Updated as of: 10/23/21

Enjoy! The outfit above is for her first day of school.

"Look up, to the left... shift your weight to your right leg. But wait! You still need to look at the camera. Ah... perfect! Just stand still for a few moments, just like that."

    Despite the excitement that had come with her first day of modeling, it had been extremely exhausting. Ashley badly wanted to replace her cheery smile with a hardened scowl, though she reined her aggravation into check. Bethany was depending on her to do great, and that was exactly what she planned on doing. Ashley knew that a lasting good impression would be in her favor, especially since she would have no where to go if Bethany decided she had grown tired of the teenager.

    When the photographer finally gave her the signal to relax from her pose, Ashley's eyes immediately flitted to a nearby clock. She sighed in relief as she realized that the end of her shift was coming near. Soon, Bethany would be there to pick her up and grab a couple of things for her school tomorrow. Right now, supposedly the woman was taking care of some matters involving the teenager's adoption.

    "Ms. Tanner! Ms. Tanner, back to work!" The exasperated photographer called out. Ashley offered a sheepish smile and returned her focus back to the stack of clothes in front of her. She quickly grabbed them and rushed off to the changing room, slipping off the skirt and plain blouse she had been showcasing and replacing it with high-waisted flares and a strapless shirt.
   
    An involuntary hiss escaped her mouth as she accidentally brushed her hands against her abdomen. The pain had definitely receded from its intensity the previous night, but it was still no laughing matter. A huge splash of vibrant discoloration adorned her ribs, and there was still that divot that was nestled beneath her chest.
   
    Much to her surprise, she had been lucky enough to showcase clothing that didn't cause the indention to stand out. She had also declined any clothing that displayed much of her stomach, and the staff had written it off as modesty or self-consciousness.

        "Ms. Tanner, you're putting on shorts and a shirt, not a scuba suit. I believe you should be done by now."

    Ashley shook herself back to focus and exited the changing station, sending the photographer an apologetic look before making her way towards the next set she was shooting on. Drake, the photographer, had started out being nice in the early day, but his patience began to wear off as the long hours droned just like her. Hopefully he wasn't as much disgruntled with Ashley, but just the taxing day of work he had put in.

    The teenager got in a random pose where she wasn't really looking at the camera, but more so seemed like she was greatly intrigued by a speck of dust on the turquoise tile in front of her. It seemed weird as heck doing it, but apparently it looked really cool from an onlooker's point of view. She still couldn't understand the whole modeling business. Was it really necessary for the clothes to be displayed on actual people? Or could it be done just as adequately with a mannequin?

    "Last one..." Drake mumbled, then set down his camera and let out a breath of relief. "Well done, Ms. Tanner. You're good to be on your way now. Feel free to take home one of those outfits as a token of our gratitude for your hard work."

    "Thank you, sir. You can call me Ashley, though," the teenager insisted, relaxing from the stance she was in prior.

    Speaking of names though, would she technically be Ashley Tanner or Ashley Everglade now? She slightly hoped it was the former, since her name was one of the few things she had left of her past. She desperately wanted to cling onto whatever remnants from before. Although, if Bethany insisted that she take her last name, then she supposed there wasn't much she could do.

    The icy-haired girl changed back into her normal clothing, rooted one of the outfits out of the racks that she had taken a liking to, then withdrew her phone to send a text to Bethany.

Bethany:

I'll be there in two minutes. How was your first shoot?

        Ashley:

It went great!
    Well, kind of tiring ig.
    Still great though

Bethany:
You know, you don't have to do this if you don't want to.

        Ashley:

        No, it's fine! I'm excited for it.

Bethany:

Okay
I'm just arriving. Meet me outside?

        Ashley:

        One step ahead of ya.

    Ashley gave a small laugh as Bethany looked up from the car A.I. that she was verbally sending messages through and saw the girl leaning up against the door of the building. With a little skip, the teenager made her way over to the car and hopped into the passenger's seat. "So, I'm assuming everything went great with my adoption stuff? You look like you're in a good mood."

    "What?" Bethany asked with a smile, "Are you saying I'm usually grouchy?"

    "Oh I don't know if I would use the word grouchy~," the teenager sang sarcastically as she buckled her seatbelt.

