6 Years Later...
"Victoria, dear, can you pass the jam?" Steve's mother called to me. I nodded at her, unable to speak with my mouthful of eggs, and shoved the jam down the length of the table. I wasn't paying enough attention though. The jam went flying down the table before slipping past Steve's mother and off of the table, smashing into the white wall behind us and shattering.
My hand flew to my mouth as the entire family turned to stare at the now broken jam bottle. Rebecca, Bucky's younger sister, had finally looked up from her book to stare at the jam splatter curiously. Jessica, the second eldest Barnes daughter was nowhere to be found. She normally ate breakfast at her boyfriend's house. He was doing well courting her. The entire family loved him. Save Bucky. Bucky's younger brother, Justin, was staring at me like I had grown a third head. His mother, Winifred, looked shocked. His father, George, still hadn't looked up from the morning paper.
Steve's family was here as well. Not that there were that many extra people here. It was only Steve, his mother, and his father. Steve's mother, Sarah, was staring at me with her mouth hanging open. On realizing that I was staring at her she shut her mouth quickly and gave me a nervous smile. Steve's father, Joseph, was grinning softly at me. He gave me a little wink before going back to his meal. Steve was watching me with close eyes, giving me a reassuring smile. Bucky was still staring at the jam splattered across the wall.
Naturally it was Bucky that broke the silence first. He began laughing loudly, his entire family following shortly afterwards. I couldn't help it. With everyone laughing I broke a small smile as well and began to laugh with the rest of them. The nine of us settled down quickly and I gave a bashful smile at Mrs. Barnes. "I'm so sorry about the jam bottle. I'll buy a new one on my way back from school," I promised her.
Mrs. Barnes shook her head at me and stood, starting to clean the mess that was all over the wall. Thankfully she had always been good about the kids and making messes. Lord knows that Bucky and Steve made enough messes for the entire families for a year, each. "Not to worry, dear. I needed to make a trip to the store anyways. I suppose this gives me the motivation!" She exclaimed with a little laugh.
It wasn't an unfamiliar sight. Me doing something that caused the rest of the Barnes and Rogers's family to look at me strangely. Making the fire in the living room rage whenever I was angry, or the lights flickering when I was depressed. Never bleeding or having broken any bones, no matter how bad the injury was. Picking up cases that would weigh down a full-grown man with ease. Hearing something that wasn't meant for me to hear. Knowledge far beyond the years of any normal fourteen-year-old girl. The ability to know what people were going to say before they said it. It was all enough to make anyone question who I was.
But they never said anything. And they would never know how much it meant to me. They had taken me in the morning after Bucky and Steve had saved me. The Rogers and Barnes families split me between themselves. Steve's family took me most of the time since they were less busy. They also had a spare room. When I stayed with Bucky I had to sleep with Jessica in her room. Only once had their families bothered to ask me where I was from and how I had gotten to Brooklyn. My answer had been simple. My parents had been killed in an air raid and I'd been lucky enough to escape relatively unscathed. I'd told them that I had no other family and nowhere to go. With Steve and Bucky vouching for me, good behavior, and excellent grades, they'd had no reason to tell me to leave.
It had originally only been a temporary situation. They had promised to keep me for a few weeks while we determined where I needed to go. Whether a shelter was the best place, or even an orphanage. I had been up for anything. But I would have never told them that I was not planning on staying in an orphanage. If they had left me there I would have been gone by the morning. Wherever I went I had to make sure that I would stay away from anyone that might recognize me.
The temporary situation had simply been extended time after time. Each time the families would tell me that I could stay for another few weeks while they worked out somewhere for me to go. And each time I had told them that I would leave. That I could figure something out. But they had never agreed to let me go. They wouldn't let me leave without them knowing that I would be safe. It had taken them an entire year to figure out that they were never actually going to let me leave. I had quickly become attached to Bucky and Steve and their parents had become the parents that mine never were. I had even started their school, which was far too easy. I could have done the entire semester in a day. But I would never tell them that. They thought I was odd enough.
So the day had come about four years ago that Steve's parents had officially adopted me. Well, not officially. I had made sure that they thought that my birth certificate and other records were all sealed, which I was sure that they were. The government probably had them on lock-down. But that meant that my school records all went by the name Victoria Rogers. It was good that I looked a little but like him though. No one at school ever question who I was or whether or not I was related to Steve. As far as they were concerned, I had simply changed schools to where Steve and Bucky both went after a long deliberation with "our" parents.
It didn't really matter either way. Most people stayed far away from me. It wasn't because I was annoying or unpopular. As far as it went, I really was popular. Or at least I was suckered into hanging out with the popular crowd most of the time. Bucky was one of the most popular kids at our school. However, seeing that he was three years older than me, none of the people my age ever talked to him. And I couldn't beg Steve to help me for friends either. He was a year ahead of me and really didn't have many friends himself.
