"Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world - 'No, YOU move.'"
Peter gave Steve a side-eye, a half grin on his face, forcing himself not to chuckle at the mans words, leave it to Steve to start the new year off with some ridiculous rant about the world. This was only the tail end too, Peter had been hearing about it ever since he and Steve had arrived at the front gates of the academy together about twenty minutes ago.
Quill slapped Steve on the back. "Alright man, we get that you read some Thoreau over summer break, so why don't you shut the fuck up now?"
Things were tense for one long moment before Drax slapped Steve on the back as well and the two of them started laughing, Steve joined in after a long moment. "Alright, alright, I'll cut the crap. I'm surprised that you even know who Thoreau is though Quill." Steve joked right back, falling into the average routine that the two had of busting each other.
It was early in the morning, about nine, only half the soccer team had arrived back at the academy. Quill, well Peter Quill, was the team captain, had been since last year and said that anyone who didn't show up for an eleven o'clock practice, the day before school started, would have to retry-out. It was all talk of course, Peter knew that, but he'd wanted to get to school early and get all of his things moved in, find his new room, his room mate, etc.
The only ones who were even at school this early, the day before opening ceremony, where some teachers, Quill, Drax, Steve, and himself. The others would filter in. Peter assumed next would be Loki and Thor, if it was up to Loki they would be the first ones to arrive and if it was up to Thor they would be the last ones, so the two balanced themselves out and arrived just a little early. T'Challa and Erik would probably come in next, at each others throats from having to be in their moms car together for three hours. Bucky would show up within minutes of Sam which would piss Sam off, but somehow those two seemed to have a perfect mental sync for pissing each other off. Finally, probably an hour and a half late, Scott would roll in with some made up story and excuse for why he was late.
"Fuck your Thoreau." Was Quill's only response, eloquent and pop-culture savvy in its own right.
"Language man." Steve chided and then let it go, sitting down in one of the arm chairs in the main room. Cantu Academy for Boys, founded with a generous donation from an Italian mob lord in the 1910s, had four dorm sections. One for the eighth graders, one for the ninth graders, one for the tenth graders, and one for both the eleventh and twelfth graders. They had small classes, and the upperclassman wing was the largest so almost the entire soccer team, except for Loki, was housed in the same dorm, but Loki was just a floor below them and broke lots of rules to be seemingly in the upperclassman dorm at all times.
Peter took a spot on the couch, next to Quill who was now scribbling something on a napkin, Drax on the other side was seemingly trying to read the book that had been assigned by Mr. Barton for the summer, knowing Drax he would get it read but have very little understanding of anything that happened in it.
Peter's pocket buzzed and he pulled his phone out, swiping the screen of him and Erik together on his birthday open and reading the message.
Received: Erik :) 9:24 am.
can you tell quill we're gonna be late? maybe like an hour.
Sent: Peter 9:25 am.
why? :(
Received: Erik :) 9:27 am.
TC is being a douche nozzle.
"Hey Quill? Erik just said he and TC are getting here late." Peter told him, looking up from his phone for only a minute. Quill frowned at the napkin he was drawing on, waved a hand in dismissal to Peter and then erased something, tearing the napkin.
Sent: Peter 9:30 am.
sure it's not you that's being a douche nozzle?
Received: Erik :) 9:31 am.
keepin me straight petey. see u soon.
"What are you drawing Quill? Picture of your girlfriend?" Steve asked, crossing one leg over the other and turning his phone over in his lap, obviously bored of just sitting and staring at it.
"Naw I'm trying to get our positions ready for this year." Quill said, making one final mark and then setting down his pencil, seeming to be very happy with the finished result.
"I thought we already positions?" Peter piped up. They had the same team last year, so Peter wondered what the end goal of changing everything up would be. Quill seemed to be a pretty good captain though, they'd been four games away from winning at state, which was better than Cantu had done in a long time. Half of the boys on the team were in one soccer scholarships so that the school could get a better team. It was the only sport offered other than golf, which they were five time state champs at.
