Chapter 1: First Day jitters

Peggy wasn't stupid, not by any stretch of the imagination. Not only was she smart in the academic way, but she also had a sensible head on top of her shoulders as her mother would say. Most people would have said that her brother, Michael, was the smarter of the Carter siblings and that was true in the strictest meaning of the word but that would overlook the way Peggy saw the world and more importantly what she planned for it. Despite only being 16, no one could deny, she had plans.

And that was the attitude she had as she walked through the doors of her school and into the Sixth Form common room, alone.

It was much rowdier than she had been anticipating, shouting, laughter ringing out with people calling out to and waving over friends they hadn't seen in the longest time. Peggy was slightly ashamed to admit that she wished someone was calling out her name, but no one would - Angie, her best friend since year 7, was going to be off for the entire first week because of appendicitis while Maria, had decided to study her A-Levels at the boys' school when Peggy and Angie had both chosen to stay as the last 5 years were so great. Both girls were pretty certain the next two were going to be just as good, even if this was a decidedly poor start. There was also Natasha, but she was overall a lone spirit who had just joined them when no one was paying attention and never left, therefore, she was unlikely to be actively looking out for Peggy.

After working her way through half of the common room and if she was completely honest more boys than she expected she finally recognised Natasha sat at a small circular table by the communal kitchen for the sixth form.

'Hey Nat, you realise that this table is going to be inundated with the stench of pot noodles in about ummm. . . ' making a dramatic flair of checking her watch 'oh 4 hours when all 300 people make a mad dash for 4 microwaves and a kettle,' and with this she dropped her leather tote on the table. She wasn't a fan of the bag with only one big compartment and the tiniest pocket for a phone, truthfully, she would have rather just got a rucksack with a pattern on it, but her parents (mostly her mother) insisted that sixth form and A-Levels meant a proper over the shoulder, like a lady, not the familiar and trusty rucksack she would have preferred. Peggy flicked through her diary while comparing summer holidays with Natasha who was simultaneously putting a series of intricate Dutch braids into her hair. Both were pleased when the bell finally went at 8:55 so they could go to form and finally see their timetables for the year, Peggy had chosen to do Geography, History, Religious Studies as well as Government & Politics. Almost everyone thought she was crazy doing 4 A-Levels, especially when they weren't the sciences, maths, and further maths but humanities - but she knew she would prove them all wrong.

When Peggy got to her form room, she found a good seat with a view out to a blossoming tree and saved the seat next to her for Angie when she came back. She always enjoyed form on the first day - when all that needed to be done was working out which teachers you had, where your lessons were and most importantly who was in them. After glancing down the piece of paper she realised the actual timetable of her lessons were awful, but she had all the teachers that she wanted (especially for Geography and History). So today all she had was double Government & Politics in the afternoon and frees period 1, 2 and 3 and because she had no work, she could talk to Nat is she was in a free as well and if not read her book. As first days go this one was shaping up alright in Peggy's mind, even if she hadn't found anyone, she knew in anything other than history. The next three hours passed quickly, and she finished the book she had been reading and was getting close to regretting not bringing a second one when the bell she was sat under startled her, informing her it was lunch. Peggy only just cleared up her notebook, diary, and pencil case when Natasha practically hurtled herself into the seat next Peggy before gesturing to a girl on a phone behind and saying,

'This is Hope, she's in my maths set. She's also new and has a boyfriend she never stops messaging who is over on the dark side. Miss Cornwall asked me to keep an eye until she settles but I don't she notices anything beyond that screen.'

'Right, ok, hi Hope! It's nice to meet you,' was all Peggy managed to get out before Natasha continued on what was clearly going to be a long vent.

'Have you heard, Peg? Maria is already in with Nick Fury (you know the guy with the following, yes you do, we saw him on the bus in year 10) and his friends. I heard that she's practically his right hand already. I suppose it makes sense because you and Angie were so much closer, not that I'm saying it's because of you guys. Obviously not, if anything you girls were too good for her but it's crazy, I mean she's been there for all of half a day and its suddenly Hazelton Boys all the way and she's forgotten about the 5 years she was here. It's typical really.'

'Oh,' was all Peggy could manage as she processed that volley of information as a whiff of overprocessed noodles hit her nose, causing her to involuntarily recoil and wrinkle her nose, which she hoped Nat didn't misinterpret as a reaction to the Maria Hill bombshell.

After they ate their lunches and complained about the table's unfortunate position by the kitchen Peggy pulled a pack of cards out of her bag, which even pried Hope away from her phone and her boyfriend, who they had learnt was called Scott after many repeated questions as well as the reason for them both going to new schools (their school didn't offer A-Levels, so they had to go somewhere else). They played several different games, keeping score which resulted in a sudden death match of ''Speed'' between Peggy and Hope, Nat could see that Hope didn't stand a chance against Peggy's quickness of thought and reaction so the lunchbreak ended with Peggy swiping victory from out under Hope's hand right as the bell went. The girls wished each other a good afternoon as they each headed off to form and then lessons, with Natasha and Hope going to Chemistry and Peggy to Government & Politics - her first lesson of the year.

