Chapter 12
Phil is positive that Clint stayed awake well into the night. He had done some preliminary check-ins with the last one being just after midnight, and the boy was still laying stiffly, facing the door, and eyes scrunched up tight. Honestly, he was worried the boy was going to end up staying up the whole night. However, when the next morning came around and he entered the room to make sure Tony and Bruce were getting ready he was very pleased to see Clint in a state of deep sleep.
“Fell asleep some time around 2:00 AM I think? That’s when all the tossing stopped at least,” Tony says when he notices Phil looking at the boy.
“And why were you up at 2:00 AM?” Phil asks, though there isn’t any real heat in his question.
“Beds are squeaky, couldn’t sleep with all the noise happening every few minutes. I’m alright though, don’t worry. Won’t fall asleep in class or anything,” Tony replies as he exits the room.
Normally when kids aren’t enrolled in school yet, Phil makes it a habit to make sure they’re awake with the rest of the house anyways. It allows for less arguments about unfair treatment as well as keeps the kid on a consistent schedule. However, based on the previous lack of sleep, Phil thought it would be best to let him sleep in for a bit longer. Worse case, they switch his lessons to being in the afternoon.
The morning routine is quick after that. All 7 remaining house members eat their breakfast before departing for school. Sam arrives about 20 minutes after they all leave, and even he was relieved to hear that Clint was sleeping.
“So I take it that yesterday went well?” Sam asks as he pours himself a cup of coffee.
“Much better than expected. Got a bit more insight on Clint’s history, his brother plans to work with the police, and even got a bit of a rundown on how to improve Clint’s mood,” Phil explains.
“Hence the sleeping?”
“Should have figured out sooner that his hearing aids are what keep him awake at night. Also he’s a bit of an Energizer Bunny, so maybe we can work some physical education into his curriculum?”
“I’ve been wanting to do that, but I was waiting for him to heal up. I think we’ll do a mixed science and physical education lesson outside today.”
“Also take him down to the garage, he hasn’t been yet. Only books he’s been reading for his nightly reading are the books you give him or Bruce’s textbooks. I mentioned maybe you guys could set up a rewards system for each book he reads.”
“Yeah that’s not a bad idea. Maybe incorporating a lot of the things I did with Bucky will be good for Clint, they’re really a lot similar than I think either would like to admit.”
“Tell me about it. With each eye roll and glare I swear I see more and more of Bucky in him,” Phil chuckles. “Listen, I’ve got to go into the main office downtown for a bit. I’ll be back in time for lunch and bring you both something to eat. If Clint’s not up by 9:30 AM, go ahead and wake him up. His hearing aids will be in his bedside table, so if you have to wake him yourself make sure you’re gentle with it. Oh, and his prescriptions are in the purple container.”
“Got it, Phil.”
With that, the older man left while Sam filled up another cup of coffee and began to rearrange the boy’s schedule for the day. Science hadn’t been one of their main topics as his scores weren’t bad in it, but Sam felt a good way to get some energy out of him while incorporating learning would be to have a project. Which is how he found himself googling and developing a curriculum on self-sustaining ecosystems for the next hour or so.
As it turned to be 9:00 AM, though, Sam heard the distinct sound of a door opening upstairs followed by another opening and closing. He figured the boy was just using the bathroom, so he decided it would be best to put away some of his papers and laptop now. A few minutes later, and a slightly disheveled Clint was appearing in the doorway of the kitchen area.
“Morning, sleepy head,” Sam chuckles as he grabs the boy’s prescription box down from the typically locked cabinet.
“Where’s everyone?” Clint mumbles while rubbing at one of his eyes.
“Housemates are at school, Phil had to go to the downtown office. You were allowed to have a bit of a lie in today,” Sam explains.
“Oh,” Clint mumbles, clearly not fully awake yet.
“Alright, what do you want to eat? Some oatmeal? Cereal? PB&J? My cooking skills are really not that great,” Sam chuckles.
“Do we have any of those circle cereals left? The sweet ones?”