"Yeah, but I don't know. Something felt off last year. We just weren't clicking. Which makes sense, I mean we got Bucky, TC, Loki, and Pete last year. I don't think we were really using everyone correctly. Listen to this: Loki as goalie-" Peter was immediately cut off.
"My brother trying to deflect balls from himself? Unheard of." Thor announced himself, coming into the room with a flourish, Loki following with a long sigh from behind.
"You know, you don't always have to embarrass me." Loki pointed out and dropped his bag on the floor, sitting lavishly in the armchair opposite of Steve. The room rosters hadn't been released yet and they couldn't get their keys until three this afternoon, so everyone was just generally dropping their things off.
"No, no, listen. I mean Loki's got like mad wing span and he's super fast. He subbed for Scott those few times last year and seemed really good. We'll just try it out. Alright, next we've got Erik and Scott for our central midfielders-" Peter was again cut off.
"You want Erik as a center? Dude he'll kill you." Peter interjected. His boyfriend always played midfield. He was easily the most offensive player the team had, wanted to be in on the action. He wasn't great at scoring goals, but he could get the ball to a striker no problem.
"Yeah, that's the problem, his temper. He's on real thin ice with the coach this year after his red card last year. Centers gotta be tall and big, I think Erik'll do great. Okay, if we're done with the interruptions: Peter you're our wing back this year, no change there." Peter was alright with this, it was the position that demanded the most running and if there was one thing Peter was good at it was running-well and scoring goals, but mostly running. He'd been playing wing back since he was a kid. "Sam's gonna be right wing back. Thor you've got midfield defender once again, so I don't want any more of this sibling rivalry shit from you two. If I see one more accidental leg sweep then both of you are out." Quill had a dead serious look in his eye and both of the brothers sobered, nodding at the warning.
"Bucky and Steve, central midfielders. I don't know about this one Steve. I mean, I know you guys can work well together but you think Buck is up for this one?" Quill was referring to what had been Bucky's potentially career ending injury last year. He'd been playing center and gotten his arm basically crushed under someone on the opposing team. It had been rebuilt, but no one other than probably Steve and Sam had seen Bucky over the summer.
"I think he'll be good. I mean he sucks at tennis now and he can barely swim, but he's got this. I'll worry about him." Steve assured. they'd been dating since as long as Peter had known them, honestly had thought that someone was going to die the day that Bucky got hurt, but he was still one of their best players.
"Alright, he's got this then. As always T'Challa is our attacking midfielder, Drax will take wide midfield and I'll take forward. Everything sound up to code guys?"
"Sounds great Peter, so we're starting practice at eleven?" Thor asked, the only one of the group that didn't call Peter 'Quill.' He hadn't always gone by that, but the team preferred calling someone 'Quill' to calling them 'Parker.'
"I don't know, TC and Erik are gonna be late. Scott probably won't get here till next month. I hate to call you guys here for no reason but... Yeah we night cancel practice tonight."
"No worries, I think we've all got some stuff we can get done." Steve said, giving Quill a reassuring smile. Quill was definitely the captain, but Steve was like their reassuring grandpa who always thought you were doing good.
"I'm gonna go for a jog, anyone wanna join me?" Peter asked, standing up in his sweats and Cantu Soccer tee shirt.
There was a chorus from around the room of everyone simultaneously responding: "Fuck no," "Hell no," "No thank you," "Maybe next time," and "try-hard."
"The answer is a cordial no, but you're probably going to be in the best shape for all the laps we're running tomorrow." Quill promised and Peter gave him a nod and a grin before making his way outside.
The air was crisp in the fall, and it stayed crisp until spring, while winter was almost completely missed. It was a good temperature for running though and Peter started up a brisk pace to get to the pitch that was ringed with quarter mile laps.
