Archive of Our Own

Notes:

In June, Carol graduated from PS 616, leaving a legacy to be carried on by a disaster of six sophomores. By September, Tony had crashed his car, leaving his father to pay off the charge, and for him to hobble to school on the city bus, begging for either Steve or Natasha to put him out of his misery. When October rolled around, Steve had found himself with the absolute worst stomach bug possible, putting him out of commission for nearly two whole, miserable weeks. Natasha herself could only sympathize. Yet, by then, Bruce had already taken over Steve’s reputation as the most admirable all American hero, getting suspended bashing two upperclassmen into lockers in a fit of explosive rage. Thor on the other hand, attempting not to cheer on from the sidelines, learning the inappropriateness of condoning such violence, had several more meltdowns and episodes of self-harming stim behaviors by the time November showed its face. Clint himself, during the week of Thanksgiving, got moved to a completely new foster home, the married couple sickly sweet in their treatment of his deafness. Natasha, Colson and all the rest, had to verbally ruffle his feathers, before he spoke out on their ableism. What shocked the six most however, was the silence that stretched from Christmas into early January, only interrupted by Natasha violently vomiting, middle of the week, disaster protocols in place.

Looking back, evidence of each and every uncomfortable, sickly, hurtful incident could be seen on display between plastic amber bottles of used medication, tear and vomit stained off white notebook pages, broken and abused minds, emotions, spirits, bodies, if not lockers and adaptive equipment. It certainly became obvious that each and every event was inevitable.

What wasn’t obvious or inevitable however was the uprooting of all six students.