There weren't that many things Peter Parker hated, but Mondays scored high on his list. A highly annoying beeping tone broke him from his dreams and with his eyes still pinched shut he reached out for his alarm clock, not finding it. He nearly fell out of bed when a polite British voice addressed him.

"Mr Parker, it is Monday the 15th of October and your first day in your new school. You have exactly 30 minutes left to prepare."

Peter moaned and crawled further under his blanket, and promptly the annoying beeping noise returned at full strength.

"JARVIS! Shut it off!"

"Mr Stark told me explicitly not to let you sleep in today, Mr Parker."

Peter sighed deeply and got up. There is no winning against the AI of Stark Tower… That much he knows, even though he still isn't completely used to living there. The Avengers are cool, and he can see where they're coming from with wanting him there, but it's not like he is of so much use to them when they insist he goes to school… Peter rubbed his eyes and looked through his messy room, eye falling on the closet. He opened it and looked through his clothes, not knowing what to wear. Normally he would just wear jeans and a band T-shirt or something like that, but it's a new school, and you never know…

With the risk of sounding either gay or like a teenage girl, Peter pointed his attention to the ceiling.

"JARVIS, what must I wear to school?"

"I believe Mr Stark bought the uniform and had it prepared for you in the bathroom."

A uniform. Freaking great. It was exactly as snooty as he thought it would be though, yet he could say the dark blue blazer suited him to a certain degree. He ruffled through his hair to get the bedhead-look out of it, washed his face, and made his way to the Avenger's kitchen. The only one sitting there was Bruce, peacefully sipping from a cup of tea while reading the day's paper. When Peter entered, he looked up and nodded politely.

"First day again?"

Peter rolled his eyes and poured himself a cup of coffee. Normally he wasn't much for coffee, but today was an exception. He needed his spidey senses to be up to par… He turned around when he suddenly felt someone behind him, nearly spilling the coffee over his new uniform. Natasha Romanoff smirked at him from in the door opening.

"Looking smart are we?"

"Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Professional deformation, spiderboy…"

Natasha, the famed "Black Widow", was the only one who referred to Peter as "spiderboy" instead of his chosen alias Spiderman. Clearly she didn't quite think him a man… Peter frowned.

"Don't you have a SHIELD mission to be on?"

"Even master assassins have a day off from time to time… Now, why don't you get your ass out of here before you're late for school?"

Natasha was a bit like the AI when it came to persuasiveness, and Peter quickly grabbed a sandwich from the table and ran off, escaping the Russian's glare.

(Pagebreak)

"Do I have to go?"

Loki sighed and looked at his daughter. Once more he wonders what made him bring her to Midgard of all places. She was safe in Niflheim…

"Hela, I know it's not… ideal… but it's only a cover, you don't actually have to work or make friends or anything."

"Yeah, it's a cover for one of your nefarious plans. Great quality time. "

The biting sarcasm of the young girl reminded Loki that his daughter was far older than the 15 years she looked. He sighed.

"You complained to me that ruling the dead was boring –and I quote- the hell out of you. You should be grateful I arranged some adventure for you. And when this is over, I promise you will have plenty of new arrivals to settle in into your realm."

Hela nodded and attempted a smile.

"I guess you're right…"

Loki saw straight through it.

"Don't attempt to fool the God of Lies, my daughter. What is bothering you?"

Hela gestured to the left side of her face. Magic had concealed the otherwise exposed bone structure, but the awkward repulsiveness of her left side didn't disappear. Even though there wasn't any visual imperfection anymore, it was impossible to look at it without feeling… strange.

"I know I asked for adventure, father… And of course I'm grateful you took me out on one… But I'm scared, and I wish I didn't have to go out among the people. The dead may be rather boring but at least they don't judge."

Loki sat down next to his daughter and took her head in his hands.

"Look at me, Hela. You are beautiful. You are a genius organizer and a mighty Goddess of the Dead, and none of those pathetic mortals should have the right to look at you at all, let alone to look at you wrongly."

Loki's voice was convincing, and eventually Hela nodded.

"Thank you, father."

"Now, get in the car before we're late on your first day. I have a meeting with Doom in an hour and with my luck I'll probably be stuck in traffic."

(Pagebreak)

The school was expensive, and the people that went there had the air of richness only private schools emanate. Peter immediately felt badly at ease there. He had rather gone to a school for mutants; it would have made him feel less out of place. Mr Stark however had insisted that he would go to the best school money could pay for… And now there he stood, looking hesitatingly from one group of posh rich bitches to the next group of muscled jocks. Suddenly he felt someone behind him. He quickly turned, seeing a boy of about his age, sporting rather big horn-rimmed glasses.

"You're new here, no?"

"Err… Yeah…"

Peter smiled politely at the kid. Since he had no one to talk to anyway, he decided to stay with him for the time being.

"I'm Peter."

"Justin. Don't you think this uniform is way over the top?"

Peter grinned.

"Yeah."

"Must be stolen from the Brits. Only British people could think of something like a vest and tie for high school students."

Peter had to admit, this Justin, despite his unattractive appearance, made good conversation. They continued their senseless banter about the uniforms and the absurdity of British people for a while –Justin was greatly impressed with Peter's imitation of JARVIS' accent- until the bell rang and they were all summoned to their classes. They didn't share a class, so Peter was once again left to his own devices. In the classroom, the teacher announces the new students.

