Saving Grant Ward

Embarrassing Moments

A/N: In honor of hitting 10,000 reads, we're going back in time to revisit Samantha and Grant's most embarrassing moments. There will be multiple POV shifts in this chapter, so just know that Samantha is the normal font and Grant is in bold. Thank you to kath112 for the awesome idea, I'm so excited to write this!!!

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I was almost done with my first year at the Academy. Honestly, I was having a hard time believing it. I had officially decided to become an Specialist, and now my friends and I were getting some training in before we officially started the program.

"Go Samantha go!" cheered one of my friends from the ground. We were outside on the obstacle course, and I climbing through it in record time.

I reached the top of the ladder to a platform, then zip-lined to a lower platform with no harness,  getting a running start in order to go faster. I didn't pause as I moved from my new platform to the massive rope net that spanned a forty-foot gap.

I tried to run straight across, putting my feet at the places where the rope made a cross, and I made it about halfway. I had planned to drop down on all fours to finish crossing when I couldn't run anymore. Unfortunately for me, that's not quite how it turned out.

My foot slipped through the gap between the rope and I went down. Thankfully, my foot got tangled in the rope enough to keep me from hitting the ground, but I still ended up dangling upside down from the middle of the net.

Even worse, I was face to face with my unfriendly guide from the beginning of the year, Grant Ward.

"Hi!" I said brightly, refusing to be embarrassed.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he asked, not even returning my hello.

"Getting ready for the Specialist program."

He scoffed. "If this is how you'll get ready, you'll wash out in the first week."

"Whatever. I'll be top of my class and you'll have to eat your words."

"Uh huh." He started walking again without another word.

"Wait! Aren't you going to help me down?" Grant ignored me and kept walking. "Ugh. That guy is the worst."

My friends were on their way to help me down, but I managed to do an upside down sit up and untangle myself. If I was going to make Ward eat his words, I needed to start being as much of a badass as possible.

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I graduate the Academy in two weeks. I was top of my class, and I was going to make Garrett proud. He'd given me a second chance, and I was going to make the most of it.

One of our final tests included fighting a dozen agents at once, and I was getting all the practice I could. I was in one of the private gyms, whaling on practice dummies. I was meeting up with some classmates for live practice later, but now I was working on a move Garrett had showed me.

It included a twist midair, and I hadn't been able to get it down yet. If I could figure it out before my final, I'd definitely get a hundred percent.

The better I did on my test, the better position I could get in at SHIELD.

I ran towards the dummy, determined to get the move right this time. I jumped and turned, but instead of hitting the dummy and landing on my feet, I missed and fell flat on my back.

"Dammit!" I cursed. At least no one had seen that.

Then, I heard a laugh from the doorway.