Victory Lunch
“No way!”
Sage was enjoying the story of their encounter with her guidance counselor a bit too much, but Tony found he didn’t quite mind. Laughing in disbelief Sage was a far cry from sobbing in frustration Sage, and he found that he much prefered her to be laughing.
“You did not threaten to withhold a donation to get her to change my class schedule. That’s insane. Oh my god, I love you so much.”
Loki smiled softly at the girl. He was proud of how well Anthony had handled their encounter with the guidance counselor personally, and he was extremely pleased that they’d managed to resolve this problem for Sage. “You will still have to take those… finals I believe? But we did manage to work it out so that you would not lose your credits for this course. Be sure to notify those other people in your class that you’d mentioned were also struggling about this. The counselor mentioned that if enough people told her that they were struggling she would make the other teacher’s class a legitimate continuation of the class rather than an independent study that would get you the credit.”
Sage nodded, taking a bite of orange chicken. “Right. I’ll have to tell Riesling and Amelia at the very least. Ugh. Thank you guys again. There’s so much less pressure on this final now that I know that I won’t have to deal with Daniel next semester. Also for lunch. Thanks for lunch.”
Tony waved her off. “Wait, who’s Daniel?”
“Oh.” Sage flushed lightly. “I- okay, so… Mr. Lafitte? His first name is Danny, and like, that’s his full name. The thing is, Riesling and I started calling him Daniel so that we could bitch about him behind his back without a teacher calling us out for complaining about him or calling him by his first name. I do this weird thing where I call teachers by their first names, but only if I’m either really tight with them or I hate-slash-am irritated with them. Like, I love my Spanish teacher, Mrs. Gates, and I would never call her by her first name. But, my history teacher from last year, Mrs. Grady? I call her Pam all the time. It’s… weird. I don’t even know how it works all the time. Don’t ask.”
Tony laughed. “Alrighty then. Hey, how’s that play coming? You’re doing a play, right? For theatre?”
“Ehhhh.” She winced. “We’re doing two one acts, actually. They’re really, really dumb. I hate them a lot, but it’s what we’re doing so.” She rolled her eyes. “I hate having that class with frickin’ Matthew. Little bastard is so damn annoying and all he’s gotta do is breathe.”
Tony snorted. “One of those guys, huh?”
“Well, yeah, but like no. I just- he sorta dated one of my friends last year, and it was a whole big thing, because he tried to budge his way into my friend group, and he tried to start shit with all of us. It really sucked, because I had found these guys halfway through the year before, and at the beginning of the year last year, I was still kind of trying to feel out where I fit in. And, like, I could see what he was doing, you know, separating our one friend from the group. Trying to get under her skin, and splitting the rest of us apart, but no one else could. And I didn’t know if I should say anything or not. Turns out I should have. He…” She stopped and swallowed hard, looking a little lost. “He went to the movies with my friend, and apparently he like… assaulted her.” Her voice got very quiet at that last part. “And we told the school, our whole friend group and a couple other girls. It was a whole fiasco. All they did was suspend him from a couple of days. And then I got suspended once he came back because I fought him.” She looked proud of herself for that fact. “Broke the asshat’s nose in two places and gave him a black eye that lasted for a month.”
“Good for you!” Tony’s eyes were blazing partially with rage and partially with fury. “Should I get that little bastard expelled?”
Sage shook her head. “It’s not worth it at this point, and I hate saying that. He leaves us alone now. If he does anything more, I’ll tell you though.” She smiled slightly. “Honestly? I super appreciate it that you guys get so worked up on behalf of me and my friends. It’s nice to know that I’ve got someone in my corner.”
Loki reached across the table and gently laid his hand on hers. “We will always support you, Sage. And that extends to your friends, if they need our help as well.”
“Thank you. Seriously. I know I’ve said that a lot the past day or so, but I mean it. Oh! On a separate note.” She laughed at herself. “One of my other foster siblings emailed me the other day. He’s gonna be in the area next week, and I was wondering if it would be okay if I hung out with him for a while while he’s here?”
