Thank you to the kind kind person guest who reviewed and told me this story was one they checked regularly for updates, it helped motivate me to write again. I've uploaded this chapter especially for you! Enjoy!
Shuri surveys her room with much satisfaction.
Yesterday, her and Peter had spent the rest of the day adorning her room with posters of trending bands, photos of herself, and book quotes.
It looked just like how a 'typical' teenage room should look.
Which was perfect because today, Shuri was going to be a normal teen, attending a normal school, living a normal life and being just totally, like, normal.
She opens her laptop, firing up the system and launching the script of code she had written yesterday. It adjusted the desktop screen and language settings, turning from a serious African scientist's computer, to a fun-loving American teenager's. Shuri nods in satisfaction, the pride evident in her giant smile.
Discreetly adjusting the slim silver necklace with a charm imprinted with a panther pawprint hanging off it, which discreetly contained a hidden mike that fed directly to the computer to alter her voice, Shuri switches her camera on.
Wow
She blinks in surprise at what the screen reflected.
No elaborate costuming, makeup or jewelry. Just what a normal teenage girl was expected to wear on her first day at school.
Shuri pulls her hair out of its usual intricate braids, fingers hurriedly working to smooth out the curls and pulls her grey hoodie up. Taking a deep breath to steady the growing nerves, Shuri clicks on the "Join Class" button.
What was there to be scared of anyway? She had faced press cameras up in her face, spoken at world renowned science conferences, and attended international events held in her honour, so a couple of hours on-screen classes was nothing, right?
Loud sound blasts from the computer's speakers as the audio connects. Shuri shifts awkwardly on her wheelie chair, while the rest of the cohort interacts excitedly.
Is this what the next 7 hours will be like? No wonder people hated school so much, social hierarchy was truly brutal.
The teacher's screen pops up on the screen, expanding as the algorithm identified her as a main speaker. The title underneath read, Ms Warren.
"Class, listen up. I'm Ms Warren if you didn't already know. As it's obviously the first day of online school, let's all try to behave for once. Alright, I'll let you all go now, see you for homeroom tomorrow unless I have a class with you today, in which case I'll see you then. Oh, and could Miss Sadie Fitzgerald and Mr Peter Parker please stay behind. Thank you."
The rest of the students begin to disperse, logging out (possibly for the rest of the day, depending on their commitment to the academics) and onto their next class.
"Sadie? Welcome to the Midtown School of Science and Technology. This is Peter and he's here to help you. Unfortunately, we cannot meet in-person due to the recent outbreak of Corona Virus. Feel free to contact either Peter or I if you have any questions about how the school system works. Okay?"
Shuri nods in understanding.
"Well, I think that's all for now. I'll leave you to chat with Peter until the next lesson begins Have a good first day!" Ms Warren's screen disappears with a pop.
Peter grins cheekily.
"So, Sadie. How's the day going so far? Reaching all the standards of a first school?"
"Very much so, Peter. Though I forgot how crowded the public school system can be." Shuri admits.
"Sorry it can't match up to twelve international private tutors, princess." He smirks, dangling the bait for Shuri to latch onto.
She gasps dramatically.
"You did not just say that!"
And by the time Shuri leaps from her chair in outrage, Peter made his escape, exiting the zoom chat, leaving the princess staring angrily at her own American-born alter ego reflection. Nearby, Shuri's phone pings with a message alert.
Huffing a breath, she plonks back down on the chair unceremoniously and grabs the device. Opening the message app, she checks Peter's message.
Oh yes I did ;P
Shuri types back, fingers flying furiously.
I can't believe you!
Sure, you can
I see why Flash finds you so annoying
Wait till he finds out you were in his classes the whole time and he never took the chance to try to take you out for a date
I would never accept a date from him!
Maybe you wouldn't but would Sadie? :D
Peter!
You're late for class btw…better log on fast …
What? She was late for a class? Having tutors come straight to you is so much easier, Shuri decides.
