Maria got to the classroom early and found a packet twenty sheets thick of instructions from Phil. She almost laughed. How incompetent did he think she was? There were only seven kids in the class and she'd been a preschool teacher for years. She gave the pages a cursory glance, rolling her eyes at things like, "Monitor Thor's snacks. He will sneak into the cupboard and if he gets into the candy his energy levels will be uncontrollable," and "Keep Tony and Bruce apart as much as possible. And do NOT allow them to have any batteries."

She put the packet down and wandered around the classroom, staring for a moment at the giant padlocks on the windows, supply closet, and Lego box. As she was just beginning to wonder if she should take another look at Phil's instructions, she heard voices outside.

"No! I'm big! I can go myseff!" said a little voice.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come in with you since you have a different teacher today?" Maria recognized the tone of an overly concerned mother.

"No Mommy!"

"Okay, but don't climb on the shelves today. If you fall off you'll get hurt!"

"Mister Phil already maked me promise," the little voice said grumpily.

"Give me kisses, then. I love you, Clinton! Be good!"

"Mommy!" The indignance in the little boy's voice made Maria smile.

The classroom door opened and Clinton strode into the room, his pale blue eyes regarding her warily.

"Hi," she said, squatting down and smiling at him. "I'm Miss Maria. Are you Clinton?"

The boy looked mortified. "Clint!"

"Oh, my mistake. Clint, then. You're pretty brave to not need your mom to come in with you," she said, hoping to build some rapport with him.

But he just rolled his eyes and shrugged his backpack off. "Only Steve thinks school is scary. It's not," he informed her, stuffing his backpack in his cubby. Then, without another glance at her, he headed for the table where their names sat for them to trace.

So far, so good, Maria thought.

The next little boy to arrive let his mother come in with him. In fact, he was hanging onto her hand tightly, his face mostly obscured by his dark, curly hair and large glasses.

Maria smiled at his weary-looking mother and crouched down again. "Hi, I'm Miss Maria," she said. "What's your name?"

He shrunk a little closer to his mother. "Bruce," he whispered.

"Do you want to come sit by Clint and sign in?" she asked, standing and holding out her hand.

The little boy shook his head.

"C'mon, Brucey. I'm sure Miss Maria is just as nice as Mister Phil."

The little boy tugged on his mother's hand until she bent down. He whispered something in her ear and she sighed. "Ok. I'll stay until Tony gets here." She shot Maria an apologetic glance. "I'll just stay for a moment."

Maria forced a smile. She hated when parents did that. If felt like a personal offense somehow. "No problem," she managed just as the door flew open again with surprising force, narrowly missing Bruce and his mother.

"New teacher!" a blond-haired boy shouted, running into the room.

"Thor! Sluta kӧra!" A giant of a man followed him, holding the hand of a dark-haired boy. All three of them had long, gently curling hair.

Foreigners, Maria thought, trying to keep her smile up. I hope the kids speak English.

The blond boy was standing right at her feet staring up at her. "Mister Phil said we would have a new teacher and that I have to help all the kids smaller than me, which are all of them," he said solemnly.

"'Cept when Bruce changes," Clint muttered.

"Sorry," his father said in a heavy Norwegian accent. "He is very... how you say. Excited? Always." The large man sighed and patted the dark-haired boy's head. "Goodbye, sӧner."

The dark-haired boy let go of his father's hand and stood closer to the blond boy who threw an arm around him. "Teacher! This is my brother. I am Thor and he is Loki. He's only three."

"I'm Miss Maria. I'm glad to meet you," she said, a little surprised at how good the little boy's English was and the fact that he seemed incapable of speaking below a shout. "Will you go join everyone in signing in?"

"I know all my letters!" Thor cried, dashing off to the table and hauling his brother by the hand.

Maria noticed Clint was sitting cross-legged on top of the art table, pondering the point on a colored pencil. "Clint, feet on the floor, please," she said.

