Chapter 2
They shook hands and left the office. For the next hour or so Peter showed her everything from the science lab to the lunchroom. Gwen had to admit he was a really fun person to be around. He told her stories about the teachers and classmates and cracked a lot of jokes. Which were surprisingly funny. If Gwen didn’t know better, she would think she was developing a crush on the boy. It was about five minutes till the next bell when they finished.
“Well, it looks like we’re done here. After this, we have math, which we have different classes, but we have the same lunch period after that. Since you're new here, you can sit with me and my friends. Unless you know, you already have people you're sitting with.” Peter said, getting quieter and quieter with each word.
“I would love to,” Gwen responded.
They started walking towards their next classes when Gwen turned around.
“Hey, Peter.”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for showing me around, I..I had fun.”
“Your welcome.”
But, before they could say anymore, the bell rang. Students piled into the hallways and drowned them in noise. Gwen saw Peter flinch, which she thought odd, but brushed it off. She grabbed her book from her locker and trudged off to math class.
Math class flew by in a flash(no pun intended) and soon she was headed to lunch. She put away her book and grabbed her homemade lunch from her locker, before heading towards the lunchroom.
When she got there, she scanned the crowd looking for the familiar doe brown eyes. She spotted them and the matching brown hair, sitting at a table in the far corner of the lunchroom. Gwen walked over and took a seat next to Peter and another kid she recognized from the bus.
“Hey, Peter, who’s your friend here?” Gwen asked.
“Oh this is Ned, he’s my best friend.”
“Well nice to meet you, Ned,” Gwen said.
“As for you lady Gwen,” he said, causing them all to chuckle.
She was going to say a sassy remark. when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned around to see a girl with curly brown hair that you could barely see over her Pride and Prejudice book. She was the same girl from the bus. She sat down next to Gwen.
She muttered a simple,” Hey losers.” Before going back to her book.
“Hey M.J, this is Gwen M.J meet Gwen,” Peter said.
M.J put down her book, which seemed to surprise the boys, and turned towards Gwen.
“Finally another girl in this group, I'm sick of just hanging out with these losers, well it’s nice to meet you,” she said before turning back to her book.
Gwen looked back at the boys, who looked like they had never seen M.J’s face before. Which, considering her book was 3/4ths finished, when she only barely started it on the bus this morning properly wasn't far from the truth.
Gwen and the boys carried on light conversation for another 10 minutes or so when Gwen heard another set of footsteps, this time much louder. The boys had both looked at each other with annoyed looks on their faces. She turned around to see the four boys from the bus, led by the dark-haired boy.
“Hey Parker, I see you got yourself a girlfriend, oh wait you're too ugly to get a girlfriend. So is she your friend, oh wait, no one wants to be your friend either. But wait! Did you tell her your internship lie? Ohhh I bet you did. Well, honey, I hate to break it to you, but it’s a lie. So baby,” he said pushing her hair behind her ear,” What about you come sit at our table, and then after we can meet behind the school.”
Gwen has heard enough. She slowly got to her feet. Acting like she was going to say yes. The boys' faces dropped. She mouthed no at them and they looked at her confused. Then she turned around.
“Good choice baby, we’re much better than these low life’s,” the boy said.
Then Gwen took her swing. She held back a little not wanting to break his nose. But it was enough to cause him to stagger back. The boy looked up shocked and his nose was bleeding. At this point, everyone was looking at them, all a little shook about what just happened. Then Peter started clapping, then Ned, and slowly most of the lunchroom was clapping. The boy didn’t stay long after, and he and his goons ran off. Gwen sat back down, and the clapping slowly stopped.
The boys both looked like they had just seen a ghost.
“You...you just stood up to Flash wu wu how,” Peter stuttered.
“My Aunt always told me not to take crap from anyone, and my dad doesn’t like bullies, that’s why they taught me how to properly punch someone.”
“Well let me just say it was amazing, no one has ever stood up to Flash before.”
“Yeah, I got that part, but Flash said something about an internship lie?” She asked.
Peter sighed, but started talking,” I was hoping to avoid this because every time I tell someone they usually just push it off as a lie. I’ve lost a lot over it, but I’ll tell you. About two years ago I was offered an internship at Stark Industries. This might not seem so weird, the catch is, they don’t offer internships for high school students. I was brought to Mr. Stark’s attention by his A.I, she was searching through her database for important people when she came across me. Because of my G.P.A and interest in engineering, he decided to hire me. If you don’t believe me and don’t want to hang out anymore I understand.”
