So sorry it took so long to post this, but I'm not really happy with where it was going and had to think of some new ideas. Hopefully it'll be easier to write after this chapter. For those already following this, thanks for waiting so long. Enjoy!
Chapter 5
Steve looked about the group nervously. No one was talking. No one was making any move towards figuring this out. He really didn't want to add anymore detentions to his list and had a feeling that the principal had meant what he said when he threatened them. He looked down at the paper in his hands and took a deep breath, "So, I guess we should look at this…"
He took a look at the first page and cleared his throat and began to read, "Now that you are in your group, take turns sharing your names and some things about yourself. Example; where do you live? Who do you live with? What sports do you play? Favorite Activity? Etcetera," he looked up at the others, "Sounds simple enough. Right?"
"This is so stupid," Tony muttered, already on his cell phone.
"I guess I'll go first," Steve grumbled. He was never the leader in anything like this, but if they wanted to get this done someone had to step up and take the position. Apparently it was going to be him. "Uh, my name is Steve Rogers, I live with my parents and have a dog named Captain. I want to play baseball, football, and some other sports this year. And I also draw a little bit."
He could tell everyone was paying some amount of attention. Even Tony seemed to have his ears pricked for anything interesting.
"Who wants to go next," he glanced at Clint and Tony who were on either side of him expectantly.
Tony frowned, "Don't look at me; I'm not going to play any of these girly games."
"I'm surprised Stark doesn't want to boast about how much of an ass he is," Clint commented, earning him a glare from the billionaire.
"Knock it off," Steve sighed. It was going to be a long day.
"Fine," Tony sat up, challenging Clint with a heated gaze the whole time he spoke, "My name's Tony Stark. That's all you need to know because the name explains it all."
Steve could tell Clint was about to say something, but he put a hand up to silence him. If they kept things moving everything was going to be fine. Right? "Thor, do you want to go next?"
Thor narrowed his eyes, but spoke anyway, "My name is Thor Odinson, I am an exchange student from Norway and live here with my brother Loki. I like all sports, especially football and wrestling. I also like to throw hammers."
"What?" Tony burst out laughing, "Hammers!"
Thor looked taken aback, "Is there a problem with that?"
"Tony," Steve strained, "Can we go five minutes without you interrupting?"
"No," he was still cracking up, "You can't tell me you didn't find that somewhat funny."
"How is that funny?" Thor pressed.
"Bruce, it's your turn now," Steve demanded.
The brunette shifted nervously in his seat, "Uh, my name's Bruce Banner and I uh," he searched for words, "I live in a boy's home," he said quietly, "And I guess I'm a science wiz."
Steve was surprised when no one commented, so he glanced at Natasha who gave him a nod.
"My name's Natasha Romanoff, I'm from Russia and I'm also an orphan," Steve thought she gave Bruce a hardly noticeable sympathetic look. The brunette turned away as she continued, "I do gymnastics and anything with lots of running involved. I've also studied several forms of martial arts."
Steve heard Tony scoff from behind him, but he surprisingly didn't comment on the red heads story either.
Clint then took the initiative to speak, "I'm Clint Barton and I live in a foster home because I'm an orphan too. Sport's are cool, but I prefer archery. The end."
"Archery? As in bows and arrows?" Tony chuckled, "That's so lame."
"You won't think it's so lame when you take an arrow to your knee," Clint countered and there was something in the way he spoke that made Steve know, without a doubt, that he was dead serious.
"Hahaha, very funny," Tony said blandly, "So we finished all this bonding stuff; now we can leave right?"
Steve shook his head, "That was just the greeting, now we start the real bonding."
"For the first exercise separate your group into partners. Pairs must sit back to back and link arms with one another. When the leader says 'go', the pairs must attempt to stand up without separating and are not allowed to speak," Steve read.
"Really, they couldn't think of anything more original?" Tony complained. He was not going to play this stupidly easy game.
"You're just afraid you're going to lose," Natasha accused.
Tony felt a rush of anger, "Fine, I'll play, but, make no mistake, I will win."
"Sure," Natasha stood up, pushing her chair back against the wall, "We'll see about that."
"Great," Steve stood up as well, "Lets move these chairs and then we can partner up and get started."
Everyone did as he said and Tony considered his partner options. "Hey, Thor, you're my partner."
Thor blinked at him, "Okay."
"You have played this game before, right?" Tony kicked his chair back.
"Of course, my brother and I have succeeded many times before," he boasted, "It is a simple and easy game."
"Good, we are going to win then."
"Great," Steve was standing next to Bruce. As Tony had expected Red and Loverboy were together. "So let's get situated and then I will say go."
"Why do you get to say go, what makes you so special?" Tony demanded as the six lowered themselves onto the carpet.
"Because I won't try to cheat like you probably would," Steve answered nonchalantly.
Tony pressed his back up against Thor's and they interlocked arms. He watched as Clint and Natasha did the same to his right, and Steve and Bruce on his left.
He grinned, he was so going to win.
"Everyone ready?" Steve called, craning his neck just to make sure.
"Yup!" Tony braced himself.
"Get ready to lose Stark," Clint called.
