𝐊𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐂𝟔

—♞—

"𝐄𝐗𝐂𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐃?" 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐍 𝐇𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐃 as she washed the dishes, the lavender scent of the bubbly dish soap filling the kitchen as the running water slapped against the sink.

"I think nervous is the better word," Kara mumbled, tucking her dark strands of hair behind her ears. She grabbed the grey backpack that had been leaning against the table and slipped it on. "I just wish my friends were going to this school."

"You'll make plenty of new friends, I'm sure." Helen gave her a reassuring smile as she took off the yellow rubber gloves she had on, resting them over the edge of the now-empty sink. She walked over to Kara and planted a kiss on her head. "When I came here, I didn't know anyone! But now, I have friends, don't I?"

"Yeah, but . . . it was for work! You had to make friends! Plus, you work for Uncle Tony, anyone would want to be your friend," Kara protested with a sigh. "And not to mention," she continued with raised eyebrows, "you're a world-renowned geneticist and the leader of U-GIN! You're the Helen Cho."

"And you're the Kara Cho," Helen laughed lightly, smoothing down the back of Kara's straight hair. "You don't need to stress over it so much, honey. Making friends will come naturally. Plus, school itself is much more important."

Kara sighed. "Yeah."

She then noticed the clock that was hung on the grey wall opposite her, realizing that her bus would be arriving in five minutes. She gave a quick kiss goodbye to her mother, who gave a wish of good luck in return, before swiftly tying her shoelaces and dashing out the door.

Kara got off her school bus and headed toward the tall, elegant building that was her school. She had visited it a few times before—for the tour, orientation, and such—but she still couldn't believe that such a fancy building could be a school.

Having received her schedule in the summer, Kara already knew her way to her first class, which was ninth-grade chemistry. She wasn't too upset with that either, chemistry was a subject she enjoyed quite thoroughly (although she had almost blown up her mom's lab when she was younger—by accident, of course).

As she walked toward the classroom, she was unsure of whether the feeling in her stomach was one of excitement, anxiety, or dread. Perhaps a combination of all three?

Kara walked into the classroom, and judging by the lack of life inside, was one of the first to enter. She looked around the room as she walked, her eyes slightly narrowed as she analyzed it.

There were four rows of long, wooden lab benches that acted as desks, most of the seats still empty. There were wooden shelves that lined the walls, occupied by bottles that Kara assumed were filled with different sorts of chemicals.

The teacher seemed to have put some extra effort into decorating the class, having plastered brightly coloured posters on the wall, both with encouraging words and scientific jokes that were quite terrible.

She took a seat at the lab bench in the front, hoping that whoever sat on either side of her wouldn't be too bad.

As ten past eight grew nearer, more and more students began to file into the class, taking their seats and preparing for the beginning of class. Eventually, two boys approached the side of the lab bench that Kara was sitting at, chatting casually about something as they walked.

One of them had parted dark hair, had tanned skin and seemed to be Asian. He had a red golf shirt on, the top buttons undone to reveal a navy blue shirt underneath. His lips were parted into a goofy smile as he told his friend a joke, nudging his side.

The friend seemed to be a bit taller than Kara, with short, light brown hair, and he was holding his binder close to his chest. He was wearing a black sweater that had a small R2-D2 stitched onto the left breast, the shiny add-on standing out from the otherwise bland top.

He was pretty cute, so Kara had no reason to complain as he asked, "Uh, hey, is-is this seat taken?" He gestured to the seat to her right, which was at the end of the lab bench.

His friend's eyebrows furrowed as he looked towards the spot, now seeming confused since there was no seat next to that one.

Kara gave him a friendly smile as she shook her head. "No, you can sit there."

"Thanks." The cute boy returned the smile before sitting down in the seat, placing his plastic binder in front of him. "I'm, um, Peter Parker, by the way. And that's Ned." He nodded toward his friend, who had decided to take the spot on the other side of Kara.

Kara internally groaned. The cute boy had the same name as one of her close friends, Peter Maximoff. She had known him ever since she was six years old, so having to refer to another person by that name . . . felt strange.

Sure, it's just a name, but Peter Maximoff was like a big brother to her, so it didn't feel right. She didn't want to associate a cute boy with the same one she wrestled with every other second. Maybe if this Peter was named Karl, like her mom's succulent, everything would be fine. But his name wasn't Karl, so everything was not fine.

Kara liked to consider herself a supreme nickname-giving queen, but for this Peter, she settled for his last name. It wasn't as if she knew anything else about him that she could make a nickname with, anyway. Unless she called him 'Period One Chemistry,' which she wasn't going to do.

