Chapter 1 (Natasha):

"Really, Clint, the Homecoming Dance? What girl are you taking, exactly?" Natasha asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You have to go at least once. Right, Steve?" Clint asked, not quite meeting her eyes.

Steve, who was sitting at their table for some unknown reason and reading a book, looked up in surprise. "Probably wouldn't be a bad idea." And Natasha really didn't know why he was sitting at their table, because his friends at another table usually surrounded him. Theirs was usually fairly empty.

"Exactly," Clint said, nodding.

"So what girl are you taking? Some brainless sophomore?"

"Yeah, and you can go with Tony Stark," Clint suggested. "I'm sure he would love to take you. Or, obviously, I should just bring my best friend," he said, quickly, perhaps at the dangerous look in her eyes.

"And who would that be?"

"You, of course."

Natasha actually smiled then. "I won't kill you if you decide to bring some girl, Clint. I'm not going anyway, and maybe you've decided to start dating…"

"You're coming," Clint interrupted her. "And no, there's no way you're getting out of it, Nat." He cheerfully slung his arm over her shoulder, and she sighed, but truthfully wasn't that annoyed.

"Do you guys like each other or something?" Steve asked suddenly. They both looked up in surprise. He looked suddenly awkward. "I mean…do you…like…like…each other?"

"Rogers, you seem to be losing your vocabulary," Natasha said mildly, "but no." Well, actually…but, no, that didn't need to be brought up.

"Sorry," he apologized.

"GREETINGS!" exclaimed someone suddenly. Thor, of course, who else? He dropped down between Steve and Natasha.

"Hello, Thor. What is it?" she asked politely.

"YOU ARE NATASHA, IS THIS CORRECT?"

"Yes, but Thor, please try to be a little bit quieter. Everyone's staring," Natasha said awkwardly.

"Sorry. But I wished you to meet my brother. LOKI!" he called, and they all jumped. A boy walked over. He was smaller than Thor, with straight, dark hair and ice blue eyes that sparkled with humor.

"Calm, brother, you're scaring the students," Loki said. "Why is it that you wished me to come here?"

"This is Natasha and Clint. You said you wished to meet people. They are good people."

"Yes, well," Loki nodded, "greetings, Natasha and Clint. Perhaps I will see you around." He left and Thor followed, calling out a loud farewell.

"How do you know him?" Steve asked curiously.

"Algebra 2 class," Clint said. "And cross country practice, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Steve remembered. He went back to his book.

"Come on, Nat," we've got Homecoming tickets to buy," Clint said suddenly, rising and inclining his head towards the table at the front of the cafeteria. Natasha sighed and reluctantly followed him.

…

Because neither of them had a driver's license (Natasha being a freshman and Clint's birthday not being until January), they walked home after cross country practice ended. They didn't talk much, but that was fine, because it was an easy, comfortable silence between two people who saw no need to talk when there was nothing to say.

They ended up both going to Natasha's house though, since neither one of them wanted to come home to an empty house (Natasha's stepfather was still at work, Clint's foster parents were both at work, and his older brother was in college).

"Homework?" Clint asked, already taking food from the fridge like any normal teenage boy would, though he wasn't quite a normal teenage boy for several reasons…

"I have to check my email first," Natasha replied, opening her laptop on the kitchen table. Clint looked over her shoulder, holding a bag of chips, and she did her best to ignore him.

"You got an email from Mr. Fury," he commented. "He must have another assignment."

"Look, he included your assignment too," Natasha pointed out, smirking slightly. "Did you forget to check your email again?"

"Oh yeah," he said, and Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Do you know Erik Selvig?" she asked, scanning the email.

"Yeah, he's my chemistry teacher, why?"

"You're supposed to watch over him – protect him, keep an eye on him – the usual," she replied. He nodded and bent to pick up a chip he'd dropped.

"What about you?" he asked.

"I'm supposed to get some information out of Georgi Luchkov," she sighed. That would mean sitting at his table, probably flirting with him, and general misery. She would do it, of course, and do it well, but that didn't mean she liked it. Plus she would have to avoid Clint for a few days, which was always annoying. Clint squeezed her shoulder briefly. She typed off a quick reply to the email.

Mr. Fury – a.k.a. Nick Fury – was the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division), an international military organization, which both Natasha and Clint worked undercover for. She was a spy, hacker, and acrobat, among other things; he was an archer, acrobat, and strategist. They might've been only 14 and 15, but they were already excellent agents.

She closed her laptop. "I going to go train," she decided, thinking that if she was going to be hanging around Georgi Luchkov, she wanted to be sure she could beat him up if necessary.

So she threw around some weights and flipped and twisted all over a bunch of gymnastics equipment while Clint made a bunch of impossible shots with his bow. The best part was sparring though, because she still beat Clint every time.

"Alright, Nat, you win. Your dad's home now, so I'm going to head out." He gave her a faint smile.

As soon as he left, Natasha sat down hard on the floor. Outwardly she nearly always looked in control – spy training had taught her that much – but that didn't mean she wasn't confused inside.

For example: Clint Barton. He was her best friend, her partner, and the person she trusted more than anyone else she knew. Everyone always asked if they were dating and always wondered if they liked each other, to which they always replied "no," but sometimes, in little moments, she wondered. And then there was that time last year when they'd been sent to Budapest on an assignment… But no, she couldn't go there right now.

Author's Note: So, what do you think so far? Please review and let me know. Oh, and if you have any suggestions about high school activities that you think would be interesting to see the Avengers do, I'd be happy to hear them.