Chapter 3 - Counselors ALWAYS mess up schedules
'We only have two periods together, TWO stinking periods!' Cierra thought angrily, crumpling the edges of her schedule.
'Hey at least we have Art, and Lunch together, it's better than nothing… come on we're already late.' Norra thought pulling Cierra to the door.
'I don't like leaving you alone… we've never been apart… not even when we were at Hydra, were we apart...' Cierra thought in a quiet voice, looking at Norra with worried eyes.
"Don't worry, I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself…have a little faith. it'll be fine besides it'll only be for a few hours until I see you at Lunch later. Come on Peter is waiting.'
Walking outside the girls found Peter waiting talking to a boy in a hushed tone
"-fist said...fully healed...disappeared…" the boy said looking paranoid as he glanced around.
"Don't worry buckethead, it's under control." Peter said sounding quite worn out, smiling quickly as he saw the girls headed their way
"Hey guys did everything go okay? What's your first class?" Peter said happily,but started to sweat as he noticed a cloud of doom over Cierra and a glare that promised nothing but pain and suffering in her eyes.
"Err… you okay Cierra?" Peter said, as his spidey sense went into overload.
With a glare, Cierra handed Peter her crumpled up schedule, minutely glancing at the stranger next to him, but ignored him. She was in a bad mood and was not feeling one bit sociable right now.
Peter looked at the crumpled paper for a few seconds not quite understanding what was wrong.
"Don't worry Cierra's just upset because we only have two classes together: Art and Lunch. We tried asking the counselor if she would change it but she wouldn't change her schedule" Norra said once she realised he was clueless to the problem, ignoring the telepathic grumbles Cierra sent her way as she mentioned the counselor.
"Ohh okay sorry to hear that" Peter said with a sympathetic smile, "ohh uhh this is my friend Sam it says here you have him for Pre-Cal and I can keep Norra company in English." Peter said, looking at Cierra.
Cierra looked at Norra with a raised brow,'want me to walk you?'
With a roll of her eyes, Norra responded, "I'll be fine, I'm going with Peter. Uh, Sam was it?, " He nods, "Will walk you, so you better head to class before we're later than we are, okay?"
With a sigh, Cierra noded her head in agreement, as Norra hugged her goodbye and walked away with Peter.
'Make new friends! And Behave!'
'Stay safe, and no promises' Cierra thought as she looked away from where her sister had walked off to, turning to her guide, with a frown on her face. She was in no mood to try and be nice , especially considering how bad her morning had started.
Walking in what she thought was the right direction, she grumbled, "Let's just get this day over with."
"Um… Pre-Cal is this way…" Sam said with a slight smile on his face as he watched the depressed twin freeze in her tracks and quickly turn around with a firm frown on her face, seeing him stare and point in another direction, brought a slight blush to her cheeks.
"Right lets just go." She said embarrassed and annoyed, following Sam in the appointed direction.
All the while Sam was grinning at the new girl, enjoying her company. He had found her protectiveness over her sister endearing, and her frowning yet blushing face cute. Completely focused on the new student, he ignored the nagging feeling he felt when he heard her talk, not recognizing her voice as the angry super he had seen the day before in the park.
First Period - Cierra - Pre-Cal (AP)
Walking into the class after Sam, she is stopped in front of the class by the teacher as he asks her to introduce herself. Looking at the middle aged man, with a frown she turns to the class.
"My name is Cierra" She said with a deadpan look,glancing at the teacher as he frowned and gave an exasperated sigh. Looking at his roster he points to a seat.
Ignoring the whispers the students make as she walks to her seat, Cierra noticed she is to sit next to Sam and his friend Ava, who she quickly liked for her sarcastic and witty comments made toward Sam. Upon receiving her assignment she quickly began, ignoring the whispers and stares sent her way for injuring the school's star quarterback. She was used to the stares, it was nothing new, as long as nobody tried to do anything she didn't care. Hearing angry grumbles to her left, she notices Sam struggling with some formula problems, feeling pity and indebted to him, she helped him out, never noticing how he glared back at some of the less-than-nice looks sent her way as she showed him step by step how to do the work.
First Period - Norra - English III (AP)
Acting as if the stares and whispers don't affect her, Norra introduces herself to the class with a smile, hoping that the morning's debacle would be forgotten soon. With a smile the English teacher assigned her to sit beside Peter and his friend Luke. Making small talk with the two friends, she reveals how she and her sister had skipped a grade, leading to having classes with the Juniors. All three falling into companionable silence as the teacher hands out the novel that they are reading. Looking at the book in her hands, she finds that she had already read the book the previous year. 'Ick this was such a boring book' she thought with a sigh as she put her head down to 'nap', while waiting for the class to end.
