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Pulling into the parking lot Bucky felt the anxiety well up inside him, middle school intimidated him growing up and even nearly twenty years later and no longer being a student, it still had the same gut wrenching effect on him. Grabbing his bag from the backseat he got out of the car and made sure he'd locked it before walking up towards the main building; it was still fairly quiet with it only being quarter to eight in the morning and classes not starting for another forty-five minutes. He took a deep breath before walking in through the large main doors and towards the reception area, it's been a long time since Bucky was a student at this school and everything had changed so much.
"Hi," Bucky said, adjusting his bag on his shoulder and smiling politely at the receptionist.
"Good morning, can I help you?" she said, smiling back.
"Yeah, uh, I'm James Barnes, the new English Lit teacher, I have a copy of my timetable but I'm not totally sure where I'm supposed to be going."
"Barnes... Barnes..." she said, typing into her computer, "Ah, yes, Barnes James room 203... that's down the corridor to your left, go up the first staircase to the second floor and you'll come to a set of doors, go through them and it's the second room on the right." Bucky just blinked at her.
"Through there," He said pointing to the left, "First staircase, second floor, through the doors, second room on the... right?" the receptionist laughed.
"That's exactly it, any problems just come back here and I'll help you out and if you can't see me just ask for Sharon and I'll be happy to help." Bucky took a step back and saluted at her,
"Thank you." he said, walking towards the corridor and making his way to his class room. He still had half an hour to prepare for his lesson.
Entering his classroom he had to stop for a moment to just look around, the sense of familiarity washing over him and he could remember running through the halls of the same school with his best friend. He walked over to the front desk and pulled out his timetable and his first lesson plan; he had three classes to teach but only had two periods today which were first and last and he was already feeling nervous. He'd been teaching for years, his students always did well and he never had many serious problems but the only difference this time was the fact he was taking over a teacher halfway through an academic year which meant the students had already been taught the first half of the topic and Bucky was worried about having a teaching technique too different from their original teacher that they get confused.
He pulled out the pen-drive, laptop and login details from his bag and walked to the set up point near his desk. Once he finally managed to connect everything to his laptop and managed to get the school system on his laptop and got his presentation up on the whiteboard, the students were beginning to mill around the corridors; the chatter of thirteen year olds filling his ears didn't help ease his nerves at all. Checking his phone he saw a good luck text from his best friend, which helped boost his confidence as he opened the doors and allowed to students to start getting settled. Once the classroom was pretty full and the last bell had rang through to tell the students they should be in class now, Bucky walked to the front of the class room and leaned against his desk.
"Good morning class," he said, "I know this must be really weird having a new teacher half way through the year because it's a little weird for me as well, I know a few of you may recognise me from when I came in for the teaching interview but most of you have no idea so I'll introduce myself to you and if there's any questions feel free to ask," he smiled at the class, a few smiled back but when the rest of the class just stayed stoic Bucky realised he had his work cut out for him, "I'm Mr Barnes, I'm taking over from Miss Maximoff and I've had many years of teaching experience and I'm all up to date with where you are within the module, it'll take me awhile to get to know everybody's names but if I get them wrong just let me know but I'll do my best to learn them."
"Where are you from?" one of the students asked, Bucky couldn't help but feel a little more at ease.
"What's your name?"
"Eddie."
"Okay, Eddie, to answer your question I'm from Brooklyn, I was a student at this school once as well."
"I thought you had a twang of Brooklyn, what school were you at before this?"
"Oh, uh, I was actually teaching in Romania before this," The class started talking among themselves for a moment, "I'd been teaching there for three years before coming back here, now," he clapped his hands together, "If there are no more questions let's get started on teaching, I hope you all have your copy of The Merchant of Venice with you because according the notes left behind from Miss Maximoff that you have finished with the prose, which I will go back over before we start the poetry module." the class groaned but still pulled their textbooks out of their bags and onto their desks, those who forgot them just sharing with students next to them. Just as Bucky clicked onto the first slide to get started there was a knock on the door.
"Hey Miss M, just here to..." Bucky turned to face whoever it was talking, he was kinda shocked to see an adult, possibly a teacher, stood in the doorway and not a student with how causal he spoke, "Oh..."
"Miss Maximoff left last week, I'm her replacement." the guy tapped himself on the head and laughed.
"Oh yeah, how could I forget that, sorry man," he walked into the room and held his hand out to Bucky to shake, "Wilson, I'm the guidance counselor."
