A Stab at Normal (Maximoff Twins)

- 4 -

By Monday morning, Wanda had already organized and reorganized all of the stationery supplies. Pietro would sit on the couch and tease her that something wasn't straight, or the colors didn't match. He stopped after a while since he had annoyed her to the point where her eyes were red.

Pietro came out of the bathroom to find Wanda sitting on the couch with a book and a cup of tea.

"How are you feeling?" She shrugged. "Okay, how long of you been up?"

She looked up at the clock. "Well I was up around 4:30, showered and came out here so about... 3 and a half hours?" Pietro ran a hand down his face.

"Why?"

"Wasn't tired"

"Weren't tired or couldn't sleep due to stress and anxiety?" He sat next to her.

"Maybe both" She admitted. He put an arm around her shoulders.

"It can't be that bad."

"Remember my first day at the cafe, and everyone's thoughts and emotions came crashing down on me? It took weeks to not get headaches there and there are even more people at the school."

"I'll be with you. You know I can get you out of there in a few seconds." She rested her head on his shoulder. "How about this, we get there early, so you can gradually get used to the number of people as they arrive. And we can pick up some Aspirin on the way. I know it doesn't do much, but it's worth a shot, right?"

"I guess."

"Did you eat?"

"Later." He sighed.

"Okay, I'll go get ready and then we can go, okay?"

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When they arrived at Crystal River, the parking lot was empty. Pietro still parked as far away from the front door as he could without falling into the ditch. They sat there in silence for a few minutes before Pietro turned to face Wanda.

"We should probably get closer to where the people actually are, no?" She took a deep breath, grabbed her bag and got out. Pietro followed her, taking her hand when he reached her side. They walked up to the front entrance and sat on the step. "See? So far so good"

They were sitting there for over half an hour before anyone pulled in. Wanda narrowed her eyes at the red pickup truck but smiled when the boy came out.

"Wanda," He smiled as he walked up to them. "You must be Pietro, I'm Ethan. I met your sister at the bookstore a few days ago." He shook his hand before he turned back to Wanda. "Excited?"

"I suppose that's one way to put it."

"Don't worry, everyone here is pretty friendly. Save for maybe Janice. Her and her friends think they're so cool, and they don't really like anyone but the jocks. But, that's okay. You can just ignore her. Besides, this is high school. No one really thinks around here anyway." Pietro's eyes widened and Wanda looked down. "Ooooh, he didn't know you told me, did he?" Ethan cringed.

"Jsi blázen? Řekl jsi to sám, dělali jsme dobře úkryt! Uvědomujete si, v jakém nebezpečí jste? Nechci tě znovu uzamknout...(Are you crazy? You said it yourself, we were doing fine hiding! Do you realize how much danger you're in? I don't want to see you locked away again...)

"Vím, vím, ale myslel jsem, že by bylo hezké mít někoho, kdo ví, co se tady děje, aby věděl o mých problémech! Nikomu to neřekne. Ví, co se stane, když to udělá. (I know, I know, but I thought it would be nice to have someone who knows what goes on around here to know about my issues! He won't tell anyone. He knows what'll happen if he does.) Pietro turned back to Ethan, who was standing there awkwardly.

"Do you what would happen to her if you were to tell anyone?"

"Uh, something about someone locking her up?" He said nervously.

"Yes. And should that happen, I will snap your neck"

"Pietro!" Wanda scolded. "He won't tell anyone, he thought it was cool" Ethan nodded. Pietro scared him, but he figured he was just protective of his sister.

"Anyway," He said slowly, steering off the topic. "People usually start coming around 8:30, I figured you'd want to be here early. But, since no one's here, wanna take a look inside?"

"Sure" Wanda smiled as they stood up and walked inside. She stopped for a few seconds when they walked in, searching for minds, but she could only feel a few in the room next to the doors. She walked over to the door of that room.

"That's the office," Ethan told her as she moved back over to where they were standing. "There are usually only a few people in there unless there are a group of students who were called down for schedule changes or something." She nodded and followed him down a hallway lined with lockers. He stopped at the end, where there were sticky notes on the two at the end.

"These are probably yours, given that your names are on them." He laughed. "Mine's just down the hall if you need anything. Can I see your schedule?" Pietro dug his hands in his jacket pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Ethan read it over. "K, so. You're first class, Science, is in the lab upstairs. Then you have Music, which is just down the hall there, English is across from the cafeteria, Social is right beside the Music room, And then Math is in the basement. Great, I'll take you around to them so you don't get lost when school actually starts. I'm actually taking Science, English, and Math with you guys." He grinned, leading them up the stairs.

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Wanda stood in the corner of the hallway, by her locker, leaning on the wall with her head down. Pietro was putting all her notebooks on the shelf in her locker, organized by the patterns she had drawn on them. Ethan was standing beside Wanda, talking to her about the activities they held during break, trying to distract her.

People were milling around all over, catching up with friends and chatting excitedly about the new classroom they had built over the summer.

"Wanda" Her head snapped up. "Hey, the bell will ring in a few minutes, we should get to class, yeah?" She nodded and took a notebook from her locker as Pietro took the pencil cases and his own book.

"It'll be fine" He whispered to her, putting an arm around her shoulders.

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Hey guys! How're ya doing? This one sucks, but oh well. Well, I'm just gonna keep it up for now (as you can see)

Let me know what you think!

Talk later,

-Harmony✨