This story is a sequel to my other story, "The Important Thing is to Try" and takes place about 8 months after the ending of that one. You don't have to read that one first if you don't want to - I know it's long! - but there may be some details or plot points that make more sense with the context of the first one. If it's been a while since you read "Important Thing," here's a little recap to get you back up to speed...
Clark Gregg voice: Previously, on PocketMouse's Agents of Shield fic... (sorry, I couldn't resist haha)
May and Phil agree to foster 13-year-old Skye and her best friend, 12-year-old Jemma, and later also agree to foster 15-year-old Bobbi. Unlike the girls' previous foster homes, May and Phil are kind and supportive as each one navigates their own unique difficulties, such as Skye's struggles in school, Jemma's social anxiety, and Bobbi's rehab for her injured knee. They also help the girls find a good therapist (Andrew), who suggests that Skye may have ADHD and dyslexia and that Jemma and Bobbi may both be autistic.
Skye's search for information about her past leads her to a harrowing encounter with her father, in which she and Jemma are held captive and Jemma is injured, until May and Bobbi come to their rescue. The whole ordeal causes social services to investigate whether May and Phil are suitable foster parents, which forces the girls to be split up for a time. Eventually, everyone is reunited and May and Phil ask Skye, Jemma, and Bobbi if they'd like to be adopted.
Obviously that's a very broad overview, but that should be the gist of things :) A little time has passed in-universe, so Skye is now 14 and Bobbi is now 16 (Jemma hasn't had her birthday yet), and everyone is starting their next grade in school, putting Skye and Jemma in ninth grade/freshman and Bobbi in eleventh/junior. Anyway, without further ado, here's the next installment!
"All I'm saying," Skye concluded dramatically as she slumped back in her seat, "is that it's got to be at least a little illegal to make us come into school when there's still a week of summer break left. Child labor laws or something."
"I'm pretty sure that only applies to places of employment, not education," chuckled Phil. He smiled at her in the rearview mirror and Skye made a face back.
"Cruel and unusual punishment, then."
"Skye, it's freshman orientation, not medieval torture," Phil teased. "Besides, it's only a couple of hours."
"Early hours," grumbled Skye. "It's not even 10. I could still be in bed right now."
"At least you didn't have a 6 a.m. soccer practice this morning," Bobbi mumbled from the front seat. Her head was leaning against the window, and if Skye had to guess, her eyes were probably closed against the late morning sun. "If anybody should still be in bed, it's me."
"You're the one who volunteered to be an orientation leader." Skye stuck a finger through the space under the headrest and poked at the back of Bobbi's neck, causing her to jerk upright and squirm against the sensation.
"Cut it out!"
"I think orientation will be good," Jemma said quickly, before Bobbi could twist around and retaliate, inciting an all-out tickling war. She reached over and tapped gently on Skye's knee a few times, drawing a smile from both of them. "We'll get our schedules and see where our lockers are. We'll be better prepared for the first day. No getting lost or going to the wrong class. And we'll get to see Fitz and Trip," she added, her smile deepening.
"That's the spirit, Jemma," Phil said with a jovial wink. "This is why you're my favorite."
"Hey!" Skye pouted. "I thought I was your favorite."
"Oh, you are. And Bobbi is, too. It's a three-way tie. Dead heat," Phil grinned. Skye rolled her eyes and Bobbi burst out laughing.
"Don't be such a dad, Phil," she smirked. "Saying 'you're all my favorite' is totally cheating."
"It's not my fault, you three make it impossible to choose," he protested, joining them in their laughter.
He eased the car into the parking lot of the high school, where gaggles of other disgruntled, almost-9th graders were spilling from their own parents' cars and trickling towards the front doors.
"Okay," Phil said as he cut the engine. "Skye, Jemma, I'm pretty sure you all are starting in the auditorium. Bobbi, the other orientation leaders are meeting—"
"In the cafeteria," Bobbi nodded.
"And I," Phil finished, checking his watch, "am about to be late for a faculty meeting. Everybody ready? Meet me back at my room when you're finished, okay?"
They nodded and piled out of the car, following Phil up the familiar stone steps of the high school. It might have just been Skye's imagination, but the steps didn't feel quite so steep or imposing as they had last year, when she'd come to the high school for tutoring. Maybe it was because she was used to them, or maybe it was because she knew these were her steps now. Or at least, they would be, starting next week. Either way, she was pleased to find that walking into the high school felt hardly more intimidating than walking to the park. This year, school was going to be different.
