Devon gulped as she stepped out of the car and onto the sidewalk, 80's music in her right ear. She had tried to convince her dad not to drive her, but he had insisted unfortunately.

"Bye! Have fun at school!" he yelled from the car. She turned and waved with embarrassment. Some of the students around looked at her and smirked. Oh god...and on the first day of school...great. Dev took a step backwards as her dad drove off. Matt always said she was Da's favourite, but they both knew that Brendan was Da's true favourite. Matt was pretty much everyone's favourite though. Devon, not so much.

She put in her other earbud and shifted the notebooks in her hand to be more comfortable.

"Alright, new school, new people," she whispered to herself. Dev wasn't too nervous about a new school as new schools had become a usual routine in the Jackson family, but she was a bit anxious to meet the other kids around her. This was a special school, and she didn't want to screw up her friendship with other mutants.

She took in a breath and let the hood fall from her head as she walked towards the building labeled "OFFICE." The black backpack held her lunch money, books, PE clothes, and other various things including an extra sweatshirt from London. The school was quite large, a bit bigger than she had expected. She heard there was a lot of nature around this special school, but since it was in New York City, there wasn't much. Probably some false information, she concluded.

Some teenagers whispered behind her back, but Dev tried to ignore them. She knew what they were thinking: who was the chick with the all black outfit, headphones in, and backpack stuck with pins from other countries?

She walked into the front office, as she had learned from California, and went to ask the secretary for the principal.

"And who are you, miss?" the secretary asked, a little bit judgmentally. Probably because of the black outfit. Devon couldn't help her wardrobe's lack of coloured clothing.

"Um I'm Devon Jackson," Dev said, wishing she had a stronger British accent. It usually blew Americans away. "I'm the new student? From California?" The secretary brightened. Dev noticed the nametag: MRS. HERNANDEZ, PRINCIPAL'S SECRETARY.

"Oh! Ms. Jackson, welcome to Midtown High for Science and Technology! Are your parents here?" The lady looked around, and Dev shook her head.

"No, sorry. My da had work," she lied.

"Oh all right. No problem." Mrs. Hernandez wrote down some notes. "I'll get Principal Morita to meet you. You can wait right here for one second." She hurried off into someone's office. Dev stood in the office, looking around at the various pictures on the wall. She noticed that they had an academic decathlon lead by a student named Elizabeth Toomes. There were a list of other students' names on the picture: Ned Leeds, Peter Parker, Eugene Thompson, Brian McKeever, and more. Brendan would probably want her to join the decathlon. He was big on school clubs and stuff like that. "Ms. Jackson?"

"Hm?" Dev turned. The secretary waved her over into an office with a sign: PRINCIPAL MORITA - OFFICE.

"Good morning, Ms. Jackson!" A friendly looking Asian man, Dev presumed it was Principal Morita, in a blue suit greeted her. Devon shook his hand awkwardly the door closed. He waved to a seat, and she sat down. "Mrs. Hernandez informed me that your parents aren't here?" He flipped through some papers on his desk. Dev nodded.

"Yeah. My da had work. He sends his regards." She smiled slightly and shifted her backpack around to be comfortable in the padded chair. "I completed all the tests last, last Saturday though." Morita nodded with a few more flips of files.

"You did excellent, Ms. Jackson. I'm glad to welcome you to Midtown High for Science and Tech!"

"I hope you don't mind me asking," Dev said tentatively. "Why did I have to do an exam based off of mostly science? I was informed this was a 'special school.'" The principal looked a bit confused.

"Oh, this school is a magnet school. It's based mostly on science and technology, tailored for students interested in pursuing degrees in engineering or doctorates in the medical field, things like that." He chuckled. It was Dev's turn to be confused.

"But I thought this school taught everything, sir."

"Please, call me Principal Morita. And yes, we do. We just focus on the sciences." He look her over. "Maybe you were told of a different school?"

"Um..." Dev racked her brain quickly. This school was completely different than what she had been told. Maybe she had made a mistake? Bloody hell if she did. "So your name is Morita?" Principal Morita nodded, capping and then uncapping a pen quietly.

"Yes. Why?"

"It's not anything like perhaps...Xavier? Or McCoy? Maybe a surname? Maybe a relative?" she asked weakly. He shook his head.

"Never heard of them. And my name is Morita, I guarantee it. Are you ok, Ms. Jackson? You look a little pale." Dev shook her head.

"I'm fine, thank you. Just jetlag," she lied. Dev didn't get jetlag; it was one thing Brendan was actually jealous of her for. "May I have my schedule?" The principal nodded and then handed her a small slip of paper.

