As always, I have no beta so I apologise for any mistakes
Characters belong to Marvel, I own nothing :(

I always said I would never write an Avengers High School AU, but here I am, and I hope you enjoy it!

Again, I am British, so am completely unfamiliar with US schooling system etc, so if there are any major mistake please please tell me and I will try my best to correct it!

Very much a work in progress! Trigger warnings to be added as needed.

*This author is now back at uni, all uncompleted stories are still in progress and i will still be working on them, however it may be a while between updates, sorry!*

Special thanks to hoplessromantic1599 for you help with the American Schooling system! I hope I got it right

The first day back after Christmas vacation was always the worst for Clint.
He was a freshman at Stan Lee Memorial High School and had only just really started to make friends. He'd always been a bit of an outsider; living in a children's home would do that to you, but he'd been stuck with Steve and Bruce in most of his classes, and they were both outsiders too; so it was only natural they'd form some sort of friendship eventually.

They mostly hung out in the library after school. Bruce didn't like taking friends back to his because of his dad; all he said was that he had a temper, and Steve was ashamed of his small modest home compared with most of the students who went to SLM High; he was poor, he and his Mom struggled to scrape together enough money for food even though Steve was the only 14 year old Clint knew who had a job. Clint, who lived in a home, wasn't allowed friends round, and he really wouldn't want to subject them to having to cope with the others kids who lived there. So the library it was.

The reason Clint hated the first day back so much was because everyone was so excited, talking about the holidays they went on, or the new phones they'd got; showing off and bragging about how great their vacation was, while Clint was lucky if he even got a new coat for Christmas; and when he did it was normally second hand and far too big.

So it was the first day back following Christmas, and Clint had already missed the school bus. It was Grant's fault; the kid had been messing with his things all Winter and it had taken Clint 20 minutes to find his left shoe, never mind his school books which were scattered over ever room of the large house which was currently the home of 18 children waiting to be fostered or adopted. Grant was supposed to be adopted soon; the perks of being a cute eight year old with dimples. Clint had no hope of ever being adopted and had accepted it long ago; Barney had told him as much two years ago when he'd run away, he'd tried to get Clint to go with him, but he'd been naive and scared and decided to stay, hoping Barney too would see sense and stay with his younger brother, but no, he'd ran away and probably joined up with another circus just as bad as the last.

He arrived in the office outside the principal's office; one of the requirements of arriving late was having to sign in and explain why, and there he saw Jessica Drew. She was a bit strange; she liked to talk and was over friendly, but she was nice to everyone and always made an effort to smile, which he guessed was why Principal Fury had chosen her to show the new kid around

There was a small girl, with wild red hair sat in the corner of the office, waiting. She was swinging her legs impatiently and purposely avoiding eye contact with everyone

"Hey Clint!" Jessica greeted him with a warm smile as he entered the office, Clint honestly wondered how anyone could be so genuinely pleased to see people all the time

"Oh hi Jessica, how you doing?"

"I'm good thanks, you?"

"Yeah, same old" Clint replied, appreciating the fact she had refrained from asking him about his Christmas break
"You know who that is?" he asked quietly, nodding to the red head in the corner who was still staring at the floor

"Oh she's new; she's from Russia or somewhere like that... Natasha something"

"You showing her around?"

"Yeah, I always get to show around the new recruits" she joked, winking at him. Referring to when Clint joined them in the seventh grade at Marvel Middle School and she had been assigned as his 'school buddy'

He smiled, and left her to it when Principal Fury called her and Natasha into his office to officially introduce them to one another. Clint signed in with the old lady who worked in the office; Clint swore he'd never once seen her smile, not ever.

Since he'd already missed most of first period geography he went over to the library before going to second period biology, where he took his usual seat behind Bruce and Steve.

The morning passed slowly, Clint tried his best to ignore everything his teachers had to say and soon enough it was lunch time.
The snow was still falling, so they decided not to venture outside, but met up with Darcy Lewis and Jane Foster in the cafeteria instead. Clint was quiet and didn't join in the conversations much, just listening to Jane and Bruce talk science and watching as Steve remained oblivious to the fact Darcy was madly in love with him; it would be almost funny if it weren't for the fact she'd been watching him with her large puppy dog eyes for at least the past two years.

He noticed Natasha sat alone in the very back corner, her knees pulled up under her chin as she rested her feet on the edge of her chair. She didn't seem to actually have any lunch and instead spent the entire hour reading an old battered book. Clint wondered where Jessica was but remembered she was probably at gymnastics practice. He felt bad for her, sat all alone and would have gone over to see if she wanted to join him and the others, but something about her made him nervous and he still hadn't managed to work up the nerve by the time the bell went.

Next it was math; Clint's least favourite subject with his most hated teacher; Mr. Sitwell. This was the first class of the day he had with Natasha; she took the only spare seat available, which just so happened to be next to him, and kept silent the whole way through. He glanced over at her a few times, but she kept her long hair like a curtain between them, obscuring her face and he didn't know why; but he still just couldn't speak to her. He did catch a glance at her work though, and she'd finished the math problems they'd been asked to do and moved onto the next chapter of the book. She must be really clever because Clint had barely finished the second problem by the end of class.

At the end of the school day Clint left his art class to go meet Bruce and Steve in the library, and once again; Natasha was there.

The three of them sat chatting about various TV shows they'd been watching recently, the teachers they didn't like and the new Assistant Principal Miss Johnson.

"Clint... Hey Clint... Barton?"

Clint looked up to see both Steve and Bruce looking at him

"Hummm?"

"You know you've been staring at her all day" Bruce informed him

"I have not" he answered defensively

"Yeah, you have actually. Why don't you just go say hi?"

"I- I can't just- Can I?"

"Sure you can, just introduce yourself"

"But, she's from Russia, what if she doesn't speak English?"

"She's been shown around by Drew all day, and gotten by in all her classes; I'm sure she can speak some English Clint"

"Right, yeah... Okay"

...

"Go on then" Bruce prompted after several minutes

"I am, I'm-"

But it was too late; Natasha was gathering her stuff to leave after her phone started to ring

Clint looked back to his friends who ushered him forward encouragingly

"Go after her" Steve advised, laughing slightly at the red tint that Clint's cheeks had taken on

He practically ran down the hallway in the direction she'd headed; it had taken him all day to work up the courage to even say hi to her, he couldn't let her leave without introducing himself, he wasn't sure he'd ever have the guts to do it if he missed his chance now

He rounded the corner and ran right into her, she dropped her books and her notes fluttered everywhere

"I am so sorry!" Clint gushed, bending down instantly to help her gather her belongings

He looked up at her to see her red rimmed eyes; she'd been crying

"Are you- are you okay?" he stuttered, suddenly feeling fiercely protective over her. He felt stupid and pushed the feeling back down, there was no reason at all for him to feel that way; he didn't even know her.

She nodded quickly, her red curls falling from behind her shoulder as she picked up her folder. "Thanks" she uttered as Clint handed her the final book, and it was the first time Clint had heard her speak; he found himself captivated by her voice

"I erm, I just wanted to say hi. And Clint. That's me, my name I mean, my name is Clint Barton"

"Hi Clint Barton" she smiled as he blushed more "I'm Natasha Romanoff"

Clint grinned in response, and was about to say something else when he was interrupted

"Natalia!" came an angry voice from behind them, and Natasha winced

"I gotta go" she said hurriedly, running off before Clint could even say goodbye.

He watched as she climbed into a large car which sped off instantly, looking down he noticed that she'd dropped and left behind her phone. At least he had another reason to talk to her tomorrow now. And they had double math, so he'd definitely have a chance.