As the second week of summer came to an end, so did the training class with Principal Fury. It had been a long and exhausting two weeks, but Skye had learned a lot and she was glad to have been a part of it. Spending time, not just with Brock, but with all of the people that HYDRA took last February was fun and really cathartic. They had a shared experience that would link them all together, at least for the foreseeable future, and Skye was grateful for every one of them.
They were wrapping up on the last day, after spending most of it sparring with each other, when Fury called them all into the ring. Skye crawled into the ring and collapsed between Brock and Dick Grayson dramatically.
"Ugh, everything is going to hurt later today!"
"At this point, I think you'll manage, Skye." Brock chuckled. "You say that every day and yet I still see you at the pool or running around the grounds, and you seem just fine to me."
"It's worth it, though," Dick added. "This has been great for skills and confidence building. I can't wait for Bruce to start taking it next week so we can practice together. I'm feeling more confident that I could beat him now. Who knows, maybe I'll even change my code name. Robin isn't going to strike fear in the heart of anyone, is it?"
"Maybe not," Skye giggled, "but who are you trying to terrify anyway? Hopefully we are done with HYDRA."
"It's not just HYDRA, Skye. There are all sorts of bad guys out there, and one day, I'm gonna help bring them to justice. I couldn't save my parents, but once I am done here, I'm gonna make sure that I can help others."
"That's very noble of you, Dick. I'm probably just going to live in a van in some big city and hack into the government's computer systems for fun. Make a name for myself as a bigtime hacker."
"No you're not, Skye." Brock frowned at her. "You're too talented to waste your skills on something like that."
"Not a lot of need for someone who can destroy stuff like I can, Brock. Coulson jokingly suggested that I could be a one man wrecking crew, but I don't see that working out for me. Luckily, I still have time to figure all of that out, at least."
"I want to be a journalist," Clark added, as he sat down next to Brock. "Maybe work at the Daily Planet in Metropolis or the Bugle in New York."
"You might do that, but you're also going to be fighting bad guys with me and Dick, and you know it, Clark." Diana joined them. "Skye, you should join us too. A real Justice League could use someone that can do what you do!"
Skye couldn't help giggling. "Yeah, I suppose that is always a possibility. I'll need a really cool Superhero outfit, though. Do I get a cape?"
"No. You do not get a cape," Brock sniggered. "The last thing you need when fighting someone is a cape to get stuck in something or to be used to grab you and drag you around. Capes are dangerous."
"What?!" Clark and Dick yelled at the same time. Clark continued, "Capes are awesome and look cool. Especially when you can fly!"
"Which I can't, buddy," Skye lamented.
Principal Fury cleared his throat as Rogue and Scott took a seat and everyone stopped talking and looked up at him.
"First of all, I want to let you kids know how proud of you I am. Out of everyone at this school, you seven kids understand the importance of all of this. It isn't about going out and causing trouble, it's about being able to protect yourself no matter what you do with your life. I know that this type of fighting isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea, but hopefully I've given you all a strong foundation that you can build on if you're interested, and if you're not, you can at least defend yourself if you have to. When school starts up, I'm thinking about starting up a little fight club, and I hope you all will think about joining. Have a great rest of your summer and keep training. I hope you've managed to have fun. If any of you are interested in helping with the other two sessions, please stay behind. The rest of you can consider yourselves dismissed."
The kids all thanked Principal Fury as they got up and Scott, Rogue and Clark climbed out of the ring and began putting their things away. Skye took a step toward the ropes, but Brock raised an eyebrow at her and she stayed put along with him, Dick and Diana.
"I know you kids have travel and field trips and that sort of thing coming up, but I think it would be really helpful to have you all here when you're in town. Leave a note for me in my in-box by the end of the day, letting me know what your plans are, and I'll set up a schedule. I appreciate it, and it will be great leadership training for you all."
After Fury dismissed them, Skye put away her gloves and helped Brock put away the mats and store the rest of the gear as she normally did. When they were done, they headed out into the hall together.
"Good for you, Skye. I'm glad you volunteered to help, even though I know you won't be around much over the next couple of weeks."
"Based on that look you gave me, I didn't think that I was being given much of a choice," she teased him. "I won't be here next week, though, since I'll be with the Parkers."
"I'll be on the beach trip with the rest of the 9th graders the week after that."
"Oh. Well, I guess we won't see each other for a while. I'd ask you to send me a postcard, but that seems unlikely to happen. Still, I'll miss seeing you around."