"In your dreams Legalos," Tony's grin widened.
"New nickname, that's cute."
"Go!" Steve shouted completely out of the blue..
Tony was taken by surprise as Thor hoisted him up uncomfortably. Suddenly, all of Thor's weight was on his back and his knees gave out. He forgot to push against Thor's back and now he fell forward, the force causing Thor to roll over with him. He felt a sharp pain in his arms were they were bent awkwardly
"Well, shit," The two untangled arms and Tony stretched his aching back. He looked accusingly at Thor, "I thought you said you knew how to do this."
Thor shrugged, "I was doing exactly the same thing as I did with my brother, and you were the one at fault."
"He was too busy trying to argue that he didn't even pay attention to what he was arguing about," Natasha offered from where Clint and she were already on two feet, "You lost by the way."
"No, Bruce and Steve are still- "he was interrupted by a triumphant exclamation.
"We did it!"
"Never mind," he swung his head to his other side to see the other two were exchanging high-fives, also standing up. Thor also pushed himself up off the ground, leaving Tony to sulk alone on the carpet.
"Okay, let's move on to the next activity," Steve had grabbed his packet once more. The others gathered around him, "Let's see, this one is called the knot. Have your group stand in a circle and place both hands in the middle. Each person then needs to grab two other hands. When the leader says go, without talking or letting go of each other's hands, the group needs to untangle themselves until they are in a perfect circle."
"Now they're just trying to make me feel like a five year old girl scout," Bruce heard Tony mumble.
"Come on Tony, the quicker we get this done the less time we have to hold hands," Steve bribed and it worked because Tony pulled himself up off the ground with a sigh.
Steve was the first to place his hands in the middle of the group, "I think we should grab a hand with someone we don't usually get along with," Steve announced eliciting groans from the rest of the group, "We're supposed to be bonding right? I'm sure if we get comfortable with one another these next six weeks will be a lot more fun."
"You have really high hopes Rogers," Natasha said crossing her arms.
"Well it was worth a shot," he mumbled looking at each of them hopefully, his hands still dangling absently in the middle.
Bruce hoped someone else would make the first move, but no one did. Who was he angry at? Natasha and Tony. Thinking about it was easy, but actually reaching out to them was much harder. He really wanted to repair his friendship with Tony, but that was easier said than done.
Bruce took a deep breath and offered his hand to Natasha. She studied him with her cold green eyes. Her gaze was intimidating but he offered her a small smile. She gave in and took his hand.
Thor followed suit and grabbed one of Steve's hands and offered his other to Clint. Silently the rest of them grabbed the hands of someone they despised with no complaint. Bruce was shocked, by now someone should have spoken out, let alone groaned. But not one person made a sound. Well, Tony stared up at the ceiling as if begging for it to end when Clint and Natasha forced him to grab their hands, but he didn't argue.
Now that everyone's hands were successfully intertwined in the center of their circle Steve cleared his throat, "Great, now let's untangle ourselves."
All at once they all began moving. Arms were being thrown around and over people, and Bruce had to duck as Thor's large arm threatened to hit him in the head.
"Sorry," Thor apologized realizing his mistake.
Bruce chuckled, "It's fine."
"Shhhh!" Someone hissed. Bruce burned with embarrassment, remembering they weren't supposed to talk. Then he was pulled the other way when Natasha had to twist around Steve.
"Ouch!" Clint winced after he appeared to have been tripped. Bruce turned his head to see Tony snickering, but the billionaire was cut off when Natasha sharply twisted his arm.
Eventually, the six of them finally formed a perfect circle. Well almost perfect circle, Bruce observed. Thor was facing the wrong way, but that was beyond the point.
For a minute they all stood there peacefully, hand in hand, but then they remembered why they were holding hands with the person next to them and the circle was suddenly broken.
Clint moved back to Natasha while the others moved to stand next to someone they were more comfortable with.
"That went surprisingly well," Steve concluded, grabbing the packet once more, "Maybe things will go a lot smoother now?"
Your optimism is admirable, but it's going to take a lot more than that to fix all our issues, Clint thought.
"What's next then?" Bruce asked. Was there a hint of excitement in his voice?
"Steve flipped the page and began to read, "Now that you've warmed up with some fun activities, it's time to start the important ones."
"Great, is it going to be some stupid Truth or Dare game now?" Tony grumbled.
Steve continued, "It looks like another 'get-to-know-you' type of game. There are fifty questions and each person chooses one number. Everybody must answer the chosen question blah-blah-blah."
"We can sit down for this one, right?" Thor asked. They were all standing somewhat awkwardly in the middle of the room.
"Yes, please," Tony said plopping down on the floor.
Once everyone got as comfortable as one could possibly get on the floor, Steve spoke again, "So, who wants to go first?"
"Seventeen," Thor volunteered.
"Okay, let's see. 'Who in your life do you have the strongest bond or closest relationship with?' Please be truthful and respectful when it comes to other people's answers," Steve gave Tony a sidelong glance.
"I shall answer first," Thor said, "It's a hard question because I know so many wonderful people, but in the end it will always be my brother. We may fight sometimes, but we've gone through so much growing up together that nothing could separate us."