    "Hey, watch it girl," the woman deadpanned, turning to her right to stare down the teenager. All Ashley did was give her a little wink and side smirk.

    "You'll have to make me."

    "That's a shame then," Bethany sighed as she backed the Lexus out of the parking spot, "because I was going to stop by an ice cream shop as a congratulation prize for making it through your first day."

    Ashley's eyes widened and she gripped the door handle to the point where her knuckles turned white. Then, with the stutter of the century, she mumbled, "Bla... Black Widow ice... ice cream?"

    "Such a shame," the brunette echoed, shaking her head.

    After an uncomfortable moment's silence, Ashley finally said, "There's no way I could take that back, right?"

    Bethany kept a grim look on her face as she continued driving, causing the icy-haired girl to slink down into her seat in sorrow. Perhaps next time she would be more careful with what she said to her new... 'adopted' mother.

    "Just kidding," Bethany chuckled, finally cracking a grin and compromising the hard face she had faked, "I'm cooler than that. You know I'm not built for that strict guardian stuff."

    Ashley breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the vehicle stop in front of the all-too-familiar ice cream shop. "Thanks, Beth."

    "Not a problem," the woman replied as she stepped out of the car and locked it, then added, "plus, we've got some things to discuss about tomorrow."

    "So we did get the go-ahead on me going to school at Midtown?" Ashley asked as she opened the door to the shop, politely allowing her elder to walk in before her.

    "As if we wouldn't," Bethany laughed, then sauntered up to the cashier and took a look at the menu. Her eyes fell upon the special part of the menu, which was further categorized into a section titled "The Avengers".

    "What are you going to get?" Ashley questioned, to which she continued with, "I'm going to get the Black Widow again. It was amazing."

    Bethany gave an inward chuckle at the teenager's fascination with the red-headed superhero. "Well, I suppose I'll just have to try the Captain America. I hear they make quite the team."

    "Yeah," Ashley mumbled. She got the usual rush of information that he was beginning to grow accustomed to, but it still didn't feel right. She knew she was missing all of the bits and pieces of the personal facts about the Avengers team that really made them who they were. "So what do you know about Earth's 'mightiest' heroes?"

    "I thought your brain told you everything?"

    "Just curious," Ashley defended, looking at the cashier and gesturing to the two different ice creams that they wanted.

    "In that case, we might want to wait until we sit down," Bethany replied before she quickly whipped her head around and stammered, "I mean, it isn't like I know everything about them. I'm just very observant in my studies whenever I get bored."

    "An advertising manager that researches heroes in her downtime? Never would've seen that coming," Ashley chuckled, graciously smiling at the cashier as he handed them their ice cream and Bethany paid. "You never really struck me as the type of person that would actually be interested in learning about other's lives. You seem pretty content with your own."

    "Never judge a book by its cover," Bethany advised, sitting down at a small bistro table, "you'll never know when you're going to be in for a surprise."

    "Right. That saying is kinda common, right? I have to say, it makes sense."

    Bethany looked up from her ice cream with a confused expression, but what Ashley was referring to finally dawned on her. "Sometimes I forget that you don't really know things like that. If I were you, I probably would be so messed up. I don't know how you can handle that."

    "I don't know either," Ashley admitted, taking a lick of the red part of her ice cream. Once she finished with her taste, she abruptly turned back to the brunette and added, "but don't change the subject. I'd really like to learn about the Avengers."

"Alright then," Bethany laughed, raising up her hands in defeat, "for starters, there are six of them. And then their founder, Director Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. You know what that is, right?"

    "Yeah," Ashley mumbled, her mind deep in thought about the organization, "I've discovered a thing or two about it through my memory abilities."

    "Good. Anyways, as I was saying, there's six of them. You have the leader, Captain America, who was pulled out of the ice after being frozen for 70 years. Quite the shocker, really, when those people came across the wreckage of the ship that he crashed during World War One. From what I've heard, he was this really scrawny and sickly kid that got chosen for the super-soldier program. He got injected with this serum and," Bethany paused to use hand motions to exaggerate her words, "poof! He's magically a walking hunk of muscle!"

    "Hunk?" Ashley repeated.

    "Don't ask," Bethany laughed, "anyways. Then you have Iron Man, a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist that built a suit powered by that energy reactor in his chest. Kinda stuck-up and self-centered sometimes, but once you crack his outer shell, I heard he's a real softy."