A wave of icy AC blasted them all as they entered, and Phil and Bobbi peeled off to go their separate ways with promises to see them soon.
"Guess we should just jump in, then," Skye suggested, nodding towards the line of students, many of whom Skye recognized from last year, that had formed in the front hall. She watched as Jemma took a deep breath before nodding in agreement, and she realized that just because she wasn't feeling as nervous as she thought she would about orientation, it didn't mean that Jemma wasn't.
"Hey, we got this." She grabbed Jemma's hand and gave it a squeeze, taking a deliberate breath in time with the pressure she applied. Jemma's thumb found the back of Skye's hand and tapped lightly, not too stressed out. "It's just like you said," Skye smiled. "This'll be good. We'll get to see how everything works today, which is a first for us with new schools."
"It's going to be good," Jemma agreed, although she didn't sound quite so convinced as Skye. "I know. I know it's good. It's just new. Different."
"The last new school you'll ever have to go to, at least until you run off to Yale or MIT or wherever it is that all the brainiacs go these days," ribbed Skye. "Just promise me you won't try to graduate while we're still sophomores or something."
"I promise," Jemma said seriously. "You know I'm not skipping up anymore."
Soon it was their turn at the front of the line, and the older lady working the table up front smiled at them as they approached.
"Hi, welcome to new student orientation. I'm Mrs. Alonso, I run the front office here. Names, please?"
"I'm Skye, but it probably says Mary Sue Poots on your list," Skye said, trying not to grimace. May and Phil had told her she would get to officially change her name once and for all when their adoption got finalized, and she couldn't wait for the day when she could finally shed her horrendous, nun-curated name for good. "And this is my sister, Jemma Simmons." As much as it had disgusted her to say 'Mary Sue Poots,' the delight she felt at being able to claim Jemma as her sister in front of other people more than made up for it. Yet another thing she could hardly wait to make official.
"All right, yep, I've got Poots and Simmons," Mrs. Alonso said, handing them each a folder with their names stuck on the tabs. "Nametags are in those, along with group assignments, class schedules, locker number, all that good stuff. You're starting in the auditorium, which is down the hall and right through the left here, okay?"
Skye and Jemma nodded and thanked Mrs. Alonso, then headed in the direction of the auditorium.
"Does the blue sticker on our nametags mean we're in the same group?" Skye wondered as she slapped her nametag across her front.
"I assume so. That's good news."
"Totally," Skye grinned. "You brought a pen, right?"
"Of course." Jemma, always prepared, slid a pen out of the spiral of the notebook she had brought along to take orientation notes with and handed it to Skye. "I told you to bring something to write with."
"I forgot," Skye shrugged. "Plus, I knew I could count on you." She uncapped the pen quickly and wasted no time in scribbling out the 'Mary Sue' on her chest. She realized her mistake, however, when it came time to replace it with 'Skye.'
"How do you write an upside-down S?"
"You could just take the nametag off."
"No, no, I've got it," Skye frowned, poking her tongue out through her teeth a little as she concentrated. "There," she said triumphantly, handing the pen back to Jemma, who made no comment apart from her raised eyebrows. "Ready to go in?"
The auditorium was teeming with teenagers, some bunched up in groups in the aisles, showing off suntans and summer haircuts, others twisting back and forth in their seats as they tried to talk to friends. There was even a handful of rowdy-looking boys climbing over the backs of chairs in what looked to be some kind of poorly conceived relay race.
"Do you see Fitz or Trip anywhere?" Skye asked, craning her neck.
"Not yet," Jemma frowned. "Maybe we ought to just sit down for now."
They found a pocket of empty seats without too much trouble, only a few removed from a bored-looking blonde girl whom Skye didn't recognize. After a quick exchanged glance with Jemma about whether or not they could get away with ignoring the girl, Skye relented, resigning herself to the fact that she was going to have to be polite and friendly to this stranger.
"Hi," she said. She offered a small wave, which Jemma mirrored. The blonde girl's eyes snapped up from her fingernails, which she'd been picking the nail polish off of, and gave Skye a long, examining look.
"I'm Skye, and this is my sister Jemma."
"So I can see," the girl said dryly, nodding at their nametags. "Are you making some kind of a statement or something?"
"What?" Skye blinked, then realized the girl was staring at her crossed-out name. "Oh. No, they just got my name wrong."
