Chapter Text
Being the new kid was hard. Being the new kid in senior year was harder. Being the new kid in senior year from another country was... Well you get the point.
Bucky would have rather stayed in Russia to finish his schooling, but no, his parents insisted they move back to America right in time for senior year.
Luckily, language wasn't an obstacle. Bucky was born in America. It wasn't until he was seven, that his family had moved to Russia. They moved to be closer to his mother's side of the family. She was born and raised in Russia, so she had taught Russian to Bucky from a young age, and he was bilingual by five.
Moving to Russia was pretty traumatizing at first for a seven year old. He was ripped away from life as he knew it and placed on an entirely new continent. He had to leave behind all of his friends, including his very best friend, Steve Rogers. They were practically glued to the hip as kids, and Bucky cried for days when he found out he would be leaving him.
After the move, the boys tried to keep in touch. Their parents helped them write letters, and occasionally set up a phone call, but it didn't last long. Bucky made new friends in Russia, and Steve made new friends at home. The only interaction they had had in ten years was a simple friending of Facebook when they were fourteen. Other than that, they led entirely different lives.
Even when Bucky came back to school a month ago, Steve didn't even say one word to him. Bucky quickly learned how different he was. He was no longer the scrawny little Stevie he had grown up with. He was Steve Rogers, captain of the football team, star of the track team, and heartthrob of the senior class. He hung out with the popular crowd now, the same group that used to tease him in elementary school. Bucky decided to keep his distance from him. Instead he hung out with one of his old friends Clint, who introduced him to his group of friends. Clint's friends were basically the opposite of Steve's friends. They were a group of loners, losers, and geeks. But they were nice people to hang around, even if they were a little weird, and Bucky fit right in.
"-and congratulations to the football team on their fourth straight win last night, thanks to a last minute touchdown by Steve Rogers. Go Patriots!" Across the class, Bucky watched Steve receive multiple slaps on the back, and even a ruffle of his hair from his friends. "That concludes the morning announcements, enjoy your day." The intercom beeped as the announcements ended.
Bucky tore his eyes from the jock's celebration to the front of the room. To Bucky's annoyance, even Mr. Coulson started to congratulate Steve.
"What would this school do without Steve Rogers?" The teacher said beaming with pride, as if he was his own son. "Great job." Steve had even the teachers under his spell.
Bucky rolled his eyes. He couldn't care less about sports or the popular crowd. All he wanted was to get his work done and graduate already.
Mr. Coulson began to write on the board. "Alright class, open your textbooks to page 538. We are going to start discussing D-Day."
Bucky opened his book but kept Steve in the corner of his eye. He still couldn't believe how much he had changed. When Bucky left, Steve was not even four feet tall. He was a fragile kid with a bad immune system, asthma, and a bad temper. Now he was huge, taller than Bucky even, with muscles so big it looked like he could rip right through his shirt. He no longer seemed sickly, with a constant cough and stuffy nose. He was practically a new man. He still had some anger issues, but he took those out on the football field. As for his asthma? Who knows where that even went.
Bucky turned away from Steve and went back to listening to Mr. Coulson drone on about World War II, but he couldn't get the image of Steve Rogers out of his head.
-
"Hello, Bucky. Welcome to lunch! How are you today?" Thor spoke slow and loudly in formal English as Bucky approached the lunch table. Thor wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, and for some reason couldn't wrap his head around the fact that Bucky could speak perfect English. He had only developed a slight Russian accent.
"I'm just great Thor, thanks for asking!" Bucky said, his voice laced with sarcasm. Thor didn't catch on and just gave him a smile, wrapping his arm tighter around his girlfriend, Jane. Jane ate her lunch quietly, while next to her, her best friend Darcy stuffed her face with cafeteria mashed potatoes.
Jane rolled her eyes, "Darce, you're eating like a pig."
Darcy gave her a look, saying she didn't care, and she kept eating.
"That is sickening." Loki scoffed at Darcy. She made a face at him. They didn't always get along very well. Darcy only say at their table because Jane did.
"Hey, where's Bruce?" Darcy questioned, swallowing her current mouthful of food.
They looked around for their friend, and if on cue, he came up to the table, clutching his nose.
"Oh god, Bruce. What the hell happened to you?" Clint raised his eyebrow.
"Rumlow." Bruce muttered, and they all nodded in understanding. "I refused to do his science project, so he punched me." His voice was stuffy. "And they say I have anger issues."
Jane looked concerned, "Did you tell a teacher?"
"More importantly, did you punch him back?" Bucky added.
Bruce shook his head the best he could without hurting his nose, "Nah, my therapist told me to stop fighting back. It's just a little bit of a bloody nose, nothin' I can't handle."
"Stupid Rumlow." Thor grumbled.
"He might have punched me more, but Steve stopped him." Bruce said.
Bucky turned to him, "Steve? Steve Rogers?"
"No, Steve Irwin." Bruce said sarcastically, "Yes, Steve Rogers. He told Rumlow to stop. Shoved him up a wall and everything. It was pretty entertaining. You know how scared Rumlow gets of Steve."
Bucky couldn't help but grin a little. That was just like the Stevie he had known. Always standing up for the little guy.
"Ah yes. That's my man, Steve." Thor nodded in approval. Thor was also on the football team. He was one of the biggest and strongest, and the team really needed him. He wasn't that close to the rest of the jocks, though. Bucky didn't know why he chose to hang out with this group of geeks instead, even before he started dating Jane.
"Alright, I think I'm good." Bruce removed his hands from his nose, a little bit of blood stained on them.
"Ew." Darcy turned away.
Loki rolled his eyes, "Oh sure, you think that's gross." Darcy shot him a glare.
-
Bucky was relieved when he finally got to his last class of the day. Monday was finally almost over. He rounded the corner toward his math class and resisted the urge to gag.
Standing by the door way was none other than Steve Rogers and his little blonde girlfriend, Sharon Carter, practically making out as they parted ways for class.
They were the school's 'it' couple, or as Bucky perfected, 'ick' couple. They were practically always together, either sucking faces or holding hands.
"Love you babe, good luck at practice. I will see you tomorrow." Sharon kissed him again before turning to head to her own class with a final wave. She acted as if he was heading off to war, rather than math class. Steve said a quick bye, then headed into the room.
Bucky hated Sharon with Steve. It just seemed gross and weird to him. Especially because he heard that last year, Steve dated Sharon's cousin, Peggy. Apparently there was a huge upset over that.
Bucky followed shortly behind, taking his seat in the back of the class. He watched Steve join his friends, giving Tony a high five.
"Hey Steve! Great to see you, you're just in time!" Bucky overheard Tony's loud and boisterous voice. It wasn't even eavesdropping, Tony was just that loud.
"Just in time for what?" Steve asked.
"To hear about the spectacular, super, extremely awesome party I'm throwing Saturday!" Tony said, making use of practically every cool adjective in his vocabulary. "You're all invited! Even you girls." He shot a wink to a group of girls, who blushed and giggled. Tony's girlfriend, Pepper, hit his shoulder and glared at him. He made it up to her by kissing her.
Tony Stark, son of the legendary Howard Stark, was the richest kid in school, and he made sure everyone knew it by hosting huge raging parties at his mansion whenever his parents were out. Bucky had never attended, mainly because he has only been back here for a month, but also because he didn't really want to. It was usually all the popular kids who went, and Bucky wasn't interested in being there with them. None of his friends ever went, but they all heard the stories. Like how much people drank there, when the police showed up, and even when someone threw a two thousand dollar vase off a balcony. It definitely wasn't Bucky's crowd.
So that's why he would never attend one of Tony Stark's parties.