Chapter 33

Maya and Ali continued to talk and Ali quickly discovered that Maya loved the Avengers which was extremely ironic since she knew them. Unfortunately for her though, the Avengers were not included in her cover story so Maya could never know.

After about 10 minutes of talking Mr Smith called the class for silence.

"Okay now I want people to raise their hands and tell me 5 things that they have found out about the person sitting next to them."

Only about 3 people raised their hands at first but after 2 of them had been called on, more hands rose.

Ali didn't raise her hand, but Maya did.

They were both sitting right at the back but even then, Mr Smith managed to see her arm in the air.

"Yes, Maya."

"My friends name is Ali, she has 2 older siblings, does rock climbing competitively and knows some self-defence."

Technically Maya had only said four things, but the teacher had become distracted by what he had heard so didn't notice

"That's impressive. What self-defence do you know?"

"I know a bit of all of them though if you were to ask me what the moves are called then I would have no idea."

Ali could hear the small giggles that were coming from the class as well as from Maya. She hadn't meant the comment as a joke, but she felt almost comforted by the laughter and it showed from the smile that was on her face.

The teacher was interested in Ali. There had been no record of any past schools and so he knew that she wouldn't know anyone here, but he had also assumed that she didn't have much of a social life and that she had been home schooled. If she were doing rock climbing competitively then he knew that she must have at least on friend. What also had caught his attention was the phrase 'difficult childhood' that he had found when trying to read up on his new students.

Mr Smith had a beaming smile on his face when he had heard her answer.

"I think you should be the first one to test out my game. It is called 2 truths and a lie."

The teacher then walked back up to the front of the classroom but never turned his back on his students. Once at the front of the room he beckoned towards Ali to come to the front. Ali looked over at Maya who was giving her a comforting smile and urging her to go before getting out of her chair.

Once at the front Mr Smith passed her a black whiteboard pen which she took.

"I would like you, Ali, to write 3 statements on the board and one of them has to be false. Once written we will get to ask you some questions about each one before we have to guess which one is false."

Ali nodded her head in understanding before going over to the whiteboard. Her cover story was basically the same as her actual story apart from the names being different. Therefore, as long as she didn't talk about anything before, she had reconnected with her Mamma then she would be fine.

She had already had 3 statements in mind. The first two were true and the last one was false.

The first one was that she had met an Inhuman. After reading the news and speaking to Daisy, Ali had come to realise just how widespread the word of Inhumans had become. It seemed that these days everybody knew who they were and they either were in awe or were in fear of them.

The second statement was that she was fluent in Russian.

The third was that one of her sisters was in Year 10 at this school. With it being so close to the truth she knew that her lie would be harder for her classmates to find.

Once written Ali said them out loud before giving the pen back to the teacher and standing to the side of the whiteboard.

"So, raise your hand if you want to ask any questions."

About 10 people raised their hands including Maya. Mr Smith started at the front and picked on a boy with blond hair

"Who was the Inhuman?"

There was no way that Ali was going to give him either Wanda or Daisy names. But since Elena went mainly by her nickname there shouldn't be as big a risk of someone finding her.

"She is one of my sister's best friends and we call her Yo-Yo. She can run really fast but after a certain length of time she gets snapped back to where she was originally standing just like a Yo-Yo."

Several more hands shot up now. Mr Smith ignored them though and picked on another girl at the front who had ginger hair and green eyes.

"Can you say something in Russian?"

"What would you like me to say?"

The girl sat in thought, but Mr Smith beat her too it as he asked,

"Can you say, I would like a bag of chips and a burger please."

The class laughed at the sentence because it was utterly ridiculous. Ali smiled but repeated it in Russian anyways.

"Я бы хотел пакетик чипсов и бургер, пожалуйста."

Everyone in the room seemed really impressed apart from the ginger girl who blurted out before anyone else could speak,

"Can you write that?"

Mr Smith looked over at the girl before looking back at Ali who now had her hand outstretched for the whiteboard pen. He gave it to her, and Ali wrote what she had just said on the board.

After that the girl seemed to have lost her snarky attitude and was staring at Ali with a shocked and embarrassed expression.

Everyone except Maya had put their hands down while Ali had been writing on the board and before all the hands could rise again Mr Smith picked on Maya.

"What is your sister like?"

Now this was finally a question that Ali liked. She probably couldn't answer as well as others could about their siblings since Wanda had only become her a part of her family 2 weeks ago.

"She is amazing and kind and way too overprotective but most of my family are since I am the youngest. Wanda always looks out for me."

Ali now had a smile upon her face and so did Maya. The point of asking that question was to try and make Ali feel more at ease.

Mr Smith suddenly clapped his hands and told everyone to vote.

In the end almost everybody chose the 1st statement to be false. A few did choose the second one as they were under the belief that Ali just knew a little Russian and wasn't fluent in it.

Only 2 people chose the last statement. Maya and Mr Smith.

She was not surprised that Mr Smith had found the false one since he had probably taught Wanda before and so knew which year she was in now.