    "I still don't get how you have learned all this," Ashley marveled as she licked some of the black ice cream, resulting in her tongue darkening considerably from the dye.

    "I don't either, but you really gotta let me finish. Anyways, then you have Thor, some god from another planet that has the ability to summon lightning to himself with the aid of a magical hammer. Supposedly he's the only one that can lift it or something like that. You know what I think?"

    "What?"

    "I think that's all crap. I'm sure there's someone out there who's 'worthy' enough to lift it. Probably the captain himself. If righteousness takes place in the form of a human, that's your guy."

    "Captain America sounds like quite the man," Ashley remarked with a chuckle, "I'm surprised he doesn't have a flock of girls pining after him."

    "Oh he does," Bethany assured, "he's probably just too naive to see it. Anyways, then you have the Hulk. He's a scientist who tried to recreate the super-soldier serum, but ended up failing and creating a raging green beast that comes out when's he's angry. It can be quite the show sometimes, really. It's impressive that he hasn't caused more damage than what he's already created. I think he's really starting to get a hold of himself now.

    "Then you have Hawkeye, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent that is better with a bow and arrow than probably anyone with a gun. Moving objects behind him? No problem. Entire aircraft with only two arrows? He could practically do it blindfolded. That guy is like a magician.

    "And, last but not least, you have Black Widow. She's a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent too, but nobody really knows where she came from. She's great with a gun, but she's really talented at several different forms of martial arts. You woulda thought that she had been practicing her whole entire life."

     "Maybe she has," Ashley suggested as she took another lick of her ice cream. Now she was nearing the end of the first scoop of frozen dairy and sugar, "if you ask me, I'd say that whoever this Black Widow person is, she really does have a backstory on her. I don't know why or how, I just have this weird feeling that she's different than most agents."

    Bethany went into a bit of an awkward silence as she thought about what Ashley had said. She finally cleared her throat, licked a bit of the ice cream off of the cone, then continued with a smile, "Anyways, so let's talk school."

    "Right..." Ashley ventured off as she searched through the knowledge she had about the topic, "so will I be taking a train...or?"

    "Train?! Absolutely not! I'm driving you to school. It's right on my way to work, too. You never know what might happen with you get mixed into large crowds full of sketchy people..."

    "Okay," Ashley laughed, "I get it, no train."

    "Anyways, I have your schedule, too. I took the liberty of signing you up for Pre-AP classes. You're cool with that, right?"

    The teenager bit off a piece of her cone before replying with, "It's all good with me."

    "I can't remember what order they are, but you've got PAP chemistry, world history... y'know, fun stuff like that. You really are quite the nerd."

    Ashley rolled her eyes at this statement and took another bite of the black waffle cone. "I bet you did just the same in high school."

    "So what are your plans for college?"

    "Nuh-uh uh," Ashely scolded, "no dodging the question. Which I mean, I feel like if you're dodging it you're answering it anyway..."

    "Fine," Bethany relented, raising her hands up in defeat, "you've got me. I had honors in school, too. I guess you take after me, kid."

    The teenager giggled with a small little shake of her head. It just felt like the two had practically been made for each other. Their personalities just fit together like a two-piece puzzle. Perhaps the universe knew what it was doing when it caused their paths to cross.

    "Alright, let's go ahead and get a little bit of supplies shopping finished before our big day tomorrow. Excited?"

    "You bet."   

            ±-±-±-±-±-±-±-±-±-±-±-±

    "Are you sure you don't want me to go in with you? I mean, you might get lost on your way to the principal's office..."

    "I'm fine, Mom," Ashley joked, but once she realized what she had just said her lips pressed into a thin line and she grew slightly pale.  "Uh, bye Beth."

    "By Ash! See you at 3:00? Sandwich at Delmar's?"

    "Sounds great," the not-so-icy-haired girl replied quickly. When Ashley had expressed her discomfort at going to school and looking wildly different than everyone else, a compromise had been made between the two of them to cover her markings with makeup and put on a wig. Bethany hadn't wanted the girl to change her appearance completely because she didn't want her to lose a part of herself, but the brunette was fine with a little bit of a disguise so that way she wouldn't feel ostracized at school.

