Chapter 2
For once in what felt like a lifetime he slept through to the morning without a single nightmare and actually felt rested. He got up only to remember about the snakes and pull them out of his pocket. He just decided to stroll into the kitchen eating said snakes. T'Challa who was sitting at the kitchen island chuckled "nutritious breakfast"
He offered the packet to T'Challa who stole one. He replied "I confiscated them from Shuri last night"
T'Challa grinned "so you stole them"
He shrugged "suppose you could put it that way"
T'Challa just shook his head and then stated "we're leaving in about forty minutes, do we need to swing past your house to pick up your stuff"
He thought about it. Most of his stuff was in his locker but he had left his history book and textbook at his house but he was sure he could go the day without them. It would likely be a better choice than going to his house to pick them up. He replied "Nah it's all in my locker"
T'Challa nodded and threw him an apple which he easily caught. He looked at T'Challa confused until he announced "eat something healthy"
He nodded and just took a bite as he poured himself a cup of orange juice. T'Challa disappeared from the room and by the time he finished eating Shuri and Sarah both had come into the kitchen. Shuri grinned "morning Bucky"
He just nodded towards them both as he made his way out of the kitchen and back into the guest room. He just changed into a pair of jeans that T'Challa had given him last night but just decided to keep T'Challa's hoodie on. He could give it back at the end of the day. He folded up his clothes and placed them into a pile ready to grab as he left. He then just grabbed his phone from the bedside table and checked it to see if he had any messages. He had a goodnight and a good morning from Steve but other than that nothing. So he sent Steve a text back before tucking his phone into his pocket. T'Challa knocked on the doorframe of his room to get his attention and then smiled "could you please come to help me move our table inside, it's supposed to storm later"
He nodded "of course"
He followed T'Challa outside to the deck where there was a glass top table. Shuri and Sarah were moving the chairs inside and someone had pinned the doors open. He and T'Challa picked up the table and carefully walked it inside and placed it down beside the wall where there wasn't a window. He then helped to bring in anything else that was outside and helped T'Challa to close the window shutters because as it was an old house it had shutters on the outside. Whilst T'Challa shut the bottom floor ones he climbed up to to the small little bit that jutted out from the house and allowed him to walk around the outside of the second story to close the shutters. He had done this once or twice before and so knew perfectly well what he was doing. Shuri and Sarah were just watching him and he hoped it was so if they saw him fall they would try not to let him die.
Once he was finished closing the shutters he climbed back down. Sarah and Shuri both had their backpacks as did T'Challa who smiled "thanks for doing that Bucky"
He stated "happy to help"
T'Challa just walked over to his car and informed "you should come back and stay over again tonight, it would be good to have you here again"
Shuri grinned "as long as you don't steal my snakes again"
He smirked "you have more snakes"
Shuri hit him over the back of the head and rolled her eyes at him. He stole the front seat and just let the two girls sit in the back together. He heard them whispering about something Shuri's friends Peter and Ned had done. He just sat staring at the road in peaceful silence. T'Challa occasionally added to the girl's conversation but stayed mostly quiet. When they pulled up into the school parking lot and T'Challa parked they all jumped out of the car. He turned to T'Challa and stated "I'll give you your hoodie back at some point"
T'Challa smiled "I know you Bucky, you'll be wearing it for a while"
He nodded "yeah probably"
T'Challa just laughed at him as Okoye and Nakai, T'Challa's best friend and girlfriend made their way over. He just took it as his chance to leave and began to walk into the school to where he knew his group would likely be. He found Steve about halfway there when he was pulled into an empty hall by him. He smiled at Steve and stated "hey Stevie"
Steve looked him up and down and questioned "why are you wearing a hoodie that's not yours"
Steve looked a bit annoyed but he couldn't understand why. He explained "I stayed the night at T'Challa's and he lent me his hoodie, you know I go there occasionally"
Steve mumbled "I wish you wouldn't"
He was a bit confused and taken aback by that so he stated "well there was no way I was staying home and I couldn't exactly go to yours"
It was Steve's turn to look confused as he asked "and why not"
He grumbled "sorry if I didn't want to watch my boyfriend get it on with someone else"
Steve looked at him with sadness in his eyes and asked "you know about that"
He just nodded knowing he couldn't trust his voice. Steve just continued "Buck I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for it to happen it just kind of did, are you going to break up with me, I'll do anything for you to stay"
He mumbled "I'm not going to break up with you Steve, your the love of my life. Please can you just stop"
Steve nodded and stated "yes I'll stop, Buck your the love of my life too"
He filed with the promise ring on his hand that Steve had gotten for him and just nodded in response. Steve on the other hand pulled him into a hug and he just leant into it and wrapped his arms around Steve. As Steve held him he mumbled "I'm so sorry Buck, I'm an idiot, I don't know why I ever cheated on you, your perfect"
He had his assumptions why but he wasn't going to voice them. He was ugly, he only had one arm and he hated to go shirtless due to it. He knew why Steve had cheated just didn't know how he could do that to him. Then again he probably deserved it. Eventually, they broke apart and Steve just kissed him and he happily kissed back. They intertwined their hands as they walked to their group which mainly just consisted of jocks and their girlfriends. He belonged to neither category and both at the same time. He used to be a jock but hadn't been since losing his arm. Instead, the school saw him in a bad boy sort of light. He just stood beside Steve choosing to glare at John and Lemar rather than bother to make conversation. He and Sam hated the pair but they were on the football team and Steve liked them both so they got to be a part of the group. If he was honest Lemar wasn't horrible and if he was on his own he was manageable but John just seemed to be the worst of the worst.