Peter loved his team, but sometimes only in small doses. They could all be a little much and it was hard to get them all serious and focusing on one task other than soccer. Drax, Thor, Quill, Loki, and Bucky were all in on soccer scholarships, didn't mean that they weren't smart, just meant they were great at soccer. TC, Erik, Steve, Sam, and Scott all had absolutely loaded families, which left Peter as the odd one out.
He was in on an academic scholarship, had just gotten in last year after being noticed for his test scores. Peter really, really wanted to pursue soccer though, and it had been hard last year to balance school and soccer. He'd tried to get the Headmistress to change his scholarship from academic to athletic, but she's told Peter that his mind, more than his body, was an asset to the school.
On the field Peter began his laps. He'd been running at least a mile a week, but he was worried that his time had gotten worse since last year when he'd ran a five fifty. He left his phone on the bench.
Two laps in and Peter could tell that he wasn't in great shape. He had a little bit of a stitch in his side that he was going to blame on his greasy breakfast and he was slightly out of breath, which he would blame on the fact that Cantu Ac. was in a higher altitude than his pitch at home. They were all just excuses though, Peter hadn't trained enough over the summer.
On his way back around for his third lap he noticed two people sitting on the bench. One he easily recognized as his couch and the other he didn't recognize at all. Peter slowed to a jog and finally a complete stop when he got to both of them, looking between his coach and the stranger with a raised eyebrow.
"Hey coach." Peter greeted, wondering why he was being watched. He supposed they could have just been sitting on the bench for no reason, but he was worried it was about him. Peter was always worried that coach was going to boot him, think that he wasn't as good as everyone else. A small part of Peter was actually glad that coach saw him running without the team, showed his dedication.
"Hey Peter. How was your summer?" Coach Phil Coulson asked, wearing a smart pair of shades and a charcoal tweed suit. Coulson always wore either a track suit or a regular suit. And the tracksuit was basically reserved for game days.
The other man was strikingly handsome. He was wearing shades as well, but they were more expensive, aviators. His suit was striped and smart, better fitting than Coulsons. His facial hair was perfectly shaved and Peter had to remind himself that he wasn't wearing sunglasses, and he should probably stop studying the mans face.
"Uh, it was pretty good. Tried to get some practicing in. You know Quill redid the positions?" Peter asked, putting his hand in his pockets and trying to look casual while a bit of sweat dripped down from his hair line. Luckily he didn't sweat a lot, Drax would be positively sloshing after a bit of a run.
"Yeah, he and I talked about it this morning. You think he made the right calls?" Peter had absolutely no idea why Coulson would be asking him this. He was junior, had only been on the team for a year, there was no reason why Coulson would want his opinion.
"Of course, sounds really good! I'm a little worried about Erik as a back center, but other than that, and I can try and deal with him too." Peter answered truthfully. There was nothing wrong with Quill's arranging, and if he thought that he could handle Erik, then Peter would believe him.
"Pete," Coulson tweaked his lips to the side and took his sunglasses off. "You know, Erik isn't your problem to deal with Peter. You're dating him, you're not his mom, gotta think about yourself sometimes."
Peter was a little taken aback by the words. He figured that Phil obviously knew what was going on in his team, but he didn't think that Coulson had payed any special attention to him. Erik of course, he was a great player, and after the red card that got called on him last year, Pete could tell that Coulson was watching him more than usual.
"Oh it's no problem sir. I know, Erik just has a lot of problems and I try to help him out the most I can." Peter had no idea why he was saying this to Coulson. He'd told Scott how he felt since he was the closest thing Peter had to a best friend, but Pete didn't really open up around others. Even aunt May thought that Erik was just a complete gentleman. He was, most of the time, it's just sometimes it's like a switch was flipped and he was a moody asshole.
"Alright, anyway Pete, this is Mr. Stark, new math teacher." Coulson introduced and the man to Coulson's side held out a hand for Peter to shake.