Clint shared a glance with Natasha. Obviously Thor didn't know what Loki really thought of him.
Steve went next, "Bucky has been my best friend for as long as I can remember and the rest is similar to what Thor said about his brother."
"I'm not really that close to people, but if I had to choose it'd be Rhodey or Pep," Tony said.
"Clint," Natasha said.
"Tasha," Clint said right after her. They didn't even have to think about it because he didn't really have anyone else, and neither did she.
"You can't tell me they're not madly obsessed with each other," Tony said to Thor who just shrugged in response.
Clint rolled his eyes, he didn't care at this point and neither did Natasha because she didn't say anything either.
"I don't really know anyone…" Bruce started to trail off. Everyone turned attention to him, how could he not have someone close in his life? Bruce shifted slightly, "Let me rephrase that. I don't want to tell anyone who it is."
"Aww, come on Bruce, it can't be that embarrassing," Tony joked.
"No, its okay, we're going to respect his decision not to tell us, right Tony?" Steve said.
"Yes mother," Tony grumbled, "I'll pick the next question. How about 42?"
"What is your favorite high school memory so far?" Steve read.
"That's easy," Natasha cracked her knuckles, "Punching Stark's ugly face."
"Watching her punch Stark's ugly face," Clint followed, grinning when the billionaire glared at them.
"High school at home was quite boring, so here, I'd have to say Tony's party," Thor said, "Without the last half hour of it."
"I think my favorite moment was in P.E. the first day and finally winning a game," Steve said. Clint noticed Thor bristle slightly and had a feeling he knew why the exchange student didn't like poor Rogers.
"I liked my first day here, last year," Bruce offered, "It was a nice change from my previous school."
"Tony?" Steve prompted when the brunette made no move to add his own answer.
"High school sucks," he grumbled and pulled out his phone again.
"I'll go next," Steve looked back at the paper, "How about 38, 'If you could live anywhere, where would you live and why?"
Thor thought hard about this one. It was like a parent choosing between children. How could he pick between his homeland and this new and exciting country? If he lived here, he would be far from his family, but that was too big of a problem considering how wealthy his family was. They could easily fly out to visit him. He made his decision, "America because-"
He was cut off by Clint, "Anywhere specific? 'Cause America's a big place you know."
"Hmmm," Thor hadn't thought about that, he didn't mind the city life he was currently living in, but he did miss the outdoors and all the activities that offered, "Somewhere close to the outdoors, I guess. I'd have to explore more of this amazing country to figure out specifics."
"America is a great country," Steve agreed, "I'd live here too. Probably somewhere around New York."
"Cali's calling my name," Tony sighed.
"Figures," Thor barely heard Clint mumble to his side.
"Anywhere but Russia," Natasha said.
"Why? What's wrong with Mother Russia?" Tony said, over-exaggerating a Russian accent.
Natasha glared at him, "What's his punishment for not following the rules?" She turned to Steve for an answer, "I get to hurt him right?"
"Let's just move on," Steve said quickly, "Where would you live Clint? Bruce?"
Clint shrugged, "I don't tend to think about my future that much."
Bruce said, "Calcutta, India always seemed to have a nice ring to it."
"My turn," Natasha said, "I choose 21."
Steve nodded, "What's your most valuable possession?"
"Ugh, what kind of questions are these?" Tony groaned, "Why can't there be fun questions?"
"Considering it's a school activity I doubt there'd be any questions that fall under your definition of 'fun'," Bruce pointed out.
"Let's move on please," Steve said once again, "I have an old signed baseball from before World War II, who's next?"
"My father gave me an ancient Norse hammer," Thor said.
"My bow and arrow's of course," Clint added. Natasha followed by simply saying, "My guns."
"Is that even legal?" Steve asked.
Natasha shrugged, "It's not like I'm going to hurt anybody," then fixing her gaze on Tony she added,"…yet."
She was satisfied when she heard a quiet gulp come from the billionaire's throat.
"I don't really own much of value, but I do love my science books," Bruce said.
"I don't want to brag, but my most valuable possession has to be my –" Tony was cut off by the principal opening the office door.
The man's mood seemed to lift at the sight of them peacefully sitting in a circle. Everyone looked at him expectantly as he stood in the doorway.
"Well, it's great to see you're making progress, but I'm afraid it's time for lunch and then you'll have to return to your normal classes."
Before the last words had even escaped his mouth Tony had jumped to his feet and was halfway out the door.
"Not so fast Mr. Stark," Natasha was surprised by the quickness of the principal's hand as he blocked the boy's path, "There's just one more thing before you all go."
Everyone else paused their own getaway attempts.
"You need to decide who is hosting the first out of school meeting."
"I volunteer Barton as tribute," Tony said, then ducked under the principal's arm and escaped.
"I think that's a great idea," Thor said, following Tony's lead despite the principal's objections.
"Thanks Clint," Bruce and Steve said not in the least bit sorry. They two started to leave.
"What?!" Clint demanded, "Since when do you all agree with Tony?"
"Since nobody wants to host this stupid thing," Natasha chuckled, making her way out the door as well.
"Great," she heard Clint grumbled.
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