"Hey."
"Hey. What are you doing here?"
Strange shrugged, looking around the lobby with interest – although he didn't recognize many people. Clint was standing in a far corner keeping silent watch on the comings and goings of the people in the lobby, much the same way Natasha and Steve were – although Steve wasn't in sight, since Captain America would definitely be a distraction that none of them wanted or needed, just then.
"I came to see what the fuss is all about," he told her.
She wasn't fooled.
"Tony sent you to check on things?"
His faint smile was amused.
"He might have mentioned that I might swing by and see if Peter needed anything."
"He doesn't."
"I'm sure of that. How's it going?"
"Most of the teams are checked in. France isn't here, yet, but they'll be along this evening. They're ahead of schedule, since they weren't going to be here until tomorrow."
"They're having a get to know each other party?"
"Something like that, yes. This evening will be informal, and the official introductions will be tomorrow, once everyone's had a chance to settle in a little."
"With translators?"
She shook her head, still watching the groups in the lobby.
"All of the kids speak English – or they're supposed to, anyway. The questions in the competition will be asked in English, so it's in the teams' best interests to make sure their individuals all speak fluently enough to make sure they understand the question well enough to answer it. Besides, these kids are brilliant, right? Of course they're going to be bilingual. The kids on Peter's team are all taking a foreign language."
Including Peter.
"So anything interesting happening? Tony's going to ask, you know."
"Peter's team is here, now," she told him, gesturing toward the registration desk, where Flash was standing, talking to the person behind the counter and a woman who Romanoff was his mother. She didn't miss when a young man wearing the jacket of the Japanese team approached Flash and his mother and Stephen and she watched as the boy spoke, briefly, with Flash, bowing politely to both, and then leaving them to go back to his own group of team and chaperones. "I wonder what that was about…"
"Maybe he was asking for directions…?"
"Maybe…"
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
"This is nice…"
MJ looked smug, but she nodded her agreement. She was the only person on the team that didn't have a roommate and her room was special, since she was the captain. She had a suite, rather than a regular room like Peter and Ned. Her suite had a living room area – which was where they were, now – and then had a bedroom off of that room, along with the extra bathroom. Not that she needed two bathrooms, but she wasn't going to argue about having such an impressive room.
Being captain was a good thing, sometimes.
"Right? This is where we'll have our team practices and meetings," she added, sitting on one of the sofas. There were two – and a couple of recliner chairs – as well as the coffee table that now held schedules for their matches and some study materials. "When everyone gets here, we'll talk about expectations and Mr. Harriman will go over the rules that all the teams are going to have to follow."
"Ugh." Ned flopped down on the sofa next to her. "We already know not to pee in the potted plants."
"There are a few more than that. But, yeah, don't pee in the potted plants."
Peter grinned. He already knew what the rules were – and for once, they didn't concern him, specifically. The team was allowed to send out social media updates about what they were doing – the international teams were going to be doing so, and it wasn't fair to keep the American kids from doing it, too. His friends could text what they were doing, who they were doing it with, and where they were. There was enough security at the hotel and the convention center that even if some wayward crackpot who thought Peter was a soft target for kidnapping or something heard where he was and thought to come on down and abduct him, that person was going to run into a wall of SHIELD and angry avengers.
Not to mention a very annoyed master of the mystical arts.
There was a knock on the door, suddenly, and since he was the only one standing, Peter walked over to answer it.
"It's probably the team," he heard MJ say to Ned. "They're going to start showing up as they unpack."
"Natasha wants me and Peter to stick to the area, for this evening, at least," Ned told MJ. "So we're going to be living on room service and junk food from the room, tonight."
Peter opened the door and found the rest of the team on the other side – all except Flash. They were already talking to each other, excitedly, and those various conversations carried over as they walked into the room, looking around and greeting MJ and Ned – and Peter as they walked by him.
"This is so great," Abe said, cheerfully. "No school for a week and we get to stay in the hotel full time."
"Plus we get to go to the compound, Wednesday," Betty added, sitting on the couch with MJ and Ned while the rest found other spots to seat themselves. The hotel knew how many kids and teachers to expect for them and had made sure there were plenty of furnishings. "It'll be fun to watch the other teams gawk at the Avengers."
They were more used to them, now, so their team would have fun, but wouldn't be acting like crazy fanboys and girls when they saw the Avengers.
"Yes, that will be a good time," a new voice said. Everyone turned and saw their teachers had arrived before Peter could close the door. There were two chaperones for the entire team, but that was all that was really needed since they weren't traveling anywhere for this competition. The kids were all old hats at being at hotels for the more local trips and knew how they were expected to behave. Even better that a threat to call a parent was an actual threat with said parent only being a quick trip to the hotel away. None of them were going to do anything to let the team down, and if they considered it, the others would be quick to talk them out of it. This was going to be fun and being sent home wouldn't be ideal for any of them. "But let's concentrate on the competition for the moment," Mr. Harriman said, walking over to stand beside the large flat screen TV in the room.
He knew that was the best way to ensure he had their attention, after all.
"Where's Flash?" MJ asked.
"Who cares?" one of the others said.
It was only half-hearted, though, and more of an automatic reflex. Flash was toning down his snipes at the others on the team (most notably Peter, of course) and they didn't dislike him quite as much as they once had. Enough so that Abe hadn't gone straight to Mr. Harrington when he'd found out that he was going to be the other boy's roommate during the weeklong competition.
Harrington held up a hand.
"He's running a little behind. I saw him in the lobby. He should be here any-"
The door opened without a knock, and as if right on cue, Flash walked into the room. He ignored the others and walked over to stand next to Peter. Ned smirked, assuming that Flash wanted to stand by Peter because he knew who he was, now. It amused him to see the hero worship – although he never spoke about it to the others (for obvious reasons) and rarely even mentioned it around Flash or Peter.
No sense antagonizing him now that he wasn't being such an ass, after all.
Their teacher simply waited until he was sure he had everyone's attention, and then went on with his pep-talk – and what his instructions were for the team that evening and into the next morning.
"I need to talk to you, later," Flash told Peter, softly, when Harrington's attention was on answering a question posed by one of the others.
"About what?"
"I'll tell you, later."