Parker it was.

"I'm Kara," she introduced herself to the boys with a smile. "Nice to meet you guys!"

"You, too!" Ned grinned. "What's your schedule like?"

Kara took out the blue sheet of paper that was in her binder and handed it to him. His eyes drifted between his and her schedule, matching up which classes they had together before handing it back to her with a grin.

"Cool! We have all the same classes!" Ned exclaimed before gesturing towards Peter. "Peter, too!"

"That's great!" Kara smiled, putting her paper back into her binder. At least she now knew two people in her classes.

Ned surveyed the room for a moment, before turning back to Kara and asking, "Do you know anyone else here?"

Kara shook her head. "Nah, all my friends went to Maspeth."

"Aw, that sucks." Ned frowned before offering, "Maybe we could stick together, then."

She grinned and gave him a nod. "Sounds good to me."

Maybe making friends was easy, just as her mother had said. . . .

Not too long after, the teacher arrived at the classroom, introducing himself to the students as Mr. Cobbwell. The class flew by rather quickly, with him going over the syllabus and explaining what was to be expected that year.

After an hour and some had passed, the bell rang, signalling the end of class. The students began to get up, the sound of scuffling shoes and binders closing accompanying the chatter that filled the air.

"English is in room one-oh-two," announced Ned to the other two after checking his schedule.

"Oh!" Kara nodded as she recalled the room that she had visited during the tour. "That room's down the hall and to the left."

Ned clutched his binder close to his chest as he gave a grin. "Let's go."

The English classroom had quite a homey feel to it as the trio entered the room, with the warm daylight that streamed through the large windows, and the multiple bookshelves that stood in the corners, stuffed with different books.

This class, along with the biology class that had followed, proceeded in a similar fashion to which chemistry had gone. The teacher would drone on about plagiarism, the limited amount of lates a student was allowed before detention, consequences of cheating . . .

There was no day Kara hated more. The first day of school was exactly the same, no matter which grade she was in. And it was just plain boring.

As the three made their way to the busy cafeteria, Ned questioned, "So, Kara, what do you wanna be when you're older?"

After their introductions, Kara had almost immediately noticed that Ned was most definitely more of the talkative one out of the two boys; Peter had barely spoken any words to her since he first talked to her in chemistry. Kara hoped that it was more because he was shy, and not because he didn't like her.

"I've always wanted to be a geneticist, like my mom," Kara told them with a small shrug as they found an empty table, and she sat down across from the two boys. "What about you?"

"Whoa, that's cool! I think I want to do something with computer science, I'm not too sure what though." Ned grinned as he unzipped his lunch bag, revealing the packed food that sat inside.

"Oh, that's nice! Computer science is really interesting!" Kara exclaimed before looking at the other boy. "What about you, Parker?"

Peter gave a small shrug, his cheeks a little flushed. "Oh, I-I'm not too sure yet, probably something with, uh, science."

"I mean, we are only in grade nine, anyway," she reassured him with a nod, "it's okay not to know yet."

"Yeah, there are so many jobs that you can choose from too!" Ned agreed, patting his friend's shoulder. "Don't worry, Pete, I'm sure you'll figure it out by the time we're applying to colleges."

Peter only nodded to this, his eyes seeming to be focused on the red apple in his hand.

"So your mom is a geneticist, right?" Ned asked as he looked back at Kara. "What about your dad? What does he do?"

"Well . . . my father left my mom before I was born, so I don't really know him." Kara gave a small shrug as she continued to eat her sandwich. "He's off in Korea somewhere, I guess."

She didn't really know anything about her father, as her mom always refused to tell her about him whenever she asked. Her mom always just said that he was a 'selfish bastard who doesn't even deserve having his name said out loud.'

Ned gave her a small smile before murmuring, "Sorry."

"It's fine, it's not like I knew him or anything," she reassured him as she shook her head. "What about you guys? What do your parents do?"

"My dad is an engineer, and my mom is an accountant," Ned told her as he took a bite of his apple.

"Oh, that's cool!" Kara grinned before turning to the other boy and questioning, "What about you Parker?"

"Um . . . my parents died when I was young," Peter said quietly, "but I live with my Aunt May, a-and she's a nurse."

Kara instantly covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes widening. "Oh, I'm sorry. . . ."

Peter gave her a small smile as he shook his head and assured her, "It's okay, it's been a while."

Ned's eyes lit up as a thought suddenly struck him. "Oh! By the way, did you know . . ."

