Chapter 2

Even with FRIDAY as her alarm and with the help of someone shaking her, Ali still had to drag herself out of bed in the morning. It was 7:30 and usually she got to sleep in till 9:00 before someone of something forced her to get up.

She looked up to see Natasha.

"I am sick."

"No you are not. Now you need to hurry and get up or I will find Clint!"

Ali groaned but rolled out of bed. Once she had gone over to her mirror and started brushing her hair Natasha deemed it safe to leave as she knew that Ali wouldn't fall back to sleep.

Once her hair was tied into a French plait and she had changed into her school clothes, she quickly dashed out of her bedroom and to the kitchen.

Over the summer Ali had managed to teach herself how to do French plaits which Clint was relieved about. Usually on school mornings Ali would force him to get up just to do her hair.

Natasha had already placed Ali's breakfast on the table. The usual frosted flakes were in the bowl. She chugged down some orange juice before grabbing her bag and running to the elevator.

Only Natasha was up so Ali waved to her as the elevator doors closed and she started to descend.

She was supposed to meet Maya at 8:00 on the road that led to the school, so she had to run in order to get there on time.

Maya was already there and waiting for her. They hugged each other before making the journey up the road to the school.

On the way they talked about everything that they had missed out during their FaceTime calls and their texts.

School started at 9:30 as it was the first day back but both Maya and Ali had been asked to show and help some of the new Year 7's around the school which both weren't exactly thrilled about as they liked their sleep.

They both walked through the school until they reached the hall. They could see that the tables that were usually out at break and lunch now had a different letter on each one and groups of Year 7's were sitting around them.

There was a desk just in front of the door to the entrance of the hall and there was a queue of tiny students in front of it.

Ali and Maya both went up to one of the teachers that was behind the desk. Since they were going to miss some of the first lesson of the day, they both needed to be given their new timetables and be signed in.

Since this was their first GCSE year, Maya and Ali had been forced to choose which subjects they wanted to take for their GCSEs. In the end Ali had chosen to take, Geography, DT (since Tony could always help her with that), Business (Pepper could help her) and History (she literally had two fossils that lived with her).

The two hadn't told each other what they were taking until it was too late to change them. They didn't want to sway the others decisions.

Looking at their timetables they both realised that they had all of their lessons together except Maya had chosen French instead of DT and PE instead of History.

This year the Sciences had been separated into Physics, Chemistry and Biology as well as English being separated into English Literature and English Language.

After comparing timetables and talking for a while the whole room was silenced by the head of Year 7. Ali couldn't even remember the head of Year 7's name but tried to concentrate on what she was saying any ways.

By the time all the speeches were over one of the teachers that was standing to the side of the room came over to the Year 10's and started dividing them up. Each Year 10 was given one table full of Year 7's to take on a tour around the school.

All the teachers knew that Maya and Ali were joined at the hip and that they worked way better together than apart so they were both sent to tables next to each other.

The tour was only allowed to take an hour maximum, so they had to be extremely quick. Maya and Ali joined their groups together and started the tour in the Science labs.

They answered all the Year 7's questions truthfully and warned them about which teachers to stay away from. They even told them about the funny things that had happened in their classes over the 3 years that they had been at the school.

Once they had reached the Geography block the hour was almost up so the two led their groups back to the hall. When they arrived both Ali and Maya were told to go back to their form room.

The stairs left Maya breathless while Ali laughed at her and Maya couldn't stop the grin that spread across her face.

They had had the same form teacher since Year 7 and it was nice to know that they had him this year as well. He was nice and always welcoming and always made the best seating plans.

Since they had arrived late, they didn't have much time left in form, so it went by pretty quickly.

Looking at her timetable Ali made her way with Maya towards the Geography block to her first lesson of the year. They were only just on time so most of the class had already sat down. A seating plan was already on the board, but it took a while for Ali to see her name.

Maya saw it before she did and was grinning to herself from where she had sat down at the back of the classroom. For over 2 years she had shipped them and now finally they had a lesson together and they were going to sit next to one another.

Ali spotted her name and went over to her seat which was basically in the middle of the room. She didn't even look to see who was sitting next to her or see smiling face that Maya had on. She just pulled out her pencil case and wrote her name on the new book she had been given.

Once she had done that she looked to her right and found a set of dark brown eyes staring at her. It startled her but she quickly composed herself before the person sitting next to her noticed.

"I am so glad that you are my partner."

"You... you are?"

His stutter was new and adorable, and Ali found herself trying not to stare at him. She had just said the first thing that had come to her mind and could already feel her cheeks turning pink as she tried to justify what she had just said.

