Swallowed in Flame

Chapter 9

I stood in front of the building I was meeting Natasha at. I fumble with my shirt sleeves. I had my dark brown hair pulled into a messy bun. 

"Nope. I'm leaving," I say quickly and turn to leave. "Hey Hailey there you are," I hear Natasha say, "Where have you been?" I turn around quickly. I look at my phone to see the time and it's only 7:55. "Um, I just got here and didn't know where to go," I explain, "also it's only 7:55 so." "Well follow me then," she says and then is briskly walking into the building. I speed to catch up to her. 

"Have you ever done any training like this before?" she asks me as I catch up. "Nope. Dad wouldn't let me. He was scared I would accidentally kill someone," I say quietly. I didn't want to give to much away. Getting close to people was hard because they would probably just leave like everyone else in my life but whatever. "Why would you accidentally kill someone?" Natasha asks and we turn a corner in the large building. "Um, well, I just. I don't know. I just, fire is hard to control when you are as emotional as me," I say. We walk down a hallway with a lot of doors and go into one at the end. "What do you mean someone as emotional as you?" she asks me. There was someone else in the room. It was a middle age man. My eyes study him like a hawk would look at prey. He had dirty blonde hair and looked tired. Probably has kids or something like that. 

The man squirms slightly at all the attention that I'm giving him. "Are you just gonna stare at me?" he asks. I purse my lips and look around the room. "My fire goes along with my emotions. Anger means a sudden burst of fire. Sadness is hard to use fire through but still possible. Happy is just like more energy in using fire. Fear or panic is impossible to use my fire. Calm is easiest since I'm not distracted by emotion," I say answering Natasha's question as my eyes scanning the room around me.

The room was obviously a training room. It had a high roof and there was a wall with training weapons like staffs and stuff like that. There was a small rock wall, weights, and a few mats. "Oh. That's interesting," Natasha says. "Clint this is Hailey Stark. I'm sure you know of her," Natasha explains to the man. "Clint huh. That's a fun name," I say my attention going back to the man. "How many kids do you have?" I ask him. Natasha and Clint both look at me in shock. "What? You can see more obvious crease lines on his face showing he has been through a lot of stress or something like that. He seems presentable but open to me and since I'm younger it would seem odd since most adults without children don't really understand kids. Your faces of shock also show that I was right in assuming he had kids," I explain. "Nat you said she could figure things out quickly, you didn't say that she could figure everything out," he breathes out. "I didn't know she could," Natasha says. I snort slightly. "You guys are weird. Also aren't you supposed to be training me or something like that?" I ask. "Oh yeah we were just going to start with some basic fighting techniques and Clint was going to help me," Natasha explains.

Now that I really saw her she seemed... intense, yet there was something in her past that haunted her. You could tell by the way she would speak about her self or how she spoke to others. She still had intense confidence something I didn't have. "Ok well where do we start or are we just going to stand here?" I ask. Clint laughed at that slightly. They seemed really uptight about everything. Well, I guess they are assassins so that makes sense.

I get back home after the week of staying at the Shield building. I would stay at the Shield building Monday through Friday and the weekends I got to go home. It was like school all over again. Training had been brutal though. I slam the door shut behind me. Dad and Pepper jumped slightly. They were in the living room sitting on the couch watching tv. I walk into the living room and flop onto one of the couches face first. I groan into the soft fabric of the couch.