Chapter 2

Tony & Steve:

Anthony Edward Stark. Really? What a terribly, plain name his parents had given him. Seriously, you'd think they'd understand how hard it already was to fit in without having such a boring, stereotypical name. It was bad enough that his last name brought Tony a lot of unwanted attention from a bunch of juvenile monkeys and desperate young girls. Now that he was a sophomore, Tony was going to put a stop to it…just as soon as he scribbled his middle name out of his class schedule.

"Tony, what are you doing now?" Steve, his best friend, asked already annoyed. Tony whipped around to face his buddy, while shoving his schedule behind his back. Giving Steve Rogers the biggest, cheesiest, 'up to no good' smile, Tony put his arm around his shoulders and tugged him into a tight buddy hug…a.k.a. The Preacher Hug.

"Stevie! Dude, where the heck have you been? Under a rock?" Tony chorused loudly in the busy hallway causing a bunch of wide-eyed freshmen to look at them in a paranoid manner. Steve rolled his big, blue eyes, knowing that Tony purposely liked to make a scene anywhere they went; despite his friend's grumbling about not wanting attention. What a dork!

"No, I've been checking out the new clubs the school's offering this year. Some of them look pretty interesting! I think you'll like the new robotics clu-"

"Hey, dude! They gotta music club!" Tony exclaimed, now looking at the list of afternoon activities taped on the glass window of the school advisor's office. Steve glared at his ADHD prone friend who was completely oblivious to the icy daggers being shot at him. Sighing dejectedly, Steve stalked over to the window all the while grumbling under his breath, "What an idiot! Can't stay still for one frickin' second…Like a darn rabbit…"

Looking at where Tony's finger was pointing, Steve saw that there was indeed a music club. Unfortunately, Steve had already filled out an application to the Literature & History Club. Holding up the application to Tony's face he said apologetically, "Sorry, pal. I already applied to a different club."

"What the heck kind of a club is that? Writing and learning about a bunch of dead guys, wearing pantyhose and playing those weird instrument thingies… uh, what are they called? Y'know what, it doesn't matter. Let's join this club!"

It was truly outstanding how Tony Stark could switch to so many different subjects in only one sentence but Steve was used to it by now…or should be, at least. Adjusting his back pack on his shoulders, Steve turned and left an extremely depressed Tony behind. He wanted to turn his application in soon or there would be no more spots left! Boy was he excited to actually join a club this year. It was a total disaster last year because Tony kept being indecisive about what kind of club they should join together. Forget that! One day he might want to be apart of this 'music club' but sometime later, Tony might end up changing his mind and join the engineering club. That's normally how it went. So this year, Steve Rogers decided to take matters into his own hands and join a club he can actually be apart of. Yeah, that'll teach Tony to be indecisive at the expense of his friend's interests.

Steve was so busy with his internal monologue, he didn't notice a long, slender hand sneak in front of him and yank the application out of his hands… until he felt the sting of a paper cut.

"Tony! C'mon, give it back!" Steve yelled after the bolting brunette. Tony turned his head and stuck his tongue out as a response. He made a mental note to strangle his friend when he caught him; which would be very easy. For all of Tony Stark's brain power, he wasn't even the least bit athletic. He was always the slowest runner out of the pair and an easy target for bullying when they were in elementary school. Letting Tony get a five second head-start, Steve made sure he had a clear path to get to his thieving friend-then he was off.