"You are my friend and I know you so why I wouldn't be glad?"

"True."

His smile was so cute. The teacher saved them all by starting the lesson off. Ali started to wonder why she felt like something had changed. She had never thought much of his smile before, had she? Was it wrong to think that his smile was cute? He was her friend, so she was allowed to think that right?

The same thoughts were racing through Peter's head, yet he was quicker to draw the conclusion. Never before had he ended up stuttering around anyone.

Maya kept trying to catch Ali's eye throughout the whole of the lesson, but she never managed it. Both Peter and Ali were to wrapped up in their minds to pay any attention to the lesson. It was a miracle that they managed to write anything down.

Once the lesson was over the two hurried to their feet. Both felt extremely awkward around the other and had no idea why something had changed.

Maya caught Ali as she excited the room and once, they were outside she waggled her eyebrows at her.

"Stop..."

"You like him."

"What. No!"

"I saw the way you looked at him. Plus, it was about time. I have been waiting a whole two years for this moment. So, what are you going to do?"

"Maya, I don't know if like him."

"So, there is a possibility!"

"Maybe..."

Ali couldn't help the small smirk that spread across her face. What was wrong with her?

Maya and Ali had to depart ways, but both promised to meet the other in the hall. Ali headed to the Tech block while Maya headed towards the main building.

The door to the DT classroom was already open when Ali arrived so she stepped into the room. Her teacher was Mr Clark, and he may be one of the smallest teachers in the entire school, but he was also one of the scarier ones. All the students respected him though because he may have been firm, but he was also fair.

He was standing by the door when Ali walked in and he greeted her before reminding her that there was a sitting plan already on the board. She was one of 4 people who sat on the far back table. Looking around the room she noticed only two people that she was friends with and knew. One was Lizzy who wasn't one of Ali's closest friends, but they got on all right.

The other was sitting right at the front of the classroom so Ali could only see the back of him. There was no mistaking that mousy brown hair though. Ali internally groaned. How on Earth was she meant to concentrate with him right there.

Thankfully the first lesson was just an hour of writing down the classroom rules. It was boring work and required no concentration at all so Ali used the hour to try and figure out what she should do.

Eventually she came up with a plan. She wasn't going to do anything. Years in orphanages and foster homes had made it hard for her to trust anyone let alone love them. The Avengers had been easy to trust since they had saved her from that awful place. It had taken her months to actually say that she loved any of them. It had been the same with Maya and she had only said it over text when she had found out that Maya's cat had died. She had yet to say it to her face.

She was not going to hurt Peter or set herself up to be hurt. She trusted him but she just couldn't take that leap of faith just yet.

Ali felt better once she had decided what she should do as it focused her mind. Peter had yet to find out any of her history or about her powers so she could take things one day at a time and if Peter found out by accident one day, then that wouldn't be her fault.

Peter could feel eyes on him but had to wait until Mr Clark was writing something on the board to see who was staring at him. He could feel a tingle on the back of his neck. It was completely different though to the one that signalled trouble.

As soon as he looked over his shoulder, he saw Ali's face. She was looking down at her book, but Peter could swear that she was the one that had been looking at him.

Unlike Ali, Peter was not one to burry these emotions, but he wasn't one to share them either. He didn't want to embarrass either himself or Ali so needed to find out first if Ali liked him.

At lunch Maya kept grilling Ali about what she was going to do about Peter, and Ali always responded with the same answer of I don't know.

Maya was annoyed by the fact that Ali was just going to sit on her feelings but didn't want to just go up to Peter herself and tell him how Ali felt. That didn't mean though that she wasn't going to try and set them up or find out if Peter liked Ali back.

The rest of the day was filled with Maths, Science and English lessons which were all Peter free. After the whole morning of being annoyed at her inability to concentrate Ali now found herself longing for the lessons to end.

The day couldn't have ended fast enough for Ali and she walked home as slowly as she could to the tower to try and clear her head. She had a mind reading sister and a family full of spies so her feelings about Peter were going to be hard to hide. Luckily, she was the Black Widow's daughter and so had learned a lot of her tricks as well as Clint's and Bucky's.

Natasha noticed that Ali was quieter than usual especially since this was the first day back at school. She was usually teaming with gossip that she just had to share. The whole evening Ali had a permanent smile on her face that nothing seemed to be able to get rid of it. Not even when a glitter bomb, that Clint had placed earlier that day, went off and hit Ali right in the face.

Of course, Natasha was happy to see Ali happy, but she just didn't understand why. It was a mystery that needed solving though it wasn't the only one.