“You’re gonna have to be more specific, Clint, there are a lot of sweet, circular cereals. We’ve got Captain Crunch, Fruit Loops, Cheerios?”
“Cheerios, please. Those are the honey ones, right?”
Sam nods as he grabs the box down and pours the boy a bowl followed by grabbing a banana and a cup of water for him.
“I like to cut up some banana pieces and put them in my Cheerios if you wanna try it. If not, try to eat at least half that banana. Once you’re done I’ll give you your pills.”
Clint looks at the banana in curiosity before he breaks a couple pieces off into his cereal and tries it. Clearly he must have been satisfied cause he was quick to add the rest into his cereal. The two then sit in silence for a few more minutes before Clint is putting his-- unfinished-- bowl into the sink and asking for the morning pills he’s grown used to taking.
“Alright, go get changed for the morning. Wear sneakers and something you won’t mind getting dirty, so maybe a dark colored shirt,” Sam advises, which has Clint looking at him curiously. “I promise it’ll be fun, just go change.”
From there, Clint is quick to make his way up the stairs to get changed for the day. He finds some athletic shorts and a plain dark grey shirt before reappearing back downstairs where Sam is now labeling various plastic bags.
“I’m ready,” Clint says once he got his sneakers on.
“Alright so today we’re going to be leaving the house so we can do a bit of a science experiment,” Sam starts, immediately noticing the smile creeping its way onto Clint’s face. “I’m going to explain the experiment in a bit, but first I have some rules I want to go over before we leave the house.”
Sam notices the brief scowl cross Clint’s face but doesn’t say anything. Instead he just waits for the boy to nod in agreement.
“Great. Now, I trust you’re old enough to know street safety, but still I want to remind you that doing little adventures like this are a privilege not a guarantee. If you behave well today, then it allows me to feel more comfortable doing things like this with you more frequently. With that said, I’m not going to make you hold my hand the whole time we’re out, but there may be times where I’ll find it necessary and you’re not to try and avoid it.”
“Sam, I’m 12! I lived on the streets for two years,” Clint whines, but Sam can tell it's more so because he’s 12 and not because he cares too much.
“Clint,” Sam levels to which the boy once again scowls but nods. “Good. Now because I will let you walk on your own for most if not all of today, I want you to stay close to me. We cross streets together and you’re never more than 5 feet in front or behind me. Also, you need to listen to me. If I say wait, you wait. If I say it’s time to go, it’s time to go.”
“I’ve got it, Sam! Can we go now?”
“Go grab two water bottles for us, and then yes we can go. I’ll explain the experiment during our walk.”
Clint is quick to rush into the kitchen to grab two water bottles, and before he knew it the two were on their way out of the house. As they started walking, Sam explained that they were going to the park that was just a few blocks from the house. From there, there’s a small nature trail that they would be taking which would eventually lead them to a pond.
During the walk to the pond, Clint would be expected to be analyzing his surroundings and working on a worksheet. The worksheet had various trees, plants, and animals that were native to their area that he would have to try and identify. Of those that he’s able to identify, he’ll later have to choose one tree, one plant, and one animal and write a paper on how they benefit that environment.
Clint was most excited about getting to the pond, though. Once they were there, he was going to be collecting samples from the pond to eventually make his own self sustaining ecosystem. Sam had said he’d be able to keep it with him for as long as he wanted and it’d be like having a pet. Sure it wasn’t a dog, but these microorganisms should be visible so it would be kinda similar to having a fish.
The walk to the park was uneventful. Sam only had to pull Clint from the edge of the sidewalk twice, and even Sam would admit that one of those times he was overreacting. Once they were on the nature trail, Clint was given a bit more freedom. Sam didn’t mind if Clint would run forward to get a closer look at a flower or if he got distracted by a chipmunk running by. In fact, he was actually happy to see Clint acting a bit like a kid, and he knew Phil would appreciate the boy being able to run some of his energy off.
Eventually they made it to the pond where Clint began to jump from rock to rock to avoid the pond water-- only nearly falling in once. Sam found a dry, big boulder that he laid out their collection supplies before calling Clint over to join him.
