It had been almost a week and a half since the less than stellar parent-teacher conferences, and Skye was beginning to hope that May and Phil had forgotten about setting her up with a tutor. She knew the chances were slim when she brought home yet another angry red D- on her weekly science quiz, and they were firmly squashed once and for all when May and Phil brought it up at the breakfast table one morning before school.
"So Skye," Phil began gingerly, after he had placed their empty cereal bowls in the sink. "I've been talking with my friend Ms. Price, who runs the tutoring program at the high school, and she thinks today would be a good day for you to start coming in to work with someone."
Skye felt a slippery eel of dismay work its way down into the pit of her stomach and start writhing around. She had known better than to think she'd be getting out of this, but had foolishly let intoxicating hope cloud her judgment. She took a short breath to try and settle her stomach and nodded curtly. She didn't trust her voice to work properly.
"We know this isn't easy for you, Skye," May said gently. She reached over and placed a comforting hand on Skye's fist, which was clenched on the tabletop. Skye felt some of the tension melt out of her taut arm at May's touch. "Phil and I are very proud of you for doing this."
"Very proud," Phil agreed. "Ms. Price promised us that we can take it as fast or as slow as you want, and she already has a couple of her students in mind who might be a good fit for you," he continued. "I consider Ms. Price to be an excellent judge of character, so I'm sure that anyone she has picked out will be great."
"Plus, you won't have to be alone," May added. "Phil's going to pick you and Jemma up from school and take you both back to the high school when it's time. Phil will be in his classroom working, and Bobbi will be there, too."
"We haven't talked to Jemma about it yet," Phil said, "but we thought she could have the choice to either stay in my classroom with me or join you in the library, if that was something you might be interested in. Ms. Price told me that it wouldn't be a problem if Jemma wanted to sit with you, but we wanted to give both of you the option."
Skye looked up then and studied Phil's face to see if he was being genuine with her. She had no reason to believe he wasn't but the idea of Jemma coming to her tutoring session sounded too good to be true. Maybe it was kind of babyish on her part, to have to take a buddy to tutoring, but Skye had to admit that the idea of having Jemma by her side made her feel calmer than any other assurance she had received so far.
"Do you think she'd want to?" she asked quietly. It was an odd thing to ask of Jemma, and Skye didn't want to get her hopes up too much. As much as she felt like she probably knew the answer to that question, something inside of her needed to hear someone else say it.
"I absolutely think she would," Phil smiled. "I think Jemma is a very good friend who would be happy to do whatever it took to help you out. I also think you already know that." Skye blushed.
"Why don't you ask her in the car on the way to school?" May suggested. "That way she has plenty of time to think it over and decide before this afternoon." She gave Skye's hand a squeeze. "I'm sure she'll say yes."
May and Phil had been right, of course. Jemma didn't hesitate at all to assure Skye that she would be with her every step of the way that afternoon, and Skye was a little embarrassed by how relieved that made her feel. She spent the car ride with her head resting on Jemma's shoulder and her fingers running back and forth the new keychain she had dangling from her backpack.
Bobbi hadn't been able to figure out a way to make a bracelet for Skye like she had for Jemma, so instead she had pried off the letters S-K-Y-E from a junky old computer keyboard that Mack found in the scrap bin in his shop class, and woven them together with rubber wire casings into a keychain that Skye now proudly dangled from her backpack. She loved having something with her name on it, and the fact that Bobbi had made it from repurposed computer parts, just like Skye's own secret project, made it all the better. She also loved how it felt when she rubbed her fingers across the keys, gliding through the smooth plastic in the divot of each letter and bumping with the jump from key to key. S-K-Y-E. E-Y-K-S. S-K-Y-E. It reminded her of what was hers.
Phil went over the plan with them twice before they arrived at school, making sure that Skye and Jemma understood that they were supposed to meet him out front right after school instead of waiting in the library like usual. She wasn't sure why he was so worried they would forget, since Jemma never forgot anything, and Skye was unlikely to be able to think about anything else all day, but she figured he might be a little nervous about the whole thing too, so she tried to cut him some slack.
Despite all of his worrying, Skye and Jemma followed the plan to the letter, and were dutifully waiting outside of the middle school when he arrived to pick them up. Fitz had been ecstatic when they had told him that they didn't have to go to the library after school, since it meant that they had a few extra minutes together as they all waited for their respective rides to arrive, and he took full advantage of the time by continuing their lunchtime discussion on time travel. Fitz had gotten the idea from some movie he and Hunter had been watching on TV, and was eager to discuss whether or not a person with the power to time travel should change the past or not.
"What would even be the point of being able to go to the past if you couldn't fix the bad things and make the future better?" Skye pointed out.
