The school bell rang indicating it was the end of the day and the children began to leave. "Ben can I have a word with you?" Mr Evans asked Bruce. The boy nodded and walked over to the teacher's desk. "Those math problems you were doing today were supposed to be very challenging but you did them all in 20 minutes." Bruce shrugged. "Your classmates barely did two in that amount of time." The boy stared at his feet. "Do you know what I think Ben?" Bruce looked up and shrugged. "I think you're a really smart kid and I think you should try some very advanced problems." The boy smiled. "How about you stay after school tomorrow and I will teach you the more advanced work?"
"Uh yeah." Bruce said and put on a half smile.
"Okay, you can go now Ben." Mr Evans smiled and Bruce nodded and waved before leaving the room.
"How was school?"Pepper asked as the children got into the car. She saw Tony with a smile beaming on his face and his math paper clutched in his hand. He handed it to her. "You got an A! I'm proud of you Tony." She smiled and ruffled his hair. Pepper then noticed the note Mrs Anderson had left on the bottom of the page. "I guess your teacher likes you."
"Yeah, I thought she was awful at first but then, well that happened." He said and pointed at the paper.
"So she is not like your other teacher. What was her name?"
"Oh Mrs Watterson. She hates me. She tells my Dad things about me and then he tells me that I'm not doing good enough. Mrs Anderson did seem cold at the start but she was nice to me after I corrected her in class. It's kind of freaky that she looks a lot like Mrs Watterson and reminds me a little of her too."
"Well I'm happy she likes you know." She smiled at Tony.
Phil stopped the car outside of Steve's school. Steve ran to the car with his head down and said hello to everyone without making any eye contact. They then made their way back to the tower and the children and adults made their way up the tower. "Put your jackets away before you go and play." Maria shouted. However, she said it too late because Natasha had already through her jacket on the floor and ran into a different room. "Clint will you put Natasha's jacket away please." She asked Clint who nodded.
When Clint picked up Natasha's jacket, he felt something in the jacket pocket. He looked around to see if anyone was watching before reaching into the pocket and pulling out the pink note that Amy had wrote for him. He read the note and through the jacket on the floor. "Natasha!" he shouted. The girl peered around the door looking worried. "Do you know what this is?" he asked and showed her the note. Her eyes widened and she turned away from him. "When did you get this?"
"Yesterday" she said nervously.
"Well why didn't you give me it?"
"I didn't think you would want to go." She said looking down at her feet.
"She is the only friend I've made Nat. Oh course I want to go" Clint said waving his arms at her.
"But I'm your friend." Natasha said close to crying.
"Oh yeah Natasha, you a GREAT friend." He said sarcastically. Natasha burst into tears and ran out the room. Clint sighed. "Maria, can I go to my friend's house tomorrow?"
"Hey are you okay?" Maria asked Steve, which made him jump.
"Yes Ma'am." He said.
Maria looked at the boy and noticed a patch of blood on the side of his face. "Steve what happened?" she asked worryingly.
"I got into a bit of trouble with another boy."
"What happened?"
"I was walking out of class with my friend, when he started to annoy her, so I told him to stop. He ignored me. I went to punch him but he pushed me and I hit my head." he said and shrugged.
"Well why did you try and punch him?"
"Because I don't like bullies." He sighed and Maria stroked his face. "And he was being a jerk to my friend."
"Do you mean Ashley?" he nodded and smiled. "So is she your girlfriend?" she smiled.
"No." He said quickly but Maria smiled when he saw his cheeks go bright red.
"Aw. Well if she was, she would be lucky to have you Steve. You are great kid." She smiled and started to clean up the blood on his face.
"Thank you Ma'am."