I promise I am working on my other stories. This is a rewrite of a story that I had up here a while back. Figured I'd give it another shot. The idea was still in the back of my head. Anyways, enjoy!
Before the world knew him as Captain America, I knew him simply as Steve Rogers; the kid from downstairs. He was my best friend and practically my entire world. I'm the best friend that History neglected to tell you about. You know his story. But what about mine? The girl in the background. The shadow behind the two morons. Follow along and I'll tell you.
Steve's P.O.V
The first time I laid eyes on her, she was looking down at me from the window behind the fire escape. I thought that she was the prettiest girl in the world. Her name was Serena Dover; an only child of Mr. and Mrs. Dover, the family that lived one floor above us. She became one of my best friends. We grew up together, separated by only a single floor. As my best friend, she became my whole world since no one else wanted to be friends with a scrawny kid like me. But things changed when we met a kid named James Buchanan Barnes, otherwise known as Bucky the kid from down the street.
"You're such a loser Rogers." The neighborhood bully sneered out. I glared at Jack. He had shoved me to the ground, again. It was just another usual day for me. Standing up for Serena because Jack was teasing her again, even though she had told me repeatedly not to. I couldn't help myself. She was my best friend.
"Leave him alone Jack," Serena shouted out. She stood a few feet away from Jack and I, clutching her books in her hands. Jack looked back at her over his shoulder.
"You shouldn't be friends with him. You're too good for him." Jack stated. Serena rolled her eyes at Jack's statement. She hated Jack just as much as I did.
"You don't get to decide who I'm friends with, Jack. Just go home." Serena demanded. She started to make her way towards me but Jack just couldn't keep his mouth shut.
"The punk is practically a walking punching bag." Jack shot back. Serena turned on her heels and out of nowhere she gave him a mean right hook. Jack fell to the ground. Serena stood over him and silently dared him to try her again.
"That 'punk' happens to be my best friend." Serena said before turning around to help me off the ground. She took a step back to inspect me for injuries, like always, and shook her head at me. I couldn't help but smile at her, sheepishly of course.
"Steven Grant Rogers, when are you going to learn to stop getting into fights?" Serena sighed out. I shrugged my shoulders. She looked over her shoulder and I saw that Jack was still sitting in the dirt.
"Why are you still here?" Serena barked out. Jack scrambled to his feet, clutching his nose, and then scurried off. I chuckled a bit but then Serena's glare fell on me. I stopped laughing because I knew what that look meant. I was in trouble.
"Were you trying to start a fight?" She said, her face full of worry.
"He was asking for it." I said, jerking my head in the direction that Jack had run off to.
"Just like you weren't asking to get hit today?" She retorted. I bit down on my tongue, not wanting to incur her wrath anymore.
"Steve, you've got to stop this. It's not good for you to be getting into fights, much less be outside for too long on a day like this." Serena chided. She picked up my coat and wrapped it around me as she clearly saw me shiver from the cold. We were walking out of the alley when we ran into another figure. For a moment I thought it was one of Jack's brothers.
"You have a mean right hook doll." The voice said. Serena looked up at the person who had spoken.
"Who are you?" She asked bluntly. The older boy smiled at her and stuck out his hand.
"The names' James. James Barnes. But you can call me Bucky." Serena looked at him like he was crazy, then gingerly shook his hand.
"You need some help?" Bucky asked. Serena shook her head as she pushed past him, her arms draped around me. She was so stubborn when it came to my well-being. She only trusted herself or my Ma and Pa. My mother and her were like two peas in a pod. They wouldn't let anyone they didn't know touch me.
"You never told me your names," Bucky commented. He continued to walk beside us down the crowded street. Serena took a deep breath to try and control her annoyance. I could tell she wanted nothing to do with him.
"The names are Serena Dover and Steven Roger. Now if you'll excuse us." Serena said firmly. She gave him a curt nod before walking pass him without another word. Bucky waved to us and I waved back. I knew she wanted to get me inside before I caught another cold.
That was how we met my, our, other best friend Bucky. In an alley, in the middle of winter, right after Serena had given Jack a bloody nose. We were known as the three musketeers to Mrs. Barnes. When I got into trouble either Serena or Bucky were always there for me. When we got older and entered High School Bucky was always sticking up for me when Serena couldn't. Serena was the glue that kept us together. Bucky was the one who got me out of fights and I, well I was the one that was the people loved to pick on.