'Hows your class?' Norra thought, checking in on her sister, hoping to any deity out there, that she hadn't made any more enemies.
'Stares and lots of whispering, you?' Cierra thought, cursing herself silently as she slightly spaced out on Sam, quickly going back to what she had been explaining.
'Same, we're reading the same book as last year, 1984, for the whole class period, so...yep I'm bored.'
'No one's bothering you?' Cierra thought distantly, focused on explaining the formulas to the very confused looking Sam next to her.
'Nope I'm pretty sure you made it VERY clear to everyone what happens when they bother me.'
'Good that was the point and take an actual nap, I'm trying to show Sam how to work out a problem. So…' Cierra thought, smiling slightly as Sam cheered loudly once he finally managed to do one of the problems on his own.
'Really! That's great! I knew you could be nice! Met Peter's friend Luke, nice,quiet,calm and smart. Seems like a great potential friend for you.' Norra thought, bubbly feelings of happiness starting as she thought that maybe, her sister was finally coming out of her anti-social shell.
'Eh… do I have to?' Cierra thought, feeling as if her social quota for the day had been met once she had socialized with Peter. Helping Sam and saying 'hi' to Ava had passed her limit long ago.
'...' Norra had thought too soon.
'You're giving me that deadpan stare aren't you'Cierra thought cringing as she felt Norra's annoyance through their link.
"whatever, go to sleep" Cierra playfully said, fully focusing on helping Sam once again.
"boo fine byeeeee" Norra thought, as she looked up, glancing at Peter and giggling as she noticed that he was fast asleep on his book
As Cierra was finishing explaining a problem to Sam, and Norra had finished (sneakily) taking pictures of the sleeping (and drooling) Peter, the bell rang, releasing the students to their next class.
With Cierra:
As Cierra and Sam began packing away their school items a friendly voice was heard behind Cierra.
"I'm impressed" Ava began, looking at Cierra, glancing at Sam and smirking as she continued, "Me and the rest of the gang have been trying for ages to teach Sam basic math and we never made any progress, and you come along and he starts doing great! What's your secret?" She said jokingly, trying to make the stoic girl smile, ignoring the indignant 'hey!' that came from the short latino.
"Ha, then I guess you guys aren't very good teachers. Plus he's not that bad, just needs a different teaching method." Cierra replied with a smirk, glancing at Sam as he smiled at her comment.
Neither noticed the growing smile and mischievous look that crossed Ava's face, as she looked at the two smiling teens, especially at Sam's star struck look that he was giving the new girl.
"So what's your next class?" Ava said pulling the girl by her arm and leading her to the door, Sam trailing behind them.
"Ah, I have English IV next, you?" Cierra said, pulling out her crumpled schedule from her pocket.
"Me and Sam have that too! Right now we're reading, 1984, but we're not that ahead so you should be able to catch up." Ava said, stopping at her locker and grabbing the books necessary for her next classes.
"Its really boring too, makes you want to fall asleep so fast!" Sam said, ending with a yawn as he thought of the boring military book.
"It's not that bad!" Ava said, glancing at Sam in annoyance, a frown clear on her face. She liked military books.
"Eh, I'd have to agree with Sam, me and my sister had to read the book last year for class and we were always checking on each other to make sure the other hadn't fallen asleep reading. In the end we finished it, but I didn't really like it." Cierra said, a soft smile coming on to her face as she remembered all those times where she and her sister would have both fallen asleep and wake up in the morning in a panic because they had not done their daily reading and essay.
Sam began to blush as he noticed the soft smile on Cierra, losing focus on where he was walking.
"You have a sister?"Ava said sounding with a raised brow, as she steered the gawking Sam from the crowd to avoid getting trampled by the oncoming students.
"Yup I have a younger sister, we're identical twins, though we don't look too much alike." Cierra replied, smiling happily. It was obvious to Ava and Sam that Cierra loved her sister very much.
"How can you be identical and not look alike?" Ava said, still steering the blushing latino along with her.
"Norra, that's her name, other than our height and face structure, we're nothing alike. Her hair is light brown, while mine is dark, her skin is tanned while mine is paleish, not to mention that our sense of style is completely different. While I prefer winter she prefers spring, basically complete polar opposites." Cierra said in one breath, taking in a deep breath after she finished. Both Ava and Sam looked surprised as she had said a lot more than either had heard from her.
Reaching English, Cierra resigned herself to another introduction and a boring period.
'I wonder how Norra's doing...' She thought schooling her face into the stoic mask she always wore in school as she walked in following behind Ava and Sam.
With Norra:
Glancing at the surprised Peter that had awoken from his nap, Norra took out her neatly folded schedule, wondering who she would have for her next period. Soon a shadow cast over her, looking up she saw Luke looking over her shoulder at her schedule, in the background Peter could be seen wiping his spit from his face as he collected his things.