"You might not make it better, though," Fitz argued. "No one knows how far a single moment reaches. Maybe you fix one bad thing in the past, but then it creates a whole new bunch of bad things that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't tampered with the time stream."
"Then you can just go and fix that, too," Skye said, as if it was obvious. "You can travel through time. You have an infinite number of do-overs."
"If that's how time travel even works," added Jemma. "Maybe you can't actually change anything. Maybe everything happens the way it's supposed to, no matter what. Or maybe if you do too many do overs, it messes up the fabric of the universe and the threads of time start to unravel right in front of you."
"In Harry Potter you can just use a Time Turner to go back and fix things and it doesn't mess everything up," Skye shrugged. "They saved Sirius and Buckbeak that way."
"But that was a closed loop," Fitz reminded her. "They had to make sure that they retraced their steps and didn't change anything too drastic. Plus, it was all stuff that had already happened in the past because in the future they went back, so it just constantly circled back on itself. They didn't actually change anything, since the loop made it so the stuff they did already happened. If your time travel worked that way, maybe it wouldn't be so bad, but the one on TV wasn't like that. They started to change the past, and it made it so the main character had never been born, so he started to disappear. That's why they had to make sure to undo the changes they made before he could go back to his present day. And even after they put things right, it still created a whole new future that was different from how it was supposed to be."
"Like a parallel universe?" Jemma asked.
Fitz nodded. "It wasn't a bad future that they accidentally made, but it was different. Just imagine what would have happened if they had accidentally changed the past in even the slightest way in some other direction. The new future might be terrible."
"Which is why you use your powers of time travel to go back and undo whatever it is that you messed up in the past the first time around," Skye said proudly. It seemed to her like Fitz had just proved her point for her, much to her immense pleasure.
Fitz looked like he was about to fire off another retort about how irresponsible it was to fiddle with time like that, but he was cut off by the arrival of Phil, who smiled and waved as he pulled up to the curb.
"Don't think this means you won the debate," Fitz called as Skye and Jemma clambered into the backseat of Phil's car. "I want it noted that my rebuttal was cut short."
"It's been noted," Jemma assured him. Fitz looked satisfied and waved farewell, watching them drive away.
"Were you in the middle of a discussion?" Phil asked. Ever since he had learned about their discussions with Fitz, Phil had been eager to hear their topics and arguments. He was usually impressed with the things they talked about, which always made Skye feel smart.
Jemma nodded. "Ethics of time travel," she explained. Phil made a thoughtful sound from the front seat.
"That's a big one," he said. "And it probably depends a lot on the kind of time travel you're doing. Is it the kind that can change the future?"
"That was part of the discussion," piped Jemma excitedly. "Some of our answers were different if it was closed loop travel instead of parallel universe travel."
"I thought you should just be able to go and change whatever you want to make the best future you can," Skye said. "Even if changing the past is bad, if you end up making something good happen in the end, doesn't that make it okay?"
Phil tilted his head from side to side, as if he was weighing both sides of the argument. "That's one way of looking at it for sure," he conceded. "I know I believe that the people with the power to create change have a responsibility to wield that power for the betterment of the world. But you don't want to get too Machiavellian with it, either."
Skye cocked her head to one side, confused, and Phil chuckled.
"I wouldn't worry about it too much," he assured her. "Just remember that sometimes people will say that 'the end justifies the means' because they want to convince themselves that they can do the wrong thing in order to get the results they want."
"You mean like how people think that just because something turned out okay in the end, that outweighs all the bad stuff they did to get there?" Skye asked.
"Exactly," nodded Phil. "Sometimes we have to make hard choices, especially when we're trying to do what's right, and sometimes it can be really difficult. I'm not denying that. But I think it's important to try to do the right thing as often as you can in as many ways as you can. Usually if something is truly the right thing to do, the steps you have to take to get there will be the right ones, too."
Skye mulled that one over as they drove the rest of the way to the high school. She was pretty sure she understood what Phil was trying to tell her, but she wasn't sure if she thought he was right or not. Of course she wanted to be good and do the right thing, but sometimes it felt like her options were limited. Sometimes it just wasn't possible to make a good choice in certain situations, at least in her experience. It had probably been the wrong thing to do to lash out at Michaela Dodson for tormenting her, or to steal food from the Bryants' kitchen, or any of the other bad things she had done, but if it meant that she didn't have to get harassed and picked on, or that she could have something to eat, or that she wouldn't have to stay in a home where she got mistreated, then didn't that make it okay in the end? Maybe it wasn't the right thing to do, but bad choices like those gave her a chance to balance the scales a little.
If she could actually go back in time and change the past, she probably wouldn't change most of those bad things she did. Maybe she would change some things, and make it so she didn't have to be put in those bad situations in the first place, but if it meant the difference between her getting in trouble and being sent back or her having to live forever in a house that felt like a prison, Skye knew in the deep, gnarled part of her heart that she would do the wrong thing almost every time. That went double for where Jemma was concerned. Skye would make a thousand wrong choices if it meant that Jemma could be safe and happy, no matter what.