"You're not wearing a nametag," Jemma announced abruptly. Her eyebrows dipped low over her eyes, and Skye could tell she was trying to size up if the girl was a rulebreaker or just forgetful.
"Nope."
"Well how will people know your name, then?" Jemma pressed. She was flexing the fingers on her right hand slowly, like she was trying to work the urge to tap out of them without drawing attention to herself.
"They won't," the girl shrugged. "Kind of the point."
"Oh."
"So are you a freshman, too?" Skye asked quickly. She wanted to draw the girl's attention away from Jemma as she processed the new information the girl had given them. Something about the cool and aloof way the girl was acting set Skye on edge. It was hard to tell if she was messing with them or not, and Skye had very little patience for people who liked to toy with her and Jemma, like it was a game to get under their skin.
The girl snorted. "God, no. I'm a junior. Transfer student. My mom made us move this summer and now I'm stuck spending my morning with a bunch of pimply pipsqueaks when I could be doing something way more fun. Soccer workouts. Long division. Waterboarding."
Skye prickled at the 'pipsqueaks' remark, but chose to overlook it. She could understand feeling crabby about coming to orientation, and about being the new kid. Maybe this girl just used snark to protect herself from the inevitable unpleasantness that being new brought. Maybe she needed an olive branch.
"You play soccer?" Branch extended. The girl nodded. "Our sister Bobbi plays. She's on varsity here. She's a junior, too."
"Another sister, huh?" the girl remarked. "How many of you are there?"
"Just the three of us," Skye frowned. "Not that many."
"And you two are both freshman? How'd that happen? I'm guessing you're not twins," the girl smirked. The back of Skye's neck grew warm, but she was saved from having to respond to the irksome and somewhat befuddling girl by the boisterous arrival of Fitz. He tumbled into the seat next to Jemma and wasted no time in greeting them, ignoring the blonde girl completely.
"Hi Jemma, hi Skye," he grinned. He pointed at the nametag stuck haphazardly across Skye's chest. "Your 'k' is backwards."
"Hello Fitz," Jemma said warmly, allowing herself the smile she hadn't been able to conjure while they had been talking with the blonde girl, who Skye noticed had gone back to her fingernails. "It's good to see you."
They had spent a fair amount of time with Fitz and Trip that summer, but Fitz had been in Chicago visiting his aunt the last few weeks, and Trip had been busy with football practice, so it had been a while since they'd all been in the same place.
"Good to see you too," he beamed. "Did you finish that summer work packet for Mr. Vaughn's class?"
Jemma nodded. "Ages ago. That one with the trigonometric proof—"
"Fascinating." Fitz pumped his head up and down excitedly. "It's so nice to finally get to do some math that's not just basic algebra and graphing. Thought I was going to die of boredom by the end of last year."
"You're so dramatic," Skye teased him. "You know, most kids would be excited to have a class they could just coast in."
Fitz's face wrinkled up in confusion. "But you can't learn anything in a class where you already know the material."
"Easy isn't as good as interesting," Jemma agreed. They both looked at Skye like she was trying to convince them that the sky was green and the grass was blue, and she rolled her eyes with a chuckle.
"You guys are such dorks." She shook her head, still laughing at the pair of them, and gave Jemma a quick three taps on her knee to let her know that she was only calling her a dork out of love. Jemma smiled and tapped back. She looked more relaxed than Skye had seen her all morning.
"There's Trip," Fitz exclaimed then, craning his neck and nodding towards the door of the auditorium where Trip and a bunch of other sweaty-looking boys had just piled in. "Looks like he's coming straight from practice."
They waved until they caught Trip's attention, and his face split into a massive grin at the sight of them. In a flash, he bounded over to where they were sitting, vaulted over the armrest of the closest chair, and flopped down in the empty seat next to Skye.
"Hey," he greeted them warmly. "Long time no see."
"Hard practice?" Skye asked, taking in his damp t-shirt and shiny forehead.
"Nah, this is just my natural glow." Trip flashed her a wink, which made Skye laugh.
"You did always have a kind of a sparkle about you," she joked back.
"We didn't have time to shower," he explained as he wiped his forehead with the hem of his t-shirt. "Coach kept us late and had to send all the freshmen straight over for orientation, but the upside is that the older guys actually had to pack up all the equipment today, since all the freshmen were coming here."
"I still think it's not fair to make all the younger players do all the work," Jemma frowned.
"Hazing, is what it is," Fitz nodded seriously.
"There are lots of people on the team," Jemma continued. "Your coach should make a schedule, so the work gets distributed evenly."