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Normally, he had a plan to get out of getting pummeled by Steve when he did something to annoy him. But at the moment, Tony was fresh out of ideas! He just stuck with his first plan: take paper then RUN! It went well at first…until Steve ran after him! Oh, he was definitely gonna get it…

Passing the principal's office and heading into the cafeteria, Tony tried to seek out a hiding place. Panting like the inner fat kid he was, Tony thought over this plan and decided next time he would subtract the running part and use one of his new gizmos to do it for him. He stopped only for a second, ignoring the curious looks he got as he scoured the lunch room for a place to-

"Uh, hi. A-are you looking for someone?" the apprehensive question was asked by a freshman with big grey, puppy-dog eyes and wavy brown hair that curled at the ends. He was shorter than Tony by an inch or so, sporting big circular glasses and black Converse with his Bridge Academy uniform. As Tony eyed him over, the only things that came to mind were:

'Aaaawww, he's so innocent! Huh, thought I was the only one who wore Converse around here. This kid is adorable!' Tony thought, completely forgetting the fact that he was in immanent danger of being falcon punched by Steve in 5, 4, 3, 2...

WACK!

"You idiot! Didn't I tell you not to take my stuff unless you can outrun me?" Steve yelled, causing panic to erupt in the lunch room. A few sophomores and juniors just looked on in embarrassment at how Steve had pinned the boy-genius to the ground by sitting on his back. Steve noticed all of the attention too late and blushed the brightest shade of red at the laughs and jeers they were getting. Tony made a muffling sound under him; his hand crumpling his friend's application in an effort to be the victor. Because Tony Stark just couldn't lose without one last fight!

"Tony…p-people are staring! Give me the paper so I can go!"

Hearing the panic in his friend's voice, Tony managed a smushed, sideways grin and lifted himself up so suddenly that Steve fell off of him. Tony thought that would be enough to shake Steve off his tail until school actually started but that idea was cut short when he was grabbed by the collar of his shirt…

"GIVE. ME. THE. FRICKIN'. PAPER!" Steve hissed right in his face, blue eyes flaring with anger and embarrassment. Gulping loudly, Tony gathered his wits and asked, innocently, "What? This paper? The one you were gonna turn in to some boring writing club because your Daddy wants you to?"

'Ouch! Wrong move,' he thought when he saw the flicker of hurt pass over his friend's face. Luckily, he hadn't said it loud enough for anyone but Steve to hear. He felt Steve ease his grip until he let go of his collar and pushed him away.

"Just because it's true doesn't mean you should say it, Tony." Steve sighed, rubbing his temples systematically. He always did that after Tony pulled one of his little stunts. He knew what he said to Steve hurt him but…

"Listen pal, I know you don't want to tick your old man off but he's been running your life like you're some kind of soldier since you were in the womb. Maybe this year, you could show him that you don't want to be his little puppet anymore and…I don't know, do something you want to do. Like this music club: you on bass and me on drums, like old times. C'mon, I know that's what you wanna do. No smelly, old timey, history club is gonna take my friend away that easily."

To illustrate his point, Tony held up Steve's application and in one swift movement…RIP!

Steve's face took on a wide range of emotions: anger, sadness, happiness, surprise…Tony's favorite was the look of shock that stayed on his friend's face the majority of the time; eyes and mouth wide open. Grinning like the Cheshire Cat, Tony grabbed Steve's arm and tugged him along, racing to the administrator's office in search for the music club applications.

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Bruce:

"Well, that was interesting!" Bruce said cheerfully to himself. He kept playing the days events over in his head as he walked home in the cool, afternoon gleam of the sun. His first day of school really was something to marvel at. A bunch of stuff he thought would happen in school that happened in movies didn't happen! No, the movies definitely had nothing on what happened today at Bridge Academy:

Bruce had gotten up a whole hour before school even started! Which was actually pretty surprising, considering the fact that he slept like a rock most of the time. Then he ran all the way down the street in record time even track stars would try to beat for a while.

He witnessed an almost fight between what he suspected were two friends. He had tried to introduce himself to one of them, a short guy with dark brown hair and brown eyes to match. Unfortunately, before the other guy could say anything to Bruce, he was tackled to the floor by his…friend? Who was a complete opposite of him: blue eyes, blonde hair, and really tall. They seemed pretty funny but that was all he could observe of them before they ran off somewhere.

