Work Text:
“Alright, class. For next week, please write an essay about three people you look up to. It can be as long as you want. And please,” Ms Brown fixes her gaze on Lila, “Please don’t brag or lie. Just be honest.”
The bell rings and class is dismissed for the weekend. Lila sighs, grabs her bag and tries to get outside before Ms Brown tries to stop her. She doesn’t like school very much anymore. Sure, the prospect of learning things from a teacher instead of Momma, with a lot of children her age instead of just Cooper, had been cool. But every time she talked to someone on the playground about superheroes, it ended in a fight. She has been with the principal five times this month alone and Momma is angry with her about it. But the other kids and the teachers called her a liar, and she isn’t. They told her to stop lying about all the people she knows. She isn’t about to. And now this essay...
“Hey Lila. How are you going to do that stupid essay?”
Lila looks to her left and sees Bobby Green, a boy from her class who isn’t really what she called a nice person. His grin tells her everything she needs to know about his intentions. She clenches her fists in her coat pockets and tries to ignore him. Only half of the playground left; she can see Cooper waiting at the gate.
“I mean, Ms Brown said you can’t lie on this essay. And we all know you’re a little liar,” Bobby grins when his dumb friends from fourth grade catch up with them.
“You know what, Bobby? Have a nice weekend. You might actually stop bothering me if you have a nice weekend for once.”
She starts running when she heard Bobby crack his knuckles. If he throws the first punch, maybe he will get the punishment this time. She can see Cooper waving at someone. It wasn’t Momma picking them up today. Oh, Aunty Nat! Lila puts a bit more spring in her step, making her skip. The boys from fourth grade are still behind her, she knows, but if she skips, they can’t get her. She’s fast when she skips. It’s something Aunty Nat taught her, to dance away from her opponents. But skipping is easier when you’re trying to look as if you’re not running away, but running towards someone else.
On the ride home Lila is quiet. If anyone realises something is the matter, they don’t bring it up. Cooper tells Aunty Nat about his day instead. Lila frowns at the cup holder. She shouldn’t be thinking about Bobby and his fourth grade cronies, that will only ruin her weekend. What does Uncle Sam always say when she felt mean? She can’t really remember right now. But she feels mean and she hates Bobby and his idiots. There, she said it. Or at least thought it. And Ms Brown shouldn’t be calling her a liar. But if she goes to the principal again, Ms Brown would only laugh at her. The principal thinks Lila was a liar, too. It’s just so unfair. Lila knows a lot of superheroes and she can’t even tell people about it? Because she’s only a kid? Momma talks a lot about how they had to keep quiet about Dad being an Avenger; but this is getting unbearable. She is not going to serve another punishment (detention or otherwise) until the teacher stops calling her a liar. If only she had the courage to tell Momma, or Dad. Or anyone really. Pietro would be at school in no time. Wanda would be really scary to Ms Brown. And if Bucky would go, she thought, he’d only have to stare at the principal. He does that really well, staring. He wins all the staring contests. She only has to say it. But that’s not how the world works, right? Getting someone to be mean for you and get away with everything?
When they get home, Lila goes straight to her room. She only says hello to Momma and Dad. Lucky pads after her, making sure she’s okay. She isn’t, but she has work to do.
“You know what, Lucky? I am going to write that essay my way. I don’t care if they think I’m a liar. Now, who am I going to add?”
She takes a new sheet of paper, grabs a pen and starts writing. Lucky curls up under her desk, a little bit under her feet and rests his head on his paws. His ‘old dog going to sleep’ huff tickles Lila’s feet and she giggles a bit. Silence hangs in the room, only the scratching of the pencil and Lucky’s soft huffs breaking it. Her door is still open however, and she can hear every word of the conversation her parents have with Cooper.
Momma asks first.
“Cooper, sweetie, is Lila ... is something the matter with Lila at school? She’s been fighting a lot lately and today she was so quiet.”
“Why are you asking me now, Momma? Pietro was going to run with me after homework.”
Cooper wants out of this and she completely gets why. Lila grips her pencil harder.
“No, space man. Not now.”