"Looks like you have me and Pete for your next period, come on let's go" Luke said as he helped carry her napsack.
"So what brings your family to Manhattan?" Luke said they headed to their class, Peter trailing behind still sleep addled.
"My uncle, Luca, got a job offer here and, well, it was a lot better than what his previous job was paying so, he jumped for the chance." Norra said, remembering the story her family had agreed on.
"Oh thats cool, what does he do?" Peter questioned, with a loud yawn, as he tried to rub the sleep from his face.
"He's a Natural Science Professor at the nearby Manhattan University. Recently he's been doing a lot of great research in, um actually I don't really get his weird science talk most of the time, you'd have to ask my sister about that, I'm more of a math nut than a science one... Ah, either way the board of directors in university was impressed with his work so they offered him a job here where they would give him a really good budget to continue his research." Norra said as she fondly recalled Luca's enthusiasm as he decided to be a 'college professor' this time that they moved.
"Cool I'll remember to ask Cierra later!" Peter said as he looked interested.
"Ha! So I take it you're a science nut yourself?" Norra said, with a smile.
"More than a nut! He's like a psycho with it!" Luke said as he slapped Peter on the back not noticing as he nearly toppled the smaller male over.
"Yeah I really love science" Peter said as he abashedly rubbed the back with a smile.
"Mmm I can't, Math is more my style" Norra said with a cheeky grin as they reached their second period.
Barely five minutes into the class and Norra was already struggling to understand what they were working on. 'I really don't like Chemistry...I wonder how Cierra's doing" She thought as she wrote down notes that made absolutely no sense to her.
Second period - Cierra - English III (AP):
Walking into the classroom, Cierra sighed as she noticed Ava and Sam gravitate to sit near a blond boy, leaving only one seat open behind Sam and right next to the blond. 'Probably their friend…'
Sighing with annoyance, she quickly introduced herself to the class and moved to sit in the empty seat. Not failing to notice the blond look at her with surprised eyes. 'He probably saw what I did to the jock, but does he really have to stare so much?! He's not even trying to hide it like the rest!' She thought with annoyance, unknowingly starting to glare. Unbeknownst to her, her glare caused the surrounding students to shy away from her, all except Ava, Sam, and the blond.
Danny's Pov:
He couldn't believe it, the same girl he and Peter had spent nearly all of last night looking for was sharing the same english class with him. He felt elated, but unbalanced once he saw the glare on the girl's face. What was once such a beautiful face filled with a gentle smile and warm brown eyes now held an unforgiving frown with cold dark eyes.
'She looks just like the girl from yesterday, but… something is off. what's different?!'
He licked his lips, throat dry, as he tried to think of what to say. However before he could even think of something to say, the girl, no Cierra, turned her glare towards me.
Looking straight into her angry eyes, he began to doubt that this was the same girl he had met yesterday.
Cierra's Pov:
He wasn't stopping. Class was already beginning and he's still staring! 'I'm sorry Norra, but I don't think I can be so nice!'
Turning her head, she heatedly hissed towards to the blond stranger, "Do you have a problem with me?"
The blond, surprised by her outburst, stuttered as he tried to say something.
Not giving him a chance to recover, Cierra rolled her eyes and hissed, "Stop staring, it's annoying"
"My- ah, apologies, I did not mean to stare, you just look really familiar, my name's Danny, Danny Rand, nice to meet you." He said, holding out his right hand for a handshake.
Annoyed but grudgingly unable to go against the courtesy lessons instilled within her by Zacharus long ago, she shook his hand.
"My names Cierra Silas, and no we haven't met." She said with a smirk, as she held his hand with a strong grip for a moment too long. The smirk she wore turning slightly malicious as she tried to intimidate the blond, she was unsuccessful, to her annoyance, as he interpreted the smirk for something friendly, and returned it with a bright smile of his own.
Neither realised that the two sitting in front of them, had been eavesdropping on their conversation from the very start. Nor did they see the slight frown on Sam's face as he saw Danny smile at her. However, Ava did notice, as she saw him frown and began to smile to herself as she realised Sam was getting jealous.
Fortunately for Sam, it seemed he and Ava were not the only ones that noticed their conversation as the teacher walked in between their desks and spoke, "For one who is three weeks behind on school work, I would think you would be more eager to catch up on your school work. And you , should know better than to be distracting others when you should be working on the assignment. Now start working, please." She said as she left to make her rounds around the class.
The rest of the English period passed in relative silence as Cierra pretended to read to avoid Danny and from further angering the teacher, as Sam mulled over his crush, as Ava silently plotted, and as Danny tried to forget the girl from yesterday while wondering about the new mystery student that sat next to him.