It also didn't help that I was far more intelligent than most of the people in our entire school combined. The kind of society that we lived in was the type that thought that women were only be housekeepers. They should only stay home and take care of their kids and husbands. We weren't treated as independent people but more of property to the men that tried to court us. I had gotten off rather lucky. Most boys stayed away from me. They didn't like a girl that could recite the periodic table from memory, know all of the Chinese emperor's since the Xia Dynasty, and do a calculus problem that half of the world's mathematicians would have problems doing.
Mrs. Barnes had once mistaken my depression at the anniversary of my fleeing home as a depression that I wasn't out and about. Steve had gone out with a few of his friends from the chess team, Jessica was out with her boyfriend, Rebecca had been out with her friends, Justin had gone to the cinema with some friends, and Bucky was out on a date with some pretty girl. I had been the only one home. Mrs. Barnes had told me that someday someone would come into my life and they would be smart enough to never let me go. I had appreciated the advice but it didn't concern me. I wasn't worried about boys or dating.
There were real problems in this world. And being with someone meant having to show them all of yourself. And I had long ago sworn to myself to never let someone see all of me. For my own benefit and theirs. No one had ever told me that I was beautiful and that was just fine by me. I didn't show anything off. I didn't care to. I had to keep a low profile. My nearly silver blonde hair was always tied up in a tight bun and I never wore any makeup. I always wore the school uniform exactly the way that it was supposed to be. Any curves that I had that were more than the average girl in my school were covered by bulkier clothing. I was teased enough. I didn't need the terms Split or Roundheels added to the many that had already been thrown at me.
The only thing that ever made me different from the average girl in my school, visibly at least, were my eyes. They had earned me some very annoying nicknames. My eyes were a brilliant yellow, brighter than the sun, brighter than anything. They always startled new people and for a long time Justin had avoided me when he saw me. He probably thought that I was some type of Devil when he had first met me. Not that I had been surprised. Even after cleaning up that night I had looked awful. But six years had made a drastic change. Other than being slightly socially deprived, I now acted like a normal Brooklyn teenager.
And unfortunately being a teenager meant that I had to go to school. I was a freshman in high school this year. This was my first day of school and it was an understatement to say that I was dreading it. Steve was a junior and Bucky was a senior. One more year and a third of our close-knit friendship would be gone. I was no fool. I knew that Bucky was going to enlist the moment that he got out of school. And I knew that Steve would lie on his enlistment form to make sure that he could go in with his friends. That was the boys for you. One would not go anywhere without the other. And they both swore to me that they would come back for me, that they were fighting for my safety, and that they were strong enough to protect me.
It was all sweet and I loved hearing it. I loved that someone would be willing to lay down their life to ensure that I could live mine. The only thing that they didn't understand was that if anyone could protect us, it was me. Things that would kill the two of them wouldn't leave a scratch on me. But I could never tell them that. I was a weak little girl. I had to stay at home and make sure that I had a man to look after me. I had to have children and make sure that my boys would be another generation of noble fighters and my girls would be another generation of loyal homemakers and caretakers. That was the way that things worked. And that was probably the reason that I was going to end up alone.
Steve, he would be alright. Sure he was a little skinny and weak... Well a lot skinny and extremely weak. But he had a heart of gold. Maybe he wasn't cut out to be a soldier but there was no doubt in my mind that he was a good boy that would become a great man. He would be alright in this world. I knew that he would. And Bucky... What was there to say about him? He was the best. He was extremely funny and more charming than anyone else that I knew. He had a wonderful personality and was just as brave as Steve. Maybe he wasn't the smartest person in the world but he made up for it with quick thinking and a protective nature. He was a charmer for sure, he always had another girl willing to hang on his arm.
Of course he always told me that I would be his number one girl. But I knew what he meant by that. I was like his sister. He treated me the same way that he treated Rebecca and Jessica. I was no different to him than they were. And that was okay with me. I didn't need a guy in my life. It was better that I didn't have a guy like that in my life. I had dragged Steve and Bucky far enough into my mess of a life. I didn't need to drag them down even further. I wanted Bucky to find himself a woman that would support him in the coming war and I wanted Steve to realize that no matter what someone said he was able to do, it only mattered what he knew that he could do.
"Earth to Vika!" Bucky yelled in my ear. Normally I would have been prepared for him to do something like that but I had been completely entranced in my own thoughts. I let out a little yelp and as I jumped away from him, refraining from letting a burst of heat through my fingertips, landing on the floor of the kitchen with a little oof. Bucky laughed loudly for a moment before reaching down to help me.
Everyone was already out and about, ready to start their days. Steve was merely waiting at the door for us to get ready and Mrs. Barnes was in the kitchen doing the dishes. "James Buchanan Barnes! You apologize to Victoria right this instant!" Mrs. Barnes shouted at her eldest child.