"Okay, we have two new students today, who is first to introduce?"

Peter internally sighed. He desperately hoped the other student, whoever that might be, would put his hand up first. The teacher waited, but no one reacted. There was a bit of giggling in the group, and finally the teacher sighed.

"Fine, ladies first. You know who you are."

Peter turned his head to see the new student. A lanky pale girl with raven hair in a loose bun and deep green eyes made her way to the front of the class. Her uniform fitted perfectly despite her figure, and Peter couldn't help but… stare. It wasn't because she had big tits or a nice ass –although she was in the possession of the latter- it was something else. Her face was beautiful, and still it was eerie. One of her eyes didn't seem to follow completely with the other; it was barely noticeable, yet it hadn't escaped Peter's enhanced senses. It almost led a life of it's own, catching his gaze and making Peter feel caught. He quickly looked away.

"Well, introduce yourself!"

The teacher prodded the strange girl a bit. Finally, she opened her mouth and spoke with a melodious, cold voice.

"My name is Hela Helvete." She pronounced her last name as what seemed to be a sequence of consonants. "My father and I recently moved here from Norway."

With that she appeared to have finished her introduction. The teacher however wasn't willing to let her go yet.

"Hela, could you tell us a little more of Norway? What is it like there?"

Hela threw the teacher a sharp glance but still answered.

"It is beautiful and the nature is wild. I remember riding on horseback through the forests like it was yesterday… Back in the days there often were hunting parties, and afterwards there would be glorious feasts. It was wonderful."

The class was silent. Peter was awestruck and slightly confused. Hela Helvete was the first teenager he met who used the phrase "back in the days", and who referred to things as hunting parties and glorious feasts. Must be a Norse thing. From the sudden warmth in her voice and the sad streak around her eyes Peter could tell she had to miss her homeland very badly.

"Then it must be… quite an adjustment, living in New York." The teacher said. Hela slowly nodded.

"Yes. The adjustment is great. It feels to me though as if I have left my beloved home ground for ages already…"

The class clearly didn't know how to react to the odd Norse girl with her slightly archaic speech and piercing green eyes. Should they laugh? For some reason even the biggest mouths of the class didn't dare to make a mocking sound when the girl went back to her chair. The teacher shook her head and looked back at her papers.

"Now, who is the next?"

Peter got up and slouched to the front.

"Hi, I'm Peter Parker. I just moved to this part of the city, and this school was the closest to my home. That's about it."

It was a flagrant lie, but Peter counted on it that it sounded unsuspicious enough. They really didn't need to know he lived with the Avengers, not to mention his Spiderman-night-job. As he expected the teacher nodded and he was allowed to take his seat again. In going back, his eyes caught the green orbs of the Norse expat girl. A soft mocking smile adorned her lips, as if she knew what he had told were lies. Uncomfortably, Peter avoided her gaze.

He met Justin at the lockers, just in time to see how two rather buff seniors kicked the smaller boy. Peter listened in on the conversation.

"We told you to bring the money today, Hammer!"

"I don't have it yet!" Justin moaned. The tallest of the twosome grabbed him and pressed him against the lockers.

"Bring it tomorrow… or there will be consequences." He growled. After that, the two walked off, leaving Justin trembling against the lockers. Peter approached him.

"What was that about?"

Justin didn't even look at Peter.

"Big glasses, scrawny posture, rich dad… What did you think?"

"I heard them about money…"

"It's a small price for some peace and quiet. And besides, it's not like my dad will miss the money. And he's an asshole anyway."

Peter didn't know what to answer to that.

"You shouldn't have to do this. Isn't there someone…"

Justin dryly chuckled.

"You're clearly new in this school. Money is everything here. It pays your privileges, your drugs if you're into that, your grades and in my case your personal safety."

"But you steal from your dad!"

"As I said, he's not gonna miss it. If there's anyone in this universe who deserves to be stolen from it's him. Now are you gonna whine about this all day or are we going to eat?"

They walked to the cafeteria together, and Peter's eye fell once again on Hela Helvete.

"Justin, there was this girl in class, she was new too and…"

"Let me guess, she was hot?"

"She was weird."

"Weird as in big glasses and untied shoelaces?"

"No. Weird as in creepy."

"You mean she was hot. All hot chicks are creepy."

Justin said it with the air of a man of the world. Peter poked him and subtly pointed out Hela, who is standing in line for a warm meal.

"There she is."

Justin frowned and looked at her, as unsubtly as possible. Peter wanted to face-palm at the social awkwardness of his new friend, but he refrained as Hela suddenly turned, her green eyes staring viciously at Justin. Immediately he reverted his gaze. He shook his head, much as the teacher had done.

"Wow. You're right. She's creepy. What about her?"

"I would like to get to know her."

Justin shakes his head, more definite now.

"Man, she looked at me as if she wanted to gauge my eyes out with a soup spoon! And you said yourself that she's creepy."

"Creepy isn't always bad…"

(Author's Notes)

Yeah, the first chapter of my first fanfic... *is proud* Anyway, Loki may be a bit OOC but that's just because he's with his daughter and we all know he's nice to his kids. Also, don't ask how Hela got out of Niflheim; I'm sure Loki found a way, after all he always finds a way (and the story wouldn't have too much substance without her). Read and Review Please!