I sling the other strap of my backpack over my other shoulder and jog a little in order to actually keep up with Peter. I wouldn't blame someone for being a fast walker, but I know why he's avoiding me.

He knows exactly who I am. He's seen my face on the cover of the newspaper. Maybe he's even seen me on the nightly news when I was blessed with that wonderful opportunity. No matter where, he's doing everything in his power to avoid being seen with me.

"Peter, can you slow down a little?" I ask.

In the middle of the crowd of students, he suddenly comes to a complete stop. I almost collide with his shoulder, but my reflexes are quick enough to stop me. His eyes are locked on the floor until he finally musters the courage to look at me.

"Look, can we just cut the crap already? Stop pretending that you don't know who I am." I cross my arms and rock back and forth on my feet, my nerves getting the best of me.

"Wait, I know... what?" He pretends, his voice cracking ever so slightly.

"You know who I am. You're terrible at hiding it."

His eyes are wide. They're frozen open and locked directly on mine. Suddenly, my instincts are telling me that we are both thinking of two separate things. It's like he knows me, but it's not from seeing my face plastered in the papers. He knows me from somewhere else. It's like we've met before or something random like that. In all my years of training with Nat and the others, I've learned how to keep a solid poker face. To keep it casual, I continue with my original train of thought.

"You've seen my face in the magazines. On every single newspaper."

Suddenly, he breaks and a sigh of relief seems to wash over him. He looks down at his feet and shuffles them a bit before he looks back up at me.

"Yeah. Yeah, I've seen the headlines." He admits.

"Well, don't make assumptions about me. Please." I bite the inside of my cheek as I realize how much of a hypocrite I am for jumping to my own conclusions about him. But, it's too late to take my words back now.

Peter stuffs his hands in his pockets and shakes his head, "I try not to. Besides, I don't believe half of the headlines anyway." A grin appears at the corner of his mouth causing one to appear on mine as well. "Come on, our homeroom is this way."

He takes off walking again at a normal pace, allowing me to keep up with him. "Our homeroom?"

"Yeah. We have homeroom together. Come on, don't want you to be late on your first day." He replies and strides ahead of me a bit.

I follow closely behind him down the hallways as he dodges in between students. On occasion, he looks back at me to make sure that I haven't fallen behind. Every once in a while, he points something out in one of the display cases off to the side of the hallway. Sometimes, he points at a doorway and tells me that I should probably try to remember that because I'll be coming back for a class there later.

However, the whole time we're walking, I can't help but notice how rigid and tense his posture is. His hands are constantly balling up into fists only for his sweaty palms to be wiped on his jeans. 

He knows something that he doesn't want me to know.

-

I follow Peter into what I'm assuming is our homeroom. 

Immediately, eyes fall on me. It was what I expected, but the glares were slowly draining me.

In the back of my mind, I'm having a small crisis. However, Peter's voice pulls me out of that mental state and brings me back to Earth. 

"There's an open desk next to mine. You're welcome to sit with me and my friend, Ned, if you'd like." He continues walking towards the back of the classroom. I follow him, not wanting to sit with anyone else but Peter.

Peter sits down and then motions at the empty desk he was referring to earlier. I take my backpack off and then sink into the desk. The stiff seating made me uncomfortable.

"When Mr. Mason gets here, he might give you a hard time about having your backpack with you in class. School policy says you're not supposed to have it with you. But don't worry, I'll help you find your locker after homeroom. He might also force to come up to the front of the room to introduce yourself."

"Wait, you mean that's not something that just specifically happens in the movies? Teachers actually do this in real life?" I ask with wide eyes.

Peter chuckles slightly before he sees the fear in my eyes, "Sorry, Margaret. Oh, sorry! Maggie."

I try to stay positive and offer a grin before I turn back towards the front of the room and watch as more students flood into the room. Then, a man who I'm assuming is the teacher, walks into the room and sets a stack of paperwork and a full coffee cup down on the desk.

Then, another boy walks into the room and heads directly towards the back where I'm sitting with Peter. Peter immediately perks up and smiles at him. This must be his friend, Ned.