Oh boy, Dad is trying too. Lila puts her feet on the ground and stops writing. Lucky puts his nose against the big toe of her left foot. It’s a little cold, but she knows he’s trying to be a supportive dog.
“Ms Brown calls her a liar when she talks about Uncle Steve and everyone else. The principal called her a liar in front of everyone at school. That’s why she’s got so many detentions and lines to write. She broke the wrist of a boy in my class last month after he told her she was delusional. He deserved it.”
It’s quiet for a bit and Lila hears the creak of the backdoor, the swish of skirts and the thump of boots on the stairs.
When Momma speaks again the thumping stops. Lila tries to write more names on the list.
“We need to talk to her. And to her teacher. And the principal.”
She has more than ten names on her list and only three people she can write about.
The next day Lila tries to be a bit cheerier. She gets up at the same time she usually does, watches the same TV shows she normally does before breakfast and even helps set the table for once. Up until after lunch she gets away with her act. Pietro is out with Lucky. Momma and Dad do clean-up after lunch. Wanda is screaming at the washing machine and taking it apart, after discovering that one of her new glove things disappeared in it. Cooper is at the computer, scouring yet another website Jane sent him for research. But she knows she’s under scrutiny and Bucky’s not reading the newspaper, no matter how hard they both try to pretend. She scoots closer to him on the couch anyway.
“What’s the best thing you’ve read today?” she asks, like she does every morning. Only on Saturday she waits until after lunch, because on Saturday it takes forever before the newspaper gets delivered. Bucky looks up, thumbs through the newspaper back to page 7 and shows her the picture of an old lady in front of a stage. Dutch grandma (77) only goes to techno music festivals, the headline says and Lila giggles.
“Well, if it keeps her happy and active, then that’s good, right?”
Bucky just gives her that look (the one Uncle Steve told her about, the one she has to avoid) and she knows she’s been found out. Lila looks at her feet, bright blue socks getting a little dusty.
“Can you help me write an essay for school?”
“Sure. Do you want to write it here or upstairs?”
Lila looks Bucky straight in the eye, as if she’s not feeling tiny under his gaze.
“Upstairs of course. All my stuff is there. And the work I started already.”
Lila finds that writing the essay itself was not as hard as it could have been. Bucky is a good listener; he’s proven that time and time again. He listens to her rambling the essay out loud, telling her that yes, she’s got enough about Uncle Sam. He also stops her from writing about him.
“It’s still a bit a sore spot. Maybe you can write about me later,” he tries to soothe her when he sees her lip trembling. Lila’s got him wound around her little finger and they both know it. Brat.
When she finishes the essay, she finds out it’s too long by about three people. Bucky shakes his head at her insistence to rewrite it, cut out some bits, even burn a paragraph.
“You’re not going to burn your homework. Your dad might just kill me for letting you near an open fire.”
She stares blankly at her big brother. “You do know we have, like, four fireplaces in the house?”
He nudges her to the door. She struggles a bit, braces herself so she doesn’t move, but he slides her over the floor with ease.
“Come on. Let’s show Momma and Dad what you wrote. Before Ms Brown sullies it again, the old bully. This is your moment, kid.”
She blows a raspberry at him, but bounds down the stairs anyway, her braids dancing with every step.
Momma and Dad are on the couch, enjoying the quiet time before dinner. Nath is in his play pen, babbling to Lucky and petting the old dog on his head. Lila waits until Bucky is downstairs with her before she goes to stand in front of the fireplace.
“Momma, Dad, I want to tell you about something. For school I have to write about people I look up to and I want you to hear it.”
She holds up her paper before either of them can say anything.
Bucky gives her a small nod and she takes a deep breath, looking at Momma’s wide grin and Dad faint grin over the top of her sheet.
“First there’s Uncle Steve. Most people know him as Captain America, but I can call him Uncle Steve. I’ve looked up to him since forever. Uncle Phil taught me all about him, we saw all the movies, collected all the cards and we even went to the museum!”
Lila clearly remembers the first time she was allowed to go through Uncle Phil’s collection of Captain America merchandise. She was three years old (“Actually you were two, and how is your memory so sharp?”) and Uncle Phil had asked Momma if he could take her over to his house to go look at his collection.
