Here to haunt me?

1. Introduction.

Juliette was still getting used to her new life. It was completely different from living in Sokovia. She'd been in the United States a couple times before, but it was when her mom was still alive, visiting friends. But being this far from her homeland made it easier to forget what happened to her family.

She had been sitting in a classroom, learning English. She was fourteen then. They were naming fruits. When they couldn't think of any more, their teacher named a couple extra ones, like a strawberry. I've never had a strawberry! Her peers cried out. Juliette had. Sokovia was a poor country, but her mother had connections and a steady income. She'd never asked how her mom earned that much by herself until she was older.

Another teacher had called for her, and when she grabbed her stuff, wary, she was sent home for an emergency. Juliette hadn't thought it was important. She was naive back then. Nothing had ever happened to make her scared of losing what she had. But when she saw her older brother's face, she knew it was serious. He was the happiest person she knew, and his face was stressed, dark. Before she knew it, he had packed her things, driven her to the airport, and told her to follow the man waiting for her at the gate.

They were dressed in black, men and women making sure she got to her destination. She sat on a plane a couple hours later, all alone. The flight attendants were extra nice to her. She saw on the little screen that she was flying to the United States. Juliette had panicked, and it took two flight attendants and the nice old lady next to her to calm her down. She was going to be okay, they told her.

When she was just settling in, chaos hit. Everybody who had disappeared five years ago suddenly returned. The Blip, the news reporters called it. She hadn't seen her brother or mother since then, and now it was more than three years later. Her mother was dead, and there had been no funeral.

There had been a battle. All the Avengers met up to fight Thanos and most survived. She had no idea what happened to her brother Marcus, if he managed to survive after he went to the battlefield. He was old enough to join them and fight. He must have gotten away when things got dangerous, he must have run. He was fast. She wouldn't get into how fast. She trusted he found shelter. She hoped he didn't have to see their mom die.

She drove herself crazy thinking about it. She had to focus on the present.

She tried to focus on the screen, her teacher explaining about her upcoming listening exam. She'd have to practice, her English was intermediate, and that was generous. But she would be fine. If worse came to worst, she could just read her friend Peter's mind.

He was a genius, and so she told him all the time. He was also gorgeous, but she would never say that to his face. Plus, her mom told her never to read anyone's mind unless it was an emergency. "You could always stumble across something you never wanted to see," she'd say.

And her mom was right. When she read Peter's mind during the biology test a couple months ago, she found him still depressed over his breakup with the Watson girl. He got an A on that test, though.

When she moved here, it all went super fast. Her mom's friends secured her a host, and told the family she was an exchange student from the Netherlands, that she would only stay for three years. Personally, she thought three years was a long time, but the family was very excited. They had been on the waitlist forever.

That's when she met Ana, their daughter. They hit it off instantly, perfectly compatible, and have been best friends since. She was a bit moody sometimes, but considerate. Ana was exactly what Juliette needed after the move.

Gosh, she was bored. It wasn't like she didn't like English, she loved school. It made her stand out a bit, but she always enjoyed going, doing her homework, et cetera. She just didn't like listening to a teacher yap about some verb tense. English was grammatically just difficult, and the class was on a native level. Juliette was an immigrant. If I can speak it, that's all that matters, she always thought.