"Yeah?" Brock gave her a wide grin. "I'll miss seeing you too, but you better not slack off while I'm gone. When I finally get to fight you in a contest next year, I don't want any excuses."
"Me? Slack off? Have you met one of my best friends, Natasha Romanoff? I don't think the word 'slack' is in her vocabulary. Besides, what makes you think I'm ever going to willingly risk getting my butt kicked by you in front of the whole school next year?"
"A guy can dream, can't he? Anyway, Diana and I were talking about trying to get the group together a few times a week for running and training once school starts. What do you think?"
Skye shrugged. "Sure, why not. As long as I can still run with Sam sometimes."
He nodded. "No problem."
"So, I'm curious, Brock. What does Mr. Scary STRIKE leader think he might like to do with his life when he grows up?"
"I'm joining the military," he shrugged. "I already know that. Maybe the Marines, but probably SHIELD."
Skye shot him an amused look. "Switching teams now, are you?"
"No. I mean real SHIELD. Not your team."
Her amused look turned to confusion. "What are you talking about? We are SHIELD."
"Oh, come on, Skye. Don't tell me that you've never asked where the name came from? SHIELD is a real organization. Under the radar, but it exists." Brock shook his head in disbelief. "You never wondered what SHIELD stands for?"
"Uhhhh….Well, to be honest, I thought Peggy picked the name because of a shield, you know, like Steve uses?"
"Yeah, but Steve wasn't here our first year. S.H.I.E.L.D. Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. It's a multi-National organization started after WWII. You know how obsessed Peggy is with that time frame. It helped that Fury, Hill, May and Garrett are all part of it, or were before they came to teach at the school. Garrett still technically is, and I am pretty sure the others are too. Fury is the boss. Who knows who else. Rumor is that Fury helped start it, but he won't confirm that, because he'd have to explain how a guy who helped found a group in the 1940's was still around and running it in this day and age."
Skye leaned against the wall and tried to take all of this information in. "How can Fury still be running it if he is the Principal here?"
"Garrett says that Fury and Xavier made a deal to get him here as the Principal, so that he could do both. It's one of the reasons he's gone so often."
"Wait. If SHIELD is real, and you join, I might actually see you in a SHIELD shirt one day?"
"Yeah, but I'll be on one of the STRIKE teams and from everything Garrett says, they operate within SHIELD, but are pretty much their own entity."
"STRIKE is a real thing too? This is all kind of insane. What are they doing? Using this place as a personal training ground?"
"Well, yeah. Probably. But not everyone here is part of it. As far as I can tell, the only other group that exists outside of here is the Fantastic Four, and they are their own little group. Professor Xavier has had a group of X-Men before with Storm and who knows who else, but if they exist now, they are pretty small."
"Wow. I guess I should have been more curious when I got here," Skye shrugged. "I was just so happy to be somewhere that I was making friends and fitting in. Not that it matters, I guess, if they aren't forcing people to join."
"Naah, I don't think they want anyone who doesn't want to be there," Brock shrugged.
"Maybe I really will live in a van and spend my time hacking into SHIELD. Organizations like that are bound to have secrets."
"No you won't, because I'll probably have to hunt you down if you do, and I'm not sure how fun that sounds if it involves you going to jail at the end. Now come on. Let's get upstairs before Ward comes snooping around. I'm sure your boyfriend is looking for you by now as well."
Skye narrowed her eyes as she started walking. Brock usually didn't talk to her about Clint, so she was a bit surprised at the sarcasm that she could hear in his voice. "Yeah, he probably is. We are actually going on a date tonight. Okay, so it is really just the ice skating trip that Professor Pym organized, but it will be nice to get out for a while. You coming?"
"Ice skating isn't really my thing. Besides, you'll have to pardon me if my idea of fun isn't watching…" Whatever he was going to say, he seemed to think better of it. "Never mind. Have a good day and enjoy your skating trip, Skye. I'll see you later." He didn't wait for her to say goodbye before turning and heading toward the boy's elevators.
After a quick shower, Skye made her way into the dining room and grabbed lunch before taking a seat between Clint and Loki. Loki had just returned from Asgard the night before in order to go with the new 7th graders on their trip to Colorado next week.
"How was your last day of training?" Clint asked as she sat. "You look like you survived."
"It was actually a lot of fun. It's kind of weird, but I'm going to miss it." She turned to Loki. "Did you have a good time going back home?"
"It was delightful," Loki grumbled. "I spent most of the time listening to Sif and Fandral go on and on about how excited they were to be coming to the school next year, and helping Thor answer their annoying questions. The rest I spent pretending to care what my father had to say."
