Michelle Jones
(The Next Morning)
You woke up to an annoyingly bright sunbeam pleasantly placed smack dab on your face. You rolled over and sighed, glancing at the clock on your bedside table sitting up with a start when you saw it was almost six-thirty.
You threw off the covers and quickly tried to find something you deemed acceptable for both the weather and as a “first-day outfit”. After digging through your drawers, you decided on a pair of joggers and a white shirt that rose slightly above your belly button. After hurriedly pulling a brush through your hair you dashed downstairs to find your uncle cooking breakfast.
He smiled as you entered the kitchen, “Ah, you’re up early.”
You gave him a puzzled look, “...I have school this morning.” You sat down and were surprised when he set a plate with an egg and two slices of bacon with an adequately buttered piece of toast in front of you before continuing. “And it’s a few blocks away so if I’m walking I want to be on time.”
Your uncle sat on the opposing end of the table, “I’m sorry for not waking you then. I thought maybe you’d want to skip today since you’d just arrived.”
“No, it’s ok. Thanks for trying to do something nice for me.” You broke the yolk of your egg watching the vibrant yellow spread over your plate.
“And don’t worry about walking, I can drive you,”
“Thanks,”
~~~~~~~~~~
About an hour later you pulled up to the school staring out the window at the crowd of high schoolers chatting outside and walking in.
“Just saying again you don’t have to go today if you don’t want to.” Your uncle said and you twisted in your seat to face him.
“No. I want to go. No offense but I think if I would have stayed at the house I would’ve just been bored.” You grinned and joked, “at least here I’ll be bored with a hundred other kids.”
You opened the car door, and shut it, mouthing a thank you to your uncle before you turned away. “Who knows, I might even make friends,” you muttered to yourself, dodging a group of boys tossing around a football, bantering about how bad each of the others’ throws was.
You rolled your eyes and opened the doors to the school staring up at the blue and yellow emblem on the wall before you.
“Midtown School of Science and Technology.” You read aloud.
A voice came from behind you, “Welcome to Midtown High.” You spun around to find a girl with a curly set of side-swept bangs who just about made your brain malfunction when she stuck out her hand for you to shake, “Hi, I’m Michelle Jones, but, I hate the name and everyone calls me MJ.”
You stood there in a daze after taking her hand and shaking it, until she cocked her head, “Hey. New gal, you got a name or what?”
You shook your head to clear your thoughts, “Y/n...” You shifted your backpack, not sure why the hell she would bother with talking to you.
You voiced your question as you looked around to see where everyone else was going, “Why exactly are you wasting your time talking to me?”
“Honest answer or a lie?” MJ said, looking totally deadpan before she laughed, “I’m kidding, relax. Honestly you looked lost and you’re kinda cute so...” she shrugged.
“The help would be nice.” You said, cautiously skirting around the last part of the sentence, unsure of whether it was another prank again or if she was being serious.
As if MJ had read your mind she smirked again while waving for you to follow her, “Again; I’m kidding.” she let a beat of silence pass. “Maybe.”
You rolled your eyes as a response before pulling your schedule up on your phone.
MJ looked over your shoulder, “Ouch. Mr. W. May I?” she said, motioning for your phone.
“Huh? Oh, uh, yeah sure.” You handed it to her and watched as she scrolled through the list of teachers you had and what periods you had them.
MJ handed you the phone back to you looking satisfied. “Ok so Mr. W I’m sorry you got him but at least we’ll suffer together, Mrs. Robins is amazing, so is Ms. Warren, Mr. Harrington is neither good or bad just a little weird, and Mrs. Abrahms is boring but at least she’s a good teacher.”
You slipped it in your pocket, “You said suffer together. Does that mean we both have Mr. W's first period?”
“Yep.” she gave you a sly grin, “and thanks to you I won’t get my ass busted on for being late.”
You laugh, “Oh so now the truth comes out, you just wanted to walk with me to get out of trouble.”
“No.” MJ said adamantly then considered it, “Not entirely at least.”
She batted your arm, “But! You do get to meet Peter and Ned, they’re in the same class and who knows, maybe you’ll have some other classes with them to fill up the ones I’m not in.”
“Nice,”
MJ suddenly turned a sharp corner and you almost tripped trying to catch up to her, spinning around just in time to see her opening a door to a classroom with Mr. Witman labeled on the outside.
“Michelle Jones! Where have you been?! That’s the sixth time this month you’ve been late, this is-” You slipped in behind her, and Mr. W instantly snapped his mouth shut.
“You must be the new student Y/n,”
“She is.” MJ put a hand on her hip and you wished for even half of her confidence, “And I was helping her find your class. I could have left her if you’d have liked that better.”
Mr. Witman sighed pinching the bridge of his nose, “No, Michelle. That’s fine just go sit down.”