"Hey, man." The boy says, making eye contact with me immediately after talking to his friend.

"Hey, Ned. Um, this is Maggie Rogers. She's new here." He introduces me.

I look up at Ned with a grin, "Hi. It's nice to meet you."

"Whoa," Ned begins, "You're the Maggie Rogers. Like, the daughter of Captain America, Maggie Rogers. I've seen your pictures all over the place but I never expected to see you here in Midtown High. This is crazy, Peter!" He looks back at Peter with wide eyes only to see Peter raising his hands in attempt to tell him to quiet down.

I sink back into my desk and cross my arms. I knew it wouldn't take long before someone just said it aloud for everyone to hear. Better yet, Ned confirmed everything for me. He knew exactly who I was and had seen my face almost everywhere.

Perfect. Just freaking perfect.

"Ned, um-" Peter begins.

"Yeah. That's me." I drop my head, hoping that no one else will look at me for the rest of the class. It's bad enough already. I want to go home.

Suddenly, the bell rings. I jump slightly at the noise before I shake it off and face the front of the room in my desk. Based on every single movie or show that I've ever watched, that means that class is starting and the teacher will probably begin talking soon.

"Alright, alright. Everyone sit down. Quiet down." The class slowly quiets down as Mr. Mason leans against the front of his desk. "So, we've got a new student joining us here at Midtown, and she's here in our homeroom." I tense up. I think Peter noticed, because he glanced over at me while I shifted in my chair. "Margaret, can I have you come up towards the front of the room, please?" He looks directly at me.

I inhale sharply, and regretfully stand up from my desk and walk towards the front of the room. Every step I take is followed by dozens of eyes. It's so quiet in the room that I can hear a pin drop. I close my eyes for a brief moment and try to calm down.

"Everyone, this is Margaret Rogers. It's her first day here at Midtown. Everyone, give her a warm Midtown welcome and be nice. Margaret, is there anything you'd like the class to know?"

I look out at the dozens of eyes that are glaring at me. Suddenly, I look back at Peter. He offers a slight thumbs up to me. Ned does the same. I look back out to the class and think of the first thing that comes to my mind. 

"Just call me Maggie." I mumble.

It's still quiet enough that there could be crickets chirping now.

"Hey, wait a minute. Aren't you like the daughter of Captain America? Like, the one who killed that-" A boy raises his hand and continues to keep speaking, but suddenly gets cut off.

"Give it a rest, Flash. This chick's a total badass who single-handedly fought for her own life and actually won. You've barely got enough muscle mass to open a jar of pickles." A girl who sat towards the back of the class suddenly came to my rescue. In the midst, the class laughed a little at her remark about his muscle mass.

"Okay, okay, that's enough everyone. MJ, please keep your comments yourself. Ms. Rogers, please take a seat and don't bring your back pack with you to class next time, or that will be a detention. It's school policy."

Instead of arguing, I just nod my head and walk back to my seat. When I sit down, Peter looks up at me with a kind grin before turning his attention back to Mr. Mason. I look over at the girl, MJ, who defended me. She's busy drawing away in her black sketchbook. She catches me looking at her and then proceeds to give me a thumbs up.

"Thank you." I mouth the words to her from across the room, to which I gain a head nod in response.

Maybe today won't be so bad after all.

-

My stomach is growling at me as the bell for lunch finally rings. I quickly grab my things and duck out of my classroom. Since I didn't have this class with Peter, he told me to meet him at his locker and he could walk me down to the cafeteria. I told him that I wanted to try finding my way back to his locker by myself. 

I take off, retracing my steps down the hallways and dodging students who are just as hungry as I am. They're all talking about the lunch special today.

"Hey, Maggie." I hear a voice call out behind me in the hallway. I immediately turn around. "Yo, guys. Check this out! It's the daughter of Captain America right here in my own school!" I recognize the boy coming at me with his camera out and right in my face. It's Flash, the annoying kid from my homeroom class. "Hey Maggie, tell the viewers just how kick-ass you really are! I think we all wanna know if the newspaper articles are accurate or not."