Trip crooked a sympathetic smile her way. "That'd be nice. But one of Coach Garrett's favorite things to say is 'football's not fair, featherweights.'" He said the last part in an imitation of the gruff football coach who had also been their gym teacher last year, making his voice gravelly and jutting out his chin to mimic Coach Garrett's customary scowl. That got everybody laughing again.
Out of the corner of her eye, Skye caught the older girl rolling her eyes in their direction. She frowned, but decided not to say anything. As much as she might want to call the blonde girl out for being a jerk for no reason, she knew nothing good would come from starting an argument with another kid before the first day of school had even started.
They talked for a few minutes more, Fitz telling them all about the museums that he got to visit in Chicago while he was visiting his aunt, Trip filling them in on how the football team was shaping up, and Skye and Jemma telling the boys about the time they'd spent with May, Phil, and Bobbi at the lake last weekend. It wasn't as exciting as the Museum of Science and Industry or the power vacuum left at quarterback now that Christian Ward had graduated and Grant didn't live in their school district anymore, but Trip and Fitz listened with just as much enthusiasm as Skye and Jemma talked about the picnic they'd packed and how they took a ferry called the SS Badger all the way across the lake to Michigan and back. It had been the first time Skye had ever left Wisconsin, so even though it might not have sounded like the most interesting trip to someone else, for Skye it had felt like a pretty big deal. They'd even had to get special permission from Miss Hand to cross state lines, since they were still foster kids. Luckily, Trip and Fitz were able to appreciate the magnitude of the moment, looking properly impressed when Skye and Jemma got to that part of the story.
Eventually, the din of the auditorium began to quiet, and Skye twisted back around in her seat to see a woman with dark brown hair cut in a pin-straight bob walking onto the stage. Her shoes clicked with authority up to the podium, and Skye noticed that she wasn't the only kid who sat up a little straighter as the woman turned her attention on the crowd. Ms. Price tended to have that effect on people.
"Good morning," she said, and her voice crackled over the speaker system, filling the room and silencing the few remaining kids who were still talking. "Welcome to New Student Orientation here at Manitowoc High School. My name is Ms. Price. I teach several classes here – primarily Civics, Geography, and AP Government – and I am also the freshman class advisor."
"And the person who runs afterschool tutoring," Skye added in an undertone, for Fitz and Trip's sake. "Me and Jemma saw her a lot last year."
"She's a little scary," Trip muttered. "She seems strict."
"She's not so bad once you get to know her," Jemma told him. "She doesn't like nonsense, though."
"Color me shocked," Trip snickered.
"We'll begin this morning with a brief review of Manitowoc High's Student Code of Conduct," Ms. Price continued. "For many of you, this will be your first time in high school. You're older now, more mature than last year, and as such we expect more from you. Students here are held to the highest of standards when it comes to their personal and collective conduct—"
"I guess somebody forgot to mention that to Christian Ward last year," remarked Fitz under his breath.
"This sounds like it's going to be boring," Skye murmured, sagging a little in her seat. "They're just going to tell us not to pick on people or break rules or cheat on tests and stuff like that."
"You say that like it's not important," fretted Jemma. "We need to know what the rules are if we're going to follow them."
Skye chewed on her lip in an attempt to keep a straight face. It was very kind of Jemma to assume that Skye was as invested in following the rules as she was, but they both knew that rules were often treated more like suggestions in Skye's mind. Still, it was true that Skye had the best of intentions for this year, so maybe paying attention to the Code of Conduct was as good a place to start as any if she was going to try and stick to the straight and narrow this time around.
That proved to be a hefty challenge, since Skye had been right about the Conduct Review being a boring way to pass thirty minutes. Ms. Price commanded attention, but even she couldn't make a PowerPoint about the school's zero-tolerance bullying policy, drug and alcohol restrictions, and a dress code that seemed to have twice as many rules for girls than boys all that captivating. When she finally finished the last slide, many of the students around the auditorium were, like Skye, slumped in their seats and occupied with other pursuits. Fitz and Trip were in the middle of a heated game of rock-paper-scissors (although Fitz kept saying 'Rochambeau' instead of 'rock-paper-scissors,' much to Trip's confusion), while Jemma was taking dutiful notes as Ms. Price finished her presentation.
"There won't be a quiz," Ms. Price concluded, a rare smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, "but you will all be responsible for following the Code of Conduct as it was discussed here, so I hope you didn't doze off for too long."