“Alright, kid, before we start and get our hands all dirty, are you hungry? I brought some snacks with me,” Sam asks while offering forward a bag of chex mix. Clint takes a small handful, analyzes the snack before trying a piece. Sam can’t help but give the boy a sympathetic smile as he watches him eye each new piece of the mix in uncertainty. Once the bag of snacks was empty Sam began to point out each collection bag.
“Alright, the first step is to collect some of the mudd from the edge of the pond. Make sure you collect a couple of rocks or pebbles in the mud. And you’ll need to fill the bag to where I marked this line,” Sam explains while handing Clint the bag.
Clint takes the bag with a smile and begins to make his way towards the pond, but suddenly he pauses and looks back to Sam questionably.
“What’s up, kiddo?”
“Aren’t you gonna- I mean, I just thought- well, we always, uh, we always do the assignments together?” Clint asks, with a bit of blush forming on his cheeks.
“You want me to make an ecosystem, too?” Sam asks, trying to fill in the unasked question.
“Well, maybe? In case my ecosystem doesn’t work? Bruce always says science experiments need a couple of trials.”
Sam smiles as he begins to take out some extra plastic bags he had brought with him.
“Well, we can’t argue with the residential scientist.”
And the smile that crossed Clint’s face was big enough to make the entire day’s adventure more than worth it.
The two were quick to collect mud from two separate areas before moving on to fill their second collection bags with some of the leaves that scattered the edge of the pond. The next step was to scoop up some algae from the pond water, both from the bottom of the water and some that was resting atop the water. Then, the final step was to collect some of the water.
Once everything was collected, Sam packed everything away safely and the two made their way back up the trail. Even though Clint had analyzed plenty of the wildlife on the walk to the pond, he continued to try and match some of the wildlife left on his worksheet. Sam could tell he was most proud when he found the golden rare item he had labeled on the list: the eastern prairie fringed orchid.
“Wow, Sam, look I found the rare one! Look how cool it is!” Clint exclaims while lightly running his fingers over the plant. “It’s pretty.”
“Wow, look at that, kiddo, good job. Yeah, that's a really nice one. Think you’re gonna write about this one in your paper?” Sam asks back, while also running his fingers over the plant.
“Do I gotta write a paper?” Clint whines, that being the one part of the assignment he wasn’t looking forward to.
“Sadly, yes. We need to work on English and your writing skills, buddy. But don’t worry, you’ll be able to have plenty of help for your first draft.”
“First draft?! How many times am I doing this?!” Clint whines but Sam just chuckles as he wraps an arm around the boy’ shoulder.
“Drafts are a good thing. Now come on, let’s get home so you can eat lunch and then we can make our ecosystems.”
“Can we take the flower for the ecosystem?”
“Sorry, bud, but no. That plant’s pretty rare and it wouldn’t do well with just us watering and giving it light. It’s native to these lands so all of its needs are native to here, too.”
Clint sighs but doesn’t argue as they make their way home.
Phil’s car was in the driveway already as they walked up to the house which had Clint running straight inside in search of the older man. He finds him in the kitchen and immediately begins to inform him of the entire day’s activities so far as well as making sure it’s okay for him to have microorganisms as plants.
“Well, you two sure did have an eventful day. Maybe we can do a house adventure down there one day and do the whole trail?” Phil offers while running a hand through Clint’s hair.
“Really?! Yeah that’d be fun!” Clint exclaims with a smile.
“Go wash up and change into some clean clothes and wash your hands. I made wraps for lunch, and your doctor suggested trying to add smoothies into your diet to get your calorie count up so what fruit do you favor?”
“Umm, strawberries? I also liked the bananas,” Clint says before running up the stairs to go wash up.
“So, today seemed to be a success?” Phil asks Sam while putting together the fruits into a smoothie while adding the nutritional powder he had also been given.
“He’s definitely an outdoor type of kid. He made me telling him to play in the mud seem like I gave him a million dollars,” Sam chuckles.
“Good to know some things about him are just like any other 12 year old boy.”