After that encounter, Bruce started his classes. He thought English and History would be awful, (since he was a Science and Math kind of guy), but luckily there was an English exchange student there to make up for all of the boring stuff that happened in those classes! He seemed really nice and had a really cool accent!

"Hmm, there was something else that happened today but…" Bruce kept mumbling over the days events trying to figure out what he forgot. Even when he passed through the front door of his uncle's house, he was so deep in though he didn't even notice his little cousin waiting on the steps with an ecstatic look on her face.

"So, how'd it go, Brucey?" she giggled. He jumped and looked up at Bea.

"It was…different. That's for sure," he said, trying not to lose his train of thought. He watched as she sprung up from the stairs and practically attacked him with little girl hugs. For a twelve year-old, she was really strong.

"Aaaww, c'mon Bruce. Tell me, did you make any new friends, yet? Is the school ok?"

Gosh, his little cousin really did fuss over him. Just like her parents. He loved his family for every little thing they did for him after his mom died and his father gave him up. His aunt and uncle were great people for taking him in and making him feel comfortable but that memory still hurt…

"Um…no friends yet but," he answered quickly, before she could protest, "I'll try to make some. I mean, it's only the first day." He looked down at Bea's dark, blue eyes and smiled his familiar warm smile to make her stop worrying. She seemed to believe him and unwrapped herself from his abdomen.

"Alright, then. You promise you'll try to do positive new things?" she asked seriously, which looked so cute to Bruce since she was wearing her hair in small pony tail held by an oversized ribbon. One of the perks of being a junior high cheerleader, she always said. Seeing that she really was serious, Bruce cleared his throat and said, "On my honor, I will promise to make friends and maybe join a club or something."

"Good, now go wash up. Mom and Dad will be home soon and dinner will be ready in about an hour," she said while cheerfully skipping into the kitchen.

Bruce smiled as he made his way up the stairs and to his room. It was moderately sized with old posters of rockets and cartoons he had put up there a while ago. He had a warm, fluffy queen sized bed in the corner of the room and next to it stood his desk. All he had on there was a lava lamp and some miscellaneous action figures from when he was a kid; the figures his mom had given him. He also had a small laptop on the desk but next to it sat his prized possession: the tank of his tortoise, Oliver.

"Hey, Ollie. How was your day?" he giggled while dropping a few pellets of tortoise food in the tank and watched as the little green creature poked its head out of its shell and slowly devoured the pellets.

"My day was okay, I guess. Didn't make any new friends or anything…but I plan to one day," Bruce sighed solemnly. He did want to make friends but he didn't know how. Yeah, sure, he may not be putting much effort into it but that was because he was afraid. He was afraid that maybe he wouldn't be a good enough friend to hang out with. They'd probably think he was some kind of nerd if they heard him talk about manga or Doctor Who or how much he loved science. Bruce 'Boring' Banner, that's who he was. He saw the friendships today at school; kids were hanging out with friends they've practically known since they were babies! To make it even more frustrating, he had no idea what kind of stuff people his age were into. He didn't know about the mainstream books, TV shows, movies, none of it! Even those guys that he saw in the cafeteria seemed to be close friends and-

"That's it!" he cried out. Bruce began bumbling around his room trying to change out of his uniform and find one of Bridge Academy's lists of after school club activities at the same time. He succeeded in getting undressed but nowhere could he find the doggone list! He went through his pajama drawer and took out a plain black tee while he tried to remember where he put the papers his Aunt Tina had given him to look over. Unfortunately, Bruce had gotten so caught up in the good part of Blue Exorcist, he completely forgot where he had put those papers.

"Gah, forget the papers. Listen here, Ollie! Tomorrow, I'm gonna join a club," Bruce said excitedly to the tortoise, who listened without a complaint. "But not just any club. I'm gonna join the music club with those two guys and try to be friends with them. They seemed nice and…and funny. And the one I tried to introduce myself to acknowledged me, at least. I may not know much about music but I did promise Bea I'd try something new and positive. Besides, how bad can it be…"