His head snapped up and he put the pencil behind his back guiltily. "I wasn't gonna frow it," he said.

"I certainly hope not," she said, wondering if she should confiscate the pencil.

But the door opened behind her and Clint's eyes lit up. "Nat!" he said, sliding off the table.

Maria turned to see a tiny girl with bright red hair standing with her mother.

"Be good, sweetheart. No escapes today, please," her mother warned before giving her a quick hug. "Let me know if there are any problems," she said to Maria.

"I'm sure we'll be fine, thanks," Maria said, her fake smile in place. "I'm Miss Maria," she said, crouching down again. "What's your name?"

"Natasha Romanov," the little girl said, lifting her chin.

"Nat! C'mon! I have a idea," Clint said, running up to her.

"Natasha needs to sign in first," Maria reminded him, noting the conspiratorial glances the two seemed to be exchanging. "Maybe you could go sit at the table with the others for now, Clint."

He shrugged and followed Natasha to the table, but failed to sit on the chair, opting for the tabletop instead. "Clint, feet on the ground please," she said just as the door opened again.

"I'm here! Brucey, guess what? I brought batt... Oh, hi, new teacher," a little dark-haired boy burst into the room, his father behind him.

"Tony, manners," his father scolded. "Greet her properly."

Frustration crossed the little boy's face but he stuck out his small hand with a grin. "Anthony Edward Stark, pleased to meetcha," he said. "Everybody calls me Tony."

This family was wealthy. She could tell from the father's tailored suit and the boy's carefully gelled hair and his pristine designer sneakers. She took his hand. "I'm Miss Maria. It's very nice to meet you, Tony," she responded, trying not to be too charmed by his grin.

"Tony, your new teacher will tell me if you misbehave," the man said. "Be good."

Tony nodded absently, chucking his backpack in the direction of the cubbies and walking over to the table. "Bruce! How come your mom's still here? Clint! Get off my paper, weirdo!"

His father gave a long-suffering sigh and exited, followed by Bruce's mom, just in time for Maria's final student to arrive. A woman came in carrying a little boy with short, blond hair, or rather, she wasn't so much carrying him as he was clinging to her with all his strength.

"I don't wanna go to school today!" he wailed.

"Steve, you're being silly. Mister Phil will be back tomorrow and all your friends are here," the woman explained patiently.

"I only like Mister Phil!" the little boy wailed.

Maria stepped in. "Steve, I'm Miss Maria. We're going to have lots of fun today so you should hurry and sign in so we can get started."

He just buried his head in the woman's shoulder.

"C'mon, sweetheart. I'll be back in just a few hours, okay? Can you be brave for me?"

"Brave" seemed to be a magic word. Steve let his mother extricated herself from his grasp and he watched her leave, his lip trembling. As the door shut, he let out a little sob, his chest hitching. Maria gently brought him over to the table hoping to distract him.

"Crybaby," Tony muttered, glancing up from his paper.

"Tony, that's not very nice," Maria said, sitting at the low table with Steve on her lap.

He shrugged and finished scribbling out his name. "Let's go play, Bruce," he said, standing up and shoving his paper toward Maria.

"Ten minutes playtime before our lesson," she reminded him over Steve's whimpers.

The kids scampered away except for Loki who was still carefully spelling out his name. In at least three different languages, apparently.

"Steve," Maria said in his ear. "What's your favorite thing to do at preschool?"

"D-draw," he sniffed, wiping his nose on the hem of his blue t-shirt.

"Would you like to help me get out the glue and paper for our art project later?" she asked, thinking she was finally making some headway.

"I just want my mom," he said, his lip trembling.

A scary-sounding thud came from across the room and Maria looked up sharply. Bruce, Tony, and Natasha were all holding a corner of the reading rug and Clint lay sprawled in the middle.

"Oops," Tony said, dropping his corner.

"You said it would work!" Natasha said, glaring at Tony and trying to help Clint up.

Maria set Steve down on the chair and hurried over. "What happened?" she asked, lifting Clint to his feet and checking him for injuries.

