FALLEN ─ marvel

V. Olivia's First Day Of School

Chapter Five
Olivia

The school Mom and Dad signed us up for is a school that has grades six through twelve, so Stevie and I get to go to the same school despite our age difference. The agent Uncle Everett said would drive us to school arrived at six in the morning this morning, which is the time we had to wake up this morning. In Wakanda, school doesn't start until eight, which is one in the afternoon here in New York. It's only one in the morning back home, so Stevie and I are absolutely exhausted. The agent told us to call him Tim, but I don't know if that's his real name. He's pretty nice, and he likes the Beatles, which is great, he played them in the car the entire forty minute ride to school.

Stevie and I are now standing on the sidewalk in front of the school, staring at the dozens of kids flooding inside. I just now realize that Stevie and I are the new kids, which makes it difficult to blend in like Uncle Everett said to. I feel Stevie slip his hand into mine, forcing some confidence into his voice as he says: "Don't be nervous. We're Barnes's, we can handle anything."

"Here we aren't Barnes's, we're Bransons."

"We'll always be Barnes's."

I squeeze my brother's hand, taking in a deep breath. "Good luck, Stevie."

"You too, Livy."

We let go of each other and make our way into the building, with Steve walking down the sixth grade hall while I make my way towards the ninth grade hall. According to the map I have of the school, each grade has their own hall where all the classes are, all connected by the common area where the front entrance is. Past this area is the cafeteria and the gym, and then the hallways on the other side are a bunch of hallways where the elective classes are. It's kind of confusing, I had to circle the rooms where all my classes are.

My first class of the day is history, which will focus on modern world history this year. My other classes are algebra, modern world literature, biology, gym, and a language class of my choice. I picked German. I figure since I'm fluent in German that class would be a easy.

I find my history class in the third door on the right of the ninth grade hall. There is a name tag with my name on a desk towards the back, so I walk towards it and place my backpack down, trying not to notice all of the other students staring at me. A loud bell goes off that startles me, and once this sound goes off, the teacher comes in and shuts the door. She's a very tall white woman with a lot of freckles and very curly brown hair. She seems warm and welcoming as she greets the class, but I find myself freezing in my seat as she locks eyes with me and asks me to stand up and introduce myself.

All of the kids eyes flock to me as I slowly stand up. I clear my throat and grip onto the necklace around my neck: a little gold paw print that Aunt Shuri made me. It holds a suit just like Mom and Uncle Alex's. I grip onto it whenever I'm scared, it makes me feel like they're there with me.

"I'm Olivia, I'm fourteen, I'm from Nebraska." I say as quickly and quietly as possible, sitting back down in my chair. The teacher smiles at me and nods, thankfully leaving me alone and directing her attention towards the screen behind her.

As soon as she turns the screen on, I realize what modern world history entails. As my teacher puts it herself: this course will cover history from 2000 to today. Since I'm coming into this school a few months into the school year, the class is well into the curriculum. The unit we are on: the blip.

On the screen, my teacher is showing a PowerPoint presentation that is titled: The Survivors. Standing next to the screen, she uses a laser pointer to begin teaching the lesson: "We will talk about the fallen Avengers and world leaders eventually, but for the next week we will be discussing the Avengers and leaders who survived. Who can name all the Avengers who survived?"