Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
BROOKE HAD ONE FRIEND WHOM SHE WOULD RATHER NOT CALL A FRIEND AT ALL. Of course, she wanted nothing more than to have someone to talk to during break and lunch, to giggle and gossip with, to talk about movies and boys and current events.
This girl, however, was not the person to fill that for her. Not in the slightest.
Brooke liked River well enough. They had been introduced when the art teacher pointed out that the two both had names relating to a type of small body of water. How their relationship grew was a question Brooke could never answer because it came almost abruptly, yet crawled its way in slowly.
She made her way down to the art room for lunch, as she always did, sketchbook safe in her bag. She sat her lunch tray down softly on one of the tables and began to eat, always cleaning up before she started drawing.
She ignored River who was sitting by herself, casting glances over to Brooke, clearly trying to gain her attention. She just continued to eat, pretending that she couldn't see her, focused on her sandwich.
She sighed as she thought about school. She didn't do any extra curriculars like her sister, and she wasn't above average in any of her classes. She was at a school for gifted students, but she should be at a regular school. She wouldn't be excelling at the regular school, but at least she wouldn't feel as incompetent.
By the time she had finished her sandwich, she was thoroughly upset and ready to rip apart her sketchbook or the table. Instead, she reached over and opened the sketchbook up to a new page, keeping the back of the Stark Industries picture blank.
She didn't want to finish her picture of Liz until she was truly alone and, knowing River, this wasn't the safest place to draw something personal. So she decided to draw fan art.
She liked fan art well enough, it wasn't the sort of art she ever really did, unless she just wanted something to take her mind off things. She didn't watch many TV shows or watch many movies, but she did like drawing the superheroes around the city, as well as movie superheroes.
She had already drawn Iron Man's mask, so she might as well draw Captain America. She had seen a lot of him in those educational videos they were forced to watch, but she hadn't seen much of him in the past few months; something had happened and while it had been all over the news, she didn't really pay much attention to it.
The problems of heroes were of no import to the regular people. For the most part, at least.
"What're you drawing?"
Brooke had to refrain from sighing as she heard River's voice right by her ear. She didn't look up from her phone where she was pulling up references of the superhero, deciding that she would draw him more of a doodle than a full realism.
"Captain America," she said softly, placing her phone down, placing the sketchbook down flat and bending over so her perspective wouldn't be off.
"Why?" River asked, her condescending tone making Brooke grit her teeth.