“There are some things I feel she needs to have,” he told Momma.
Lila looked in awe at all the action figures. Uncle Phil helped her rifle through his card collection and let her look at all the DVD cases with all the movies Captain America had ever made.
“Pick one,” he said. “Pick one figure and it’s yours.”
Lila pointed at a figurine that had obviously seen better days. The action figure was complete, shield and all, but it looked… well-used and well-loved.
“That one, huh?”
Uncle Phil looked at her, then at the figurine. That one was the first one he ever had. He got that from his father. Lila nodded and Phil handed her the figure.
“Let’s go to the museum today. They have an exposition on Captain America I think you might like.”
“When the aliens attacked in New York, Uncle Steve took the lead and fought back, like he did back in World War 2 (and the films of course!)”
TV coverage doesn’t lie when you don’t have the sound on. But when it’s on, there’s people saying nasty stuff. Momma didn’t let them watch TV today. Cooper went into the kitchen anyway, when Momma was upstairs for a bit. He came back out a bit angry. Days later, Cooper told Lila Captain America was on TV; she apparently just waved her Captain America figurine at him, babbling something that vaguely sounded like the song Uncle Phil has as his ring tone.
“You’re right, Lila. The world is safe thanks to Dad and Captain America,” Cooper said and watched as his little sister’s face lit up with a big smile.
“I look up to Uncle Steve because he doesn’t give up and because he doesn’t like bullies.”
Lila looks up from her paper and swallows hard. It’s all her Momma and Dad need to know what’s been bothering the last weeks.
“Lila, dear. Look at me. You don’t like bullies either. And I’m pretty sure you haven’t given up. We’ll talk to Uncle Steve about it. We’ll talk to your teachers about it,” Momma promises her.
Dad gives her a grin.
“And you know if we tell Uncle Steve first your school might not stay where it is for very long.”
Lila giggles. Bucky flashes her a quick smile, but keeps his hands strangely tight around the pillows he’s holding. Lila turns back to her paper, sadness already forgotten.
“The second person I look up to is my Aunty Nat. Aunty Nat is awesome! She’s always really cool when she comes to visit. She has to travel a lot for her job and sometimes she brings us things from very far countries.”
On her fifth birthday, Lila got a massive set of colored pencils from Aunty Nat. It’s straight from Austria, she told her and winked at Momma, who’d been rolling her eyes behind Dad’s back.
“The factory is in Austria, isn’t it?” Grandpa Nick said while handing over a box with blue wrapping paper.
Lila was awestruck. This was an enormous set of crayons. A lot more than the crayons she had, and she needed both hands to hold those! When she finished tearing apart the blue wrapping paper and rifled through the big pile of activity books, she knew what she was going to use all of these crayons for.
“You still know where Austria is, right, Lila?”
Aunty Nat was being sly and trying to get her to talk about Captain America.
“Yeah, that’s where Bucky Barnes died,” Lila said very quietly. Everyone was silent for a moment, and then Lila took a random crayon out of the box and gave it to Aunty Nat.
“That’s your color now.”
“One time she was on TV and they called her ‘Black Widow’. I was small back then and when I looked it up, the book said a black widow is a spider. I’m scared of spiders, but not of Aunty Nat!”
Lila wiggled a bit more so she could lie down on the sofa between Lucky and Dad’s legs. The news was on, jingle blaring really loud. Dad forgot his hearing aids again. He’d been on edge for the last few weeks.
“And back to the hearing of Natasha Romanoff, A.K.A. the Black Widow, on the massive information dump about the former government agency SHIELD…”
Lila perked up. Aunty Nat was on TV? Why? Why did they call her Black Widow? Aunty Nat couldn’t be a widow yet, she never married. Dad turned the TV even louder; Aunty Nat had started to say something. Lila squirmed in discomfort and left the living room, Lucky on her heels.
“You know what, boy? We’re going to find out what a black widow is.”
“I look up to Aunty Nat because she tells me that whatever happens I have to live my own life and not change who I am because other people would want me to.”