The hand was soft, but now gross soft, slightly better than the average hand. It was bit too, enveloping Peter's in it. He half expected it to be perfectly clean and dainty but Peter could see grease under his nails and callouses on the pads of his fingers. After taking his hand in, Peter immediately withdrew his, realizing that he'd been holding it for a little too long. "Uh, nice to meet you Mr. Stark." Peter stammered out.
"You too kid, what math class are you taking this year?" Stark asked, pushing his sunglasses back on his head and perfectly mussing his hair into a black spikes. He had small lines around the corners of his eyes, but Peter figured he wasn't any older than 35.
"I, uh, Calc III and Linear Algebra." He said. Peter was allowed to drop an art credit so that he could take two math courses this year. These were the highest level ones he could take at the school and the administration was trying to figure out what he would do next year: take online college courses, or bring in a private tutor.
"I'll see you tomorrow then, twice. You smart Peter?" Mr. Stark asked and it took Peter aback a little bit. Both these men were just assaulting him with things he didn't expect. Am I smart? He thought to himself.
"I think so, sir." He said, adding a small smile at the end to show that it was in good humor. Peter didn't really like to brag about himself, kind of another reason he and Erik were such polar opposites.
"Pete here's in on an academic scholarship. Best and brightest at Cantu." Coulson interjected, flashing Peter a quick and knowing grin.
"Well then I'm expecting a lot from you Pete. Only six kids in linear algebra, it's not gonna be easy." He warned and Peter was suddenly feeling a little uncomfortable under the direct scrutiny of both Coulson and Mr. Stark.
"I uh, well, you know, I'll try my best sir. I should get back to the dorms. See you tomorrow for practice coach. And um, in class Mr. Stark." He finally forced out, his phrasing peppered with stammering.
"Keep those boys in check Pete. See ya tomorrow." Coulson bid him farewell, Mr. Stark just focused his gaze on him until Peter uncomfortably, and awkwardly turned around to jog back to the dorms.
Received: Erik :) 2:53 pm.
TC and I are pulling in. ya know who i'm rooming with yet?
Sent: Peter 2:54 pm.
ya barton just posted the list. ur with drax. i'm w/ TC.
Received: Erik :) 2:56 pm.
omg rip bby. so sorry for you.
Sent: Peter 2:57 pm.
more worried abt u, heard drax sweats more in his sleep haha
There wasn't a reply after that, just Peter sitting on the bed on the left side of his dorm room. They had a good room since it was on a corner and had two windows. Peter took the bed with a window and could see the pitch from up there.
Everything was neatly and tidily put in its spots. He wasn't one for clutter, and he doubted TC was either.
Peter had known T'Challa, TC, before he knew Erik since they were in the same grade. It was only when Peter got into soccer that he met the brother and they hit it off. He and Erik had been dating for about six months now.
Received: Lokes 3:01 pm.
Peter, are you taking Linear Algebra this year?
Sent: Peter 3:01 pm.
ya, why?
Received: Lokes 3:03 pm.
Did we get a new teacher?
Sent: Peter 3:03 pm.
yes, a guy named mr. Stark. you wanna do study sessions like we did last year? u totally saved my ass
Received: Lokes 3:05 pm.
Your savior is here. aka: yes.
Loki stopped responding, which was typical for him. He rarely texted anyone, and when he did it was just to gain information.
Ten minutes later the door was politely knocked on and Peter yelled for them to come in. TC had just arrived, carrying a duffel bag over his shoulder, a suitcase and Erik behind him.
"Hey T'Challa!" Peter greeted, standing off of the bed to say hello. They were pretty good friends, Peter thought that rooming this year would be much easier than last year where he'd been roomed with some uptight guy named Everett. T'Challa was cool.
"Hey Pete, how was your summer man?" He asked, setting his bags down. Erik entered the room fully, sitting on Peter's bed next to where he was standing.
