Chapter 2
"That exam was criminal" Peter complained as he hurriedly stuffed the books into his backpack. "I don't remember we studied the Battle of Gettysburg last week."
"Because we didn't studied it last week genius" MJ stressed as she zapped him with a book on his head "we were learning the fall of the Ottoman empire"
"And what does that have to do with the civil war?" Kate muttered as the group watched as the teacher left the room.
"Nothing, they say 'Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely', Miss Brown takes advantage of the fact that teachers have all the academic freedom thanks to the director," MJ stressed as she hurried Ned to collect his things. Kate had begun to get bored and was balancing her chair on its back legs, so that the only thing keeping her from falling to the floor was Yelena's feet, which gave her balance every time she wobbled dangerously.
"To all that what you put in question 32, I wasn't sure if it was from June 1 to 3 or July" said Peter as he finally stood up.
"I put that it was from July 10 to 13" Kate said worried
"I put it from July 1 to 3" commented MJ
"Oh my God!!!" Ned yelled as he dropped his backpack and its contents spilled out onto the floor. "Wasn't the exam 20 questions?"
"No, the other fifteen were in the back" MJ finished as she rolled her eyes, the whole group fell silent and everyone looked at their friend who had remained silent throughout the conversation.
Everyone knew that it was one of those days, normally Yelena had a composed attitude, somewhat serious towards outsiders of their strange group, but the four friends knew that it was just a facade that their director forced their daughters to maintain. When they were alone, Yelena was one of the most kind and trustworthy person any of them had ever met.
The blonde, feeling the gaze of her friends, immediately came out of the stupor in which she had plunged and immediately faked a smile that really did not convince anyone "It was from July 1 to 3"
"Dammit!!!" Peter and Kate exclaimed. Kate pretended to pass out on Yelena's table and Peter on MJ, the last released him and let him hit the ground. “Hey watch out! Can't you see I'm fragile merchandise?
Yelena, MJ and Ned just laughed at their friends' antics.
Finally the group went to the building where the laboratories were, they went up to the roof. With the synchrony that comes from performing the same ritual for years, the five preteens arranged their things. Everyone got out their lunch and MJ pulled a deck out of Uno, and Peter grunted under his breath.
"Seriously? again?" he said as he removed his food from a large paper bag "Last time I'm sure you cheated!"
"It's not cheating, that's what the rules say" replied MJ
"Show me where it says that in the official rules” challenged Peter, the other three exchanged an exasperated look and rolled their eyes, they were all used to it.
Yelena opened the paper bag her father had given her in the morning, trying to suppress a groan of disappointment. In this case, the girl's lunch consisted of a tiny tupperware of pumpkins and boiled broccoli, a protein bar, and a note reminding her that on Monday she was due to meet Antonia for their afternoon run.
Yelena took out the vegetables and tried to eat slowly, she was really hungry. She hadn't eaten dinner the night before, and in the morning they only had an oatmeal and strawberry smoothie full of vitamins and many other pills.
“Guys, May made Pelmeni!!! Yelena, she told me that she wanted your opinion, you know, she is trying new things” he explained as he opened a huge container and put it in the middle of the circle that the friends had formed. Peter poured a huge portion of the dish onto one of the paper plates he brought with him and handed it to the blonde who took it enthusiastically, May's food was exquisite.
Yelena wasn't stupid, over the years she noticed how her friends had taken it upon themselves to overfeed her, how Peter always brought May's experiments on Mondays, or how MJ always brought a PB&J on Tuesdays and Thursdays and made a fuss saying that her mother always forgot that she hated peanut butter and bought something else at the cafeteria, or how Kate brought pizzas for every Wednesday from one of her mother's many businesses, and how Ned proposed a food exchange on Fridays .
When the Friday food exchanges began, her sister always went out of her way to get her something special to share with her friends. Yelena had no idea where or how she got it herself, and she didn't want to ask.
Yelena didn't want them to feel sorry for her just because her father forced her to maintain a vegetable-based diet, it was true, she hated eating vegetables every day, but everyone acted as if her father didn't feed her. Over the years, however, all of this had become so routine that none of the five of them brought it up, and she was actually grateful for the change in food.
What the blonde overlooked is that not only had her friends noticed how scarce her food had been since they met her at three years old, but the pattern was also notorious for several of their guardians, her lunch was a constant combination of a strange shake of vitamins, protein bars and vegetables.
The first game of one ended after ten minutes when MJ placed her last card.
“Hey, I heard Liz mention that the decathlon is this year in D.C.” said Ned excitedly "Apparently she is going to announce it at today's meeting, finally we are going to start traveling with the rest of the team"
Yelena was excited, the team and everything extracurricular were things that Anton never objected to, on the contrary, he demanded as many extra credits as possible from his daughters. She was excited about the trip, her father never took them out of state, at most they camped near the city. For the first time she could get away from home a little and no one could stop her.
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Natasha was not having a good day. Well she wasn't having the best of days
The school was significantly larger than any she had been to before. This one had several courts and gyms and a building only for laboratories, which led her to get lost in this brick labyrinth flooded with students. Nor had it helped the radical change from living in the suburbs of Ohio to having to navigate the crowded and polluted streets of the Big Apple.
Fortunately, Melina had taken her in the car, but she was still late for her first class, the insufferable teacher, a tall woman with a stern look, had forced her to introduce herself in front of everyone, which was frankly annoying considering that they were in high school.
"Don't worry red, that woman makes life impossible for everyone" said the guy who sat in front of her. Her classmate turned so that he leaned his back against the window and rested her elbow against Natasha's desk. “She has been here for years, hopefully she will retire in the next decade”
Natasha rolled her eyes at the ridiculous joke, but she kind of liked him. He seemed like someone who was easy to laugh with.
“My name is Clint, if you behave I will take you to see the few interesting things in this school”
"Your name is Clint?" said the redhead trying to contain her laughter and not draw the teacher's attention.
"As I said: if you behave," Clint remarked with an offended air.
"Clinton!” barked the teacher from the front of the room “Would you do us the honor of giving us your attention? don't think that because of the exhibition in two days you are exempt from a direct trip to detention in my class young man "
Clint smiled at the woman and gave her a nod that screamed sarcasm.
"And you, Miss Romanoff, I recommend that you take good care of your friendships, you don't want to end up on the director's blacklist so soon" finished the woman, she turned around and continued writing in a tight letter on the blackboard, the redhead had not noticed at what point she had started writing. She was one of "those" history teachers.
At the end of class Natasha sighed and once again took out her schedule, but then she remembered that since she had been late they had sent her straight to class and she had to take the introductory tour in second period.
"What class do you have now?" Clinton asked as he followed her out of the room.
"I have to go to the administration for the tour" Natasha sighed, being the new girl was not her thing.
"Well, if it's like always I guess you're going to have the great honor of meeting the director's daughter" Clint said as he showed her the way "I guess I'll see you later redhead, at lunch meet me in the cafeteria"
And without further ado he disappeared into the sea of students