Aunty Nat had been the one to notice, Lila realizes. Aunty Nat was the first to ask about school life. It was subtle.
“Now that I look back,” she whispers to no one in particular, looking up from her sheet of paper. “Aunty Nat always tells me not to change who I am for anyone in school. And that’s what I do. But it’s really hard! They all make fun of me at school. Even Ms Brown! I just wish someone would go there and tell them.”
Momma and Dad look at each other, and Bucky shifts in his seat. Lila looks back down at her essay and swallows hard.
“Another person I really look up to is my Uncle Phil. He is my godfather and he always takes me very cool places like to the Captain America museum exhibit (he also taught me how to spell exhibit).”
“Okay, this is a hard word Lila, but I’m sure you’ll get it. E-X-H-I-B-I-T.”
Momma had to go in town really quick, Uncle Phil had said, and he had come over to babysit Cooper and Lila. They had to do spelling. Cooper didn’t really like spelling, he liked counting more, but Lila loved spelling.
She closed her eyes and tried to spell the word from memory. She was sure she had heard it somewhere.
“E-X-H-I-B-I-T. Exhibit. Example; the museum in Washington has an exhibit about Captain America.”
That’s where she knew it from. She opened her eyes and Uncle Phil held up two tickets.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! We’re going again, we’re going again! Thank you, thank you!” Uncle Phil just smiled. Cooper looked at Uncle Phil. “I’m taking you to the regular tour the day after. Your Momma is coming too, of course, and your Dad, too.” Cooper smiled and spelled “protogalaxy”.
“He is one of the nicest uncles I have had , even though I only saw him a few times a year lately. He used to try and call very often though.”
She slammed herself on the floor, next to the mattress.
“HE’S NOT GONE! YOU’RE LYING!”
Something ripped in her hands.
“HE CALLED ME YESTERDAY! HE’S FINE!”
That stupid Barbie Doll Aunty Maria gave her had to go. It all had to go. It all had to go. Grandpa Nick ‘s pencils broke one by one. She kept yelling and yelling. And more screaming.
“UNCLE PHIL IS FINE! HE’S TAKING ME TO THE MUSEUM IN TWO WEEKS! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!”
Cooper’s old Action Man figures looked at her from their place on the shelf; she punched down hard and the shelf flipped over, taking all the dolls down with it. Lila ripped off everything she could reach from the wall, paper shreds flying everywhere. And then, her eye fell on Uncle Phil’s first present. Her throat hurt. Her eyes were burning and her hands were shaking, but she took the soft action figure and cradled it in her arms. She started wailing.
Momma came and looked a bit shocked.
“He’s not dead, Momma. No one can make Uncle Phil dead. Captain America is there to save him.”
And then she sobbed, just sitting in the rubble of what used to be her room. Momma gingerly touched the bits of foam that used to be a pillow, and went to sit with her. Momma held Lila the way Lila held her action figure, rubbing her back and letting her cry in her shoulder.
“I look up to Uncle Phil because he always tried to call when he was away and he tried to visit very often. Like they said in Lilo & Stitch, family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten. I’ll never forget Uncle Phil, even if he’s no longer here with us.”
Lila wipes furiously at her face.
“I wish Uncle Phil was here. He’d know what to do.”
Momma opens her arms and Lila runs into the safety of Momma’s hugs. Dad hugs her after.
“I miss him too, sweetheart,” he whispers.
Dad kisses her forehead and motions for her to go on. For good luck, Lila runs to Bucky and hugs him too, making him drop a pillow.
“I wanted to write about you as well, but then I remembered the world doesn’t know you’re you,” she whispers into his shirt.
“It’s okay, kiddo.”
Lila straightens, squeezes Bucky’s hand a last time and grins at her paper.
“Okay, we only had to do three people but I was on a roll so here’s the next person.”
“Uncle Sam I look up to as well. I have to, because he can fly. But most of the time he’s on the ground and that’s okay. He has to babysit us a lot. He’s the only that can handle my brothers and me at the same time.”
Cooper screamed as Lila bit his leg, Nathaniel crying in the background from being startled.
