Middle School Heroes

Chapter 41 - Running and Playing Games

Skye was glad for school to start up again and for things to get back to normal. Well, sort of. She had a ton of make-up work to do. Apparently getting kidnapped wasn't enough of an excuse for missing assignments, so she had to double up her workload to catch up. She and Clark were able to work on their Science assignments and labs during Special Interest, and thanks to Clint, Bruce Banner and Loki, she was mostly caught up in History and Geometry. She managed to catch up with Computer Science during class and English after school, although she was pretty sure that Professor Coulson was just giving her busy work in an effort to keep an eye on her.

Some people were still full of questions about what happened while they were gone, and she really didn't feel like talking about it anymore. She was looking forward to the weekend so she could hide out a little, spend time with the people who weren't questioning her about everything, and maybe try to get more sleep.

Sleeping was still an issue, but Skye wasn't the only one having issues with it. Diana wasn't sleeping much and Anna Marie confessed to them that she was having nightmares. When she did sleep, Skye would wake up after a short time surprised to find herself not in the cell. She tried her best to cover it up, but she could tell that people were starting to notice, even if most of them didn't say anything. She was grateful for that, because she wouldn't know what to say about it anyway.

Sam, however, wasn't going to let it go that easily. After school on Friday, he was waiting on the steps of the dorm when she, Natasha and Felicity arrived after Special Interests. "Hey guys," he said, as they walked up the steps. "Skye? Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure," she shrugged. She looked at Natasha and Felicity. "I'll see you guys at dinner?"

"Yep. Here, let me take your bag up. If Wanda isn't in your room, I'll just put it in mine for now," Felicity suggested, as she took her backpack from her.

Skye followed Sam to a bench near the basketball court. It was getting dark quickly and she couldn't help noticing that he took her to one of the furthest benches from the woods, in a well-lit area. She wasn't sure if it was on purpose, but she was relieved. She knew that she needed to get over it, but she wasn't quite ready to be running around the woods in the dark yet, at least not without a large group of people.

"So I just wanted to check with you and see how you were doing."

"I'm doing a lot better. I'm glad that this week is over though, because I've had a lot of school work. The weekend will be a nice change."

He frowned at her. "Wanda says that you're still not sleeping."

"Well, yeah, but I'm sleeping some. I'm trying, at least." She knew Wanda was aware of her lack of sleep, but when she mentioned it, Skye just laughed it off with a joke that she really wished that Wanda could just knock her out. She thought it made Wanda feel better, but if she was talking to Sam about it, it obviously hadn't.

"Clint and Pepper say that you're falling asleep in classes, too."

Skye sighed. "Okay, yeah, but I'm sure it is just adjusting to being back home and all the craziness."

His frown turned into what was an unmistakable look of worry. "Have you thought about talking to someone, Skye? That's what Mr. Sitwell is supposed to be here for, but if you didn't want to talk to him, there is always Dr. Storm or Coulson, maybe?"

"Well, no, but we've only been back for a few days. I thought I'd give it some time before I made a big deal about it."

"Okay, well, I was thinking that tomorrow morning, you should join me, Steve and Bucky for our morning run. I know you're probably going to archery with Clint, but we'll meet at 6:30am, and I'll tell him that we'll be at breakfast by 8:00am. I have flying practice anyway."