In the flashback, Coulson, May, Garrett, Hartley and Sitwell would all be in their early twenties and they had just entered the Academy.

I know the lyrics Coulson sings are wrong but he was drunk and trying make a point. Just thought I should let you know that I didn't make a mistake. How could I really? I've listened to the God damn song so many times as I was writing this chapter that, even if I didn't know the lyrics, I'd know them by now.

If there's any mistakes please forgive me. I was writing something sad when I realized I still had to finish this chapter, so going from something sad to this caused a shock in my brain, and maybe there'll be some mistakes.


(Skye's eight-years-old; the action of this chapter takes place between chapters 16 and 17 of this story)

All of Mr. Rivers' students were excited for their performance. They were going to dance to Footloose, but they'd add a little twist at the beginning. Mr. Rivers would deliver some lines from the movie, said by Reverend Shaw Moore, and one of his students would interpose by quoting Ren McCormack. The problem was that McCormack's lines were too extensive, and when the teacher announced the class that the first part of their presentation would have to be left out, they were saddened. They loved that little bit at the beginning and they wanted to get on that stage and do something else other than dance, which was what everyone else was preparing, except for the fourth graders who were going to performance a small play. They wanted to be epic.

Skye bravely raised her hand and volunteered to memorize all 215 words of that page to recite them at the performance. Mr. Rivers assured Skye that she could give up on it whenever she felt she couldn't do it, Skye assured him she wouldn't give up. He told her he could get her cue cards if she needed, she told him she wouldn't need them. Skye was going to make the effort to memorize her lines and then would practice the dance moves along with her classmates. When, one week before the performance, Skye told Mr. Rivers she had memorized the whole thing, he thought she'd just be delivering the words as if she was reading the phone book. He was very wrong. May helped her not only memorizing but also helping give the right emphasis and connotation to the words. Skye showed the teacher and her classmates what she had accomplished and the man was taken aback by her expressiveness.

The kids spent days borrowing clothes from family members and from the theater club to complete their attire as most faithful to the character they were playing as possible. Cassie's mom was a hairdresser. She helped prepping the kids with the quickest, simplest and yet most in-character hairstyles she could. All the kids were in frenzy, excited and nervous, running around in the backstage. They were seven and eight year olds, feeling stage fright. But they all felt ready. Skye discreetly poked her head through the curtains, trying to find May among the faces of the many parents and relatives in the school's auditorium. She was nowhere to be seen. Skye was sure because she had skimmed through all the faces. She started to feel nervous, trying to go through her lines but it seemed like the words were slipping away.

"Mr. Rivers?" Skye crooned, walking up to her teacher, "I'm… I'm forgetting everything."

"Skye," he went down on one knee, being at her eye level, "it's alright. I don't want to put any pressure on any of you, so if you don't feel comfortable or you can't remember the lines, we can skip that part."

"No. That's the coolest part. We're gonna be epic, remember?" she smiled a little, "You always say that we should always do our best at everything. We wanna go big today. I'm just nervous 'cause," she began playing with her fingers, "Melinda isn't here and she promised she'd be here. She helped me memorize everything and… I really want her to be here."

"If she promised she'd be here, then she will. Don't worry. Now, if you see you can't remember the lines, we skip that part. More than impressing people, I want you all to be happy when dancing in that stage for everyone."

"I'll remember all of it," Skye insisted.


When Mr. Rivers walked in the stage dressed in a cassock, a single spotlight following his steps, everyone knew he was going to perform something, so what followed didn't preoccupy anyone.

He cleared his throat and faced the audience, "I am sorry to announce but the class of second graders will not performing today. I know it was mentioned in today's arrangement but the class has violated the law -"

His students ran to the stage and booed him. Everyone had a small chuckle seeing the little kids dressing in 80's clothes, all of them resembling the characters of Footloose the best they could.

Mr. Rivers continued, "It's on this school's rules: dancing has been outlawed an -" They booed him again.

"Are you saying that dancing is illegal?" one of the kids asked, "I thought this was a party!"