“Kids, I just got here and you’re already fighting. Why?”
Uncle Sam didn’t sound happy, and Lila let go of her brother’s leg immediately. Nath was still crying, but Uncle Sam started shushing him and shot a glare at the two still wrestling on the floor.
“Lila says Thor is stupid! He’s not! ”
Lila swiped at her brother, and countered with, “Cooper says Captain America is reckless!”
Cooper pinched her side.
“She says Cap is the better superhero. He’s not!”
That was the last straw. Screaming, Lila threw herself onto her brother, fists at the ready.
Only to stop, hanging in midair.
“Now, kids. I’m only here because your mom and dad are out shopping with Pietro and Wanda and good old James is over in NYC.”
Uncle Sam held Lila up in the air.
“Cooper, get up. No more fighting. And by the way, I am the best Avenger.”
Lila giggled and Cooper tried to suppress a snort. Uncle Sam put Lila down, and focused his attentions on Nath, who was now sniffling and hiccupping, but had stopped crying at last.
Cooper got up from the ground, put away the toy hammer and gave Lila her action figure. They’d been hitting each other with their respective toys earlier, bruises and bite marks angrily marking their skin.
When Nath was soothed and sleeping in Uncle Sam’s arms, drooling happily away on his uncle’s t-shirt, the kids had settled on the couch, book in hand.
“I wanted to stretch my wings today, have a bit of flying practice, but it seems that won’t be happening today,” Uncle Sam sighed.
“I can hold him!” Cooper shot up like he sat on a bee. “I’ll hold Nath, and then you go practice. We’ll go sit on the porch, right, Lila?”
Lila almost threw her book through the open window from excitement.
“YES! Go ahead, Uncle Sam, we’ll watch Nath! Well, Coop will, because Nath likes it better when he holds him, but I’ll check the skies for you!”
Two hours later, Clint, Laura, Pietro and Wanda came back to a sight that made them smile; Cooper on the porch swing with Nath waving and clapping in his lap, Lila whooping and yelling and Sam diving and flying over the field.
“He even was with us in Disney World when we were there for the first time ever. How cool is that? He also took us to to Diagon Alley from Harry Potter that week and that was really nice.”
Lila was still humming ‘The Circle of Life’ when she threw herself on the bed. Cooper was waving at the giraffes from on the balcony. They both were still kind of hyped on a full day of Disney World and lots of sugary snacks. Uncle Sam showed Bucky, Wanda and Pietro their room in the suite, and then put Nath in the baby bed set up in the same room as him and the kids. Cooper finally climbed up to his bunk.
“Uncle Sam?” Lila whispered.
“Yeah, kiddo?”
“Thank you for taking us here, I had a really nice day. And yesterday too.”
Uncle Sam smiled, Lila saw it reflected in the mirror.
“Tomorrow, we’re doing the Diagon Alley from Harry Potter. Your momma told me you two like the books?”
Lila didn’t answer, snores breaking the comfortable silence around the bunk.
I look up to Uncle Sam because he’s a nice person who likes to take care of us and he always knows what to say when I have a problem with people I don’t like. He doesn’t like it when I’m being mean either, so he tells me what to do to stop being mean.
Momma looks up at that.
“Does Uncle Sam know?” She asks and Lila shrugs.
“Not really? Maybe he does. I don’t know, he helped me when I asked what to say to people who are mean to me.”
Dad’s looking grouchy again. Lila knows he’s actually really, really angry but the last time he was that way Momma made him promise not to be really, really angry anymore. Momma elbows him in the side.
“Stop fuming, the dog is looking around. He’ll think we’re having hawk tonight if you don’t stop that.”
Lila giggles and grins at her Dad.
He grins back and turns up his nose, starts talking in that funny voice.
“Oh I see you don’t look up to me then? I see how it is! I’m not your favorite! Pah! See if I buy you any more figurines, Delilah Anne Barton.”
Cooper walks in, pats Nath on the head and goes to read next to Bucky. He looks down at Bucky’s right hand, but Lila can’t see what the matter is. Pietro and Wanda come inside from their walk and laundry respectively.