When they finally pulled up outside of the high school, the first thing that struck Skye was how much it resembled the middle school that they had just come from. The high school was bigger, and there was no blacktop or basketball hoops, but the bricks and the flagpole and the big, stone steps up to the front doors were all the same.
"We're heading to the library, which is on the second floor," Phil said as they got out of the car. He led the way into the building, through a couple of hallways, and up a flight of stairs. Skye was glad for the guide, since she was sure she would have gotten lost almost immediately if she had needed to navigate the building on her own. She had no idea how Bobbi got around every day, especially when she had the added challenge of crowded hallways to contend with.
Skye didn't realize how shallow her breathing had gotten as they drew nearer and nearer to the library until Jemma slipper her hand into Skye's and gave it a long squeeze, forcing Skye to take a deep breath. It was their old trick – squeeze and breathe in, release and breathe out.
When they arrived at the library, Phil paused outside of the door and gave Skye a steady, warm look.
"The first thing we'll do when we go in is talk with Ms. Price," he explained. "We'll make sure she's caught up to speed about you, Skye, and that she knows what you need. Then she'll probably help you find a high school student to pair up with, and the two of you can start working. Does that all sound okay?" Skye nodded, tightening her grip on Jemma's hand.
"And Jemma can stay, right?" she asked. She didn't care anymore if it made her look like a baby, to be clinging to Jemma like this. Standing here, right outside the room, made her stomach twist, and the only thing that kept her from flying off into the atmosphere with nerves was the anchor that was her Jemma.
"Yes, Jemma can stay," Phil smiled. "I already checked with Ms. Price before we started. It'll be up to you two and your tutor how that will look, but I'm guessing you won't have much to do besides sit with them and offer moral support, Jemma. That's something I know you're very good at." He paused again, giving the two girls one final glance. "Ready?"
Skye gave him a go-ahead nod, and the three of them stepped into the library. Much like the whole building, the high school library was much bigger than the one in the middle school. It had walls lined with books, and rows of shelves towards the back. The front part of the room had clusters of round tables, where some high school students were already sitting with middle school kids, plus a section with beanbag chairs and squashy armchairs that looked great for reading. Skye's ears picked up the unmistakable sounds of clicking and typing, and figured there must be some computers in use somewhere out of sight, which sparked an involuntary flicker of happiness somewhere inside of her ribcage.
Phil guided them towards one of the round tables near a corner of the room, where a middle-aged woman with a pin-straight, dark brown bob was sitting, sorting through a few stacks of papers. She looked up when they approached and smiled at the sight of Phil.
"Phil, hi," she said, standing and shaking his hand.
"Hi Rosalind," he greeted her. He smiled warmly and returned the handshake before turning to Skye and Jemma. "Girls, this is my friend Ms. Price. She's a teacher here, too, and she's in charge of the tutoring program. She's one of the best teachers I know." Ms. Price laughed at that, and looked a little embarrassed, but in that way where you could still tell she appreciated the compliment, Skye decided. "Ros, these are my foster daughters, Skye and Jemma." He gestured to each of them as he introduced them, and Ms. Price smiled and nodded at them both.
"It's very nice to meet the both of you," she said. She was a little stiff, Skye thought, but she seemed nice enough. She smiled more than Brother Jonathan ever had, and Phil had said they were friends. Skye couldn't believe that Phil would be friends with someone mean or dangerous.
"Phil's told me a little bit about you two," Ms. Price continued. "Mostly about what you like to study in school and how long you've been staying with him. Jemma, I understand that you'll be joining Skye today?" Jemma let out a small squeak that thankfully only Skye could hear, but nodded stoutly. Skye noticed that the muscles in her jaw seemed tighter than usual, and she figured that she wasn't the only one who was feeling antsy about what they had both just walked into.
"Very good," nodded Ms. Price. "Skye, I have a few tutors who are available who I think might be good matches. Let's meet them, shall we?" Everything about Ms. Price was crisp and business-like, and while it didn't really bother Skye – she was a teacher, after all – the promptness with which the woman had moved from pleasantries to work caught Skye a little off guard. She wasn't sure she was ready for this.
"Skye, I'll be in my classroom catching up on some work," Phil said. His tone of voice made him sound like a parent leaving behind their clingy toddler with a babysitter for the first time, but Skye was too on edge to be offended that she would be the toddler in that scenario. "You and Jemma come find me and Bobbi when you're done. My room is down the hall, room 202. If you have trouble finding it, you can ask Ms. Price or one of the students in the library, okay?" When Skye didn't immediately respond, Phil shot her a smile that, while sympathetic, seemed to be trying to inject Skye with a boost of confidence. "You'll do great, kiddo. I'll see you in an hour."
