The New Semester
Sage really didn’t understand where the break had gone. It felt like exams had only been a few days ago, but really, it had been three weeks. Granted, there was some part of her that was going stir crazy - Tony had become a helicopter mom ever since she’d agreed to the adoption - but going back to school was the last thing she wanted right now.
After JARVIS had woken her up on Monday morning, all Sage could do was sit on the edge of her bed and stare listlessly at the floor for a solid ten minutes. How sick would she have to be for them to let her stay home?
She was startled by a knock on the door and quickly called, “Who is it?”
Tony chuckled. “Just checkin’ to make sure you were up, sweetheart. You’re usually out here by now.”
Sage glanced at the clock and swore, diving toward her closet to get dressed. “I’ll be out in a minute!” She shouted, trying to decide what clothes would keep her the most comfortable throughout the day. In the end, she decided on the oldest hoodie she owned and her softest pair of jeans. She tied up her hair and trudged out to the kitchen.
Clint whistled as she talked in, saying, “Man, who invited the Walking Dead?”
“Fuck off, Barton, unless you want to go to school for me.”
The archer laughed and laid a plate of waffles in front of her. “Made you breakfast.”
Sage turned sad eyes on the plate. “I wish I could eat you.” She sighed. “Thanks for the effort, Clint, but I-”
He grinned and set a quart mason jar in front of her. “Oh, sorry. The waffles are mine. The milkshake is for you.”
“Oh, God bless.” She took a sip and couldn’t even be mad that he’d tried to prank her on her first day back to school. “Holy hell. What’s in this?”
“Cold brew, almond milk, caramel ice cream, chocolate and maple syrups, whipped cream…”
“I’m going to be vibrating by second hour. Thank you so much.” She gave him a huge hug just as Loki walked in, trailed by Tony who was cradling a mug of coffee to his chest.
“Are you ready to go, darling?”
“Yep.” She grinned and gave Tony a kiss on the cheek before folllowing Loki to the elevator and calling behind her, “See you guys later.”
---
Sage walked into first hour, milkshake in hand an dnearly ready to face the classroom, but as she looked around, she froze and nearly bolted back out.
There was a new girl sitting in Sage’s normal seat, in the back by the window. The new girl was super hot, and attractive peers had always intimidated Sage.
She took a huge, bracing sip of her milkshake and send another, silent, thank you to Clint, and went to sit beside the hot new girl. She wished mournfully for her seat, and started panicking becuase Hot New girl was turning to her and smiling and no no no it’s too early to talk to hot people, please, no-
“Hi!” The girl grinned brightly, and oh she had brown eyes.
Sage swallowed hard, ignoring how hard her heart was beating and ground out, “H- hi. Um. You’re new.”
“Yep. Just moved from Lake Worth, Florida.”
“Y- what?! Why would you voluntarily move form Florida to NYC in the dead of winter?”
Mrs. Harding cleared her throat and gave the two a look before starting to take attendence. She went through the whole class, and then lifted a hand toward Hot New Girl and said, “Kiddos, this is Adeline Collins, and she’s new, so I expect you all to help her settle in here.” She winked at Sage.
Sage flushed and direct eye contact with the girl. Adeline. Her name was Adeline. Godthat was a gorgeous name. She glanced toward the other girl’s bag and noticed the little Hot Topic buttons littering the fabric. In a quick look she noticed a TARDIS, the Sherlock smiley face, a Panic! button, one for Journey, AJR, and what looked like a ‘What’s your damage, Heather?’ pin. Holy cow. The only thing glaringly missing was Supernatural, and that was an easy fix. Hopefully. She started listening again just in time to hear her laugh, and oh boy, that was a laugh Sage could get used to hearing.
“Well, it was more my parents’ decision than mine.”
What? Oh yeah. Sage asked why she’d moved to New York City from Florida.
“Do you like it here so far?”
“Oh, I love it. I was born to be a city girl.”
Sage chuckled softly at that. Personally, she rather enjoyed the country, but she did love the city too. “So, what classes do you have?” She hazarded a look back up the girl’s face as it lit up, and damn, was she in trouble.
“Here.” Adeline pulled a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and shoved it toward Sage who was vaguely alarmed, but unwrinkled it and quickly recognized it as a class schedule. “I have no idea where any of these classes are, and I was hoping someone would be able to show me.
\Sage heard her own sharp intake of breath and cursed herself softly. Pull it together, Sage. She’s just a normal person. “Well, lucky for you, this looks almost exactly like my class schedule.” She offered her a smile that she desperately hoped wasn’t too shaky, and turned her eyes back to the schedule. “Okay, yeah. I can work with this. You should just follow me until seventh hour. I can show you where your seventh is, but that’s the only class we don’t have together.
Adeline’s eyes shone excitedly. “Oh, thank god. I was hoping someone cute would show me around.”
\Sage flushed furiously and choked on the drink of milkshake she’d just taken. “You- I- what?”
Adeline reached down and pulled her bag into her lap and, once she was sure Sage was looking, tapped one of the pins that Sage hand’t immediately latched onto. The lesbian flag. Sage could’ve smacked herself.
“It’s not one of the popular flags, so I’m not expecting it to be a huge problem, and if you’re straight, that’s fine, but you seemed like the type of person who wouldn’t have their head stuck up their behind like most of the ‘Jesus loves me’ kids here.”
Sage couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, no. Yeah. I- I’m pan, so. Yeah. Um. I’ll make sure to introduce you to the rest of the LGBT club. There’s about ten of us, so. We called ourselves the Largely Great But Tough club to sneak the acronym under the radar. I’m pretty sure some of the staff have cottoned on, but.” She shrugged.
Adeline laughed. “That’s amazing. Yes, introduce me to these people, please.”
Sage smiled, already not dreading the rest of the week as much as she had been.