MJ winked at you before sitting down, looking unaffected by the lecture, and you felt a sudden rush of heat. Returning your focus to Mr. Witman, you shifted uncomfortably under the eyes of your classmates as he did what you assumed to be finding you a seat.
After a long few moments, he pointed to an empty seat between a boy with messy brown hair, (slightly overgrown but in a cute sort of way) and another kid with shorter black hair who waved to you. “You can sit by Parker and Leeds”
“Thanks,” you said, scurrying over to your seat with your head ducked as you sat your bag down.
You had barely pulled out a notebook you had somehow remembered to pack when Peter leaned over, “Hey,” you looked down to see his outstretched hand holding a stick of gum, “You want a piece?”
“Sure,” you took it and unwrapped it, popping it in your mouth. “You’re MJ’s friend?” you whispered.
“Did she say that?” You gave him an odd look, so he explained, “MJ’s not the type to call someone a friend, it just surprised me but, uh, yeah. We’re close. Ned too,” he nodded to Ned who gave you another small wave then held out a fist.
“Hey, I’m Ned,”
You gave him a fist bump, “Kinda figured that out. I’m Y/n.”
He nodded and looked up when Mr. Witman called his and Peters's name.
“Leed. Parker. Focus up here please.”
“Sorry Mr. W,” Peter said and instantly corrected his gaze to the front of the classroom along with yourself and Ned.
“Today we’ll start with a review of last week's material on World War 1...”
~~~~~~~~~~
When the bell finally rang your head was spinning from all of the information that Mr. Witman had given you.
I can see why everyone hates him... You reflected, and I’d be surprised if anyone passes any of his tests. Ever. You sighed, shoving your notebook and pencil back in your bag and slinging it over your shoulder.
“Told you he sucked,” MJ said as she, Peter, Ned, and you began walking down the halls side by side.
“Yeah, no kidding. Does he always talk that fast?” You said with an eyeroll as you searched the locker numbers to try and find yours.
“I hate lockers,” You groaned.
“What number did you get?” Peter asked as he spun the dial on his lock and it fell into his hand with a click.
“One seventy-four.”
He smiled as he stood with a new pair of binders, “Looks like we’re locker-mates.”
You looked up and sure enough, you saw the number 174 listen on the top locker, the one above his and next to Ned’s. He jerked a thumb down the hallway and a little ways away you spotted MJ quickly undoing hers and grabbing her materials for the next class.
“MJ’s further down but she finds a way to make do,” he shut his locker, snapping the lock back in place and you did the same (staring at the locker combination in your hand on a scrap of paper) “she always does.”
You let out a small laugh, “I saw that this morning, I have a feeling that even if she hadn’t been helping me and had been late that she would’ve gotten out of it.”
Peter laughed as well, “Yep,”
Ned balanced a book on top of his head, “She’s badass.”
You grinned as she made her way over to the three of you, “I got that too.”
~~~~~~~~~~
By the end of your third (two without Peter, MJ, or even Ned in) class you were wiped and wondering if it had been a good idea to come to school in the first place. But a glance down the hall to see MJ and Peter changed your mind.
And diverted it to a different track.
You had never questioned where your attractions lied, never had had a crush on anyone before, just figured that the right guy would come along eventually and you’d settle down with someone. But now with two attractive figures of both genders, you weren’t sure what to think.
“Hey Y/n,” Peter said as you finally caught up to them.
MJ gave you a fist bump, “You ready for your next class?”
“Ugh, God, no,” you frowned, “if I have to sit through one more last week's review lesson I’m walking out the doors.”
MJ laughed, “It’s a good thing I’m in your next class then.”
“Seriously?”
“No. I’m kidding.” She waited a moment before she punched you on the arm, “Seriously, Y/n, I thought you would’ve caught on by now. Yes, I’m serious.”
You shrugged, “You can never be too sure.”
“You’ll figure it out.”
“Maybe instead of continuing this conversation we can, you know, get to class?” Peter interjected.
“Ok, Buzzkill, we’ll get going,” MJ agreed, turning to go down a separate hallway and you followed her. As she did, she lifted a hand and flipped him off.
You chuckled, “Do you do that to people often?”
“Only the one’s I like,”
“You’ve never flipped me off.” You mock pouted. “Do you not like me?
They come to the classroom and MJ opens the door to the science classroom, heading to her seat and sitting down. As she did so she took out her folder, strategically placed to hide her hand from the teacher before she flipped you off. Peter, who had sat down at the lab table in front of her, looked down, pretending not to notice.
You withheld a laugh, looking up from your place at the door when Mrs. Robins if you remembered correctly, called your name.
“Y/n?”
You raised a hand, “That’s me.” Already familiar with the routine from three other classes you followed up by asking. “Where do you want me to sit?”
Mrs. Robins pondered this before pointing with her clipboard to an empty seat next to MJ.
