chapter twelve
in the halls of midtown high

        Sabrina stands in front of her closet for a few moments.  Back at Kamar-Taj, she had never needed to worry about choosing an outfit.  Every outfit was the same every day.  It was a neverending cycle of monotony, but sometimes, Sabrina yearns for the simplicity of her childhood.  Everything is so complicated now.  She supposes this is what she gets for growing up.  But in a way, hadn't she asked for all of this?  She could have stayed behind at Kamar-Taj, and stayed with the monotony, but instead, she had wanted something more.  Finally, they settle for an oversize rainbow tie-dye shirt and baggy denim cargo pants.

Stephen and Wong are already in the kitchen when Sabrina descends into the first floor.  The Sanctum takes mercy on her again.  She thinks that it, too, can sense the anxiety that causes her stomach to twist itself into knots and decides to make at least one part of the morning easier for her (she's been back at school for a month now, but the anxiety still rises with her in the mornings—she still isn't quite used to spending eight hours of her day with standards that she's expected to conform to).  There's something so domestic about the scene before her—Wong and Stephen in the kitchen and the smell of bacon and eggs and sausage in the air—that it is almost enough to make her forget about all of her anxieties.  Wong stands with a spatula in hand and an apron wrapped around his front, pointing at Stephen belligerently with the spatula as they argue over something (but Sabrina can tell that there's no real malice in this argument, they're just poking fun at each other—something that they've both grown comfortable to do, as it turns out, Sabrina is not the only one who has grown since Kamar-Taj).

"Guys, it's only seven-thirty," Sabrina says as she enters the kitchen.  "How have you already found something to argue about?"

"No capes," Wong says simply, pointing to the Cloak of Levitation, which sits around Stephen's shoulders with the spatula.

"It's not a cape!" Stephen argues.

"Okay, Edna," Sabrina mutters as she takes a seat behind the counter.

"You ready for school?" Stephen asks.

Sabrina lets out a groan and buries her face in her folded arms.  Her voice comes out muffled as she says, "Don't remind me."

She thinks about her messenger bag, already heavy with textbooks and homework.  She had thrown it in the back of her closet, just as she had thrown it into the back of her mind, the moment she stepped into her bedroom on Friday.  Now, the weekend has gone by all too quickly and she has to dig it back out of her closet and bring it to the forefront of her mind because this is all that she's allowed to consume herself with for the next nine months.  Endless stacks of homework and projects until she's drowning in a sea of loose papers that collect in the bottom of her backpack.  One month of school had been torture, she can't imagine what it will be like for another eight months.

"Eat up," says Wong, placing a steaming plate of scrambled eggs with two sausages on the side.  He doesn't give her bacon with her eggs and sausage because Sabrina hates bacon.  She'd mentioned it once, a long time ago to Wong, back at Kamar-Taj, she doesn't remember much about that day or the conversation that had spurred the statement.  The fact that Wong remembers this causes her heart to swell.

"Orange juice?" Stephen asks.

"Yes, please."

Sabrina still doesn't think she's fully used to this kind of love.  At first, it had been smothering.  Suffocating, even.  In the beginning, it had felt like the kind of love that gets shoved down your throat and force-fed to you because you don't know any other way to take it.  But it gets easier over time.  Wong and Stephen take care of her in a way that she didn't get taken care of in Kamar-Taj, and she takes care of them the best that she can; silently washing the dishes for Wong, pouring Stephen a mug of coffee before he asks, taking the trash out to the dumpster in the back alley, starting the laundry loads, picking up their mail at their PO box on the way home—her love has always been shown in actions rather than words.  The love is easier to swallow now that she's used to the bigger proportion that she's being fed.  No longer does she have to lick it off of knives.  This kind of love is unhindered by secrets and lies.  This kind of love is unconditional. 

They say that the water is sweet, but blood is thicker.  Sabrina doesn't agree; her own blood had chosen to kill her, over and over again.  This family, though not blood, had all chosen each other.  She thinks that that makes the three of them just as strong as a blood family.  Because really, there is no proper definition of a family.  They take care of each other and they love each other and really, that's enough.  Every day, Sabrina comes home to Wong or Stephen and they ask her how her day was.  Every day, Sabrina greets them in the morning, sometimes with a hug, and sometimes without.  They take care of each other when they're sick, watch movies on Fridays, and help Sabrina on the rooftops when they have nothing else to do.  They carry around pieces of each other within themselves, and if that does not make them a family, Sabrina doesn't know what does.