    The teenager ran a nervous hand through the hair of the wig, chestnut-brown with sun-kissed highlights, then jogged into the school and towards the area she assumed was the principal's office. She had studied a map of the school the night before, but the little voice in the back of her head certainly helped assure that she wouldn't get lost in the winding halls.

    "Hello?" Ashley called out as she knocked on the door that was labeled with the principal's last name.

    "Come in," a monotonous voice replied, to which Ashley complied. A wave of varying smells flooded her nostrils as she stepped inside. Main tones included the dusty fragrance of files and worn books, which were swirled with the spice scent from the wax burner that resided in the corner and the heavy aroma of the principal's cologne.
   
    Ashley realized that she had been awkwardly standing silent for several seconds too long and forced her legs to step closer.

    "You must be Ashley Tanner. I've heard a lot about you over the past couple of days," the man exclaimed, holding out his hand to which Ashley looked at in confusion.

    "You've heard a lot about me?" Ashley asked cautiously, hoping inwardly that everything that had been said about her was positive.

    "Oh," he chuckled, still keeping his hand extended, "yeah, I'm Mr. Morita, the principal here. Your guardian, Ms. Everglade, along with some other very respected peers that I am familiar with couldn't stop going on and on about how brilliant you were. There were even rumors about you knowing everything about Stark's little suits as well."

    The teenager was quite taken aback by his rambling, but quickly composed herself and met his handshake. "Right... yeah right... how smart I am. Yeah, lots of people know about that, huh?" She was afraid that the principal was going to see right through her awful impromptu lying skills, or perhaps doubt her intelligence with her lack of words, but he didn't even seem fazed. In fact, he seemed even more delighted.

    "Midtown is very thrilled that someone of your caliber has decided to join us. Now please, allow me to introduce you to your escort for today. You know, so that way you make yourself at home here at our Midtown family. You just so happen to have the same schedule as Mr. Parker here," the principal explained, gesturing towards someone quietly sitting in a chair that Ashley hadn't noticed yet.

    "Parker?" She echoed to herself, keeping her voice so low that it was unlikely that anyone else heard it, "That's funny, Mr. Delmar said something about a Parker."

    "Peter Parker," the boy said abruptly, standing up from his chair and also offering his hand to Ashley. The teenager made sure to not delay her end of the handshake as she had done with Mr. Morita. As her hand fell back to her side, she began to notice that his face had a much paler tint than the rest of his skin tone and that the whites of his eyes were prominent. It almost looked as though he were deadly nervous or bewildered.

    Odd.

    "Ashley Tanner, but you already know that. So let me guess, you're the head of the grade or something?" She spoke out, trying to shatter the tense silence that had built up.

    Peter gestured for her to follow him out of the principal's office before they continued their conversation. Once they were in the halls and headed towards what Ashley assumed was the lockers, he finally answered. "Socially? No. Academically? Maybe, I'm not entirely sure.

    "Humble," Ashley chuckled, "I just hope everyone is like that. So what's first? Gym, chemistry, history..."

    "Algebra two," Peter interjected, "we have algebra two first. Don't worry though, it's an easy class and the teacher's really nice."

    "I wasn't going to in the first place."

    "So you're smart, right? That's what Mr. Morita was saying. Where'd you move from?"

    Ashley furiously thought back to what she and Bethany had gone over the night before. What was her alibi? Her excuse for the fact that she didn't even remember her home, schooling, or relatives?

    "I... I moved from a private school in Los Angelo."

    "Los Angeles?"

    "Oh, yeah," Ashley chuckled nervously, kicking herself for messing up something as simple as a city name. "Sorry, there's an inside joke in my family about that. Something about my aunt never pronouncing it right."

    Good going. That might be the first time you haven't majorly screwed something over.

    Ashley rolled her eyes before continuing to talk to Peter. "My locker number is 623. Any clue where that is?"

    "Yeah," Peter mumbled as he fumbled with a lock from one of the lockers they had just walked up to. "It's about 10 rows down..."

    He stopped to think, then pointed to his right. "That way."

    "Thanks," Ashley replied, making her way down towards her locker. There wasn't anything in it yet, save for a couple of shelves for organization, but that would quickly change. She heard that between her paperwork, folders, and other miscellaneous objects that it would soon be crammed to no end. Once she was satisfied that she only had what she needed, she shut the locker and made her way back to Peter. He quickly shoved some strange object into one of the compartments of his locker, grabbed a folder full of papers, then slammed his locker shut and spun around.