“I wanted to talk about Piet and Wanda too, in my essay. But then I remembered no one’s supposed to know about them,” Lila says, pouting a little, but still with a smile in her eyes. “But anyway, I want to finish telling you this?”
“My Dad is a very special Dad. He’s strong, fast, likes to shoot with his bow and arrows and he’s always working on the house when he gets home. We can call him Bird Dad some times because Momma says some birds keep working on their nests for years.”
Dad looks up really surprised.
“You told them that?” He asks Momma, as Pietro falls off his chair laughing.
“Laura? You told them that?”
But Momma’s laughing so hard she’s wheezing and it sets off Wanda in a fit of giggles. Lila’s happy to see everyone happy and Dad a bit confused.
“Of course I did, Bird Dad. Now shush, your daughter is trying to tell you how much she looks up to you.”
Dad looks awfully pleased with himself, mumbling about how he likes it that she thinks he’s strong and fast.
“I do like shooting with my bow; I’m going to teach you, sweet- OUCH! Laura, don’t hit me.”
Momma mumbles something that sounds like “getting soft in your old age?”
“She also tells him I’m a lot like him, but I don’t know if that’s true. Dad will do anything if it keeps me safe, he says all the time.”
She only just says it and Dad gets up and wraps his arms around her. Momma claps and start pointing.
“See! That’s the face your Dad pulls when someone hugs him. Do you have that on camera too, Bucky? We can compare.”
Lila’s not sure, but the warm strong arms around her feel a bit like they’re shaking. Dad’s not sniffling, what are you talking about? They sit like that for a while before Lucky wriggles his way in between them. Dad ruffles Lucky’s fur and Lila drops her papers, opting to just cling to Lucky and Dad and Cooper’s come to hug too.
“I’ll always keep you safe, sweetheart,” Dad whispers, a bit hoarse. “And Coop and Nath and your Momma, too.”
Lila clumsily wipes Dad’s tear-streaked cheeks with her sleeve. “Love ya, Dad.”
I look up to my Dad because really? He’s my dad. He’s always there for me. Even when he has to work in, like, Mexico, he calls me to read me a bed time story. Momma calls it de-di-ca-tion.
Momma and Dad share a look and Lila feels warm and happy and safe. Everyone’s moved to the floor, even Bucky, who’s holding his phone like a lifeline. Only now she realizes he’s been recording everything from the beginning. Wanda magics some pillows and blankets around them, and Lila thinks they should do THIS cuddle pile more often.
“Today I’ll be telling you three bed time stories, just because that was so nice of you to say,” Dad whispers as Pietro hands her the essay back. He’s seen the last paragraphs and makes a bit of room, so Lila can lean against Momma.
“Saving the best for last?” Dad asks her and grins when Momma raises an eyebrow at him.
“Shut it, Bird Dad.”
Someone snorts and Lila thinks it’s Pietro, but it could’ve been Lucky too.
Nath babbles something that sounds suspiciously like ‘bird dad’.
“Momma is probably the best Momma in the universe. She’s always there for me and everyone else. She makes the best food, she makes the yummiest cocoa and she absolutely gives the best hugs.”
Momma hands Nath to Dad and wraps her arms around Lila.
“The best hugs, honey?”
Lila peeks from behind Momma’s hands and points at Bucky.
“You know that, Momma. Bucky says so too and he gets hugs from Uncle Steve!” Bucky blushes and holds up the phone. Momma tries to look at the essay, but Lila holds it out of reach.
“Did Cooper teach you the word ‘universe’, honey?” Momma asks and Lila waves the essay at her brother.
“Yes! He also told me it would work better than world!”
Cooper blushes over the book he’s holding and Pietro ruffles his hair. Momma smiles at the sight, and turns back to Lila.
“If Dad’s a bird, Momma is too, he says, because she keeps the nest warm. How sweet is that? There is no one in the world I love more than Momma. She gives me so much.”
“Our nest is pretty warm like that,” Wanda says and Momma laughs.
“We’re all birds now,” she says and Dad half-heartedly flaps the arm not holding Nath.