It wasn't until the summer of Serena and I's junior year that I realized I was truly, deeply, madly in love with Serena. The same Serena who, even though she was popular at school, always found a spot for me to sit next to her at lunch; the same Serena who would stick up for me when Jack and his friends would pick on me in the school yard; the same Serena who I'd known for my entire life, who'd always be out of my league.
But Serena never made me feel bad about myself, same goes for Bucky. She always gave me a smile, even when she had a bad day. We'd walk to and from school together. Serena was the only girl I felt comfortable around. Besides no one else in school paid me any mind, except Serena.
When my mother died Serena took it nearly as hard as I did. Bucky called us both a mess, but with a sincere heart. Serena smacked him on his shoulder and Bucky feigned pain. Serena rolled her eyes. She knew Bucky was just trying to cheer us up, nothing more.
"Bucky stop," Serena asked. She walked over and looped her arm through mine. Bucky walked on the other side of me. We walked the two blocks from the cemetery to the bus stop. The bus ride home was silent between the three of us. No one dared to say a word.
"I kind of wanna be alone," I said as we climbed up the stairs of the apartment building. Serena followed behind me as well as Bucky.
"How was it?" Bucky asked. He hadn't been able to make it for the service but he stopped by once he was done work. Serena and I were still there when he came.
"It was okay. She's next to Dad." I said. Serena let out a sigh as she watched me struggle to find my key. I guess I must have lost it somehow.
"I was gonna ask, how long are you gonna be a hermit?" Bucky teased. I shook my head. I didn't have to see it to know that Serena must have been glaring at Bucky as I was still fumbling around my pockets looking for my damn key.
"Bucky," Serena said his name as a warning. I guess she didn't want me to get upset. Serena and Bucky had always been at odds with one another, but they balanced each other out. And I did my best to settle things between them. That's how our little group worked. Bucky was always about breaking the rules. Serena was always about following the rules. And I was stuck in the middle.
In 1937 Serena and her parents moved to England. She told me that her father had taken up a new job and the company was moving them to London. I remember the day she told Bucky and I. I felt so crushed. I didn't want her to leave. I wanted to tell her that I loved her, but I couldn't. The night before she left, the three of us went out to go see "Shall We Dance". Bucky wanted the three of us to spend just one more night together before she left us. Her two 'Brothers' as she called us. After the movie she convinced us, even me, to go dancing. I was a terrible dancer, but she didn't care.
"Save the last dance for me?" I had asked her. Serena smiled at me and nodded her head.
"Always." Serena said before Bucky grabbed her by the hand and pulled her onto the dance floor. The band started playing 'One o'clock Jump' and I could heard Serena laugh as Bucky spun her around the dance floor. I watched as he pulled her closer to him and they laughed at things they whispered into each others' ear. Maybe I should've been jealous, but I wasn't. They were friends. We were all just friends.
Throughout the night Serena had been asked for a dance, a few she had accepted but most she had turned down. Knowing her, she didn't want me to feel left out. In one of her moments of rest she sat in the chair across from me and tilted her head to the side.
"You really should learn how to dance Steve. It's a wonderful feeling." Serena said to me. I smiled at her. She had been trying to get me to dance ever since the 8th grade. I had always turned her down because, hell, who would want to dance with the sick kid? I was the weak sickly kid that had coughing fits from walking up just two flights of stairs. I wasn't the most ideal person to dance with.
I scanned the dance floor, as did Serena, and we spotted Bucky spinning around some pretty blonde with blue eyes and red lips. I shook my head at the sight before looking at Serena.
"You know I can't Rena," I said. She gave me a guilty look, remembering why it wasn't a good idea for me to dance, but her eyes sparkled with an idea in her head.
"Then I'll teach you how to slow dance." Serena suggested. A beautiful smile graced her lovely face and it caused my heart to ache a little. I couldn't be the guy for her.
"It's not as bad as this." She pointed to the dance floor, referring to the fast pace dance that Bucky was currently partaking in. I cracked a grin at her. She was very determined to get me on the dance floor.
"But at least you'll be good at slow dancing." Serena said. Just as she was about to stand, the M.C walked up to the microphone and announced that the band would be playing the last song of the night. Serena stepped in front of me and held out her hand.
"You promised me the last dance, remember?" She said with a smile. I nodded and then let myself be led by Serena to the dance floor. The song the band was playing was 'Once in a While' and Serena led while I followed. We swayed side to side as Serena hummed to the words. I couldn't help but feel happy, even if this would only last for a few minutes.
