Chapter Text
Ellie was a second grader. She was supposed to be a second grader. She got "held back," and had to redo first grade again. She liked to tell all of the kids in her class - Mrs. Newton's First Grade Class - that she was older than them and smarterer. They were fast to argue with her, which was just tiring, for everyone.
On that particular day, they're just coloring some things that will go up in the class for the party they're going to have. Her Daddy wouldn't be able to make it, and she didn't know where Mommy was. So, she started to color her pumpkin green, just because she was upset and the other kids wouldn't like it. Then, they'd argue with her.
Just as she was about to color the stem purple, and then the curly thing and the leaf that hang off the pumpkin either bright red or pink, the ground beneath her feet shook, hard. She remembers in the summer of 2012, when she was still in preschool, the same thing happening.
Ellie and her Daddy lived in New York. Earthquakes didn't happen. In 2012, it had been an alien invasion. She really hoped it wasn't this time.
Her teacher had them get under the tables, and so Ellie crouched down next to Daniel and across from Justin and Donna. Donna was scared, she could tell. Justin was trying to seem like he wasn't, but when the lights went out out of nowhere, he jumped. Daniel had been in New York the day the bad guy aliens showed up, too, so he had seemed okay. She breathed through her nose and held the part of her dress covering her knees tightly, remembering Daddy tell her to do that when she was scared.
The ground shook again, and then sirens from outside started to go off. Ellie started to shake.
A loud BOOM came from outside, and the ground shook so hard, she heard stuff fall out of the cubbies, the crayons and glue sticks on the table rattle, a scream from the other side of the room, and frantic shushing.
Ellie was scared, like she had never been before. She curled tighter into herself, and noticed Donna and Justin, neither having been in New York that day, and not having any idea of what to do, do the same.
Things got badder and badder, the shaking getting bigger and the booms getting louder and louder. Ellie breathed through her nose and clutched her dress, wondering distantly what her Daddy was doing.
The wall from the next door class that connects to Mrs. Newton's shook extra hard, more than once. Then, it broke, and two figures came tumbling into her class.
Ellie lived in New York. Of course she knew who Captain America was. Seeing him in person was... crazy, she thought.
He was big, and the thing with him was bigger, but only Captain America seemed to know that they were in a classroom full of little kids. Ellie was a big kid, though.
"Run!" He shouted, while keeping the thing with him from hurting any of the kids. Mrs. Newton took the kids, happy to get out from under the tables, to the hallway, and ran out of Ellie's sight.
Ellie was going to follow - she was! - but then, another shake came, and she slipped on her way to the door, Daniel's hand in hers. He dragged her under a table, and she was about to tell him he was an idiot, when she saw the door was blocked.
Instead, she looked at him, said "thanks" and gestured for him to make himself small. It was just them in the class with Captain America and what looked kind of like Big Bird, but more brown than yellow, and more reddish brown than just brown.
Ellie wondered if she'd live through this, and then thought, Of course I will. Captain America will keep me and Daniel safe.
Captain America and the thing he was fighting don't fight for too long. She saw Captain America throw a good placed punch - her Daddy had taught her some things, things that he said would be helpful for living in New York when she grew up, and punching was one of them - and then the thing starts to move weirdly.
From where she was sitting, she couldn't see what Captain America does after the thing started to move weirdly, but the thing went down, and Ellie barely stoped a cheer from leaving her mouth. She knew better than to interrupt. Captain America stood there for a moment, catching his breath, before turning to them. Daniel stuck his head out from under the table, shuddering when another shake rattles the shelter they were hiding under, and then asked, "are we safe?"
Daniel had always been the bravest first grader she knew. The rest were chickens, and she'd be sure to tell them that she got to meet Captain America - an Avenger! - because she wasn't a chicken.
Captain America nodded, and the two first graders slowly came out from under the table. He stood taller than them both by a lot, so he crouched down so he was only a little taller, and stuck out a hand. "I'm Steve," he said, and the warning her Daddy gave her said she shouldn't talk to him. But he was a hero! Should she...?
Daniel next to her stuck his hand in Captain America's and got out, "I'm Daniel."
Captain America looked at her, then, and she squeaked. "I'm Ellie," she blushed.
He nodded, and told them, "we need to get outta here. Do you know where you're supposed to go?"
Ellie and Daniel shared a look. Neither had gotten the hang of knowing where they were going yet. So they shrugged.
Captain America turned his head sharply, a hand going up to his ear. He listened for a second, then turned back to them. "That's okay. Iron Man says that the fight's mostly away from the school now. Let's go find your teacher, huh?" Then he stood, and gave both of them a hand, his shield on his back.
Ellie was taller than Daniel, but she still nearly had to reach up to get her hand in his. Daniel looked awestruck, and she was feeling it too.
Deciding she wasn't in any stranger danger with Captain America, she told him all about the party, and how her Daddy couldn't come. Daniel added in his own story at the end of hers.
He was smiling at them the whole trip to the classes for the fourth graders, a hall away, where there was less of a mess.
Ellie was smiling, too.