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Lunch break finally rolled around, freeing every single student from the clutches of stress and school work for an hour every weekday. It was hour dedicated to putting food in your mouth so you could fill your hunger needs, and it was also the time allotted for copying off others' homework before the afternoon classes, or gossiping with your classmates about the latest buzz, or hunting down your upper year crush knowing that you probably don't have a chance anyways.
Quinn Santiago might love learning new things and school in general, but there was definitely nothing that compared to lunch break since she got to eat for the first time since breakfast. She breathed out a sigh, waving goodbye to her friend Cindy before heading over to the cafeteria to take her lunch.
Manuevering through the sea of teenagers in the hallways proved quite a task but Quinn somehow made it out swiftly than she expected, and found her way to the school's cafeteria in record time. Her dark eyes searched the room for any sign of either of her two best friends, and she gave a relieved sigh when she finally spotted them across the room, talking to one another.
Quinn walked over to their table, mentally preparing herself to lie her ass off since they'd probably ask her why she ran off earlier in the morning. She was first noticed by the Leeds boy, whose face brightened up as soon as he made eye contact with her, waving his hands rapidly at the approaching teenager, causing a genuine smile to appear on her tanned face. She matched his own enthusiasm by waving her hands rapidly at him as she made her way towards their table, with Peter soon turning her way and sending her a small wave in contrast to Ned's.
Upon reaching their table, she sat down in the seat across the two of them before placing her backpack down onto the table. "'Sup awesome nerds?" She unzipped her backpack to retrieve the lunch bag Logan handed her earlier in the morning, her two best friends watching her as she did. Her eyes flitted over to the half eaten burger in Ned's plate, and the half eaten mac and cheese in Peter's, wondering why they haven't finished eating their food. "Are you guys done eating?"
Ned shook his head. "Nah, we just went ahead cause we got hungry but then we started talking about the new Star Wars trilogy," he replied, his eyes twinkling upon the mention of his favorite franchise. "Rey is my new favorite, by the way. I mean, having a female Jedi as the main character is just amazing. She's amazing, I love her, I wanna marry her."
Peter shook his head at his friend, before turning his attention to the girl seated across them. She had taken a rather huge bite of her sandwich, and she was struggling to chew it all, as usual, making the boy laugh a little. "Anything new with you?"
Quinn would have breathed out a relieved sigh if she wasn't currently chewing so much food in her mouth. It would seem that they've forgotten that she ran off without them earlier this morning— it was that, or they were deliberately not mentioning it to her, which she was thankful for. She couldn't really explain the real reason why she ran off, it wasn't like she could say, "Oh, I'm sorry I ran off this morning. I was about to cry because I'm in love with my best friend of eight freaking years and he's so freaking infatuated with an older, more intelligent and much smarter girl named Liz Allan and I got so jealous that I almost started bawling right there." Nope, she definitely couldn't.
She held a hand up to signal them to wait, and she continued to chew on her food to break it down as much as she could before swallowing it in one go. Her dark eyes went wide when she felt the food pass down her throat painfully, and she immediately grabbed the soda placed in front of Peter, ignoring his sounds of protest as she began to chug the liquid down. Soon enough, she felt the food wash down her throat and she let out a few coughs, handing the soda back to her best friend with a sheepish smile. "Yeah, sorry, um... anything new? Let me think."
Quinn squinted her eyes, trying to bring herself to recall any event she wished to share with them in particular. "Oh, right. I had to quit band. And I got invited to join glee club," she remembered some people approach her earlier to invite her to the respective clubs. She honestly would have accepted if she wasn't planning on focusing her attention on something else this school year. "I didn't join them though."
Her statement caused Ned to turn to her in alarm, his dark eyes going wide and his mouth dropping in surprise. "Wait, what? Why? You're Quinn Santiago, you love singing and making music more than anything, why would you turn them down? And why would you quit band? You love band!" Quinn shrugged, reaching up to play with the ends of her hair.
There was no denying that what Ned said was right, Quinn was a music lover through and through. Her family was a family of musicians — her mother was a pianist, her older brother knew how to slap the bass and she was a guitarist, they all loved to sing and perform on top of that, too. She's been singing since she was a kid, although she didn't start performing in front of an audience till she was around twelve years old, when she had gained confidence in herself since she used to be an incredibly shy girl when she was much younger.
She used to sing with her mother back when she was much younger, with her mother accompanying her singing with the piano. Her mother's singing was what made her start singing in the first place too, as she could recall when she first heard her mother sing, she swore it was the most beautiful sound she's ever heard. Even after so many years, she still thought that her mother's voice was her favorite sound, it always has been.