Moving schools for sixth form had seemed like a great idea to Steve when he had gotten his GCSE results in the summer, and he had been told they were good enough to leave Hazelton and get into St. Helena's. However, the excitement and courage had completely left his body as he stood outside of the front door of his new school, slightly unsure of what to do and praying that he would see Bucky or Howard soon so they could go in as a united front. It wasn't for another 5 minutes that his phone buzzed, and he looked down to check. Mercifully, it was a picture from Howard they caption simply stated ''where you at'', no punctuation (typical Howard he thought with a slight shake of his head), the picture finally loaded to show Howard and Bucky each with their arm around a different blonde. This was just great, now Steve was going to have to go in by himself and try and find them. If he hadn't been so preoccupied with his own friends (or lack of) he would have noticed another student struggling with the same problem. Instead, all he caught was a quick flash of brown hair as she ducked around the corner and past a group of upper sixth stressing about applying to university.

Steve followed the corridors confused by how vague the signs were, and most alarming were the looks he got from the year 13s revising in the sixth form study when he opened the door having mistook it for the common room - an honest mistake as they were facing each other in the corridor layout. Quickly turning on his heel he made his way into the actual common room and realised he would never be able to spot Howard or Bucky. After a few seconds of panic his phone started to vibrate in his hand.

'3 o'clock o' great man with a plan'

'You are so cruel to me, you know that don't you, Bucky?' He said as he spun around to the direction his friends were in.

'Oh, cry me a river Rogers and you could float your way over here!'

As he cut across the large room, he decided whether he liked the table Howard and Bucky had picked after explicitly ignored what he said. overall, he would have liked to have been closer to the kitchen, he thought the best table for about 5 or 6 people in front of the serving hatch type opening would be the best. However, it was clearly taken, and he had no intention of messing with the girl fixing her hair. He thought with her make-up and outfit she looked more prepared for a fight than a few hours of lessons.

Right as he got to the table that he and his friends would be sat at for the rest of the year the bell went with Howard and Bucky waving goodbye as they went to a physics lab, and he went by himself to a history room. A few minutes later he got his timetable and was subsequently crushed to learn that he did not have his new form tutor who he was convinced was better than the whole history department at Hazelton would not be teaching him, instead he would Mr Hunt and Mr Andrews and apparently the other set of history students got Mr Hunt and Miss Adams, he had to admit he was jealous. For all his subjects he should have 2 teachers and yet he only had 1 listed for Art and he wondered why.

That morning he had English Literature first period and then nothing until Government & Politics all afternoon. Steve didn't want to be the only guy in his lessons and as much as times had changed, he was fairly certain all the others were doing biology, business, maths and the like - not English Literature, not History and definitely not Art.

He needn't have worried about English as he ended up sat next to someone called Daniel and they got to know each other pretty well in the hour of the lesson as well as having been acquaintances at Hazelton - he was now feeling pretty good about the next two years, and he deep down he recognised that the rest of his lessons would be just as good if not better.

Steve spent the two hours after break but before lunch reading a set-text for English, starting with the Handmaid's Tale, mainly because it looked the shortest and seem to have a plot that would keep him interested for the next couple of hours. He would occasionally look around the common room as teachers popped in and out, looking for upper sixth and handing back work and personal statements. However, what caught his attention every time he looked up when the slam of a door was louder than his music was a beautiful girl with perfectly styled brown hair (perfectly styled everything really but he didn't think he was in a position to judge that sort of thing) sitting alone and reading her own book, with headphones like him. Not only that, but she was also sat alone at the table he had been envious of earlier that morning.

He chuckled to himself over the irony of it, and before returning his nose to his book he thought about introducing himself. It made sense in his mind, they were clearly free at the same time and therefore would be for more periods in the timetable and he would love to be by the kitchen, and more importantly not by himself. But not today, it was the first day – no one knew who he was, as he was nobody at Hazelton and hell, he didn't even know her name!

For Steve lunch dragged by and he couldn't wait to get out of the common room and to a lesson. He had yet to gel with the noise and the overall atmosphere of the whole sixth form and was quite content trying to drown out the world with his music and continue the sketches he had been working on over the summer. They weren't to keep him in practice, or a means to gain favour from the teacher nor to be that bit ahead of the curve – he simply loved to draw, his mother deemed it his passion, but his father didn't even know he was taking A-Level Fine Art and would probably try to disown him if he ever found out. He wasn't even thrilled when his son had chosen to take humanities subjects and English Literature of all the things. Steve didn't really think that his father had caught up with the times – he was so set in his ways and thoughts, and it definitely wasn't for the best…

It wasn't a comment or action from his friends that bought him out of his contemplation but the bell signalling the end of lunch, and everyone began to file out to afternoon registration before the final two lessons of the day and the prospect of going home, obviously with minimal homework as it was only the first day.

