{Present day}
"Hi, I'm Josie, Josie Smith."
"Josie, it's lovely to meet you. Welcome to Midtown School of Science and Technology. I'm Principal Nixon.", she shakes Josie's hand.
"Nice to meet you.", Josie shifts from side-to-side on her feet.
"Well, Josie, I'll show you to your locker and your classroom.", Principal Nixon says, Josie nods and the principal begins to lead her down the corridor, "So, you've been home-schooled up until now?"
"Yeah, my dad can be a little... overprotective. It took a lot of convincing to let him let me come to high school.", Josie explains.
"Well, at least one of our students want to be here.", jokes Principal Nixon, "So this is your locker, number three-hundred and twenty-seven." she hands Josie a piece of paper, "There's your combination, you can dump all your unneeded textbooks and stuff in there right now, if you want."
"Okay.", Josie unlocks the locker and empties most of the contents of her backpack into it.
As Josie closes the locker, Principal Nixon begins walking down the corridor again, so Josie follows, "Are you interested in science and technology?", Principal Nixon asks.
"No, not really. I'm quite good at it, but I'm more into sports. My dad is into science though, so I think that's why he chose to send me here.", Josie shrugs.
"Has he got a career in science?", she asks.
Oh shit. Stop talking about your dad, Josie! What are you supposed to say now? Oh yeah, he has a job, he's Iron Man. No!
"Yeah, um, he works at Stark Industries. Research division, I believe.", Josie lies.
What are you talking about, Josie? Stark Industries doesn't even have a research division. I don't think. She doesn't know that. Act natural. Jesus Christ, you're a mess, Josie.
"Oh, that sounds very interesting! Have you ever met Tony Stark?", she asks.
"Yeah, briefly.", Josie shrugs, "I've said 'hi' to him once or twice."
"Hmm, oh, this is your classroom.", she pushes open a door and they walk into a room, full of kids around Josie's age, chatting and laughing.
They all go silent and stare at Josie, "Hi, Principal Nixon.", the teacher says.
"Hi, Miss Warren. This is our new student, Josie Smith. I hope you'll give her a warm, Midtown High welcome.", Principal Nixon smiles.
Josie looks out at all the kids, all deciding whether they want to be friends with this new girl or not.
Josie doesn't want a warm Midtown High welcome. I don't know what a warm Midtown High welcome is. Oh my god, it might be like in Glee- she's going to get slushied. Or what if they sing to her, like in High School Musical- that would be embarrassing. Oh god, they better not do a Heathers and murder me. What if it's actually like Mean Girls, she's wearing pink and it's not a Wednesday, oh god. Stop overthinking, Josie. You're embarrassing yourself.
When Josie snaps back to reality, Principal Nixon is gone and the teacher is talking to her.
"So, Josie, do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself?", she asks.
"Um, hi, I'm Josie. I just moved here from, um, Malibu.", not really a lie, give or take five years, "I've been home-schooled for most of my life, um, yeah.", Josie waves awkwardly.
"Well, Josie, since you've joined mid-semester, seats have already been assigned.", Miss Warren says, "The only free seats are next to Flash,", she points to a boy in the second row, he winks at Josie. Ew, not him, "or Peter.", she points to a boy on the third row. He looks up and awkwardly waves.
He's kind of cute. No. Josie! You've been here two minutes! I guess he seems better than Flash.
Josie nods then walks over and sits next to Peter, "Hi.", she says.
"HiI'mPeterParkermicetoneetyouImeannicetomeetyou.", he says, all in one breath.
"Going to be honest with you, all I heard then was, 'I'm Pea Pod, mice are neat to you'.", Josie laughs.
"Sorry, um, I'm Peter Parker.", he introduces himself.
"Hmm, I like Pea Pod better, I think I'll stick with that.", Josie grins, "I'm Josie Sta- Smith.", she catches herself, but still turns bright red- she almost exposed herself during her very first conversation. Good job.
Peter blushes, "So, you're from Malibu, that's, uh, hot. The weather, not you! You're not hot. I mean, you're not not hot, but I was, uh- Not that you're ugly, I-"
Josie bursts out laughing, "I got what you meant, Pea Pod."
"Why did you move?", he asks.
"My dad's job, they moved headquarters from Malibu to NY, so we had to follow.", Josie twists the truth a bit.
"Cool, what does he do?"
Pea Pod, stop asking questions!
"Science.", Josie gives as vague an answer as possible.
"What company does he work for?", Peter pries.
Jesus Christ, Pea Pod, why do you ask so many questions?
"Uh, Stark Industries."
"No way! Did you know that Peter has an internship at Stark Industries!", some kid exclaims from behind them.
"Ned! Stop telling everyone about that!", Peter says.
Josie turns to Peter, "You do?"
Stark Industries doesn't give internships to high-schoolers. Josie would know, she is a Stark.
"Yeah.", he looks down, seemingly embarrassed.
"Huh, have you ever met Tony Stark?", Josie asks.
Peter seemed really nice, but now he's just going to brag about how he's 'met Tony Stark'. Tony doesn't really meet his interns, especially not high-schoolers.
"No.", didn't expect that answer, "I wish, I don't think he really meets interns."
"Oh, okay.", Josie nods.
Lucky lie, I guess.
"I'm Ned, by the way, I'm Peter's best friend.", the boy behind them says.
"I'm Josie, I'm Peter's... new acquaintance.", Josie smiles, "Can I say friend?"
"Yeah, of course.", Peter tells her.
'Friends. I have friends. Friends who aren't superheroes.', she thinks to herself.
Oh Josie, if only you knew.
* * * * *
Before she knew it, lunch rolled around and Josie was getting her food with Peter.
"Pea Pod, do you mind if I sit with you and Ned at lunch? I don't really have any other friends.", Josie asks.
"Uh, yeah, sure." Peter smiles.
"Thanks.", she takes her tray and follows him to his usual table, where Ned is waiting.
"Hey, Josie!", Ned waves, cheerily.
"Hiya, Ned!", she sits opposite him and Peter.
"How are you settling into Midtown?", Peter asks.
"You sound like a teacher.", laughs Josie, "It's good, I guess. I've got to be honest though, I was expecting more singing and dancing, High School Musical type stuff."
"What?", Peter gives her a confused look.
"Like Troy Bolton would just come up to me and sing or something.", she tries to explain, "Like in High School Musical..."
"I've uh- I've never watched it.", he says.
"Pea Pod! You've never watched High School Musical?", Josie gasps, "Well, forcing you to watch it is now my sole focus in life."
"I've watched it.", Ned chimes in, "In case you were wondering.", he adds on the end.
"At least one of my friends is normal.", Josie giggles.
"No, they're both losers.", a girl sat at the end of the table says.
Josie hadn't even noticed her presence and jumped a little when she saw her, "Yeah, I could already tell that.", Josie jokes.
"This is MJ, she just sits on her own and makes fun of us.", Ned explains.
"Nice to meet you, MJ. I'm Josie.", Josie nods to her.
"It's nice to see you guys have finally made another friend.", MJ says, then turns away from them again.
"So, are you going to come sit with us, or just stay by yourself, as far away from us as you can get?", Josie asks MJ.
MJ looks at her for a moment, deep in thought, then gives in and sits with them. That moment was the beginning of Josie's first real friendship.