"It was great, sorry we missed each other the whole time. Erik said you were in Tanzania?" He questioned, sitting down on the bed next to Erik who immediately slung a loose arm around Peter's shoulders.
"Oh yeah, big time medical mission trip. Anyway I'm gonna go find Quill, talk to him a bit about our plays this year. Catch ya later Pete." T'Challa pointedly ignored his brother who was sitting right in front of him. The two hated each other, and as far as Peter could tell, it was mostly Erik's fault. Erik never liked that TC was a better soccer player, in fact he was the best soccer player on their team. He just wasn't the captain because he didn't want to be.
"Like I said, I'm so sorry for you." Erik said with a sigh, laying back on Peter's bed and stretching himself out. "But I know he's nicer to you than he is to me."
Peter lay down next to him, turning on his side to lean his forehead against Erik's rib cage. "He's my friend Erik, I'll be fine." Peter reassured.
Erik just drummed his fingers along Peter's spine and stared up at the ceiling in though. "You read that book for Barton's class?"
"Of course." He said and then thought for a moment, sitting up and looking down at Erik. "No, Erik, you didn't." He said, exasperated.
"Oh come on Petey, it's not that big of a deal. Just fill me in on the major plot points so I can write a dumb one page summary. You're the smart kid in the senior English class, help a brother out." He said, huge smile on his face that made his eyes crinkle up. Erik's hair was tied at the top of his head and Peter thought he looked absolutely adorable, even when he was coercing him into doing his homework.
"I'll just write it." Peter sighed and lay back down, his ear against Erik's chest now.
"And that's why you're the best Petey."
School always started with a lackluster breakfast lasting from 6:30 to 7:50. They offered a wide array of food since some kid's parents were pouring thousands of dollars into the school, but Peter was always in at 6:30 sharp, eating a bowl of plain cereal.
This morning he had his laptop out in front of him, quickly typing out the last few words to a summary of The Things They Carried, and book about the Vietnam War, which had actually been quite good, but apparently the soccer players at this school were too good for books.
His summary was brief and concise, Peter was pretty good at mimicking Erik's blunt writing style. He printed it out in the library, stuck it in his bookbag, and made his way back to his dorm. By the time he'd finished his cereal and done all of that it was 7 and still basically no one was up yet.
In the dorm again, TC was just starting to get up and Peter changed out of the ratty jeans and shirt he'd worn to breakfast and into the black slacks and red pullover he had to wear for class. The uniform wasn't super strict, but black slacks were a must and Peter had to be wearing either a button down, the school sweater, the blazer, or the sweater-vest. It was kind of nippy outside today so he opted for the warmest option.
Received: Cap Quill 7:10 AM
[recipients: Lokes, Thor, Erik :), TC, Bucky, Sam, Scotty, Drax, Sam W.]
practice at six guys. dress warm. we're doing laps. scrimmage on sat
Peter had been expecting that message so he pocketed his phone and took a seat on his bed, messing around on his phone until it was really time to go. Sometimes Peter got up early just so he could go for a run, but sometimes it was nice to just chill out on his phone for forty minutes.
The bell rang as Peter was making his way to his first class, Linear Algebra with Mr. Stark.
There were six other kids in the class: Loki, Steve, and three others that he didn't know. They looked like they were probably seniors, but Peter really only knew the soccer team. So Peter took a seat inbetween Loki and Steve, who had left an awkward desk between them.
"Morning Pete!" Steve greeted, always happy in the mornings.
"Hey Steve, didn't know you were taking this class." Peter commented. Steve had always been pretty smart, but not like noticeably smarter than the rest of the team.
"My parents say it will look good on college apps. I'm not sure though, I might need a lot of tutoring from you two." He said to both him and Loki. As always, Loki looked flippant to the request, Peter just smiled at him.
The bell rang again and Mr. Stark finally came in from the office that was attached to this math room. There were only three math teachers in the entire building, Mr. Stark had the best room, by far.