A pale flush fell over Bucky's face and I smirked. The one person that could really scare Bucky was his mother. He turned to me as I brushed the dirt off of my uniform required skirt. "Sorry Vika. But it's time to go, come on," Bucky told me. I smiled, letting a few stay hairs fall over my eyes. Vika was the name that was solely reserved for Bucky. It was a nickname that he had started using once we had all agreed that we were truly friends. Steve tended to go with Vicky and their parents for the most part stuck with my full name.
Bucky walked over to the door and grabbed my bag, handing it over to me. A few books fell out and I watched as Bucky leaned over to grab it. "Vika, what are all of these? How are you taking these classes? Steve! Did you even know that our school taught Calculus II? What's molecular biology? DNA sequencing? Jeez Vika, I thought you wanted to have friends in high school!" Bucky teased me.
In truth they were all classes that I had tested into. I had had to deliberately answer some of the questions wrong on the mathematics exam that I'd taken before enrolling in classes. The teachers had already been shocked and most of them had suggested that I was cheating. They clearly didn't like that my scores were as high as they were. They didn't like that a girl could answer problems that even the teachers couldn't. As for molecular biology, it was one of the sciences that I had a feeling might be able to help me figure out what I was. The same things with DNA sequencing.
"The only normal class that you're taking is home education," Steve said. He was holding my schedule and reading over it with wide eyes. I snatched it back from him and stuffed it into my bag, along with the books that Bucky was trying to read through with a stupefied stare.
The only reason that I was even taking home education was because it was the only elective allowed for girls to take. I had wanted to try and take gym, but of course, it was only open to boys. I knew that Bucky was in it for the fourth year and I was pretty sure that Steve was going to try and take it this year too. I was sure that he was going to try and build up his strength so that he wouldn't be turned down for the Army. Once I had gotten all of my books back into my bag I slipped it over my shoulders and shoved the two boys out of the apartment.
We all called back goodbyes to Mrs. Barnes before letting the door slip shut. As we walked I smoothed down the neatly pleated white skirt that I was wearing. I hated it. I wanted to be back in the waist-high beige pants that I normally wore. But the school thought that pants were inappropriate for young ladies to be wearing. So I was stuck with the skirt that came up to right underneath my knees. My white button-down shirt was tucked into the waistband of my skirt and my blue jacket with white stripes was thrown over the shirt. My black Mary-Jane's were tightened around my feet and my silver hair was pulled up tight. The only thing that I wished that I could do was somehow hide my eyes. Just like last year, I knew that people would start pointing and whispering the moment that they saw me. Just this time, it would be students new to the school. There were always new ones.
"Vika?" Steve called to me. I glanced over at him and nodded. I knew that I had been a little quieter today and I couldn't help it. It was always like this on the first day of school. I knew that people would start to pick on me once more and I knew that I would once more be the center of attention, in a negative way. I had always hated the first day of school. "You want to come sit with us at lunch today?" He asked me.
I smiled at Steve and shook my head. I couldn't just look like the type of person that relied on her brother and his best friend to make sure that she didn't eat lunch alone. "I'm alright. Besides, I don't think that we even have the same lunch break." As I grabbed Bucky and Steve's schedules I nodded to myself. I was right. They had the first lunch and I had the second. That sucked. I knew that I didn't have any friends in my own year. They all hated that I was friends with Bucky and it was considered odd that my only two friends were boys, one of whom was my "brother". Needless to say, I had a poor reputation at school.
Most of the walk to school was the same as usual. I whined about having to see Johnathan, one of my least favorite students at school. Mostly because of his horrible nicknames for me. Bucky had sworn to beat him into the ground if he said anything to me today. Judging by his thoughts I was sure that he wasn't exaggerating. Bucky talked about everything that he was going to do once this year was over; he had become increasingly excited about the Army now that it was his last year in school. Steve and I spoke softly about the coursework that could be expected in the coming year. I was sure that Bucky was going to fall asleep as we talked. Bucky and Steve had both blabbered on about the Stark Expo, one of their favorite things to go see every year.
They had taken me for the first time six years ago, a few months after we'd met and it was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen. Every year afterwards the boys had sworn to take me. And they had, each year giving me a guided tour filled with Steve's surprising knowledge of all of the exhibits and Bucky buying me food that I insisted looked awful. And of course, our traditional photo in front of that year's main event. Last year it had been a refrigerator that would give you suggestions of food based on your mood. Bucky and Steve had loved that one.
As we walked into the entrance of James Madison High School I glanced around to see mostly familiar faces but a few that I didn't know. I tried smiling at Jane Hallows, who I knew from the year prior, but she merely scowled and looked away. Freak. Where does she get away with looking at me like that? She clearly was not going to be my friend this year. As I tried to tune out the other voices, more seeped in. Why is she with Bucky? Why does he even want to be seen with her? He's so much better than she is. Ruth Barren. She looks even worse this year than she did last year. Maybe she spent the summer in a mental asylum. Christina Winters. I've never even seen her in my church. Maybe she'd burst into flames the second she stepped over the threshold. Agatha Martin. The comments only got worse and worse and I had to fight to ignore them.
