Legend's Apprentice

Establishment

At school, I had a  calculus test and a pop quiz in chemistry, which didn't go too badly,  all things considered. This was only my third semester in the school,  and I'd had to learn a lot of study habits. My old school wasn't this  tough. The first skill had been to keep up with the homework and to do a  little extra. Fortunately there were online resources where you could  get extra problems to solve. That really helped me in calculus. At lunch  we had a French club meeting, and there was an informational meeting  after class for students who were interested in the "Lifetime Sports"  class. For some reason it wasn't very popular, most kids chose regular  gym for their two semesters of required gym classes. But this sounded a  lot more interesting. The main problem was cost; the fee was double  regular gym.

As I walked rather  nervously to Avengers Tower, I thought about the summer. If I went home,  I could wait tables at my parent's restaurant and save my tips. If I  stayed here, we'd still have to pay my room and board at my host family,  but they'd already offered to let me stay there over the summer if I  wanted, so that wouldn't be a problem. I could probably get a job; I'd  need to find one that would let me earn enough to cover my expenses  though. I needed to figure things out fast, though. Spring semester was  over in five weeks.

I put that aside when I  pushed the door open and entered the spacious lobby. It was a beautiful  building. Mr Stark's architect probably earned a lot of awards for it. I  approached the security desk apprehensively and gave my name. The guard  looked at the computer screen, raised his eyebrows, but didn't say  anything before picking up the phone. While he was talking, I felt a  nudge between my shoulder blades and turned to find Sigurd looking at me  and wagging his tail. I was pleased to see him and petted him while I  waited for the guard to finish.

"Mr Barnes will be here  shortly," he said, looking at me curiously. I thanked him and scratched  behind Sigurd's ears, then kissed the soft fur on the top of his head.

"Alex," I heard, and  looked up to see my uncle approaching. He ruffled Sigurd's fur. "Barney,  this is my great-great niece," he said to the guard, who smiled at me.  He deftly relieved me of my messenger bag and slung his metal arm around  my shoulders, guiding me to the elevator bank that was off by itself.  He had to use a key card to summon one, and we went downstairs while he  asked me about my day, wanting to know how I did on the test. I  remembered from the book and from family stories that he'd done very  well in school too.

When we got to the  appropriate subbasement level, he showed me around. This was the  physical conditioning space; there were beyond top-of-the-line  stationary bikes, treadmills, elipticals, and rowing machines on one  cluster in the vast space, a huge array of free weights racked along  another wall. There was a boxing ring, heavy  bags and speed bags in another corner, and the rest was just open space,  but the entire floor was covered with a slightly spongy, rubberized  coating. He set my bag by the wall and directed me into the open area.  He picked up a blocker with a glove on its back and had me hit it. I  gave it a good, solid hit with my fist, but I didn't even succeed in  rocking him back. He had me do it some more, working in my left side  too, and I relaxed and started to have some fun with it. He made little  corrections as I went along, then finally stopped and talked about it.  He seemed pleased that I was enjoying it. Then there was a  "woof!" and  when Uncle Bucky's eyes lit up, I figured Aunt Emma had arrived.

Sure enough, he put his  hand on my shoulder and turned me around. "Hi, Alex," she said brightly,  kissing my cheek and smoothing my hair. "I brought some cookies from  home, if you're interested. Up in my office; I saw Tony wandering around  and this is the best chance to avoid him for a bit." She caught my look  and smiled. "Tony's just nosy, and we want some quality time with you  by ourselves."  Ooookay.