"I'm telling you, Rey would absolutely kick his butt."

"No way! Luke could take her," Peter argued.

Kate slammed her locker door. "Are you kidding? Rey can use Force lightning."

"But she wouldn't, because she's afraid of the Dark side," Peter countered. "Luke trained with Yoda."

"Doesn't matter who he trained with. He's still a whiny wimp who Rey could kill in ten seconds flat."

"You are so wrong."

"No, you are so wrong."

Kate loved Peter. Really, she did. Peter had been her best friend for years.

But sometimes, he could be really stupid.

"What're we talking about?"

Peter jumped about six feet in the air before turning to face MJ. "Um. Star Wars."

"Fun," MJ commented. "What about Star Wars?"

"How wrong Peter is about Star Wars," Kate told her.

"No, how wrong Kate is about Star Wars!" Peter protested.

Kate rolled her eyes. "MJ, who would win in a fight: Rey or Luke? Luke as a teenager, not old-man Luke."

"Rey," MJ said instantly.

"What!" Peter cried. "But Luke─"

"Isn't as great as everyone makes him out to be."

"Thank you," Kate said. "I−"

"Hey, look!" Kate turned. Peter was pointing at a cluster of people, all fighting to get closer to a small clipboard hung on the wall. "What do you think that's all about?"

Kate shrugged. "Let's find out."

Slowly, they wound their way through the crowd until they reached the clipboard. Kate crept up behind Clint and poked him in the side. "What's that?"

Clint yelped slightly, then glared at her. "It's a sign-up sheet. For the school play."

"There's a school play?"

Clint waved towards the clipboard. "See for yourself."

Kate glanced at it. The heading at the top read Romeo & Juliet audition sign-ups. "Are you signing up?"

Clint scoffed. "Me? No. But Nat's signing up for Lady Capulet, and she's roped Bruce into playing Capulet."

Natasha appeared out of nowhere and glared at Clint. "You are too signing up. Get over here, you're playing Montague."

"What?!" Clint yelped, alarmed. "No, I'm not!"

"Yes, you are," Nat snapped.

Natasha Romanoff was widely regarded as one of the most terrifying figures in the school. And wherever she went, so too went her menace of a little sister. In fact, Kate was a little surprised she hadn't shown her face yet−

"Kate Bishop."

Ah. There she was.

Kate turned to face Yelena.

Yelena was at least three inches shorter than her, blonde, and quite possibly the most aggravating person Kate had ever met.

Yelena and Nat had moved from Russia when Yelena was in sixth grade and Nat was in eighth. Kate had the awful luck to be stuck with Yelena in her class.

At first, she'd felt bad for her. There were rumors that their family had been involved in some kind of Russian mafia, and that they'd had to move because of that. Whether or not Kate believed those rumors was debatable, but still she'd had some sympathy for Yelena.

And then Kate had approached her and Yelena had simply snapped "I don't need your help" and gone back to reading her book. And then apparently decided that she absolutely had to be better than Kate at everything.

"Yelena," Kate snapped back.

Yelena nodded at the clipboard. "Are you going to sign up?"

Kate shrugged. "Maybe."

"I already did," Yelena offered. "But I guess if you're scared I'll get the part..."

Well, that settled it. Kate leaned across and scrawled her name under Romeo, not bothering to check who'd already signed up.

"I'm not scared," she spat.

Yelena smirked. "Well, I guess we will see, Kate Bishop."

And with that, she walked off.

Kate whirled around. "Did you see that?!" she demanded. Behind her, Peter looked startled.

"Uh, yeah," he said. "Um. That was...bad?"

"She's the worst," Kate exclaimed. "And I will so be a better Romeo than she will."

"Well," Peter said. "I mean. She has always gotten the part she auditioned for before now..."

"Irrelevant." Kate waved off Peter's comment. "She's not getting the part today."

"Good attitude," Peter agreed, then went back to chatting with MJ.

Kate sighed and grabbed her bag.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. Kate pushed her way through the glass doors, waving to Peter and Clint. "See you tomorrow!"

Peter waved back. Clint didn't look up from his phone.

Kate's house was close enough to the school that she could walk home. She twisted the doorknob and pushed open the door, closing it quickly behind her.

Lucky bounded up to her. She knelt and he licked her face vigorously.

"Hi!" she cooed. "Hey, buddy. I missed you today." She glanced up. "Hi, Mom."

Eleanor Bishop was on the phone. She turned to smile at Kate. "No, that's...that's unnecessary," she said. Her face creased in worry as the person on the other end spoke. "Yes. Uh-huh. I understand." To Kate, she added, "Will you walk Lucky? He's been barking."

"Yeah, sure," Kate agreed, clipping Lucky's leash to his collar. "Let's go, boy."

As she left, she heard her mom say, "No, of course not. That's not...no. Of course I understand. There's no need for that." And then the beep that meant the call was over.

It was a nice day out−summer had just started to turn to fall, and a crisp chill permeated the air. Lucky seemed to be in high spirits, snapping at leaves and barking at squirrels every few steps.

Suddenly, Lucky pulled hard on the leash. Kate had to grab it with two hands so as not to be pulled away.

Kate looked around to see what had caused the tantrum and spotted a blonde figure trying to keep a hold on the leash of an American Akita.

Of fucking course Lucky had decided he was in love with Yelena's dog.

Finally, Kate relented and let Lucky run over to say hi. The dogs sniffed each other frantically.

Kate glanced up at Yelena. "Hi."

Yelena nodded. "Hello."

They stood in awkward silence before Lucky and Yelena's dog decided they had had enough of each other. Lucky tugged on the leash. Kate followed, grateful not to have to spend any more time with Yelena than she already had to.