Whatever It Takes

chapter 2

October 1st 2007.

As she made her way out the school bus, she felt nervous. It was already her third week in elementary school and she didn't have any friends yet. All the kids in her grade were friends before they started school, and her roommates at the orphanage were all a few years older. She sat in her seat, the second to last bench in the middle row, expecting a boring lesson, something like 1+1=2, and that one girl, Jessica, to ask that is for the third time this week.

But, she got a shy, blue-eyed boy standing next to Mrs. Spencer, a middle-aged woman who basically radiated with happiness. "Ok class, please welcome, all the way from Kansas, your new friend, Lucas Scott! Ok, Lucas, you can sit next to Alex there. Alex, honey, please raise your hand!" She did as she was told, the boy awkwardly making his way to the bench. As he settled in, getting his books out, the teacher carrying on with today's lesson, which was actually pretty easy.

Alex got her hands on whatever book she could find, math, history, engeneering, whatever. The other kids tought she was weird, wanting to learn before even getting in school, but she enjoyed it a lot. Sometimes she even used big words, just to confuse her roommates. She somehow dozed off for the entire lesson, only snapping back when she heard the bell ring. The boy turned to her, "Hi. I'm Lucas. What's your name?" Alex smiled at him, "I'm Alexandra Richardson, nice to meet you Lucas!" 

He smiled at her, which suprised Alex, by the glances she stole at him during the lesson, she conducted that he was not a person of many smiles. Maybe Ms. Cercle, her caretaker back at the orphanage was right, she should lay off big books. At least for a bit. "So, what's your favorite thing to do, Alex?" She smiled back at him, feeling that this was a start of a beautiful friendship.

_________________________________________________________

5 years later 

She was in fifth grade now, and everything was going fine. Well, Tony Stark turned out to be Iron Man, and when that happened, Lucas changed as a person. He was more outgoing, and he wore Iron Man merch a ton those first few months. That was until she managed to drag him along to read some of the books she loaned, one of them being a collection of works by Dr. Bruce Banner.

Now, as ten year olds, Lucas was dead set on becoming an engeneer, in hopes of somehow landing a job at Stark Industries and meeting Dr. Banner in the near future. And Alex? Alex discovered her love for running. She joined her school's running team, getting the school on news because she won 6 medals in one day. And also somewhat like Lucas, she discovered a hero of her own.

Getting her hands on the books about The Howling Commandos, she had a whole phase about Captain America. Their school even hosted a friend of his, Peggy Carter, to speak about him, as the school was named after Cap himself and it was their 60th anniversary. She also noticed that sometimes she would shuffle randomly, and very fast too. She always brushed it off as outcome of not stretching out properly for running.

As the best friends conversed on the school bus on the ride home, well for Alex to the orphanage, they saw a huge hole open in the sky. Everyone on their bus started screaming as an alien broke one of the back windows, the kids from the back quickly scattering forward. The alien suddenly lost a foot of his height, a mop of red hair seen running on the side of the bus. The kids cheered on another man, a blond guy in a dark suit as he helped them out. 

As Lucas and her were one of the last ones, sitting the furthest from the back of the bus, the red haired woman also assisted the man in pulling out the kids. The man smiled, high-fiving a kid from her class with hearing aids, pointing to his ears. Taking a better look, the man had a hearing aid too. "Romanoff, take these kids to safety?" He asked the woman, who nodded, herding them all like sheep.