Chapter 5: Invite
Peggy zipped up her black coat, careful not to snag her soft navy scarf. Steve was standing next to her locker, already zipped up in his dark brown leather jacket that Peggy highly doubted was warm enough to bear the October cold.
"Stark still won't believe me about that run in with the police and the knife guy last week! I thought we'd be the talk of the school—but instead everybody thinks I'm making it up!" Steve pressed against her locker door, careful not to crumple the single picture hanging on the door of her and her father.
"It's alright— you wanted to go out to that new soup place, right?" she put her AP U.S. History book in her bag; she had to take an extra social studies class on top of everything.
"Yep!" Steve closed her locker for her, locking it as well.
"Bucky and Tony are meeting us there, as well." Peggy said to Steve, weaving through the crowd of students. She looked up to see where he was when she got shoved aside. She snapped an "Excuse you!" and tried to glimpse his lemon hair. She did however see a giant group of the varsity football team headed her way, and as she went to move aside, a hand pulled her into a side corridor.
"Thanks." Peggy murmured, brushing a strand of loose dark brown hair out of her face.
"No problem, I'm Natasha by the way." Peggy smiled at the girl. She had fair skin, short wavy red hair, green eyes, and was wearing black skinny jeans with a dark red v-neck shirt. Peggy watched the stampede of boys trample past, leaving lined paper and blank homework sheets scattered on the tile floor. She could see Steve, who had taken cover across the hall in the open doorway to the lecture room. He grinned his silly grin at her.
"I thought they were going to crush you." Peggy joked, and Steve stuck out his tongue in his childish way.
"I would have been fine. What I lack in strength I make up for in resilience." Natasha made a small laugh of "Yeah right!" and smiled sheepishly. "Natasha Romanoff, right?" Her red hair bobbed as she nodded.
"Rogers?" Steve nodded, "and Carter?" Peggy nodded, "Stark wasn't kidding about you two." She sashayed away, leaving Steve staring after her confused, and Peggy asking her to explain.
Peggy rushed out the exit door before Steve could hold it open for her, to his annoyance, but she smiled and laughed about it. Outside SHIELD High's sidewalk was a small garden of depressed looking flowers, then a vast parking lot. Some cars were struggling to run; others were the owner's family four door car. That made it easy to spot Tony Stark's car: a nice, bright red, expensive sports car. Stark was propped up against his car talking to Pepper, who was bundled up in a designer coat, with a pair of aviators on even though it was freezing and cloudy. Peggy wove through the rows of car, Steve following her step for step.
"Yo Peg!" Tony greeted brightly, holding up a peace sign. She rolled her eyes and stood next to Pepper, watching her breathe cloud out in a fog. Tony shrugged and pat Steve on his back, almost knocking the smaller man over. "I was thinking, Peg you should ride with me and Pepper said she'd take Steve." Peggy nodded briskly, folding her arms to try and keep warm. "I've got heated seats." He whispered in Peggy's ear, loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Race you to Marge Soups!" Pepper laughed, getting in the more ideal, new, silver car parked next to Tony. Steve rushed to get into the passenger seat, saluting to Peggy jokingly as he did so. Tony didn't offer to open Peggy's door like Steve would have, instead he leaped over the hood. Peggy slid into the luxury leather passenger seat as if she did this every day. Tony revved the engine, smiling playfully toward Pepper, who was already taking off. Peggy pulled out her phone, trying to seem as if she was relaxed as Stark zipped out of his parking space and roared out of the parking lot, avoiding other students who bounced out of his way. She most definitely was not relaxed.
"So Peg, you and Steve? Takin' it slow?" he grinned, turning the corner.
"Tony?" he glanced over at her, "Shut up." She locked her phone, sliding it in her pocket. Tony stuck his tongue out, barely watching the road, before swiveling in front of Pepper's silver small car.
"See? I'm a very experienced driver. I knew you were doubting my skills." He dapped her nose with a finger, and she slapped him away.
"Eyes on the road, soldier." She growled, crossing her arms.
"Yes Miss." He replied just as curtly, even speeding up a bit so that he would be able to get the closest parking space to the door of the soup restraint. Peggy's heart stopped lurching, and her head stopped pounding. Tony slid into the parking space, opening his door right as the car stopped. "Come on, Brit, we've got to win!" he yelped. Peggy took her dear sweet time, because it wasn't possible for Pepper and Steve to beat them now. She ignored the fact that Tony didn't wait a second for her, and he grabbed the nearest table that could seat four. Peggy turned and walked over to meet Steve and walk with him, because she was fed up with Tony.
"How was your ride?" Steve asked kindly. She had noticed that, though still skinny and weak, Steve had gotten taller over the past two months.
"Indescribable." She blinked her dark chocolate eyes. Pepper was right behind them, her gold high heels clicking on the pavement.
"I can only tell what that means…" Pepper grinned, walking in after them. The store was very new looking, with one brick wall and three dark olive walls. The floor was brown tile, with a large bar and serving area, the sharp smell of assorted soups clinging to the air. Several people were already seated and eating soups, sandwiches, and or bread rolls. Tony was sitting at one of the high circular tables, three other unoccupied bar stools sitting around it.
