2

Peter went to sit at the back of the classroom when the bell rang. He had literature as his first subject and no friend to sit with. Frankly, he didn't have many friends, in fact, he only had one, Edward Leeds, or just Ned. So it wasn't a surprise to Peter that he wouldn't share a lot of classes with his only friend.

So there he was, playing on his phone, waiting for the class to be filled up for the teacher to start teaching or give out the outline of what they'd be learning and then an icebreaker.

Peter was hoping for someone to sit down next to him, maybe he'd make a friend out of that encounter, but close to 8:45 AM and no potential friend. Class started at 8:50 AM so there was only five minutes until someone sat down next to him and hopefully they'd hit it off like he did with Ned.

The school year wasn't starting out so good for Peter as the clock ticked a little faster than he would've liked.

But just then, his eyes landed on the girl who just entered. She was really beautiful, almost enchanting. Her hair was a bit messy though, but it was just the color of the strands that made it look like a birds nest. Her green eyes though, they were something. Even from five rows of desks away, Peter could easily pick out the brightness of the emerald orbs.

He wasn't in love though. She was pretty and that was just a description that matched her.

But it just so happened that Peter's heart skipped a beat when she sat down next to him and she smiled and said something. He couldn't hear her due to the fact that his loud heartbeats were distracting him.

"… What?" He dumbly said. Great, now she thinks I'm stupid.

Her smile only widened, not confirming what Peter thought to himself. "I said I'm Harriet."

"Uh, Pete — Peter. Peter Parker." Damn it, Peter, you said your name, like, a thousand times.

Peter was sure he wasn't in love, but she was a lot more pretty when she smiled.

Chuckling, Harriet replied, "it's nice to meet you, Pete. Peter. Peter Parker."

Peter nervously laughed. The air was getting a little awkward when the two stopped talking.

"Are you British...?" Peter winced at the random question he suddenly blurted. In normal conversations, any other person would have responded with the usual 'it's nice to meet you too,' but Peter wasn't normal and neither was Harriet.

Now, she's going to think I'm weird.

Strangely enough, Harriet wasn't what Peter expected as she casually said, "could you tell? I thought my accent was gone."

Okay, Peter was beginning to fall.

"I have excellent hearing," he found himself replying, "I like your accent."

Harriet's smile widened into a grin. "I'm glad you like my accent."

"You must've been here for a long time to lose your accent."

"I moved to Brooklyn when I was little, and then to Queens after I finished junior high, so I can switch between English and American accents, but it's fun to make people guess. And you guessed correctly. What about you, Peter, have you lived here your whole life?"

Peter was happy that the pretty girl from Britain was taking interest in regular ol' Bob. "Born and raised. — The sandwiches at Delmar's Deli are really good if you hadn't tried them yet."

"I'll check it out with my friends."

After first and second periods were over, it was time for lunch. Peter had stopped by his locker to stuff in his heavy textbooks and got out his lunch bag. That was when his friend decided to drop in with his own food in hand.

"So how did classes go? Meet anyone?" Ned asked.

"I met a girl," Peter smiled a little, not wanting to show that he cared.

Ned gasped. "Who? I need details."

Peter shrugged, hiding his smile. They were heading to the cafeteria. "Her name's Harriet. Uh… Harriet Potter, I think her name was. Mr. Riddle was a little quiet when he was doing attendance." It was funny how their literature teacher's name was named Riddle.

"Wait, Harriet Potter?From The Potter family?" Ned stretched out the name as he did with his favorite characters from Star Wars. "Dude! Don't you know who she is?! She's the heiress to the Potter House! Her name was on the news as one of the youngest richest heiress in England, and her family donated a shit ton of money to a lot of charities and they're still the wealthiest in Britain!"

Peter blinked. Wow… So, totally out of my league. Ned confirmed his thought by saying the same exact thing.

"Sorry man, totally out of your league."

Peter's mood took on a more negative turn when he and Ned heard a familiar unwanted voice from the background.

It was Flash Thompson, along with his own gang of friends. "Well, well, look who it is. Penis Parker and his sidekick, Edward Leech."

"It's Leeds," Ned responded as if this wasn't a huge deal.

"You think I don't know that?" Flash growled.

Peter shook his head, "c'mon, Ned, let's get to the cafeteria before they run out of tables."

Harriet, Hermione, and Ron all walked into the cafeteria with their lunch bags in hand.

Harriet's mother had gone way beyond and packed her a buffet, which would be an exaggeration, but it felt like it when a lot of students either had ten dollars to spend or just a sandwich and a juice box. That was only becaude Harriey was a bit too skinny for her age and wasn't eating properly.

"Are you gonna eat that?" Ron asked, mouth full of the tuna sandwich. He was pointing to the apple pie that was neatly packed in a container. Harriet pushed it toward Ron and he gladly took it with thanks.

Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron's table manners but paid no heed because she was (still) getting used to the behavior. She instead turned to Harriet. "How was literature without us?"