Ned continued to talk to Kara for the rest of the day, and she could say with confidence that they were friends by the end. Peter—not so much. He had mainly responded to questions with shakes or nods of his head, not saying much more apart from them.

After Kara was back home, she grabbed a granola bar from the kitchen and instantly headed for her room, stuffing half of the snack into her mouth as she unlocked her phone.

She finished the rest of the bar as she plopped onto her soft bed and scrolled through her contacts list. There was one person she needed to Facetime and talk to: Amelia Stark.

Amelia Stark was Kara's best friend and had been since Kara was a year old. Amelia was adopted by Tony Stark, but her energy manipulation powers were exposed to the world, so she had to be sent to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, which was, unfortunately, a little far away from Queens.

Even with the distance, the two Facetimed at least once a week, keeping true to the promise that they had made when she had first moved away.

Amelia picked up, an enormous grin on her face as she brushed her brown curls behind her shoulder. "Hey, high schooler! How was your first day in smart school?"

"It was good!" Kara giggled as she laid back on her fluffy, white pillows, her dark hair sprawling across. "I have chem first period, so that's super fun!"

"Oof, that sounds like it's gonna be a long year." Amelia crinkled her freckled nose as she settled on top of her bed, the camera shaking slightly as she did so.

"What? No! That class is fun!" Kara protested earnestly, shaking her head.

Amelia laughed at her defensiveness. "I forgot, you're even weirder than I am."

"That's not weird, it's perfectly normal," Kara said matter-of-factly, a serious expression on her face as she gave a curt nod. "A lot of people love chemistry. That's why people become chemists."

"What's normal is the fact that there has to be at least one cute guy, and I need all the details. I can see it in your face, spill right now."

Kara shook her head in amusement. Of course, this was what Amelia wanted to talk about.

"What? Psh, no. No cute boys. Only ugly ones," Kara lied. It was no use, however, because she knew that Amelia would be able to see right through her lie, as usual. It also didn't help that Kara sucked at lying.

Amelia squinted her brown eyes at Kara as she moved her face closer to the screen, now suspicious as she slowly said, "Of course, there are the ugly ones . . . and the cute one you're already crushing on."

Kara didn't say anything, silently cursing the girl for knowing her so well.

"I knew it! Now come on, tell me!"

"Fine." Kara sighed in defeat. "There's this one boy, he's pretty quiet, but he's super cute. I was with him and his friend all day because we have all the same classes. Also," she added with a grin, "you will never guess what his name is!"

"Um . . ." Amelia pressed her lips together in thought for a moment before guessing, "Jeff."

Kara furrowed her eyebrows. "Why would you guess that? Obviously not."

"What's wrong with Jeff?" Amelia gasped. "Have you seriously forgotten about Jeff Fungus?"

"Nothing is wrong with Jeff, but why would I be excited about that?" Kara laughed. "And Jeff Fungus is . . . Anyway, guess for real!"

"Bob. Jerry. George. Mowgli. Obi-Wan Kenobi. Frodo Baggins. Harry Potter—"

"Okay, okay, I'll just tell you." Kara gave in with a roll of the eyes. "His name is Peter!"

Her eyes widened. "Shut up!"

Amelia's boyfriend, who was a speedster at the Mansion, was the Peter Maximoff that Kara was so close to. Naturally, Kara knew that Amelia would become very excited at the idea of both boys having the same name.

"Yeah" —Kara nodded— "his name is Peter!"

"Oh my God! We're both going to end up with boyfriends with the same name!" Amelia squealed as she clapped her hands together. "That's so cute!"

"Nah, I don't think he likes me like that." Kara frowned. "He barely talked to me today."

"That's because you're so fantastic that he was rendered speechless," she insisted with a serious nod. "Guaranteed."

"Uh-huh, sure." 

Amelia gave her an incredulous look. "Don't you think so?"

"No!" 

She waved a dismissive hand. "Well, come on, tell me what he looks like!"

"Here, I'll send a picture, one sec." Kara went onto Instagram and searched for his account. After finding a cute picture of him (which wasn't that difficult, they were all cute pictures of him), she took a screenshot and sent it to her.

Amelia's face was replaced with a grey screen as she went to check the picture. "Damn, he's a cutie!" she exclaimed as she came back onto Facetime.

A smile crept onto Kara's face as she nodded in agreement. "He really is."

She paused for a second before squinting her eyes. "Does he like Harry Potter?"

"I already told you that he barely talked to me, how would I know if he liked Harry Potter?" Kara furrowed her eyebrows, chuckling at her logic.

