At the end of his first day of school, Peter and his new friends headed to a nearby café, which was very popular with the Academy's students. They pushed a few tables together to make one big table, and all sat down with their choice of drink. They'd also ordered a few big plates of fries to share.

Peter looked around, and saw that several other tables were occupied by students. On the other side of the room was another pushed-together long table, where a group of cheerleaders were sitting. He noticed Claire sitting with them, and then blushed as she waved - very noticeably. He looked away quickly, pretending to be very interested in his drink and hoping no-one would say anything.

Fortunately for Peter, his new friends were distracted by some new arrivals. Two girls – one with very short hair and big brown eyes, the other with long curly dark hair – came over to the table first, finding empty chairs next to Audrey. They were followed by a tall Indian boy, a boy with messy dark hair whose clothes were spattered with paint, and a petite Japanese girl dressed very smartly, who nodded to Hiro briefly before sitting down.

Hiro introduced the newcomers. "Peter, this is my sister Kimiko, she's a junior.", he said, indicating the Japanese girl. "And this is Isaac, Mohinder, Eden and Simone. They're juniors as well. Everyone, this is Peter. He just started today, he's in the other freshmen class."

Kimiko nodded a greeting to Peter, before pulling out her laptop, Isaac muttered a nervous hello before opening the notebook he carried, and while he started to scribble something Mohinder, Eden and Simone said hello. Then everyone went back to their conversations. Peter was technically still talking to Matt about trying out for sports teams, but he kept getting distracted by Simone sitting opposite. He also noticed that Isaac would often glance up at her from his sketching. They were sitting next to each other, and he saw her touch Isaac's arm gently, whisper something to him, then kiss him on the cheek.

Peter's heart sank when he realised that they must be going out, then sank even further when he remembered that she was a junior, and probably wouldn't look twice at him. Matt had realised that Peter didn't seem to be listening. "Peter? Are you okay?"

"What? Oh… yeah."

"You drifted off there for a bit."

"Yeah, I guess I did."

"D'you want to talk about it?"

"That girl. Simone. Do you know if she's with anyone?"

"That's what you were thinking about? Well, she's been with Isaac almost a year now. They're pretty serious. He had some personal problems last year, and she helped him sort himself out."

"So I've got no chance, then?"

"No chance at all. But who was that girl waving to you when we got here? That blonde girl, sitting with the cheerleaders… she's pretty."

"I thought no-one saw that."

"I saw you blushing. You like her?"

"I only met her today… but I guess I do."

"There you go then."

Yeah, like I've got a chance with the principal's daughter, Peter thought.

"So what if her dad's the principal, she seems to like you."

"What?"

"You said something about her dad being the principal… how did you know?"

"I didn't… you mentioned it." Matt was getting very confused. He was sure Peter had said something about the girl's father.

"No, I didn't." Peter frowned, and after an awkward moment he got up to get a refill of his drink, and when he returned Matt was talking to one of the others.

As Peter listened to Mohinder telling Eden about his father's research, he wondered why Matt had made that comment about Claire's dad, when he apparently had no idea who her father was. He had thought about Claire's dad before talking to Matt, but he was sure he hadn't said anything. It's almost as if he can read minds, he thought, but that's too much like something out of science fiction.

He was disturbed from his thoughts by the arrival of yet more new faces. This time, the new people didn't come straight to their table, but found their own. Eden pointed out each person to Peter. "That's DL Hawkins, he's a senior, and they're Niki and Jessica Sanders," he said pointing out two girls with long blonde hair and matching outfits. "They're twins, Niki's going out with DL but I don't think Jessica is with anyone. Umm... there's Brody Mitchell, he's quarterback on the football team, and that's Janice Farrell, she's a cheerleader, and the guy walking in now is Nathan…" she looked at Peter. "Do you know him?"

"He's my brother."

"Oh… uh, great. Anyway… those girls over there are Meredith Gordon, Heidi Butler, and Candice Wilmer; they're the "popular" clique in senior year, which means no-one really likes them. And I think those two coming in now are exchange students… I think the guy is called Jack, but I don't know."

The twin girls she had pointed out came over to their table, DL and a few hangers-on following them. Niki – who was wearing a pendant with an "N" hanging from it, and Jessica had a matching pendant with a "J" – caught Simone's attention.

"Simone, are you still hanging out with these freaks?"

"Why do you care?"

"We were friends once, you know. I still worry about you."

"Well, you don't need to. I'm just fine, thanks, and I'm perfectly happy here."

"You're actually happy with your junkie boyfriend and his little freak friends?"

Simone got up to face the other girl. "Yeah, I am. And don't you dare call Isaac a junkie again. I'd rather hang out with these guys than spend time with you, Sanders."

"Fine." Niki sighed.

Jessica looked at the others sitting around the table. "Oh, there are some new members of the Freak Club, isn't that nice Niki?"

"Well, it's interesting." She gestured in Peter's direction. "You. What's your name?"

"Uh… Peter."

"Your last name, dumbass."
"Petrelli. Peter Petrelli."

"Petrelli? You're Nathan's brother?"

"Yes…"
"Huh. Never would have thought a Petrelli would be hanging out with the freaks. Very interesting." With that, the twins swept away, DL and the others following. When they were gone, Peter asked Eden something.

"Uh, what's the Freak Club?"

"It's what the "popular" cliques call us normal kids. It's weird, the unpopular kids always outnumber the popular ones. Are you really Nathan Petrelli's brother?"

"Yeah… why does everyone keep sounding so surprised when that comes up?"

"Your brother is, like, the most popular guy in school. Didn't you know that?"
"No, he doesn't really tell me much about his friends. We don't exactly have that much in common, you know?"

"I think I do. Don't worry about it, though."