Chapter Twenty | School Is... Fun?

Alaina

It was the next day and Alaina was sat in a meeting, feeling like she was hungover. Principal Morita informed the staff on security updates and something about CCTV, but Al wasn't listening. She didn't realise she was nodding off until a fellow teacher, one of Al's friends, Kath nudged her, nearly sending her flying out of the chair.

Kathleen Tyler was one of the English teachers - MJ and Peter's, in fact - and was Al's first friend at the school. They met in the break room and Al offered to make her coffee, which Kath seemed extremely grateful for since 'none of these floozies knows how to use the damn machine'. Al nearly snorted her coffee through her nose when some of the teachers glared at her, and then they started spending some of their free time together. Kath always shoved her foot in her mouth and found it difficult to bullshit to someone's face which Al greatly appreciated.

As well as Kath, she met Gloria Warren and Ricky Greaves, both science teachers. It was awkward to try and make plans since Kath, Gloria and Ricky had a lot more work to do and there has only been one occurrence in which they all had lunch together, but they were starting to make it work according to their schedule. There was also the fact that Peter, MJ and Ned seemed to want to spend every free second in Al's office, so sometimes Al would have to kindly kick them out to another classroom so she could go out for lunch with her group.

"Good god, Al," Kath started as they walked out of the meeting room, siding up to Alaina. She had to look up at her since she was so small, barely reaching 5'2, with gorgeous tanned skin and hazel eyes. "You looked like me listening to my husband in there. What was that about?"

"You don't have a husband," Al pointed out, nodding to Ricky as he approached the two. "And I'm moving house, Kath. Can't a girl be tired from that?"

"Word is that you almost passed out in front of Morita," Ricky said, moving into step with them. He was tall and lanky, always wearing suede suits with thin-rimmed glasses. He was a geek, but in the cute and borderline awkward way that made the kids both like him and make fun of him. "I thought you were more professional than this, Boo."

"First of all, don't call me Boo, literally ever again," Al said, pointing her finger at him. "Secondly, you weren't even in that meeting."

He shrugged. "Kathy texted me."

"You texted him during a meeting?"

"If you can fall asleep, I can text." She held her hands up.

"So, we've got about 30 before the little demons start piling in," Ricky said, earning a shove from Kath. "Gonna have a quick smoke first if you'd like to join." Kath agreed and Al shrugged indifferently, following the English teacher outside to the side of the building where the students would hide to smoke. If students could do it, they could, too. "What d'ya wanna do after?"

"I think Gloria's in her classroom," Kath said, resting her head on the wall to look at Ricky, who pulled out a skinny cigarette and a lighter. "We could give her a bit of hassle?"

"She has marking to do," Al told them. "I doubt she wants us to bother her."

"Since when did you became so boring?" Ricky murmured around his cig.

"Speaking of boring," Kath cut in before Al could slap the man upside the head. "How did your date go?"

"Good god," she whispered, hiding her face in her hand.

"You went on a date?!" Ricky practically yelled. "And you didn't tell me?"

"Please, say it louder. I don't think all of my students quite caught that."

"So, who's the lucky guy?"

Ah, that was the question she specifically didn't want to answer. Usually, answering that question meant having to explain the fact that you were not dating a guy but in fact a girl, and then they'd give the classic 'oh, I'm so sorry! I'm not homophobic or anything, I had a gay friend in high school'. Socially it was awkward to explain, but talking about it in a work environment could be dangerous for her career. Like Sam said, you can no longer get fired for being gay in New York, but that didn't mean that fellow employees and employers wouldn't analyse your every move, waiting for you to make a small mistake so they have a reason to sack you, like with her previous teaching job.

In the army, not only being a woman but also being gay meant you had to work twice as hard in order to earn your place, so people wouldn't look at you and just think woman. Commanders were critical of every little thing she did before she was asked to join Cerebus Squad, where they couldn't give two shits about what goes on at home as long as you commit to the job. The special forces were by no means a good place, it was full of manipulation and death, but they would never let someone's private life overshadow their ability.

Al remembered Curtis, a member of her team, telling her what it was like being a gay black man not only in the military, but in every-day life at home. She couldn't even comprehend the abuse that he suffered.

"I'm not talking about this," Al stated firmly, giving a warning look to Ricky who was about to burst with excitement. "It was one date and there's not going to be another one. End of." She hoped to god there would be another date.

"Tease," Kath scolded lightly, shaking her head. "Hurry up and finish your cancer stick, Rick. I wanna get inside."

"Cancer stick?" he repeated, offended.

"Yes. Because it is a literal stick that will give you cancer."

"Don't look so surprised, Ricky," Al cut in. "Smoking will kill you at a very early age."

"Didn't know you smoked." Frank looked at Al with a strange expression on his face, his fingers tapping on the bed she was laid on. It was a mixture of guilt, sadness, hope, and... something else that she couldn't put her finger on.

"Didn't know hospitals allowed their patients to smoke, yet here we are." Al's voice was husky, raw from shouting and screaming. Curtis... she didn't know if Curt made it out alive. They wouldn't let her see him. "It might be a stick of cancer but it helps relieve stress."

