Chapter Text
Natasha Romanoff
If there was one thing Natasha hated, it would be the first day of school.
Oh, and Mr. Coulson’s math classes, but that was beside the point.
She had been orphaned from a young age after being found in Russia by some agents of some kind and was currently leaving the Carbonell Orphanage, which had been founded by Maria Stark, nee Carbonell, possibly one of the nicest people on Earth, in her opinion.
It was a nice place, and Maria Stark visited often, always making an effort to welcome and talk to the orphans there. She had taken a liking to Natasha, though, with her being one of Tony’s friends at school. That made it incredibly awkward when Maria brought Tony with her. She visited the most during the holidays, and those were the times Tony came. Howard Stark never visited though, much to Natasha’s confusion.
She had just assumed he wanted it to be named after him.
Natasha grabbed a granola bar and waved goodbye to one of the owners, and grabbed her bag while taking a quick bite out of the muesli.
The school bus, number 703, had pulled up outside Carbonell Orphanage and looked just about ready to go when Natasha pulled herself into the bus and scanned in. She sat on an empty seat, putting her bag next to her, and shoving her earphones into ears as the bus veered to a start.
Fall Out Boy blasted in her ears, and it took all of her self-control to not start humming along to it. She'd done that before when she was younger - the seniors were not happy about it.
“Some legends are told, some turn to dust or to gold.”
She tapped her foot along with the beat quietly, careful to not disturb any of the other teens even though she honestly couldn’t care less.
“Remember me for centuries!”
Someone gently touched her shoulder and Natasha paused her song and whirled around, glaring. “Jeez, Nat, calm down,” Wanda said in her familiar Russian accent with a small chuckle. Immediately Natasha relaxed and she faced Wanda fully, smiling faintly.
Pietro was sitting next to her, immersed in his phone, looking completely bored out of his mind.
Now Wanda, Pietro and Natasha weren’t all that close. They were friends, and went to the same orphanage, but were in completely different groups. Wanda’s group consisted of herself, Pietro, Stephen, Loki, and Bucky, while Natasha’s had herself, Maria (who also had another group of friends she hung out with often), Clint, Sam, Tony, and James.
If only Sam stopped hitting on her, though.
Of course she was friends with other people. The jocks, for example, which included Steve, who was a part time body builder and full time American Patriot (and yes, it did need the capital ‘P’), Thor, who along his adopted brother Loki was an exchange student from some place in Norway, T’Challa, an exchange student from Africa along with Okoye and Nakia and his sister Shuri, (Okoye and Nakia were also in the group), Sharon Carter, albeit begrudgingly because of her and Steve’s break up (Natasha honestly didn’t know why she was still hanging out with them), cousin to Harvard graduate, Peggy Carter, Drax Destroyer, a big, buff, teenager who was quite dim, and sometimes Sam, but he mostly spent time with them.
A scoff from Pietro snapped Natasha out of her thoughts. The siblings seemed to be arguing again. “You could’ve waited for me, you know?” Natasha asked, trying to get into an easy conversation quickly.
Wanda smirked. “I was up early,” she said, accent thick and strong unlike Natasha’s faint Russian one. “And so was Pietro. You and the others were still dozing asleep.”
Biting back a laugh, Natasha shoved her phone and earphones in her bag and focused on Wanda again. “Did Maria come by?”
“Unfortunately not for Wanda,” Pietro finally spoke, looking up, expression stoic.
Her lips curved into a smirk. “Why, did you want to see Tony again?”
Pietro barked a laugh, and just as Wanda was about to speak a guy called out, “Shut it, dorks!” The three sixteen year olds bristled, and Natasha felt her fingers grip the handle of her bag so tight they turned white. Wanda sat back down, talking in hushed tones to Pietro, and Natasha slumped into her seat, playing the music again after putting her earphones in.
Her phone chimed and her music momentarily paused, and Natasha checked her emails, pleased to see one from Maria.
To: Natasha Romanoff> Wanda Maximoff> Pietro Maximoff> Wade Wilson> Jacob Binny> James Barnes> and twelve others
Cc/Bcc: Howard Stark> Carbonell Orphanage Official
Subject: First day of Year 10!
