"Hey Nat," Laura said into her cell as she picked up a call from Natasha.

"Laura…hi," Natasha said in an overly cheery tone.

"Everything alright?" Laura asked, sensing something off about her friend.

"Everything's great. How's Clint?"

"Good. He's out taking the kids for ice cream."

"And how are Cooper and Lila?"

"Fine," Laura smiled realizing she was in an interrogation – a badly hidden one at that.

"They doing okay at school?" Natasha asked.

"Lila's teacher says she's already a shoe in for the honor roll, and Cooper is doing better than he thought he would be."

"And my little godson?"

"Fussy," Laura giggled. "He's starting to teethe."

Natasha laughed and "awwed" into the phone. "And when she's there, Wanda's okay, right?"

Now Laura looked confused. "She's fine, which you could ask yourself since she's in New York with you right now."

"True, I could, but there are some things that just need to be found out from a third party before going in direct," Natasha explained.

"And just what would I know?"

"Does Wanda have a boyfriend?"

The line was silent for a second as Laura smiled knowingly. It had been a few weeks since Wanda had started school and things had more or less been going okay for the young girl. She'd gotten acclimated to her classes, and surprisingly, was doing extremely well in them. She'd made a few friends and, per the reason for Natasha's call, even gotten a crush on a boy there.

"Now what would make you ask that?" Laura responded in the same overly cheery tone as her friend, moving to sit at the table after deciding that this call was more important than the getting the dishes done.

"Because ever since she showed up here Friday night, whenever she's not training, she's been on her phone with someone practically nonstop," Natasha told her. "And when she's texting whomever that it, she's got this dopey look on her face."

"Dopey? Really, Nat?" Laura asked, slightly shocked at the description.

Natasha laughed on her end. "Okay, maybe dopey is too strong a word, but she's definitely walking around with her head in the clouds and the most adorable looking smile on her face."

"I've never seen her smile like that in the time she's been here," Laura concurred.

"So who is it?" Natasha asked.

"Is anyone else listening?"

"Nope, just you and me. Everyone else in the lobby is is pretty much minding their own business."

"Lobby?"

On her end, over in New York, Natasha scanned her surroundings. People walking by. People chatting with their friends or dates. Other than the occasional glance of some guy who was trying not to look like he was checking her out, no one was really paying attention to her.

"Wanda, Steve, Sam, and I decided to catch a movie. The boys are grabbing the snacks, and I'm hanging out by the upcoming release posters watching Wanda. She's over on one of the arm chairs, curled up with her phone, texting away, giggling like little schoolgirl every few seconds. So again: who is he?"

"His name is Luke. Apparently they met on her first day."

"He walk up to her, or she walk up to him?" Natasha asked, a small smile on her lips at the thought of Wanda talking to a boy.

"He walked up to her. One of his friends was a little insulting, and he apologized for it."

"Have you and Clint met him?" she asked, rolling her eyes at the sight of Wanda letting out another laugh. My God, the girl is positively sickening with how cute she's being, Natasha thought

"Yes, and he's a very nice boy. He's smart, handsome, two sport letter –"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Natasha interrupted her, perking up at the sound of something interesting. "Two letter sport? He's an athlete?"

"Football and baseball."

Natasha almost laughed at that revelation. "Please tell me she didn't go cliché and go after the star quarterback?"

"Running back," Linda clarified.

"For a girl who put up a fight about going to school she sure seems to be jumping right in doesn't she?"

Natasha couldn't see Laura nodding on her end, but the spy could almost feel the smile that was probably beaming on her friend's face. "She is. I think she just needed other kids her own age around her to finally see what normal kind of looks like because since she started school she's…well she's still herself for the most part."

"A little more mature than a girl her she should be?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah," Laura answered, her voice having just a small hint of sadness. "Then again, she did have to grow up a lot faster than most girls did," Laura finished.

Natasha looked at Wanda as she sat on her chair, laughing and smiling and realized that Wanda was a little more world weary than any seventeen year old girl should be. Hell, most teenage girls would've either gone insane our just shut down completely after dealing with what she's had to, she thought.

"But now," Laura said, snapping Natasha's attention back to the phone call, "unless you knew her before, you'd never guess that she wasn't just a typical high schooler."

Natasha nodded subtly. Laura was definitely right, she thought as she studied Wanda. Not that she didn't look her age, the effects of the scepter making her appear a few years older, but dressed in a pair of Chucks, ripped jeans, and of all things, one her school's class shirts along with her hair pulled back into a simple ponytail, no one would ever assume that she wasn't just some average teenager instead of one of the most powerful people in the world.

"Everyone up here has definitely noticed. It was quite the shock when she asked us to scale back her training this weekend because she needed time to write some history paper."

Laura laughed on her end, remembering that Wanda mentioned that paper. There was also a slight bit of ambivalence since Wanda had told her that she finished that paper before she left for New York. "She did finish it right?

"Yeah, it caught Steve off guard when she started asking him questions to help with it."

"Why Steve?"

"The paper's on the Depression," Natasha told her.

"And Steve lived through it," Laura said, forgetting just how old Captain America actually was.

"Hey, I'd love to keep talking about Wanda's improvements, but the guys are on their way back. I'll text you later."

"No problem," Laura told her. "Tell Wanda to have fun and call later."

"Sure thing."

A few minutes later Natasha, Wanda, Steve, and Sam were in their seats, picking at their snacks. People were still filling in so they were still able to talk, or in Wanda's case, get in a few last texts.

Wanda: U need to stop txting me. Movie about to start.

Luke: I did stop. Ur the one who kept going. Can't blame u though. Im very hard to resist

Wanda: Not that hard. I can stop talking to u anytime I want

Luke: Prove it…lol

Wanda was about to tell him she would when she felt Steve tap her shoulder. "The movie's gonna start any minute, you might want to put a hold on the texting."

"Oh leave her alone, Cap," Sam chuckled. "After all, telling a teenage girl to not use her phone is like telling her not to breathe."

Steve looked over at Natasha for some back up. "Eh, I'm sure Luke can wait a few hours to hear from you," she smiled.

Wanda's eyes widened at the sound of Luke's name coming out of Natasha's mouth.

"Who's Luke?" said Steve and Sam in unison

Wanda shot Natasha a look that plain and simply said one thing: what the hell?

"Wanda, who's Luke?" Steve asked again.

"Wanda has a boyfriend," Natasha teased.

"No Wanda does not," Wanda corrected in a voice that was halfway between annoyed and angry. She turned toward Steve and Sam, who was smiling at impromptu pre-movie entertainment. "Luke is just a friend from school."

"Who happens to be a boy," Natasha added, loving how Steve was apparently gearing up to go into de facto big brother mode.

"Does Clint know about this?" he asked.

"They've met," Wanda answered. "Now can we please drop this, the movie's about to start," she said in an effort to stop the line of questioning.

"I'll be right back," Steve said as he got up from his seat.

"Where you going?" Sam laughed.

"I'm gonna call Clint."

"Steve, don't…," Natasha called after him, but the super soldier didn't halt. "Bozhe moi."

"Bozhe miy," Wanda said in her language. She then looked over at Natasha, and the red-headed spy knew that she was deciding whether to use her powers on her or not.

"Sorry Wanda."

"As much fun as this was to watch, I can't wait to see what happens when the movie's over," Sam laughed as the lights started fading.