Middle School Heroes

Chapter 1 - New Beginnings and Last Month's Hair

The sun was shining brightly through the window as she awoke. She squinted in the brightness of it and tried to cover her head with her pillow to go back to sleep, but it was too late. She was already awake. She stood up and stretched, before walking over to the window and found herself staring out of it. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the leaves on the trees were just beginning to change colors. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful mid-September day in upstate New York.

For Skye, however, there was nothing enjoyable about this day. She yanked the curtains shut and crawled back into the bed, pulling the covers up over her head. This is going to be awesome, she thought to herself sarcastically. I bet I have last month's hair, or clothes that went out of style years ago. I'm probably way behind everyone else when it comes to classes and won't have a thing in common with anyone. Those last points scared her more than anything. Skye had moved around a lot in her 13 years of life, and that made it hard to keep up, let alone make any friends. She was told that this was a place that she would fit in, but she hadn't anywhere else so she didn't see why this would be any different.

A knock on the door brought her back to reality. "Skye? I just wanted to make sure that you are awake. Breakfast will be ready in 20 minutes," the voice of Mrs. Parker called to her through the door.

"Yes, ma'am. I'll be down soon!" She climbed out of the bed and quickly straightened out the sheets and beautiful quilt that she suspected that Mrs. Parker had made by hand. Grabbing the clothes that she set out the night before, she ran into the bathroom and changed out of her pajamas. She stared at the bathroom mirror for at least a minute, wondering how she should style her long dark hair. Finally, she just brushed it and pulled it back with a red headband.

Walking back into the bedroom, Skye looked at herself in the full length mirror. She had chosen a simple pair of black jeans, a gray t-shirt, red and black plaid flannel shirt, and her black fingerless gloves. She grabbed her short black boots and pulled them on before taking one more look at herself in the mirror. Oh please let me blend, she thought to herself as she turned to shove her laptop into her backpack along with her tennis shoes, and headed out the door to breakfast.

When she arrived in the kitchen, she found Mr. and Mrs. Parker already there. They both looked up when she entered, and Mr. Parker motioned for her to sit next to him before returning to the newspaper that he was reading. There was already thick cut toast on her plate, and a cup of orange juice that looked freshly squeezed. He handed her the butter without taking his eyes off of the paper.

Mrs. Parker smiled sweetly at her. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes ma'am," she lied, while buttering her toast. Skye had been up most of the night thinking of the 1,001 ways today could go horribly wrong.

"Good! Now, how do you like your eggs?"

Before she could answer, a loud stomping came from the stairs and a few seconds later, a boy entered the kitchen. He was about the same size as Skye and had reddish brown hair that was floppy in the front. He was wearing a pair of jeans, red sneakers and a blue and red shirt. "Aunt May?" He took a seat on the other side of Mr. Parker. "You're really going all out for the newbie, aren't you?" He grinned at Skye.

"Peter Parker," his aunt scolded him. "You will be nice." She turned back to Skye and smiled. "Your eggs, Skye?"

"Oh, whatever way everyone else likes them. I don't want to be any trouble."

"It's no trouble at all."

Peter smiled over at her. "You better eat a good breakfast, newbie. It's going to be a crazy day."

"Peter!" His aunt warned him again.

Skye knew he was probably right, but it didn't stop her from feeling just a little bit nauseous. "I like scrambled, if that is okay?"

"Of course, it is!" Mrs. Parker returned to the kitchen.

Mr. Parker folded his newspaper and looked from Peter to Skye. Turning back to Peter, he leaned in close to him. "Don't forget that you were new here not too long ago, Peter, and so nervous that I thought you might throw up right in front of the school." He winked at Skye.

"Yeah, but that was different Uncle Ben! It was the first day, and ALL the sixth graders were new."

"I remember sixth grade like it was last year." Skye smiled sweetly at Peter. "Oh right. That's because it was!" Peter's aunt and uncle both chuckled as Peter turned a shade of red that seemed to match his shirt. Since the Parker's had picked Skye up from the airport three days ago, Peter had been teasing her about being new, and she had been retaliating by reminding him that she was older than he was.

Mrs. Parker put eggs and bacon on both of their plates, then ordered them to eat and be ready to go in 20 minutes, as she left the kitchen to get herself ready. Skye did as she was told and ate quickly. She asked to be excused and Mr. Parker waved her off with a smile. She cleared her plate and ran back upstairs to brush her teeth and take one last look in the mirror.

Five minutes later, Mrs. Parker was handing them both bag lunches and they were loading up the station wagon for the short drive to school.

Peter and Skye sat in the back together. "Don't worry about it, newbie. You'll be the talk of the school. Apparently, we've never gotten a new kid during the school year, and everyone will want to meet you and learn everything about you," he whispered quietly so that Mrs. Parker couldn't hear.

"Awesome," Skye moaned, mostly to herself. "This is going to be awesome." Peter just grinned at her.

When they arrived at school, Mrs. Parker told Skye that she would take her to the administrator to get her schedule and make sure that everything was set up. Peter grabbed his red and black backpack and hopped out of the car. "See ya later, Newbie!" He raised his hand toward the building. Skye saw something white shoot out from his wrist before he grabbed it and swung himself through the front door behind some other students.

"Oh Peter!" Mrs. Parker shouted after him. "Stop showing off, for goodness sake! What are we going to do with that kid?"