High School Sweethearts

Chapter1

Steve walked into the large building that was Maria Stark High School. It made him feel so much smaller than he already was. The hallways were practically empty, so it made it easy for him to find his locker. He found it, locker C345, and started to spin the dial on the lock. The locker opened without a hitch and Steve started to put away his things. A little star spangled piece of cloth fell out of his backpack and he went to shove it back in. He couldn't believe he had forgotten to take it out. Steve sighed. He turned around and almost ran into the kid at the locker next to his. The kid looked really good, dressed in an Aeropostale T-shirt and jeans, with black and white Converse shoes. He looked at Steve and smirk.

"Uh, h-hi, I'm St- Steve. W-What's your n-name?" Steve stammered.

"M-My n-name's T-Tony. D-Do y-you have a sp-speech pr-problem?" Tony teased.

"N-No, I-"

"Do you know who I am, new kid?"

"W-well, no, I-"

"Wow. I'm Tony Stark, genius, son of the inventor Howard Stark, way too good to be talking to a little army brat like you."

Steve looked down. He was wearing an authentic World War Two leather bomber jacket, passed down from generation to generation in his family. He really was a military brat, well, not a brat. He was part of a military training program, because his parents were in the military. His eyes started to tear up at the thought of his parents, because they were gone. Killed in action. Steve could feel his face getting wet with tears. Tony was laughing at him.

"Oh, is the little baby upset? Did I hurt your feelings? Maybe you should go lay down and take a nap." Tony teased in a babyish tone.

"Maybe you should learn how to respect people, punk." Steve growled.

"Oh, I'm so scared. You're what? Ninety pounds? I don't think you could break a twig!" Tony said.

Tony took a swig at Steve and his fist connected hard with Steve's jaw. Steve stumbled backwards but kept his balance. He swung at Tony and hit him in the stomach. Tony was surprised when he stumbled backwards and fell on his ass. Steve kept his stance and watched as more students seemed to pop out of nowhere. Tony got up and gave Steve a kick to the knee. Steve fell and Tony got on top of him and started to punch his face. Steve tried to push him off, but Tony was a lot heavier and stronger than him. Eventually, a teacher came over and pulled Tony off of him. Tony smirked at him.

"Tony, go to the office. I'm sure Principal Van Dyke will love this little tale." The teacher said.

"What about this kid?" Tony asked.

"I think I'll let him off. I know you threw the first punch."

Tony grumbled as he walked to the principal's office. Steve looked up at the teacher through his one non-black eye. The teacher helped him up and made sure he was steady.

"Well, kiddo, first day of school and you get in a fight. Let's get you to the nurse to check out that eye. I'm Mr. Frasier." Mr. Frasier.

Steve blushed as the other students giggled. He must have looked really young to have a teacher call him kiddo. Mr. Frasier led Steve to the nurse's office. Steve spotted Tony in the principal's office and felt a pang of guilt. He hadn't meant to get anyone in trouble. The nurse sat him in a chair and looked him over. She smiled kindly at him before patting his head.

"Okay, let's get you fixed up. Why are you on the high school campus? You look like you're in fifth grade." The nurse, Nurse Gonzalez, said.

"I'm a Junior, ma'am." Steve said quietly.

"Oh! Sorry! Well, you have got a nasty black eye. Let me get you an ice pack. You just need to keep it on for thirty minutes and the swelling should go down a bit."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"I like you. A youngster with manners and the guts to stand up to a bully. Good qualities."

Steve blushed and looked down. The nurse gave Steve an ice pack and applied it to his eye. Steve thanked her for helping him and saluted her before walked out of the office. He almost ran smack dab into a boy and girl walking to the C wing. He looked up and started apologizing profusely. He already had one new injury, he didn't need another one.

"Hey, it's cool. I'm Clint. This is Natasha. What's your name, newbie?" Clint asked.

"St-Steve Rogers. N-Nice to m-meet you." Steve said, mentally cursing himself for being nervous.

"Well, I heard you wailed on Tony Stark. That takes guts, dude. Major guts."

"I only got one good punch in-"

"So? You knocked Tony Stark on his rich, white boy ass! You're a fuckin' hero, man!"

"Oh. It wasn't really that big a thing. He needed to be taken down a notch."

"Dude, you should sit with us at lunch! You're totally cool!" Natasha said.

"R-Really? Okay!" Steve said excitedly.

"Cool. See ya later." Clint said, waving as they walked off.

Steve smiled and walked to his first period class. He liked chemistry, so he figured this class would be fun. He walked through the door of Mrs. Vanderguild's room and stopped in his tracks. Tony Stark was sitting at a lab table, talking with a bunch of guys. Tony looked up and smirked at Steve.

"Hey, look. It's little Mister Ninety Pound Hero. I heard the nurse thought you were ten." Tony snarked.

"W-W-Well, I-I know I'm kind of small-" Steve said quietly, blushing a dark pink.

"Whatever, loser. Why don't you go suck your thumb in that nice quiet corner over there?"