Thank God, you thought as you let your bag fall from your shoulder onto the ground beside the lab table.
MJ leaned over and whispered, “You know this means we’re probably going to be lab partners until she switches seats.” she smirked, “Peter got Flash for this semester.”
“Who’s Flash?” you barely had a chance to whisper this when a kid with carefully styled dark brown hair a little shorter than Peter’s turned around in his seat.
He looked you up and down, “Who’s the hottie?”
Before you could speak up MJ did it for you, “Her name’s Y/n and she’s taken so keep your eyes and hands to yourself dickwadd.”
He raised his hands playing at an innocent look, “Hey chill, I’m not trying to be disrespectful or anything. Just trying to welcome Y/n to school.” He winked at you. “If you ever need someone to walk you around the school or take you anywhere,” he pointed his thumbs to himself, “I gotcha.”
You gave him a sugary sweet smile, wishing you weren’t on school property so you could show him how hard this hottie could hit. “Thanks but I think you misheard MJ. I’m taken.”
A blatant lie but you wanted this jerk to know where exactly he stood.
“So, like she said, keep your shit to yourself.”
His eyes widened slightly and he seemed shocked that you would have the audacity to talk back to him the same way he had talked to you moments before. “Alright, alright...” he muttered, turning back around to face the from where Mrs. Robinson had begun taking attendance, “Jeez.”
MJ gave you a satisfied smile, “Impressive,”
Shrugging, you felt some of the thrill from challenging Flash begin to fade, “He looked like someone who needed to be put in his place.” You smirked, “Besides, it was fun,”
She smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners, then diverted her attention from you back to the front of the room where you noticed that Mrs. Willson had finished taking attendance and started the lesson.
“Alright, class, please get out your computers and open the lab worksheet I gave you last week. I’ll be with those who have any questions in a moment.”
Shit you thought, I don’t have a laptop, how the hell am I supposed to do this project.
You looked up when Mrs. Robins called your name, “Y/n, since you don’t have a laptop you can work with your lab partner which is...” she checked her clipboard, “MJ.”
“Ok,” you twisted in your seat and tapped MJ on the shoulder, giving her a stupid grin, “Hey, partner,”
She didn’t look at you, “Hey, idiot,”
“Ouch,” you pretended to look hurt at the comment before leaning to take a peek at her computer screen, “What exactly are we do-”
You were cut off when Mrs. Robins clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention, “Alright class, with the partner at your lab table, or by yourself, I want you to begin to work on your labs we talked about on Friday. I have all the materials up front, just come and grab them as needed. Y/n for you, just ask MJ or me if you have any questions,”
You nodded, returning to the position you were in prior to Mrs. Robin’s instructions, grabbing MJ’s pencil and poking her with it. “So. What are we doing?”
She scooted her computer closer so you could see the screen, “We’re pretty much just watching videos of how to create different chemical reactions then trying it for ourselves.” MJ clicked the link for the first video which was labeled “Fire Rainbow” (demonstration).
“You watch the video, I’ll go get the materials,” she ordered.
You didn’t respond, just obeyed and continue watching the video. You were about halfway through when you heard the click of a lighter next to your ear. You jumped and whirled around to see MJ holding a lighter and laughing.
“Sorry-” she broke off her own sentence to get he breathing under control, “I didn't think it would scare you that much!”
“Well you thought wrong,” you countered, snatching the lighter from her hand, “What do we even need this for? And follow up question; why is Mrs. Robins trusting us with them?”
MJ set down five containers of something that looked like salt, “To answer your first question we are going to be setting these on fire. Sort of.” She wrinkled her nose as she handed you a pair of goggles. “And for the second question; no idea. I wouldn’t.”
You put the goggles on and took the bottle she held out for you to take, “What’s this?”
“Methanol.” She stated simply, “Put a squirt of it in each beaker,” she grinned, “then we get to light it up.”
You shook your head with a smile but did as she said then picked up the lighter. “I’ll light two, you can light the other three,”
“You can just light all of them, it would be easier,”
“If you insist...” you said sarcastically, piking up the 1ighter and flicking it on sticking it in turn in each of the beakers until they took the flame.
“Woah...” you and MJ both said as flickers of all different colors shone inside the fire. You looked around the room and saw that most of the other groups had been successful as well in their tasks to get the experiment to work.
Mrs. Robins called everyone’s attention to her, “I see that we’ve had some success with the first experiment so I would like those of you who are finished to begin to work on filling out your lab sheets.”
“We should probably put these out before we start working,” MJ turned on the tap and grabbed two of the beakers, holding them under the faucet until the flame was put out.
You grabbed the other two and passed them to her, holding the remaining beaker under the second faucet until all five were put out and steaming.
“Alright,” you opened up the lab worksheet, “let’s do this.”