I stumble backwards into the wall of lockers behind me. Other kids stop and stare at me as Flash presses his camera closer and closer to my face. Suddenly, there's a whole herd of kids surrounding me. More and more phone cameras are pulled out and flashes begin to light up the area. They're asking question after question. Names are called and phrases are yelled at me.

"Killer."

"Tony Stark's money couldn't keep you out of a public school?"

"Murderer. That's what they should call you."

"Breaking the laws, just like her father."

Everything echoes. Every single word and syllable rings in my ears. I can feel my eyes getting hot with tears, and everything is blurry from them. 

"What's the matter, Rogers? You can fight off three grown men, but you can't handle a couple sarcastic comments?"

"I can't believe they let a murderer in this place."

"She won't last here."

I feel tears beginning to slide down my cheeks. I wipe them away with my hand and try to bust out of the swarm, but no one would let me out. Instead, they all just follow me as I try to move.

Suddenly, I see a couple of the kids get pushed out of their way. Peter pushes his way into the circle until eventually he's standing right in front of me. He places his hand on my shoulder and then leads me out of the circle, shoving kids out of the way and not worrying about it.

"Come on, Penis Parker! Don't get caught up with a girl like her!" Flash yells, holding his camera up above the crowds to follow us down the hallway.

Peter picks up the pace a bit and I do my best to keep up with him as we continue through several hallways. Eventually, we come to a stop outside of a couple of bathrooms. The halls were empty and quiet with everyone going to lunch now.

"Are you okay?" Peter asks.

"Do I look okay to you?" I snap. "Why would you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Just barge in there and save me like I'm some damsel in distress or something! I'm a big girl, Peter, I can take care of myself."

"You just stood there, Maggie. You weren't fighting back or anything. I wasn't about to just stand there and watch you get torn apart by people who don't know you-"

"You don't know me, Peter!" I raise my voice. "You act like you do, but you don't, okay? So stop trying to play the hero. Stop trying to rescue me!"

Peter falls silent and just stands in front of my awkwardly, rocking back and forth. He fiddles with his backpack straps and nods his head as if he agrees with what I'm saying.

"You're right." He admits. "I don't know you. But I know better than to just stand by and let someone take shit from random people." He begins to take off down the hallways towards what I'm assuming is the cafeteria. He turns around towards me. "And being rescued isn't always a bad thing, Maggie." 

As the adrenaline rush finally subsides, my head clears out a little bit more and I'm able to think clearly. Suddenly, everything comes rushing back with clear precision. I realize what I had said to Peter. He didn't deserve the things that I had said to him. He was only trying to help.

I might've just lost my one chance of having a friend here.

"Peter, wait!" I call. He quickly stops and turns around to face me. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it." He shakes his head. "You have every right to be upset."

"It's just that this day is turning out to be worse than I ever dreamed it would be."

"Would some poorly made cafeteria food make it any better?" He asks.

I chuckle, "Probably not."

"It's worth a shot, isn't it?" He shrugs.

"Yeah. Maybe it is."

I jog a little to catch up with him as he waits for me. As we continue to walk down the empty halls, I can't help but notice how something about him just feels so familiar. While I can't put my finger on it now, perhaps it will all come to me in time as I get to know him better.

-

I grab my lunch tray and follow Peter around the cafeteria. I scan the room, looking for somewhere for us to sit, but every single table looks crowded. That, and people are still staring at me as I walk past them. When I make eye contact with some of them, I get a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. 

"Hey, follow me. I know a place we can sit that's quiet." Peter says, and takes off towards the double doors that lead to the outside.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"Don't worry. I think you'll like it." He responds.

He pushes the doors open only to reveal a larger grassy courtyard among the buildings. No one is to be found out here. It's perfectly quiet with the exception of a train rambling by on the nearby tracks. A small path winds through the center of the courtyard, leading to the other doors that open into the area.

"It's not much, but it's an escape from high school." He looks around at the area.

I grin, "It's great. The perfect escape."

