stood right up, allowing him to tower well over the half a foot shorter girl. His explosive temperament, for the first time, made Mina flinch and step back for a second, and made her feel multiple pairs of eyes land on her back as they all heard the outburst by the Explosion Quirk user.
Everyone in Class 1A was just used to him and his loud, baseless threats, and had adapted themselves to them. Bakugou yelling was just like a cockerel calling in the morning, and everyone reacted to it about the same way. In a lot of cases, it was actually pretty funny seeing him angry, since he got so worked up over the smallest things. Very few people had been on the end of a totally serious, vindictive verbal blasting from him.
For the first time, Mina felt that same shiver down her spine that Izuku must have felt whenever he had to deal with his old classmate. Perhaps because she'd pushed him, perhaps because he grew more and more agitated when he was exhausted, or maybe because she was hitting a nerve with him on this particular topic. His short fuse had been lit, and he had burst out with fury immediately after.
Unlike Izuku though, Mina had dealt with her fair share of bullies in the past, and she knew how they worked, how they thought. She'd dealt with people who were just as intimidating as Bakugou in middle school, though certainly none were as loud, or had quite the same level of powerful Quirks.
When she recovered, she quickly regained her composure and responded with a sharp list of points for the angry blonde to chew on. "First, my name is not 'Racoon Eyes'. Second, Izuku's name is not 'Deku', and thirdly, Izuku had no idea I even planned on talking to you, and what does that have to do with anything in the first place?!" She could see Bakugou growling through clenched teeth, be it out of irritation or because he simply wanted nothing to do with this conversation.
Ironically though, he was distracting her from perusing the question that she had come over to get an answer for in the first place.
"What the hell makes you think that it's just okay for you to attack people like that?! What kind of Hero do you even want to be – In fact, why are you even here? You don't act like a Hero, you act like a spoiled brat!"
"Deku was just supposed to be a fucking pebble I could get out of my way whenever I felt like it!"
"Well he's not! He's more of a Hero than you are, and more of a Hero than you're ever going to be!"
"The fuck you say?!"
"He's actually here training wth his Quirk because he wants to help people! He's actually doing his best to become a good student and a good Hero! He studies hard and he trains harder! You know fully well that all he'd need to do is say a few words about the kind of treatment you have towards him, and you'd be totally alienated from everyone in the entire class! He could probably destroy any chance you have of being recruited by a Hero Agency if he seriously wanted to, but he doesn't even talk bad about you when I'm the one asking when we're on a date for God's sake! You know why? Because he's not just – Just a glorified bully with a powerful Quirk!"
"You want to see how powerful my fucking Quirk is, Racoon Eyes?!" Yelled the red eyed boy, throwing his clawed hands to his sides and letting loose a pair of small explosions within his palms. "You wanna try and threaten and insult me?! You wanna fight?!"
Instinctively, Mina allowed her arms to secrete her Acid as a defensive mechanism. Her body automatically positioned itself ready to engage in a fight. Realistically, she wasn't sure what sort of chances she'd have in a fight against someone like Bakugou, but if that was what it was going to come to, she was more than ready to throw down.
She was actually annoyed with the guy enough to go through with a brawl anyway. She actually wanted to go through with this. Her hands turned to fists as the two faced off, showing off their Quirks to one another as they waited to see if the other would either make the first move, or back down.
Bakugou wasn't going to back down at all, and both of them knew this perfectly well. Always itching for a fight, he already seemed to be spreading his lips to show off that shit-eating grin he always pulled whenever he was in a fight. The horned girl scowled at him, but stood equally ready to fight. She wasn't going to back down either, sufficiently angry with her boyfriend's bully that she was willing to fight him. Wanted to fight him.
So it was just a case of who was going to make the first move.
"Woah, woah woah woah woah! Bakugou, calm down!"
"Mina, stop it!"
Before the first move could be thrown however, Kirishima and Izuku quickly had ran between the two of them, respectively blocking the way of the individual they had a closer relationship towards, with Kirishima trying to get Bakugou to calm down, while Izuku had stepped in front of Mina before she could do anything stupid.
A look of panic was spread all over Izuku's face, wide eyes and his irises shaking in disbelief. How much of it had he actually heard, Mina questioned internally. Looking past him, she noticed that virtually all eyes, even those of the teachers and Pro's there, had landed on both her and the Explosion Quirk user. She wasn't sure when they had started staring at her, though she was convinced that it was the other boy's voice that had gotten their attention, since he was way louder than she was. Looking back towards her boyfriend, Mina could see the absolute surprise clearly evident on his face. He hadn't expected this in a thousand years. Static from his Quirk was just sparking off of his body – Clearly he had leaped over here in a hurry to stop the fight before it even began.
"Cool off, Bakugou! Just chill dude!" Kirishima was trying, in vain, to get the aggressive teenager to calm himself, trying to swat his hands down to his sides so his Quirk wouldn't pose a danger to anyone in his enraged state.
"Deku!" He yelled at Izuku, barely even two feet away from him at this stage. "Control your fucking psycho girlfriend, and tell her to mind her own fucking business about shit that doesn't concern her!"
"Screw you!" Mina yelled right back, with never before heard venom in her voice. Fury that no one had ever seen before on the Acid Quirk users face, or heard in her tone. She was displaying anger that honestly seemed to make her appear like a totally different person altogether. Mina with anger didn't seem to be Mina, but someone else that the class hadn't even met before.