Harriet wasn't even amazed at how Hermione had remembered what subject she had. "I met an interesting fellow."

"Boy or guy?"

Piercing a piece of chicken into the greens with a plastic fork, Harriet replied, "I don't really know what the difference is, to be honest."

"At least give me his name?"

"Pete. Peter. Peter Parker," Harriet chuckled, she then shrugged her shoulders, "he's pretty cute."

"That means he classifies as a guy!"

Harriet rubbed her temple. "I just said he was cute. I didn't say I was in love with him."

"So you do know the difference between a boy and guy!"

"No, I— ugh. Forget it. I thought you'd be the last person to talk to me about my love life, Hermione."

Hermione was more of the strict bookworm kind of girl, but with the way she'd been acting lately, Harriet blamed teenage puberty.

Hermione giggled. "We are teenagers, we can do whatever we want and think whatever we want."

Out of the corner of her eyes, Harriet saw two boys — one she recognized — and they were looking at all the tables were taken, no doubt they were looking for an empty table to eat at. "That's him," she said to Hermione.

Hermione's gaze went straight to where Harriet was looking. "The guy?"

"Yes, the guy," Harriet rolled her eyes. "I'm going to tell them to join us, so you better behave."

Hermione sighed, "I promise not to do anything that'll embarrass you in the hopes that you date him." Harriet raised an eyebrow at her, to which she responded, "what? I finished reading a romance novel yesterday."

Harriet shook her head. She then waved to Peter, "Peter!"

"Holy shit. Two hot chicks are looking at us," Ned spoke. It looked as though he could drop his lunch bag any second now.

"What hot girls?" Peter asked curiously. He looked to where Ned's vision was mostly at and refrained a gasp when he saw Harriet. She wasn't looking at them when Peter decided to turn to the source of Ned's cursing, however. "… That's her."

"What?"

"That's her, she's the girl I met in first class."

"Dude, that's Harriet Potter? Holy mother of… Who's the other girl?"

"Don't know."

The world was likely to crash into him when Peter's eyes met Harriet's. She was smiling and waving at him, and he was sure she said a word but he wasn't able to hear. Again, stupid heart.

Peter was dumb when it came to social interactions, especially with girls. He was a stereotypical nerd. And so, he was dumb with what he did.

Therefore, he dumbly smiled and waved back at her.

Ned's nudge to his rib cage sent Peter back to reality. "What're you doing? She called your name. I'm a noob at talking to girls but I think that means 'come over and sit with us' or something."

"R-Right."

Peter and Ned stopped beside the table Harriet and her friends were sitting at. The two boys didn't really know what to do when they got there.

"You guys wanna sit…?" Ron was the one to ask. Harriet was a little busy laughing at their awkward behavior.

"Yeah, sure, if you guys don't mind," Peter responded.

The two were beginning to sit down when Flash interrupted, "what's up, Penis Parker?"

Peter closed his eyes in anger, his shoulders slumped. He didn't want Harriet to see him as a wimp that he was, always getting bullied by Thompson. He hoped that he would never see the bully after Junior high, but fate was a funny thing.

Flash shoved Peter and he fell to the ground. Luckily, Peter saved his lunch bag from spilling. "Was Penis Parker bothering you, ladies? Name's Flash Thompson by the way." He stretched the syllabus of his last name, no doubt hinting that his family was wealthy.

Peter saw the look on Harriet's face. He wasn't sure what emotion it was — anger? Confusion? Pity? — he just hoped it wasn't pity directed toward him. He wished he had the power to fight back. Peter was regretting not taking up that free trial at the gym when he had the chance.

Harriet stood up from her seat and faced Flash. Peter saw Flash's face becoming red from meeting her face to face, just a short distance away from her. What Harriet said surprised everyone listening in, especially Peter.

"Do you like dicks that much to call someone 'penis'?"

"What…?" Flash was lost for words. He thought that by showing a girl that he was tough that she'd fall in love with him. What an immature little A-hole.

Ned helped Peter up, smiling with amusement.

"Are you gay? — I mean, I have nothing against homosexuals. I think publicly announcing your sexuality is really great. Your confidence is really awesome!"

Flash felt everyone's eyes on him as he replied, "wh— No! I'm not gay! I-I only call him—"

"You only call Peter that because you're a bully." The look in Harriet's eyes was dark and dangerous. "Stop bothering him and stop wasting everyone's time."

"""YOOOOOOOOOOO!"""

"""DAAAAAAAYYYYYUMMMM"""

""SAVAGE!"""

The whole cafeteria was filled with students' shouts of encouragement, whether from the entertainment or the way a teenage girl stopped a bully.

As Flash was in a hurry to leave from all the embarrassment, Harriet was sure to trip him as he was running with a little bit of unnoticeable magic.

"Well, that was nice of her to stand up for you," Ned told Peter.

Peter rubbed the back of his neck, not showing his face, "yeah…" His ears were burning, half from embarrassment and the half from something else.

Peter really have fallen deeply now, but he couldn't help feeling like the damsel in distress.

a/n: