It's time to begin, isn't it?
I get a little bit bigger but then I'll admit
I'm just the same as I was
Now don't you understand
I'm never changing who I am
-It's Time; by Imagine Dragons
Gemma found herself standing at the front steps of the school, feeling even more anxious than ever. She felt her throat closing up, her heart beating almost painfully in her chest. At that point, Gemma knew her mother had left, so changing her mind was completely out of the question. All the other students were going in and out of the building, some of them throwing looks Gemma's way. A few stood around the steps and by the front doors, clustered and talking, and that made Gemma's stomach knot up to the point to where she felt she might vomit. Was she really that bothered at the idea of being the new kid? She'd never been the new kid before, she never had a reason to move before her parents separated.
A slight scowl came on her face at the thought. If her father hadn't been so selfish, then things would've been better. Everyone would be happier.
Giving her head a slight shake, Gemma took a deep breath, hoping to calm herself down. She couldn't afford to get herself all worked up! Letting out the breath, she forced herself inside.
0-0-0-0
In all honesty, the inside of the school was a little more than what Gemma would've expected. It was certainly bigger than the high school at her old home, and it seemed to have a lot more than what her old school had to offer. Compared to the high school Gemma was supposed to go to, Midtown was some kind of mansion.
Chewing on her bottom lip, Gemma slung her backpack off her shoulders and unzipped it, hoping she'd be able to find her schedule. Once she had it out — after struggling to find it for a few minutes — Gemma swallowed thickly and started looking at her classes. Her first was biology. She had no idea where her biology class was. Midtown was obviously a big school, and that meant she'd be wasting her time looking around for her class; and it looked like she didn't have much time to do a quick look-around either. Considering no one was really going out of their way to help her — and she wasn't really going out of her way to interact with anyone — that meant she was more than likely on her own.
0-0-0-0
It was just a couple minutes before class, and Peter had been by his locker talking to his friend, Ned. They had been talking about Star Wars, Ned buying a Star Wars Lego set so they could build the Death Star. It had been something they'd been pretty excited for, being able to build the Death Star.
Once Peter closed his locker, he was about to walk to first period with Ned, hoping to get there before the bell rang, but he paused for a moment as he walked by another hallway. There was a young girl, one Peter hadn't seen before, trying to sidestep a boy who was obviously making her uncomfortable. Peter recognized the boy as one of Flash's friends. Shifting anxiously on his feet, Peter considered going over there to help her.
"Dude, what's wrong?" Ned, who'd gone about a foot ahead of him on their way to class before noticing Peter wasn't following, walked back to see what caught his attention. "Who's that?"
"I don't know," Peter murmured. "But I think she's in trouble."
Ned gave Peter a look. "What're going to do?" he asked. "That's Ty, one of Flash's friends. Do you know what he'll do to you?"
Nodding, Peter took a deep breath and let it out. "I know," he replied, trying to sound confident. "But she's in trouble, Ned. I can't just let him keep bothering her."
0-0-0-0
"Can't you just let me pass?" Gemma asked. She managed to get herself lost before she even got a chance to really start looking. The school had so many hallways that she got overwhelmed and couldn't keep track of where she was going. A few of the other students had been at least generous enough to give her somewhat vague instructions on where her biology class would be, but Gemma managed to mix up some of the instructions before she got very far. Unfortunately, none of them were really willing to go out of their way to physically show her where the class would be.
After turning down another hallway, though, Gemma had the misfortune of running into a male student who took an interest in her too quickly for her liking. He was blocking her way, refusing to let her go, despite her asking.
"Why would I do that?" The kid smirked. "I've never seen you around here before, and you're not too bad looking. How about we go out sometime?"
"I'm not interested."
A scowl came on his face. "What'd you just say?" he exclaimed.
"I said I'm not interested." When she tried walking around him, he grabbed her forearm to keep her from going any further. Before anything else could be spoken, someone else came up and grabbed Gemma's other forearm. He was smaller than the one hassling Gemma, and he was relatively skinnier compared to the other, too.
"Hey, why don't you leave her alone?" the skinnier boy said, his voice a bit higher in tone; almost as if he were frightened.
"What was that, Parker? Did you say something?"
Yanking her arm out of her hassler's grip, Gemma gave him a heated glare. Linking her arm with the one who came to help her, she hurriedly had them leave the scene, but they felt the glare of the other boy on their backs. Once they were at the end of the hall, where an overweight boy was standing, Gemma took the opportunity to look at the Parker kid. "Thanks for helping me," Gemma said. "I didn't think anyone was noticing."
Shrugging, he gave her a small, sheepish smile. "I-It's fine," he murmured.
"So your name's Parker?" Gemma asked.
"No!" he nearly squeaked. "It's Peter...Parker."
Arching a brow slightly at him, Gemma nodded. "I'm Gemma," she responded.
"I'm Ned!" the overweight kid exclaimed. "I'm Peter's friend."
With a nod, Gemma tried for a smile. "Would either of you mind showing me where the biology class is?" she asked. Right as she finished her question the bell rang. Letting out a defeated sigh, she shook her head. "Never mind," she muttered.
"I'll show you," Peter offered. "Ned, why don't you get to class? I'll probably be a little late."
"You sure?" With a single nod from his friend, Ned walked off.
"So you're a freshman?" Peter asked, taking Gemma's schedule from her hands. When she nodded, he gave a small smile. "I'm a sophomore." When he looked at her schedule, he grimaced a little. "You've got Menendez for bio?"
"Is that bad?" Gemma asked.
Peter nodded her in the direction of where they'd be walking. "Uhm, she's really strict," he responded, shrugging a little. "I had her last year. Not really popular."
With a nod, Gemma let out a thoughtful hum. If only she managed to run into Peter beforehand, maybe things would've been a lot easier.*
(A/N):
Sorry for the delay on the chapter, but here it is! If you could look beyond the sloppiness of it, I'd really appreciate it. No, don't do that. If you found something that was weird about this chapter, let me know. I'm just an exhausted mess right now, so any help from you guys would be awesome. Am I getting Peter or Ned wrong in any way? Let me know! You want more detail on the OCs in the story? Just wait, I swear you'll get more detail on them.
MARVEL isn't mine.*
At this point in the story, despite it being so early, Peter doesn't have his spidey powers and Gemma is still an ordinary human for the time being. If you read the story summary, you'd know that Gemma's an Inhuman. But she hasn't had her powers activated yet. So she's still "human". I digress.
Let me know if there's anything I should improve on.
Thanks.
Jasper