~Broken Family~

Poor Jeremy

Gwen inhaled sharply, staring up at the school building in anticipation.

First day of junior year.

As the students filed in, she walked easily through, trying to calm her beating heart. She'd always imagined her first year as an upperclassman as her walking through crowded, happy hallways, but these were half-empty and a little measly. She spotted Erika, hair cut and shaved to an asymmetrical style with one side bleached, hanging out by her locker and she rushed over.

"Hey, Erika," she said with a smile. Erika paused comparing her and someone else's fingernails to shoot her a brief greeting before going back to it.

Gwen frowned but started piling books into and out of her locker. She started to tape up a few pictures, along with a note Harley had scrawled to her after he'd gotten to go home last week.

Thanks for staying, Gwen. You made everything bearable :)

She ran her thumb over the smiley face, which looked like he had started to draw a heart and then erased it to draw the face overtop instead. She wasn't sure which one she would've rather had it depict.

He had said he loved her. That couldn't be erased.

Sure, he'd been loopy from the anesthesia and feverish, but he'd said it. The very thought made her cheeks heat up. She loved him, certainly. She'd been the one to kiss him. But she still couldn't shake the feeling of this being wrong---what if Peter had disapproved? What if she was dishonoring his memory by dating his little brother?

Memory.

Tears started stinging the corners of her eyes, but she wouldn't let them fall. She wasn't about to start the first day of junior year off as more of a hot mess than she was already.

***

Classes passed like they usually did. Boring and slow, most classes smaller than pre-Snap times. A few were bigger than average though, having to combine several too-small classes into one so they could keep it going.

During lunch, she'd looked for Erika, but she was sitting with a few other girls. She'd hesitated, gripping her lunch tray, and taken a nervous step towards her. Erika had caught her eye, though, and seemed to almost deflate a little. She'd given a barely distinguishable shake of her head, and Gwen had found a table to sit at by herself. It wasn't that hard anymore.

It wasn't long before Harley's best friend, Clay, was his name? had seeked her out and sat down with her. Their conversation was anything but easy---it was the most awkward conversation she'd had since Davy had asked her where babies came from.

By the time Sophie arrived to take her home, Gwen was ready to leave Northwest High School behind. What had she done to make Erika upset? What had she done to deserve her one friend turning away from her?

"How was your first day?" Sophie asked, switching off the radio and adjusting her jellybean air freshener. Gwen shrugged. "Oh, that bad, huh? I'm sorry, kiddo."

"It's fine, it's just... My one friend is ignoring me, and I still don't know what's going on between me and Harley because he hasn't spoken to me since the hospital. I'm afraid I've made them mad, and I can't go on a swing to release my emotions." She turned to Sophie, giving her a pleading look. "Pleeease let me go out? Just for a few minutes?"

Sophie sighed. "I'm sorry, you know I can't do that. We can't take any risks." When Gwen slumped in her seat, Sophie shook her head. "Girl, HYDRA threatened to kidnap you. HYDRA. A decades, maybe centuries,-old evil German organization that Captain America fought and gave his life to defeat. Or go in the ice. Whatever. You've personally seen what they can do to people."