A few polite titters rippled across the room, and slowly the students who had been doing just that began to rouse themselves as Ms. Price shifted the topic of conversation.
"Now we get into the more exciting stuff," she said. Skye had to smile at that. For all her sharp formality, Ms. Price still knew she was dealing with a bunch of teenagers who were sacrificing one of their last days of summer break, and Skye appreciated the self-awareness. "You've all been divided into orientation groups based on your homeroom, and you should each have a colored sticker on your nametag. Find your group leader up here, and they'll walk you through the next portion of orientation."
Ms. Price beckoned to a group of older kids who had just entered on one side of the stage, and Skye quickly spotted Bobbi and her friend Mack among the group.
"Your cousin didn't volunteer to be an orientation leader?" she asked Fitz.
"Lance said… well, I can't quote him exactly, because I'm not supposed to say some of the words he used," Fitz said with an amused shrug of his shoulders. "But the gist of it was that he wasn't going to wake up early and come to school before he absolutely had to."
"Let's find our group," Trip suggested, getting to his feet and stretching his long arms over his head for a second. He glanced down at his own nametag, which bore the same blue sticker as Skye's and Jemma's, then checked around at everyone else's. His face fell when he got to Fitz and saw his red sticker. "Aw, sorry, man. I guess they do the homerooms alphabetically or something. P, S, and T are all pretty close together, but F…"
"Bloody cursed," Fitz sighed dramatically.
"At least homeroom's only a few minutes long," Jemma soothed. "We have nearly every other class together." It was true. The two of them had already compared their schedules and found that they had only one class apart from each other, thanks to the advanced math and science tracks they were both on.
"Wait a minute, Skye," Fitz said suddenly, as they began inching their way out of their row and moving with the throngs of other kids down towards the stage to find their group leaders. "How come you're listed under P for homeroom? I thought now that they've got your proper birth certificate you'd be under J. For Johnson, yeah?"
Skye scrunched up her nose and shrugged. "It's complicated. Something about how all of my paperwork from St. Agnes and fostering all has Poots on it, so that's the name I have to use for official stuff until I can get it changed when we get adopted. I don't know, Miss Hand explained it, but I wasn't really paying very close attention… All I know is, once our adoption finally goes through, I get to be called whatever I want, for real."
"Have you heard if they're any closer on that?" Trip asked. He sidestepped a gaggle of girls who were too busy coordinating plans to meet up with each other after orientation to notice them trying to get by, and put out an arm to make space for Jemma, Skye, and Fitz to squeeze past.
"Not much news lately," Jemma shook her head. "But Miss Hand is supposed to be coming for a visit soon. She usually brings updates."
"Hopefully it'll be good news this time," Fitz nodded. "No more delays or complications."
"At least we know they're working on it," said Skye. "And at least we've gotten to stay with May and Phil while they work it out." The fact that they hadn't had to worry about getting sent away or bouncing around other foster homes or (even worse) back to St. Agnes while they waited to make things official had been one of the biggest reliefs of Skye's life. They had been living with May and Phil for almost 11 months now, longer than any other place Skye had ever stayed besides St. Agnes, and it had amazed her how much easier things felt when she felt settled in a place with good, safe people around her.
There had been plenty of bumps in the road along the way, of course. She'd struggled in a few of her classes – fighting tooth and nail to keep all her grades above passing had been a challenge – and she'd butted heads with a few of her classmates, mainly some of Grant Ward's old friends who tried to take over his role as head bully once he'd moved away with his younger brother to go live with somebody who Miss Hand promised would take better care of them than their own parents had. But she'd finished the eighth grade with passing grades and without any other major disciplinary marks on her record, which she took as two distinct victories.
She'd been learning tai chi with May and working hard with Dr. Garner in therapy, which made dealing with tough stuff a lot easier, and when things got too heavy and hard for her to handle by herself, like when she'd had to testify against Cal in court so that he'd go to jail for what he'd done to them all last year, she had people like May and Phil and Jemma and Bobbi – her family – to help her hold all the pieces together.
She was doing good, something which she had never been able to say about herself before, and being in such a good place made it easier to be patient for the adoption to go through. She didn't have to worry about May and Phil changing their minds, because they showed her every day how much they loved her, and she was learning to let go of the worry that something else might separate them, the longer they stayed together and the more storms they weathered.
"Well, all I can say is," Trip said with a grin, "you all better throw one massive party when all this stuff gets sorted out. Full-scale celebration, to make up for how long you've had to wait."
