My Life with the Avengers

My Return

When I came back to school on Monday, Caleb was so excited that he practically tackled me to the ground with a hug the moment I stepped out of the car. "Its good to see you too." I said with a big smile.

"Everyone is going to be so surprised." Caleb said. "No one knows that you're back... er well, that you didn't end up leaving, I guess."

"Except the teachers and anyone paid to be here." I said. Then I couldn't help but laugh. "I don't know what the team is going to do when they see me walk on the field for practice today."

"Well they're football players, so I'm gonna say that they're gonna tackle you."

I laughed at his response. "A few of them are the Tackle First, Think Later type. But most of them are really nice once you get to know them. And they're pretty smart. Most of the guys are 4.0 students."

"Really? I wouldn't have known."

I nodded. "The whole Dumb Jock stereotype has really started to get on my nerves. Its really stupid."

Caleb agreed with me and we headed to our first class.

He was right when he said no one knew that I was staying. If I had a dollar for every time I had to explain why I was still here, I would probably have earned ten dollars an hour. Hey, that's more than minimum wage. Sweet. Anyway, I'm getting off topic now.

The whole day, I tried specifically to avoid anyone on the team. I wanted to surprise them at practice. So by the time practice came around, they were all hearing rumors about my return but none of them had actually seen me yet. Boy, were they in for a big surprise.

"Coach," I heard Seth say as I was walking on to the field. "Is it true that Jackie's back?"

Coach saw me walking in but I put my finger to my lips to tell him to not tell the guys.

"I don't think so." Coach said as I snuck up behind Seth.

"Well then who are we going to have as a Running Back?" Seth asked. "We've already gone through two and it's barely--"

"SNEAK ATTACK!!!" I shouted, tackling him to the ground. The rest of the team busted up laughing.

"Holy crap, Jackie." Seth said as I had him pinned to the ground. "We thought you were gone for good."

I shrugged. "I was for a while, but then I wasn't. And now I'm here to stay." I helped Seth to his feet. "Now, Captain, we have a practice to start. Don't we?"

"Right." Seth said with a smile. "Alright everyone! We're doing 10 suicides. Let's get going!" (For those of you who don't know, a football suicide is a running drill where you run from the end zone to the five yard line, then back. then from the end to the ten, then from the end to the fifteen and so on.)

The entire team groaned, but honestly I was glad to be back.

When I got home that afternoon, I noticed something was different. There was a sort of... electric feeling in the air. I was starting to wonder if Tony had been messing around with the wiring in the house, but then I saw the giant hammer by the door and realized that Thor was back. I ran into the kitchen to find him trying to open the cupboard where the poptarts were stored. "Need a hand?" I asked with a smile. Thor turned around and smiled. "How about a hug first?" He asked. I walked over and gave him a hug. Sure Thor may be the god of thunder and one of the most powerful beings in the universe and one of the toughest guys I know but, in reality, he's just a big teddy bear.

"So how is everything in Asgard?" I asked, opening the cupboard and pulling out a box of Poptarts. "You said something was up, before you left."

"Things could be going better." Thor said with a sigh. "But we'll all talk about that later. Tell me, how has school been?"

I told him about everything that had happened. I told him about football practice, the game where Mitchell had beaten me up, Caleb coming over and finding out who my family was, our physics project, everyone else almost taking me out of school, and then what everyone at school did for me the day I was supposed to leave.

Thor chuckled when I had finished telling my story. "I leave for no more than three weeks, and all this happens? I miss out on all the fun."

I laughed. "What part of three fractured ribs and a near concussion sounds fun?" I asked as Bruce walked in the room.

"Actually, Jackie I wanted to talk to you about that." Bruce said. "You remember how they checked for broken bones and a concussion back at the game, right?"

"Sorta." I said. "I was pretty woozy."

"Well, here's the weird part." Bruce said. "Those tests were all correct. You had a severe concussion and those three ribs were broken in several places. But by the time you got home, your concussion was almost gone and your ribs had healed themselves."

I raised an eyebrow. "How does that work?" I asked.

"I honestly have no idea." Bruce said. "Scientifically speaking, it doesn't make any sense."

"I may have an idea." Thor said. "When Jackie was six, she got very sick. You remember that, Bruce."

Bruce nodded.

"I took her to Asgard to have our healers there help her. They have her an injection and then placed her in a special chamber to sleep for a while. It helped her heal very quickly and she hasn't gotten sick once since then. Maybe what they did had a permanent effect on her."

"So you're saying that some hocus pocus and a magic potion increased her ability to self heal and made her immune system stronger?" Bruce asked.

Thor nodded. "To an extent, yes."

I grinned. "So I have like healing powers or something?"

"I think we're going to go with "or something" for the time being." Bruce said. "Have you done your homework yet?"

I shook my head and then went upstairs to get started. But not before writing down what they said about my healing ability. Something told me that there was more to all of this than I could see.