Okay, a few things before you start reading. Last chapter, when Clint was teaching Natasha how to shoot a bow and arrow, he was having her practice pulling the bow and releasing it without an arrow. Apparently this isn't a very smart move haha. It's called "dry firing" and it can be dangerous. Thank you to psychmaster for bringing this to my attention. I guess I didn't do my research well enough. So if your going to try archery, DON'T DO THAT.
Also, there is a time jump for this chapter. I skipped eighth and ninth grade for Natasha and Clint so it starts on Natasha's first day of high school as a freshman, Clint as a sophomore. Also, for future references, I DO NOT know Russian so Google Translate is going to have to suffice until I actually learn Russian (and who knows when that will be). So, without further ado, here is chapter 7.
Clint glanced at his alarm clock from the makeshift bed on the floor. It was 6:58, and his alarm would be blaring in two minutes. Today would be his first day of his sophomore year of high school, but more importantly, today would be Natasha's first day of high school.
He glanced up to his bed where Natasha laid fast asleep. She had shown up on his doorstep last night at 10:00 with her mascara smeared across her face and a bag hanging off of her shoulder. Her parents had had another fight, and it wouldn't have been a big deal if she hadn't gotten involved.
Of course Natasha couldn't keep her mouth shut. She had been getting particularly snarky with her parents in recent months. Whenever her parents would fight, Natasha could never seem to stay out of it. Clint didn't know the full details of last night's fight but all he knows it was the last straw for Natasha so she packed a bag and trekked to his house.
Clint's alarm blared from his bedside table and he scrambled from his makeshift bed on the floor to turn it off. He slammed his fist down on the snooze button and collapsed back against the pillows on his bed on the floor.
Things between Natasha and Clint in the past year had been especially complicated. Along with being separated by different schools, Clint and Natasha had had several close calls of having their first kiss together, most them which were botched. Natasha had panicked at one point and made some lame excuse about needing to go home to do chores. Another time, Clint had accidentally clonked his forehead against her nose, giving her a bloody nose. Natasha had sneezed during another botched first kiss, and Clint had ended up getting his football jersey stuck to a bench when he went to move in for the kiss. Needless to say, their attempts haven't worked and they still haven't had a first kiss.
The alarm blared from his bedside table again, and this time, Clint stood up and turned the alarm off permanently. He looked over at Natasha, still fast asleep in his bed. When she had showed up at his front door last night, Clint's parents welcomed her into the house with open arms but were extremely nervous when Clint had lead her to his room. Clint reassured his parents that he wouldn't try anything funny.
Once Natasha made herself at home, she started to create a makeshift bed on the floor of Clint's room. Clint had stopped her and insisted she sleep in his bed, and he would sleep on the floor. After an intense argument, Natasha gave in and settled in to Clint's bed and fell right asleep.
Clint looked at Natasha one more time before he headed over to his closet to pick out something to wear for the day, and then headed over to the bathroom. He got dressed, brushed his teeth, and ran a comb through his hair, and then headed back to his room. Natasha was still asleep so he picked up one of the pillows from the floor and threw it at Natasha's sleeping form. When the pillow hit her, she moaned.
"Hey Sleeping Beauty, it's time to get up," he said with a chuckle, and began to gather up the blankets and pillows from the floor.
"No," she moaned, and then turned over in bed, shoving a pillow on top of her head.
"Nat, come on," he said, folding the blankets. "Don't make me drag you out of there."
Her head shot up and she glared at Clint. "You wouldn't dare," she said.
"Oh trust me, I would," he chuckled.
Natasha narrowed her eyes again, and then dropped her head on top of the pillows again, instantly falling back asleep. Barney would be driving them to school and he had a strict policy on leaving on time. If Natasha didn't get up and get ready, there was no way they would be making it to school on time today.
Unfortunately, Clint had to resort to pulling Natasha out of bed. He stood at the foot of the bed, lifted up the comforter, grabbed her feet, and pulled. Natasha let out a squeal and thrashed around.
"Now that I've got your attention, you need to get out of bed," Clint said.
