School of Marvel

Making Friends (3,000 words)

"Hey, Steve." I dropped my tray next to his, sliding my satchel over my head as I sat next to him. "How's it going?" I had asked Kameron after we got in the car what his name was, making sure to memorize it like I should have the first time. We had been in school about a week now and things were starting to feel normal. Sometimes Kameron and I sat with Steve, sometimes with Bruce and Peter, sometimes with all three, and sometimes with Kameron's friends. I was still working on making friends beyond the previously mentioned three, I was still working on breaking through Rene's shell, while Kameron abounded in friends. I had learned she was extremely charismatic; people were just automatically drawn to her. She was more extroverted than me, so she also had better incentive to talk to people while I preferred to keep to the friends I already had.

Meeting people was different here. In homeschooling, you met up with kids of all ages and personalities, usually you got along simply because you were connected through the magic of homeschooling. Here, all the ones in my classes were the same age. There were so many of them and different interests were abundant, not that they weren't in homeschooling, just many of the ones I met were in classes that we all chose to be, not ones we were required, so we all had similar ideas.

"I'm fine, thanks," Steve said, taking a peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of his lunch bag. "You?"

"Well... I hate my math class, and gym is terrible, but other than that I'm fine!" I replied with an exaggerated smile, then laughed.

"Any particular reason why you hate those classes?"

"I've never been good at math, ergo I despise it, as for gym... I have, like, zero stamina, so I get tired easily, but Ms. May keeps us running anyway." I glanced at the lunch counter. "Are those cupcakes? I loved cupcakes." I sighed happily, then looked back at Steve. "Anyway, yeah, I hate running."

Steve nodded, munching on his sandwich. "Ms. May is tough. Hey, where's Kameron?" Usually, she and I approach our table together, but I hadn't seen her yet this lunch period. I explained to Steve, and we both automatically looked around, trying to spot the blonde. We found her sitting at the same table as Tony, chatting amiably and energetically with the entire group.

"She is unbelievable," I shook my head. "Only been here a week and she's best friends with basically everyone, including the most popular guy in the school." My grapes were squishier than I liked, so I stopped eating them and moved on to my own sandwich ham and cheese sandwich.

"That is pretty impressive," admitted my friend. "Tony is usually kind of picky on who he's friends with." We ate in silence for a few minutes before he brought up another topic. "So... I have a football game tonight. I thought maybe you'd like to come see it?" He looked a little shy as he requested. I had never seen Steve overly shy before, he was usually pretty confident.

I didn't really like football. By that I mean, I didn't like it at all. In my opinion, it was one of the most ridiculous and boring games in America. But with his baby blue eyes looking at me hopefully from under his eyebrows how could I refuse? So I smiled and told him it would be cool to see a real football game.

**********

"So... Ali..." Kameron started slowly as she slid into my car at the end of the school day. "Tony said there was game tonight and I was hoping—"

"Yeah, I'll take you if Mom says I can," I answered her unfinished question. "I was planning on going already, Steve invited me."

She raised her eyebrows as I started the car. "Oh, Steve invited you?" she said slyly, beginning to smile.