Dropping my eyes to the ground I headed straight for my lockers, ignoring the calls of Steve and Bucky from behind me. I shoved my books in, rolling my eyes as I dented the back of the metal locked from the force. I had to get my act together. Grabbing my Calculus II, DNA Sequencing, and Pathology books, I thrust them into my hands and turned on my heels, shutting the locker door extremely carefully. Just before I could get to the staircase that was so conveniently placed next to my locker Bucky and Steve appeared, each looking concerned.
"What happened with you back there, Vika? One second you were fine and the next you were rushing to get into school. Thought you hated it here," Bucky told me with his merciless smile. It was the same smile that he had used to get himself out of trouble with me a million times before. Or the smile to get me to tell him something that I wanted to keep to myself.
Smiling softly at the two boys, I wrapped my arm around Steve and bumped Bucky's shoulder. It was without almost any force so naturally it did nothing. Although Bucky found my apparent weakness funny. "Sorry about that guys, just was afraid that I had forgotten one of my books. I didn't," I lied weakly. Neither one seemed to believe me but both nodded anyways. As we walked upstairs I grinned to both boys and shooed them off. Steve was heading to Algebra first. He was awful at math and like every other year I had offered to help him.
I walked with Bucky over to his first class, Chemistry. He had always hated science but normally kept his mouth closed because of my love for it. Bucky threw an arm over my shoulder and grinned at me sweetly. "Try not to get in any fights today, okay Vika?" Bucky teased. The first day of school a few years ago I had hit a boy for calling Steve a girl during a lacrosse game. I had been suspended for a week. Steve's parents had bought me a cake for it. I shoved Bucky away from him and rolled my eyes at the nasty thoughts that were seeping into my mind from the other girls in the hallway. They always hated when they saw me with Bucky.
We both smiled at each other and I turned once Bucky had disappeared through the door. I heard it click shut behind me as I headed over to my first class. DNA Sequencing. Of course I could never get too far without any trouble. Trouble was my middle name. And trouble had already found me. Trouble by the name of Johnathan Harper. He was a tall football player. Blonde hair that was greased back with dark brown eyes. He was about as popular as Bucky was but he was nowhere near as brave. It was one of the reasons that he hated Bucky and vice versa. The other reason being that Johnathan had always hated me for whatever reason.
"Yellow Eyes," he greeted coyly. Clever. He was always coming up with a new name for me, each one less creative than the last. But Yellow Eyes was the one that had always stuck. It was the one that most other people in our school used for me too since Victoria was evidently too complicated for them to process.
"Move Johnathan, I have class and you are not going to make me late on the first day," I demanded politely but with enough force to let him know that I meant it. He had made me late before. It seemed that his ritual was to make me late on the first day of every new semester, even if it meant being late himself. He was a football player. He never got in trouble. But me? I was Yellow Eyes. The freak that looked like an alien and was as smart as one too. If only they all knew what I really was. They'd run screaming.
He merely grinned at me, slicking back his blonde hair once more. My eyes threatened to flash their normal color but I forced the temptation back. I was sure that they would call in a priest to perform an exorcism if I let my true eye color come through. "Come on, Yellow Eyes. I just wanted to ask you how your summer was," Johnathan told me, flashing me the same sweet smile that Bucky had used on me a thousand times already. The only difference was that it worked when Bucky did it.
So I shook my head and went to move past him. "You can ask me at lunch. We should have it at the same time. Now if you'll excuse me I hear Mr. Hanover is not fond of late pupils," I told Johnathan as simply as I could. The last thing that I wanted was to get myself into trouble on the first day of school. I didn't want to have Mrs. Rogers interrupt her day to come deal with me.
But as fast as I could be, I had to be deliberately slower. And Johnathan was faster than me at the moment. He took a step in front of me and stole the book out of my arms. A little flash of anger shot through me and I wanted nothing more than to rip his arms off of his torso. I shoved those thoughts down though and forced myself to calm down. I tried to grab the book back from him but he merely took a step back from me with a smirk, holding the books out of my reach. "Oh come on, Yellow Eyes. I want us to be friends. Now why don't you tell me how your summer was? How's your brother? Still a twig? And Barnes? Oh man, it's sad the way that you follow him around like a lost puppy," Johnathan laughed.
"I'm glad that you're had your laugh," I told Johnathan, who was laughing. He wasn't even bothering to hide it as a small group of his friends stepped into the hall, a few feet behind where we were standing. They were all sniggering at our conversation. I could kill you all. I shook my head and stomped the thought out quickly. "Please, the books. I need to go," I told him, reaching the end of my patience. It had never been that good to start with and Johnathan was stretching it as far as I would allow it to go.
