Young Avengers: Rise of the New Heroes

Chapter 1

There are a few things I like about school, and there are a few things that I hate about it. Pros: I get to see my friends everyday, I love learning, working with computers is fun. Cons: People can be too much, you get judged all the time, my math teacher hates me. Out of all of the things I hate about school, the last thing is definitely the worst. Math class.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm good at math. I'm great at solving equations, finding what the variable of x equals, and remembering the Law of Sine and Cosine. The material is great, but the teaching isn't. My math teacher, Mr. Cortez, is a really stubborn man who seems to be in a bad mood 24/7. He always has this look in his face that looks like he stepped in dog crap on the way here or got his socks wet in the rain. Whatever it is, he's always grumpy. And likes to insult my favorite group of heroes, the Avengers.

"Those heroes have done nothing but destroy perfectly built buildings and made us lose millions of dollars," Mr. Cortez said one time. Now I wasn't even talking about them. All I did was ask a simple question because I wanted to confirm if my answer was correct (which happened to be a number close to a million), and he got pissed at me and began ranting about why it wasn't correct (it was, I double checked) when really it should've been less than a million. That's when he began to rant about the Avengers. I don't think he proved his point. Yeah, I hate math.

Which is why I was dreading third period. While I love having math in the morning, it also means that my school day gets ruined by some lunatic who doesn't really care if he hurts people's feelings.

"Can I just at least once have a class where he's not pissed?" I complained while walking down the hallway to math with my best friend, Stephanie.

"Just ignore him when he gets like that, Tina," she answered back. "If you respond, you add fuel to the fire. Also, he is our teacher. You have to be respectful to him, even if he gets on your nerves." I rolled my eyes.

"It's just that every time he gets annoyed at a question someone asks, especially if it's me, he takes it out on us and then complains about the Avengers. And we both know how I feel about that."

"Yes, I know very well. But Tina, getting upset about someone who's clearly having a bad day isn't going to help." We arrived at the closed door to the classroom at this point.

"Just go inside, sit down at your desk, and focus on the material." I sighed. Stephanie had a point. I just needed to focus on class instead of the complaining.

We headed inside just a couple minutes before the bell rang. I sat down at my desk at the front of the classroom, Stephanie taking her seat to the right of me. She gave me a wink before pulling out her calculator and text book. I leaned over to retrieve mine as well, and as I got mine, I noticed someone new sitting in the desk to the left of me.

She had black and white hair, brown eyes, and wore a red sweater. She had on earphones and was listening  to something on her cellphone. I hadn't seen her before in class. Was she always there? Or was she new?

Leaning over, I tapped her shoulder. She looked over at me and took out her earphones. I smiled at her.

"Hi. I don't think I've met you before, have I?" I said. She shook her head. "No, I'm sorry, you haven't. I'm actually quite new. This is my first day here."

"Oh, really? Well, welcome. I'm Tina by the way." I held out my hand. She looked at it, smiled, and accepted it. "Call me Stella," she said. Stella, I thought. That's actually a really nice name.

"I'll make sure to remember it," I said. The bell then rang as Mr. Cortez walked into the classroom, giving me a look as he always does and stood at the front of the room.