Sighing, she logs onto the server again and opens the link to class.
The screen loading ever so slowly, Shuri has never missed Wakanda's high speed network and her own private lab more.
Wanda heads into the kitchen, searching through the cupboards frantically. She hunts for unused teabags and rips into the packaging the way a vicious predator would to an innocent prey.
Letting loose a loud "aha!", Wanda heats a cup of water rapidly, whipping her hands around, conducting an invisible symphony that only she could control, and voila! A new cup of strong black tea sits waiting on the kitchen benchtop.
Sighing in relief, Wanda brings the steaming cup of caffeinated to her lips and takes a long sip. Setting the drink down on the table, she rubs her temples wearily, thinking hard about her studies.
"Tough day, huh?"
Wanda gasps, lashing around in shock, her magic instinctually grabbing a large knife from the kitchen and aiming it dead straight at the intruder's head.
"Woah, sorry for the surprise." Bucky has his hands raised in defence.
Wanda sighs tiredly.
"It's okay. Sorry, I just get a little jumpy." She gives a tight smile.
Bucky tucks his hands back into his jean pockets and shrugs casually.
"No worries." He adds a friendly smile. "I get what you mean."
"Right." Wanda looks at him warily, wondering what past scenario he was referring to. Was he another one of her victims?
As she stares into Bucky's unflinching brown eyes, her heart jumps at the unflinching gaze he sends her way. It's just the caffeine…And get back to your studies! Wanda scolds herself.
"Well," She ducks her head, searching for an escape back to her studies. "I'm meeting someone, if you'll excuse me."
"A boyfriend?" Bucky's face displays a questioning look.
"No, I'm attending a lecture on International Law." Wanda snaps, pushing past Bucky and making her way to her room.
He watches the flame of red hair flash past him, mentally kicking himself. Well, gals just aren't the same as they were in 1930s!
"Hello everyone, and welcome to sixteenth century Italy. I'll be guiding you through one of the most famous love stories in history, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Please open your textbooks to the first page." Intones the English teacher, whose on-screen name read Miss Roberts.
"Miss? Can we watch the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio? Please!" A student begs.
"If we get through the play in time, we will." She promises.
Shuri's phone beeps with a new message from Peter.
You know I heard that Shakespeare stole the idea of Romeo and Juliet and made it his own
Really?
Yeah, like the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe
Who?
By the Roman Poet Ovid, about a pair of lovers, whose families were enemies. However, they defy their parents' wishes and agree to meet in the woods. Thisbe, finding a terrifying lion finishing a bloody meal, escapes the scene. Pyramus arrives later, and upon finding Thisbe's forgotten cloak, kills himself in despair. Thisbe, returning to the woods, finds her lover's body and kills herself too. A familiar story, right?
Guess the copyright officials will be onto him
Haha, they'll be a few centuries too late!
The period flies by quickly as Miss Robert's passion for Shakespeare combined with her spunky humour entertains the students immensely.
"And I'll see you all next lesson!" The meeting ends.
Shuri checks her timetable.
"History?" She mutters in disbelief. Humanities had always been T'Challa's area of expertise; he excelled in memorizing all they key dates in History, key locations in Geography and all the other bits and pieces of information Shuri could never be bothered to remember.
Sighing, she clicks on the link and waits for the screen to load.
"Alright, kids listen up." A grouchy looking man appears on-screen. His white hair is practically falling off head from what Shuri could see, and his computer system was majorly outdated. She wondered how it could even support the new software the school was using. The teacher coughs loudly, then seeing the lack of a reaction from the students' chatting excitedly, yells, "Shut up, you morons!"
Shuri grimaces as her computer speakers crackle unhappily, transmitting the awful sound.
"Now, obviously I am not your normal teacher, Mr Dell. Thank heavens for that." He mutters under his breath, obviously unaware of how microphones worked. They picked up everything, Shuri as knew, finding that out the hard way when she had attended her first live interview for the Wakandan News Channel. "You can all call me Mr Donner."