Hearing the name made Gwen queasy. Her family had mixed feelings about Tony Stark. On one side, her dad(Steve) had never gotten along with the man and his feelings of hate only grew after the “civil war”. Though her other dad(Bucky) had not had many interactions with Tony but seemed to side with Steve on the matter. He would never admit it, but it was mostly because Steve once offhandedly mentioned the time Stark told him everything special about him came from a bottle. Sam also seemed to side with Gwen’s dad, but that was mostly because his only interactions with Stark were those of their fight from “civil war”. On the other side, her Aunt’s always appreciated the older man. Natasha, of course, had known Tony the longest of anyone on the team, and always had a special bond with the man. Wanda also practiced the fact that even though it didn’t always seem like it, Tony always tried to help her, even after she chose team cap. So, you could understand Gwen’s feelings weren’t quite decided on the famous man.
“Of course, I believe you Peter, and I totally still want to hang out.”
Peter let out a sigh he didn’t realize he was holding in. But smiled, he didn’t want to admit it, but he was growing feelings for the girl.
The rest of the day flew by quickly, and soon the bell rang. Peter, Gwen, and Ned walked out of the Chemistry room together. Then, the trio walked towards Gwen’s locker. On the way, many people thanked her for standing up for Flash. Gwen would just mutter an awkward “you're welcome” and Peter and Ned would continue to push on through the crowd. When they did eventually get to her locker, Gwen put her stuff away, and they parted their separate ways. Ned and Peter off to practice, and Gwen home to her weird family.
“I’m home!” Gwen called closing the door behind her.
“We’re in the living room sweetie,” Bucky called back.
Gwen dropped her backpack at the door. She walked into the living room and smiled when she saw her makeshift family. Her two dads who adopted her. Her “Aunt” Nat her dad’s best friend. Her “Aunt” Wanda her dad’s “younger sister” and of course, her Uncle Sam her other dad’s brotherly friend. She couldn’t have asked for anything better.
“How was your first day of school, sweetie?” Bucky asked.
“It was great,” she said plopping on the couch in between her two aunts,” All my teachers are decent, and my class schedule isn’t that bad, oh and I already have people to sit with at lunch, Peter, Ned, and MJ.”
“Fun, anything interesting happen?” Bucky asked.
“I punched a dude in the face,” she said casually, starting to braid Nat’s hair.
“You did what now!” Steve said raising his voice a tad.
Nat high-fived her and Bucky shot her a glare,” Can you please explain this to us, Gwen.”
“Ok yeah, hear me out, first this guy comes over to our table and starts making fun of Peter and me being friends with him. Then he calls me baby and tries to get me to come over to his table, and then suggests I meet him behind the school after lunch,” she said, a little too loudly.
It was silent for a minute before Nat started laughing, Bucky followed, then Wanda, then Sam, and finally Steve. It lasted for a good few minutes before everyone settled down.
“Ok that’s a good reason to punch someone if I’ve ever heard one,” Bucky said chuckling.
“Yeah, come on Steve that dude was just asking for it, and what did you always say, you don’t like bullies and don’t care what therefrom,” Sam said causing everyone to burst into laughter again.
“Ok, ok, I get it she won’t get in trouble,” Steve said.
This time both Wanda and Nat high-fived her.
“Now go practice your powers before I change my mind.”
“Ok, she said before the three girls scampered off.
While Nat set up the practice dummies, Gwen and Wanda talked.
“So tell me about this Peter dude?” Wanda asked.
“What do you mean, there’s not much to tell, he’s just a nice kid.”
“Oh don’t give me that crap I saw how your eyes twinkled when you said his name.”
“She’s right you know, Gwen you have a crush on this Peter guy,” Natasha called.
“Ugh! You guys can be so annoying sometimes!” Gwen groaned.
“You know you love us though,” Wanda said ruffling Gwen’s hair.
“Whatever, you can complain about us later, now tell us more about this Peter kid” Nat demanded.
“Well, his name is Peter Parker, he has curly brown hair and these brown doe eyes, and he's kind and sweet and funny,” Gwen told them as she attempted to make her hair lay flat again.
She looked back up to see her aunts nervously glancing at each other. When they noticed she was staring however, they returned their attention to her and pretended like nothing happened. But, Gwen wasn’t going to let them off the hook that easily.
“Are you guys ok, you look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”
“Yeah, we’re fine. Just the way you talked about him is the exact way Tony would talk about Pepper,” Nat explained.
“Oh, ok.”
“Now, let’s get back to training, we got to do something, are your dads won’t be too happy.”
“Of course.