Maya's vote was what surprised her. When they had been talking Ali had said barely anything more than she had 2 sisters when she had been talking about them. Also, the look on Maya's face showed how confident her friend was in her answer.

During the voting Ali had made her way back to her desk. Once Maya had put her tick on the last statement she came back to their desk and the two started talking. They only stopped when Mr Smith called upon Ali to reveal the answer.

"Oh, it was the last statement as my sister is in Year 11 now."

Ali could hear a few groans across the classroom but took no notice of them and continued talking to Maya.

The game was played twice more, and Ali got the answer right for both. All she had to do was look at the persons face to tell if they were lying.

After the game was over Mr Smith went around and gave each student their own timetables.

Ali and Maya compared theirs and after a few minutes they realised that they were exactly the same. They had all their classes together. After that there was a lot of screeching coming from the both of them and they started talking really fast and excitedly.

They only had the first hour to relax before they had to go to their first lesson. The hour was almost up but Mr Smith decided to let them go early which was probably a good idea since they were most likely to end up getting lost

Ali and Maya left the classroom together. The floor that they were on was the top one and it only contained rooms that had an S in their name. The S was short for second floor.

The two went halfway down the flight of stairs that they had come up and opened the door that led off of them into another corridor.

This one had a sign just in front of them and it showed them which way to go for each classroom. The floor contained classes with an F for first floor and since both Maya and Ali were in F5 for what appeared to be Maths they followed the signs down the corridor until they found a classroom that was labelled F5.

They entered the classroom together and found a really tall teacher sitting on a swivel chair clicking away on a computer.

He didn't even look up from his computer as he said,

"Good morning, I am just trying to get some instructions up on the board but there isn't a sitting plan so you can sit where ever you want."

The two of them silently screamed in delight before moving to sit at the far back table.

There were already new red maths books on each table, so Ali and Maya took one each before writing the date at the top of the page.

It wasn't long before other students started walking in and taking their seats and by the time their teacher had actually stopped typing on the keyboard half the class had arrived.

The teacher introduced himself as Mr Michael and asked us to do the equations that he had set them in the board.

There were 15 questions and Ali managed to complete them in under 7 minutes. The whole room was silent as people tried to concentrate and answer the questions.

Even Maya was still only on question 10.

Ali had just decided to try and relax when she felt a painless jab at her brain. She had enough experience with Wanda reading her thoughts and so carefully let her in without turning her eyes blue

"Are you here to check up on me because I am fine."

"I just wanted to make sure you are okay since it is your first day and you don't know anyone."

"Yes I do."

A grin appeared on Ali's face and she had to try really hard to get rid of it. If anyone spotted her grinning like that then they would think that she was mad.

"Prove it."

Ali started flicking through her memories of that morning so that Wanda could see. She was so busy showing them that she had completely forgot about the memory of Peter.

Wanda saw Peter save her and was slightly shocked. She was also concerned for the boy's welfare when Natasha and Clint found out.

"It has literally been one day, and you already have a boyfriend."

"Seriously! That is the conclusion you draw. He isn't my boyfriend just a friend."

"A friend can evolve into something else over time."

Ali could practically hear Wanda grinning.

"Aren't you meant to be doing English right now?"

She tried to quickly change the subject so that she wouldn't end up drawing attention to herself in class with her weird facial expressions.

"How did you know that I have English?"

"I hacked into the school database and found your timetable."

"So, say I believed that my grade in English Literature should be higher than it is..."

"Sorry, but I am not changing your grade."

"It was worth a try."

By this point almost everyone in the room had either completed the questions or had just given up with them and Ali and Wanda stopped their conversation.

Wanda left the channel of communication open between them and Ali let her.

Maya had just finished the questions when the class was called to silence by the teacher.

The Maths lesson itself was easy and Ali managed to finish the questions first every single time. She was only a few minutes ahead of everybody else, but she took those few minutes to either ask her sister more questions about the school and try and divert the conversation away from Peter or she would doodle in her book.

After the lesson was over it was break. As they were the Year 7's for the first week they got to leave all lessons 5 minutes early so that they could avoid some of the rush from people walking to and from lessons. It also meant that they got to be first in the queue for the canteen.

Ali practically dragged Maya out of the class once their teacher had dismissed them. They both ran down the stairs and started a queue into the hall that Ali knew would become the lunch queue and soon be packed with people.

They were the first ones there and strangely Wanda had stopped her and Ali's mind connection.

While Maya was getting her breath back from running down the stairs Ali looked out of the door were, she had excited at the start of the day with Peter before the assembly. She had felt someone watching her since the start of the day but had just assumed that it was the other students. Now she wasn't so sure.

She quickly checked that no one was near before flashing her eyes quickly blue before turning them brown again.

In that second, she could see three people situated outside the gate. They obviously knew each other, and they were barely moving. A flash of red hair from behind the gate told Ali all that she needed to know.

