Disclaimer: Don't own, don't care, don't sue.
(Midtown School of Science and Technology, New York, September 13th 2016, 1:15pm)
The new girl baffled Peter.
She was spunky and sarcastic. She was wearing clothes that he had never seen anyone in this school wear before and he was fairly certain that she was flirting with him just to screw with him.
Flash had already met her and predictably started hitting on her only for the blonde to insult his height and nickname ("Did they give you that nickname because of how fast you finish?"). Flash had walked away with his tail between his legs while everyone gawked at the new girl. She had simply kicked her legs up onto her desk and smirked, fiddling with her dark purple bandana.
The thing was, despite the teasing, she was nice to him. Instead of being cold and rude like he thought she would be like, she was warm and funny, asking him about the school and what his school experience was like so far. Who were the good teachers and who were the absolute worst ones. He was kinda blown away.
Now it was time for lunch and she was actual sitting down to eat with Peter and Ned.
The two boys stared at her in shock while she unpacked her lunch (PB&J with a bag of potato chips and an apple along with a cherry coke) and started eating. After a minute she sighed and picked her head up, returning their stare with an unimpressed look.
"Are you two going to keep staring at me or are you gonna eat?" she asked, arching her eyebrow.
Peter flushed and looked down at his own lunch sheepishly. Ned just shook his head and asked the burning question Peter had been wanting to ask all day.
"Why are you sitting with us?" Ned asked bluntly.
Anastasia munched on a potato chip. "Am I not supposed too?"
"But," Ned said. "We're losers."
Anastasia pushed her lunch away and crossed her arms. "As far as I can tell, the two of you are the furthest thing. You get good grades, you're nice and polite, not to mention you haven't once commented on my appearance even though I've seen the both of you checking me out. In my opinion, that makes you both upstanding members of society, not losers." with that she picked up her sandwich and took a bite out of it.
Peter's jaw dropped as he processed what she said. 'How can a girl like her not think we're losers?' Peter shared a wide eyed look with Ned as the blonde ignored them in favor for her neglected food. Eventually the two boys started eating, making slow conversation about the Star Wars model they were in the middle of making.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
It was the end of the day and Peter was still shocked. He'd shown Anastasia around all day, taking her to her classes and introducing her to the teachers, all of whom liked her after watching her in class. Even Ned said good things about her, when Peter had passed her off to his best friend for a class since the two of them were in the same class while Peter had different one. According to Ned she had struck up a conversation about Star Trek with him and the pros and cons about being on the Enterprise.
Now the three of them were walking out the doors as Anastasia finished telling them a story about her uncle and brother.
"Yeah, Uncle Tony is a massive engineering geek along with my brother Isaac. The two of them were rebuilding an old motorcycle for Isaac and somehow managed to blow it up. I don't know they managed it but they did it at three in the morning and had everyone jumping out of their beds wondering what the hell had happened." she laughed, tossing her blonde hair back with a casual flick.
Peter laughed along with her, unconsciously studying her small smile. 'She's beautiful.' he thought absentmindedly as she finished her story. They stopped when they reached the sidewalk outside the front of the school.
"Okay, well, I'll see you guys tomorrow." the violet eyed girl said, giving them one last smirk.
"W-wait," Peter stuttered in surprise. "You actually want to keep hanging out with us?"
"Yeaaah?" she said, furrowing her brow in confusion.
"Why?" he asked, totally shocked.
She studied him for a second before giving him a soft smile. "Because I like the two of you."
Before either boy could reply she turned and started walking opposite of the way Peter and Ned lived, throwing a "See ya!" over her shoulder as she disappeared into the crowd of kids getting out of school. Ned and Peter stood side by side as they stared after her, mouths open.
"She likes us." Peter said in disbelief. "A girl like her doesn't think we're losers."
"She's hot," Ned blurted out.
Peter nodded, dazed. "Yeah, she is."
His best friend looked at him accusingly. "You totally like-like her, dude."
"What!" Peter squeaked, whipping his head toward his best friend. "No, I don't! I've known her for half a day."
Ned gave him a 'really' look. "You've admitted that she's pretty, you blush every time she looks at you for more than a second, and you haven't stopped staring at her all day."
"I-I-I, uh," Peter fumbled for words. "I don't like her! At least, not like that! She's just...weird is all."
"Riiiiiiiight," Ned said skeptically.
Peter huffed. "Come on, man, lets go."
The two boys walked away, completely oblivious to the fact that Mia and Zane could still hear them thanks to the bug that Anastasia had planted in Peter's hoodie.
OoOoOoOoOoOo
Mia and Zane smirked at each other as they heard the conversation between the two best friends.
"So," Zane said, amused. "the little spider has a crush on our portal jumper. That's going to be fun to watch."
"You're not gonna intervene, right, Zane?" Mia asked him, narrowing her eyes. "Because if you get in-between them, I can and will get Naomi and Pepper on your ass. Leave them alone."
Zane instantly scowled at the threat of both his fiancé and surrogate mother. "No, I'm not getting involved. Faith is the matchmaker on this team, not me."
"Hey," Mia defended her best friend. "She got you and Naomi together, didn't she?"
Zane nodded his head. "Fair enough,"
The front door suddenly opened and Anastasia's voice sounded throughout the office. "I hate high school!"
The two conspirators laughed under their breath and walked out of the control room, headed toward the kitchen where the portal jumper was bound to be. Predictably she was seated on the counter with a bag of Doritos in hand. Zane shook his head as he chuckled, grabbing a water bottle from the fridge.
"And why, pray tell, do you hate high school?" Zane asked, twisting open his water and taking a sip.
"Everybody's whiney and insecure, constantly pushing down others to make themselves feel good, and to top it all off they're all going at it like rabbits! It's horrible!" Anastasia instantly ranted, waving her Doritos bag around as she spoke.
Mia snickered as she hopped up on the counter beside the blonde, stealing the bag of chips. "You make it sound like you had a completely terrible time, Parker and Leeds didn't seem that bad."
Anastasia inclined her head, submitting to the hackers point. "True, but everyone else was an idiot. Especially that Flash kid, who allows people to call them Flash? It's the dumbest nickname I've ever heard of."
Zane laughed. "You definitely sent him packing though. I mean, that was borderline cruel, O'Conner."
Anastasia waved his statement away. "He had it coming, hitting on me like that."
The three of them laughed, happily talking amongst themselves as they unwound with each other.