Are You Bored Yet? - Wallows ft. Clairo
'Cause we could stay at home and
watch the sunset
But I can't help from asking,
"Are you bored yet?
And if you're feeling lonely, you should tell me
Before this ends up as another memory
Will you tell the truth so I don't have to lie?
Amara spent the majority of the lesson talking to Ned. He seemed really nice and was definitely a genuinely good person. Ned was slightly shy at first, but after about ten minutes, they were having full conversations.
Before they knew it, it had gotten to the end of the lesson and they started packing up.
"So, you were homeschooled? That's awesome, dude! How come you decided to come here?" Ned said while putting his textbook into his backpack.
"My dad got a job here about a month ago, and he thought that now would be a good time to get some life experience, so he enrolled me," Amara said, proud that she was keeping up her cover pretty well so far. They left the classroom and started walking down the hallway.
"So how do you like Midtown? I mean, so far."
"It's ok, for now. I haven't really managed to make many friends yet," Amara silently swore, why would she bring that up, now Ned's gonna think she looking for some kind of pity. "I mean, I've only been here for like an hour and a half, so."
Ned looked pretty nervous for a few minutes. Now you've done it, Amara! Your first and only potential contact and you've just driven him away.
Ned finally spoke up, still looking nervous. "Well, if you still haven't made any friends by lunch, feel free to sit with me and my friend, I'm sure he won't mind."
"Thanks, Ned, but I don't want you to feel like you have to invite me over cause I-"
"No, really! Sit with us! If you- if you want to, that is."
Amara smiled, "Yeah... yeah, okay! That'd be cool, thanks!" Amara paused and then said, "Hey, do you know where, uh'" she looked down at her schedule, "room c12 is?"
"Oh, yeah! If you just keep heading straight along that hallway, it should be there." Ned said, pointing at a corridor on their right. "I'd show you, but I'm pretty late, so," Ned looked as if he felt bad.
"No, don't worry about it! That's fine, thank you!" Amara said, hoping to alleviate his worries.
Amara began to walk away when Ned said, "Hey, my friend's in that class too! Maybe he could show you where your next class is?" And with that, Ned walked away.
Amara didn't bother pointing out that Ned had forgotten to actually tell her who his friend was; he was already halfway down the hall by then. So Amara just shrugged and moved on.
—————
The next few lessons passed like a blur. Amara hadn't made any new friends, she spent those few hours planning her next moves for her mission.
When the lunch bell rang, Amara packed up her things and followed the crowd of students who she hoped were heading towards the cafeteria.
Luckily, Amara found herself waiting in the queue for food in no time at all. She scanned the room for any signs of Ned. I hope he's still cool with me sitting with him and his friends.
She got her lunch tray and started making her way towards the very back of the cafeteria, where she could see Ned and- Holy Shit! That's the guy from the subway. So he did go to Midtown after all!
Now that Amara was getting a good look at him, she noticed that he wasn't bad looking. She'd even go as far as to say he was sort of...cute? In a puppy dog kind of way.
They seemed to be having a half-hearted conversation, looking around the canteen for something. Amara found herself getting slightly - slightly - nervous, what if they didn't want her sitting with them, what would she do then? Although, it's not like people would not want her to sit with them, she was the new girl, after all. That made her automatically interesting. But that would require meeting new people and talking to them, which on a regular day, Amara would be fine with, but today, when she's functioning on practically zero sleep, wasn't something she particularly wanted to do.
—————
Peter was trying and failing to multitask. You'd think with him being a superhero, juggling two separate lives and all, he'd be pretty decent at multitasking, but that was most definitely not the case. At least not when he was trying to focus on his food and his best friend at the same time.
"Peter? Are you looking?" Ned asked. He had told Peter all about the new girl and how she was apparently planning on sitting with them at lunch.
Peter replied, while focusing on eating his food, "Ned I don't think any new person would sit with us. Not when they can practically join any friendship group they want."
Ned was adamant, though, "She said she was gonna sit with us."
"Maybe you misheard her?" Peter wasn't usually this pessimistic, however, he didn't want his best friend to get his hopes up, especially for this very unlikely situation.
When Peter walked into the cafeteria to sit in his regular seat next to Ned, like he did every day, he wasn't expecting Ned to have anything to be this excited about.
Peter had seen the new girl, Amara, in fact, it wasn't the first time he's seen her, she met him before when he was Spiderman, and he was also ninety eight percent sure that he saw on the subway this morning too. And she was beautiful. And not in a subtle way either. She's the kind of beautiful that you see on the street, and you have to look again just to make sure you weren't imagining it; un-ironically and fully beautiful. She seemed really cool when he talked to her on the restaurant roof yesterday, too. And if he was being completely honest, he hoped that he would see her again.
Unfortunately, being that beautiful usually meant that they had lots more options, friends-wise as opposed to someone like Peter or Ned. And it also meant that they would rarely ever talk to anybody like them, not by choice at least.