Eventually Clint reappears down the stairs to eat his lunch. He manages half of the wrap which Phil allowed so long as he finished his smoothie.
“Phil, do you wanna help with the ecosystem?” Clint offers as he begins to separate his supplies from Sam’s.
“Oh, I would love to, buddy, but I can’t. I’ve got a lot of paperwork I need to catch up on, but I promise once I’m done I’ll come over to look at it and you can explain the whole thing to me.”
Phil nearly throws all his paperwork to the side at Clint’s frown but the boy perks up when he’s told he can explain it to him when he’s done. The boy nods before going back to setting up his new experiment.
From Phil’s office, he could hear Sam explaining each step to the boy followed occasionally by a question or look for confirmation. Listening to Clint speak up and occasionally giggle was all the motivation Phil needed to get his work done quicker. Once everything was put away he made his way out towards the family room where Clint and Sam were just shutting the lids on their ecosystems.
“So was it a success?” Phil asks with a smile as he pulls a bean bag chair up next to where the two are seated.
“I hope so! We have’ta wait a bit for some of the mud in the water to settle so we can see any of the microorganisms, but I think s’gonna work! We’ve got two trials goin’,” Clint explains with a smile.
“Very smart to get two samples. Always smart to run multiple tests in science,” Phil smiles. “Now why don’t you explain to me what your ecosystem consists of.”
Clint is quick to dive right into explaining each component of the jar. He made sure to explain how microorganisms live all around but in bodies of water like ponds it’s hard to see them because of the mud not properly settling. But because in the jar there’s no wind or tides once everything settles they should be able to spot small microorganisms that live inside the algae and water. His favorite part was that he didn’t have to worry about the organisms dying because the algae constantly oxygenates the water which allows the organisms to stay alive and they feed off the algae and all he has to do is provide some general sunlight to sustain the algae.
By the time he’s done explaining the whole process, most of the mud had settled and Clint was able to spot his first microorganism to which he was quick to point out in joy. As he was pointing, though, Phil is caught off guard by the red scratch marks currently coating the boy’s arm.
“Wow, Clint, that’s really cool, but, hey, look at me, what’s going on with your arm? Why all the scratch marks?” Phil asks while grabbing ahold of his hand.
Clint glances down in a confused manner and shrugs before lifting a hand to scratch his arm again.
“I dunno, m’itchy,” Clint explains.
“I’ll grab some cream to help with the itch, maybe you touched a plant that has an irritant on it. Try not to scratch at it,” Phil explains, leaving the room only to return a moment later with some generic anti-itch cream.
The cream is applied and Phil immediately pulls Clint’s sleeves over the area so he’s not tempted to scratch at it. The relief was minimal but it didn’t bother Clint enough to mention it. Plus, Sam had just said they were gonna go into the garage to look through the bookshelf and begin creating his reading chart along with the potential rewards. They kept the system simple. The books had already been broken up into categories from when Bucky had done the reading checklist. Green stickers were the easy reads which usually were short stories that could be read within an hour. Yellow stickers were for the books that could be read in a day but are better to be read in the time span of a week. And the red stickers were the books that would take minimum a week to read due to either the length or the overall content.
Sam knew with Clint’s reading range that the green books may offer a bit of a challenge, but he knew if he had changed it then it would result in an unnecessary argument. So he kept it the same, but he offered different rules for what would gain him a reward. The green books would each be worth one point where as the yellow books would be two and half points, and the red books were five points. In order to gain the points, he’d have to take a short 10 question quiz where he’d need to score at least a 70.
Once he collected 5 points, rewards could start being collected or he could save up the points. The lowest prize was McDonald’s for lunch and the biggest-- so far-- was an adventure to the movie. Scattered in between were things like class at the park, homework extension, or an ice cream trip.
“We can add more things as we think of them and who knows maybe the point distribution will eventually change, but I think this is a good starting ground. Now, I think the rest of the house should be getting back soon, but I wanted to explain your writing assignment before we wrapped up,” Sam explains.
“Do I really gotta write?” Clint whines as he follows Sam from the garage, confusedly walking into the media room which he also had never seen since his first day.
