ᴀ ʏᴇᴀʀ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀ - ᴘᴇʀᴄʏ ᴊᴀᴄᴋꜱᴏɴ x ᴍᴀʀᴠᴇʟ ᴄʀᴏꜱꜱᴏᴠᴇʀ

[VIII] E I G H T

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"There's a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Thought of It Yet"
By Panic! At The Disco

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N A T A S H A

"Ah, Miss Rushman," As her Math teacher said her name, the entire class's eyes swivelled in her direction. Instead of shying away from their stares, she relished the attention and smiled sweetly.

She acted as if she hadn't been intimately at her wooden desk, head propped upon her palm. 

She had more important matters to contemplate rather than listening to the teacher's elaborate lecture. Loki's escape and the severe lack of contact from Fury were plaguing her mind, and even in sleep, it was haunting her. 

Natasha shivered and tried to empty her mind of thoughts.

"Sir?" She replied.

"Before I forget, package was delivered this morning, addressed to you," Mr Whatever-his-name-was reached under his desk and produced a normal-looking brown box. "Thankfully, It was taken here."

A Package? From who?

Natasha kept her sceptical and ambivalent. "Oh?"

Highschool mathematics was the most challenging class of all. It was painfully tedious, confusing, and frankly unnecessary. The equations and questions appeared more like Egyptian Hieroglyphics than numbers. She severely pitied teenagers everywhere. 

But she remained thankful that she would not have to endure the tortures of Geometry for very long. As soon as she uncovered who was behind the kidnappings, she would never have to endure math ever again.

Thank god. Natasha wasn't sure if she could continue for much longer.

"Here you are," The teacher handed her the package, and she reluctantly took the small box from his hands. As the teacher had suggested, It was addressed to "Miss Natalie Rushman"; which suggested that the sender was not looking for Black Widow, but instead, Natasha's alter ego; a small, red-haired teenager.

It was strange - who on Earth would send a package to Natalie Rushman, who hadn't even existed before a few months ago?

This is bad. This is bad. This is bad. 

Turning the package in her hands, Natasha expected to find the ominous Hydra symbol. But at the very back, in tiny letters and symbols, read out the organisation name she'd grown to love, and hate.

SHIELD. 

It was from Director Fury. 

"What's in there?" Said a classmate beside her, nosily leaning over the peer at the box in her hands. The girl's features were generic - brown hair, brown eyes, a quiet personality - and easily forgettable. Natasha hadn't even bothered to learn her name. 

Natasha leaned away and covered the box with her hands. "Nothing important."

But the girl next to her wasn't the only one who was interested. In fact, Natasha could feel every eye in the room fixated upon her. The teacher, too, was eyeing the package whilst delivering his lecture.