Skye tightened the corners of her mouth into a return smile that she felt sure looked more like a grimace. She knew Phil had to leave. No one else had a grown up with them in the library. No one else needed one, and she shouldn't need one, either. Besides, she had Jemma, and Jemma was always more than enough.
Phil turned and left then with one final, reassuring wave. Ms. Price waved farewell back, then wasted no time in steering Skye and Jemma over towards an empty table. As she made sure the girls were getting settled, she beckoned towards a small cluster of high schoolers who had been sitting nearby. One of them, a girl with curly black hair wearing a flowery dress, had been watching them intently since they walked into the library, and she looked as though she was about to get up and join them when another girl, one with red hair, beat her to it.
"Girls, I'd like you to meet Natasha," said Ms. Price, as the red-headed girl approached. As she drew closer to them, Skye realized that she recognized the girl. She was the one from the soccer game, one of Bobbi's friends. Skye felt her arms go limp like spaghetti noodles with relief. She may not actually know Natasha, but if she was good enough to be friends with Bobbi, then Skye figured there was a good chance she would be safe with her. "Natasha is a strong student here at Manitowoc High, and she's one of my best tutors. I think the two of you will be a good match, so let's try it out for today and see how it goes. If you decide you'd like to meet another tutor tomorrow, Skye, that's also fine. No one's feelings will be hurt – it's a standard practice to try different tutors out until you find the right fit."
Turning to Natasha and handing her a sheet of paper, Ms. Price spoke again. "Here's some information from Skye's school that can give you a baseline of what to start working on. I'll be over here if you need anything." And with that, she turned neatly and returned to her own table, leaving Skye somewhat dumbstruck. Being seated at the table with one of Bobbi's friends had caused some of her fear to ebb, but being suddenly left alone with a girl who was still technically a stranger left Skye feeling shy and apprehensive. She wasn't sure who was supposed to talk first, and the tension of uncertainty was making her shoulder crawl. She hunched them slightly and stared down at the tabletop. 58 minutes to go. Maybe Jemma could count how many seconds they had left.
"I'm Natasha," the older girl finally said. "And you must be Skye and Jemma, right? I think I've seen you before. You're staying with Mr. Coulson and my friend Bobbi?"
Skye said nothing, but nodded stiffly. She knew she was being rude, but something about the formality of the setting and the prospect of actually being about to start tutoring for real had her all clammed up.
"Would it be okay if I told you a little bit about myself before we got started?" Natasha asked, setting the paper Ms. Price had handed her to the side. Skye looked up, confused. She glanced over to Jemma, who was looking as surprised as she felt. They both nodded, and Natasha smiled. "Great. So, Skye, I'm guessing that you're probably not too thrilled to be here. I wasn't either when I had to start coming to tutoring. When I first moved here, I didn't really speak English, so I didn't do very well in school. They made me start coming to tutoring, and at first, I hated it. I mean, I really hated it." She smiled sheepishly at the two of them, and Skye felt like she was being let in on a joke. "A couple times, I actually tried to run away from the room where they made us go. That was before we had it in the library. The teacher had to come track me down and basically drag me back."
"Not literally," she said quickly, noticing the looks of concern that appearing on Skye and Jemma's faces. "But I didn't make it easy on poor old Mr. Banks. The more I kept coming, though, and the more I worked on the things that were hard for me, the easier they started to become. My English started getting better, and soon I wasn't having as much trouble reading and doing my homework. Now, you can barely tell that I spoke Russian for the first 10 years of my life, can you?"
Her eyes twinkled with a kind of mischievous pride, and Skye had to admit that there wasn't a trace of an accent in Natasha's speech. Not that an accent meant you didn't understand the language, of course. Jemma and Fitz both spoke with accents, and Skye had gone to school with a girl at Our Lady of Mercy who had an accent because she had grown up speaking Farsi, and who always got perfect scores on her essays and spelling tests. Skye had spoken English her whole life and it had taken her until she was 8 years old to even be able to read books meant for a first grader.
"I guess what I'm trying to get at," Natasha continued, "is that, I know coming to tutoring can seem like a bad thing, but I promise you that it doesn't have to be." She looked hopefully over at Skye, but all Skye could offer was a halfhearted shrug.
"Do you have any questions for me before we get started?" Natasha asked.
"How come you only spoke Russian at first? Did you grow up in Russia, or did your parents just speak Russian to you when you were growing up?" Skye blurted out. She realized as the words were leaving her mouth that Natasha had probably meant questions about tutoring, but Skye was intrigued by the story of the 10-year-old Russian speaker who ran away from school and she couldn't help herself.