A few minutes later Steve found himself stood in the middle of a corridor, not entirely sure which building he was even in and completely in the dark about how to get to the room cryptically labelled as G2. As he glanced down the hallway, he was pleased to see someone else from the sixth form, because no 16-year-old boy wants to ask for directions from an 11-year-old girl who would most certainly relay the story to the entire year at the speed of lightning.

'Hey, please tell me you can help me, I'm trying to get to G2…?' his voice faltering as at that point the girl turned around and he realised it was the same one from before that he had been gazing (was that too strong of a word?) at all morning.

'Oh, yeah, absolutely – just head over with me,' and she let out the lightest chuckle before continuing, 'So politics with Miss Miller all afternoon, you're going to love it! I hope you hadn't been standing there too long but to be honest with you, I wouldn't have asked someone in main school either – they're all much too confident in a weird malicious way.' She suddenly paused before turning her head 90 degrees and tilting it slightly up, 'I am so sorry, I've been talking your ear off all the way down this corridor! I'm Peggy, and you are?'

'Steve Rogers'

'Nice to meet you, Steve. Would you mind opening the door and we can hope we weren't so late that we got minutes!'

'Minutes…?' Steve questioned but never received a reply as the door opened and 5 sets of eyes were on himself and Peggy.

'Ah, Miss Carter, I was starting to think there was a mistake on the register and I had lost you to somewhere awful – like law!' It had been discussed at length by the teachers at St. Helena's which four subjects would be teaching Peggy Carter and in the end the friendly rivalry between the law and politics departments had been squarely won by politics. 'And you must be Mr Rogers. Please would you both take the last two seats at this table. And…' she glanced at her watch, '2 late minutes, but I'll let you split them.'

As the register was taken Steve whispered to Peggy,

'What on Earth are late minutes and why do we each have one?'

'You turn up late, they make a note of how many minutes and so you know we can go home on Friday at 2:50 not 3:45 like main school?' He gave a slight nod, careful not to attract Miss Miller's attention, 'Well you have to stay from 2:50 until you've sat through your minutes.'

'I see.' He looked around, wondering if this counted as a bad first impression, causing someone to have stay late on a Friday did seem pretty bad.

As they sat in their seats both Peggy and Steve were still slightly shocked that they were sitting next to each other (which admittedly was neither of their first choices) and that there were only 4 other students in the room besides themselves, surely there would be more demand for such an important subject?

As it was the first day the first hour was spent with administrative tasks, the handing out of textbooks and the like as well as quickly getting to know each other, as there were only 6 of them, Steve and Peggy were effectively sat at the "head" of the table with Jane Foster and Ray Krzeminski sitting as a pair on Peggy's side and Wanda Maximoff and Pepper Potts on Steve's side, and to allegedly encourage debate and dialogue all three pairs faced inwards creating a rough horseshoe.

Unsurprisingly, Miss Miller's interior design to 'encourage dialogue' had worked a little too well with rigorous debate and discussion quickly enveloping the group when questions like 'Can there be a perfect democracy? What would it look like?' and somehow this debate increased in ferocity on even more divisive issues. Pepper and Wanda worked well together but often took too much of an idealistic and unattainably green approach to the political discussion, especially when contrasted to Steve and Peggy's realism. The real wildcard in the group was Krzeminski and his draconian views that enraged Peggy several times to the point that no one else would dare speak a word (including Miss Miller) until she had finished verbally eviscerating his arguments and outdated notions.

By the time the two hours were over Miss Miller could see that this was going to be a long and taxing two years, but that was much better than the lessons being boring and silent. She wished all six students a good evening as she cleaned the board, wiping away the prompts from earlier.

Steve and Peggy walked out of the front gate together, still enthralled in the final topic of discussion - whether 16-year-olds should have the right to vote, both could see the arguments for and against but neither had come to a final conclusion yet. Before they could they had reached the gate, Natasha was waiting to take Peggy because she was sure Amanda Carter would have made fresh scones and she would be damned if she missed them, while Steve was being taken in the opposite direction towards town by Bucky.

'I'll see you tomorrow - same time, same place?' he called out to her, in such a cheerful tone he even surprised himself, and more surprisingly she replied in the same tone,

'No way! I'm not getting anymore late minutes because of you! 1:40, on the dot! Don't you dare be late.'