Twelve.
Over the years, they had grown impeccably close. But it soon came the day all parents dreaded: the day their kid hit puberty.
It had been eight years since the ten adults had been turned into kids. Over that time, they went to school, all passing through elementary and starting middle school. Of course, Thor wasn't Hank or Janet's kid, but he was close. It was sometime during the summer when Thor had suddenly woken up with his normal cry of, "Food!" and it had come out all deep and manly. It didn't help that he grew so now he was five foot three. Tony had also started noticing the girls, and Hank had to make sure he actually went to his own room every night instead of going to Natasha and Pepper's.
They had moved to the sixty-fifth floor, where there were over seven rooms, and two could take up each room. Pepper and Natasha shared a room. Bruce and Tony shared one, and the others were Loki and Thor, Betty and Jane, and Clint and Steve. Pepper, who had recently turned twelve, had grown a lot, and was the only one who started developing breasts, was Tony's most recent obsession. He had already dated a few girls for a twelve-year-old, and had lost his first kiss to a girl two years older than him. Janet and Hank knew that he was already going to be trouble, and were mentally preparing themselves for the chaos about to ensue.
Jane gathered her books from her locker as the school bell rang. She had just gotten out of advanced chemistry with Tony, who she was beginning to find really annoying. She had known him since she was four, and she had never seen him act so... arrogant and cocky. He flirted with all the girls and would be failing his subjects had he not been a genius. She sighed and put her books into her bag, slamming her locker shut.
Middle school was tough, she could give you that. It wasn't easy going like elementary, and Jane was expecting that, but she still missed elementary and their fun PE lessons. She walked through the hallways, seeing Thor walk into the hallway with his jock friends. She smiled and waved, seeing him wave back. He had grown so much over the summer and now towered over her. His hair had also grown a lot and was messy and unstyled; but it suited him, somehow. He said bye to his surfer-dude looking friends and jogged over to where Jane stood waiting for him.
"Hey," he said, easily falling into step beside her as she walked in the direction for her next class. "Josh just told me that they're having an assembly next period, so no classes!" he cheered. Jane, however, looked distraught.
"What?" she gasped, groaning in frustration. Her next class was drama, which she had with Betty and Clint (Clint didn't want to do drama, but during middle school, you couldn't choose your subjects). "We were going to play a new game today!" she pouted, pushing her brown straight hair out of her face.
Thor shrugged. "I'm about to have English, so I am cool with it." Jane laughed at his use of 'cool'. No matter how hard he tried, Thor couldn't master 'Midgardian' English like Loki could.
"Don't worry; you're trying," Jane patted his muscly arm, and he grinned at her.
"Guess what?" Betty asked, appearing out of nowhere and joining the two. Of course, after spending eight years with them, she had gotten over her shyness with the boys. She laughed, her blue eyes sparkling and her her straight, silky black hair swaying in the ponytail she put it in. "Jeremy just asked Pepper out, and what's worse - in front of Tony!"
Thor laughed while Jane gasped. "What?" she exclaimed, starting to laugh as well.
"Was he jealous?" Thor asked, amused.
Betty quirked an eyebrow at him and nodded at him as if the answer was obvious. "Tony just stepped up and said, 'She's taken'. How cute is that?" she squealed.
Jane rolled her eyes at Betty's excitement. "It's not cute; he only likes her because she has - um, that," she finished awkwardly, blushing a little while Thor coughed and looked away.
Betty cleared her throat awkwardly. "Um, yeah," she muttered, "but she said no anyway. So no harm done."
"Hm," Jane nodded. Thor had nonchalantly draped his arm over her shoulder, and she smiled as her stomach did backflips. Jane would never admit it to anyone, but she liked Thor. He was - to put it bluntly - hot, and he had always been sweet to her growing up. And he thought she was pretty, and he was really cute. She hoped that what Bruce had told her about Thor wasn't true - that he had kissed that Andie girl during a pool party one of the jocks threw.
Betty noticed them getting close, and cleared her throat pointedly at the two. Jane blushed and made to pull away, but Thor didn't take his arm off her. Betty laughed. "I see where you're going with that," she laughed, shaking her head fondly at the two. "I'm going to go look for Steve. See you guys!"
