A/N: Woohoo High school AUs! Where Melinda and Coulson can adopt Skye as a baby, and Ward's family can just be assholes, not psychos AND, I mean, high school. All your favorites and some of your worsts. All in one place, plus added hormones! Let's do it.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. All rights go to their proper owners.

"It's okay to be nervous."

Skye looked up from her bowl of Lucky Charms at her dad, who was kept periodically looking up from his newspaper to look at her anxiously. Who even read newspapers anymore? "I'm not nervous."

"Skye, it's really ok-"

"Phil, leave her alone. You'll just make her nervous."

Skye shot a grateful look at her mom before spooning more cereal into her mouth. Just her first day of high school. Any nerves she felt, she could deal with. Phil looked a little disgruntled to be dismissed but went back to reading his paper. "Why do they make the print so tiny?" he whined.

Melinda sighed. "Phil."

He looked up again, just in time for her to hand him his glasses. Melinda was looking at him like she couldn't believe she married such an idiot.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna take myself to school..." Skye said, smiling at her dad a little. Phil looked a little too offended before he realized she was joking. "Can we go? I don't really wanna be late on my first day."

The switch from public middle school to a private high school wasn't too drastic, per say, but it still made Skye a little nervous. Especially since she was like, ninety percent sure she got in because her dad was friends with the Headmaster. Her dad was friends with everyone.

Of course, Skye should've realized that her dad wasn't just going to drop her off. He was going to drop her off in Lola, because he wanted everyone to be staring.

"Tomorrow, mom's taking me!" Skye hissed. Phil sighed, leaning forward to kiss her forehead.

"Come on. I'm a cool dad. This is cool. You're making an entrance!" he said. He let her go then, smiling proudly. "Have fun, be nice, and I put pepper spray in your bag just in case!"

Skye stared at him for a second. "The fuck kind of school are you sending me to?"

He said something about language but Skye was already out of the car and closing the door. She waved once more before he pulled away. She looked at the big double doors then, taking a deep breath. They were propped open, thank god, because Skye didn't have her ID yet and being locked out on her first day was not how she wanted to start this ordeal.

See, the thing about High School is that it's supposed to be where all Freshman are the 'new kids'. Not all private schools were like that. Margaret Carter High School wasn't like that. It ran from Kindergarten to 12th grade, so some of these kids had known each other since they were picking their noses. Sure, Skye was one of like twenty six new kids, but still. New Kid. Not fun.

Skye signed in, got her classlist, and met her homeroom teacher. The homeroom was small, only twelve kids. Skye found an empty seat and pulled out her laptop.

That was when she was approached by two people standing so close together, Skye thought they were attached for a moment.

"Uh. Hi."

"You must be new. It's so nice to meet you!" the girl said brightly. British. Okay. "I'm Jemma Simmons. This is Fitz."

"Most people call us Fitzsimmons but we're not..we're not the same person. As you can see. Obviously." Fitz was Scottish.

"Okay. Skye Coulson. It's nice to meet you too?"

Simmons was looking at her schedule. Skye didn't know these people. She literally knew nothing about them, except their names and generally where they were from. But she still couldn't help but hope they were in one of her classes. A friendly face wouldn't hurt.

"Oh Fitz, look! We have almost the same schedule as Skye!" Simmons smiled. "You have at least one of us in all of your classes except one, and that ones last on Mondays. And you have two free periods. One with us, one without us."

Skye nodded. That was a little more 'Fitzsimmons' than she'd been hoping for, but she'd take it.

"How long have you been going here?" Skye asked curiously.

Fitzsimmons traded a look. "We came in seventh grade," the said in unison.

This was going to be a weird first day.

Simmons and Skye had P.E. together right before lunch that day, which was kind of the worst. They both hated Phys ed, and Skye could dig that. They changed into the uniforms before walking into the gym.

"I definitely did not see some of these kids at the grade meeting this morning," Skye muttered.

Simmons looked around the room before turning back to Skye with a smile. "Oh! Right, I forgot to mention that Freshmen and Sophomores share Phys Ed. They lump Juniors and Seniors together too."

