THE AMERICAN DREAM

1.09 ▫︎ AUGUST, 1931 ↦ STEVE

Steve continued to doodle on his paper as he listened to his math teacher drone on and on about Algebra. Sure he needed to learn it, but really, could summer get here any faster? His foot tapped to the sound of the ticking clock. The sound prompted the 13-year-old boy to glance up at the clock.

8:20. They were really only 20 minutes into the first class of the first day of school. Of highschool, actually. Even worse. He sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking at his drawing. An eagle. The lines and shading weren't so bad, but they could be better. Steve loved to draw. It was that only thing he was good at.

He looked around the room. Some of the students were goofing off. Some of them were listening. Some of them were doodling, just as he was. Some of them were even sleeping. But they all were doing that with someone. Everyone had a group to do what they enjoyed. No one had an empty seat next to them.

Everyone had someone whisper to, or nudge in the direction of something out of the ordinary. Except Steve. The seats next to Steve were empty. Steve would sit alone at lunch time. He would walk home alone.

But he didn't mind. Steve had made it this far on his own. Why would he need anybody? He had his mother to look after him. And she worked ever so hard.

Sarah Rogers was a young immigrant from Ireland. She, just like the rest of those who moved, were trying to escape the famine that took over the small green country. Sarah spent everything she had to get to America and start over the best. she could. And she got lucky.

Once she had gotten to New York, working as a maid, she met a young, handsome American man named Joseph, who she fell in love with and married within weeks.

But he was soon sent off to fight in he Great War, where he died tragically. Joseph left Sarah with an unborn son and an immigrant status in the city of Brooklyn.

Quickly, Sarah was left with no money and when her child was born, he was quite a sick little boy. The doctor promised her that he wouldn't make it a week. But he did. As small and frail a ducky as he was, her little Steve made it through every night she was share he wouldn't. And it was the that she deemed him a miracle. She could no longer do maids work. Not with child that needed such care as Steve did.

So she toiled and worked and fought through the the bars of discrimination and became a nurse. That way, Sarah a could take of Steve both financially and physically. And with everything she had, she raised him to a 13 year old by who, even though he was small, prone to illness, and socially shunned, she was more proud of him that she was anything else.

She made sure that Steve knew his worth. That his father didn't leave them on purpose. That he would be something big in the future.

Sarah Rogers was the one person in Steve's life that didn't shoot him down. And he loved her for that.

"Class, I'm going to take a bit of a break from math to introduce to you all a new student that will be studying with us for now on. I know that we're don't usually introduce new new students on the first day of school, but I'm afraid he's late and a little public embarrassment should do him some good," Steve's teacher announced, putting her hands together after a young boy, who was tall and fit with dark brown hair a calm disposition entered the room.

He gave a wave, not really embarrassed at all. "Why don't you introduce yourself, young man. Tell us about yourself."

"Uh..." he trailed off. He wasnt uncomfortable. Just thinking. He was put on the spot. "My name's Bucky Barnes,"  he introduced. A couple kids snickered.

Rednecks were the butt of many jokes around here, but Bucky didn't look phased by that. "I... uh.. play baseball. I have a sister and a brother who are enrolled here."