You did good

“I'm ready, Beetle, let’s go see how people remember me...us in a few decades” said Valmoda, the not-so-evil supervillain from TallHills Town.

She was raised by a long line of normal, boring people. That kind that never gets in trouble, the bullies that teachers love and never apologise. Valmoda, who was named Valerie by her mom, was…  not like them. Moving around all the time, having bad grades because she couldn't sit still, not many friends, and, according to her parents, she was “only good at being bad”. For years she felt like an outsider in her own family, her older brother never talked to her and the only ones who liked her were her younger sibling and cousins, who she used to play with all the time despite the age gap.

By the age of 17, she ran away from her parents home, in DeepRiver City, and decided to become a supervillain. She moved to the small town of TallHills, where there were many kids like her, so she continuously changed their grades, stood up to all the “grown ups” and even created a laser: The Ants in Buts -or TAB- that made kids and adults experience what she and many others felt.

But the greatest invention she made was the School Changes for the Ants virus. This one gave those who “can’t sit still” the benefit. Now classes were designed for people with not only math and linguistic intelligence, but for everyone. So evil… And now she wanted to see how her evil inventions caused chaos in the future. So Valmora and her sidekick Beetle travelled 30 years forward in time.

“What is this?” she asked, looking at a giant painting of her that prayed ‘The good Changer’ “I’m not good! I’m evil!”

“Well, apparently, not so evil” mumbled Beetle looking around, they grabbed a newspaper that was on the garbage can and read it to her “Hear this It’s been 35 years from the Schools reform, and we are forever grateful, for a kinder society and acceptance to all neurodiversity. Classes used to be only for a few, now children with all kinds of learning intelligence can go to class and not get silenced by an oppressive system that wanted to control them. We owe all this to our superhero: Valmoda Apparently… you did an amazing job.”

“Superhero?! Awe, man…” 

“Isn’t this a good thing?” Valerie looked at her friend in confusion and they held back the urge to face palm themselves, filled with patience, Beetle answered her “You made a great change, now kids don't have to feel the way you felt for years! It proves that your family was wrong: you are good at being good.”

“Oh wow… if they were wrong about this, then imagine all the other things they were wrong about! Maybe I can get a degree in Physics after all” she exclaimed, but Beetle laughed:

“You created a time traveling machine, Val” they said, and apparently, their friend hadn’t realised the mathematical and physical miracle she had accomplished. “And a Virus and a machine that changed the way brains were composed in the neurotypical population, all of this, without having mayor health repercussions”

“You mean I’m smart?” Valerie's eyes opened in excitement, all her life she thought she was not good at anything; teachers, familiars, employers, everyone had her believe that she could never do anything ground changing. But here they were, being a superhero.

“You are absolutely amazing”

They both travelled back to their time, and Valerie continued making inventions to help people like her. Beetle opened a coffee shop in the first level of the base, and Valerie worked there every now and then, gave speeches to the younger generations. 

One day, without any of them expecting it, an older lady with the same eyes as Valmoda came in. Beetle, vibing with excitement, ran downstairs to get their superhero. They grabbed her by the arm and pulled them to the coffee shop, where the lady was sitting facing the other way. But Valerie didn’t need to see her face to recognize her, the purse on her side was the same se had years back, and the dress she was wearing held memories from her childhood. Val walked up to her, at a painfully slow pace, shaking and nervously stimming, she reached to the lady's shoulder, making her look at her kid. It was the face of the woman who always told her how worthless she was, it was the face of her mom who looked at her with an expression she had never seen before from anyone but Beetle; she was proud.

“Hello, Valeria” she said, with a heavy Argentinian accent and pronouncing her daughter's name in Spanish.

“Hola, mamá” Val replied, in a messy spanish and with teary eyes. Since the day she and Beetle travelled to the future she was meaning to call her mother, but always got busy or distracted, and now she was there, looking centuries older but holding the same smile in her lips. Valerie sat across the table from her, pulling on her fingers and trying not to bite on her nails. Beetle served them a black coffee and cookies, and before going back to staring from a distance they squished their friends' shoulders.

“I heard what you did in this town, Valeria” her mum said, her daughter's eyes stared into hers, wondering whether it was a good or a bad thing. 

“Yeah… I guess I’m not only good at being bad, mamá” her words carried all the pain she felt for years and her mum nodded, knowing how her kid felt. She grabbed Val’s hand for the first time since she was helping her how to cross the road, and said:

“I’m really sorry for making you believe you were not good, I was wrong” Valerie’s jaw dropped, it was the first time since she was born that she heard her mum ever say such words. “I’m really proud of you, m’hija”