He nodded at me and held the books down so that I could grab them. I thanked him softly and went to reach for them, only to look like a fool when he snatched them out of the way at the last second. His friends began to laugh loudly. "She's so cute, isn't she?" Johnathan asked his friends with a laugh. "Come on Yellow Eyes, it was just a joke." Shaking my head at him I turned away from Johnathan, determined to make sure that he was not going to make me out to be a bigger fool than he already thought that I was. I would just go to class and let Mr. Hanover know what had happened. I was not going to get into an argument with Johnathan and have to inconvenience Mrs. Barnes to come all the way down here and sort out what the school called my 'behavioral problems.'
I turned on my heels to walk away from Johnathan and his little cronies, sick of being the butt of his joke. If he wanted to have a go at me it would have to be without me. But just before I could make it a few steps away I heard Johnathan speak up once more. "God she's such a Curve," he said. His friends all laughed as I stopped dead in my tracks.
In the reflection of the glass that was in the window I was passing I could see my eyes briefly light up a brilliant red. I managed to quickly blink the color away, letting it fade back to the normal yellow. His friends were all laughing and I had to stop the electrical currents that were buzzing through my body. I could feel the temperature rising and I had to push down the urge to burn the building to the ground as his friends all laughed and pointed back to me. I could kill you all. I shook that thought out from my mind almost as quickly as it came in and I turned back to the others in the hallway. Johnathan was watching me with a proud grin.
"What did you just call me?" I asked him as I took a few steps forward. The laughter died suddenly as my teeth ground together and the lights in the hallway flickered. I calmed my temper just long enough to stop the flickering. A few of Johnathan's friends, mostly the girls, fled the hallway at the sudden change in mood and the ones that did stay backed away from the two of us. Only Johnathan had the gall to continue smirking at me like he had won some sort of prize.
He took a few steps closer to me and I had to press down the urge to show him just how dangerous I really was. "You heard me, Yellow Eyes," he told me, a dangerous glint in his eyes. But it was nothing compared to mine. "You're a Curve. Come on, you have to rely on Steve Rogers to protect you. Steve! The guy is a twig. I could snap him in half." And I could snap you in half. "He's one of only two people that you talk to and he's your brother. The other is Barnes. I mean I hate the guy and I know that he could do better than you." Alright, that one hurt a little bit. "You're a freak. You belong in a circus, not a school." That's what my parents thought too. "Mommy and daddy, they must hate you. I can't imagine how they even stand to look at you." And that was what broke me. He had no clue who my parents were, the types of people that they really were. And I was not going to let him stand here and tell me what he didn't know.
His friends seemed to have realized that nothing good was coming. They had all backed away towards the wall and I stood still as a calm smile fell over my face. I took a few steps towards him and smiled sweetly. He looked a little confused and before he could question me I reared back and threw my fist into his face. Unfortunately I hadn't thought about the fact that I needed to hold back. As my fist went into his nose I felt it completely crush, the bones breaking down to near particles, and I felt most of the cartilage shift four and a half centimeters to the right. Some skin was torn off and I felt his blood slick over my fingers.
Johnathan let out a high pitched yell as his hand flew up to cover his nose. That was not what he should have protected though. I wasn't done with him yet. As all the remaining girls in the hall fled and the boys all debated on what to do Johnathan aimed another hit at me. Before it could land I dropped down to one knee and wrapped my small hands around the joint that his knee was in. I grabbed it roughly and yanked it to the side with all of my might. The knee tore completely out of the socket and Johnathan went falling to the ground.
I wasn't even close to being done with him. I grabbed the knee and began to twist, ignoring Johnathan's cries of pain. I started to twist the joint around, completely intent on rotating it out of the socket. But just as I began to feel the tendons tear under the pressure I heard a loud call. "Victoria Rogers!" I heard Ms. Hoffman call. My grip on Johnathan loosened so that I wasn't touching him and all of his friends went scattering, leaving only Johnathan, myself, Ms. Hoffman, and a few other curious students. "What in Heavens name do you think that you're doing? To the Principal's office, now!" She howled. I opened my mouth to try and tell her that I was just defending myself, but she didn't allow me to speak. "No! Now!" She shouted.
Well done, Victoria.
A few hours later I found myself sitting in the waiting area outside of the Principal's office while Mrs. Rogers spoke to him about my behavior. I could hear yelling from both parties inside the office. As far as I knew Johnathan had sat in the halls searching for pity for an hour or so after I had been taken away while he waited for an ambulance. I was pretty sure that he was gone by now. I sat awkwardly in the chair, trying to brush off the flakes of Johnathan's dried blood from my fingers.
The door sprung open and I jumped as Principal Sanders stood in the doorway. "Miss Rogers. Come in please," he told me. I nodded at him and walked in so that I could take a seat in the chair that was available next to Mrs. Rogers. She was sitting with a stern look on her face and I knew that I was going to get a talking to later. I sat down next to her and turned to face my stern-faced principal who looked less than thrilled with me. "I have never seen a young lady exhibit behavior such as yours this morning. Would you care to tell us why you acted the way that you did?" Principal Sanders asked me.