"There're better ways to do that," he said.

"Like punching Agent Asshole's eye out?" she countered, stubbing out the cigarette on the ashtray next to her. "You're gonna get in a lot of shit, Frank. Doesn't matter why you did it."

"You've been in here for a week, Ally, and you look like shit," he said hoarsely.

She had to agree with him on that. The mission that Schoonover and Agent Asshole sent them on, it was a fucking ambush like they all knew it was. Al was shot in the chest and died for two minutes, and then they revived her. She didn't remember anything in the first few days since she was doped on drugs, but she recalled Billy sitting on her bedside, telling Al that Frank literally punched Agent Asshole's eye out when he said that everyone knew lives were going to be taken.

The scrapes on her face were mostly gone by now, the black eye now a faded purple, her sprained wrist was no longer in a sling but it hurt to breathe when the morphine faded. Shrapnel from the bullet punctured her lung, thankfully just before air support arrived and transported everyone out of there.

"No one's telling us shit about what happened to Curt, most of our guys are either gone or dead," Frank said.

"You got any good news?" Alaina laughed but she wanted to cry.

Frank looked at her with hesitation, and she knew that whatever he was going to say wasn't going to be good.

"They're gonna give you a Medal of Honour when you're out," he told her. She felt the pain in her chest increase when her breath caught. "I know, it's..." he sighed, placing a large calloused over hers, squeezing, "it's not looking good."

"So this is their way of sending me off?" Al asked, scoffing with tears brimming her eyes. "I watched my friends die, got shot in the chest, fought off a dozen guys with the bullet still in my chest, I left my men out on their own... there's nothing honourable about that." She shook her head, feeling anger overtaking her. "My dad doesn't even know what happened. Sam doesn't, Riles doesn't... I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving, Frank. They think I'm mentally unfit to stay, don't they? So they're using a Medal of Honour to soften the blow."

"We don't know that," Frank said. "And it wouldn't be for nothing. You... I ran in like a fucking idiot and you came after me, saved my ass a dozen times and... and then..."

"Frank," Al spoke firmly, gently squeezing his fingers when he avoided her gaze, head down and jaw clenched. "You're not responsible for what happened. I chose to jump in front of that bullet, not you. I ran towards the grenade, Frank. You didn't make do shit. I'm not... I'm trying not to blame myself for whatever happened to Curt, so don't blame yourself for this."

Alaina was sat inside her office, coffee in hand as she skimmed through her emails. Mostly about school events that she wasn't interested in, field trips, a football game happening in the next week, and then an email from one of the deputy teachers caught her eye.

Miss Gunley,

I have a few concerns regarding Michelle. Her teachers have expressed concerns that she has not been herself recently, has been getting into fights, is not committing to her work and her grades are getting worse as finals approach. If you could speak to her about this and tell her that she needs to focus on improving her behaviour, it would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to collect her from her classroom whenever you have the time.

Thank you,

Mr. Yates.

That email was enough to induce an anger in Alaina that she didn't think was possible, yet she felt her eyes narrow and fingers tighten around her thermal mug as she read it. So much for caring about your students, right? 'Tell her she needs to improve her behaviour' was one of the most infuriating things she's read in a long time, and she recently read an article about child imprisonment. Maybe this asshole should put his student's needs in front of their grades instead of worrying about something so superficial that won't matter at all if she goes to college.

A knock on Alaina's door interrupted her angry thoughts. "Miss Gunley?" a muffled voice called. "I have a delivery here for you."

A delivery?

"Send it in," Alaina called back, unable to hide the bite in her tone. The door opened and Amanda from reception walked in, holding... "Flowers?" she asked.

"Looks like you've got a secret admirer," Amanda raised her eyebrows suggestively, setting the vase of flowers on an empty space on her desk. She turned and walked out without another word, leaving Al staring mystified at the flowers.

She stood up and walked around the desk to get a better look at them. It was a bunch of blood red roses tied together with a white ribbon, set inside a circular glass vase. Who the hell would get her flowers?

There was a note attached to the ribbon, she realised when she carefully ran her fingers over the thorny stems of the roses.

Al,

I cannot wait to see you again, love.

It was unsigned but judging by the beautiful cursive writing and affectionate term, she assumed it must have been from Natasha. Al chewed her lip to stop a smile from taking over her face.

Maybe the week wasn't so bad, after all.

But still, she needed to talk to MJ.

Letting go of the note, Al set the vase down behind her desk to avoid questions from anyone who might wander into her office. She quickly checked the computer to see which lesson MJ was in - science with Gloria - and then walked out of her office, finding the stairwell and made her way up to C block.

The classroom was easy to find since Al spent some time with Gloria inside it eating lunch, but she felt nerves prickle at the base of her skull when she realised that she would have to walk into a classroom full of students. It was probably ridiculous sounding since she had her own class, but she knew the people in hers. She didn't know anyone else outside that class. Well, aside from Ned.

She peered through the window in the door for a moment and saw that Gloria was at the front of the classroom, pointing to diagrams in the PowerPoint presentation, saying something that Al would definitely not understand.