Once again, he was dressed to the nines. Obviously designer shoes, and this time a pair of perfectly fitting jeans and a dark blue button up. Peter had to once again, force himself to stop looking at Mr. Stark. Sure, Pete thought that a lot of people were attractive, but Tony kind of knocked it out of the park. He was smart, well dressed, and apparently not afraid to get his hands dirty, Peter thought this was going to be a good class.
"Morning guys. I'm Mr. Stark, your new teacher for the year. Apparently the last teacher wasn't actually that great at differential equations, but I think my degree from MIT had learned me a few things." He joked, all eyes were on him and suddenly Mr. Stark looked just the slightest bit uncomfortable. He was suave, confident... But not incredibly confident in front of a bunch of high school kids, from what Peter could surmise, maybe it was his first teaching kid. "Anyway, uh, let me call roll real quick. Alright, Nick?" There was hear from a young black kid that Peter absolutely didn't recognize. "Johnny?" And another answer from a kid who had his uniform absolutely mucked up and looked like he'd just dragged himself out of bed. "Pietro?" A kid that Peter was pretty sure he'd seen around before answered, but Peter was one of the most most unobservant people that he knew. "Steve?" And of course Steve answered with and overly pompous 'present.' "Loki?" Loki didn't even bother saying anything, just raised his hand a bit off the desk. "And Peter you're here." Tony nodded at Peter and he quickly looked away.
Stark looked threw some papers on the desk in front of him before snagging the one he'd been looking for. "Ah, first thing's first, announcements. As you know, I'm your homeroom or adviser or whatever for the year. I'm supposed to tell you to come to me if you have any issues or need any help with you homework, but I would strongly suggest seeking out Banner or Barton as they're a little more cuddly. Ah, there's an assembly at five in the main hall, soccer kids are excused early for practice. And I think that's it. Any questions?" The silence in the room was deafening and Stark once again shuffled papers around on his desk, obviously trying to collect himself.
"Okay, so linear algebra," Stark began, and from there he didn't seem to have any problem projecting confidence across the class room.
"Peeeeeeeeeeter." Scott sing-songed as he caught up to him on the track. They were running eight laps, two miles and were over halfway done. Him, Scott, and Sam were leading the group, Sam just a little bit behind them, but more to give them space than because he couldn't catch up.
"What's up Scott?" He asked, looking over at the man, basically Peter's bestfriend since he transferred to the school last year. Scott had been epically late, not even showing up to the dorms until eight that morning.
"You seem weird today Pete." He commented, not adding to that or giving Peter anymore idea of what he meant. They went around again, just two laps left.
"Weird how?" Peter asked, trying to understand. Coulson was standing on the sidelines watching them run and taking notes on his small pad that he always had with him.
"Oh you know, just your usual moody routine that you have when Erik is being a dick." Scott said and then looked away so that he wouldn't catch Peter's heated glare.
"He is not a dick. He didn't even do anything." Peter tried to explain, but not many things got past Scott.
"Oh please Pete, like Erik would ever use an MLA formatted header on his paper? You totally wrote that for him."
"I'll have you know that Mr. Barton doesn't accept papers unless they're MLA." Peter retorted, trying to fix the situation.
"It was a fucking two paragraph summary Peter, I really doubt Barton would have cared."
Peter desperately didn't want to continue the conversation, and luckily he didn't have to as they finished their last lap and Sam caught up with them, ruining Scott's gossip mood.
One by one, everyone else got off the track, Thor and Drax last since they just didn't have the stamina that everyone else did.
"Alright guys! I'm gonna call it a day but I am fully expecting to see you here tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, not Friday, and then Saturday at six for our scrimmage against Welton, and then Saturday night for some extra 'practice'." Quill spoke, surprisingly releasing them early. Usually they were out until at least seven, but Peter figured it was barely 7:30.
It had been a weird first two days back though, and Peter was kind of eager to just go to bed.