“You’re all my dumb birds. I love you all so much.’
“I look up to Momma because she’s the best person in the world and I want to be her.”
“You don’t want to be me, sweetie. You’re going to be so much better if you’re Lila.”
Everyone chimes in on that, even Nath, who yells ‘Lila better!’ from Dad’s arms. Lila blushes, puts the essay on the table and cuddles up to Momma again.
“You have written a wonderful essay, little sister,” Wanda praises her and Lila feels something warm in her mind.
She tells all of them the last bit of the essay by heart, she’s read it so many times by now.
“Those are the people I look up to the most. There are others like Bucky, Grandma Bunny, Grandpa Nick, my brother and sister, Uncle Tony, Uncle Thor, but I’m already way over how many people I was supposed to write about.”
That last sentence earns her a good laugh from Bucky, who’s helped her choose six people from a drawing of names.
“I think Bucky cheated on the name thing,” Lila says, sending him a mock glare.
“He only made me choose four people and said fate decided that Momma and Dad HAD to be in my essay.”
“I’m glad fate stepped in then,” Pietro yawns. “Otherwise we’d have to listen about how fantastic I am, and you already know that.”
They stay on the floor like that the whole day, and after dinner Dad and Bucky bring down the mattresses and move the table and couches out of the way. Everyone puts on their pajamas and Cooper yells ‘Living room camping’ as he lets himself drop onto the nearest mattress, almost disappearing in the mountain of pillows and blankets on top. Lucky settles on Pietro’s pillow and lets Wanda rub his ears while Pietro swears up a storm in Sokovian.
Lila plops down on her mattress. Bucky’s going to sleep on her left, and Nath toddles up to the mattress on her right, where Momma’s going to sleep too. His footie pajamas are soft where they brush her arm, and Nath pulls off the matching hat with mouse ears.
“No Nath, that’s your hat. Keep it, little mouse,” Bucky says as he reaches over Lila and gives Nath the hat back, who keeps trying to pull it over Lila’s face.
Momma brings them all a cup of cocoa and they settle down on the mattresses, Lucky now at the foot of Cooper’s mattress. Coop’s not star gazing tonight; living room camping has become rare since there’s now so many people living at the farm. They spend the evening talking and singing instead. Lila knows she’s the second one to fall asleep after Nath, and hears ‘goodnight’ echoing from across all over the living room.
The next Monday, she hands in her essay. Ms Brown takes one look at the page, face turning disapproving again and Lila slinks back to her seat. Bobby Green blows a spitball at her, but misses by about a mile and she ignores him.
‘Today, I’m going to be Lila, and smile and ignore him and Ms Brown being mean.’
It’s a mantra by the time she goes home. Momma’s picking them up.
She sees a flash of red though, at the school gates. Is Uncle Sam coming too? But then it’s gone; at the gates the smell of pancakes lingers. She loves the smell of pancakes.
Two weeks later. It’s a Friday and Lila’s sitting in the principal’s office. She stares at the principal, wanting nothing more than Dad to come pick her up. But Dad’s away with Wanda. Momma’s had to take Pietro to a doctor and no one can come pick her up. The principal is saying something but she can’t bring it in herself to care.
Ms Brown had given back their graded essays. Bobby Green’s stuck his stupid, stupid nose stuck in everyone’s essays and laughed at her for getting a D.
“Stop Lying, your essay says. Ha! Lila the liar!”
Lila’s patience had finally reached its limits and she punched him square in the face, earning herself a split knuckle and Bobby’s nosebleed splattering on her desk and pants. She bit Ms Brown and ran crying to Cooper’s classroom. Coop, who was right in the middle of a spectacular verbal smack down of the bully targeting his bookish friend, looked at her and boxed the bully in his abdomen. That earned him the ire of his teacher, but at least he could stay with his sister in the principal’s office.
She officially has the coolest brothers, Lila thinks and smiles.
“What are you smiling about, missy? You’re never coming to this school again. Lying and fighting and lying about…”
A crunching noise outside made the principal trail off and go pale.
But that’s probably because Iron Man landing on yours and your employee’s cars doesn’t exactly happen every day.