Great. Being forced to be 'sportsy' in front of even more kids. Just what Skye always wanted.

"Hey Jemma. You've made it to high school at last!" Skye looked up. The boy standing in front of her was clearly an athlete, unlike Skye and Simmons. And looked unfairly pretty. "You're the girl who was dropped off in that wicked car, right?"

Skye nodded. "Yeah. I'm Skye."

The boy nodded. "That's tight. I'm Trip." He said, holding out his hand for her. Skye accepted it. Okay, so he was a nice athlete. Not some toolbag.

"Antoine Triplett, actually. Triplett's a sophomore, and he's already set to be captain of the football, I mean soccer, team next year. And quite the charmer, so watch out," Simmons smiled. Trip laughed at that. Skye liked his guy. He seemed like someone she could be cool with.

The coach's whistle blew and they started to migrate over to him. "You any good at dodgeball?" Trip asked.

Skye snorted. "I can run from a ball, sure, but I don't expect me to do any of the throwing or catching bullshit."

Trip seemed to like that answer. The teacher, sure enough, said they'd be starting the year with an inaugural dodgeball game. Great. Trip was made captain of one side and Lance Hunter was captain of the other.

"Trip, pick first."

"Skye."

Skye didn't realize he was talking about her until Simmons nudged her in his direction.

"You picked me first?"

"It's not fun being the new kid. Wasn't gonna have you picked last. Plus, if Simmons likes you, you must be okay."

Skye smiled. That was one of the nicest things anyone had done for her all day. Besides everything Simmons and Fitz did. Lance picked, and then Trip picked Simmons. Oh so he liked to play favorites. All right.

Skye liked this kid. And for the first time in her life, she enjoyed a game of dodgeball.

"So," Skye started as she and Simmons walked back to the main building for lunch. "Is Trip part of your weird little clique?"

Simmons gave her a weird look. "What?"

"Like, you, Trip and Fitz."

"Oh. No. We don't really have a clique. This is our first day of high school too. I mean, Trip is our friend, absolutely, but he's a tad bit..."

"Cooler?" Skye offered.

Simmons huffed. "If you must use that word, fine. I think Fitz and I are very cool. We're very hip." Skye tried not to laugh at her using 'hip'. "Me more so, but don't tell him I said that. Trip is more 'stereotypically' cool, I suppose."

"Sorry, no, I didn't mean to offend you guys. I think you guys are super cool. But high school is...different," Skye said. Simmons nodded. "You guys do have other friends, though. Like you said, Trip is a friend."

Simmons nodded again, leading Skye down to the cafeteria. Skye grabbed a tray and started looking around for food. "We have other friends yes. I for one, do not believe in cliques, but people do tend to form groups, I suppose. We'll see how it goes. I'm going to the salad bar. I'll meet you by the cash registers, okay?"

Skye nodded and started looking at the different stations. Yeah, private school lunches were definitely a whole different beast than public school. She grabbed a plate of pasta and a drink before pulling out her phone. Two texts from Miles Lydon.

M: I miss you.

M: Is it full of pretentious dickwads?

Skye smiled.

S: So far? No. You'd hate it though. It's clean, there's no kale and no one's as scruffy as you.

She wasn't surprised at how quickly Miles texted back.

M: You didn't say you miss me too. Also, what the fuck do they have against kale?

Skye rolled her eyes before going to meet Simmons. Miles was her...okay he wasn't really her boyfriend anymore but he wasn't not her boyfriend? He was her person. Her nerdy, hipster, person. Who went to some weird-ass alt school after being homeschooled for like six years. Simmons was waiting for her in line to checkout. Fitz had been nowhere to be seen this whole time.

When they stepped through to the lunch room, Skye was more thankful for Simmons' company than she had been all day. Nothing worse than trying to navigate a cafeteria full of kids that knew each other to find a place to sit. It was the worst of high school. But, if you had friends, it was also the best.

"Oh look! Fitz saved us a table, how nice," Simmons smiled and walked over to him. Skye was quick to follow. Fitz had more food on his tray than either Simmons or Skye. It was actually kind of hilarious, especially because he was so small.