"Barnes, English Lit... obviously." He said shaking his hand, the guy laughed again, "Was there anything I could actually help you with or was your goal just to disrupt my lesson?" Bucky asked, hint of a smirk on his lips which he knew this Wilson caught on because he smirked back as he let go of Bucky's hand and took a step back.
"Just popping my head in to remind Robyn about our meeting today," he turned his head to face one of the students, "Still on for two?" the girl nodded.
"Yeah, I'll be there." She said, smiling widely and Bucky couldn't help but feel a little bit annoyed with how they were all happy and quite smiling to see this Wilson but half of them look like they don't want to give Bucky the time of day.
"Brilliant."
"Okay, now you've asked that and disrupted my lesson, how about you pop your head and your whole body back out of my room so I can continue with my lesson?" Wilson laughed again and Bucky couldn't tell if it was pissing him off or if he really liked hearing it... it was a fine line.
"Alright then Barnes... see you around." he flashed him a smile before walking back out of the classroom. It took a couple of seconds for Bucky to realise he was still staring after him thinking 'what the hell was that?' before he snapped back to reality and realised he had a class to teach.
"So," he stood up straight and looked at the class; there were now a range of facial expressions on his students faces, smirks and boredom with a sprinkle of smiles from some of the girls at the back, "Who can tell me anything about A Merchant of Venice?"
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Make sure you've all got your notes because your homework tonight is to...”“Homework?” One student interrupted, Bucky turned to face his class.“Yes, homework.”“But Miss Maximoff doesn't set homework on a Monday, it's always on a Wednesday and we hand it in on Friday.” Bucky sighed, this wasn't the first time today that a student pointed out that he was different to their previous teacher.“And I'm setting it on a Monday, in for a Wednesday, it's not a very long piece for you to do.”“That's really unfair, why would you change it? Why can't we just keep it the same?”“Because I set it on a Monday, it's just the way it is,” Bucky said, “It's the same amount of time between my set times and Miss Maximoff's, I don't know why you're making a big deal out of it.”“Whatever.” The student just rolled his eyes and slouched back in his chair, Bucky couldn't help feeling a little bit victorious.“Like I was saying, I want you to go through your notes and write a profile on each of the characters we have met so far and...” the bell rang signalling home time and all the students started packing their bags and running off, leaving Bucky stood there mouth still open with his unfinished sentence hanging off his tongue, “And make sure you've written that down so that you don't forget,” Bucky said to an empty classroom, “It's in for Wednesday but don't worry about it being super detailed, I just want to make sure you have a basic understanding so far and...” He jumped when a knock on his door interrupted him.“You do realise that they've all gone home right?” Bucky rolled his eyes.“Oh Wilson, I'd say you're back to interrupt my lesson but like you said, they're gone,” He rose an eyebrow, “So, what can I do for you?”“Just came to check that you've survived the first day, I know how hard they are.”“Oh,” Bucky stood up straight, he hadn't expected that, “It went... okay?”“You don't sound so sure.”“Well, it's early days and I'm still alive so that has to count for something.” Wilson laughed and this time Bucky couldn't help but smile.“You're a funny one Barnes, anyway, I gotta run so I'll see you around?” Bucky nodded.“Yeah, sure thing.”“If you ever need me, I'm in my office most of the time, feel free to knock on my door.” He smiled at him before walking off.“Okay...” Bucky rubbed the back of his neck, a little unsure of what just happened there and why the schools guidance counselor was coming to see him again. He shrugged his shoulders and went about packing up his stuff so he could leave; first days were always weird.“Bucks! I've missed you man." Steve said, smiling widely on the computer screen in front of him."Missed you too, where's Tones?" Bucky said, picking up his laptop from where it was on the kitchen counter"He's napping right now, he's just been so busy lately, he needed it... anyway, how was your first day?”“Fine thank you.” Bucky said, putting the laptop down on the island so he could sit down with his coffee.“You don't sound very fine? What's happened?” Steve's smile dipped into a frown slightly.“Nothing serious, I just... I don't know, maybe starting a new job at a new school with a new class halfway through a year was a stupid idea.”“Why?”“They hate me Steve, every time I do something remotely different to Wanda they call me out for it, spent half my first lesson in a debate that the reason I pronounce Venice differently to their previous teacher was because she's from Sokovia and I'm not.”“They sound like a handful,” Steve said, “But it's only the first day, things might get better?”