"Skye, that's private," Jemma chided gently. Skye felt her cheeks grow warm, but Natasha didn't seem to mind.
"It's okay. I don't talk a lot about growing up, but you two seem trustworthy," she smiled. "I grew up in Russia," Natasha began slowly, like she was figuring out how best to explain herself. "Or well, a place that was sometimes its own country and sometimes part of Russia. It basically doesn't exist anymore. When I was little, there was a lot of fighting in my country, because they were trying to become independent from Russia, but the Russian government wasn't interested in letting them go. I was sent to the United States when I was 8, along with two of my cousins, who were 16. We were in the foster care system for a few years until my cousins turned 18, and now I live with them. That's when we moved here and when I started learning English for real."
"You were a foster kid?" Skye asked, a little awestruck. It wasn't often she met another foster kid outside of her foster homes, and very rarely were they as nice and cool as Natasha was shaping up to be. "We're foster kids, too."
"That's what I've heard," Natasha chuckled. "One of the many things I think we may have in common."
"Does Bobbi know?" Skye wanted to know. "About you being in foster care, I mean?"
"I don't think so." Natasha furrowed her brow in curiosity. "It hasn't really come up yet. Why do you ask?"
"Because Bobbi is a—" Skye cut herself off instantly, realizing her mistake. She had been so caught up in the excitement of her discovery that she had spoken without thinking. Jemma's eyes were the size of dinner plates, and Skye wanted to hide under the table for being so careless with Bobbi's secret.
"Because Bobbi has foster sisters now," Jemma finished nervously.
"Right," Skye nodded, picking up on Jemma's clever adaptation of the truth. "Us. We're her foster sisters. And she's never had foster sisters before. And it might make her feel better to know she has a friend who knows what… we're… going through."
"Gotcha," Natasha said, dubious. She didn't seem upset, more just confused by Skye and Jemma's sudden odd behavior. Skye was hoping against hope that she hadn't messed anything up big time for Bobbi. "Well, if it comes up, I guess I'll let her know."
"Maybe you two should start your tutoring," Jemma suggested gingerly. "There's only 53 minutes left until we have to go find Phil."
"That's probably a good idea," Natasha nodded. She pulled the sheet of paper back over and gave it a quick glance. "So, Skye, this paper tells me stuff that your school thinks we should be working on, but I'm a little more curious about what you think we should start with."
"Oh." Skye felt her ears grow warm. She hadn't been expecting that. When Brother Jonathan came to do tutoring, they always just worked on whatever it was that he wanted to cover that day – usually obscure medieval poetry or complicated math proofs that made Skye go crossed-eyed just thinking about them. She had assumed that this would be the same and that the school would have dictated exactly what she was supposed to be covering.
"Well, I guess we should do math and science. Those are the two classes I'm actually flunking right now. My reading's not very good, but I have a C- in language arts, not an F." Skye couldn't make herself look at Natasha while she recounted her pitiful school performance. Under the table, Jemma slipped her hand into Skye's and squeezed, reminding Skye to take a deep breath.
"Okay, that sounds good to me," Natasha said breezily. She didn't sound the least bit perturbed by Skye's struggles. "You can pick which one of those we work on today." When Skye only offered a self-conscious shrug, Natasha tried a different tactic. "Can I tell you what I think might be a good idea?"
She waited until Skye had given her a nod of agreement before making her suggestion. "I think maybe we should start with reading, if that's okay with you. I know for me, everything else felt a lot easier once I wasn't having as much trouble reading and understanding my homework and tests."
Skye cocked her head to one side, considering Natasha's point. It made sense, she supposed. Part of why she was having so much trouble with her science quizzes stemmed from the fact that the questions on them were incredibly confusing, which made it hard for her to figure out what the question was even asking, much less what the right answer was. Math was another beast, but if Skye was being honest with herself, she wasn't all that interested in working on her math anyway, so picking reading seemed like a safer choice.
"Okay," she agreed. "So, do I have to do one of those worksheets or something? Like one of those ones that's like a standardized test?"
"Do you want to do one of those worksheets?" Natasha asked incredulously, one eyebrow arched.
"Not really."
"I don't blame you," Natasha smiled. "You probably get enough of those at school. We might have to do a couple of them eventually, but how about for now we just focus on regular reading. Do you have a book you're working on for school?"
Skye twisted in her chair so that she could root around in her backpack for the new book Miss Hill had assigned them a few days ago, since they had finished The Giver last week. She was still waiting to see what grade she got on the assessment Miss Hill had given them when they'd finished. That's what Miss Hill called tests – assessments. They weren't like the tests and quizzes in Skye's other classes. Miss Hill's assessments were just a few questions with a lot of blank space to write out your answers, and Miss Hill had promised them that there weren't any right or wrong answers. For The Giver, Miss Hill had asked them only two questions – 1. Why do you think the elders created a society where only one person keeps the memories? And 2. What do you think happened to Jonas and Gabriel? Even with the promise of "no wrong answers," Skye hadn't been confident when she'd turned hers in at the end of the class period. As far as she could remember, the book itself hadn't exactly explained either one, so she felt like she was making a complete and total guess.