After the assembly (where Thor and Jane had sat together, his arm around her again), they all met up for lunch. Loki, who used to be really short, had grown quite a lot, although not as tall as Steve and Thor. His sleek, black hair had turned a tanned brown due to exposure to the sunlight, and he walked through the middle school halls with ease. Although he was a year younger than everyone, he had managed to make it into seventh grade because of his intelligence level. Of course, Tony was way ahead of everyone too, and should have skipped at least two grades, but from the sound of it, in his "past life" he was unhappy in school because he was always the youngest, and Janet and Hank wanted to avoid that. Loki was happy to be with his friends, especially Clint, who he had a lot of classes with. Clint made everything hilarious, and they came up with the best pranks for the teacher together.
Loki knew that he wasn't from Earth, and he remembered some parts of Asgard, like the policies and basic ground rules, and they were so different from the ones in Midgard. He knew that he was a god because Fury had told them when they turned ten what happened to them (leaving out the retrieving their memories part), and everyone was really excited about being a superhero. Loki averted his eyes from the 'seniors of middle school' who were lip-locking by a locker. He found it disgusting; in Asgard, you only kissed a lady if you wanted to court her.
"Hi, Loki," Bruce greeted as Loki passed by his locker. Bruce's curly hair had grown more manageable over the years, and he always dressed smart, with a purple button up shirt and jeans. He slammed it shut and followed Loki, making their way to the cafeteria for lunch. "Gwen told me that she's dropping by today," he said conversationally, and Loki grinned. He liked Gwen.
"Do you think Clint's going to start singing again?" Loki snickered, and Bruce laughed. Clint actually had a decent voice, and showed off to Natasha by singing her favourite songs. He had told the boys about his crush ages ago, but it was getting too obvious.
"I think it's a miracle that Tasha still doesn't know," Bruce commented.
"Tasha doesn't know what?" asked a voice, and Natasha herself fell into step next to Loki. Her curly red hair had grown to shoulder-length, and her green eyes looked bright and alert; a sign that she probably just had a good work-out, though she didn't look sweaty, but then again, Natasha never looked sweaty.
"That Tony likes Pepper," Loki lied smoothly, and Bruce nodded quickly. Tony had never given them restrictions on who to tell, so the boys assumed it was safe to tell Tasha.
Natasha scoffed. "That's old news," she dismissed, turning to the direction of the cafeteria. She stood in front of the line and took a tray, peeking over a student's shoulder to see the food offered today. "Mashed potatoes," she grinned, "Thor's going to love this."
"Indeed!" a voice boomed behind them, and Natasha turned to see Thor grab a tray for himself, standing behind Jane as she lined up behind Loki. Natasha craned her neck to look for the others.
"They're already there," Pepper said, coming out of nowhere and smoothly stepping in between Bruce and Natasha.
"Hey!" Bruce protested, but Pepper raised her eyebrows, flicking her strawberry-red hair out of the way and fixed him a look. "Okay," Bruce relented, letting her cut in front of him.
"McArthur's really getting on my nerves," Pepper rolled her eyes, talking about their Math teacher, the one class Pepper and Natasha shared. Natasha gave her an apologetic smile; Pepper hated Math.
After Natasha, Pepper, Loki, Bruce, Thor and Jane had gotten their lunch, they made their way to the back of the cafeteria, where Tony, Steve, Betty and Clint were already sitting. Clint smiled at Natasha and gestured for her to sit next to him, which she did. Tony held back rolling his eyes; Clint was so ridiculously obvious.
"Hey, Pepper," Tony grinned, "like my shirt?" He was sporting an 'I am awesome' shirt, and Pepper rolled her eyes.
"I saw you this morning, Stark," Pepper scoffed, sitting by Natasha and away from Tony. Tony frowned in mock-dismay.
"Sorry, Peps, I'm working on him," Steve apologised for Tony, and flicked Tony on the head. Pepper laughed as Tony protested.
Steve and Tony had grown close, and were like best buddies. Steve was the good-looking athletic guy, and Tony was the witty, also good-looking, flirty genius. They worked well together.