“Yes, you have to,” Sam chuckles while sitting down in front of a computer and gesturing for Clint to join. “Now, this is a no judgement question, but do you know how to use a computer?”
“Used one once or twice when me and Barney would hide out in libraries cause it was cold outside. But don’t really know much,” Clint shrugs, subtly scratching at his arms again.
“That’s alright, you’ll catch on quick to it. This first draft is going to be a written paper so we can practice handwriting, too, but eventually you’re going to type up the paper which I’ll show you where you can do that on here. But for right now, what you need is Google.”
“I’ve used that!”
“Good, so you know it’s a search engine, right? Like you can look up just about anything up on here.”
“Yeah and it gives you a bunch of things to read or look through.”
“Right again. Now, these computers have a few restrictions on them, but nothing major. Your homework for tonight is going to be choosing one tree, one plant, and one animal that you identified today and writing five facts about them that you find online. So for instance, you know a chipmunk is a mammal, but when we Google them we find out that they come from the Order rodentia.”
“Can I use that fact? I was going to pick the chipmunk anyways,” Clint asks with innocent eyes.
“Fine, I’ll give you that one, but you have to come up with the rest on your own. Think about looking into facts on how they benefit their environment because that’s what your paper will eventually have to be on.”
As Sam finished explaining, Clint could hear the front door shutting followed by the sounds of multiple pairs of feet walking around the house now.
“Alright, well, it looks like I’m out of time. Are you going to start doing your homework now?”
“I don’t think I’m allowed to be alone in the media room yet. I haven’t gotten enough points,” Clint explains while grabbing his notebooks and worksheet, all whilst trying to rub out the itching in his arms through his sleeve.
“Alright, well, I’ll tell Phil your homework assignment so he can make sure you have some time to work on that before tomorrow.”
The two make their way out to the TV room where all the kids are sitting around talking while Phil talks to Maria. Clint tentatively settled himself on the couch between Tony and Pepper while Sam went over to tell Phil about Clint needing the computer for homework.
“So, Sleeping Beauty, how was it not having to wake up at the crack of dawn like the rest of us?” Tony teases.
“7:00 AM is hardly the crack of dawn, Tony. And you don’t even roll out of bed until 7:30 as it is,” Pepper admonishes.
“Yeah whatever, he still got to sleep in,” Tony says with an eye roll. “So, what did you and the oh-so-magnificent Wilson get up to today?”
“We did a science experiment!” Clint said with more excitement than anyone’s ever heard him use based on the several pairs of eyes that turned to him.
“Just what we needed, another nerd,” Bucky chuckles, which is followed by the sound of something hitting him.
“Shut it, Buck,” Steve mumbles before leaning forward to see Clint better. “What was the experiment?”
Clint eyes Steve curiously. The boy hadn’t been mean to him throughout his whole time here, but, even still, Clint was wary of him due to him being such close friends with Bucky. The smile on his face seems genuine, though, so Clint can’t help but be inclined to answer.
“We did the nature hike at the park and collected things from the pond to make a self-sustaining ecosystem,” Clint explains which causes Steve to raise a brow as well as Bruce and Tony becoming more intrigued. “D’you wanna see it?”
The three boys nod so Clint gestures for them to follow him to the family room. Once he perches himself next to the jar, he notices that actually everyone followed him into the room. Bruce and Steve are definitely the most intrigued by the experiment though if facial expressions are enough to go along with.
“Those are fish!” Steve exclaims in wonder.
“They’re microorganisms,” Bruce and Clint both say at the same time, which causes the smaller boy to blush then go back to scratching his arms.
“These organisms are really common in algae and ponds but it’s so hard to see them through the murky water. This is a really cool way of being able to show people how living things can be found everywhere,” Bruce explains a bit further while giving Clint kudos.
“Also makes you regret drinking pond water,” Thor mumbles.
“Ew, Thor, no,” Brucesays with a scrunched up face.
“It was never on purpose! I am just saying, it shows a valuable lesson,” Thor continues which causes all the kids to break out in laughter.