"Please don't make me go," Sabrina whines. 

"You're going to be okay," Stephen assures her.  "It's been a month, and it's been fine.  You've got your friends."

"I've got my friends," Sabrina repeats with a nod. 

"Call me if you need anything," Stephen tells her, "but I'm sure you're going to be all right."

Sabrina nods.

If only she believed that.

✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.☆.*｡･ﾟ✫*

It takes no time to get from the New York Sanctum to Midtown High School (thanks to the interdimensional portals that the sorcerers can open at will).  She leaves at eight o'clock on the dot (school starts at eight-thirty), with her messenger bag over her shoulder and one final, pleading glance at Stephen and Wong, who see her off.  Stephen only sighs and waves his arm through the air.  Sabrina watches with wide, betrayed eyes as the portal moves closer to her and swallows her whole. 

Sabrina finds herself in the middle of the stone steps leading to the entrance of the school building.  Nobody bats an eye at her sudden appearance.  At Midtown, she had learned, she's practically invisible.  Her phone buzzes in her back pocket.  She digs it out to find a text notification from Stephen.

DOC: Have a nice day at school!

Sabrina decides to be petty and leave his message on read.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Sabrina turns her back on the building and pushes against the surging tide of students entering the building.  Her phone buzzes again, and this time, the message is not from Stephen.

ETHAN: meet me at the tree :)

Five words, and yet it made all the difference for her.  Five words, and it's enough to calm her nerves for a few moments. 

She sees a lone figure leaning back against the trunk of the tree as she approaches.  They perk up once their eyes land on Sabrina and wave eagerly.  Sabrina grins—truly grins—and waves back.  There are four places that Sabrina knows like the back of her hand: Kamar-Taj, The New York Sanctum, the carnival through the Rotunda of Gateways, and the tree.  The tree had served as their meeting spot before the calamity of school for the last month before school was let out for the summer. 

"Sabrina!"

Sabrina lets out a small oof! as she's enveloped in a bone-crushing hug.  Ethan Martello-Takahashi is a bright ray of sunshine in Sabrina's life.  She wouldn't have it any other way.  She thinks that Ethan is her best friend.  She knows every inch of him—from the tips of his box-dyed bright green hair to the soles of his beaten and worn Converse.  She'd found a home in Ethan Martello-Takahashi—how could she not?  He was all dimples and hugs and eagerness, he had embraced Sabrina and all of her faults.  It was as if somebody had captured a ray of sunlight in a jar and planted it in the garden, and that ray of sunshine had bloomed into the boy who now holds her in his arms.  Her heart feels less heavy when she's with Ethan—he always knows how to make everything better.  Hesitantly, she hugs Ethan back despite feeling as though she would suffocate in his arms.  Her head fits perfectly in the crook of his neck.  She thinks she can stay like this forever.

Not everybody that Sabrina loves sticks around for long, she'd learned this the hard way.  But she has a good feeling that Ethan Martello-Takahashi will stay around for a long time.  He's the first person she tells when something exciting happens because he's the first person who comes to mind and because he's always ready to listen.  They've spent hours, chewing on their cheeks and talking about nothing and everything at once.  She's loved him for quite some time now—in the way that everybody loves their best friend (or is it something more than just that?).  She loves his smile, she loves his hoodies that always seem to fit her just right, she loves his voice and his laugh.  She loves the boyish charm that he still has to him and the last of the baby fat that remained through his childhood.  She loves how he has the uncanny ability to make her laugh.  She loves him because Ethan is her best friend and do we not love our best friends?  She starts to see pieces of him in everything.  She wouldn't have it any other way.

"I missed you," Ethan says.

"You saw me two days ago," Sabrina points out.

"Still missed you."

Ethan feels like he's holding Sabrina Strange like water in his hands on most days.  She's elusive, and much like her last name pertains, she's strange.  Not that he minds.  It makes her more interesting.  He likes to think that he knows every inch of her; he knows that the smaller scar on her forehead is from a battle with a door (she doesn't tell him where the bigger scar comes from); he knows that she lives with two men named Stephen and Wong ("They're not my parents, but we take care of each other," she had told him); she loves Taylor Swift more than anything, even if she doesn't admit it out loud; she never learned how to ride a bike; she broke her hand once in a fight; if she were to have a cat, she would name it Salem.  He knows everything about her and seemingly nothing at all.  Sabrina Strange is a mystery to him, and maybe that's what draws him in.  She's a good friend despite everything, and he thinks his life is better because of her friendship.  She's there for him in a way that nobody else has been there.

