Z O E E 

        Zoee doesn't bother to change into other clothes to go over to Peter's house. She stays in her oversized sweatshirt because to her it's very comfortable and warm. Plus, she doesn't need to impress Peter. Why would she need to?

        After Zoee left her mother's room, she goes into the tiny living room and grabs her bag and keys. She leaves the place she now calls home by going through the front door and closing it behind her. She locks the door with her keys before making her way out of the apartment building she lives in. Zoee walks to Peter's house, stopping in front of it and looking up at it with raised eyebrows. Is she really going to do this? She has to, she already agreed to it. There is no going back now.

        She sighs out deeply before nodding to herself and walking up the porch's steps slowly. Once she reaches the front door, she softly knocks on it with her fist. She hears light footsteps approaching the door before the door actually opens. As the wooden door swung open, it reveals a woman that looks like she is in her late sixties, late seventies. She has shoulder-length wavy brown hair with light eyes. Zoee doesn't seen any resemblance of Peter in her so she gets confused for a moment. Was this Peter's house?

        "Hello there," greets this woman with a warm, kind smile. "You must be Zoee, correct?"

        Zoee wants to smile back to not seem rude to the nice woman but she can't. She hasn't smiled or shown any emotion in a long time so she can't bring herself to do so. So instead, she nods.

        The woman's smile grows bigger, some wrinkles creasing on her face as she motions Zoee to walk in with her hand. "Come in, come in!"

        Zoee nods again while the lady steps aside to give Zoee some room to walk in. Zoee steps in, immediately noticing a staircase to her right and a way to walk into the living room on her left. She doesn't know where to go until the woman walks to her and places a hand on her shoulder. "Come into the living room, Peter will be right down." She says, leading her to the living room. "Go and sit down, honey, make yourself comfortable."

        Zoee hesitantly walks over to the couch and sits down on the plush seating. She places her messenger bag on her lap and holds it there with her hands.

        "So I'm May, Peter's aunt, so you can call me Aunt May if you'd like." The woman, May, takes a seat next to Zoee, folding her hands on her lap. Zoee nods, licking her lips as then in walks in a man around May's age with graying hair. He goes to May and greets her with a kiss on the forehead before looking over at Zoee.

        "Is this the famous Zoee we can't stop hearing about?" The man smiles, standing by May. Zoee's eyes widen slightly as she raises her eyebrows.

        "This is Zoee, Ben." May confirms, nodding then chuckling softly at Zoee's reaction. "Peter talks about you all the time. All good things he's told us, all good things, don't worry."

        Zoee's lips twitch as she tries to smile again. Peter talks about her all the time? The thought of that brings butterflies to Zoee's stomach, even though she doesn't want to feel this way. She just met Peter, she can't be getting feelings for him.

        Zoee is brought out of her thoughts when May speaks to Ben. "Speaking of Peter, where is he? Ben, can you go get him?"

        Ben nods and walks off to find his nephew. Zoee shifts uncomfortably as he leaves her alone with May. Zoee obviously isn't good at talking to people or keeping conversations; she never has been and probably never will be. This gets Zoee anxious and panicky, especially when said people just stare at her. Zoee looks around the living room as May just observes her intently with a warm smile.

        A couple of moments later, loud and fast footsteps are heard from the stairs. Zoee looks over at the stairs and sees a familiar head of disheveled brown hair walking towards her.

        "There you are Peter! We've been waiting for you." May smiles up at her nephew.

        "Sorry." Peter apologizes sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck as he glances at Zoee.

        "Okay, you kids can go run along and study, Ben and I will be right here if you need us." May says as Peter nods and walks to Zoee. He offers her his hand for her to take. Zoee looks up at Peter before looking down at his outstretched hand. She hesitantly places her hand on his and grasps it softly. Peter helps her stand up, Zoee picking up her bag before she follows Peter to the staircase.

        Peter and Zoee walk up to the steps, going to the second floor of the house. Peter walks up to his closed bedroom door as Zoee watches him from a distance. He opens the door before looking back at Zoee and motioning her to go in with his hands. She takes slow steps towards his room while Peter walks in. When Zoee finally approaches the room, she peeks her head in and looks around.

