Middle School Heroes

Chapter 39 - Going Home and Healthy Paranoia

He squeezed her hand gently. "Yeah? Well he's an idiot."

Skye blushed bright red and looked out the window so that she didn't have to say anything else, because she wasn't sure any actual words would come out if she tried.

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They arrived back at school to an empty dorm, as all of the other students were in class. That gave them all just enough time to drop their bags off in their rooms and come down to the Commons to wait. Johnny told them that Special Interests had been cancelled for the evening as well as school the following day in honor of their return. He suggested it might be less overwhelming if they were in the Commons instead of spread out in their rooms.

"What if Ah would rather just go to my room and not have to deal with this at all?" Anna Marie asked.

Johnny shrugged. "Well, you are going to have to deal with it one way or another, kiddo, but if you don't want to wait here, no one is going to make you." She thought about it for a while and decided to stay.

Rumlow looked like he would also like to leave, but he sat down at a table and put his hands in his head. Skye considered going over to talk to him, but a wooshing sound caught her attention and two blurry objects came flying through the door. Skye wasn't surprised at all when Pietro and Barry were the first two to arrive. "We ran all the way. He's fast," Pietro pointed to Barry, who was talking to Clark and Dick, "but I am faster."

Skye laughed as Barry pointed back and shouted, "I'm faster."

She turned back to Pietro. "So did anything fun happen while we were gone?"

He grinned at her. "Yes, we had parties every night and slept in every day until noon. Wanda has already removed your bed, and begun packing up your possessions. She will be very sad to see that you are back."

Skye barely had time to giggle before Pietro grabbed her suddenly and hugged her tightly before turning serious. "We were all very worried about you. Wanda has been beside herself. She and Carol have been sharing your room, and Peggy slept with them every night. Everyone is happy that you are back, as you will soon see when the slower people arrive."

Skye found it incredibly awkward just standing around waiting for people to show up, like they were in some sort of weird receiving line. She could tell that the others were feeling the same way. Soon though, it was hard to feel anything but overwhelmed as the room began to fill up with people and they were being bombarded from all sides. Skye was actually relieved when Jemma showed up and began demanding that Skye be given some space to breathe.

Felicity was very excited when she and Oliver saw her. "You can't begin to imagine what getting that e-mail was like, Skye. I was sitting right at my desk doing homework when I got the notification and within seconds, our entire floor was in my room. I might have been screaming so loud that I got their attention. Word spread and so many people were trying to cram in that Peggy had to start sending people away. Then Professor Collins and I were on Facetime and we were hacking into anything and everything. You'd have been proud."

Skye laughed. "It would have been awesome to be on this side of that e-mail for sure."

"We were hoping that Professor Collins would allow us to watch the rescue through his eye, but he wouldn't do it. I guess they were worried about something going wrong," Oliver added.

Skye shuddered at the thought. "Well, it was mostly over by the time he got there anyway."

Harleen and Joker both came to see her and Skye couldn't contain her laughter when Harleen hugged her tightly and gave her a very serious look. "Do you see now, Skye? You might not have been paranoid, but people really were out to get you. I bet you'll try harder in weapons training from now on, won't you? Might even have a healthy dose of paranoia as well?"