Chapter 9: No Longer the New Kid

"We can't all four walk in at once, it'll be suspicious," Peter insisted. No one at school knew he was related to Mr. Stark, and if he walked in with three people who claimed to be his newly-rehomed illegitimate children, they'd all assume a connection.

"Are we just all supposed to pretend we don't know you?" Steve asked.

"That doesn't sound sustainable," Pietro added.

He made a good point. People would find out eventually that they all lived in the same house, might as well not make a whole "big reveal" out of it. Peter had had enough big reveals for the time being.

"You're right, we can just go together," he conceded. They'd gone over their schedules and the school layout the night before. Peter was confident they wouldn't have any trouble finding their way, but he understood their preference for company walking into a building full of strangers.

"I'd better not get any phone calls from the school saying you lot caused a fire or a flood," Happy warned. Peter saw him eye them warningly through the rearview mirror.

"So chemical spills are okay?" Pietro asked.

"I have a feeling Tony will revoke your school privileges if you so much as set a hamster loose."

"We don't have a hamster as a class pet. We have a raccoon and a stray cat that hang around the school. And also a tree."

"A tree?"

"Its name is Groot. It's the raccoon's favorite tree."

"Schools are closed at night. How have you seen a raccoon enough to deem it a class pet?" Wanda asked.

"Some of the sports teams get here so early that it's still dark out." One of Peter's favorite things about Stan Lee was that homeroom didn't start until eight-thirty in the morning, so only the teams with early practice got there while it was still dark out. At his old school, he had to be in his first class by seven twenty-five. Hardly anyone was ever awake until second or third period.

"I wish we could play sports," Steve lamented.

"That is the easiest way to get yourself exposed," Wanda said.

"What if I was only the best by a tiny bit?" Pietro asked.

"You have two speeds, P. Walking and supersonic."

"Let's focus on getting through this first day and proving to Mr. Stark we can keep everything under wraps, then we can negotiate more privileges." Truthfully, Peter worried that joining a team would introduce them to a new friend group and they'd forget all about him. He'd only known his same-age housemates a few weeks, but he already loved them like the siblings he never had.

Happy pulled into the car loop and unlocked the doors. "Remember—"

"We're recently rehomed bastard children," Pietro filled in.

"Maybe don't phrase it like that if someone asks."

Pietro smirked. "Sure thing."

"Peter, don't let them do anything stupid."

He was the responsible one? Crazy. "I won't. See you at three!"

They drew a lot more eyes on their way into school than Peter had on his first day. One unfamiliar face elicited a very different reaction than three of them. He wondered if they got exactly three times the attention, or if each additional new person accumulated less. Since homerooms were assigned alphabetically and the trio still bore their birth parents' last names, they weren't in the same group. Wanda and Pietro got to stay with Peter since Mr. Pym's homeroom included M through Q, but Steve would go to Ms. Carter. None of Peter's friends were in that class, so he couldn't tell Steve much about who to talk to. He'd brought his sketchbook so he didn't look like a total loner sitting doing nothing. They dropped Steve off and headed back to Mr. Pym's classroom, which was just around the corner. Peter pointed Wanda and Pietro to two seats that always sat empty during homeroom and took his usual seat next to Shuri.

"Who are your friends?" she asked, without so much as a good morning.

"New students," he said. "We live near each other."

"Four new students in the same year. That's definitely a record."

"Weren't you a new student when you started here?"

"Not really. Our exchange program is for all four years of high school. But we go home to Wakanda during the summers."

"Oh, okay. Their names are Wanda and Pietro, by the way."

Shuri waved to them from across the room. They eagerly waved back. Peter imagined it would be very exciting—but also overwhelming—to be around so many people their age after years of interacting only amongst themselves and Mr. Stark. His stomach twisted worrying about certain people potentially singling them out. They'd never been antagonized by anyone except each other, and Peter knew Wanda and Steve—especially Steve—tended to anger easily. What if they accidentally activated their powers when someone made a rude comment?

"You seem tense today," Shuri noted. "Upset that you're no longer the cool new kid?"

"That's an oxymoron."

"Fair. Are you worried about them?"

"Yeah."

"You should give them some advice. From one new kid to another."

Peter chuckled wryly. He'd already given them every piece of advice he had, but their situation didn't exactly mirror his. He'd at least gone to real school before. They might as well be aliens whose only knowledge of American teenage culture came from movies and TV. "I managed to handle it by myself," he told Shuri. "They at least have each other."

Peter wasn't in any of their classes, but they shared some with each other. Wanda and Pietro were together for first, third, and fourth period. Steve shared a math class with Pietro and third period with both twins, but other than that he was on his own. Peter was already counting down the minutes until lunch, when he could see them again and check in.

The morning announcements began and ended, and suddenly it was time for first period. Peter struggled to keep his composure, not wanting Shuri to puzzle over how concerned he was for these new students. As far as she knew, Peter knew them only as neighbors. Between first, second, and third period, he only passed Pietro in the hallway, as he was leaving chemistry and Pietro was heading in, so he couldn't gauge how their day was going. When the bell rang signaling the end of third period, he all but raced to the cafeteria.