"And I suppose you're looking for an invite to this party?" Skye teased him. Trip's grin widened.
"Come on, girl. You know a party isn't a party 'til I get there."
Skye snorted and gave Trip a light shove on the shoulder, but she was laughing along with him as they finally reached the front of the auditorium and began searching in earnest for their orientation leader. Fitz spotted his – a tall white girl with long, dark hair and a square jaw – and peeled off from their group with a morose wave.
"Skye! Jemma!" a deep voice called. Jemma jumped a little, and Skye swiveled her head around nervously until she spied the source of the voice and beamed. Off to one side, with a cluster of other kids with blue stickered nametags, was Mack, smiling and waving in their direction.
"We got Mack," Skye bubbled, elbowing Jemma and pointing in Mack's direction.
Jemma smiled and did a happy little tap on her collar bone for a moment before her face fell slightly. "Poor Fitz is going to be so jealous."
"You know that guy?" Trip asked in awe as they made their way over to their group. "There's no way he's in high school."
"That's Mack, he's friends with our sister and Fitz's cousin," Skye explained. "He's just tall."
"I'll say." Trip shook his head. "Why doesn't he play football? He's huge, we could totally use somebody like him on the line."
"He's the goalie on the soccer team, so I don't think you'll have much luck recruiting him," Skye smirked. "But you can always ask him."
"Ask me what?" Mack wondered aloud as they drew level with the rest of the group. He smiled warmly down at the three of them. "Good to see you guys."
"Oh, uh, nothing," Trip practically squeaked. Skye followed his gaze as he tracked his eyes all the way up to the top of Mack's head, which had to be almost a half-foot higher than Trip's, and bit back a giggle at how star-struck her normally very cool and collected friend was acting.
"This is our friend Trip," Skye introduced him. She nudged Trip a little with her shoulder, and he jerked out a wave. "He thinks you should play football instead of soccer."
"Hey man, I'm Alphonso, but most people call me Mack. Nice to meet you." He chuckled a little. "You're about to open an old debate, there, though. People have been trying to get me to play football for years, but soccer's way more my speed. A little more finesse, a little less hitting people over and over again. They don't call it the beautiful game for nothing."
"Yeah, sure," Trip nodded. He still seemed a little dazed. "I hear that."
"I'm flattered you scouted me though," said Mack jovially. "If you're the next generation of football players here at MHS, then maybe there's hope for the sport yet."
Ms. Price's voice crackled over the speakers once more, dismissing the groups from the auditorium and reminding them to convene in the cafeteria in half an hour for the activities fair, and Mack clapped his hands together.
"Okay, then. I guess we better get started."
They followed Mack out of the auditorium and into the hallway, which was easy to do, since he was at least a head taller than most of the other people in the room and kids parted around him like the Red Sea. He took them around a few corners and explained that they would be touring around the whole high school.
Skye quickly realized, as Mack strolled up and down corridors and pointed out different classes and rooms, that the school was basically a big, two-story square, with each of the major subject areas occupying one of the sides on a given floor. English on one hall, the sciences on another, so on and so forth. She smiled when they walked down the history and social studies hallway up on the second floor, because that was the one where Phil's room was, and it didn't escape her notice that Jemma flitted out a hand as they passed Phil's door to give a quick, surreptitious tap on the doorknob. They passed the library on the second floor, the cafeteria on the first, and eventually ended up in the math hallway.
"All the freshman lockers are on this hall," Mack explained, spreading his arms wide like he was a game show host, presenting the walls of lockers to them. "Take a second to find yours, practice your combinations. That way you don't have to worry about getting it right on the first day of school when you're running late for class."
"What makes you think I'd be running late for class?" Skye asked, sticking out her tongue at him.
"Just a hunch," Mack chuckled.
Mack had been by their house a lot this summer to hang out with Bobbi, and so had been privy to a lot of their family's comings and goings over the last several months. Skye knew he had seen her scrambling to find a wayward sneaker or getting distracted in another room as Phil was trying to get her out the door firsthand, and it didn't take a genius to assume the same would be true for school.
"We're not going to be running late on the first day," Jemma said pointedly. She gave Skye a look that Skye was certain she had copied from May, and Skye threw up her hands in surrender.
"Of course not," she assured Jemma. She didn't quite manage to keep her teasing smile in check, though. "How could I possibly run late when I have you to be my human pocket watch?" Jemma shook her head, but she was smiling too, and Skye knew she had cracked her.