Natasha moaned again, and tossed the blankets aside. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. Clint felt like he was staring at her, so he quickly looked away. In the past year, Natasha had definitely developed. Her chest was bigger and she was beginning to develop curves. Her sleep shirt clung to her body and her shorts were riding up. It felt wrong to be looking at her, and since Clint was a gentleman, he looked away.
Natasha padded over to her bag in the corner of the room which contained a couple outfits and several necessary toiletries she had managed to pack in her anger fueled haze last night. She pulled out an outfit for the school day, her makeup bag, and her toothbrush and padded to the bathroom to get ready for the day.
Nearly a year ago, Natasha never cared about her appearance and she still didn't, but now she at least put in some sort of effort. She started wearing makeup on a regular basis and spent more time doing her hair. She still couldn't do much about her wardrobe since money was still tight in her household but at least she tried to do something to make herself look better.
Natasha had to admit that she started putting more of an effort into her appearance because of Clint. He had definitely grown up as well. He had shot up a couple more inches in the past year and football had been good to him. His shoulders were broader and his biceps were so large she had to wrap both hands around them for her fingers to touch. She had even saw his abs at one point by accident and she was so embarrassed that she looked away as quick as she possibly could. To say the least, she didn't feel deserving of him if she was just boring and plain Natasha so she tried her hardest to put an effort into her appearance.
When Natasha finished up in the bathroom, she crossed the hall back to Clint's room. He was sitting on his bed playing with his new iPhone, but he instantly put it down once she entered the room. She shoved her stuff back into her bag, and began to pack her stuff up.
"What are you doing?" he asked, bewildered.
"Packing up my stuff," she said.
"Why? Just leave it here. You can pick it up after school," he said, sliding off of the bed.
"No, it's fine. I should probably go right home after school anyways to receive my punishment for running off," she sighed.
"Seriously Nat, just leave your stuff here, okay?" he said.
Natasha sighed and pulled all of her junk out of her bag and neatly set it on the floor of Clint's room. She arranged her notebooks and pencils in her backpack, zipped it up, and swung it onto her back.
"Okay, I'm ready," she said, flashing Clint a ghost of a smile. Clint crossed the room and enveloped Natasha into a hug.
"Whatever the fight was about, don't worry about it. Your parents never cared before so I don't understand why you're getting yourself all worked up over this," Clint whispered in her ear.
Clint could feel her stifling a sob and he hugged her even harder. Whatever it was, it had really affected her. Natasha rarely cried but when she did, Clint didn't like to see it. It was almost heartbreaking.
Then she let it all out. She was full blown crying into Clint's t-shirt, surely staining it with mascara since it wasn't waterproof. The worst part was she didn't know if she should tell Clint what the argument was about or not. This wasn't an ordinary fight between her parents. Normally her parents would start fighting in front of Natasha, then she would voice her opinion and then she would get roped into the fighting. However, during last night's fight at dinner, Natasha's parents had decided to target her. Well, not just her. Her and Clint, and their complicated relationship. Things got heated, plates were thrown, Natasha was crying, and by the end of the night, she had snuck out of her bedroom window and headed to Clint's house.
"Hey, it's okay. Whatever it was, they're probably over it now. You're dad probably got so drunk that he doesn't even remember," Clint mumbled into her ear.
Natasha laughed because the last statement was true. Her father was probably still passed out in an alleyway somewhere on Main Street in a puddle of his own vomit. Her mother was so dimwitted that she'll probably apologize to Natasha the moment she got home and shower her with hugs and kisses. Yet, Natasha still beat herself up over it mostly because of the things they had said about Clint.
She pulled away from Clint and wiped the stray tears from her face. Her hands came away with streaks of black and she looked back at Clint's shirt. Despite the fact that he was wearing a dark shirt, she could still clearly see the mascara and tear stains.
"Hey," he said, putting his hand under her chin and lifting her face so that she looking right at him. He brought his hand up to her cheek and wiped another stray tear away with his thumb. They locked eyes, and Clint began to lean into her.
Please let this be for real this time, she thought.
They were so close that she could feel his breath against her skin. They were about to kiss when a loud bang came from Clint's doorway and they quickly parted to see what the noise was.
Standing in the doorway was Clint's brother Barney swinging his keys around on his finger.
"Yo, asshole. Stop messing around or we're going to be late," Barney said, and quickly disappeared from the doorway.