For Ali and Wanda to communicate through their minds they both needed to be cooperative. Wanda had to try and read Ali's mind and Ali had to let her in. At the moment Wanda had severed their connection and so Ali had nobody to confront about what she was seeing.

The two girls had only been standing there together for 2 minutes before a year 11 prefect came down and started setting up the barriers that stopped people from pushing into the middle of the line. In those 2 minutes the queue had grown but only by a little since lessons were still supposed to have 3 minutes left.

After another 3 minutes of waiting, they were finally allowed into the canteen.

The canteen had rows of food. On one side there was a trolley full of sweet things like cupcakes and biscuits. On the other there were sandwiches, and, in the middle, there was a salad bar. The side facing them had a large, heated trolley that held chicken wraps, burgers, toasties, and sausage rolls.

Both Ali and Maya grabbed a sausage roll each and a cupcake before making their way over to the tills.

At this school they had fingerprint scanners. Your parents put money into your account and then when you got to the till it scanned your fingerprint and they took the money off of your account

Before going to school her Mamma had assured her that she had already put money on her account, but Ali was still a little nervous when she reached the till.

There were 4 tills at the exit and both Maya and Ali had chosen two tills next to one another. When Ali scanned her fingerprint she almost sighed in relief when it not only worked but it also appeared that she had money. She quickly glanced at her balance before walking away but she had to look at it twice. On her account was £200!

Maya soon distracted Ali from her thoughts by suggesting that the two of them sit with some of her friends.

The two made their way over to two other girls that were sitting at a table near the back of the hall. Ali knew right away that neither girl had been in any of their classes yet.

They sat down and Ali introduced herself. The girl with light brown hair spoke first and said that her name was Abigail. The other girl who was sitting to the right of Abigail had curly blond hair and was called Mia. Both had brought food with them and were currently eating it.

Maya and the two girls started talking and although Ali could join in the conversation if she wanted to, she was too busy looking for Wanda.

"What are you doing?"

Although Maya was not a spy or had any spy skills, she seemed to always be able to read Ali.

Maya had noticed that her friend had not only not joined in on the conversations, but she also was just picking at her food instead of eating it.

"Looking for my sister as she has some explaining to do."

What she had said was kind of cryptic and it had drawn the attention of Mia and Abby.

"What did she do?"

Mia was eating a carrot stick that she had just pulled out of her bag as she said this.

Everyone at the table was looking at her expecting an answer. Ali knew that the best way to make friends was to not lie to them so she told them as much of the truth as she could.

"My family is really overprotective and it's mainly because I am the youngest. Today my Mum and Uncle tried to drive me right to the school gates and now they are outside the front gates."

The 3 faces at the table looked slightly shocked while Ali just sighed and started to properly eat her sausage roll.

Maya seemed to believe her while the over two looked slightly sceptical. Abby turned to her and said,

"How do you know?"

"I saw my mum outside the front gate."

Ali suddenly gasped in surprise and excitement. She had just found a way to not only prove to her friends that her Mamma was following her but also a way to prank her whole family.

"I have just had an idea. Now I need everyone to stay very quiet so that my family don't know that they are on speaker phone."

Grinning, Ali pulled out her phone and set it on the middle of the table. She flicked through her contacts until she found her Uncle Tony's. He was the least likely to be one of the people stalking her since Pepper would probably not have allowed him to go and would have forced him to at least attend some of meetings.

He picked up on the third ring.

"Ali I am in the middle of a meeting and aren't you supposed to be in school?"

Ali could see her friends trying to muffle their laughter while she had a broad grin on her face.

"I am at school, that's why it is so loud."

The last comment was mainly made so that he would get the message not to blow her cover and say something he shouldn't.

"Also, shouldn't you be thanking me? I got you out of a meeting."

"That's true but why are you phoning me?"

"I can't reach Mum can you pass the phone to her?"

They all heard the man stuttering at the end of the phone and now all 3 of her friends were trying so hard to be quiet. Mia even had tears running down her face from laughing so hard.

"Why don't you just ring her again?"

"Surely you are passing the phone to her would be easier since you are both at home?"

"Pepper is calling me. Sorry I have to go. Try messaging her."

He hung up not a second later. The 3 now were in fits of laughter and were getting some odd looks from others.

Ali saw Wanda enter the Hall with a group of friends. Before Wanda could make it over to a free table Ali went over to her, grabbed her arm and practically dragged her over to her table.

"Hey what is that about?"

"You knew, didn't you?"

Ali could feel her mind trying to be penetrated but wouldn't let Wanda in. She wasn't angry but she just knew if she let Wanda in then they would probably be standing in front of one another hardly moving or speaking for some time and that would not be considered normal.

Wanda groaned in frustration.

"I only found out during English. I dashed off to school before anyone could tell me because I was late."

Ali nodded her head before sitting down in her seat. An evil grin was spread across not only her face but also the faces of the three others at the table.

"This is Maya, Abigail and Mia and so far, we have managed to prank Uncle Tony and I was just going to call Uncle Clint."