Not sure what exactly to do, she knocked on the door twice before turning the knob, not walking in but having half of her body inside the class. "Mrs. Warren?" she asked. "If it's not a problem, I'd like to speak with MJ for a few minutes." She caught sight of the familiar head of curly hair, with Peter Parker sat next to her. Peter smiled, and Al nodded back with her own.

"Of course," Gloria nodded, gesturing for MJ to pick up her bags.

The girl picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder, walking away from her desk and down the isle in the middle of the tables.

"Michelle's in trouble," one of the boys sang, earning a wave of laughter from the other boys around him.

"One more word and I'll rip out your glands," MJ threatened them with a sharp glare, silencing their laughter. Not totally different from her normal self, then.

MJ followed Al through the corridor and down the stairs in relative silence. Al wasn't worried about her, but... well, she was worried. Astrid's comment a few days ago about MJ being adopted and saying lightly that she was probably being abused hit her, no pun intended. It was unlikely that she was, but still. It was beginning to eat at Al.

Alaina shut the office door behind her and took a seat, gesturing for the girl to do the same. Instead of sitting behind her desk like she usually did, she instead settled on the table in the corner of the room where MJ, Peter and Ned would sit at lunch or when they were doing work. MJ took a seat next to Al - good sign - so she turned her chair so she was fully facing the girl.

"Am I in trouble, teach?"

"No, of course not." Al shook her head, giving a soft smile. "I got an email from Mr. Yates today." MJ's expression didn't shift. "He's concerned that your grades are not where they should be and that you've been getting into a lot of fights recently."

MJ scoffed with a little smirk, rolling her eyes. "You gonna berate me about my grades, too? I get that from all of my teachers every day. I don't need it during my free time."

"Of course I'm not going to do that," Al said. "I care about you more than I care about some letter you'll get on a paper."

"Are you psychoanalysing me or something?" she asked suspiciously.

"I'm just being honest. I don't think grades should be as important as they are, but they are. And I can't do anything to change that," Al said truthfully. "Tell me what's going, MJ. You're doing exceptionally in Art, but what other subjects do you enjoy that you're not doing so good in?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I guess... science? I like chemistry and biological, physics can go screw itself, though. I know my grades are awful but they put too much work on my ass and I don't have anyone to really help me with it." Al had to hide her frown at that last part. "And the fights. Well, people make dumb comments and I get mad at them. I usually just make a dumb comment back, but sometimes..."

"You want them to feel it," Al finished. She remembered being MJ's age and doing the same thing, always finding something to be angry at.

MJ picked at her nails. "Guess so." There were a few moments of silence. Al was thinking of what to say, but MJ must have interpreted the quiet differently. "You think I'm crazy."

Al nearly laughed at that and instead replaced it with a toothy smile. "I think you're crazy but not in the way you're thinking." Her smile faded. "Listen, I... I'm going to trust you with something. Something important." MJ frowned and gave a small nod, yet didn't say anything. "Can I trust you, MJ?"

"Of course, teach," she said.

"Okay." Al ran her tongue over the corner of her lip. She shifted in her seat and rested one elbow on the table, the other in her lap. "This might seem irrelevant the way I'm starting out, but I promise it'll make sense. Do you know who Sam Wilson is?" MJ nodded again, looking more confused by the second. "He's my best friend. I've known him since I was kid, went to war with him, and we're still friends to this day."

"You know The Avengers?" MJ's eyes widened. It was a stark change seeing this girl going from I-know-everything-about-you-and-your-mother to I-literally-had-no-idea-what-the-hell.

"Yeah." Al nodded, her lips pulling softly at MJ's expression. She looked amazed. "And you know that Peter has that Stark internship?" MJ's eyebrows were still furrowed as she bobbed her head. "I know Tony Stark who's a very technical guy, good at engineering and definitely good at chemistry. Bruce Banner is a genius scientist, specialises in biochemistry, nuclear physics and all of the other good sciencey stuff that you can think of." That was the only thing she could recall from her very brief conversation with Bruce. "It might not be an internship but it can definitely help with your grades."

"I can't do that, teach." MJ didn't look scared but was definitely determined. "A lot of kids at school are struggling, it's not just me."

"I don't know you personally, MJ," Al started, "but for some reason, I know you won't throw away an opportunity like this. Think about it and come back to me when you're ready."

It was later that night when Al realised something. Something about the flowers sent to her office. The note.

Natasha always called her Alaina, not Al.

And Sam said that she was out on a mission.

And then she remembered what Bucky said to her:

You're being followed.

Author's Note: The last thing I was expecting was to write an over 3k chapter a little over a day after the last one. I said in the last AN that I'd be taking a couple of days off but I guess getting everything off my chest helped me write? And guess what - I don't hate this chapter! It's a bit all over the place, though, with the flashback and then the time skip at the end. However, the actual plot is now getting moving (only 50k words in lol sorry and there's still no Nalaina kiss). I wonder what that last part was about, hmmmmm...

Also, do you guys like the flashbacks? Personally, I think it adds more to Alaina's personality and growth since it shows that she's changed, especially when it comes to the anxiety side of things. What do you think of the MJ scene? And Al making new friends?

Thanks for reading nevertheless!

Edited: 29.08.18.