Wanda, Pietro, and Steve were in no such rush. They walked in together several minutes after Peter arrived, chatting amongst themselves. None of them seemed like they were in crisis, so Peter took it the first half of their day went pretty well. "How's it going?" he asked them.

"School's hard," Pietro said. "I've been here for three hours and I already have more homework than I've ever had in my life."

"He's exaggerating," Steve said. "It's going fine. It's actually really nice to have in-person instruction."

Wanda agreed.

"You make any friends?"

"There's this girl named Monica who has first and third period with us," she explained. "She's pretty nice."

"Yeah, I did a group project with her in history. She's cool. How about you, Steve?"

"I met the quarterback of the football team."

"Is she nice?" Peter's only interaction with her had consisted of a very confusing wink.

Steve only shrugged.

"Peter, are you gonna sit with us or them?" Shuri came up behind him to ask. Bucky stood a few paces behind her.

Peter didn't know what to do. He wanted to hear more about the trio's first day, but he also wanted to talk to Shuri. And maybe try whatever Wakandan food she'd packed today.

"Or you all four can sit with us," she added.

"May we?" Wanda asked.

"Of course!" Shuri led them to their usual table. Bucky sat beside her, as far from the rest of the crowd as he could without sliding to the other end of the table. "So where are you all from?" she asked.

The trio exchanged glances.

"Brooklyn."

"Sokovia," said the twins.

"Wow, that's almost as far away as Wakanda. What brings you to Stan Lee?"

"Our mom…died," Wanda explained. Peter took a deep breath. If Shuri bought their cover story, they were probably in the clear. "So we live with our dad now."

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that."

"Thank you."

Shuri looked expectantly at Steve.

"Oh, I'm actually…the same thing happened to me. The three of us share a dad."

"Oh, okay. So you're half siblings."

"Yeah."

"Brooklyn and Sokovia. Your dad really got around," Bucky muttered.

Shuri elbowed him. "Be nice, Bucky."

"Sorry."

Pietro was quite obviously laughing into his hand. Wanda stomped on his foot under the table. "It's okay," she said. "We're just lucky we have somewhere to live."

Shuri nodded. "What do you think of Stan Lee so far?"

"It's pretty cool," Steve said. "Very different than any school I've been to before."

"It's a lot smaller than most."

Peter bit his lip to avoid saying that it was actually much, much bigger than their previous school. This whole lying to everyone thing was really hard. He understood why Mr. Stark had been so hesitant to allow this. It wasn't even his secret to keep, and he was already struggling.

None of the three responded to Shuri's comment about the size of the school.

"Are you looking to join any clubs?" she asked.

"What kind of clubs do you have?" Pietro asked.

"Peter and I are in robotics. We're always looking for more people. There's the theater program, but that's a huge time commitment. There's Red Cross club, but they don't do much other than plan the blood drive twice a year. Dance team is audition only, also a huge time commitment. I know there's more, but I can't think of them off the top of my head. There should be a flier posted somewhere in some hallway."

"Sounds cool," Pietro muttered. Peter knew he was still a bit upset over the whole "no sports" thing. Besides, joining clubs was more of a second week than a first week of school thing. They needed more time to adjust before considering adding even more into their schedules.

The rest of lunch consisted of Shuri chatting with Bucky who gave mostly one-word, monotone answers. When the bell rang, Peter wished the three luck before walking with Shuri to history class. "They seem nice," she told him.

"Yeah, they do."

Peter hoped the second half of the day was as blissfully uneventful as the first.

~0~

"Have you heard?" Scott asked during sixth period. They'd rearranged the benches in the shop so they could face each other and chat while they worked on their projects. "We got three new students all in the same day."

"Yeah, we had lunch with them. They live near Peter," Shuri explained.

"One of them is in my math, history, and chem classes."

"Which one?" Bucky asked.

"The blond one who looks like a football player."

"His name is Steve," Peter offered.

Scott chuckled. "He doesn't look like a Steve."

"What does he look like?"

"I don't know. One of those buff white guy names, like Chris, or…Chris."

"Is that really the only one you can think of?" Bucky asked.

"There are a lot of Chrises in the world!"

"You Americans are so unoriginal with your names," Shuri said with a shake of her head.

"Isn't your brother's name only one letter different from your dad's?" Bucky asked knowingly.

"At least it's not exactly the same, with "Jr" tacked onto the end."

"Touché."

"He seems really shy," Scott continued.

"Who wouldn't, on their first day at a brand new school."

"The silver one isn't particularly shy," Phastos said. He usually didn't participate in conversation while they worked, too intently focused on his own project.

Phastos made an excellent point. "Shy" was one of the last words Peter would ever use to describe his step-brother.

"I think he managed to make acquaintances with everyone in the class just in the three minutes before the bell rang," Scott explained.

"Good for him," Bucky said curtly.

"His sister seems pretty cool too," Scott continued. "She looks like she could kill me, though."

Bucky laid his right hand on Scott's shoulder. "Most people could kill you, Scott."

Scott looked at him earnestly. "Thank you for your candor."

"Any time."

"Boys, boys, lay off the heart eyes," Shuri said. Bucky rolled his eyes at her, just in time for their ten-minute clean up warning. As Peter packed up his things, he wondered how his siblings were feeling about their first full day of school. He couldn't wait to hear all about it.