"Well you've gotta give me something here, Kara, I'm practically bursting at the seams!" she exclaimed. "You haven't had a real crush since Milan in sixth grade!"

Kara scrunched her nose at the memories associated with the boy's name. Amelia and Peter had teased her so much about it at the time that the only way to get them to stop was if she covered her ears and sang loudly.

"Ugh, don't even talk about Milan." Kara sighed as she shook her head. "And um . . . Well . . . the only thing I really know about Peter is that his parents are dead."

Amelia paused. ". . . That is not what I thought you were going to say."

"Yeah, but . . . Oh, wait!" Kara remembered the R2-D2 sweater Peter had worn that day and quickly told her, "He wore a Star Wars sweater, so I assume he likes Star Wars."

Amelia's eyes widened at the mention of her favourite franchise and she grinned. "No way! Kara, I like this boy already."

"Great, if you two ever meet, make sure to nerd out when I'm not in the room," Kara giggled.

She quirked an eyebrow at her words. "You assume I'm not going to meet this boy, hm?"

"I mean, it's only been one day!" Kara defended with a shrug. What if their friendship didn't go beyond the first day? Of course, that's exactly the opposite of what Kara wanted, but anything was possible.

"So what? Giselle and Prince Edward fell in love at first sight and they were going to get married the next day," Amelia countered.

Kara squinted her eyes as she shook her head. "Yeah . . . I don't think that that's what's happening here. My life isn't Enchanted."

"Does he have any friends? Cute friends?" Amelia continued, wiggling her eyebrows again.

"I mean . . . Ned. He's like a little brother kind of cute." Kara shrugged. "I think that's it."

"Look at you, social little butterfly. Making two friends on her first day of high school," Amelia said brightly, giving an encouraging nod. "And hey, maybe just invite me over and my people magnet will make you the most popular kid in school."

"Mhm, I'm sure it will," Kara laughed as Amelia gave her a finger gun and wink.

"Of course it will, I'm a pleasure to be around." Amelia grinned while flipping her hair to the side.

"Uh-huh, right."

Her expression soon became serious and she gave a slow nod. "I'm as much a pain in the ass as you are, and I pray for your Peter. Deeply."

Kara feigned offence as she gasped and held a hand against her chest. "Woooow, okay. Hurtful. I'm so offended right now. Are you saying I'm as annoying as you are?"

"Are you saying I'm annoying?" Amelia questioned, her eyes narrowing as she leaned forward.

" . . . No?"

"Ha. Ha." She rolled her eyes, though an amused smile played on her face. "Ha."

—♞—

"Hey, Parker!" Kara grinned as the boy sat down in his usual seat next to her, placing his binder in front of him.

A couple of weeks had passed since the beginning of school, and Kara had grown quite close with Ned and Peter. Well . . . mostly Ned.

To her delight, Peter's begun to talk a lot more around her, but usually seemed a bit nervous and reserved whenever he did so.

"Hi, Kara," he greeted with a smile as he took his blue chemistry notebook out, moving his binder further up the lab bench.

Kara's eyebrows furrowed as she noticed the missing presence on her left. "Where's Ned?"

Usually, he and Peter came to class together, talking about the most random things. The weirdest thing so far was their guesses on how many markers they could ingest before they would die of ink poisoning (Peter's guess was twenty-four, while Ned's was three hundred and two).

"Oh, he's, uh, sick today. He said he had like three-quarters of a tub of yogurt yesterday, and somehow, um, missed the fact that it had expired," Peter explained, running a hand through his brown hair.

"Oh no, that sucks." Kara frowned. "I guess it's just you and me today, then."

"Yeah, I—I guess so." He gave her a nervous smile, the tips of his ears reddening.

The bell then rang, causing Mr. Cobbwell to get up from his desk and instruct, "All right, open your textbooks to page two hundred and eighty-four, we'll be taking up the answers for questions one to fifteen."

"Shoot," Kara heard Peter mutter from beside her, a small groan escaping his lips.

"What's wrong?" she whispered as she turned to face him, tilting her head as she gazed at his worried expression.

"I, uh . . . ," he sighed before continuing, "forgot to do the homework."

"Wow, Peter Parker forgot to do his homework?" she teased. "Don't worry, you can just read my answer if he calls on you."

She pulled her notebook so that it was in between the two of them, the answers being perfectly visible from both of their views.

"Really?" He gave a small sigh of relief before shooting her an adorable grin. "Thanks."

"No problem." She smiled back before turning to face the teacher.

As the first three classes passed, Kara could tell that Peter was beginning to finally relax around her, thankfully. It was a lot more fun to talk to him now that he was actually talking.