"Oh, well I'm sorry it wasn't more fun, I guess. I bet the trip to Colorado will be nice," she shrugged.
"Of course. It can't be worse."
"Hey guys?" Skye asked the table at large. "Did you all know that SHIELD was a real thing?"
She wasn't surprised when everyone seemed to know. Steve gave her a brief history of the organization and Tony, who was leaving in a couple of days to go back to California for a while, just shrugged. "I guess we forgot to tell you that. Oops! Don't worry though, no one is going to draft you or force you to join. My father helped found SHIELD, but I have no intention of joining it. The last thing I want is some corruptible government agency telling me what to do, and I'm sure I'm not the only one."
Later that evening, they loaded up the buses and headed for the ice skating rink. Professor Pym had the entire place rented out for them, and Johnny Storm was once again playing DJ. Professor Pym and his wife, Janet, even donned skates and joined the kids on the ice, much to Hope's embarrassment. Coach May, Vice Principal Hill and Professor Waller joined in as well.
Although Skye had gone ice skating once before with Peter, Tony and Peter's friend Harry in Central Park last Thanksgiving, the experience didn't exactly make her any better at it this time around. Skye and Clint both spent a lot of time falling on the ice, and laughing at themselves. Trying to hold on to each other just led to more falling as they made their way around the rink, but they were both determined to do it. Skye was pretty sure that they spent more time sitting on the ice laughing than actually skating.
They weren't the only ones. Very few people seemed to have been ice skating before so there was a lot of falling at first. Slowly though, people began to get the hang of it and soon most people were able to make it around the rink without too many wipe outs.
Of course Natasha caught on very fast. She was a trained ballerina, and had all the grace and balance that came with that. Bucky, however, gave up and decided to go play video games in the arcade while Steve and Peggy appeared to figure out how to skate pretty quickly. Bobby Drake, who was not unfamiliar with ice, also seemed to have no trouble getting around the rink, but Clint grumbled that he had an unfair advantage as Bobby sailed by them and waved.
After skating and spending time in the arcade with Scott, Hope and Logan, it was time to go back to the school. "Hey, Skye? We still have a little while until curfew, want to go for a walk or something?" Clint almost seemed nervous when the bus pulled into the dorm parking area.
"That sounds good," she replied, as they made their way off the bus.
They weren't the only people who decided to stay outside. A basketball game immediately started on one side of the school and a volleyball game on the other. People were milling about and it was difficult to find anywhere that wasn't occupied until they found an empty bench down near the woods by the pool and decided to sit for a while.
It was a surprisingly cool and clear evening, and there were stars everywhere. Skye didn't get to see many nights like this in Los Angeles or New York City and it was quite pretty.
"Do you know anything about the constellations?" she asked, as she rested her head on Clint's shoulder and looked up at the sky.
"I know the big ones." Clint pointed to an area where the stars seemed to look like a measuring cup. "That's the big dipper. Over there is the little dipper. The three stars there are part of Orion's belt. See how there is sort of an X around it?"
"Well, you officially know more than I do."
"Where we lived in Iowa was pretty dark at night. My mom would take us out sometimes to get away from my Dad for a while, hoping he'd finally drink enough to pass out."
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to dredge up bad memories." Clint didn't talk a lot about his parents, but between him and Natasha, Skye knew the basics. His father was an alcoholic who drank and took out his aggression on his wife, as well as Clint and his brother, Barney. His father was driving drunk one night when he caused an accident that killed both himself and Clint's mom.
"Actually, those are pretty good memories. She'd take my brother and me out to the middle of a field and we'd all lay down and look at the stars. She only knew the real names of a few of them, but we'd make up our own stories about the different star groupings and how they got there. It was nice."
"I'm not sure I've seen this many stars in my life. Being near big cities makes it hard to see them at night sometimes. I had a foster family in California who loved to go to the beach at night. If it was dark enough, you could see the stars over the water. They said they'd take me to the mountains sometime and I'd be able to see a lot of stars, but they didn't keep me around for very long," she shrugged.
"Well, I'm glad you are seeing them with me, then." Clint rested his head on hers and they sat together silently looking into the sky, both lost in their own thoughts.
Soon, Clint moved, causing her to look up at him. He glanced over at her, and she could see a nervous look in his eyes. "Is everything okay, Clint?"
He shrugged and looked down at their entwined hands. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking."
"What about?"
"Just thinking that I'm glad that you're my first girlfriend," his smile seemed suddenly anxious.