I took a deep breath and shifted in the chair once more, letting my own mind slip into his. A month's detention, minimum. I should expel her from school. I frowned at his thoughts and shook my head. "Johnathan interrupted me on my way to class. I tried to get past him but he was determined to keep me in the hallway. I was going to be late for class on my first day. He stole my book too and wouldn't give it back," I tried to explain.
"So you deemed it fit to attack him?" Sanders asked me with a haughty tone.
"No," I snapped back faster than I had meant to. "That wasn't it. He brought all of his friends out and they started teasing me. They kept calling me names and making fun of me and my friends. He called me a Curve!" His face twisted in anger slightly but he nodded for me to continue speaking. "He keeps calling me the same name too. Yellow Eyes," I muttered the last part under my breath.
Principal Sanders sat for a moment, processing the information that I had just given him. "Correction to my earlier statement. You deemed it fit to attack him for calling you something that is completely true?" My jaw dropped at Principal Sanders' words as did Mrs. Rogers's. Neither one of us had been expecting him to say anything like that. Principals were supposed to stick up for the little guy!
It looked like Principal Sanders was about to speak but Mrs. Rogers cut me off before I could say anything to him. "Regardless of whether or not the nickname Yellow Eyes is true, it is cruel! These children are torturing my daughter and I expect to see something done about this. This is an institution of learning and these children are clearly not learning anything useful from your teachers other than insulting my daughter. She gets laughed at because she excels in her studies! I want to see no more of this and I intend to never be in your office again for something as frivolous as this. Do not call me unless of an emergency. The only other thing I want to hear out of your mouth is whether or not there will be any punishment for Victoria," Mrs. Rogers snapped.
I had never heard her say things like that so my mouth dropped open on instinct. Her thoughts were even worse than what had come out of her mouth. Principal Sanders was thrown too. Before he could open his mouth to either suggest we expel me or give me a month's detention I invaded his thoughts. I rarely did it, but this was about my schooling. I wasn't going to let it be destroyed by a jerk like Johnathan. You do not believe that what Victoria did was that bad. It was in self-defense. Her mother makes a good point. She will not receive a bad punishment. Lunch detention for a week.
Principal Sanders's eyes had glazed over for a moment but once I let his mind go he righted himself, seemingly his usual, pompous self. "Upon reflection of both your and Victoria's testimonies about the incident I have decided that one week of lunch detention should be an effective punishment." Mrs. Rogers looked shocked but she nodded with glee, probably happy it hadn't been worse. "I do not want to see any more incidents like this," he warned me.
"Yes, sir," I bit out slightly harsher than I had intended to. But he never noticed it, or if he did Mrs. Rogers pushed me out of the office before he could say anything back to me.
Once we had left the office and wandered back into the halls I noticed that most of the classes were getting ready to release for the day. It made sense, it was almost three o'clock. As we headed towards the exit of the school Mrs. Rogers stopped me and leaned down to my height. "Now you listen to me. Be damned what they say about being a proper lady. You can do whatever it is that you think you can do. If you want to be a scientist you be a scientist. Or whatever it is that you want to do. You are a strong woman and you shouldn't ever have to take things like that from any man. Especially not a silly little boy like Johnathan. Do you understand me?" She asked me.
A smile had long since replaced the frown that had been marring my features. "Yes Mrs. Rog-" I stopped myself, remembering that in public I couldn't call her that. "Yes Mom," I told her softly. She smiled at me and pulled me in for a hug. Mrs. Rogers wasn't an overly affectionate woman so to see her like this meant that she really was on my side. I should have known she would be. She was tough as nails and believed women were just as strong, if not stronger, than men.
"That's my girl," she told me and I smiled. It was times like this that I felt like I was really part of the family. "Now I need to head to the supermarket. Go find Bucky and Steve and have them walk you home. I don't trust these kids after everything that's happened today. I'll see you when I get home. And I'll pick up your favorite, fried chicken and mashed potatoes," she told me with a grin. She knew that I was a Southerner at heart.
As Mrs. Rogers walked out of the building I waved goodbye to her and hung around the doors. A few people that I knew passed me but none of them said anything to me. They all seemed to be steering clear of me with a few boys making cruel comments about what was really underneath my skirt. It was even worse that Ms. Hoffman didn't stop them from the things that they were saying. She's such a freak. She has to be a man to do that to Johnathan. He's never going to be the same. She deserves for someone to hit her back. We should all teach her a lesson. They were coming from all over the hall, each person's comment worse than the next. Once more a little wave of fury flooded over me. One little movement and I could demolish this entire building, suffocate all of you, and watch the life leave your eyes.
And once more I forced those thought out of my head. I was not the monster that these kids thought that I was. I was not the creature that my parents thought that I was. I could handle myself. A moment after my little outburst I caught sight of Bucky and Steve walking up to me. Bucky had an arm around a girl that I had seen in the halls today. She was new. And I had a tiny stirring feeling in my gut that told me to rip his arm off and beat her over the head with it to get her away from him. Steve was walking with the pair, keeping a little bit of distance in between the two of them.