“I hope so, don't think I'll cope for the rest of the year if it doesn't,” Bucky laughed, “But some of the staff are nice, the receptionist, Sharon, is lovely and so helpful since I kept getting lost.”“Lost? That's our old school Bucks? How do you get lost?”“It's not the same, Steve, honestly it's bigger? The room numbers have changed, pretty sure my room now used to be our maths room.”“Oh, but I swore English was located right at the top of the school at the very back? I spent most of my time complaining to Tony last week about how steep those stairs were and how you'd hate getting up there.”“Thankfully, I'm only on the second floor.” Bucky heard footsteps come closer to Steve, the sound of yawning before Steve's boyfriend came into view, pressing a kiss against Steve's cheek.“Hey babe.” he said, smiling sleepily.“Hey Tony.” Bucky said, laughing when Tony jumped slightly.“Jesus, hey Bucky, sorry didn't even realise Steve was video calling you,” Tony said, smiling as he rubbed his eyes, “You really should let me install my new computer system in, you wouldn't need to use a laptop to face time.”“Yeah, I don't think that my landlord would be very happy if I started, ya know, building computer systems within her walls.”“Just you wait, I'm going to build you the most amazing house with an extension of JARVIS so you could facetime us whenever you want and... I need to write these plans down.”“Calm down Tony, you don't need to build me a house, I'm perfectly content with just having my little flat thank you.”“That's what you say now but wait until...”“Bucky was telling me about his first day at work,” Steve interrupted, Bucky knew it was to get Tony to stop going on about the house but he could still see the ideas flashing through Tony's brain, “Apparently his students are annoying and not really giving him a chance.”“Oh, that sucks, I guess it'll just take some time to get used to everything.” Tony said.“Yeah, I mean it's only the first day and I checked my timetable earlier I meet my other class tomorrow so maybe one nice class out of three would be good.”“Bucky was also telling me about a nice receptionist he's met who sounds like she's taken quite a liking to him.” Tony smirked and Bucky could already feel a blush forming.“Oh yeah? She hot?” Steve nudged him and Tony laughed, “Ow babe, you know I only have eyes for you... and I'm gay, I'm only asking for Buck, ya know?”“Well, yeah, she is cute,” his mind tried to pull up an image of her which should have been easy since she was with him most of the day helping him out when Wilson came straight to his head, “But, not really interested.”“Oh man, come on you haven't been with anyone since Nat and I know you both thought you'd be together forever but you split up three years ago and she's...” Tony stopped talking.“She what?” Bucky hadn't spoken to Natasha much since they split up and he moved to Romania.“She's dating Clint now... they're having kids and...” Bucky smiled.“I'm happy for her, maybe I should get in touch with her, it's been a while.”“I don't know what reaction I expected but it wasn't that.” Steve said, looking a little concerned.“I loved Natasha, I really did and I think I always will but we ended things before things got ugly between us and we've both had enough space to move on and she has and that's brilliant and Clint is a great guy... maybe I do need to move on with someone else too but I also need to survive this class.”“So... if Sharon isn't the gal for you...” Tony said, “Is there anyone who might be?” once again his mind snapped back to Wilson.“I think I made a weird friendship with the guidance counselor there,” Bucky said, “He kept interrupting my lessons and then came to see me at the end of the day to make sure I made it through.”“They sound great, who are they?”“Wilson, I don't know his first name but he doesn't know mine either.”“When we're back, Tony and I are having a little get together and you should bring him.” Steve said.“Whoa, I don't even know if were that type of friends yet.” Bucky said.“Well it's not like we're coming home tomorrow, still have a month left before we come back.”“Yeah, it's alright for some, where are you now on this marvellous Stark tour you're on?” Bucky said.“Edinburgh, then it's Wales, then down to London and Manchester before we go France... Bucky you' have to come to Tokyo with us one day, that was amazing.”“Do it outside of term time and I'm in.”“Email us your terms and stuff and leave it to me Buckaroo,” Tony said, “Sorry to have to end this call now but Stevie and I have to get going in an hour or so and we need to get ready.”“Alright, yeah speak to you later.”“Love you Bucks.”“Love you too, kid.” Steve and Tony smiled before cutting off the connection. Bucky sighed, everything was so quiet without their voices and they've been gone for two months already, at least when he lived away Tony could afford to jet them both to Romania for monthly visits.Logging onto Facebook he couldn't help but smile seeing he had a friend request from a Sam Wilson. He clicked accept and within minutes he got a message.
Hey Barnes, ur a difficult guy to find when I only knew a last name, lucky for me Sharon let it slip when we were talking about the newbie (that u):) hope im not interrupting again;)'