Middle School Heroes

Chapter 23 - Turkeys and Pigskins

One week later, Skye found herself back in the Commons with a large group of people learning dances of the 1950's. Peggy heavily promoted this event and Skye had even helped make posters after getting roped into it one night when she had very little homework. Peggy, Steve and Bucky were all three history nuts for anything from the 1930's/40's, and the 1950's dances were apparently similar enough.

The instructor started out with Swing dancing, and Skye was learning with Clark Kent. It was easy to get Clark to come, especially when Skye mentioned that Carol would be there. He wasn't the most coordinated guy in the school, but when you were his size, coordination probably wasn't easy. Still, he got the moves well enough and soon they were doing a passible swing. When it was time to switch partners, Skye made sure that they were right next to Carol, and gently pushed Clark, much to his chagrin, toward her. She knew from dorm room conversations that Carol thought that Clark was sweet, so she was quite pleased when he asked her to dance.

The instructors made them switch partners often, so Skye danced with almost everyone there. Ward was thrilled when she danced with him, and she was thrilled that the dance was fast and involved a lot of concentration, so she didn't have to talk to him. Rumlow managed to call her Skye when he asked her to dance the Jive, and just like with the Asgardian dancing, he seemed to catch on quickly. Of course, he couldn't resist calling her Sunshine again before they switched partners.

The last dance they learned was a slow dance, similar to a waltz. Skye was surprised that she hadn't been asked by her usual dance partner at all that night, so she was pleased when Clint finally asked her to dance.

"I haven't seen much of you tonight," she said as they were practicing the box step.

"Yeah, every time I headed over to you, someone else beat me to it." He shrugged. "Sorry you had to dance with Ward and Rumlow again."

"Ehh...It wasn't too bad. Ward didn't have time to talk to me, and I think that Rumlow is just playing with me, you know, like a cat before it eats a mouse?"

Clint frowned. "Well, you won't have to worry about them over the next few days while you're in New York City, I guess."

"Yeah, I guess that's true. I'm gonna miss our Saturday practice tomorrow, though. I think I'm getting pretty good at archery. I suspect in a few hundred years I might be able to beat you. Sparring too, because you never know when I am going to have to beat someone up."

He snorted and spun her around the way the instructor just taught them to do. "We can go when you get back."

They learned more steps before the instructor had them practice to a whole song. Skye and Clint didn't move to switch partners for the last song, but Tony and Harleen playfully admonished them for not following the rules, before making them split up with them

**********

Skye spent the next four nights with the Parkers in New York. They still kept their apartment in the city, so Skye got to see where Peter grew up. They took her to see the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and all of the other tourist sights. She and Peter had a great time at Dylan's Candy Bar. Aunt May had to limit their candy purchases or they would have both spent all of their pocket money.

Skye learned that a few years ago, after Peter was bitten by a radioactive spider on a field trip, he started developing his abilities. The Parkers were looking for help, and came across Professor Xavier. A trip out to see him confirmed that Peter did not have the mutant gene, but he told them about his plan to expand his school to include other kids like Peter. When the school opened a year later, he offered both Parkers positions with the staff. Peter spent his fifth grade year being home schooled, before he could start the school this year.