The boys walked up to me quickly and I watched with glee as Bucky sent the girl on her way. She sent him a toothy smile before turning to me with a nasty sneer. She walked by me, gently bumping me on the shoulder before heading out the door. Steve walked up to me first and laughed, giving me a small shake of the head. "You shouldn't have done that. Rumors are flying everywhere that you were going to try and kill him! I mean, you, of all people. You're one of the nicest people I've ever met," Steve exclaimed worriedly.
I smiled and grabbed him into me. Steve was only a little taller than me, but he must have weighed at least ten pounds less than me. "I wasn't trying to kill him but he called me a Curve. And he wouldn't stop with the whole Yellow Eyes thing and trying to make me late for class. I didn't mean to. I just got mad," I told Steve. He shook his head with a disapproving frown but I still managed to see the smile in his eyes.
"Ah Steve, lay off her," I heard Bucky call. He pushed me gently out of the building and as we headed out of the building I turned to look back at him. "I'm proud of you. Should have given him a few shiners to match that job you did on his nose," Bucky told me with a laugh. I shook my head and glanced over at him. He looked completely normal with the exception that he had a dark black eye. One that I was absolutely certain he hadn't had this morning. What had happened to him in just seven hours?
I stopped the two boys dead in their tracks before grabbing Bucky and shoving him back against a fence on the first house near the school. I had shoved him slightly harder than I meant to and I felt bad as Bucky winced. I had always been so good about my strength. I had to calm down slightly. My hand traveled up to Bucky's face as Steve watched nervously. "What did you do?" I asked Bucky, an irritated tone under my calm demeanor.
He merely gave me a toothy grin, the same kind of one that he had given me this morning. "After your little episode with Johnathan he was out in the halls talking about you. Him and his little buddies. They kept calling you all sorts of names so I went over to tell them to knock it off. Johnathan wouldn't stop so I decided to sort himself out myself. He had to get his friend to step in of course. Clocked me while I wasn't looking," Bucky explained.
"So you were defending my honor?" I asked Bucky as I released him. We started walking once more as Bucky slung his arm over my shoulder. He nodded at me and I rolled my eyes. As much as I wanted to tell him that I could defend myself I couldn't help the little stirring feeling in my gut made me slightly happy to hear that Bucky was willing to get beaten up just so that some kids wouldn't make fun of me.
Steve walked to my right as Bucky stood at my left and I could see him shaking his head at the situation. Of course, he had no room to talk. Steve was always getting himself into some trouble. "'Course!" Bucky shouted, making me jump slightly. It was like that boy was always on a sugar high. "You're our girl," he teased, holding me a little tighter to him. A little flutter rose in my chest and I stomped it down quickly. He didn't mean anything by that. I was his best friend, like a sister, just the same way that I was to Steve. He was only defending me the way that a brother would.
Still, as we came up on the apartment building I stopped the two boys. I knew that they were going to goof around for a few hours and I wanted to join them but I already had homework to do. Well, classwork, considering that I had missed the first classes. And I couldn't do work around them. They never got any work done. So I raised my hand to Bucky's cheek and sighed when he flinched under my touch. He was a good bit taller than me and I smiled up at him as he gazed down at me. "You're a fool. I can handle these things on my own. But thank you," I told him softly.
He grinned back at me and grabbed me in for a hug. He smelled like his father's aftershave and I smiled into his shirt. As he let go of me we turned around and headed over to the stairs. I laughed softly as we began to ascend the stairs back up to the two apartments, Steve's arm hung lightly behind my back. We stopped in front of both of the doors and as Bucky and Steve went to head into the Barnes' apartment I headed towards the Rogers'.
"Where are you going?" Steve asked me when I turned away from them.
Smiling, I propped the door open and tossed my bag into the living room. No one was home yet as Mr. Rogers was still at work and Mrs. Rogers was still at the supermarket. I'd be alone for at least another hour. "I have homework to do," I told the two boys.
The look of horror on both Steve and Bucky's faces were enough to make me burst out with laughter. They looked horrified that I would even suggest that I had something like that to do. "You have homework?" Bucky asked me. I nodded at him and leaned against the door frame. "It's the first day!" He yelled in horror.
"Yes it is Bucky, and I spent most of the day in the Principal's office in case you forgot. I have stuff to do. I gotta catch up on my schoolwork," I told the boys as I turned to leave. Both boys tried to protest me but I shook my head quickly, cutting them both off. "Zip it. I have homework, all right? I'll see you both tomorrow morning for breakfast. Love you boys," I told them, grabbing them both in for hugs. Steve's was quick and sweet, his touch gentle. Bucky's was tighter, his arms squeezing across my midsection for a moment before releasing me. "Behave!" I yelled to them as I walked through the door of the apartment.
"No!" Both boys yelled at me. I laughed softly and shook my head. Those stupid boys. I loved them both to death and would do anything for them, but that didn't mean that they didn't drive me nuts. But I supposed that was exactly what true friendship was. And I wouldn't want it any other way.
