I walk with Steve up to my new room. "Why don't you take a shower, once you're finished we could head to the hardware store and pick up some paint and stuff to start decorating your room," he tells me. I nod and then he shows me where all of the stuff in the bathroom is. He reaches up and grabs a white fluffy towel from the top shelf and hands it to me. "There's already soap and shampoo in the shower, turn the knob to the left to turn on the shower." He walks out of the room and I hear the elevator ping in the distance.
After the best shower of my life I get out and change into an outfit I find folded on the bed. I unfold it to see a dark green sweater and overalls. I throw it on and find that it's a size or two too big. I shrug, at least it's better than what I normally wear. I quickly brush my hair and teeth before walking out to the elevator. I look at all the buttons and press floor number 93 which is the common area. It used to be Tony's penthouse before he turned the stark tower into the Avengers headquarters. On my way up I go through all the floors in my head. In total there are 93 floors. The avengers live on floors 82-93. Each avenger gets their floor with rooms designed to their liking and needs. Above us is Clint and below us is Natasha. On the floors not for living there are a common room, movie theater, kitchen, and a medical area. Under the avenger's floors, there is Tony and Pepper's apartment. Everything below that is for Stark Industries excluding Dr. Banner's lab and both of tony's workshops.
As the elevator dinged and I walked into the common room I saw a couple of the avengers. Some turned their heads when the elevator dinged. Steve got up from where he was seated. "Hey, Everleigh! I'm glad you found your way all right, and I see you're wearing your new outfit. I hope it fits alright, I didn't know what size to get." I smile and nod my head "It's a little big but thank you so much!" He also tells me that Natasha's coming with us so we wait for her to meet us.Finally, she comes up in the elevator and we get in. Steve and Natasha were talking about where we should go. The elevator moved so fast that we were on the ground level in less than a minute. We walked out of the elevator and went into a car garage. I could tell that none of these were Tony's because none of them looked new or shiny. There was a whole bunch of worn down average cars. Steve walked over to a little black bug and I climbed in the back. Both Natasha and Steve were wearing hats and sunglasses. I thought that was pretty ridiculous though, what kind of a disguise is a hat and sunglasses?
We arrive at a hardware store I have never heard of and Steve parks. Once inside we walk to an area with a bunch of paint samples. I choose a nice muted yellow. "Are you sure this is the one?" Steve asks me. I nod "Yellow is my favorite color!" Then we are given three cans of yellow paint. We walk to another area that has lights. Steve picks out a nice ceiling light and lets me pick out a string of fairy lights. I go for just white lights and we check out. We get back in the car and drive to Target. I was amazed at how large this store was, it had everything! I picked out a nice white comforter with yellow and green flowers on it. We also got a coat rack. Eventually, we made our way back to the tower. I was so excited to decorate my new room! This was the most stuff I had ever had for myself
We brought everything up to my room and started to get to work. Steve put blue tape around the edges of the room and started painting. I helped make my bed with the new sheets a comforter. I also got to help do some painting, while Steve did the edges of the walls I did the center. It was fun, I've never painted before, though I did not like the feel of dry paint on my hands. After a while, we finished the first coat and Steve turned to me "wanna grab some lunch?" he asked. I nod. We get on the elevator and go up to the kitchen. Steve asks what I want. "uh, What about oatmeal?" he frowns. "oatmeal? That's what you want?" I stare at him. Did I say something wrong? Is that not what I should have said? "Everleigh, what do you normally eat at the orphanage?" I panic, If I tell him the truth will I get in trouble? Will the orphanage get in trouble? I quickly wipe the confused look off my face. "oh! Sorry, I just eat oatmeal at the orphanage a lot because it's quick! I love oatmeal" Technically half of that was true, I was used to eating oatmeal at the orphanage because it was quick and cheap...and because I was told I did not deserve anything more than oatmeal. "well I'm not sure that we have oatmeal but I'll put it on the list. What other food do you like?" he says. I think, when was the last time that I had something that wasn't oatmeal, bread, or soup. I shrug "I dunno, why don't you pick," I say. He gives me another weird glance and then suggests we go out to eat. I agree I've never eaten at a restaurant before.
half an hour later I'm sitting at a place that has shawarma. I still don't know exactly what it is but Steve says it's great. Bruce also came along. Steve ordered for me because I had no clue what anything was. It was really good, so flavorful and amazing. But it was getting later so we went back to the tower to continue painting my room. Finally, we had finished by 8:00 and I was very tired. I skipped dinner because I was still so full from lunch.
I walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth and change. I also wanted to check on how my back was looking. It was blue and bruised and the marks from the other night were still red and bumped up. She had hit me hard and it didn't look like it would be getting better anytime soon. I threw on a loose t-shirt I found and some pajama pants before sneaking out my door and into the elevator. I pressed the button for the medical floor. The elevator door opened and I walked quietly out of it. There was a lady with black hair standing behind a small desk. I walked up to her. she looked at me surprised "Hello miss, are you lost?" She asked me. I shook my head and was about to respond when Steve came walking out from a backroom. Oh no, I've been caught. "Hey Everleigh! what are you doing here?" He asked me. "What are you doing here?" I asked him back. "Oh, I have been having a problem with my knee, nothing to worry about though." I nodded. "Thanks again Danielle," He said to the women. Then he walked to the elevator. "You coming Everleigh?" He asked me. "I'll be right up! I was just meeting miss Danielle here!" I lied quickly. He gave me yet another strange look before saying "All right, Hurry up though, I thought maybe we could watch a movie." The elevator closed and I turned back to Danielle once I heard the elevator move. "Hi ma'am, I was wondering, do you have any cut ointment? I'm very clumsy and thought it would be nice to have." She smiles at me. "Of course, hold on one second." She walks into a back room and comes back with a tube of medicine. I thank her and leave quickly. I stop on my floor to put the medicine on my back. I stand in the bathroom mirror and flinch as I put the medicine on my back. Then I put the tube in a drawer and head up to the penthouse. Steve is sitting on the couch talking quietly with tony. They didn't seem to hear the ding of the elevator. "I'm telling you, Tony, somethings up with her." Tony doesn't even glance up from his tablet "She's probably just trying to get used to this new space. don't worry about it" tony says nonchalantly. My heart sinks. Steve thinks there is something wrong with me. But I push the thought out of my mind and I step into the room. "Hi!" I say. Steve turns to look at me. "Oh! Hi," he says smiling. He asks what movie I want to watch. I tell him I didn't get to watch movies. He picks out a Disney movie and Tony stands up. "yeah I'm not sticking around to watch princesses and singing animals" and he walks into the elevator. Steve rolls his eyes. He turns on Tangled and turns off the lights. "want anything to drink?" He asks me. I ask for some water and he quickly comes back with a small glass for me. Then he told J.A.R.V.I.S to let everyone know we were watching a movie. Natasha and Bruce both came up to watch with us. It was a really good movie! But about halfway through I started to drift to sleep. I was almost asleep when I a horrible sensation in my back. I let out a yelp and sat up quickly. Steve paused the movie "what was that?!" He asked me. I touched my back in pain. I realized he had tried to rub my back. When I didn't answer he asked me again. I couldn't speak it hurt so bad, I tried to hold back tears as I stood up. "Everleigh?" He said looking worried. Then He picked me up and brought me into the elevator. He took me down to the medical area. Danielle had been replaced by another woman with blonde hair. "There's something wrong with Everleigh's back, I need you to look at her," He said. The women nodded and led me back into an exam room, Steve stayed in the main area. "Do you have any idea what could be wrong?" She asked me kindly. I nodded and lifted the back of my shirt. She gasped and dropped the clipboard she was holding. "Hold on, it's gonna be okay, I just need to call the doctor up." She said, it almost sounded as though she was trying to reassure herself more than me.
A minute or two later a doctor showed up in the room. after looking at my back for what seemed like forever he put some crazy medicine on my back. It burned almost as bad as when I first got them. then He made my whole family come into telling them about my back. It was very awkward as the doctor explain what it looked like and I watched as some were upset and some looked angry, I'm not sure if it was at miss underwood or me for not telling them. The doctor then turned to me. "Everleigh, would you mind explaining what happened?" All eyes turned to me. I took a deep breath. "This has been happening for years," I explain. "Whenever I did something wrong, whenever I inconvenienced anyone. It didn't matter what it was, Miss Underwood just looked for an excuse to hit me. It got really bad when I started getting older. she stopped hitting me with her hands and began hitting me with a belt, a metal baseball bat. Anything that would leave a bigger mark." They stared at me with sympathy in their eyes. "This happened before you guys visited. She was angry that another girl and I were late and she let the other girl go but hit me on the back. This was the worst it had ever been. Then after you guys visited and wanted me she hit me with the metal one on my stomach, but since I knew I was leaving I tried to fight back. I ran out before she could do worse and I grabbed my stuff and ran out." I felt tears in my eyes. I hated thinking about when I was younger, I mean who could hurt a kid like that. I couldn't even escape her in my dreams. Everywhere I went she was there too. Steve told me he was sorry and talked to the doctor. then I left, no one followed. Which I was glad for, I didn't need them to feel sorry for me.
A/N Hi! I added a lot more to this chapter then what was originally thee. also for previous readers, I took out that she liked gymnastics. I only added it because I loved it at the time. Finally after 6 months i'm back to re writing and editing chapters. I love you all!
- Sydney Elizabeth
Originally written: June 30th 2017
Re-written: February 15th 2021