"My dad always says punctuality is like motor oil," Mack told them. "It makes everything run smoother."
They wandered off to find their lockers then, Jemma and Trip ending up only a few lockers apart from each other on one side of the hall and Skye off slightly by herself. There wasn't much remarkable about her locker, aside from the fact that one of its previous owners had apparently had a bit of an anger problem. The bottom part of the locker was dented inwards, like someone had kicked it repeatedly, and it stuck out at an awkward angle, not quite closing all the way at the bottom.
Checking the combination listed inside her orientation folder, it only took Skye two tries to unlock the door, which pleased her, but didn't exactly surprise her, either. She was, after all, pretty good with her hands when it came to stuff like cracking into things. Opening the door, however, was a much bigger challenge, since the dented bottom of her locker door stuck in the frame. She tried in vain to yank the locker open, but it wasn't until Mack came and helped her out, giving the door a forceful tug, that the door jerked open, rattling a little from the release as it swung free.
"This is going to be fun," she grumbled as she squatted down to examine the bottom of the now-open door for a way to maybe bend it back into shape. "I'm going to have to do a full-body takedown of the door every time I forget a textbook."
"Maybe you can kick it back from the other side?" Mack suggested. "Pop it back into place that way?"
"I wear a size seven sneaker," Skye smirked. "I don't think any kick of mine is going to be doing much against a metal door."
Mack snorted. "I know for a fact you've got a good kick. Don't sell yourself short."
She and Mack fiddled for a few minutes, trying to restore the locker door to a functional shape, but neither one of them had much luck before Mack checked his watch and realized they were about to be late for the last part of orientation.
"Activities fair in the cafeteria," he proclaimed, dusting his hands off and standing back up to get the rest of the group's attention. "A bunch of upper-class students are in there to tell you about all the different clubs and teams we have, so you can start to get an idea of what extracurriculars are out there. You can wander around and stop by the tables that look interesting, and then you're done for the day."
He made them navigate back to the cafeteria themselves, only correcting the group once as they wound their way back the way they'd come, and by the rumbling sounds of chattering kids pouring from behind the cafeteria doors when they arrived, Skye figured most of the other groups had beaten them there.
"I'm the representative at the AV club table," he fake-whispered to Skye, Jemma, and Trip as the rest of their group scattered to the winds of the activities fair. "Be sure to come and say hi, okay? I think Bobbi's at the Spanish club table. I know Gonzales asked her to last week, and I'm sure she didn't want to say no to him."
"Thanks, Mack," Skye smiled. Mack gave them a quick wave and weaved himself into the crowd, not exactly disappearing amongst the packs of kids flowing from table to table, heading for wherever it was that the spot for AV club was supposed to be.
"Where do you suppose Fitz is?" Jemma asked. She fiddled with the collar of her shirt, her fingers a little flighty at the crowded, noisy room.
"There he is." Trip spotted him first and pointed. Fitz was elbowing his way past people towards them, his face positively electric with excitement, although about what, Skye had no idea. Nothing they'd seen on their tour with Mack had struck her as particularly thrilling, but she and Fitz didn't always see eye to eye about what counted as exciting.
"You have to come see," he practically panted as he drew near them. He grabbed Jemma's sleeve and gave her a little tug. She let out a surprised laugh.
"What's got you all bothered?"
"I found it," he gushed. "A club. The club. It's the absolute best, it's perfect for us—"
"Theoretical Physics club? Future Astronauts of America?" Skye joked. "Monkey club?" Fitz scowled at her for a second, but his enthusiasm was too powerful to let him be put out for long.
"Very funny," he said. "They don't have a monkey club here, I already checked. No, this is… well, not better than a monkey club, but a close second. Come on," he stressed, tugging at Jemma again. "All you lot, come see."
"All right, then," Jemma relented, smiling at him. "Show us."
"My orientation leader told me about it. She's the president – or rather, she's the captain," Fitz explained over his shoulder as he led them through the bustling cafeteria. "It's a team, competitive. She said they went to Nationals last year, and they got to travel to St. Louis for the competition."
"A competition for what?" Trip asked. "You still haven't even told us what the club is."
"Here it is," Fitz announced. He bounded up to a table staffed by the same tall, sharp-jawed white girl with long, dark hair that Skye had seen earlier. She looked practically grown-up to Skye, with her crisp blouse tucked into her pencil skirt. Skye felt her eyebrows quirk together – everybody else was wearing normal clothes – t-shirts and shorts, mostly – but this girl was dressed like she should be carrying a briefcase or talking on a Bluetooth headset about the stock market.