"Were you guys listening during the assembly?" Betty asked excitedly, and rolled her eyes when only Bruce and Pepper nodded. "There's going to be an end-of-semester celebration dance," she informed them, her blue eyes shining very prettily, Bruce noticed. "And we're all going."
"When?" Pepper immediately asked, pulling out her planner to jot down the date. Betty told her the date and she nodded, marking it on her calendar.
Bruce looked reluctant. "I hate dancing," he muttered, tossing a french fry into his mouth.
"At least you know how to dance," Steve mumbled.
"I'll teach you guys," Natasha dismissed, and Betty nodded along with her.
"Pepper," Tony grinned cheekily, leaning back against his chair. "Would you like to -"
"No," Pepper replied.
"Quit it, Stark," Natasha laughed, and Tony winked at her.
"I don't care, we're all going," Betty said firmly.
"Great," Clint sighed.
"Are you guys going to ask anyone?" Loki asked a little uncomfortably. He wasn't good at all with girls.
"Jane and I are going together," Thor proclaimed, settling his arm around Jane's shoulders possessively.
Jane blushed. "Um, yeah," she mumbled.
"Ooh," Tony grinned, leaning forward on the table. "Finally asked her out, eh, Thor?"
Thor looked confused, and Tony decided to just drop it. Betty looked between the two before continuing on.
"It starts at seven, so we'll leave at six-thirty, and Pepper, Jane, Tasha and I are getting ready in the same room - don't look at me like that Tash, you don't have a choice, and boys, make sure you look decent, especially you, Thor..."
Pepper looked into the mirror.
She was wearing a sleeveless just above the knee blue dress, that one of her school friends had gotten for her for her birthday. Her hair was half-up, half-down, and Betty had made her put on some lip gloss and mascara. She actually looked quite good, and was proud of the visible bump on her chest whereas her friends' chests were flat.
"You look so pretty!" Betty gushed, smiling. "My masterpiece."
Pepper laughed. "You look great too, you know. Bruce is going to faint."
Betty hushed her, not too comfortable discussing her crush on the biology genius. She wore a bright yellow sundress, matching her personality completely. She didn't do anything to her hair, but Pepper thought that her hair was flawless even in the morning. Betty wore light pink lip gloss, and rose-stud earrings.
Natasha emerged from the bathroom, clad in a black dress. She wore some lip gloss and a simple bracelet Tony had given to her. "Where's Jane?" she questioned.
Betty ignored her. "Tasha you look amazing!" she gasped, thrilled.
"Jane went to get a drink," Pepper supplied, and soon enough, Jane walked in, her hair half up, wearing a simple white dress. "Wow," Pepper whistled, while Natasha slipped out of the room.
She crossed the hall and made her way to Tony and Steve's room, as she always did whenever the school held an event. The boys could never get their clothes worn right, and sure enough, when she walked in, Steve's jacket was inside out.
"Ahh!" Steve gasped, covering his body up although he was wearing all of his clothes. Natasha laughed.
"You should've gotten used to this by now, Steve," she chastised, heading over to help him.
"Ah, well," he shrugged off his jacket. "You look nice, Tasha," he complimented as she spun him to face her again, adjusting his collar.
She smiled and smoothed his shirt over, stepping back. He wore a simple black "So do you," she grinned.
"I still don't know how to dance," Steve groaned as he put on his watch, thinking about the dance Betty forced them to go to.
"I'll teach you," she simply shrugged, still smiling.
"Guys!" Betty's voice called from outside. "Time to go!"
As Natasha walked out, Steve smiled softly to himself. "Looking forward to it," he murmured softly.
I'm sorry this is shorter than my normal standards, but I'm at my cousin's house after a really hectic December break filled with homework and old friends (my family moved to another country, so during Christmas break we went back home to spend the holidays there and everyone wants to meet up), and I remembered that I desperately need to update this story so I wrote this down. If you guys could send me prompts or ideas of what they should get up to, please review and let me know and I'll see what I can do, because I know where this story is going and I know the EndGames, I'm just not too sure about in between :)