“Of course. As much as I hate to say it, maybe don’t bring him by the tower, but-”
“I get it. I was kind of hoping you would say that, honestly. Wait, that sounds bad. What I mean is, Sam is a huge Thor fan - I know, I know, Loki - so if I brought him by the tower, I don’t actually think he would spend any time with me. Maybe he can meet the team some other time, but I was just kinda hoping you’d be okay with me and him sort of just exploring the city and stuff.”
“I don’t have a problem with it. One thing, though. I’d like to have Happy follow you. I know he’s a little bit of a wet blanket, but he doesn’t have to do stuff with you, I just want to make sure you’re okay. We’ve been trying to keep you mostly under wraps to keep you out of the press, but just in case I want him there to protect you in case someone decides to kidnap you or something, okay?”
“That sounds reasonable. It’s not the worst thing I’ve had to endure in order to hang out with a friend.”
“Oh?” Loki arched an eyebrow at her. “Do tell, darling.”
“Okay, so, a couple years back, I met my best friend in person for the first time. She’s from Kentucky, and I was in Indiana at the time, but she drove up to attend one of my plays, and so we hung out for a while beforehand. Well, my foster parents at that point were super strict, and so the entire time Tami and I were at the mall, the entire family was two steps behind us the whole time. She and I laughed about it, but ugh it was so annoying. I like Happy. I can handle him.” She smiled at them brightly. “It’s probably a smart idea anyway, since my powers aren’t super useful as self-defense or anything.”
“True, true. Well, kiddo, you ready to go back?”
Sage sighed and buried her face in her arms. “Do I have to?”
“Unfortunately. Why do you like that school enough to stay there, out of curiosity?” Loki looked at her questioningly.
“I love the people there. The teachers kinda suck, and the classes aren’t great, but… My class is like a little family. Complete with assholes who need to shut the hell up all of the time. Also because I’ve been in tiny private schools all my life, and public schools terrify me, honestly. I think I’d get lost in one.”
“No, you wouldn’t.”
“I get lost in my web browsers, Tony. Yes I would.”
The inventor laughed. “Alright, that’s fair. Shall we?”
Sage shrugged. “I guess.”
---
“Sage! How’d the class switch go?”
Sage squinted at Clint slightly. “How’d you know I was switching classes?”
“Bruce told me.” The archer shrugged. “He seemed worried for you. Said your teacher was ‘an imbecile’?”
She grinned. “He put it nicely. Um, yeah. Tony and Loki managed to get my counselor to switch me, and Doctor Banner is going to help me with the rest of what I have to do for this class. Seriously, this guy is a pain in my ass. The… teacher, not Doctor Banner.”
“Got that.” Clint smirked. “Chemistry, right? I am glad I dropped out before I got to that class. It’s required for juniors, isn’t it? Why are you taking it?”
“I’m trying to get all my credits in early. My goal is to get to the point where by senior year all my classes will either be dual credit, or those dumb classes that we can only take one of each year and we have to have one of every year.”
“Like?”
“English.”
“Ah. You know, that’s really smart. Shit, kid. You’re adding to the number of geniuses in this tower. Soon us normal people are gonna be overrun.”
“Pretty sure you’re already there.” She sat on the stool in front of the counter space he was occupying. “Hey, is this yours?” She motioned to the glass of water by his thigh.
“Yeah.”
“Okay, good.” She grabbed it and drank the rest, setting it down with a smug grin. “Thanks.”
“Uh-huh.” He looked down at her and smirked. “I’m glad you’re getting comfortable around here, kid. A couple of weeks ago you wouldn’t have even done that to Bruce.”
“I still wouldn’t do that to Bruce, my dude. I like him too much to steal his stuff.”
“Oh gee, thanks. Ya little shit.”
“Yes? Did you call?”
He laughed and dumped the glass onto her lap. “If you’re gonna be sharing my water at least get me some more.”
“Yessir.” She mock saluted and went to refill the glass, handing it to him upon her return. “So, tell me about your day.”