Peter looks at me. Instead of a quick glance, his gaze lingers for a few seconds. Suddenly, I really look at him for the first time. I see his deep brown eyes. They're big and full of life. His brown hair curls ever so slightly. Every once in a while, a stray lock falls down onto his forehead. For the first time, I don't see a geeky boy who was forced to help the new girl find her way. I just see Peter. And the more I think about the events of today, the more I'm beginning to realize just how kind he's been to me today.

"Come on, let's try to eat before the bell rings." He breaks the silence. He motions over to one of the walls, tucked away in a small corner covered with shade provided by the buildings.

I sit down in the grass and set my lunch tray in my lap. Peter does the same.

The doors that lead back to the cafeteria open again. Peter's friend, Ned, comes wandering out with his lunch tray. "I was wondering where you guys went." He calls, striding over to us.

"We needed a break from high school for a bit." Peter responds.

"Honestly, same." Ned says as he sits down in the grass beside Peter. "So what do you think of Midtown so far, Maggie?"

I tense up a little bit and continue trying to open my milk carton. "Umm..."

"Probably not the best question to ask right now, Ned." Peter cuts in.

"No, it's okay." I begin, looking up at Peter. "It's... not the best."

Ned nods his head, "Flash is giving you a a hard time?"

I nod my head, "It's not just him. Everywhere I go, people stare. It's not because I'm the new kid. I think it's safe to say that everyone knows why." I poke at my lunch on the tray.

"I don't think you need to worry about us." Ned replies with a calm tone. "Also, I'm sorry for freaking out on you this morning in homeroom. I didn't mean to upset you."

"Thanks, Ned. I appreciate that." I take a sip from my milk carton. "You know, I was really hoping today would be better. I was hoping it wouldn't be this bad. I was afraid that everyone would have assumptions about me."

"That's high school for you." Peter begins. "This place runs on rumors and gossip. The popular jocks and other kids dominate the hunting grounds while the nerds and outcasts are left to fight to survive. It's a hierarchy."

I sigh. "I guess I just hoped it would be different. My Dad had spent so much trying to get my hopes up for today. Maybe a part of me believed him for a second. But now? I don't know what to expect anymore or how I'm even going to survive. I don't know who I can trust. Even more so, I don't know who would want to even be my friend."

"Well, you've got us!" Ned grins happily. "Right, Peter?"

Peter, who seemed extremely focused on his sandwich, suddenly looks up upon hearing the sound of his name being called. "Uh, right." He grins rather quickly and then zones out again.

My phone buzzes in the grass next to my foot. I pick it up and look at the notifications. It's a text message from Tony.

How ya holding up, kid?

I pause and look up at Peter and Ned who had began a conversation on their own after I had grabbed my phone. When I look back down at my phone, I'm not quite sure what to say. I don't want him to worry about me. If I were to tell him about what happened today, I'm not quite sure what he would do. However, I also can't lie to him about today. It's been a complete dumpster fire. But as I look up at these two boys who have been nothing but kind to me all day today, I'm starting to wonder if maybe there's a sliver of hope for me.

Ned is genuine. Sometimes he lets things slip, but he never means any harm by what he says. He has no assumptions about me. He's honest. Maybe I could call him my friend one day.

And then there's Peter.

Peter is a mystery that I have yet to solve. He's kind to me. He even went out of his way to get me away from the mob of students earlier. But, there's something that isn't right. The way that he acts around me is strange, especially since I've never even met him before. There's something familiar about him, yet I just can't place it. I would bet that he feels the same way about me as well. Maybe I've seen him at a coffee shop before or something like that.

Not wanting to keep Tony waiting any longer, I type out a short and somewhat honest reply.

I'll survive.

-

A/N: It's been a hot minute, hasn't it? I've missed writing... I've missed it so much. However, college must come first. Trust me when I say that being a STEM major isn't easy! Anyways, this book was long overdue for an update. I hope you've enjoyed it! There's more to come still! Lastly, thank you so much for all of the love and support that you've given to my stories. It blows my mind how y'all still continue to comment and such. Thank you for giving me the inspiration to keep writing. I hope to give another update soon :)