First off, I want to say thank you so much to everyone who added this story to their favorites and added me to their favorite authors. This is my very first fanfiction so it really means a lot.
Therefore, here is chapter 2. I hope you enjoy it!
Clint didn't see Natasha much following the playground bullies incident, with the exception of recess and the bus ride home. Every so often, Clint was nice enough to invite Natasha to swing on the swings with him and Thor and Steve, but she would always politely decline.
She would sit in the same spot every day at recess, right on the edge of the playground, in the shade of the trees. Clint couldn't help but feel bad, and Thor and Steve felt the same way. The poor girl had no friends and it was a shame to see her sitting all by herself at recess until the teachers called them back into their classrooms. From time to time, a little boy with unruly black hair would approach Natasha to see if she would like to play but she would decline his invite as well.
September melted into October and the weather started to get cooler. Clint, Thor, and Steve couldn't wait for Halloween. Clint, with his sudden fascination for archery, decided he was going to be Robin Hood. Thor was debating on being Hercules or Darth Vader. Steve was torn between Batman and Spider-Man.
Halloween came and went and Thanksgiving quickly approached. The students were given a five day weekend, much to Clint's delight. He couldn't wait for all of his family members to come over for Thanksgiving dinner so he could show them his archery skills.
When the students returned to school following Thanksgiving break, the principal called a school-wide assembly. As the students filed into the gymnasium, where most assemblies were held, Principal Walters took his place in front of the student body.
"Good morning students!" Principal Walters' voice boomed over the sound system.
"Good morning Principal Walters!" the students echoed.
"I hope everyone had a relaxing Thanksgiving break and I hope you are excited to return to learning many magnificent things here at Hamilton Elementary," Principal Walters said.
"Now, as you all may know, Christmas is just around the corner and we would like to make these last few weeks of school before Christmas break as exciting as possible," Principal Walters continued. "So, without further ado, I am pleased to announce that we will be doing a school wide Secret Santa gift exchange!"
It was hard to garner the students' attentions following the announcement. Girls were shrieking with joy and boys were jumping up and down. Once the teachers and the principal had managed to calm everyone down, Principal Walters continued his announcement.
"Each class has been assigned another class to exchange gifts with. Following this assembly you will return to your classrooms to pick a name of a student whom you will be their Secret Santa.
"You will get them one gift per week. You can spend a lot of money, or no money at all, just as long as you get them a gift. The day before Christmas break, you will reveal yourselves and give out one final gift," Principal Walters explained.
The students were dismissed and Clint, Thor, and Steve followed Mrs. Humphrey back to their classroom. Once they were seated and calmed down from the assembly, Mrs. Humphrey pulled out a brown paper bag, no doubt containing the names of the students from the class they would be Secret Santas to.
Mrs. Humphrey announced that they would be Secret Santas to Mrs. Anthony's kindergarden class, and one by one they walked up to pick out a name from the brown paper bag. When it was finally Clint's turn, he reached into the bag, rustled around the bits of paper, and finally tore a piece out of the bag. He unfolded the paper and read the name to himself.
Natasha Romanoff.
He'd bet that bow and arrow set he asked Santa for Christmas that this was the same Natasha he saved from the playground bullies.
Clint wasn't sure what to get her. He didn't know her. His futile attempts to get her to play with him and his friends at recess never worked so he has never had a chance to get to know her. The only thing he knew about her was her name, and he only learned it because he saved her from some playground bullies.
He settled on giving her homemade chocolate chip cookies that he helped bake with his mother for the first gift, peppermints he bought from the local candy shop for the second gift, and some jingle bells he found at the craft store for the third gift.
However, he had no idea what he was going to get her for the big reveal that he was her Secret Santa. It wasn't until he started passing her in the hallway that he noticed that she still had only one hair tie. She either kept her hair down or it was tied up into a ponytail. He hasn't seen her in pigtails since that day on the playground. He wondered if she even had another hair tie.
It was settled. He would buy her all the hair ties he could afford. Pink ones, blue ones, ones with funky designs on them. He just hoped she'd like them.
The day of the Secret Santa reveal, Clint was extremely nervous. What if she didn't like them? What if she laughed?
You're stupid Clint, he thought. Hair ties? What a ridiculous gift!
Half of his class had revealed themselves until Clint had actually plucked up the courage to go next. He stood in front of the class while Mrs. Anthony encouraged Clint to reveal who he had been giving gifts to all this time.
"Ummm," he gulped. "Natasha Romanoff."
The class applauded as Natasha rose from her seat and walked to the front of the classroom to receive her final gift from Clint.
"Umm," he said. "I noticed you don't wear your hair in pigtails anymore and thought maybe it was because you didn't have another hair tie, so I got you these cool looking ones."
He handed her the package of hair ties, and indeed there were pink ones, blue ones, and ones with funky designs. He held his breath as he waited for a response.
"Thanks," she mumbled, looking down at her shoes. "Those kids took my hair tie on the first day of school when you scared them off."
"N-no problem," Clint stuttered. The class applauded once more. Natasha returned to her assigned seat in her classroom, while Clint returned to the back of the room with the rest of his classmates.
Clint watched as Thor and Steve followed him in their Secret Santa reveal. Thor was the Secret Santa to a tiny girl, much smaller than Natasha, with brown hair and brown eyes called Jane Foster, while Steve was the Secret Santa to a girl with curly brown hair named Peggy Carter. When all of the students had revealed themselves as Secret Santas, Mrs. Humphrey's students returned to the classroom and remained there until dismissal.