"I beat you Pep!" Tony chirped.
"At the expense of Peggy…"
"Oh yeah!" Tony snapped his fingers, pointing to the dark haired teen. "Pep, can you give Peggy an invitation to the party?" Pepper reached into her matching clutch bag, pulling out one of a dozen or more orange envelopes, sliding it across the table. Peggy didn't open it, instead tucked it inside the side pocket of her leather bag.
"Thank you. I'm bringing Steve, if that's alright."
"I figured he'd be part of the Peggy package. Anyway, I'm having a Halloween party at one of our lake houses. Its thirty minutes west of New York City, the address is in the invite. Tons of people from SHIELD are coming and some others. It'll be one hell of a party! Oh yeah, costumes only," he jumped off the stool, "I'm going to go get some soup. You want anything, Pep?"
"No, thanks."
"You sure? We are at a soup shop; if you don't get anything people will think you're weird."
"Tony. Go get your soup." Tony smirked and practically strutted toward the line.
: :V : :U : :V : :U
"So what are you going as to the lake party?" Natasha Romanoff asked Peggy as she swung a wood plank in a circle, trying to find a place to put it. Peggy ducked in time before she got decapitated, however resulting in a white paint mark all over the pair of overalls she had on. Steve had invited her to come to the musical's set construction, and while Steve was doing the little painting details, Peggy was painting the blue foam board backdrop white in preparation for Steve.
"I'm not sure yet." Peggy stroked her brush down the hard, seemingly delicate surface. Steve had shown her how to correctly paint a large surface with a small brush (there were no good paint rollers in stock.)
"I'm thinking I should do something totally hot." Natasha laughed, setting the board down and sitting on the rise next to Peggy.
"Black widow." Peggy suggested without much thought.
"No… a black widow would be mysterious. I'm going for hot." Natasha sat back, her red curly hair flaring around her head like a fire.
"A... nurse?" Peggy raised her eyebrows, unsure.
"That's a bit lame." Natasha huffed, smiling playfully.
"Everything 'hot' is probably going to be lame." Peggy set her brush down in the paint bucket.
"You should match with Steve. That would be the ultimate couple thing." Nat fluttered, poking Peggy's shoulder.
"We're not a couple." Peggy said a bit louder then intended, and Steve looked over from where he was standing on a ladder. Peggy reddened a bit, bit turned to glare at Natasha, who was giggling.
"Oh here comes Banner, better get to work!" Nat leaped to her feet and picked up the board, walking back behind the scene. Peggy raised a brow, glancing over to where a disheveled curly-haired boy came in, clipboard in one hand and mug in the other. He had a deep purple sweater on, at least a size to big, with a green button-up under it. She had never really seen Bruce and spoken to him, but she knew that he was the student in charge of set construction.
"Hey, Bruiser!" Nat teased, waving a hand to where Bruce stood. He took a sip from his mug before returning a polite hello.
Peggy inched over to Steve, who hadn't looked up from where he was sponging on a cement wall pattern to the white paint covered board.
He glanced up at her, eyes bright.
"What are you going as for Tony's party?" the dark haired senior asked. Steve shrugged.
"You know, I was thinking of dressing up as what America would look like. I've been doing some concept sketches for a comic book character—Captain America." He grinned, setting the sponge down.
"Captain America?" she smiled brightly, and he ducked his head in a blush. "Tell me more."
"Nah, you'll think it's stupid." He ran a hand through his hair, quickly pulling it out as he realized his fingers were dappled with wet paint. She grabbed a rag and dabbed it at the peak of his hair line, where he was now smudged with paint. "T-Thanks," he stuttered out, embarrassed.
"You'll have to show me the sketches some other time then, hm?" He nodded. "I should get back to painting this wall." She held up her brush, a drop of white running down the side. He nodded again with a broad grin, holding up his sponge.
"Me too." She began to pull away to where she was working, when he piped up again. "Hey, do you want to hang out this weekend after the party?" he asked, his blue eyes full of hope. She smile played at the edges of her lips.
"Of course." He breathed in happily, smiling as he turned to continue sponging on the pattern. She turned on her heel back to her work, Natasha sitting at the top of the latter a few inches away.
"You two are totally a thing." She blew a bright pink bubble of gum, but Peggy couldn't bring herself to protest, as she herself didn't even know. Natasha's attention drifted from the two as Bruce began to yelp at Nat not to chew gum around the stage equipment. Peggy bit her lip and glanced over at Steve, and he had already been looking at her. Their eyes met: dark brown to clear blue. He nervously darted his gaze back to his work, but she lingered for another moment or two. Maybe.
AN
Hello.
It's been like nine months.
Sorry.
OH YEAH, if you have an idea for what Peg should be, you should comment it because I hAVE NO IDEA. Sorry this was kind of filler. I'm planning on continuing to update this, but unfortunately my writing style has changed a bit and is a little less witty.