        In Peter's room, to the right, there are two doors and a messy desk with a computer and a camera on it along with some clutter. She steps in to look more at the desk, and finds knickknacks and other small objects surrounding the computer and keyboard along with a cork board behind the computer. On the cork board, drawings and pictures are stuck to it with push pins, decorating it. But something specific catches Zoee's eyes. A picture of a girl in placed on the board, not with a push pin, but with tape.

        Zoee moves closer to the desk, wanting to take a look at this picture that interests her. It interests her because tape is used to stick it to the cork board, not a push pin. She wants to know why this picture is important that Peter didn't want to ruin it with a hole the push pin would make. Once Zoee is close enough to look properly at the picture, her eyes widen. The picture is of her at Miss Almond's support group drama class. She is wearing the embarrassing dress Miss Almond made her wear. 

        The dress was for a scene she needed to act out with other students to help all of them 'express their feelings'. Of course Zoee didn't act out what she was supposed to because she's an anti-social mute. The dress she was supposed to wear showed way too much skin for Zoee's liking, plus how was she supposed to go along with a script if she can't talk? So to avoid going along with that, Zoee went to the library to read her favorite book Fangirl instead of going to the group. Miss Almond would have to continue the group with someone else in her spot for the scene since she didn't want to slow down the group for everyone else because of one student. And that's what happened.

        Zoee's eyes are still big as she stares at the picture with a clenched jaw. She reaches up and grasps the picture, pulling it off of the cork board so hard that the picture almost teared. She whips around to face Peter who immediately looks away from her with his arms crossed. Zoee walks up to him and basically shoves the picture into his face, silently asking for an explanation.

        "Oh look, it's you! Where'd you get that from?" Peter trails off, turning around to try to distract himself. Zoee's face hardens as she reaches out and grabs Peter's wrist with her hand, turning him back around to face her again.

        When Peter sees her face, he holds back a wince. Zoee is giving him the coldest she can muster. Deep deep down, she feels bad since Peter looks terrified at her look, but she really wants to know why he has her picture hanging up in his room like some type of stalker.

        "Okay, look," Peter breathes out nervously. "I have that picture of you because I took it. You were looking so beautiful and I couldn't help myself. Not that you don't look beautiful everyday, you do! I was going to give this picture to you but I kept forgetting to bring it to school so I hung it up to remember to take it to you but I kept forgetting anyways. I'm really sorry, I swear I'm not a creep or anything."

        As Peter rambled, his face flushing a deep red while he nervously scratched the back of his head, the only thing Zoee can think is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful...he thinks I'm beautiful. Zoee turns her head to let herself blush while she bites her lip. She can't help it because she is attracted to Peter Parker. She hates to admit that she thought about Peter the rest of the day after they talked at lunch, the day they got assigned as partners. She thought about his boyish smile and his soft looking hair she low-key wished she could run her fingers through. It's like she was getting attached, even though they just met.

        At this thought, Zoee's eyes go wide but this time, they fill with tears. The last time she got attached to someone, they left her without a word. That someone was her father and ever he left and never came back, she promised herself that she wasn't going to get attached to anyone like that again because they are going to leave her at some point. She is going to save herself from more hurt.

        Zoee keeps her back facing Peter, so that he won't see her cry and start asking questions. She quickly blinks her tears away like she's used to doing since she really doesn't show emotions. She then turns back to face Peter who looks confused as to why she turned around like that. To keep him from asking any questions, she hands him the photograph of her and takes out her chemistry book from her bag. She shows him the book and a look or realization forms on his face.

        "Right, the project, we have to do it." Peter walks over to his desk and places the picture down before picking up his own chemistry book. "Let's get to it!"

new year, new chapter. so zoee finally met aunt may and uncle ben, how exciting! a little bit of angst at the end but who doesn't like a little sprinkle of angst? anyways, if you want, request what would you like to see with zoee and peter or with anyone really. your comments and votes are always loved and appreciated. :)