"How was Phys Ed? Did Simmons get hit with a dodgeball?"

Simmons shot him a pointed look. "I...did get his but that is not the point! Skye met Triplett. How was your free period? Did you start working on the project for robotics club?" she asked.

Skye was already a little lost, but in the best way possible. "Are you two super nerds or something?"

"If by super nerds, you mean gifted scientists. We're both in AP chem. Simmons in in AP Bio. Though really, they're useless fields. I'm in AP physics, now that's a beautiful science," Fitz said. Two AP sciences. No wonder Skye had one more free period than both of them.

Simmons looked like she was about to go off on Fitz when Triplett came over, setting his tray on the table and dropping into one of the empty seats. "Did I interrupt a science fight?"

Oh, so this wasn't uncommon. Good to know. "Yes. Thank you for saving me."

Trip laughed. He was an easy laugher, Skye noticed. Simmons and Fitz looked surprised, though happy, that Trip decided to sit with them. Future captain of the soccer team, sitting with two too-cute for words science babies, and one new alt-kid. What kind of high school was this? Nothing like the movies, that was for sure. The three of them dissolved into trying to figure out who Skye had met, who it was important for Skye to meet, and who she should steer clear of.

"So she's met Trip, obviously. What about Bobbi?" Fitz asked.

"Who's Bobbi?" Skye asked, taking a break from blowing bubbles in her chocolate milk.

Simmons stopped what she was doing. "You have to meet Bobbi. Bobbi is the best!"

"Simmons totally has a crush on-"

"Leopold Fitz, I do not have a crush on Bobbi!" Simmons said, hitting him. Okay, so up to that point Skye had been almost positive that Fitzsimmons were dating, but unless they were really open, probably not. Also...Leopold?

"Bobbi Morse is a Junior and she is one of the coolest people in the school. And I don't use that word lightly," Trip said.

Skye traded a look with Simmons, who nodded. She had been here thinking that Bobbi was a boy, but hey, no judgement. And if they all really liked Bobbi, she must be at least pretty decent. Skye noticed something over Simmons' shoulder then. In a crazy crowded cafeteria, there was a boy sitting alone. Which was odd enough on its own, and then there was the fact that he did not look like the kind of boy who should be sitting alone. He was athletic, maybe even more so than Trip, and just a stupidly pretty. Was there was a quota for hot boys at this school?

"Who's that?"

Simmons turned around. "Oh that's Ward. Grant Ward. He is...was a friend of ours," she said.

"His family's important, and tough. He had a rough summer and dropped off the face of the earth. We thought he wasn't coming back to school, to be honest," Trip said. "He's a good guy though."

Skye nodded and turned her attention back to them as they decided whether or not it would be good for her to meet Lance Hunter.

"How was your first day?"

Skye looked up from her dinner and smiled at her dad. "It was actually okay. Still a little too preppy for my taste but whatever," she said.

Phil seemed happy with that. He'd known how skeptical Skye had been about going to his alma mater. She'd been worrying about not belonging all summer. He'd tried to discourage her from feeling that way, but once Skye put her mind to something, it was hard to change it.

"How are the classes?" Melinda wondered.

"Not so bad. I'm in an advanced computer sciences. I mean, it's advanced for Freshman so take that with a grain of salt, but it's something right?"

Her mom had been the one to push her to ask to bumped up in that course, and Skye was already thankful for it. If she'd had to start with like, computer 101, she would die.

"Friends?"

"Dad, it's been one day," she rolled her eyes. "There's potential though. I met some really cool people. Two science-y prodigy kids who are either dating or in the deepest denial ever. And the soccer team's striker. It's a start."

She kind of wanted to laugh. Of course her mom was interested in the classes and her dad in the social scene. Really, could they be more predictable? Her parents were so boring. You know, once you ignored that fact that her dad worked for the White Collar department of the FBI and her mom, well, she wasn't exactly allowed to know what her mom did. Yup. Totally boring.

Skye looked down at her phone.

M: And the verdict is?

"Skye, put your phone away. We're having dinner!" Phil said.

S: Undecided, but optimistic?