"Listen up," Mr. Rivers carried on, "this law exists for a reason. Every, every day, our Lord is testing us. If He wasn't testing us, how would you account for the sorry state of our society, for the crimes that plague the big cities of this country when He could sweep this pestilence from the face of the earth with one mighty gesture of His hand? If our Lord wasn't testing us, how would you account for the proliferation these days of this obscene rock and roll music -"

"Let me stop you right there," Skye's voice hung in the air and everyone laughed as she stepped forward from among the other kids, slowly walking towards her teacher. "From the oldest of times, people danced for a number of reasons. They danced in prayer, or so that their crops would be plentiful, or so their hunt would be good. And they danced to stay physically fit and show their community spirit. And they danced to celebrate. And that is the dancing we're talking about. Aren't we told in Psalm 149," one of her classmates gave her a book from where she pretended to read, "Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song. Let them praise His name in the dance?" Skye closed the book and dropped it on the floor, "And it was King David - King David, who we read about in Samuel - and what did David do? What did David do?" Skye made a pause but no one in the crowd understood that they had to ask her that question. "I ask you, what did David do?"

She looked at Mr. Rivers, sadness and dismay dawning upon her face. People weren't collaborating and she had made such an effort to memorize everything and give every word the right emphasis to help her class' presentation be livelier than all the other performances. They all worked hard from getting the outfits, to get Cassie's mom to help them with the hairdo, to learn the moves and people weren't collaborating at all. The man discreetly nodded his head, and asked her to carry on, even if that part of their act didn't go as planned. But then…

"What did David do?" May asked from the back of the auditorium.

All heads turned to the woman standing at the back, arms crossed over her chest.

Skye grinned till her cheeks hurt and then resumed, slipping back into character, "David danced before the Lord with all his might, leaping and dancing before the Lord. Leaping and dancing. Ecclesiastes assures us that there is a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to laugh and a time to weep. A time to mourn and there is a time to dance. And there was a time for this law, but not anymore. See," she turned to Mr. Rivers, "this is our time to dance. It is our way of celebrating life. It's the way it was in the beginning. It's the way it's always been. It's the way it should be now. Guys," she back at her classmates who were itching with excitement, "let's show 'em how we roll."

"Let's dance!" one boy shouted.

Mr. Rivers quickly exited the stage as the kids all ran to their designated spots to begin dancing to Footloose, reproducing the dance moves almost to exactly like seen in the movie. The kids got a standing ovation and they did deserve it. They were hyper as they bowed, pleased with the outcome, and ran to the backstage laughing loudly. All the students ran to Mr. Rivers who was proudly smiling and hugged him.

After all the excitement wore off a little, the children changed into their regular clothes and then sneaked into the auditorium, sitting next to their parents. Skye found May still standing by the door, at the end of the room and offered a big grin once the woman looked down at her.

"How did we do?" she asked in a low voice.

May smiled a little, "It was amazing."

"Are we staying till the end?"

"If you want to. And," May paused, tucking on hair strand behind the girl's ear, "sorry I was late. I had a lot of work, really."

Skye smiled and wrapped her arms around May, "You came, that's what matters."


"I saw you singing to the song," Skye commented as they entered the apartment as she stripped off her jacket and threw it over the couch.

May hung hers on the coat hanger and eyed Skye, "There're rules in my house. This isn't a goddamn barn."

The girl smirked and put her jacket on its place as well, "You didn't answer me."

"You didn't ask me anything," May pointed out, heading for the fridge, hoping to have something there that could be heated and edible as dinner.

"Oh, right. I ask now: how did you know the lyrics to the song? You were singing it."

"Uhm, that goes many years," the woman confessed, filling two cups of instant noodles with water.

Skye was sitting on the chair already, elbows supported over the table and her chin resting on the palms of her hands. She swung her legs, waiting to hear the story. May sighed and sat across from her.

"We were all at this bar -"

"Who's we?" Skye asked. May raised a brow and the girl stated, "I wasn't there and I wanna know."

"Me, and my friends at the Academy: Hartley, Garrett, Sitwell, Blake and your dad," once Skye nodded in agreement, taking in the new information, May carried on, "as I was saying, we were at this bar…

The usual gang was gathered up at Joe's bar. The group was not yet complete – Blake hadn't showed up yet – but Coulson, Garrett, Sitwell, May and Hartley were already sipping on their beers. Everyone at the Academy had their little group all figured out and their favorite gathering place chosen. For those six SHIELD cadets, Joe's bar was the best. It was a small and modest bar, and the environment was friendly. It wasn't the kind of bar where it was normal to see a new face around. Mostly the regulars owned the territory. There was never a queue to order drinks. In fact, there was almost no need to vocalize their order. They only needed to raise a hand and either Joe or one of his bartenders, Rosie or Ben, would bring the drinks to the booths.

