Skye was so happy to be back at school and for things to be back to normal. Well, mostly normal. She was still slow to do most things, but every day it got better and by the end of the week, she was feeling pretty good. She had limited participation in PE, but Coach May was happy to give her plenty of exercise that didn't involve her arms. The same was true in Tai Chi. She still expected Skye to do what she could and even suggested that the movement might help in her recovery.

A week after Skye returned to school, Mr. Sitwell showed up in homeroom with a note for Skye from Principal Fury, as well as an offer for her to come in to chat with him if she felt she needed to. Skye took the note, but declined his offer politely. When homeroom was over, she read the note from the principal.

Ms. Skye,

It was unfortunate that I had to leave suddenly after the competition on Saturday, and did not get to the medical facility to see you. I hope you are doing well. I would appreciate it if you would stop by my office before PE today, so that we can discuss any problems that might have occurred during the event.

Sincerely,

Principal Fury

Skye re-read the note. Great! She thought to herself. Now I am going to get in trouble. She tucked the note into her bag and spent the rest of the morning thinking about all of the horrible things that could happen. Would they kick her out? Force her not to take part in any more events? She showed the letter to Pepper and Sam after science, since they usually walked to PE together.

"I'm doomed, aren't I?" She sighed.

"Naaw!" Sam looked at the letter again. "You didn't do anything wrong!"

Pepper smiled at her. "I agree with Sam. You caused no one to get hurt, well, except for yourself, so what would you get in trouble for?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I just have a bad feeling about it."

"You'll be fine. Come find us when you get back to PE, okay?" Sam gave her an encouraging smile.

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She walked into the office just barely before the bell rang. When she entered, she was surprised to find Grant Ward and Brock Rumlow sitting quietly in chairs outside of the principal's office. They both looked up at her when she walked in, Rumlow curiously, and Ward with a big grin.

The door opened, and Vice Principal Hill asked Skye to step inside, before following her in and closing the door behind them.

Principal Fury was seated behind a giant mahogany desk, and Vice Principal Hill took a seat to his right.

"Hello, Ms. Skye." He gestured to an empty seat in front of the desk. "I hope you are feeling better. Please have a seat."

She sat down nervously, having to force herself to stop biting at her bottom lip. They sat there together quietly for a few moments, before he spoke again.

"Skye, I called you in here because I wanted to make sure that there were not any problems that we needed to be made aware of?"

"What do you mean, sir?" She looked down at the floor.

"Well, most people don't leave our school contests unconscious, Skye." He looked at her seriously with his one good eye.

"Sir, you know that I kind of hurt myself, right?" She held up her arms to indicate the black casts that she was wearing.

"Yes I do. I read the medical report that Dr. Storm forward to this office. That isn't what I am talking about. It was suggested to me that perhaps one or both of those boys acted in a way that wasn't appropriate. I won't put up with that in this school, Skye."

Skye shook her head nervously. "I don't think that anything they did caused me to get hurt."

He looked at her sternly. "Be that as it may, I would like to hear your side of the events, please, and I will be the judge of what happened."

She had to take a deep breath and steady her voice. She explained to them how she got into the woods and saw the wall. Then, how she backed up and ran into Rumlow, before knocking him over and taking his flag. Then she told them about backing away from Rumlow into Ward. She continued with how Ward had dragged her to the edge of the woods. She noticed Fury glance at Vice Principal Hill, then back to her.

"So then I kind of teased Rumlow because that was the second time he ended up on his back, thanks to me." She could have sworn she heard Vice Principal Hill snicker under her breath. "Honestly, I was trying to get him to pull my flags, so I could get out of the situation, but instead he tied me to the tree."

"Now why do you think he did that?" He said quietly. "Do you think he was trying to intimidate you?"

Skye laughed at that. "You've seen Rumlow, right, sir? He is pretty darn intimidating without having to do anything. No. I think he was frustrated. Look at him. The guy probably doesn't lose very often, and certainly not to a little thing like me. I think he thought that I would be humiliated when people had to go search for me. He could have done much worse to me if he wanted, but he didn't hurt anything, except maybe my pride." She shrugged. "Besides, he got Ward away from me."

Principal Fury eyed her curiously. "Explain."

She sighed. "Ward likes to lecture me on my life choices. Friends, teams, you name it….It's pretty annoying, but seems harmless enough, I guess. Ward wanted to stay and keep an eye on me while Rumlow went for the flag, but Rumlow insisted they go together. Then Ward stupidly got close enough for me to pull his last flag." Skye stopped because Vice Principal Hill definitely laughed this time. Both Skye and Fury looked at her until she took a deep breath and apologized. Skye turned back to Fury and continued. "Rumlow pushed him away and ordered him back to base immediately, before running off to the flags."

He sat back and stared at Skye for a moment, before leaning his arms on his desk and frowning at her. "Thank you, Skye. If you feel that there is anything else that we need to know, please feel free to come talk to either myself or Vice Principal Hill. Got it?"

Skye looked at him surprised. "Wait….You don't want to know what happened next?" She was confused.

"I don't need you to tell me that. I know exactly what happened. Now, thank you for your time. Please tell Mr. Rumlow that we'll be right with him, and return to PE." She stood up and smiled nervously at both of them before heading for the door.

"Ms. Skye?"

She stopped and turned back to face him. "Yes, sir?"

"Can I give you a friendly piece of advice?" He tilted his head, and she thought he was almost smiling.

"Of course, sir."

"Never forget to look behind you in a combat situation." She stared at him in surprise. "You are dismissed. Close the door on the way out."

Skye opened the door and did as she was told, closing the door behind her. Both Rumlow and Ward looked up at her again and she tried to half smile. "Brock? They told me to tell you that they'd be right with you." He nodded curtly and looked back down at the ground. Ward looked like he wanted to say something to her, but she scrambled out the door before he could even open his mouth.

She arrived back and PE with only five minutes left in the class. When it was over, Sam and Pepper both ran up to her, along with Clint and Natasha. She then spent the trip to lunch explaining what happened. On the way, they were joined by Wanda and Pietro.

"So they didn't even talk about the wall?" Sam asked her after looking to see who was around them.

She shook her head. "Nope. Not at all. Honestly, I think they just wanted to make sure that Ward and Rumlow didn't do anything they weren't supposed to. At least that is what it seemed like to me. They said that someone told them that there might be more to what happened out there. I guess they were just checking."

Clint shrugged. "Wonder who would have said that? The only people out there were you three and me."

Skye glanced at Wanda, who shrugged as if to say that it wasn't her either. "Well, I suspect that the teachers around this place know a lot more than they let on, so maybe one of them? Who knows?

While they ate lunch, Skye kept watching the door to the cafeteria. It wasn't until close to the end of lunch when Rumlow and Ward arrived. Rumlow looked around a caught her watching them. He nodded to her and headed toward the line to get food. Ward smiled brightly at her, before being dragged along by Rumlow.

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Short chapter, but a longer one coming up later today.

Next up, we spend some time with dancing, the holidays and clueless girls and boys before getting back into more action.