"So, what's your favourite video game?" Kara asked Peter as they sat down at their usual table in the cafeteria, the crowded room making it slightly difficult to hear.

"Probably Super Smash Bros. I play it all the time with Ned," Peter answered, opening his lunch.

"Oh, I love Super Smash Bros!" Kara played that game with Amelia and Peter Maximoff whenever they visited, with her and Amelia usually taking turns in last place while Peter reigned champion. "Who's your favourite character?"

"Wario, obviously." Peter grinned as he unwrapped a granola bar.

The smile on her face dropped as a horrified expression took place. "Wario?"

". . . Yeah?" He stopped chewing as he looked at her with wide eyes, worried that he had said something wrong (which he had).

"Oh Parker, Parker, Parker . . ." She shook her head, the brown strands of hair falling in front of her face. "Wario is the absolute worst character out of them all! Yoshi is where it's at, my dear friend."

"Yoshi?" he asked incredulously, laughing. "No way! Yoshi sucks!"

"Hey! Let me tell you, Yoshi is not only adorable and has the cutest voice ever, but is also powerful and will smash you into a million pieces without hesitating." She counted on her fingers as she listed Yoshi's qualities. "Wario, on the other hand, has an ugly voice, ugly face, ugly personality, and sucks."

"That's where you have it all wrong, Kara. Sure, Yoshi's adorable, but Wario is strong! He's underestimated because of his short body, but he's super awesome," Peter argued, shaking his head wildly.

"I don't care, you can't change my mind," Kara insisted as she folded her arms. "I love Yoshi."

"You know what? One day, we'll play the game and I'll show you that Wario is the best," Peter promised, narrowing his eyes.

Peter was a completely different person now that he was actually comfortable with talking to Kara. Who knew that it would only take three hours of being stuck together? Kara had to say, she liked him much much better now. Why hadn't Ned eaten that chunky yogurt sooner? (Just kidding, of course, she cared deeply about Ned's health.)

"Mhm, sure, Parker, we'll see about that," Kara giggled, closing her Thermos and putting it back into her lunch pail.

"By the way, I've been meaning to ask." He looked a little nervous as he shifted in his seat and tilted his head. "Why do you call me by my last name? You don't call Ned by his last name."

"Oh, it's just that I have a really close friend whose name is also Peter. I don't have anything against you, don't worry," she reassured with a small laugh.

"Oh." A relieved grin appeared on his face as he nodded. "Got it."

"Hey, you said you live with your aunt, right?" Kara questioned with raised eyebrows. "What's she like?"

"Well, she thinks that she can cook, but let me tell you she is not a good cook. But, she gives me a lot of good advice and she's really supportive of everything I do, so I appreciate that." He smiled. "What about you? You said you only live with your mom, right?"

"Yeah, she's super busy with work and everything, so I'm usually home alone a lot. She works with Tony Stark, so—"

"Your mom works with Tony Stark? The Tony Stark?" Peter interrupted her, his eyes wide. "As in friggin' Iron Man?"

"Yeah, she's been working with him ever since she moved here, which was a few months before I was born. I grew up around him, so he's basically like a father figure for me, I guess. Also, his daughter is my best friend, so . . ." Kara shrugged.

"Hold on, hold on." Peter's mouth was agape with shock as he stared at her. "You're saying that not only does your mom work with Tony Stark, but you're close to him, and you're also best friends with Amelia Stark?"

She nodded slowly. ". . . Yeah?"

He stared at her for a moment before incredulously questioning, "And you're only telling me this now?!"

"I mean, it's not like you really talked to me until today!" she defended with a shrug.

"Oh man, wait until Ned finds out, he'll explode!" Peter said excitedly, nodding his head. "This is so cool!"

"Okay, okay, calm down," Kara laughed, placing her hand on his, which was resting on the table. He glanced down at the touch, his cheeks slightly reddening. "It's not that big of a deal! He's not some super cool, macho man! Trust me."

"I mean . . . it's still pretty cool," he chuckled, giving a small shrug. "He's a billionaire industrialist, a genius, and freakin' Iron Man!"

"Meh, he's all right." Kara shrugged, crinkling her nose.

"So, wait, does that mean you know Quicksilver?" His eyes widened in realization, connecting the dots that were now being placed in front of him.

"Mhm. He's the Peter that I was talking about." Kara nodded, zipping up her lunch bag.

"Holy—no way," Peter breathed out, amazed by the people she knew.

"It's not that cool," she laughed as both of them got up. "Anyway, let's go to Spanish, I have a question for the teacher."