She shook her head sadly, her thoughts drifting to the reason why she decided to refuse them, as much as she wanted to join them. "I decided to skip out on extracurriculars this year, I think I'm gonna get a part-time job instead," she told them, a sad smile forming on her tanned face. "I— we really need the extra cash, I can tell Harold's struggling since he's been taking even more shifts than usual and I know it's because Logan's gonna graduate soon, and he needs money to pay for his tuition."
Peter nodded sympathetically, as he knew how hard it was to be in a household with just a single salary. He's been living with his aunt since he was really young, and it was only recently that his uncle died, she was incredibly aware that it's been hard for both of them.
"Oh," was all Ned could say, his eyebrows furrowed as he gazed over at his best friend with a sad smile on his face. He knew that it's been hard for the Santiagos these past few years, and it only just seemed to get harder as time passed. "I see. When are you gonna try finding a job?"
Quinn tapped her chin in thought, eyeing the half eaten sandwich in her hand with a pout. "I don't know, in a few days maybe? I'll just text you guys when I'm gonna go job hunting, so we can get some ice cream afterwards or something." She took another huge bite of her food, as both her friends nodded at her statement.
"You know, uh, if you change your mind, the Decathlon team's still a choice," Ned offered, despite knowing that there wasn't any way to change Quinn's mind. Not when she had family problems to take care of. "Your academic prowess would really bring us to victory, especially in the nationals before Homecoming."
She shook her head. "Thanks for the offer, Ned. But you know that family's the most important thing to me, and Logan and Harold really need my help."
Peter cleared his throat, his two best friends turning to look over at him instead. "Uh, speaking of extracurriculars. I-I'm thinking of skipping out on Nationals for the Decathlon—" Ned's eyes went wide as those words left his mouth, and Peter quickly held up his two hands at him. "I haven't told Liz yet, and I'm just considering it right now, please don't get mad!"
"Dude, what the hell! You know you're one of the best minds in the team, we could actually win the nationals if you're in the team. If you're gonna quit on us before Nationals then we're gonna need to put Flash in, and you know how I feel about that guy, he's such an ass—" Quinn nodded in agreement. "Come on dude, don't quit on me now."
Quinn reached out to place a hand on Ned's shoulder in an attempt to calm him down. "Now, now, Peter probably has a good reason why he's not gonna come to nationals," her chocolate colored eyes flickered to the brunette boy beside Ned.
"Well, I just think that I need to stay put here in New York. You know, just in case Mr. Stark needs me, I can just swing by... and do whatever it is he wants me to do." Quinn gave a nod in response, with Ned imitating the action with a small pout. "Come on, you guys know how much this internship means to me."
Quinn could vaguely recall him mentioning the Stark internship before the end of freshman year, and that internship was why he was whisked off to some kind of field trip or something, for a few days too. That internship meant so much to Peter, he's been devoting all his free time to that and she understood just how big that opportunity was for him, she really did.
"I just really think that it'd be best if I stayed here instead of going to Washington," Peter glanced over at Ned, who hung his head sadly upon hearing those words escape his best friend's lips. "But I— I'm not really sure if I'm gonna skip out on Nationals, we'll see though."
Ned gave him a nod in understanding, lifting his head to hold his best friend's matching brown gaze. "Yeah man, I get it, I really do," he gave the Parker boy a smile, with Quinn smiling as she watched their interaction from across her. "You do you, man. Just remember to tell me about how cool Tony Stark is. Or if you meet any other Avengers."
"Tell Thor I love him," Quinn interjected, and if she were a cartoon, her eyes might have become hearts because of the lovestruck expression on her face as soon as she thought of the blonde haired god. "He's just, wow."
An amused expression appeared on the Parker boy's face as his eyes flickered from Ned to Quinn. "I swear, you guys are just friends with me because you want to meet the Avengers."
Quinn placed her hand over her heart mockingly, her eyes going wide as her mouth opened slightly. "You caught me, oh, woe is me! I can't believe you found out that I only tolerate you because you might meet superheroes on the job!"
The three best friends shared laughs, their lunches practically forgotten as they shared jokes with one another, making Quinn forget all about her family's financial worries for just a short while.
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the end of this chapter is so gross bc i don't know how to end it welp
also that gif might make a reappearance in the story bc this is still pre hoco and we all know how q feels about peter and liz