    "Ready to go?" He stammered, confusing Ashley with what she assumed was nervousness. Did he have a vape or something? Or maybe it was some guy thing that he would be too embarrassed to let a girl see. After a couple moments of hesitation, she shrugged, shoving her thoughts away and cheerfully answered.

    "If I wasn't, I'd still be back in bed. Which honestly, doesn't sound like a very terrible fate."

    "And I was beginning to think that you were some crazy straight-A student that loved school."

    "Hey!" Ashley exclaimed, moving to slug him in the arm but stopping mid-swing. She had just met him, so perhaps that maneuver wouldn't really be appropriate. She definitely didn't want to already ruin her minimal reputation by gaining the name of the girl who randomly punched guys, even if it was as a joke. "I"m not saying I don't like school, I just like sleeping a lot better."

    "That makes two of us, then," Peter agreed, then abruptly turned into a room that's door had been propped open, "welcome to 10th grade, Algebra Two."

    Ashley nervously gave a little wave to all the kids that were already in their seats. Instead of getting the friendly gesture back, she was answered with rows of eyes studying her intensely. "Uh, hi?"

    "Hello there!" The teacher greeted warmly. He abandoned his post at the paper-strewn desk in the corner of the room and walked up to her. "Class, this is our new student Ashley Tanner. Please treat her with respect and make sure that she had a warm welcome here at Midtown."

    Very few of the students actually responded to the teacher. Instead, they mumbled their welcomes and eyed her curiously. Some girls and guys were gauging her personality carefully, unsure as to whether she would fit into their friend group or not.

    "Hi!" A girl that was sitting in the front row responded with a smile, "You're Ashley Tanner, right?"

    "Yeah?" Ashley moved forward and took a seat by the girl.

    "I'm Liz," she explained, "Welcome to Midtown! And... oh my!"

    "What is it?" Ashley questioned as she watched Liz's jaw drop.

    "Are those your natural eyes?"

     "I mean, I guess so. I'm not really sure what it means to have unnatural eyes..."

    "So no colored contacts?" Liz asked in bewilderment.

    "Nope, just my eye color."

    "That's incredible!" Liz complimented, "I've never seen anyone's eyes so bright before. That's a good thing, though. Anyways, as I was saying, welcome to our school! Mr. Monteri told me a little about you, too. I heard that you're a real whiz."

    "Yeah, I guess you could say that," Ashley chuckled, turning her attention away from Liz and towards the teacher that was beginning to stand up and make her way over to the blackboard. However, even though her concentration was on the teacher, she had a little nagging feeling that was warning her of all of the gazes that were fixated on her. She had no clue why people would still be looking at her, given that she wasn't a museum artifact or model, but she forced herself to shrug it off and focus on what the teacher was beginning to say.

    "Alright class, I'm going to give Ms. Tanner a little catch-up on the first days of schools she missed. So, to start off, would anyone like to provide the three branches of calculus?"

    A little shockwave of pain rippled across Ashley's head, but she forced herself to straighten out and fight through the hurt. She shot her hand up almost immediately and answered the question when the teacher acknowledged her. "Differential, integral, and multivariable."

    The teacher stood there for a second, looking at her with a blank expression, but quickly put on a smile and replied, "Correct. Now would anyone like to explain what these are?"

    Once again, Ashley's hand was the first to rise. A couple of glances of shock were thrown her way at her readiness for the questions, but in the end, nobody bothered enough to ask further. When none of the other classmates raised their hands, save for Peter, the teacher gave a sigh and redirected her attention to Ashley.

    "Differential and integral are mostly the two main categories of calculus, but they're also quite opposite. Differential studies the rates at which the given quantities change, whereas integral describes displacement, volume, area, and other ideas that form by combining infinitesimal data. And then of course, multivariable, or as others say multivariate, is the integration and differentiation of outcomes involving multiple variables instead of just one," Ashley stated matter-of-factly, relying solely on the knowledge that had been so abruptly shoved into her head.