The bus was rowdier and louder than usual because the students were especially excited about Christmas break and the imminent arrival of Santa. Clint, Thor, and Steve were seated in their usual seats in the center of the bus when Natasha approached them. It was very out of character, seeing as she usually sat in the first empty seat closest to the front of the bus.
"H-hi Natasha," Clint stuttered when she approached the boys.
"Hey Natasha," Steve said.
"Greetings, Natasha!" Thor said.
"Hi," she said to the boys, and then turned to Clint. "I wanted to say thank you again for the hair ties. My parents can't afford much so it really means a lot."
"You're welcome," Clint said, and then cleared his throat. What he was about to ask her made him nervous.
"Would you like to sit with us today?" Clint asked, looking at Steve and Thor. They seemed to approve since they were nodding their heads.
"Ummm, okay," she said. Clint slid out of his seat, offering Natasha the seat by the window, and she slid right in. A couple minutes later, the bus rolled out of the parking lot and made its way through the winding roads to drop off the kids for Christmas break.
Clint, Steve, Thor, and Natasha joked around about teachers at school, and shared what they wanted the most for Christmas. Clint was excited to see if Santa would bring him that bow and arrow set. Steve wanted a shield so that when he played war with Clint and Thor, he would be protected. Thor wanted a red cape that would be equipped with magical flight capabilities.
"I want my parents to stop fighting," Natasha said, when the boys asked her what she wanted for Christmas.
Clint found it to be an unusual answer. The boys wondered if it was appropriate to ask why, but by the time they'd plucked up the courage to ask, the school bus had rolled to a stop in front of her house and she scooted out of the seat, walked down the aisle, and bounded down the bus steps.
Christmas break came and went, and the month of January went by in a blur. Before they knew it, it was the week of Valentine's Day. Clint and Natasha had become fast friends. Over Christmas break, Clint had managed to convince his mom to set up a play date for him and Natasha, and so, a couple days after Christmas, Natasha came over for a couple of hours.
They played Hide and Seek. They made a snowman from the freshly fallen snow the town had received the night before. They had a snowball fight, and when they had tired themselves out, Clint's mom prepared them hot chocolate and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
Since Valentine's Day was coming up, Clint wanted to make her the best valentine anyone has ever gotten. He wasn't very artistic so he wasn't sure how he was going to conquer this task.
During free time the day before Valentine's Day, Clint procured a piece of pink construction paper and folded it in half. He figured stick figures would have to suffice when it came to drawing people, but he would just hope the message he was trying to convey would come across clearly.
After several pieces of construction paper and broken pencil tips, Clint had the perfect valentine for Natasha. Robin Hood and Cupid got nothing on me, the card read on the front with a picture of a stick-figured Clint holding a bow and arrow aimed right at Natasha. The real task, though, was how would he slip it into her cubby in her classroom? He realized that the perfect time would be when Mrs. Humphrey's class was headed to art class and Mrs. Anthony's class was headed to music class. If necessary, Thor and Steve could manage a distraction.
As they were walking past Mrs. Anthony's classroom, Clint saw it was empty and it was now or never. He slipped out of the single file line and slunk into the classroom. He searched the cubbies for her name. Lo and behold, there it was, labeled in perfect penmanship on a pink piece of paper. Clint slid the card in her cubby and quickly slipped out of the room before Mrs. Humphrey noticed he was missing from the class.
Art class passed by in a blur. He was wondering if Natasha would like the card. Would she think it's funny? Would she thank him? He was pondering so many thoughts that he wasn't even paying attention when he reached across the table him, Steve, and Thor were seated at and knocked over a bottle of blue paint.
They returned to their classroom after about a half hour of playing with paint and clay and stayed there until dismissal. As Clint packed up his things, he wondered if Natasha would say anything about the card on the bus, but she never did. Clint got concerned that she never got it. Maybe he had put it in the wrong cubby by mistake. The next day at school, a certain piece of paper made its appearance in Clint's cubby following gym class.
It read: Two can play the secret Valentine game, Clint. He didn't need a signature or a name to know who it was. That Natasha Romanoff was a sneaky one.
As February came and went and the weather started to warm up, the students at Hamilton Elementary became antsy as summer drew closer and closer. Before they knew it, it was the last day of school and they were headed home on the school buses for three months of pure relaxation.
Thor was discussing his parents' plans to send him and his brother to relatives in Greece for a couple of weeks in July. Steve was blabbing about his desire to visit Wildwood, New Jersey and experience the famed boardwalk. While Thor and Steve discussed their adventurous plans, Clint and Natasha sat in their seat discussing their plans to camp in Clint's backyard and roast marshmallows and hot dogs by a campfire.
Sure enough, the red head and the archer were best friends.
Once again, thank you so much to everyone who has read this story. I really hope you'll stick around for what else I have in store. I know this chapter moved kind of quickly. I'm sorry. I'm trying to get as much in when they're little but also move it along so I can spend more time on when they're in high school. I have a lot of ideas when it comes to Clint and Natasha in high school.
And, I'm really sorry to do this to you guys but I have no idea when I'll be able to update the story again. I'm finishing up a summer class so I have to study for the final, as well as write 10 journal entries. Add work everyday between now and Sunday on top of that. I also have to fit in going to see Prometheus with my dad on Saturday morning, and then True Blood premieres Sunday night! Phew! I'll try to put up the next chapter as soon as possible but I'm just giving you guys a heads up that it might be a while.
Anyways, thanks again for reading and please review! I'd love to know what you guys think!