Steve searched for an empty seat and found one by a thin kid with shoulder length black hair. He was reading a book, so Steve figured he was harmless enough. He slid into the seat next to the kid and smiled politely. The kid smiled back and looked at him intensely for a moment.

"Hi, I'm Loki. What's your name?" Loki asked.

"Steve Rogers. Loki is a nice name." Steve commented.

"Unusual, yes. Nice, not so much. My parents like Norse mythology. What until you hear my brother's name."

"What is it?"

"Thor. And he looks like Thor, too. All buff and macho. It's a little creepy."

Steve giggled at that and blushed. Loki was really nice. But he could see Tony looked at him out of the corner of his eye. It surprised Steve, because Tony had said he was too good for an army brat like him. Loki waved at a buff blonde boy that walked into the room and Steve came out of his thoughts when he heard Loki call 'Thor!' a few times. No shit. Loki wasn't kidding about him looking like Thor.

"Hello, brother! I see you found a lab partner at last. Any chemistry experiments of your own happening right now?" Thor asked, a knowing smile on his face.

"Thor, shut up. Before you scare him off, Thor, This is Steve Rogers. Steve, this is my brother, Thor Odinson. " Loki said.

"Nice to meet you." Steve said, holding out his hand.

Thor shook it and hugged him. Steve looked at Loki and cocked an eyebrow. Loki just shrugged and mouthed 'Sorry.' The bell rang for first period and the teacher walked in. She looked excited about something. She started off by introducing Steve to the class, then turned to the board.

"Good morning, class. I hope you aren't too comfortable with your partner, because I'm pairing you up with different people for a big project. Now let's get rolling. Loki, you'll be with Andre, Anali, you're with Jacob. Beatrice, you're with Francine, Tony, you're with Steve Rogers-" Mrs. Vanderguild said.

"WHAT? Mrs. Vanderguild! I don't want to be paired up with that loser!" Tony exclaimed.

"Too bad, Tony. Felix, you're with Bernie, Carmen, you're with Thor. Sandee and Melanie, Janice and Robert, Raul and Denise, Xavier and Namor, and Ari and Sumner. This will be an at home project. But, Mr. Stark gave me an idea. I want each of you to write down a list of twenty questions you want to ask your project partner. This period, you will ask them your twenty questions. I want you and your partner to become good friends over the course of this project."

Steve sunk in his seat at the thought of having to work with Tony. Tony already hated him, and Steve didn't want to go to Tony's house. Tony glared at him from his lab table and Steve blushed slightly and looked down. The teacher asked them to move to the lab table of their assigned partner, so Steve got up and moved to Tony's table. Tony sighed as Steve sat at his table. Steve ignored it and took out a sheet of paper to write down his questions. He was at question ten when Tony leaned over and poked him.

"Did you need something?" Steve whispered.

Tony just snickered and started to hum quietly and Steve actually found it soothing, and he ended up finishing his questions quickly. Tony looked at him and pointed to his paper. Steve nodded.

"What's your favorite color?" Tony asked.

"Blue. What's yours?" Steve replied.

"Hot rod red and gold. What do you like to do for fun?"

"I like reading and drawing. If you could visit any place in the world, where would it be?"

"Hmmm….England. What about you?"

"Paris, France. The Louvre Museum is there. What's your favorite type of music?"

"I like Rock, Pop, and don't tell anybody, but I like jazz. You?"

"Really? I like jazz, too. I like Rock, Death Metal's okay, Pop, and Country."

"If you could have three wishes, what would you wish for?"

"Hmmm…I'd wish for world peace, for my parents, and I'd wish to be a hero."

"A hero? Why?"

"I don't like bullies. I want to help people, more than anyone will ever know. I just want to serve my country."

"Why do you talk to me if I'm a bully?"

"I certainly can't avoid you, can I?"

"Well, no. You understand that just because we're lab partners doesn't mean we're friends, right?"

"Yes. About that, it's an at home project. We can work at my house."

"Okay. Back to the stupid questions."

"If you could take only one thing with you to a deserted island, what would it be?"

"My lab. Nah, fuck it, my dad. What is your favorite food?"

"That's easy! Popsicles! And I'd prefer it if you kept your cussing to a minimum around me."

"Popsicles? What are you, six?"

Tony actually felt a pang of guilt when Steve smile was replaced by a hurt, defenseless look. Steve turned away slightly and just asked his next question. They continued asking questions until the bell rang, and Steve grabbed his bag and bolted out the door. Tony was about to leave, when Mrs. Vanderguild asked him to stay back. Tony grumbled a little and stood at her desk. She gave him a long, hard glare.

"Tony, I understand that you don't want to work with Steve. You two are from entirely different worlds, I get that. But you don't have the right to tease him. If you had been through half the things he has, you wouldn't want to tease him. You are going to work with him, you will get along with him. He doesn't hate you, Tony. I can see it in his eyes. He looks up to you. You just keep pushing him away. Instead of pushing him away and teasing him, try acting like his mentor. You might just like the result." Mrs. Vanderguild said.

"Yeah, thanks. I have to go now." Tony said, walking out the door.

Tony walked to second period, thinking over Mrs. Vanderguild's suggestion.