"Yeah, me too. Well, that you are my first boyfriend. Don't forget that you were also my first dance partner."
"Oh yeah," he brightened. "You were my first date. I guess Sam got to be that for you."
"Well, that's true. Nat got to be the first person you danced with though, so that balances out. Not that it's a contest," she giggled.
He nodded and resumed watching their hands again. She could tell he had something else that he wanted to say, but he seemed to be having a hard time figuring out exactly how to say it. After a few minutes, he finally looked back up at her. "I was just wondering if maybe, since we have all of those firsts between us, maybe we could also be each other's first kiss?"
Skye froze. Her mind was racing and she had absolutely no idea what she should say next. She was perfectly fine with Clint kissing her, that wasn't the problem at all. She just didn't know how to answer his question.
She couldn't tell him the truth. There was absolutely no way that she could tell him about kissing Brock in the woods not very long before Clint asked her to the dance. She'd have to explain the whole thing, and she wasn't willing to do that for Brock's sake or her own. Besides, she was pretty sure Clint would be upset about it. He seemed fine with the fact that she and Brock were kind of friends, but kissing would be a whole other level.
She briefly considered telling him that her first kiss was with her friend from the orphanage in New York City. She'd told Clint about him before, and it wasn't like they were ever going to actually meet each other, but Clint knew that she was nine years old the last time she saw Matt, and that was pretty young for kissing.
Ultimately, she decided that the best way to answer the question was to not answer it at all. He gave her a perfect opportunity to do just that, when he seemed to take her silence as a sign of not being interested. "Hey, if you don't want to, that's okay. I understand. I didn't mean to make you feel uncomf…"
Before he could finish his statement, Skye leaned over and pressed her lips against his. His eyes went wide for a few seconds and she couldn't help laughing at his shocked expression as they broke it off. "You didn't make me feel uncomfortable at all."
"Oh, okay. Wow. That was kind of unexpected. Nice, but unexpected."
"Really? I thought that was what you wanted?"
"Well, yeah, but if you said yes, I had this whole scenario in my head with awkward looks, slow motion and stuff. Just like on TV or in movies?" Judging by the grin on his face, she was pretty sure that he was teasing her. "I also thought I'd be the one doing the kissing."
"Well, there's still time for that. I don't have anywhere else to be right now."
Apparently he got the hint, and this time he kissed her. It was much longer than the first one, and she completely failed to not giggle through it.
He pulled away and raised an eyebrow at her. "You know, admittedly this is my first time, but I'm pretty sure that if you're laughing at me, I'm doing something wrong."
"I'm sorry, really. I'm not laughing at you and I think you're doing really well. It's just a nervous reaction. You should know that by now," she sniggered, remembering how she completely fell apart laughing when he finally asked her to the dance, much to his horror.
"Well, I guess it's worth it. You're really cute when you laugh." He kissed her again, and she managed to get control of herself this time.
They stayed outside for a little while longer before they had to go back to the dorm. They weren't five steps into the lobby before they ran into Natasha and Bucky, who had just come in before them. Nat gave them a knowing smirk that caused them both to turn bright red.
"I guess that's what happens when your best friend fancies herself a super spy." Skye whispered to him after Bucky and Natasha walked away.
"Yeah, the girl can read me like a book. It's a little creepy. Anyway, it's almost time for lights out, so I'll see you tomorrow morning for archery?"
"Yep. I'll be there bright and early for breakfast. I had fun tonight."
"Yeah, me too," he grinned. "Sweet Dreams, Skye."
She considered hugging him, but settled for squeezing his hand before letting it go and catching up with Natasha who was heading for the elevator. She expected Nat to drill her on what happened, but she didn't. Skye appreciated that, because she wasn't sure she could get through it without giggling again.
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I'm still plugging along with the real sequel to Middle School Heroes, but I haven't had as much time this summer as I'd hoped to work on it with family vacations and doing stuff with the kiddies. Oddly, with school back in session (and my wee snowflake starting high school, YIKES!) I should have more time. I'm hoping for late October to start posting it, since I want to make sure it is finished before I do. In the meantime, I have a few more of these random summer stories to write here.
For anyone wondering why my kissing scenes are few and far between and not very detailed, the answer is that my daughter loves me and this story, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to read graphic kissing written by her Mommy. You can just use your imaginations. :)
Lastly, good call for Skye not making up a lie about having kissed the kid from her orphanage. You never know when that little blind boy is gonna show up again, or where. ;)