He noticed Clint and Pietro on the other side of the hall talking. Seeing them made him remember seeing them the previous night so he smiled to himself. The two were kind of perfect for each other. Pietro hung out in his group with his sister Wanda most of the time and Clint hung out with his best friend Natasha but there were days when Natasha would drag Clint to Bruce's group so she could sit with her boyfriend and Wanda would drag Pietro to the group so she could sit with her boyfriend Vision. The group was led by Tony Stark, Steve's biggest enemy for seemingly no reason.
Steve and Tony had a fightback in middle school and ever since never got along and always did their best to antagonise the other. It never made much sense to him as the fight had been over something pretty stupid in his opinion and he couldn't even remember what it had been. But as he was Steve's best friend and now boyfriend he by extension didn't associate with Tony even if he would prefer his company to that of Walker. And so he also didn't associate with Tony's friends but then again he didn't really associate with anyone so it made no real difference to him.
With Steve's moral code and everything, you would expect him to pick better friends but clearly, that wasn't the case. Sure he had some friends that weren't complete shit but then he had people like John, Lemar, Quentin and Sharon. Most people liked Sharon though so he might be a little biased about that. No one bothered talking to him and it was that, which made him realise Sam wasn't here. He was most likely helping his parent's prepare for the incoming storm. As much as he and Sam fought sometimes it was just good to have someone there that he didn't hate and could actually talk to without wanting to shoot. Sure most times he wanted to strangle Sam but Sam wasn't actually horrible.
The bell rang and he kept his hand intertwined with Steve's as they walked to their lockers. When he reached Steve's locker he left him behind and made his way to his own which was at the other end of the hall. The lockers were all in alphabetical order which led him to be next to Clint and another boy whose name he never bothered to learn that separated his locker from Bruce's. As he was searching through the mess of his locker for his business book Clint walked over and flung open his own locker. Clint questioned "how are you so confident with Steve"
He took a look around the hall and when he confirmed no one who knew sign language was in the hall he signed 'why Clint, you planning on kissing Pietro at school'
Clint's jaw dropped and he guessed it probably had to do with the fact he wasn't supposed to know Clint was deaf and need hearing aids as that wasn't common knowledge. It was also probably because he knew sign language and because he knew about him and Pietro. Clint just questioned "how"
He smiled "I saw you last night, don't worry I'll keep quiet"
Clint nodded "thanks man"
He stated "and as to how to be confident, it helps when your boyfriend is the captain of the football team"
Clint smirks "probably helps that you scare just about everyone in this school, I'm pretty sure you even terrify the teachers"
He nodded at that. He knew for a fact there were at least a few teachers he scared enough to get them to request never to have him in their class. But Clint and Natasha probably scared just as many people. Natasha could be downright terrifying when she wanted to be and everyone seemed to watch out for Clint who was definitely a bad boy. He informed "people are scared of you too, and Pietro's a track star, plus I'm always willing to beat up some homophobe"
He found the book and pulled it out and closed the locker. Clint smiled at that and grinned "thanks dude"
He just nodded as he walked off. When he walked past Pietro he just winked at the boy who looked very confused until Clint approached and whispered something to him. He just made his way over to Steve who was waiting for him and questioned "what did Clint want"
As much as he trusted Steve he wasn't going to tell him a secret that wasn't his so he instead stated "just saying hi, pretty sure I am physically contracted to talk to him"
Steve nodded seeming to believe him and he just started the walk towards their business class. He was failing business to absolutely no one's surprise. It wasn't that he was shit at the subject but he had only handed in one of the assignments all year and hadn't even bothered with half the questions in the test. As he figured he didn't want to go into business so what was the point in trying. It was just a waste of his time. The second they stepped into the room there was a new assignment task sheet being thrown into their hands. Mr Pierce announced "Mr Barnes you are not to group up with Mr Rogers"
Their teacher Mr Pierce was more than a little creepy and he hated him with every fibre of his being. He groaned. Now he was going to have to do a group assignment with a bunch of people he never talked to and likely wouldn't like. He just nodded at his teacher and read the paper. He needed to be in a group of four which just seemed to make it worse. No one was going to want him in their group. He was beginning to wish they didn't have to do business as a compulsory subject. He was dropping it as soon as he could.