Coulson looked at his reflection in the mirror, running a hand through his short hair, "I miss my mop top."

May sighed, "No one would ever take you seriously with that mop top. You can't pull a Beatles' look so don't try it."

"At least he still has plenty of hair," Sitwell said mournfully, sipping on his beer, "I'm getting bald and I'm still in my twenties."

"Oh, boo-hoo," Garrett laughed, "Jasper boy is losing his hair."

"Don't mock him, Garrett," Hartley spoke after downing the last bit of her beer, "All men lose their hair at some point in their life. You will too."

Felix Blake approached the booth wearing a neutral expression, "Go ahead, laugh it up."

When the five at the table looked at the newcomer, they all laughed. Blake's black hair was full of pink haphazard patches. He sat down with them and waved his hand at Joe who was behind the counter to bring the shot glasses and the bottle of vodka to their table.

"Thank you, May," Blake said.

"Wha – It wasn't me!"

"Right," he rolled his eyes, "you mean to tell me that the prankster Queen of the Academy didn't fucking put hair dye in my shampoo?"

Joe put the vodka and shot glasses at the table and walked back to his place behind the counter. Sitwell began pouring everyone a shot while Blake was still concerned about his new hair color.

"How long 'til this fades?"

Hartley was running her hands through Blake's hair to see how much the pink color had penetrated in his natural hair color, "Four to six weeks and it should fade."

Blake's eyes widened, "Four to six weeks?"

As soon as Sitwell handed him his glass, Blake drank it in a single gulp. He was sure it was May who put the hair dye in his shampoo and he knew that Hartley was dying inside to poke fun of him. He was thinking of getting really drunk but then remembered that when Garrett challenged May (which was happening at the moment), she'd get drunk but complete the dare. So, if he'd manage to stay sober, he could retaliate against May's prank.

"If you two ladies down half this bottle like you did last time, you get a kiss from me," Garrett challenged, "because what you did while drunk was out of this world and I'd love to see it again."

"Weren't we supposed to be rewarded for drinking half a bottle of scotch?" May pointed out.

Coulson chuckled before he gulped down his shot. Garrett waved his arms in disbelief, "Me kissing you two isn't rewarding?"

"Garrett," Hartley called his attention, "I'd rather puke in a glass and drink my own vomit than have to kiss your filthy mouth."

"Isn't drinking alcohol bad?" Skye inquired.

May chewed on her lip, "Yes."

"Then why were you all drinking?"

"That's not the point," she got up to fetch the instant noodle cups and their tableware, "can I continue or did you give up on wanting to know?"

"Nah-uh," she claimed between a mouthful of noodles, "I wanna know more."

"So…

All six of them were drunk, some more than others. Except for Blake; he was still sober and holding on.

"I think we should get back to the dorms," May commented with Blake, taking a look at her friends.

Sitwell was sleeping over his arms that rested on the table, Garrett was too giggly but still daring Hartley to drink shots – Hartley who was perfectly fine - and Coulson was singing loudly, minutes away of stripping off his T-shirt.

"Cut loose, footloose, kick off your Sunday shoes. Ooh-wee, Mellie, shake it, shake it for me," Coulson shook his body, walking over to May in swinging steps, "Whoa, my love," May rolled her eyes as he grabbed her hand and tried to get her to dance with him, "come on, come on let's go. Lose your blues, everybody cut footloose."

"Ok, he's very drunk," Blake acknowledged, "let's go back."

Blake slapped Sitwell on the nape of his neck which caused the sleeping youngster to wake up startled. Jasper could barely push his body up to look up, so Blake looped his arm around his friend and helped him stand on his feet, dragging him to the door.

"I've got him. Can you bring Coulson?"

"Of course I can," May replied, grabbing Coulson's varsity jacket that he had stripped and tossed to the floor. "Come on, Phil, let's go," she said, helping him put on the jacket.

She was tipsy but she was far more sober than him so she could still drag Coulson back to the dorms. Phil didn't try to fight the decision, walking to May in tottering dance steps, still singing. Alcohol really made him lose all inhibitions. He put his arm around Melinda's shoulders, dropping most of his weight over her. She had to lace her arm around his waist to firm her hold on him.

"You guys are staying?" May asked, directing her look to Hartley and Garrett.

Hartley nodded and added, "I'm finishing proving Garrett what it means to challenge me for a drinking contest. We should be leaving soon too."