Izuku especially was taken aback by this display of sheer anger, that he wasn't even sure what it was that he should do in this situation. Mina was normally so carefree that he had never seen her more than mildly annoyed before. This was a whole new monster.
"M-Mina, please, calm down – "
"No, screw that, I'm pissed off now!" She yelled at the top of her voice, one step short of pushing straight past Izuku and clocking the boy whom she held serious resentment for straight in the jaw, she yelled, "What the hell is your problem, Bakugou?!"
Totally disregarding her question, Bakugou just responded with a simple, yet effective, "Fuck you!"
Blinking sharply twice after looking over his shoulder as Kirishima pushed back the angry, explosive boy with the help of Kaminari running up to pull him away, Izuku turned back to Mina, his confusion in his wide eyes clear for everyone to see. "Mina, what – What's going on here? Why're you even talking to Kacchan in the first place?"
"The guy's a huge jerk." Mina growled. "He's just a bully who got lucky enough to be born with a powerful Quirk. He treats you and everyone like shit, and I want to know why."
Swearing wasn't something Mina did all that often, and never so vehemently violently. Was this just how she got when she was angry beyond all normal levels? Clearly, this was something she felt very strongly about, anyone who had a pair of working eyes could see that….
But still…
"Y-You shouldn't talk to him if it's gonna make you so angry…" Izuku said, taking her hand into his, and looking her in the eye. "It's… Not worth it. Kacchan's just… I know the way he treats me isn't okay… But I'm, I'm used to it, it's okay. You don't need to go and start a fight with him because of me…"
Blinking just as sharply as Izuku had a while ago, Mina looked up at her boyfriend.
In a state of shock, not quite able to believe what it was that she was hearing. Knowing Izuku though, he meant what he was saying. It almost sounded like resignation, acceptance of this situation. Like the status quo was okay, despite him knowing, and having vocally said before that it wasn't. She knew his anxiety around Bakugou – It was so well documented by just about anyone in the class – Prevented him from doing things like comparing himself to the egotistical prodigy, favourably anyway. It prevented him from thinking that he stood on equal footing with him, despite the fact that they did now, in terms of strength, at least in Mina's opinion. She was aware of his admiration of the boy for his confidence and refusal to give up. He at least had the sense to admire his positive traits…
But the fact that he was just so willing to allow his negative traits to go unpunished… Without a protest, or even a word of defiance… It was like she was talking to someone who had no self-respect. Born Quirkless, and knowing everything she knew… It wasn't like she didn't get it…
That being said though… She didn't have to like it. She didn't have to like it one little bit. And she didn't.
From the display that Bakugou had just given…. Mina was under no disillusion that he knew that what he was doing was wrong, messed up, only okay in his made up ideal that he was some sort of destined warrior and Hero of the people. Yuuei had broken down that narcissistic view of himself, as it did for pretty much anyone who entered the school thinking they were the best, and that had resulted in Bakugou knowing that he couldn't get away with his abusive behaviour anymore. She didn't doubt this for a second. Bakugou knew what he was doing was messed up.
He did it anyway though. And Izuku was just…
"…You're telling me to just let it go?" She questioned quietly, looking down towards the ground as she spoke. Her voice was calm, at least right now, if a bit wavy. She was quieter than normal, so Izuku had to actually listen very closely in order to hear anything that she said.
"Huh?" Confused as to what Mina meant, all Izuku could do in response was make a noise that conveyed that feeling. He wasn't sure what she meant by that, or what it was that she was trying to say.
"After everything he's done to you, the way he treats you, all the stories you've told me about him… After everything that's happened, you want to just let him get away with it? You're not even going to demand an answer from him yourself?" Her fingers gripped tightly onto his hand, tighter than was comfortable for the freckled boy. "How aren't you furious with him? I don't get it… How can you seriously just stand there and tell me that just because you're used to it, it's okay? Because, what, you don't think you're worth getting angry over?"
"Mina?"
"…It might not piss you off, Izuku…"
Suddenly, Mina, using all the strength in her arm, ripped her hand away from Izuku, glaring right into his green eyes, with a look of total, pure fury that Izuku rarely ever saw on anyone's face, and one that he'd never seen anything close to on Mina's before. Anger was such a foreign emotion to see expressed by his normally cheery girlfriend, it actually scared him to see it on her face, even more than it did when Bakugou screamed abuse at him.
And he'd never seen anything close to anger being directed towards him from Mina. It honestly freaked him out. She looked like she was so angry that she could kill someone – And with a Quirk like hers, it wouldn't even be a difficult task.
"…But it really makes so angry I wanted to use my Quirk to burn his eyes out!"
With such a violent declaration over and done with, Mina turned around in a huff, back towards the training field that everyone had just left. Ignoring any signals or calls out from her friends, who were, like Izuku, totally aghast at the display Mina had just given them. Tsuyu and Uraraka tried to approach her, but instead, the annoyed girl just picked up her pace, making a straight beeline for the pile of rocks she'd been working on eroding, her fingers dripping Acid as she made her way over.
In an effort to try to get her to stop, Izuku, though he was still shaken by the display that had gone down right in front of him, tried to call out to her. "M-Mina, we're on break for another hour – "
"Well I'm really fucking angry!" She yelled right back, before vanishing behind a pile of dirt as she made her way to her training area to vent her frustrations. She wasn't normally the kind of person to use violence as a way to express anger and let off steam, preferring more productive methods to deal with negative emotion. Internal ranting, gaming, watching some videos on the internet, something that she could refocus her attention onto.
But since none of those options were available to her, there was a first time for everything.