Bucky's P.O.V.
The two boys sat in Bucky's living room, listening to Bing Crosby while tossing a baseball back and forth between the two of them. This was one of the few times that they could do this without getting chewed out by Bucky's mother. Of course, they had broken a window the last time that they had played baseball in the house. On more than one occasion Steve missed the ball by a long-shot and Bucky grinned widely. Although people liked to make fun of him for being friends with Steve, saying that he was just his charity case, Bucky loved Steve more than anything.
They were best friends and they were brothers. They meant more to each other than anything else ever could. The only exception that there was to that rule was her. Victoria. They had barely known each other when the boys had invited her in for a night. They hadn't even known who she was. They just knew that they were glad to have her in their lives now. She meant the world to both boys. For Steve, she was the sister that he's never had. She was everything that he wanted to be. Tough and smart. Funny and kind. But more than anything else, brave.
Bucky wasn't quite sure what he felt about her. He knew that he loved her. He knew that he didn't look at her the same way that Steve did. Steve saw her as a sister. And in some ways, Bucky did too. He looked after her the same way that he did his sisters. But that didn't mean that she was like a sister to him. He always watched her closely, more closely than his own sisters. He cared for her in ways that he knew brothers would never care about their sisters. He just knew that he needed time to work on her. He loved her and he wanted her to know it. But she was tough. She always played off feelings like they were jokes. She never let him get too heartfelt around her. But he could change that. He knew he could.
More than anything Bucky wanted to walk over to Vika's place and try to get her to leave her homework but he knew all that that would get him was a good few comments that no proper lady would ever say and a book or two chucked at his head. He had learned that the hard way. Vika was serious about her studies and she didn't want anyone getting in her way. "I can't believe Vika is doing homework," Bucky complained as Steve tossed him the ball.
It sailed slightly to the right but Bucky was fast enough to catch the ball before it could knock over his mother's prized vase. "She's serious about her schoolwork. You know that. We could barely get her to go to the Stark Expo last year because she wanted to do that science project. The only way we even got her to go was because we told her that we would help her with it when we got back. That was the worst night of my life," Steve said.
Bucky laughed loudly. He remembered that night well. She was working on some project about mutations in the DNA strand. All that Bucky could remember her telling him about it was that he had a mutation. His blue eyes were a mutation. She had mentioned that her yellow eyes were a mutation as well. He remembered telling her that her mutation was perfect, not strange. He had almost kissed her that night. He still wished that he had. He probably would have if Steve hadn't been sleeping on the couch right next to them. He hadn't lasted more than five minutes into the project.
Of course just a few minutes after their odd staring contest they had started playing pranks on a sleeping Steve and had never spoken of that night again. And he had never made another move like that with her again. "Nah, that was the best night of my life." Steve rolled his eyes at Bucky's admonition and sighed. He knew that Bucky had feelings for Victoria. He didn't blame him. She was perfect. He just thought of her as a sister. Just the way that he thought of her like a sister. "Steve?" Bucky called. Steve hummed a response as he tossed the ball back to Bucky. "I'm gonna marry that girl one day," Bucky said.
Steve sat upright and was met with a starry-eyed Bucky. Steve sighed but let a small smile pass over his face. "I know," he told Bucky. And he did know. No one would ever mean to Bucky what Victoria did. The only thing was, someone was going to have to push her towards him. She was too stubborn to go to him on her own. And Steve knew just the way to do it.
A/N: Just so that you guys know a Split is a woman that is considered promiscuous, as is a Roundheels. A Curve is a disappointment. Any time I use 30's/40's slang I'll put the translation down here. So what do you guys think? The next two chapters will be the last two that we see in this timeline (the 1934 era). After that we will jump forward to about a year or two before the events of The First Avenger (say 1940). That's where we will see a lot of interaction with most of The First Avenger cast save Steve seeing as he isn't a soldier yet. Bear with me guys! I really want Victoria to have her own independent story line. And that means that Bucky and Steve may be absent from a few chapters. Not to worry! They won't be gone for too long and they will both be in the next one. This chapter was mostly to show the dynamic between the three of them. The next few will step up some major story arcs for Victoria. So stay tuned! Things are going to get fun! Thanks so much for the follows and favorites guys! And please review! Let me know what you like. Until next time -A
SweetSouthernCharm: Thank you! Sorry that this took a little while but I hope you liked it as much as you liked the first part :)
AilynAlonso: Thanks! I only saw the first episode of Stranger Things but I do see a few similarities. I hope you like this one!
xWintra: Thank you! I hope you liked this one! And I was just fine during the storm, it just pushed my writing back a few days.
CyberNamida: Thank you, I was just fine. Just too bad that it pushed my writing back a few days. Either way, I hope you like this one!
Calliope's Scribe: I'm so glad that you're like everything! I hope that you continue to enjoy it! And thank you, I was just fine in the storm. Other than pushing my writing back a bit I was personally unaffected :)