ᴀ ʏᴇᴀʀ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀ - ᴘᴇʀᴄʏ ᴊᴀᴄᴋꜱᴏɴ x ᴍᴀʀᴠᴇʟ ᴄʀᴏꜱꜱᴏᴠᴇʀ

[VI] S I X

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"Sophmore Slump Or Come Back Of The Year"
By Fall Out Boy

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As the bell blared out through the speakers, Natasha bolted upright. In one swift movement, she snatched her pencil case and an empty History exercise book. Practically singing praises, she jovially opened her backpack.

Her first class at Winterbourne Academy had been hellish, easily the most boring ordeal of her entire life, but it was thankfully over. She grinned in sweet relief.

Maddison had accompanied Natasha to her first class, History, whilst the other Avengers were in different classes. She had tried to memorise the school layout during their tour and distinguish the areas most likely for a criminal to hide. But the entire layout was a labyrinth of halls and lockers.

Natasha was halfway through shoving her book into her bag when the sound of someone clearing their throat made her pause.

"I don't know how things were done at your school, Miss Rushman," Snapped Mr Miller, shattering through her train of thought. In the last hour and a half, Natasha had gathered that Mr Miller was the type of man who seemed to enjoy exercising his power.

Long story short, he was a world-class prick.

Upon hearing her name, Natasha's attention flicked toward the teacher, who regarded her with cold eyes. Like a deer caught in headlights, she froze, and slowly began to pull her book out of her bag.

"But at Winterbourne, the bell doesn't dismiss you." Mr Miller finished.

Casting her eyes down, Natasha mumbled an apology. She pulled on her most convincing mask of regret, whilst mentally hitting herself for gaining so much attention.

As soon as Mr Miller's attention was elsewhere, Natasha slumped in her chair, cringing. Almost every eye in the room was fixed on her, and she could virtually feel their stares. Some looked on with sympathy, some were impassive, but others smirked and snickered.

The mistake had caused the attention of the class to flick towards her, which was exactly what she was trying to avoid. Her plan had been to fade into the crowd - to hide in plain sight and observe - but it appeared that she had a lot to learn.

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Natasha gathered her belongings alongside the rest of the class. Standing out was a rookie mistake, especially since she had little knowledge of how a Highschool worked. In theory, if she simply mimicked what everyone else was doing, she could effortlessly fade into the crowd.

Natasha strode from the classroom with her head bowed. Maddison had said that their grade had a 15-minute break between the fourth and fifth period, (not that Natasha understood what a "period" was) and the Avengers had decided to meet up to get their Identification Cards made. Unfortunately, Natasha's little fiasco in History Class meant that she was running a little late.

Trying desperately to not draw attention to herself, Natasha kept her pace steady. The halls were packed with teenagers, and it took a surprising amount of skill to weave between the clusters of students. The teenagers that surrounded her were so ignorant that it was almost laughable - if only they knew who exactly was walking the halls alongside them.