After shoving some crumpled up papers and a dog-eared folder or two out of the way, Skye finally emerged with a slightly battered, brightly colored book with a drawing of a star and a stick-person girl on the front.
"Stargirl," Natasha nodded, a knowing look spreading across her face. "I think I remember this one."
"We just started it, so we're still kind of at the beginning," Skye informed her. "We're supposed to read chapter 2 for homework tonight."
"Sounds good," Natasha smiled. "Would you be okay reading chapter 2 out loud with me?" After receiving a nod from Skye, Natasha turned to Jemma. "Jemma, you can stay and read with us if you want, but you'd mostly be listening, if that's okay. I think it'd be better if Skye was the one who did most of the reading. If you'd rather read by yourself, you can sit in one of those chairs close by, that way we can all still see each other."
Jemma looked to Skye to see how she was feeling about the whole thing before answering. Skye paused for a moment and considered. She knew Jemma wouldn't mind sitting and listening to her slog through the chapter, but she also knew that Jemma could read on her own much faster than Skye could, and she might appreciate being able to go at her own pace for once.
"You can read alone, if you want," Skye said, after a minute. Jemma looked a little surprised, but didn't object. "I think I'll be okay as long as I know you're still there." Skye was a little surprised herself at the truth in what she'd just said. Despite how nervous she had been going into the afternoon, Natasha's kindness and patience had done wonders to ease Skye's trepidation, and she was a little curious to see how she would manage on her own.
Jemma gave her hand one final squeeze before moving over to one of the comfy armchairs across the library. She made sure to choose one that was still in Skye's sightline, and she smiled and waved before sitting down with her own book. Skye flashed her a thumbs-up back.
"You two are really close, aren't you?" Natasha observed. She had a warm expression on her face, like she was smelling chocolate chip cookies coming out of the oven or feeling a sunbeam on her face. Skye nodded.
"She's my best friend. For a long time, she was the only person I had."
"But not anymore?" Natasha raised an eyebrow.
Skye shrugged. "I have another friend at school. Fitz. And I have May and Phil, and Bobbi, too. I don't know if I'm going to get to keep them all forever, but it's nice to have them while I can."
Natasha didn't have anything to say to that, opting instead to nod thoughtfully. After a minute, she cleared her throat and turned her attention to the book. "I guess we should get started, shouldn't we?"
For the next 45 minutes, Natasha had Skye read from Stargirl, out loud and by herself. Skye had been a little embarrassed at first, since she usually only read out loud at home with Jemma and Phil, but Natasha was a good listener and didn't mind when Skye messed up words or went really slowly. For the most part, Skye found the book to be a little easier to get through than The Giver, but she figured most of that was due more to the fact that the new book took place in the real world instead of some made-up world from the future, so she already knew the rules of how everything worked.
Every time Skye would get to a word she stumbled over or didn't recognize, Natasha would have her pause and write out the word in a notebook that Natasha had grabbed from Ms. Price's supply table. Once the word was written out, they would sound it out together until Skye could read it without any trouble. If she knew what it meant, Natasha would have her explain it to her as Skye was the teacher and Natasha was the student, which Skye thought was kind of fun. If Skye didn't know what the word meant, Natasha would explain it, and then Skye would write out a sentence in the notebook that used the word. It was hard work, but Natasha made sure it didn't feel too tedious, helping Skye come up with the goofiest sentences they could think of to practice the words.
By the time the hour was nearly up, Skye had filled her notebook page with words like "administration," "absurdity," "marquee," "hoax," and "nonconformity," and she was proud to discover that when she looked back over the page, she could recognize and define each of the words that had given her so much trouble.
"So, real quick, the last thing we should do now that we've finished the chapter is go back and say what the main things that happened were," Natasha prompted her.
"People in school think that Stargirl is pretending to be weird, or that the principal asked her to come to the school to make people have more school spirit. Stargirl wears weird clothes and sings happy birthday to people, and people are confused. Leo thinks she's real, though," Skye recited. Natasha nodded, and Skye beamed, tickled pink that she had managed to recap the chapter accurately.
"What do you think?" Natasha asked. "Do you think Stargirl's real, or is she just pretending?"
Skye thought hard for a minute. "I guess maybe she's real. People act in ways that seem weird all the time, but it's just because not everybody is the same. I think she's just being herself, but some of the kids in her class are making fun of her for it." A twinge of sadness plucked in Skye's chest. She knew plenty about people being made fun of for nothing but being themselves.
