You all had to meet the principal first thing so here you were, sat in front of the most annoying man on earth at 9 in the morning.
And to make it even worse, the bully group was also present. "Now everyone. I hope you've had a good think about your behaviour during your suspension. Going forward there will be no fighting in these grounds, do you all understand?"
A murmur of agreement seemed to be enough as he let you all go back to your lessons. Finally.
The blonde girl leaned over and whispered, "I hate all of you, you bunch of freaks".
With your gaze blank, you turned to her and calmly responded, "yea the feelings mutual Gianna".
After a huff, she was gone.
Soon after, Cooper asked you something. "Guys. Do you think I could get onto the basketball team? I think I want to go to tryouts tomorrow at lunch".
"Dude you do well keeping up with me and a super soldier!" Exclaimed Peter. "Of course you could get in you should totally try out".
"Yea but the team here are really good and its super hard to get in! I don't know maybe I just shouldn't".
"No your going! Just think of it like this, you go and play some basketball during lunch. Either you get into the team or you've just had a fun time".
He was silent for a while clearly deciding what to do until he seemed to come to a decision. "Ok. I'm going to go".
Next lunch time came around without incident and you all stood outside the doors to the hall. Cooper was fidgeting from one foot to the other.
"Well are you going In then?"
He didn't say anything and stared at the doors, building up his courage before taking a step through. His hands visibly shaking as he walked over to the group of boys who would also be trying out. In the stands sat a couple of the best players on the team, clearly they wanted to see who would be joining them.
None of you were allowed into the hall to watch, so you had to peek through the small line of glass in the door.
It started off very slow with them doing different dribbling styles up and down. The bright side, Cooper was the only one that didn't have to run after his ball at some point.
They moved on to shooting, standing from different angles. And Cooper never missed! (Well he missed one but that wouldn't sound as cool).
"I can't see!"
"Shut up Peter we're trying to watch"
The last part seemed to consist of a normal game, coop was put into the non bibs team which was good because he hated those things. You all hoped he'd done well.
During the game he managed to run around most of the other boys more than once. A couple of times he got pushed over by the bigger players but every time he got right back up.
The ones sitting in the stands would occasionally whisper to one another and you hoped it was good.
The game eventually stopped but everyone walked over to the closest end of the hall so you couldn't see any of them.
"What do you think they're doing?"
"I don't know, I'm really nervous I hope he gets in"
The three of you were waiting so long you ended up sitting on the floor.
"Does it normally take this long to join a basketball team?" Pete asked.
None of you knew much about basketball so you just shrugged.
A few minutes later Cooper ran up dressed back in his school uniform. "I GOT IN! I GOT IN!"
Everyone immediately jumped up and hugged him. "We knew you could do it!!!"
"Thanks guys! Even the captain of the team said he looked forward to playing together"
You were very excited and listened to his stories for the rest of the day.
Word got around over the next two days that the basketball team had a new star player and, naturally, everyone wanted to speak to cooper. This lead you all to hide in a classroom during lunch.
"Don't get me wrong", started cooper, "i am very excited that people want to see me play, but do they have to follow me around everywhere!" He huffed dropping his head into his hands.
You laughed, "they're just excited there's a new team member. It's Friday now, hopefully by Monday they wont bother you as much".
"I hope so" he grumbled.
That afternoon was a study period where students can pretty much go wherever they want, as long as it's still in the school grounds, and do whatever they want. Though clearly it's meant to give time to those who need to catch up with their classes.
Since deciding to help the twins you've all been using these study times to actually study. And as long as it's at school, Sarah sits with you all and quietly does her own work. She still has the slight bruising under eye but insists she's fine when anyone asks.
You were in the middle of reading a very interesting article about tissue regeneration when you were rudely interrupted.
"Cooper! Hi how are you? I've heard you just got into the basketball team and your like really good". Gianna smiles down at him tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. Everyone simultaneously gives her a dirty look before glancing around the table, no ones sure what to say.
"Um.. thanks" Cooper finally replies sounding very confused.
"No problem. Anyway we were just wondering if you like wanted to come and sit with us? You know, now that your in the team, you don't have to sit with these freaks". She gestured around the table giving a stupid fake smile.
"No thanks Gianna. I prefer my friend's to be kind and have at least half a brain. I don't think your entire table could scrape one up between you". He gave her a fake smile back.
She gawped at him while everyone else tried to hide their sniggers. "Excuse me?" She finally asked.
"Yes?" He asked faking innocence.
"You we're just mean about us and called my table stupid? Are you going to apologise?".
"No. Not unless you apologise to my friend's after calling them freaks, which by the way, you called me literally two days ago. So why don't you go back to your table with your fake nails and fake hair and leave us alone".
"And fake eyebrows", you murmured.