"Think about it Ned, you said that you told her I was in her second period, right? Well, she didn't talk to me. Face it, Ned. She probably found some more 'appropriate' friends and is sitting with them now." Peter leaned his head on his hand and looked down at his food and after a while, Ned followed suit.
They sat in silence for a few moments until an unfamiliar voice spoke up, "Ned? Hi! I was just wondering if that invite to sit with you guys was still there?"
Peter looked up in shock and Amara Rogers was standing with her bag and lunch tray. So he was wrong, she really did want to sit with them - Peter would have to remember to apologise to Ned later.
Ned spoke up, "Hi! Yeah, of course, you can!"
She placed her bag down and set her tray on the table, "Sorry I took so long, I got lost and then the queue for food was huge. Is this your friend from second period?"
"Yeah! That's him," Ned said.
Peter awkwardly extended his hand to shake hers, "Hi I'm Parker...uh I mean... Peter. Peter Parker." Why do you have to be so awkward Peter? It's like the first thing you say to her!
She took his hand and said with a smile, "Amara. Amara Rogers. Nice to meet you."
"I know who you are," Peter blurted out before quickly adding, "we had a lot of the same classes today."
"Right! Peter! Hey, I'm sorry, Ned told me his friend was in the same second period as me, but he forgot to tell me your name and he was gone before I could ask."
Peter looked at Ned, whose eyes widened with the realisation of his mistake.
Peter turned his attention back to Amara, "it's no problem really."
Peter then became aware that he was still holding Amara's hand in his, "Sorry," he said before quickly freeing her hand. She simply smiled in return.
Peter couldn't have been more wrong about this girl.
—————
Amara couldn't shake the feeling that she knew Peter from somewhere. His voice seemed so familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Maybe she was just being paranoid, or over-analysing, as she tends to do (she can thank her father for that), but Amara was unable to shake the familiarity.
Amara was listening intently to Peter and Ned, chiming in when she thought appropriate, when she noticed the girl from earlier sitting by herself, Michelle, reading a different book than she was this morning. She addressed her, "Hey! Michelle, right? I met you earlier, you told me where the administrator's office was."
She replied with a thumbs up, still refusing to look up from her book. Peter must have noticed the disappointment on Amara's face because he tapped her shoulder and said, "Hey, don't worry, you're not doing anything wrong, that's just the way Michelle is."
"Thank god! I thought that I might've done something to offend her."
"No, you're good, she's like that with everyone," Peter reassured her.
After a few more moments in silence, Peter said, "So...how come you decided to sit with us? I mean, not that we're not happy you are - you seem really nice. But it's not like we're exactly the most popular people at Midtown. Besides, you're new and really pretty," he paused when he said that, colour rising to his cheeks, but Amara feigned ignorance so as to not make him feel embarrassed (after all, she already knew she was pretty and she didn't need anyone to tell her this). Peter continued, "and uh...smart, I guess what I'm trying to say is... you could probably get into any friendship group you wanted to, so why us?"
Amara listened intently and said, "Because I'm not like other girls... no, I'm just kidding," Amara laughed and caused Ned and Peter to as well. She thought to herself for a moment before promptly replying, "Because high school's temporary, right? popularity's temporary, and I, for one, don't need that validation, I'm fine with choosing my friends based on whether they're decent people or not," Amara said while taking a bite of her lunch and shrugged as she said, "plus, the few "populars" that I've seen so far, all seem like dickheads, especially that one kid, oh shit, what was his name, again?"
Amara was deep in thought trying to remember the name of that kid when Peter helpfully said, "Flash?"
"Yes! That was it! God, he's a pain in the ass, isn't he? I haven't even had a conversation with him yet, but I can just tell he's the kind of person you want to punch in the face."
Ned spoke, "Tell me about it, he's been making our life living hell for years, especially Peter, he's been-" Peter elbowed Ned, obviously embarrassed that Amara had found out this information, especially when they've only met about half an hour ago.
"Wait, he bullies you guys? That's awful! See, total dickhead," when Amara said this, she saw a slight relief from Peter. I mean, did he seriously expect that she would make fun of him for being bullied? Some people may describe Amara as a bitch, but she wasn't heartless! At least she could rule out any chances that Flash could be Spiderman; anyone that dedicated to making someone miserable would never be a superhero just for the thrill of helping people.
before they could continue complaining a little more about the mistake of creation that was Flash Thompson, the end of lunch came and interrupted their conversation.
"Thanks for letting me sit with you guys," Amara said, genuinely grateful for their kindness.
"Thanks for sitting with us, and you can sit with us anytime you want," Ned said while Peter nodded.
"Thank you! Also, I have gym next and I don't know where the gym is, do you think one of you could tell me where it is?" Amara asked.
"Hey! we have gym too, let's just walk together," Peter said.
Amara nodded as she picked up her bag and they walked out of the cafeteria.