"Aw, I missed you too," Sabrina replies as Ethan finally releases them from his tight embrace.

"C'mon, I'm sure Peter, Ned, and Bug are waiting for us," Ethan says.

"You ditched them to wait for me?" Sabrina asks with a grin as they link arms with Ethan.  "That's so sweet."

"Only for you," Ethan replies.

Sabrina ignores the way her heart flutters.  It must be the anxiety.  She scrunches the hem of her t-shirt in her hands as they approach the entrance of the school.  Noticing this, Ethan silently slings an arm around her shoulders and pulls her closer to him.  A silent I've got you.  He's warm and suddenly, Sabrina doesn't want him to let go.  She feels almost at home with his arm around her.  Ethan has her back.  She knows this now more than ever.  They feel less subconscious as they fight through the crowd of students together.  She belongs here.  She belongs here at Midtown High.  She belongs here with Ethan.

"Rise and shine, Midtown Science and Technology," Betty Brant greets from the flat screens spread throughout the hallways.

"Students don't forget about your homecoming tickets," Jason Ionello adds.  He turns to Betty, who stares at the camera with an uncomfortable grin.  "Do you have a date to homecoming?"

"Thanks, Jason, but I already have a date."

"Okay."

"Yeah."

The Parker twins—Peter and Bug—and Ned Leeds are already at their lockers when Sabrina and Ethan arrive.  Bug perks up as soon as their eyes land on Sabrina and Ethan and tears down the hallway toward them.  They're a blur of bright patterns and button-downs and their hug is another mess of strangulation and ribs threatening to crack under the pressure of their hug.  Sabrina lets them hang on as long as possible—she knows that they probably need it more than anybody else here, Peter too.  When they first met Bug Parker, they had been distant and closed off.  They only talked when necessary.  Ethan tells her about their Uncle Ben.  Sabrina understands, their brother, and their aunt and uncle were the only people that Bug had left.  They've come far from the person they were when Sabrina had met them.  Sabrina thinks that Bug Parker deserves the world. 

"Whoa," Sabrina says with a laugh as she wraps her arms around Bug and pulls them close.  "Hey!  How're you holding up?"

"I'm fine," Bug tells her earnestly.

"Good, I'm glad," Sabrina replies, just as earnestly.

Bug Parker reminds Sabrina of summer days as a small child.  They remind them of grass stains and scraped knees and sticky lemonade in the shade of the backyard porch.  They remind her of climbing trees and bare feet dangling over a raging river, catching insects in the palms of your hands and children before they learn what civility means.  Bug Parker is all these things and more.  Sabrina admires how they aren't afraid to be unapologetically themself.  They'd explained to her, one day over the summer as they were lying in Ethan's grassy backyard with cold glasses of lemonade in their hands, that traditional names had felt too confining for them—too binary—and so, they had chosen something that felt more like them, a name that made them feel more at home in their identity.  Sabrina envies just how at peace they are with themself. 

"Hey, Peter!" Sabrina calls.

"Hi!" Peter replies, sidling over to give Sabrina a side hug.  She gives him a tight squeeze before releasing him.  She's learned that Peter doesn't crave as much physical contact as Ethan and Bug.  It's a balance between learning when she's giving too much and when she's not giving enough, and while it can be exhausting, Sabrina thinks that it's interesting how everybody is different in that regard.

The best way that Sabrina can describe Peter Parker is the human personification of a golden retriever.  With his fluffy hair and heart of gold, it isn't hard to develop some sort of affection for Peter Parker.  He's still managed to retain his youthful innocence despite everything that he's been through.  Usually, he's adorned in a novelty t-shirt with some sort of science pun, but today, he's abandoned them for a sweater layered over a collared shirt.  It seems that maybe, this year, he's decided to grow up—not that Sabrina thought that he needed to, he should be allowed to enjoy what he wanted to without ridicule and without fear of judgment. 

"How've you been?" Sabrina asks.

"Good," Peter replies with a nod.  "Good.  I've been great."

"Good to hear."