That made everyone laugh even more than they already were, even Cooper was suppressing a smile. Gianna looked around her and saw a few kids with their heads behind books hiding their laughter. She looked as though steam could start pouring out of her ears at any moment.
"You think that's funny?" She stood seething. "How about i knock that smile off your face huh?"
"I'd like to see you try you bimbo!" You said jumping up from your seat and running away laughing.
You ran around all the tables laughing and taunting her while she ran after you shoving people and throwing books. At one point she threw a book titled 'math for beginners'. You couldn't help yourself and the words came out before you could stop them. "Woah that's a bit advanced for you isn't it?".
Your whole table was doubled over laughing and even Sarah was laughing hard.
After something flew past you narrowly missing your head you decided to quickly climb one of the small bookcases. It was no more than a metre and a half tall but it appears the other girl couldn't climb it. By now nearly everyone in the room had their attention towards you both, either laughing or covering their faces in embarrassment at their friend.
"Get down here James!!" She must be angry if she's last naming you.
"Sorry I can't hear you from up here! You'll have to shout!"
It was probably obvious this had gone too far but how can you stop it at this point?
She continued throwing book after book as you dodged them, by now they were everywhere, scattered across the floor.
"Careful, too much exercise and the sweat will wipe those caterpillars straight off your face!!" You said gesturing above her eyes.
The room was filled with literal screams as kids laughed so hard.
However as soon as the words left your mouth the girl below you dropped the books she was still holding, turned around and picked up a chair. People barely noticed as she held it up about to throw it at you, when the guidance counsellor walked in.
She was a lovely lady and unsurprisingly you were in her office a lot. She also knew a lot about you, not who your parents were but she knew you were somehow related to Tony stark. Apparently he trusted her enough to not tell anyone.
She stood in the doorway of the library. Children stopped laughing as best they could and pretended to get back to work. Despite most of their books still littered around the floor. She saw Gianna holding a chair above her head and her face red with anger. Looking up she saw you standing on top of a bookcase.
"G, please put the chair down. Thank you, now please go and wait outside my office". She spoke softly and waited until the angry girl had left the room before turning to you.
"Now y/n, please climb down from that bookcase, and come with me".
As you climbed down she turned to the rest of the room, "please can everyone else pick up the books for me and put them back where they belong".
You quickly ran back to your smiling friends to get your stuff, "bye guys, see you at the compound Pete!"
The walk back to the office was silent with a few glances from her to you. As you approached, the blonde girl was slumped in a chair still not looking very happy. You were quickly pushed into the room, probably to avoid another situation if you were to be in the same place too long.
The room was surrounded by books, hopefully none of these would get thrown at you, a large desk stood towards one end of the room and the other contained a sofa and assorted comfier chairs. You opted for an odd seat that was so close to the ground you may as well have been sat on the floor, but it span around so that was cool.
On your third rotation you realised she was sat staring from behind her desk. A small triangular thing sat on top of it, reading 'miss Court, Guidance Counsellor'.
After another few moments of silence you spoke up, "if this is your tactic today, waiting for me to speak first, you shouldn't stick to it. I could easily wait here all day in this chair, although technically that comment could be classed as me initiating this conversation but either way can we just get this over with?"
"Really?" She said, sighing. "I see you've read yet another of my counselling books".
"Actually it was one on psychiatry".
"I think thats irrelevant right now y/n, don't you?".
"Yea that's fair, carry on".
She gave a disapproving look before she began again, "you got back from suspension on Wednesday and it is now Friday of the same week. It's been barely three days since you came back from the last incident and your already in trouble again. Ive only met one of your dads once but I know tony would not be happy".
At some point during her ramblings you started to spin around again with your head back looking up at the ceiling. Annoying Gianna had been very fun but now it was wearing off and you were left with an empty feeling. You'd stopped listening a long time ago and started to find patterns in the water damage above. You were in the middle of a story about a horse with frog legs trying to jump up over a talking mushroom when you heard her say your name.
"Y/n are you even listening to me?"
You didn't respond so instead stopped to face her with your head still tilted leaning on the back of the chair, your mouth in a straight line. She let out a gentle sigh and came to sit in front of you on the floor, leaning against the sofa.
"Y/n. I don't know what happened but i know you've had a hard start in life. And now your here 5 days a week bored out of your mind yet you have very few options because your still technically a child. You're smart, both academically and socially despite what it seems. But you cant help these impulses you get that cause you to annoy your classmates and jump off roofs, i heard about that by the way. But these impulses aren't necessarily because your young, it reminds me of Tony, its because your bored. You need to be challenged, you need to find something just like he did that will give your mind something to do. Although maybe don't hunt terrorists in the Middle East".
You let out a small breathy laugh, feeling a little bit better after what miss court had said. It seemed obvious but its hard to come to those conclusions when your stuck in the middle of it.
"Ive called your dad, he said he was coming to pick you up so he should be here soon, lets go wait by the front steps".