"I think you're right," Natasha smiled. "And I think Stargirl sounds like a pretty cool person to be friends with, don't you? She'd always remember your birthday, for one thing."
"That's true," Skye laughed. Unless she didn't know your birthday, because you didn't know your birthday because somebody dumped you on an orphanage porch before you could even lift your own head up. Skye wondered how Stargirl would react to somebody like that. Somebody like her.
"Well, thanks for working with me today, Skye," Natasha said, starting to gather up her things. "That paper said you're coming to tutoring three days a week, right? I'm here on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, if you want to keep working with me. If you want to try somebody new, that's totally okay, too. It took me about seven tutors before I found one who didn't make me want to pull my hair out." She said the last part like it was a joke, but Skye could tell by her eyes that she was serious.
"I'll ask Phil what days I'm supposed to come," she said shyly. She hoped it would be the same days as Natasha. It didn't matter if the other tutors were good, too, Skye liked how nice and funny Natasha was, and she had already decided she didn't want to work with anyone else.
"Cool," Natasha grinned. "Let's go grab your sister, and I'll show you where Mr. Coulson's room is."
They started over to where Jemma was still sitting, but Natasha soon stopped in her tracks, causing Skye to nearly collide with her. Following Natasha's gaze, Skye looked over to Jemma and realized that she wasn't alone. Standing in front of Jemma, chatting causally, was the girl in the flowery dress that Skye had noticed watching them earlier. She seemed innocent enough, like she was making small talk with the younger girl, but Skye's eyes latched onto Jemma and knew deep in the pit of her stomach that something was askew. Jemma's shoulders were stiff, hunched forward ever so slightly in a defensive pose that Skye knew was usually reserved for strangers and discomfort. She was looking at the ground, rather than at the girl who was talking to her, and her right hand – her tapping hand – was nowhere to be seen, which Skye figured meant it was tucked into Jemma's pocket or at her side, tapping away.
Skye felt herself bristle, and she was filled with an overwhelming need to go over and intervene, even if the girl talking to Jemma was a high schooler. Skye had stood up to plenty of older kids before, and she wasn't about to back down now. To her surprise, Natasha was crossing over to where Jemma sat just as quickly as she was, fists clenched, and Skye noticed a muscle in Natasha's jaw jump. Apparently, Skye wasn't the only one with a bad feeling about the situation.
"Everything okay over here?" Natasha asked starchily. Her eyes were locked on the older girl. As Skye drew closer, she could see the girl was wearing an expression of cool disinterest. Skye made a split-second decision to focus her attention on Jemma and let Natasha handle the older girl. She pulled up alongside Jemma and studied her friend's face. Jemma's eyes were distant and flighty, but as they found Skye, some of the life began to return. Skye plunked herself down on the arm of the chair, putting herself in between Jemma and the older girl while also positioning herself close enough to Jemma that their arms could press against each other. She knew better than to try and take Jemma's hand at the moment.
"I was just introducing myself to one of our new students," the girl drawled. Her voice was lilting and sugary, like syrup running down the side of a plate, but something about it made the hairs on the back Skye's neck stand on end. "Natasha, there's no need to get yourself so worked up over every little thing."
"She's with me," Natasha said flatly. "You don't need to worry about her."
"I'm just trying to do my job," the girl pouted. It was the simpering kind of fake pouting Skye had seen plenty of kids try to pull at St. Agnes – the kind that was supposed to put the other person on the defensive and make you feel guilty. "We're supposed to talk to the kids, Natasha. Or did you forget that? Is that why you sent her over here by herself for the past hour?"
"She's not here for tutoring, Raina," Natasha explained slowly. She repeated what she had said a moment ago, more firmly this time. "You don't need to worry about her."
The older girl, Raina, Skye supposed, turned her luminous eyes on Skye then, and Skye felt a tingle shoot down her spine. "I saw you both come in with Mr. Coulson earlier. He said you were his foster daughters, is that right?"
Every fiber of Skye's being was screaming at her to stay silent and not say a word to the strange girl in front of her, but something stubborn was bubbling up inside her. She didn't like the way Raina was treating their conversation like a game of cat and mouse. She didn't want Raina to think that she was afraid of her.
"Phil's our foster dad." Skye jutted her chin out as she spoke and tried to look as tough as she could while balanced on the arm of a chair. She didn't think she was particularly successful, especially given how Raina's mouth twitched into a smirk when Skye spoke.
"How nice for you," she said. "My name's Raina, I'm one of the tutors here. What's yours?"
"Skye." As soon as her name passed from her lips, Skye knew she had made a mistake. She couldn't help it. Something about Raina made her lose any semblance of a filter she had once had.
"And you're from the middle school? How old are you, 12? 13?"
