Red Line

Carousel

I hear a car pull into the driveway as I wait with Cooper and Lila for the bus, and swivel my head towards the driveway. This isn't the sort of place you and up at after a wrong turn. I spot a car far too expensive to be at a farm pulling in the driveway.
My brows scrunch in confusion, who knows about this place?
I look back at Cooper and Lila and smile so I don't scare them, "have a good day at school."
Lila gives me a hug and I ruffle Cooper's hair before walking over to the car.

The passenger window of the car rolls down and I see Mr. Stark staring back at me from the driver seat through a pair of designer sunglasses that are probably worth more than anything I've ever owned.
"What are you wearing?" He asks me incredulously.
I look down at my skirt and blazer set before looking back at him, "Clothes?"
This is what they wore in Clueless. Not that I watched it for any reason besides research.
He shakes his head and scoffs, "This is why I knew I had to show up myself. I knew I couldn't trust you to dress yourself."
I cross my arms defensively, "What's wrong with how I dress myself? It's very Cher."
"Who?"

He shakes his head and hops out of the car, slamming the door behind him, amd he grabs something out of the back seat. He walks around the car and hand me an orange box that says 'Nike', a graphic tee, a pair of light blue skinny jeans that say Levi's and a pastel bomber jacket.
"I don't know how you like to dress, but it doesn't matter for today. I'll bring you more later. Eventually something will be your style." he tells me as I peer over the box at him.
"These are ridiculous. I'm going to look like cotton candy."
"This is what everyone your age is wearing. Trust me, I did research."
"Then everyone my age dresses poorly."
"You are not wearing that. Go change, don't want to be late on your first day." He says shooing me back into the house.

I don't have many clothes and I don't really know how I want to dress myself, but this is fine I suppose. I'm not usually one to complain, I just like giving Tony a hard time. It's just nice to have clothes that are really mine. HYDRA just cycled us all through whatever "uniform" they had most recently created for us. It wasn't mine.

I walk back outside, and Tony ushers me into the car. He drives poorly and way over the speed limit all the way to midtown high school where I would be a new student.
He unbuckles his seat beat and turns to me, "I have some rules, red lines if you will, and you can't break them."
I unbuckle mine, "I don't think that'll be a problem. I'm kind of good at following rules believe it or not."

"Rule 1: No friendships that conflict with Peter, nobody that doesn't like him.
Rule 2: no telling anyone, not even Peter, who you really are." He fires off quickly.
I raise a single brow, "Sounds like a mission."
"I promise it's not, if you can't do it anymore just tell me. I'll let you out, let you go home. If you stay, I'll give you whatever you want, literally, in return. Even an island."
"You could get me an island?"
"You want an island, kid? I could get you an island."
I shake my head no.

"Last rule: if you break either of those rules or something goes wrong, I'll pull you. Whether you tell me or not, I will find out."
I sigh, "I'm by no means stupid, if you haven't noticed. I don't make mistakes."
"I know, you're smart. You're confident too. I appreciate that about you."
"You're bossy, anyone ever tell you that?" I observe as opening the door.
"Believe me, I know. I hear it all the time, but I'm the boss, it's my job."

I roll my eyes, "I'm going in now."
"Zoya, don't forget to go to the principals office first!" He yells before I close the door.

I nod at him through the window, I'm not incompetent. I confidently enter the school and look around. Nothing I had ever seen on tv could've prepared me for this. It's dirtier here than I pictured and the students look younger and meaner. I ignore them and follow little arrows on the wall to the office.

The lady at the desk doesn't even look up at me. I clear my throat to get her attention.
The lady looks up at me distastefully, "What do you need?"
"I'm new, I'm Zoya Vasile."
"Ok?" The lady says, "Do you want a schedule or something?"
"That would be helpful I guess" I say, annoyance rising in my tone. I thought at least the administration would care. What did I ever do to her?
She prints it out and practically throws it at me, "ok, bye."
"грубый (rude)." I mutter under my breath.
Tony made this seem so much better than it is.
He probably went to some fancy expensive private school.

I walk down the hall, to the right, and down another hall before arriving at room 217, my new home room.
I walk into the room and look around. My eyes land on a desk in the second row on the far left. O make my way towards it as it's the only one left empty and drop my bag next to it before sitting down.

I feel eyes burning into the back of my head almost as soon as I take my seat. I slowly turn around and see a girl in all black staring practically into my soul.
"You forgot to take the tag off of your shiny new jacket princess." she says with a mocking smile.
My hand shoots up to the back of my neck to yank the tag out.
"Thanks." I mutter, keeping a friendly tone despite the fact that she obviously thinks I'm some kind of elitist.
She leans back in her chair and crosses her arms, "Thanks, that's it?"
"what else would you like me to say? 'I'm forever in your debt for telling me I still have a tag on my jacket'?" I shrug, "I can tell you're judging me, but I'm not super impressed either. You kind of look like a vampire, you know that?"
The girl narrows her eyes at me before her lips quirk up into a smile, "A vampire? That's the best you can do?"
I smile back, "Want me to try again?"

Peter's POV

MJ narrows her eyes at the girl before her lips quirk up into a smile, "A vampire? That's the best you can do?"
I wouldn't exactly say MJ looks like a vampire, grunge maybe, but it works for her.
Aren't vampires sparkley? MJ isn't really the sparkly type. Either way, it doesn't really matter. This new girl doesn't look like she would give us the time of day. This conversation is the probably the last time she'll ever waste her breath on us.

The girl smiles back, "Want me to try again?"
I glance back and forth between the two of them and can't help but try to get her to like me, "Ho easy on her, MJ."
The girls eyes dart to me, and something almost like familiarity glistens in them.
"It's alright, I have garlic in my bag if things go wrong." The girl jokes.
MJ's posture softens and she chuckles, "I like you."
The girl's smile broadens, "Most people do."
I bet that's true. There's just something about her.

Her dark hair is slicked back into a perfect ponytail, and it's shiny like there's some kind of coat on it.
Her smile is the brightest and most perfect looking smile I've ever seen, as cheesy as that sounds. She must use whitening strips or something. They're so white they don't even look real, she must use whitening strips.
Her eyes are captivating, they almost don't even seem like they belong to the same person, but in a good way. I've never seen anything like them, but there's something  familiar behind them that I can't place. Something that just pulls in. Like a siren.
"What's your name?" I ask her.
"Zoya, how about you?"
"Peter."
She smiles at me, "Nice to meet you."

A/n (I don't speak Russian so I had to use google translate. It just made more sense to me for her first language to be Russian)