    A long silence ensued with the teacher awkwardly smiling at Ashley, trying to comprehend how in the world Ashley had just given her that lengthy definition without even having cracked a book yet, let alone sit through one of her past lectures from the days of school she had been absent from. She finally mumbled a, "Great, just great. Um, let's carry on with today's lesson then I suppose."

    Ashley could've sworn that she heard a few students whisper things amongst themselves similar to "walking dictionary", but she just shrugged it off. It wasn't her fault that everyone else was dumb, right?

    And so it went like that for the remainder of the first period, Ashley being one of the few to automatically understand what the teacher was discussing. The others, of course, being Peter, Liz, and a couple of the quiet kids in the back who couldn't be bothered to speak up.

    "That's all for today, class. Don't forget, pages 23 through 26 are due on Tuesday, and the printed packet is due on Friday."

    That cued a whole herd of impatient teenagers to lunge out of their chairs, vying to be the first person out of the doors. All of the hustle and commotion slightly shocked Ashley, but she eventually rose out of her chair and followed behind the crazed mob.

    "Animals, am I right?" A female voice chuckled from behind her. She spun around to see who it was, sighing in relief as she realized it was Liz.

    "You could say that again," Ashley agreed, making her way towards the crowded door beside the girl.

    "So, you wanna walk down to the lockers with me and my friends? We could really use another girl like you. Smart, pretty, seemingly nice... you fit the bill perfectly."

    "Pretty? I don't know if I would go that far..."

    "Humble, too. Excellent!" Liz happily chimed.

    Ashley was about to take the girl up on her offer, but suddenly looked back and noticed Peter, who was trailing behind them and fiddling with something in his book bag. "Thank you for your offer, but Peter is kinda my guide or whatever for the day. I'll catch you at lunch, though?"

    "Sound great!" Liz exclaimed, turning around and walking backward as she added with a wink, "two tables down from the entrance, on the right. You won't miss us."

    Ashley nodded and flashes the girl a smile, then paused and let Peter catch up to her.

    "So Liz huh? You seemed to have settled nicely into the popular group."

    "Popular group?" Ashley questioned, earning her a scoff from Peter.

    "Have you ever gone to school before? You've got to be joking."

    "I..." Ashley frantically tried to come up with an excuse for her lack of experience with the hierarchy of schools. "I... um... I guess everyone was kind of regarded the same at my old school?"

    Peter gave her an unimpressed glance, but settled with saying, "Alrighty then."

    "So next class is...?"

    "Human geography. Teacher's kind of a grouch sometimes, but he's alright if you get on his good side."

    "Advice noted," Ashley grunted as she fell out of stride with Peter and headed off towards her locker. She put everything she had used solely for calculus, including her exciting homework, then began grabbing her notebook that would be used for her next class.

    "You're the new chick, right?"

    Ashley looked up, not surprised to find a boy that seemed about her age leaned up against a locker with his arms crossed. She had sensed him long before she caught a glimpse, but she had just shoved it off as him being there to get his books. Well, apparently, she was quite wrong.

    "No," Ashley boldly countered, meeting him with a smirk. "I'm new, but I sure as heck ain't some chick. Especially not coming from someone pathetic like..." she paused to give him a long glance up and down, "you."

    "Feisty," he noted with a chuckle, "not like most girls. I like you."

    "Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not another toy your 'mommy' can buy for you. Maybe check the isle in that has what you need?" She sized him up once before firing, "Like the one that has little action figures for toddlers?"

    By now, the majority of the passing students had stopped to watch the spectacle. The kids that had been there at her first insult had already started laughing their butts off, but when she let that last line rip, a chorus of "oooohs" and "burn!" echoed throughout the halls. The boy that had just tried to pick her up blushed a furious red, sending several dagger-like glares before eventually turning into the wall to cloak his embarrassment.

    "Name's Ashley," she snickered, shutting her locker and giving him a pat on the shoulder as she brushed past.

    "Flash," he called out after her, turning around and braving the crowd.

    "Oh, we're using made-up names? Well, then I suppose that makes me a b*tch you can't touch."

    The students roared with laughter once more, getting to the point where some teachers eventually had to break them up and send them on their way. Ashley triumphantly marched her way towards her next class with Flash standing as still as a statue behind her, his jaw practically touching the floor. However, right before she was out of earshot, she could hear the boy mumble, "Oh we'll see about that."

That dang Flash, am I right?