September 6th, 1972

Last class on her first day at the new school for Violet consisted of listening for half the class, then staring at the clock until it hit 3:30. Her pen spun on her hand, her free hand tapping against the table so much that it caused a few people around her to give her irritated looks. She didn't care, she just wanted to get home.

Today had been her first day, unlike the rest of the school populous. They had to endure a full week while she only got to go on Friday. Originally, she was meant to go at the start of the week but one freak out and one burning hole through her door later and it was decided they would take her when she had calmed down. She had mustered up the courage to go, despite the horrible sick feeling in her stomach as she walked through the door into the office, checking in every mirror that she could find just to check if her eyes were their original storm grey colour. She gathered by the receptionists bored expression that she was going to be okay.

She had had a few slip ups. All of them seemed to be when she got nervous, or when she let her mind wander to the worst possible scenario, a thing she had done well before she had gotten her powers. Violet made sure to take mental note of that for when she tried to gain control at home, but as she thought back to the hole on her door, she wondered if it was done in vain.

The end of school bell clanged to life, shaking Violet from the incessant noise of her thoughts. "Alright, that's all for today." her science teacher told the class as they packed up to leave. Violet, being caught off guard, was one of the last to pack up. When she finally had her things gathered, her teacher gave her a smile. "Welcome to the school, Violet."

Violet didn't think she would ever be welcomed anywhere.

But she nodded anyway, thanking her and scurried off to her locker. There, a few girls were huddled together, seemingly engrossed in whatever gossip they had. Violet payed them no attention until one word shot through the air.

"My mom said she talked to one once."

"A mutant?"

"Yeah."

Violet's hand tensed around the book it was grabbing, her eyes flashed.

There were shocked gasps, then another girl spoke. "Why did she do that?" the disgust in her voice was unmissable.

"She didn't even know at the time. She was her roommate and then two weeks after graduation the girl gets shot after she tries to murder her boss with her powers."

"What a freak."

"Right?"

Violet's head hitting her locker made the conversation stop short. "You okay?" one of the girls asked.

It actually hurt, and Violet was sure there would be a bump on her head later, but she nodded. "Yeah." she said with a shaky voice. She stuffed her books into her bag, clearing her throat before shutting her locker and making her way out to the busy courtyard where kids were getting picked up by their parents, or making plans with their friends for the weekends. Violet was doing neither of these things. She was going to trudge home, do her homework and then maybe-

"Violet Mackenzie Jones, your escort is here!"

She halted at the use of her full name, her brows raising and her face flushing red as she noticed Peter sitting on one of the benches, waving at her with a shit eating grin, one of his trademarked shit eating grins to be exact but she had to frown. She was sure he wasn't there, but maybe, in her hurry, she didn't see him.

"Peter? What are you doing here?"

It was a double sided question: what are you doing here? And: how did you get there?

"I got bored so I decided to walk you home." It seemed he only wanted to answer the former question. "Chivalrous I know."

"But we live like ten blocks from here, how did you get here so quick?"

"I...I came early. Now, are you accepting my offer or not, cause I'm not waiting."

She snickered as he stood up. By his jumpy attitude it seemed he was raring to go, so, with a lovely smile, she dumped all the heavy books she opted to carry in his arms. "Great!"

He nearly fell at the weight of them, grunting a little but recovering it with a laugh, as if he wasn't a weakling and he smiled sarcastically. "Thank you!" he said through gritted teeth, as he jogged to her side.

"Get over it." she shook her head.

Over the last few weeks, she had really gotten to know Peter. Most nights, she was over at his house, sometimes with her mother(their mothers seemed to get along a lot better than she thought), sometimes on her own. It hadn't even been intentional, Violet just sort of...drifted over there because he was the only kid on the block that was her age. Most nights they would occupy the arcade machine, sometimes they had the company of Lorna and play some board games. There was one special night Lorna got Peter to play dress up, Violet doesn't think she'll ever forget it. But on nights where it was just them, they would actually get to know each other, Violet obviously leaving out the fact that her body was a hotspot for solar energy.

Peter was just so fun to be around. Granted he never stayed in the same place for long, constantly wanting to do something, and he talked about 90 words a second, but there was something about him, maybe his childlike kindness and curiosity, that made her keep coming back to his little basement. Ms. Maximoff even expected her at this point. Violet even began to show her real eye colour around her now, knowing she would be used to it because of her son.

To be honest, she thinks of Peter as her best friend.

"Hey, Maximoff!" a guy snidely called out. "Still rocking the rad hair colour. What, mommy didn't have enough money for hair dye?"

It was said like it was meant to hurt him, and Violet was fully intent to shut him up with some singed eyebrows, but all he did was shrug. "Jason, good to see you man, nice to see your keeping yourself occupied." He nodded to the girl on his hip. "What? Angela not enough for you?"