That was the last time I saw her. Serena and I had kept in touch, as much as we could, through writing to each other. We wrote to each other about how our lives were doing, what we wanted to do with our lives, and so on. But things changed for her in the fall of 1939. It was just two years after she had left New York that word of a growing threat was rising in Europe. And things were changed for me, for America, in the winter of 1941.
"A date which will live in infamy." Those were the words uttered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt a day after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
A week later Bucky and I volunteered to join the Army. Bucky was accepted. I was rejected. I had tried four other times, while Bucky was away at boot camp, to join the Army. Each time I was rejected, just like before; just like always.
It wasn't until the summer of 1942 that things started to change for me. I had just tried to join the army, again. Bucky had saved me once again from a guy who was punching me behind the local movie theater.
"Hey," Bucky shouted out. "Pick on someone your own size." Bucky said as he pulled the guy off me. The next thing I heard was Bucky punching the guy and then kicking him out of the alley.
"Sometimes I think you like getting punched." Bucky said, walking back to me as I scrambled to stand up. I rolled my eyes at him. With Serena gone, Bucky was all I had now.
"I had him on the ropes." I said, wincing when I felt my eye. Bucky stared at me and then shook his head.
"How many times is this?" He asked, noticing my enlistment form on the ground near my foot. I guess it had fallen out of my coat pocket when the guy punched me in the eye. He picked up the form and opened it to read it.
"Oh, you're from Paramus now." Bucky mocked. I could feel his eyes on me. I didn't bother to look at him because I knew he would give me 'The Look', the one that says 'You're insane for trying to join the Army. Again!' I didn't pay him any mind. I was too busy wiping the dirty off of my clothes.
"You know it's illegal to lie on your enlistment form." Bucky said. Something I already knew but didn't care about. I wanted to join the fight, to do my part to win the war. I didn't like bullies no matter where they came from because they were all the same. They were always picking on the little guys.
"But seriously? Jersey?" Bucky's incredulous voice rang in my ear. He was disgusted with my choice of city; honestly so was I. That's when I finally looked at Bucky. And I mean really looked at Bucky. He was wearing his uniform. It was final.
"You get your orders?" I nodded towards him. Bucky paused for a moment, as though what he was about to say was going to hurt me in some way and I knew it would.
"The 107th. Sergeant James Barnes, shipping out for England first thing tomorrow." Bucky said as I looked at him from head to toe. He pressed his lips together as we stood there for an awkward moment.
"I should be going." I muttered. Bucky, being the one who didn't like to dwell in the past, clamped his hand down on my shoulder before wrapping his arm around me.
"Come on man, it's my last night." He said as he cracked a smile, releasing me from his grip. He looked at me from head to toe and shook his head in slight disapproval.
"I gotta get you cleaned up." He commented as he threw aside my fake enlistment form.
"Why? Where are we going?" I asked as he pulled me out of the alley, Bucky shoved a newspaper into my hands. I looked down at it and saw the front page plastered with the words "World Expositions of Tomorrow".
"The future."
Later that night Bucky and I were making our way to the Expo grounds when I noticed Bucky perk up a bit. He had something in store that I was not in the mood to deal with.
"I don't see what the problem is." Bucky said as he shrugged his shoulders. "You're about to be the last eligible man in New York. You know there's three and a half million women here." He said, referring to Manhattan I assumed. I sighed and shook my head at his antics. I knew he was just trying to get me to feel better.
"Yeah, well I'd just settle for one." I muttered under my breath.
"Just one or just Serena?" Bucky teased softly. I kept my head down, not wanting to acknowledge that I still held a torch for her. Bucky shook his head at my lack of reaction.
"Either way it's a good thing I already took care of that." Bucky was waving to someone when I looked up. I was trying to see who he was waving to.
"Hey Bucky!" A girl's voice shouted out. I groaned. Bucky had set me up on another double blind-date. I hated them, mostly because I would just end up being the chaperone like person on the date. The girls that Bucky had set me up with usually wouldn't give me the time of day, let alone willingly go out on a date with me.
"What did you tell her about me?" I asked, trying to hide my discomfort with the date arrangement.
"Only the good stuff." Bucky said with his usual grin. I didn't say anything and went along with Bucky. The girl, that I assumed was meant to be my date, had long blonde hair and was wearing a dark red color dress. She took one look at me and frowned. I offered a smile but I wasn't surprised by her reaction to me. It was something that I was used to.