Hello everyone!
I’d just like to congratulate you all for reaching Year 10!
You have all came so far, and the Carbonell Orphanage is so lucky to have such talented individuals.
As much as I’d love to see you guys on this great occasion, Howard and I have many press conferences today, regarding Carbonell Orphanage and Stark Industries so I send you my greatest wishes.
I can’t wait to see you all soon!
With best wishes,
Maria
Natasha smiled at the email and sent a quick thanks back. Soon enough, the bus jerked to a stop outside SHIELD Academy and Natasha shoved her earphones back in, pausing the song and running outside with a wave to the bus driver, Allan.
She hopped onto the cement path and walked into school, grinning. A new year, she thought. And here’s Clint saying how much everything would suck in Year 10.
“Speak of the devil,” she muttered to herself as she saw her best friend, unsurprisingly covered in Band-Aids, jogging towards her, grinning like an absolute idiot. “Hey, Clint!”
He waved wildly and pulled her into a side hug. “You seem… happy,” Natasha noted, eyebrows creased.
Clint huffed. “You are too.”
“Not going to deny it,” Natasha said simply and the two walked inside the gates. “How’s your holidays been?”
Clint shuffled a bit as they made their way to their groups spot underneath the oak tree just inside the gate and sat down. “Alright. Dad got pissed at me, though. In all honesty I didn’t mean to hit him in the head with a rock.”
Natasha snorted and Clint leaned back against the trunk. His mouth opened to say something but then a familiar, only partly annoying, but very arrogant voice called out, “Hey Katniss! Hey Red!”
Sitting next to them was Tony, who was smirking. “What’s so funny?” Clint asked, only partly groaning. Natasha dropped her bag on the floor.
“Oh, nothing,” Tony said, feigning innocence. “But just look whose got the mansion to themselves for a whole-fucking-week?”
James sat tiredly next to Tony. “Yeah, we know it’s you, Tones.” He directed his attention to Natasha and Clint, and she noticed how bleary eyed he looked. She was about to ask why when he said, “He came over to my place and didn’t. Shut. Up.”
Chuckling, Clint shook his head. “Only you, Tony. Only you.”
“I’m sorry that I was happy,” Tony snapped cheekily, starting to chuckle.
Natasha frowned. “I thought your parents were going on a trip later in the year,” she noted, remembering what Maria told them in the email. Tony frowned, as if wondering to how she knew that. He obviously didn’t think Maria would tell them such information like that.
“One, stalker, that's creepy, how do you know that, and two, dad said they wanted a break from me, so he said that they’d see me in a week,” Tony said, smirking again. “Maybe I should annoy him more often…”
Clint yawned. “Okay, enough with your yapping, Stark, isn’t there supposed to be a new girl coming today?” Natasha pursed her lips together and nodded. She remembered alerts from the school telling Year 10 that a new girl and new boy was coming and someone, who ended up being Steve Rogers, was going to show them around.
Tony scowled. “Yeah, and Rogers is showing her around. He gets chosen for everything!”
“Why, Tones, do you want to get chosen?” James asked, leaning backwards and poking the grass with a twig.
“If Stark got chosen to give a girl a tour around the school he would probably begin making out with her the second they leave the office,” Clint said, fidgeting with the hem of his jacket.
Tony raised an eyebrow, unbothered by their snarky comments. “Nah, I think he’d probably do it in the office just to piss the teachers off.” Natasha was proud of her comment, especially as Tony inclined his head in agreement.
“Bingo!” Tony exclaimed, smacking his hands together. “You know me so well, Tasha!” He meant it as a joke, cause everyone in their group knew he was dating Stephen and would never cheat on him.
When they first started dating, Natasha was confused, but they were both two smart, arrogant teens, and they always seemed to be happier when around the other.
“Wish I didn’t,” Natasha muttered sarcastically, smiling a genuine smile as their group broke into a conversation on how their holidays went.
Yeah, this was going to be a good year.