The girl balked at him, pushing Jason off her. "Who the hell is Angela?" she stormed off.

"No, babe!" he pointed at the aforementioned silver haired male. "I'm gonna kill you."

"Have fun!"

When Peter looked at Violet next, she was too busy giggling. "Who is Angela?"

"I don't know," he snorted. "hopefully no one."

The air between them grew quieter as they continued their trek home, walking out the front gate and continuing down the road.

"How do you know him anyway?" Violet asked now that they had left the vicinity of the school and were well on their way home.

"Oh, uh," he panicked internally, he hadn't really thought this bit through yet. "I used to go there."

Violet nodded. "Used to?"

"Yeah, I'm homeschooled."

She didn't say anything. He hadn't told her this.

"I'd rather not talk about it."

She didn't say anything to that either, but he knew he hadn't scared her off.

Peter watched as she blew out a breath, wiping her forehead with the sleeve of her hoodie. It was still pretty hot, it was that transition period between the seasons where the weather didn't know whether it wanted to be hot, warm, or cold so it chose to be hot today. He didn't really get hot, hell, he barely broke a sweat running, but watching the droplets of sweat begin to form on her face made him frown.

"If you're uncomfortable, take off your hoodie."

She seemed to tense at that, so much so that Peter had to go back and think about what he might've said to piss her off. His mom had always told him to watch what he said around girls, considering he didn't really have a fast enough filter for his speedy thoughts.

Come to think of it, she was covered up. She wore jeans, a hoodie and always had her hands in her pockets. Her face was the only thing not covered and while he's not complaining at all, he got the feeling the only reason why it wasn't was because she had to.

"I'm okay, actually." he cursed at himself because he knew he messed up but he didn't know when.

They fell into a silence that Peter hated because now he actually had to stop and think instead of talking to make things go quicker. Usually, he hated walking. Walking made everything so slow, slower than normal people were, but Violet, it was hard to explain, she wasn't like normal people. She could keep up with him, and when she couldn't, didn't give up like everyone else. He was sure she could be trusted with knowing about his powers, but his mom had told him to keep it easy. Something about trying to keep this one came up but it went one ear and out the other for him.

"Peter, did you hear me?"

Shit. She had asked him something and he had no idea what it was.

"Yes, I heard you." he blurted, his mouth running away from his mind.

"Ok, then, I'll bring my stuff over at maybe six?"

"Woah, woah, hold on." She frowned. "I may have possibly been lying and did not hear a single word you had just said."

There was a sigh, but it only made him grin. "I need to start a project but my parents are getting someone in to fix the...um, plumbing, so I was thinking about bringing my homework to you-"

"Nope, not happening."

She blinked. "I can't exactly do my homework on the street."

"Oh, no, you're coming over." he nodded. "But not your homework." Violet frowned at him. "The Maximoff household has a strict rule of no homework on the weekends."

"Peter."

"If you bring it over than I will make it ten times harder for you to do it."

She bit her lip, but she wasn't annoyed at him. There was a glint of mischief in her eyes that let him know she was going to accept his offer anyway. "I hate you." she said playfully as they walked up her driveway.

He dumped her books back into her arms. "No, you don't."

Digging around for her keys with a laugh, the young girl shook her head playfully at him. "See you later, dork."

He grinned at her as she closed the door. Laughing gleefully, the young speedster ran back to his house, arriving in a gust of wind and picking up Lorna and throwing her over his shoulder, pretending to be an airplane as he navigated the corridors of his house.

His mother, who was in the kitchen, exited to see the commotion as she heard her daughter shriek with laughter. "Peter?" she said with a laugh of her own. "What's gotten you so happy?"

He shrugged, but the grin who wore stretched from ear to ear. "Is this what it feels like to have a best friend?"

Magda smiled fondly at her eldest son. All his life he hadn't been accepted due to his silver hair, and his erratic behaviour but this girl had made him rethink his life and friends. She just hoped Violet wouldn't run away when he showed her his powers.

But now, as she watched him help around the kitchen, actually cleaning his basement den and panic before Violet knocked at the door(though she had to admit, the girl wasn't her normal happy self when he answered the door), she didn't really want to think of that just yet.

He could be a teenager for a little while longer.

xXx

A/N: this may be the cutest chapter yet and it gets even cuter. This is the last prewritten chapter, so don't expect such quick updates from now on. However, I'm feeling hella inspired so you might get that chapter(*wink wink* time jump to Christmas *wink wink*).

In response to anonymouscsifan's review: lol, you might like spoilers, but some people might not. I will say however that Wanda will be in this story somehow, won't say how though. The revelations of powers is going to be funny, I can say that too!

see you guys next chapter! - e