"This year's graduating class includes a number of firsts. First women to ever graduate the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy. The first Black student. The first Chinese student. It is only right that we honor this new decade, an era of change, by honoring the diversity of our students, and commend them for their perseverance and strength."
In the sixth row of graduates, twenty-six year old Nick Fury leaned over to Audrey Carter and mumbled, "They didn't even last forty seconds."
"I'm surprised it took them that long, honestly," Kelly Wu replied from Audrey's other side. She tucked her ink-black hair behind her ear. "I was half expecting them to plaster our faces on a mural by now. We're all one human race."
Audrey bit back a smile. "I didn't even get to be the first woman to graduate," she said, feigning disappointment. The Academy alternated between graduating students in alphabetical and reverse-alphabetical order, and this year was one for the latter. Kelly would be the first Chinese person and woman to graduate from the Academy ever, and the fourth person to graduate from their class.
"Ha," Kelly teased. "You were the first woman to matriculate, though. They gave you your badge before I got mine."
Audrey shrugged. Had they met under any other circumstances, she doubted that Kelly would spare her a second glance. While Audrey had arrived at the Academy with the intention of keeping her head down and surviving to graduation, her roommate had stumbled upon S.H.I.E.L.D. by happy accident and relied much more on impulse when it came to...everything, really. There was no doubt that Kelly was cooler than her in every possible respect, but she had been determined not to abandon Audrey. "There's only two of us. We have to look out for each other."
They'd met Nick during the first day of their Russian classes, and as the odd ones out of the otherwise all-white male student body, the three had quickly forged a friendship. "How long is this speech supposed to be?" Audrey muttered.