About an hour later Howard Stark was showing off his newest invention and my 'date' was completely ignoring me. I was picking around in the bag of peanuts that I had bought from a nearby stand. I offered some to her and she just gave me an annoyed glance. After that I didn't bother to try and talk to her any more. She clearly didn't want to be on the date with me either. As Howard Stark was revealing his new invention, I spotted a recruitment center and started to wander away from Bucky and the girls.
I looked over the recruitment posters, stepped forward and saw that I only came to the cutout's shoulders. I let out a sigh. Of course, I would never be good enough to meet the Arm's standards.
"Come on, you're kind of missing the point of a double date." Bucky shoved my shoulder, knocking me out of my internal self-pity monologue.
"We're taking the girls dancing." Bucky said with a smile. I winced at the mention of dancing. Bucky knew I wasn't any good at dancing. Even though Serena had left, he had tried to teach me himself.
"You go ahead. I'll catch up with you." I lied. Bucky looked at me and then looked at the posters behind me; and he shook his head.
"You really gonna do this again?" He groaned. I shrugged my shoulders. 'Why not?' I thought.
"Well, it's a Fair. I'm gonna try my luck." I stated. Bucky rolled his eyes, or at least what seemed to be him rolling his eyes.
"As who? Steve from Ohio?" Bucky's voice was raised slightly. I could tell he was getting annoyed with me.
"They'll catch you, worse they'll actually take you." He was mad now. I knew he only wanted to protect me, like how he and Serena had always done.
Look, I know you don't think I can do this-" I started to protest. Bucky scoffed at me as he took a step forward.
"This isn't a back alley Steve. It's war." He reminded me.
"I know it's a war." I said, keeping my head down because I didn't want to draw too much attention to us. This wasn't the first time we had this kind of fight. Ever since my first rejection I had kept going back, trying and trying again to enlist. Bucky caught me the third time around. He wasn't happy with my decision, nor my determination, to join the Army.
"Why are you so keen to fight? There are so many important jobs-" Bucky was starting to get real pissed at me. But I couldn't stand the thought of being forced to stand on the sidelines while others got to go off and fight.
"What do you want me to do? Collect scrap metal in my little red wagon?" I mocked. Bucky snapped his eyes to mine. The truth was that was probably about the only job left that I could do.
"Yes!" Bucky shouted out. I rolled my eyes at him.
"I'm not gonna sit in a factory Bucky-" I was starting to get louder, just so he could hear me. Not that it would actually get him to listen to me. That was entirely a different matter.
"I don't want-" Bucky started talking over me but I continued on with what I was trying to tell him.
"Bucky come on, there are men laying down their lives." I pointed out. That got him to settle down a little. "I got no right to do any less than them. That's what you don't understand. This isn't about me." He finally looked at me and knowing that I wouldn't give up until the War was won he said
"Right; cause you got nothing to prove." He let out a sigh, his anger and annoyance finally subsiding.
"Hey Sarge, are we going dancing?" Bucky's date shouted out. She and her friend were standing a little bit away from the recruitment center but both looked equally annoyed with Bucky and I. Bucky turned around and held out his arms, surely giving them a charming smile as he always did.
"Yes we are." He yelled back. I rolled my eyes before he turned back to face me. Bucky started to walk away before warning me.
"Don't do anything stupid until I get back," It was something that Serena had said to me any time she had to leave me on my own. Then Bucky started to pick up on it. I grinned at him.
"How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you." I called back to him. That was the ending to our usual banter. Bucky wasn't going to try and stop me, even though he tried his best to. He had started to walk back towards the girls but stopped. He shook his head at me, disapprovingly. Then walked back towards me to give me one final hug.
"You're a punk." He said softly. I snorted.
"Jerk. Be careful." I told him as I patted him on his back. He started to walk back towards the girls but didn't get too far before I called out once more.
"Don't win the war until I get there." I teased. Bucky turned around and gave me a mock salute, then shook his head and finally made his way to the girls. He wrapped his arms around their waists and pulled them away to go dancing.
"Come on girls; they're playing our song." Bucky's voice was faint but sounded like he was happy. Though he was probably thinking about my decision to try again and he certainly wasn't all too pleased with that.
Again, I hope you enjoyed. Don't forget to leave a review.