The Academy

Chapter 9

Skye rolled out of bed the next morning when she heard a knock on the door. She casually threw on an oversized sweatshirt over her tank top and opened the door.

Natasha was on the other side of the door and she raised an eyebrow. "He gave you his sweatshirt?"

Skye was confused for a moment before she looked down and noticed what she was wearing. She grinned sheepishly. "Not exactly... I kind of stole it."

Natasha rolled her eyes and smiled. "Of course you did. You said your first class is at 1:15 right?"

Skye nodded as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Yeah, what's up?"

"Fury wants me to test you on the obstacle course."

Skye groaned. "Of course he does. Let me get changed real quick."

Natasha nodded and sat down on Skye's couch as Skye ran into the other room and got dressed. She returned a few moments later in workout clothes. She slung Ward's sweatshirt over her arm after she finished putting on her sneakers.

Natasha smirked as Skye put the sweatshirt back on while they were walking to the course. She pointed to Ward's name over Skye's heart. "If you don't want people to know that he's your SO then you should probably make it less obvious."

Skye, unwilling to part with the insanely comfortable zip-up, took her hair out of her ponytail and covered the name with her hair. She smirked at the Russian. "Better?"

Natasha grinned and rolled her eyes. "Does he know you have it?"

Skye shrugged as Natasha held the door open for her. "He hasn't said anything, but he probably does."

Natasha watched as Skye's jaw nearly hit the floor when she saw the course.

Natasha pointed to the leaderboard. "The record to beat is 2 minutes and 25 seconds."

Skye gaped at her. "How?"

Natasha shrugged as she moved to sit down on a bench and watch as Skye attempted the course. "Practice." She pointed to the start of the indoor obstacle course. "Start with the rock wall, then when you get to the top you can either jump down or use the rope to get down. After that, you run forward to that," Natasha pointed to the barbed wire with her finger, "crawl under that carefully and then continue to the rope. Walk across the rope like a tightrope and then move on to the brick wall. Try to scale it, and when you get to the top, jump down onto the trampoline below you. As soon as your feet make contact with the net, flip off of the trampoline. The course is done once you get off the trampoline and climb this rope with only one knot in it and ring the bell at the top."

Skye let out a low whistle. "I don't think I'll make it."

"You've got this. Are you ready?"

Skye took a deep breath and then nodded. Natasha hit the start button on her stopwatch and Skye ran to the rock wall. She scaled it pretty easily, only loosing her footing once, but she recovered quickly. She jumped off the top of it and landed with a thud on the mats below. Skye swore but then continued on to the three lines of barbed wire, held up by short wooden posts. She army crawled below them and made it out with only three scratches. She continued along the course and came to the tightrope next. She tried to get on it but it wobbled and she fell to the ground. She tried once more and made it about halfway before falling again. Swearing, Skye took off her socks and shoes and walked across the tightrope, gripping it with her toes. After that, she made it to the brick wall. Her fingers were small enough that she was able to find a few tiny hand holds to grip on to. She climbed the wall and then jumped down to the trampoline. As soon as her feet made contact, she flipped off of it and landed on the mat below it. She ran towards the rope and gripped it with her toes, like the tightrope, and climbed to the top, ringing the bell and ending the timer. Natasha hit stop and looked at Skye, who had a hopeful expression. "Nine and a half minutes."

Skye frowned. "Well, that was terrible."

Natasha shrugged. "It was only your first go. If you keep at it then you'll get better. Just come here every morning before lunch."

Skye groaned but set a determined expression on her face. "Alright."

Skye went back on the course to collect her socks and shoes and when she returned, Natasha opened the door for her, letting her out. "How was Russian yesterday?"

Skye cringed. "I barely speak English fluently, Russian is so much harder. It's practically a whole new alphabet to learn!"

Natasha chuckled at Skye's exasperation with the language. "You'll get the hang of it eventually. Have you eaten yet?"

Skye shook her head no and Natasha led her down a hallway. The two marched off to Clint's room in a secluded part of the Academy where agents could stay between missions if they needed to. Natasha opened the door and noticed Clint eating breakfast. He raised an eyebrow but then rolled his eyes as Natasha let herself in. He stood up from his table and put his plate in the sink. "I'm not even gonna ask anymore. I've stopped being surprised that you can break into my room with a flick of your wrist."

"This is normal?" Skye asked, still shocked at watching how quickly Romanov could pick a lock.

Clint shrugged and then asked, "have you eaten?" Skye shook her head no and then he continued. "Do you want me to make you something?"

Skye shook her head again. "Thanks, but I'm not really that hungry."

Clint shrugged as he left the room to go get changed. "Your loss."

Skye sat down at his table and Natasha walked up to her with a bowl of cereal. "Well, you still need to eat. Here, I know it's just cereal but it's just about the only thing I can't burn."

"And even then," Skye heard Clint shout from his room.

Natasha rolled her eyes and then sat at the table across from Skye and explained. "I would've brought you to my room to get food but I'm never really there except for at night so I don't keep much food there."

Skye raised an eyebrow. "You know I could've just gone back to my room for food, right?" Skye asked, throwing her hair in a messy bun now that there were no prying eyes who would see her sweatshirt.

Natasha shrugged. "Clint's room was closer. Besides, if we went to your room we wouldn't have been able to get stuff for our next prank."

"Are pranks the only things you two ever do?"

"Pretty much," Clint commented as he walked back into the room with a box, "we work a lot and they tell us to take downtime but it drives us insane." He held up the box with a smile. "Gotta keep ourselves occupied somehow."

"Ok, I'll bite," Skye said with a smile, "what's in the box?" Clint opened it to reveal thousands of sticky notes and Skye laughed, "I'm scared to find out what those are for."

"We're gonna cover Fury's car in them," Clint said with an evil smirk.