Ned Leeds is next.  His hugs are big and warm and comforting, but it's a different kind of comfort from Ethan's hugs.  There's a lot that Sabrina can say about Ned Leeds.  He's Peter's best friend.  He's a tech geek.  He has a heart of gold and is always well-meaning.  He's a social outcast, but he yearns for something more.  Much like Peter, Sabrina has learned that Ned has retained his childhood innocence.  He's smart and has a wide scope of imagination and Sabrina hopes that it won't be beaten out of him by his desire to become more popular (because in places like High Schools, Sabrina finds out that the only way to be more liked it to change parts of yourself, and she doesn't think that's very fair).  She thinks that it can take him places. 

She doesn't know Ned and Peter in the same way that she knows Ethan and Bug (and even then, she doesn't know Bug as much as she knows Ethan), and she thinks that's because Ned and Peter have always been each other's best friends.  They tell each other everything, and Sabrina tells them nothing.  They're a small group of five, closely intertwined, but the facts still remain that Peter and Ned were friends first.  Not that Sabrina, Ethan, and Bug particularly mind.  They don't need to be a big group of five all day every day.  It's okay to be closer to one person than others, and at the end of the day, Sabrina would take a bullet for any of them, even if they're not as close.

"What's up, Ned?"

"I finally got the LEGO Death Star set," Ned tells her with a wide grin.  He's glowing.

"Really?  That's awesome!" Sabrina replies with a grin.  She knows just how long Ned had been saving up for the LEGO Death Star, and just how excited he'd been when he'd finally saved up enough for it.

"Yeah," Ned agrees, nodding enthusiastically.  "I was actually gonna ask if you guys wanted to help me build it tonight."

"Yeah, of course!" Sabrina replies.  "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

"I'm down," Ethan agrees.

"We can do it at my place," Bug offers, "Aunt May won't mind.  She loves you guys."

"Oh, um, sorry, I can't," Peter tells Ned.  "I've got the Stark Internship."

Ned's face falls for a split second.  "Internship.  Yeah."

"Yeah," Peter repeats.

"Always got that internship."

Sabrina, Ethan, and Bug all exchange a glance as they trail behind Peter and Ned.  Peter doesn't seem to have much time for any of them these days, not even Ned and it seems to be taking a toll on the latter.  He keeps silent, though.  In a way, Sabrina thinks that Ned is happy for Peter, but he just wants his best friend back. 

"Yeah, well, hopefully it'll lead to a real job with them," Peter tells Ned.

"That would be so sweet," Ned agrees.

"Right?"

"He'd be all, 'Good job on those spreadsheets, Peter.  Here's a gold coin'," Ned says.  Sabrina lets out a small laugh at his impression of Tony Stark.  "I don't know how jobs work."

"That's...exactly how they work," Peter replies.

"Oh," Ned lets out a delighted laugh.  He turns to look back at Sabrina, Ethan, and Bug.  "Okay, so here's the game plan: we'll knock out the base at Peter and Bug's place tonight while he's at his internship.  For the most part, the difficult thing is the base part.  Then, we'll wait for Peter to get back to finish it.  We can knock the top half out in two hours, max."

"That'd be great," Peter answers, though Sabrina notices that his attention is elsewhere. 

His eyes linger on Liz Allan, further down the hallway as she converses with Betty Brant and a few of her other friends.  Sabrina doesn't blame Peter.  Liz Allan is pretty.  Liz Allan is one of the sweetest people that they have ever met.  She thinks that Liz Allan might as well be an earth angel.  Liz had been the first person that Sabrina met.  She had shown her around the school on the first day and stuck by her side during passing periods to make sure that Sabrina found her classrooms alright.  Liz checks up on them from time to time over the summer and convinces Sabrina to join the Academic Decathlon team this year. 

"Awesome," Sabrina adds.  "Just tell me what to do and I should be good."

"Sounds like a plan," Ethan says with a grin.

And with that, the bell rings.

author's note: heyo long time no see!!

ethan is best boy and bug is best person <33 i love both of them sm.  sabrina IS part of the midtown gang but she's not gonna get caught up w/ the vulture because she really said "fuck that shit i'm taking a break" so this is really just her time where she's allowed to be a stupid teenager for the time being

the funniest part of act ii is that peter is going through the horrors while sabrina and ethan are living through a coming of age rom-com