"I'm okay," he said, brushing her off. His eyes glanced up to the six-foot bookcase.

"Did you jump off of that?" she asked, wondering how he managed to get up there so fast without her seeing.

He glared at Tony. "Tony sayed they would catch me."

Tony flashed his grin at her. "Mister Phil says experiments are good for our brains."

"I don't think that was the kind of experiment he meant. Ask me before you do any more, okay? And Clint, you were told not to climb up on things," she reprimanded.

"I forgot," he muttered.

Maria looked back toward the table and saw Bruce sitting by Steve and talking to him quietly. She smiled. That was good … but right next to them, Loki appeared to be working on some kind of art project that involved copious amounts of glue and cardboard while Thor looked on gleefully.

"What are you doing, boys?" she asked with apprehension wondering how they had even gotten their hands on the materials.

"My brother makes me Mjolnir!" Thor said proudly.

Maria frowned. "What is a malner?"

Loki snickered without looking up. "Mjolnir," he said.

"It is my hammer!" Thor explained. "Papa says I can have one when I am bigger."

"I see," Maria lied. "You can finish it at craft time, okay? It's time for our lesson now. Bruce, Steve, come over to the carpet for lesson time." The four boys got up and followed her, Loki smearing glue over his shirt and pants, and Thor explaining the many virtues of Mjolnir.

She called everyone over, counting heads, and realized Natasha was missing. "Where's Natasha?" she asked.

Tony and Clint shared a look but neither spoke.

"Boys, if you know where Natasha is you need to tell me right now," she said sternly.

"I dunno," Tony said, his eyes the picture of innocence.

"Maybe she went home again," Bruce offered.

Clint giggled. "No she didn't!"

Maria zeroed in on him. "Clint, where is she?"

He squeezed his lips shut, his amusement gone.

"There she is!" Steve suddenly said.

Maria looked up to see Natasha enter the classroom from the door leading in from the hallway. She stared at the little girl in surprise for a minute. How had she managed to sneak past her?

"Natasha, where were you? You always need to ask a teacher before leaving the classroom!" Maria said.

The little girl regarded her coolly. "I went potty."

Maria went over and locked the door behind her using the deadbolt high on the door that Phil must have installed. "Ask me next time. It's dangerous for any of you to leave the classroom alone." She followed Natasha back to the carpet and sat down. "Okay, everybody. Sit down, please. Who wants to be calendar helper?"

Everyone's hand shot in the air with a chorus of "Me! Me! Me!"

"Bruce, how about you?"

The little boy got eagerly to his feet and Tony sat back with a disappointed huff.

"Okay, can you tell me what today is, Bruce?"

"Thursday, November 8th, 2012," Tony said, sounding bored. "The moon is a waning crescent, with 35% of the moon disk visible. It is …" he glanced at the clock. "10:47 PM Eastern Standard Time at 40.71 degrees North and 74 degrees West, New York City, New York, United States of America, North America, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy."

"Show off," Clint muttered.

"It's 40.7244 degrees North and 74.0064 degrees West," Bruce said, sounding a little apologetic.

"I was rounding!" Tony said indignantly.

"Where we are from, it is the first day of hӧst. Tomorrow is the first hunt of the season! Father says he will take me when I am bigger!" Thor said, apparently feeling the need to leap to his feet for his comment.

Maria found that her mouth had actually dropped open but she managed to recover and ask Bruce to find the date on the calendar.

By the time she'd gotten through the lesson on animals that hibernate, Tony had interjected so much that she'd had to send him to the corner twice, Clint and Natasha had shared so many whispered conversations that she'd had to make them sit on opposite ends of the carpet, and Steve's lip had continued to tremble, though he was stoically holding back actual tears.

With relief, she announced that it was craft time. She was really hoping a focused, seated activity would be good for all of them. She let Loki and Thor continue work on that mole … (merl?) thing and passed out more glue and construction paper for the others.