"That's enough, Raina. This isn't an interview for Dateline. Leave the kid alone." Natasha's eyes were crackling with electricity. Skye would have been intimidated if she hadn't been sure that Natasha was on her side.
"You really ought to work on keeping that temper of yours in check, Red," Raina chided. "It's going to get you in trouble one day."
"Skye, Jemma, let's go find Mr. Coulson, okay?" said Natasha abruptly. It took Skye a second for her legs to receive the message from her brain, but she wasted no time in hopping up and following Natasha obediently once she had processed what was being said. She didn't fully understand what was going on, but she could tell that Natasha was on edge and that something about Raina was bad news.
When the three of them made out into the empty hallway, Skye seized the opportunity to ask Natasha the questions that had been buzzing around in her brain.
"Who was that girl? What did she want?"
"Her name's Raina. She's in my year at school here. I don't know what she wanted, but if I know Raina, it probably wasn't good."
"What do you mean?" Jemma asked.
"Why don't you like each other?" overlapped Skye.
"I just mean…" Natasha huffed a little, searching for words. "We don't have a good history. We disagree about a lot of things, and she hangs out with people who are trouble."
They arrived outside of Phil's classroom door, and Natasha paused, looking carefully at Skye and Jemma. "I don't want to give you guys the wrong idea. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. Raina can be a little… unusual sometimes, so she was probably just being weird. I don't think she's going to bother you or anything like that. Just be careful, okay? She has a way of getting people to do what she wants."
Skye didn't feel like any of that really cleared up the situation, but Natasha seemed flustered, and Skye didn't want to upset her further. She wanted Natasha to still want to be her tutor next time, and she felt like pressing too much about Raina might cause Natasha to decide that Skye wasn't worth the trouble.
Natasha pushed open the door to Phil's room and shepherded Skye and Jemma inside. Phil was seated behind his desk, marking some homework assignments, and Bobbi was reclined at one of the desks with her own homework spread out in front of her. Both looked up as the girls entered the room.
"Skye, Jemma, how'd it go?" Phil asked. He looked happy to see them, but there was a hint of apprehension in the question. When he noticed Natasha coming in behind them, his happy expression went up a few watts. "Natasha! How did I not realize you're one of Ms. Price's tutors?"
"I'm not sure, Mr. Coulson," Natasha smiled back. All of the unease she had demonstrated out in the hall had vanished, and Skye marveled at how quickly she had been able to mask her emotions. "Considering you wrote my recommendation letter when I got the job."
"Well, I'm glad to see it worked," Phil chuckled sheepishly. "Forgive a feeble old man for his forgetful ways?"
Skye rolled her eyes and grinned at Phil's antics. He could be so melodramatic sometimes.
"Skye did really great today, Mr. Coulson," Natasha informed him. Skye felt her face go scarlet at the compliment, but she couldn't help but stand up a little straighter. It was nice to be praised for her schoolwork rather than criticized, even if it was just afterschool tutoring.
"I'm not surprised in the least," Phil said warmly. "I've got three incredibly smart kids living with me now, you know." At least Skye wasn't alone in crimson-faced embarrassment now, as Jemma and Bobbi both became bashful at Phil's words.
"I can definitely confirm that," Natasha said with a wink. "I'll see you all later, then." She gave everyone a wave and disappeared back into the hall.
"So it went well, then?" Phil asked, once they had the room to themselves again. "Was Natasha your tutor?"
"Yeah," Skye nodded. "It was good, I guess. We read my homework chapter and I worked on the words I didn't know." She turned to Bobbi, her face shining. "Bobbi, your friend is really cool. Way cooler than Fitz's cousin."
Bobbi choked on a stifled laugh at that comment. "I'll have to let her know you said that. She'll definitely appreciate it."
"Is she the one who gave you the things to make my bracelet?" Jemma asked. Bobbi nodded. "That was very nice of her."
"She's a nice person," Bobbi agreed. "She was one of the first people to talk to me on my first day here."
"Phil, what days do I have to come here for tutoring?" Skye asked.
"I think we can pick whatever days work best, as long as it's three times a week," Phil told her. "Why do you ask?"
"Natasha tutors on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and she said that she'd be my tutor every time if I came on those days."
"I don't see any reason why we couldn't make that work," Phil smiled. "I'm really glad to hear you found someone who you like to work with, Skye. I know that wasn't easy for you." Phil began to pack up his things and gestured for Bobbi to do the same.
"I was just lucky Natasha came to our table first," Skye mused, mostly to herself. Only Jemma heard her. "That other girl Raina almost was my tutor instead."
"I didn't like her," murmured Jemma. "Natasha didn't either."
"Well, lucky for us, Natasha's going to be my tutor from now on, and we won't have to talk to her ever again."