Coulson sang to the Piña Colada song, and then abruptly stopped singing to giddily ask her, "Mel? Do you like piña colada?"

"I don't know. I don't think I've ever had a piña colada," she answered and shivered once a colder breeze blew through her thin shirt, "Jeez, it's cold out here."

"Have my jacket."

Coulson stopped to very clumsily strip off his jacket. He staggered a few steps closer to her, draping the jacket over her shoulders but lost his balance, falling forward into her arms. Their stare flickered between each other's lips and eyes. His heart skipped a bit and his drunken brain told him to do it. He placed a hand on her waist, the other hand cupping her jawbone as he crushed his lips against hers. May was frozen at first, but once his tongue found hers, she felt her legs turning to jelly and her brain deserting her. All she could think was how tightly his body was pressed against hers and how the taste of vodka and mint from the gum he had chewed earlier danced in her tongue. She tightening her grip on a handful of Coulson's T-shirt fabric and got his body even closer to hers.

She was smiling as he kissed her because that was the sloppiest kiss she had ever experienced, but feeling his chest roaring with trouble breaths and his heart thumping frantically against his ribcage - and consequently hers - just turned the kiss into something sweet. Coulson's fingertips ran up May's forearm, leaving a trail of goosebumps blooming in their wake. He brought his hand up to cup her cheek, his thumb running along the curve of her cheekbone as he placed a light kiss on her cheek and one on her jawline. Coulson's eyes shot up open and he gasped, recovering his breath and taking a few steps back.

He stared at the ground as he apologized, "I'm sorry. Sorry. I'm drunk, I know. Sorry."

May simply nodded and the two resumed their walk, the air around them embraced in an awkward silence. But Coulson was so drunk that soon enough the air was filled with his singing voice again and May ended up grinning.

"Can we all just crash at your dorm?" Blake asked, waiting at the door of May's and Hartley's room, wearing a tired expression because Sitwell couldn't stand on his feet.

"Whatever," she said, "just get in and let's all keep quiet." She looked at Coulson, "I'm talking to you, walking jukebox."

The four of them walked in and quietly closed the door behind them. Sitwell crawled onto Hartley's bed and fell asleep immediately. Blake lied down on the floor, feeling exhausted. May helped Coulson sit down on the floor and then took a seat next to him, resting her back against the wall.

Coulson flashed a grinned, "You know what we should do?" he asked, moving his hand aimlessly as he spoke.

"No. But I'm not doing anything stupid. We've done enough of that tonight already," May told him.

He giggled like a little boy, "We should shave Sitwell's hair. That way he won't grumble anymore."

"That's something I label as stupid, Coulson."

"Just beat it, beat it, no one wants to be defeated," he began singing really loud.

"Keep it low, Phil. You're gonna wake up everyone."

"Showin' how funky strong is your fight, it doesn't matter who's wrong or right. Just beat it, beat it, no one wa -"

"Alright," May got up to her feet, "let's shave his head. Shut up now."

"So you were singing the song because of dad. He sung it to you and you liked it."

"Sort of," May admitted, "we used to have fun in our youth. Those were the days."

"You can still have fun now."

May drew a heavy sigh, "I don't know… nothing's the same as it was before."

"But," Skye crooned, "what happened when you woke up? The Academy is like a school and you had done some many bad things."

"Oh, when we woke up," May grinned, "we were taken to our SOs and to the Director. Half of the clothes in my wardrobe were ripped. Blake took his revenge on me while I slept. I punched him once I saw what he had done. His eye got really swollen, so I'd say we were even. Sitwell was horrified when he realized he had no hair. Garrett was spacing out when he woke up and didn't know how he ended up sleeping on my bed. Hartley was trying to understand how come she had slept with Garrett, but then again I don't think she really wanted to know the details of that."

"What's wrong with sleeping in the same bed as a boy?"

"Nothing wrong," May said, not even bothering to go into details; Skye was still too young for that. "And well, your dad was voiceless from singing so loud. We were all punished, of course. We were supposed to take turns in running and we weren't allowed in inside until we had done 150 laps. But, as we were all too hangover to do the math, we didn't realize we only had to run 25 laps each, so we kept on running and arguing throughout the whole morning we spent at the running track. What a fun day," May recalled - part of her was being sarcastic, the other part was being nostalgic.

Skye giggled, "When I'm old enough I wanna go to the Academy too. It seems like fun."


Next chapter will be about Skye's first day of school. It's such a sweet chapter that it might give you cavities. :)