After a short speech about the school rules and such, Principal Morita ended by saying yet another welcome and Dev rushed out of the office towards the nearest restroom. She burst through the door  and into a small tiled stall, breathing heavy.

She had made a mistake. A huge mistake. She remembered how she had researched the school rather quickly. As soon as she had heard of an fairly private school for 'gifts,' Dev wanted to get out of LA as soon as possible and to the place where she might actually be accepted. But she had made a mistake. She wanted to bang her head on the wall for making such a big mistake and for rushing. She had already convinced her father to stay in New York for another year.

She was completely stuck.

Dev got out of the stall, pulling her backpack on again after checking her possibilities of getting out of New York (there were none) and debating whether or not she should panic call Matt. She decided against it. He was probably in class or sleeping anyways. She went over to the small sinks and looked in the mirror. She fixed her slightly smudged makeup and then pulled back her darkened hair. Dev took a deep breath and looked down at her first class. It was Physics in room 319 with a Mrs. Warren. She could get through this day. Hopefully.

Dev walked quickly through the long and mostly empty hallways of the school, stopping only to find her locker and shove in her unnecessary objects. Finally finding room 319, she took a breath and composed herself before stepping in. The room full of students looked up, and she felt their eyes gaze at her. She hated this part of the first days - the stares. Clearing her throat, Dev walked over the the teacher. Mrs. Warren was a middle aged dark woman with curly hair pulled up in a tight bun. Dev guessed she was the type to wear cardigans and pleated skirts from the first glance. This was, in fact, what Mrs. Warren was wearing. Dev smiled to herself. Matt had taught her that trick, although it didn't work all the time. There was that one teacher in San Francisco with the crazy and unpredictable tie everyday which had thrown her off. That had been kind of weird.

"Good morning! You must be the new student!" Mrs. Warren greeted warmly. Dev nodded.

"Hi." A couple students seemed intrigued, most just seemed bored and wanting to get on with class. There was even one student in the back watching something on a laptop intently. What a smart guy, Dev thought.

"Class, this is Devon Jackson, and she is from California! Make sure to give her a big New York welcome!" Mrs. Warren said to the students. Some of them gave a wave. Dev raised an eyebrow. This school was much different than the one in LA - much less enthusiastic. She liked it, surprisingly. "Now, Ms. Jackson, you can sit next to Mr. Leeds over there." Mrs. Warren pointed to a seat behind a grinning boy. Devon walked over and sat in the empty seat next to him, sliding her backpack to the floor. Unfortunately, the tables were connected to make partners. Dev groaned inside but told herself, at least it wasn't some jock or complete nerd.

"Hi, I'm Ned! Nice to meet you," Ned said quietly as to not disturb the continuing lesson. He scribbled down some notes from the chalkboard. Dev took out her own piece of paper and started writing.

"Hey. I'm Devon."

"Cool." The rest of the class period succumbed to silence as Dev didn't really want to have small talk. She didn't want to get too attached to someone here just in case.

Ned seemed nice enough though. He also seemed fairly bright and was friends with the boy on the laptop. She saw Ned trying to poke the other boy a couple of times without Mrs. Warren noticing, making himself laugh. Other than that, Dev didn't really pay attention to anything other than getting out of New York and Newton's law of gravity.

A couple dreadfully long classes later, Dev sat on a long bench at an empty table in the cafeteria. Ok, there was one other girl sitting there with wild hair and a large black sweater who had given Dev a nod, but otherwise, Dev was practically alone. In LA, she had always been allowed to eat outside but she didn't really know where to sit in this new school, so she just chose to sit inside for the first day. The cafeteria was crowded as usual.

She was picking through the vinegar drenched salad when she heard a small cough. She looked up and saw Ned with his Star Wars T-shirt. The other boy was with him. From recent classes, Dev figured out his name was Peter Parker.

"Hi."

"Hey!" Ned said, in his friendly tone. "So uh sorry but do you mind if we sit with you? This is kinda our table." He pointed to the seats. Dev mentally facepalmed herself. Of course, just her luck. She was sitting in someone's seat.

"Sorry," she murmured. She was about to stand up when Ned stopped her.

"Oh you can sit with us! We're ok with it. But only if you want," he said. Peter looked at him with a bit of surprise. Dev looked over the two boys and then slowly sat down again, gazing back at her phone next to her and sliding a bit to the side. The boys sat down and launched into a conversation about Legos and Death Stars. Ned was much more involved, and Peter was a bit more shy. It reminded her of Brendon when he was a little kid.

"So do you like Star Wars?" Dev looked up and saw that the girl with frizzy hair was talking to her. "Do you?" she asked again.

"I don't have time for Star Wars," Dev shrugged. That wasn't necessarily true. The other girl nodded.