"A robotics team?" Jemma asked, reading a hand-stenciled sign that was perched on the front corner of the table. Skye was glad Jemma had read it out loud – the font was kind of fancy-looking, which made it harder for her to pick out the letters.
"Hello," the older girl greeted them with a polished smile. "I'm Ophelia. Are you interested in robotics?"
"Ophelia, these are my friends," Fitz said eagerly, nudging Jemma, Trip, and Skye forward. "The ones I told you about. They'd be great for the team."
"Nice to meet you," she nodded. She gave them all a look-over, and Skye got the feeling that she was being x-rayed. "Leopold spoke very highly of you."
Skye bit down hard on her lip to keep from snickering. "Leopold?"
Fitz made a shushing motion at her. "Trip's very mechanically minded – he loves gadgets. And Skye's excellent with computers, and Jemma's… well, Jemma's brilliant." Skye noticed the tips of his ears went pink, but she didn't disagree with his assessment. Jemma was brilliant. "She likes a lot of the same things as me, and she's in the advanced maths and sciences track—"
"Same as you," Ophelia noted. She turned to address the rest of them. "Leopold was telling me about the classes he was taking, and I knew he would be a perfect addition to the team. Then he mentioned he had some friends who would be a good fit as well, and I knew I had to meet you all."
"So what do you do, exactly?" Skye wanted to know. She wasn't sure she could see herself fitting in well on a robotics team.
"Each year there's a set of parameters that are given to all of the teams competing," explained Ophelia, "some kind of challenge or task to complete. We have to build and program a robot to meet the challenge or perform the task, and then we take it to competitions to go up against other robots. We compete for fastest time, most efficient, most accurate, things like that. There are lots of components that go into it – engineering, design, construction, coding, research—"
Skye's ears pricked up at the mention of coding, and she knew Jemma's had latched onto research. Maybe Fitz had a point; maybe this was the perfect club for the four of them.
"You don't have to commit to anything at this point," Ophelia finished, "but it really is a fun experience, and a great opportunity. The faculty advisors, Mr. Radcliffe and Mr. Peterson, are very helpful and approachable, the other students on the team are friendly. If you're interested, you can put your names on this list here, and we'll let you know when the first meeting of the school year is."
"We're interested," Fitz said quickly, scooping up the pen resting on the table and scribbling his name. "Right, guys?"
"I guess so, man," Trip chuckled. "It's true what you said – I do love gadgets. And building a robot doesn't sound like such a bad way to spend some time. I play football," he added, turning to Ophelia. "Will this conflict with our practices and games and stuff?"
Ophelia shook her head. "We try to avoid after-school practices, since that's when all the sports teams practice. We meet during lunch a few times a week and have work days on a few Saturdays when we've got a lot of building to do."
"Cool," Trip grinned. "Then I guess I'm in. My grandma will be happy, she's always telling me to find something else to do that doesn't take a ball. She says colleges like it when you show you have lots of different interests."
"That's true," Ophelia said. "I'm applying to colleges this year, and it's very competitive. But a trip to Nationals with the BotLaws will look good on any application."
"The BotLaws?"
"That's our team nickname," she clarified. "A portmanteau of robot and Outlaws, for the school mascot."
"Got it."
"What do you say, Skye? Jemma?" Fitz turned to them, making his eyes as big and pleading as he could. "It sounds fun, right?"
"I guess it could be okay," Skye shrugged. "I'm in if you guys are."
"It'll be nice to have something to do together," Jemma agreed. "And if there's a research component…"
"Research and report writing," enticed Fitz, waggling his eyebrows at Jemma. She bit back a smile and gave him a wave.
"Oh, go on, then."
I know it's been ages since I posted anything in this particular AU-verse, but after a hard couple of years, I'm hopefully back in the swing of things. I wrote a stand-alone story a few months ago to kind of retrain myself for writing (Heroes and Villains - also on here!), but I've been working hard to get back to this story in particular because it means so much to me. I've got about 30 chapters currently written so my goal is to post fairly regularly for a while, maybe once or twice a week. I hope you enjoy, and I'd love to hear any thoughts you might have about the story! Also, I do cross-publish all my stuff on Ao3 as well - sometimes it's easier for me to reply to things over there if you want to come and say hi! :)