Had Shuri's mike not been turned off, she would've gotten in major trouble for bursting into laughter upon hearing her awful teacher's surname.
His name suits him perfectly
Why?
Because Donner is a German nickname for "angry man"!
Wow it really does suit him
Yep, definitely
"We'll be studying the Jim Crow Laws this unit, which are now frequently viewed as morally wrong and unjust. But back in my day, it was perfectly fine for two races to be separated! Sometimes everything just works better that way. Anyway, now answer question 1 to 4 from the textbook in the assigned groups."
The class breaks off into sectioned group calls and a bright-faced girl appears on Shuri's screen.
"Um, hi! You must be new; I haven't seen you around before."
"Uh, nope. I just moved here before the lockdown started and went straight to online." Shuri says nervously, hoping to make a good impression on the other student. "It's nice to meet you, I'm Sadie."
"Cute name! I'm Cindy. Do you like History?"
"It's not my favourite," Shuri admits. "But I can't say I've had the best teachers. And Mr Donner is so not going to change that." she adds. "What was the previous teacher like?"
"Oh, Mr Dell? He's pretty cool, very into his facts and statements."
"Sounds a whole lot better than Mr Donner."
"I totally agree." Cindy smiles. "So, I guess we better get started on the questions?"
They read the information and finish the assigned work just as a new alert pops up from Mr Donner.
The rest of the questions are homework
Shuri groans at the list of questions 4-23, some which had multiple subsection questions to answer.
"No way! This sucks."
"Absolutely. Mr Dell never gave homework!"
The two students frown in disappointment.
Sighing Cindy says,
"Okay well, see you next class?"
"Yeah, see you then." Shuri replies as Cindy's avatar disappears from the screen.
She too logs out and goes off to find some food.
"Hey, how was your first day of school?" Steve greets Shuri, taking a seat at the table whilst she enters the kitchen.
"Ooh first days are always exciting." Natasha pipes up from the dining table, biting into a large chicken sandwich.
Steve shoots her an unimpressed look and snatches his sandwich back.
"Yeah, it was okay. I've still got one more class though. School is way more exhausting than I thought- I even have homework!" Shuri opens the fridge and extracts a pot of soup and grabs a spare bowl from the cupboard.
"Don't worry, at least it won't contribute to your real grades." Steve says, keeping a keen eye on his sandwich, lest it be stolen by a certain Russian spy during the conversation. Natasha just bats her eyes innocently from the other side of the table.
Shuri ladles several spoonsful of soup into the bowl.
"Any idea where Peter is? I'm thinking of arranging another gym session with him to improve his boxing." Steve asks.
"Not sure, I think he might be catching up with Ned."
"Knowing teenage boys' appetites, he'll be arriving for lunch in no time." Natasha remarks.
As if on cue, Peter dashes into the room.
All eyebrows raised towards him, he shrugs and says,
"I thought I smelt food."
Natasha exchanges a knowing smirk with Shuri, reaching forward to seize the final bite of Steve's sandwich from the plate and stuff it into her mouth triumphantly.
Steve rolls his eyes and sighs.
"Peter, if you're getting soup, grab me a bowl too."
"Sure."
Joining Shuri, who was waiting for the microwave to finish, at the kitchen bench, Peter asks,
"So, how have you found it so far?"
"Aside from all your strange texts? Okay so far. Oh, and who did you get paired up with for the History group-work?"
"MJ." Peter replies.
"Oh, okay."
The microwave dings and Shuri plucks her steaming bowl from inside eagerly. Carrying it carefully to the table, she takes a spoon and begins eating lunch.
"And Shuri?" Peter calls from the fridge. "You know we have English homework too?"
She covers her face and groans as Natasha and Steve begin to laugh, having zero sympathy for the overwhelmed princess.
"Welcome to America." Steve says, clapping Shuri on the back.