Clint stepped away from Natasha and grabbed his backpack from the floor by his desk. He swung it onto his back and smiled at Natasha.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Yeah," she croaked. She wiped at her face again, but it was hopeless. She clearly didn't have time to fix her makeup so fixing it in the car would have to suffice. Clint gestured to the door to let her go first and she headed down the stairs and out the front door to pile into Barney's car.
Oh my God, she thought. If we don't kiss soon, I think I'm going to spontaneously combust.
Natasha's first day of high school went by in a blur. First period melted into second, and then she didn't quite remember the rest. She was physically and mentally exhausted from last night's fight with her parent's that she seemed be walking around the high school like a zombie. The few classes that she had with Jane and Peggy managed to pass by extremely quickly while the rest of them seemed to drag. By ninth period – French class – she just ready for the day to be over.
When the final bell rang, Natasha hastily tried to shove her belongings into her backpack but she failed miserably.
"Mademoiselle Romanoff," Natasha heard Madame Pissarra say. Natasha lifted up her head from packing up her belongings and looked at Madame Pissarra.
"I'd hate to ask, but do you happen to speak Russian?" she asked politely. Madame Pissarra was the French teacher for both the high school and for the middle school so Natasha had her before. Madame Pissarra knew she had a Russian background but she was pretty sure she had never told her if she spoke Russian or not.
"да," she answered, which meant "yes."
"Oh, great!" she said. "I was informed that a Russian exchange student is currently attending Stroudsburg High School this year, and I was wondering if you would maybe be interested in helping him adjust."
"Ummm, yeah," she said. "I wouldn't mind."
"Fantastic!" Madame Pissarra said. She pulled out a piece of paper and neatly wrote down information about the exchange student.
"This is his name, contact information, and which homeroom he is in," she said, passing Natasha the piece of paper.
Natasha's hand had begun to shake. She couldn't believe she had agreed to this because all she wanted to do now was say no.
"Is everything alright, Natasha?" Madame Pissarra asked.
"Madame, I would hate to do this, but cannot help this kid," Natasha said coolly.
"Why not?" Madame Pissarra asked, confused.
"I know him, and my family and his family do not get along well," Natasha lied. Her family and his family got along pretty well. It was Natasha who did not get along with him.
"Oh that's a shame. I don't want to cause conflict so don't worry about it!" Madame Pissarra said. Madame Pissarra dismissed Natasha from her classroom and she swung by her desk to pick up her backpack and headed out the door.
Clint was leaning up against the wall outside of the doorway and smiled when he saw her.
"So, Freshman, how was your first day?" he asked, falling into step with her as they walked down the now deserted hallway.
"It was fine until Madame asked me to help a foreign exchange student adjust to being at the school," Natasha growled.
"Why didn't you do it?"
"Remember that guy my grandparents tried to get me to marry?" Natasha said, as she stopped walking and turned to Clint to look at him face to face.
Clint clenched his jaw and braced for what she was about to say. He was pretty sure he already knew what it was.
"Well, he's here. Alexei is here."
Great, Clint thought. Not only have Natasha and I not had our first kiss but now I've got to make sure this guy doesn't pull any stupid tricks.
"Clint? Are you okay?" Natasha asked.
Clint hadn't even noticed he had balled his hands into fists. He wasn't happy with how his first day of school had gone so this tidbit of information was just the icing on top of the cake.
"Yeah," he said, unclenching his fists. "Come on, Barney's waiting to take us home."
Clint wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him as they walked out the doors to meet his brother for a ride home.
Seemed a little shorter to me than it usually is but at least it's an update. I was almost finished with it last night when a transformer blew outside of my house so I had no power. I'm going to stop promising a time that I'm going to update because it never seems to go as planned.
Anyways, thanks again to everyone reviewing, adding this to their favorites, signing up for alerts. I already have planned what's going to happen next for Clint and Natasha so I'll just give you three short simple words to tease it. 1920's Masquerade Ball. Lol, how many of you thought I was going to write "I love you?" Haha, psych! But I think you guys will really like what I have planned for the masquerade.
As always, I love reading what you guys have to say about the story so please review, review, review!