"Smart. Those two are nerds anyways." Ned looked up and made a face.

"You hang out with us though!"

"So what?" The girl looked back down at her sketch book. Dev smiled. She liked this girl.

After lunch was over, Dev tried to get through her other classes with the least amount of talking as possible. They were a little easier than the ones in the beginning of the day. Ned was in a majority of them, and his friend, Peter, was also. Dev learned that the strange girl at lunch's name was Michelle Jones, and the teachers all seemed to be a little weirded out by her. She was Dev's favourite of the day. Dev recognized many of them from the decathlon picture in the office. None of the students really tried to talk to her. She was ok with that.

Finally, the school day was over. Dev breathed out an air of relief and walked down the front steps quickly. She put in her earbuds and was about to call Matt when someone tapped her shoulder. She turned and saw Michelle holding up a purple notebook.

"You left this in Regstad's," she said with little emotion. Dev pulled out an earbud, grabbed it, and gave a small nod.

"Thanks."

"See ya, Brit girl." Michelle walked back into the school, holding her sketch book. Dev wondered where she was going.

//

"How was your first day at school?!" Matt yelled into her ear. Dev laughed at the sight of her brother in his messy looking bed. Long black hair framed his still young face, and his bright eyes twinkled at her. A lot of girls liked him in the beginning years of secondary school, but he was always more into his music. It amused Dev.

"Do you want to blow my bleeding ear off, Matthias?" she asked. Matt tried to look around in the camera. They were Facetiming from her phone.

"Where are you? Is that the new apartment?" Dev laughed again and nodded her head. She clicked a button, and the camera turned around, showing her new bed and window.

"My room!" she said excitedly. Matt looked in awe.

"It's very grey," he commented. She scoffed and turned the camera back. Her dad was still working, so Dev decided she wanted to walk around New York a little bit and then back home to do homework.

"I'm getting my posters and stuff soon, I think," she said as she propped the phone onto a shelf. "Brendan said he sent them over last week."

"Has he called yous?" Matt asked. She nodded.

"Yeah. Like on Sunday. He had school though, so it was kinda short," she said. Dev had begun to miss her other brother, even though they weren't very close.

"So how's everything?" Matt said with a grin. "How's school? How's homework? Any boys?" Devon facepalmed.

"No boys," she said, trying to remain as emotionless as possible. She played with the charger cord. "But I do have a load of homework which sucks."

"Has Da began the lawyer talk yet?" Matt teased. She rolled her eyes.

"Nah. But I heard it from both of you, so I think I'm good." She looked down. "Do you think it's 'cause he doesn't want me to be a lawyer? I mean...I'm not very good at like anything, and I guess you two were always his favourites." Matt shook his head.

"Don't say that!" he scolded. "You have talent, Dev. C'mon. No one can run as fast as you. And you're a really good at giving speeches and writing stuff."

"Uh huh," Dev mumbled, still looking down at her math homework.

"Hey, if it makes you feel any better," he said gently, "you're my favourite." She looked back up and smiled also.

"Thanks." She sighed and decided to change the subject. "How's the band?" Matt shrugged.

"It's pretty normal," he said. "Me and Marc are still trying to find gigs and all."

"So your band is just yous?" Dev raised an eyebrow. Matt nodded. "What does he play?"

"Mostly guitar," Matt said. "He's pretty good at singing too."

"Don't yous need a drummer? And a keyboardist?" Dev laughed. Matt shrugged again and turned over on his bed, propping his phone up on some books.

"Eh. We'll be fine. Marc is great at like everything."

"He sounds nice," she said, writing down an equation.

"You need to get back to homework, so I'm gonna leave," he said. Dev looked up quickly.

"Wait no! I won't do homework! Don't leave!" she said in a panic. Matt laughed and almost fell off the bed. "Wow you're an idiot."

"Hey!" He shifted over and glared at her. "You were being nice to me just now! What happened?" She shrugged. "And I know you miss me, but c'mon. Otherwise Da'll kill me for distracting you." Dev sighed.

"Ok fine," she rolled her eyes. He smiled at her.

"I'll call you, don't worry!" he reassured.

"I still miss you," she said, pouting. He laughed again and waved.

"I miss you a lot too, Dev. Now get back to homework before Da gets back." He grinned, and it made her smile too.

"Bye!"

"See ya!"

And with a click, her phone went dark. Dev sighed again. New York sucked.

~

I HOPE YALL LIKE THIS STORY AHA THANKS FOR 200 READS ALREADY

the beginning is going to be kinda rough because i got some writer's block oops but it'll get more interesting i promise!

also if someone guesses what dev's mutation is, i'll give you a hundred bucks (jk not really but still) (some of you may have an advantage aheM)