Students were writing the people in their team's names up on the board and he watched as Steve wrote, Sam, Sharon and Quentin. Clearly, Quentin had taken his spot. He became confused when Pepper wrote up her team without Tony's name in it. The pair along with Rhodey had been best friends since primary school so it made no sense that they instead had Bruce and Thor. He was even more insanely confused when Stephen wrote up his teams names and along with Tony's name he was in it. He raised an eyebrow at Stephen who just seemed to ignore him. They were given the lesson to work on their assignment so he picked up his thing and moved over to Stephen's table where he sat beside his best friend Loki who was the other member of their team. Tony asked what he was thinking when he questioned "what's Barnes doing here"
Tony pulled a chair over and sat facing Stephen so he just sat beside him in a chair he dragged over as Stephen answered "we needed a fourth member and he needed a group"
He guessed it made sense. He was just more annoyed that now he was in a group he was actually going to have to do work because there was no way he wouldn't pull his own weight. So he read over the paper as he realised the tension within the rest of the group was thick even without him. Loki and Tony did not get along very well and Tony and Stephen were pushing each other's buttons and it made him question why Tony was even here. If he had to guess he would say Stephen probably had a crush on him but he really couldn't be sure. They had probably just brought him into their team because they needed someone to break up their fights but he knew he couldn't be bothered to and would happily just watch them scream at each other.
Out of the three, the only one he had ever talked to was Tony. Loki and Stephen had never seemed to cross paths with him and none of the three was overly talkative and so none had ever bothered to make conversation with each other. Clearly Tony was the only real talker in their group. Although maybe he had been wrong because Stephen had been talking to Tony the entire time he had been at the group.
The assignment was them having to create a business proposal and running it within the school. The winner didn't get anything and you didn't have to win to get an A but you also got to keep all the funds you made. And to begin with, you were only allowed to spend up to a hundred dollars. Tony had an abundance of ideas as did Stephen but Loki kept shutting them down saying that they wouldn't work. And he had to agree with Loki. They were great ideas sure but they were not targeted towards high school students and would likely not make much profit here. Stephen questioned "Barnes any input"
He shrugged "Loki's got a point, those ideas aren't going to sell well to high schoolers, we need something that's cheap, there are rich students here sure but we will make more if we have something targeted towards the pourer students because there's more of them and we can make more that way"
Stephen nodded "yeah alright I can see the sense in that"
Tony agreed "yeah, what if sold gnomes"
They all turned to him and raised their eyebrows and Stephen questioned "gnomes"
Tony explained "well everyone likes gnomes and they are relatively cheap to produce which means we can sell them cheap"
Loki stated "what if instead of selling the gnomes we sold a service where we go around and put gnomes all in your yard if you pay for it"
He added "and if you pay extra per gnome so the richer students who have the money to spend will spend more"
Stephen nodded "we get the word out through word of mouth rather than posters so it's not as well know to begin with and people will think it's unique and do it"
Tony grinned "and we won't have to pay for flyers or anything and so can spend more on the gnomes"
He stated "if we put a number on the bottom of the gnomes to call we could get people who wanted to get revenge and also get the gnomes returned to us"
Loki smiled "and if they return the gnomes they won't have to pay for those gnomes just the service and any extra gnomes"
Stephen grinned "this is perfect"
They all nodded in agreement and Stephen stated "if we buy the materials to make the gnomes we could start making them tonight"
Tony smiled "yes we should go get the stuff right after school"
Stephen stated "we should work on getting the word out too"
He decided that of those two jobs he'd probably be better at getting the word out. He also kind of wanted to send Stephen and Tony to get the stuff just in case Stephen did have a crush on Tony. So he gestured to Tony and Stephen and suggested "why don't you two go buy the stuff and me and Loki can work on getting the word out"
Loki agreed "yeah I have no clue what I would even need to buy to build a gnome"
Tony stated "somehow I feel like if it's up to you two to get the word out it won't happen"
Stephen grinned "why not, the known prankster of the school offers you an opportunity to prank your friend you're going to take it. And when Barnes talks to anyone they listen whether out of fear or just pure surprise"
Tony sighed "I suppose you have a point"
That was kind of everything they needed to discuss over and done with. So they agreed to meet at Stephen's house at five to begin making the gnomes. He was curious as to why not Tony's because he probably had the equipment to build them with so he just figured that Stephen also had the stuff to make them with. He knew Stephen was not quite as rich as the other two in the group but was still rich. He also promised to get the twenty-five dollars to Stephen or Tony before the end of the day. After all, he had been saving from work and had enough to easily pay stored in his locker. The three had said it wasn't necessary but he just assured them he was willing to and could.