I think I need another "Let's see here..." thread.

[Zphal]

Tony Stark, aged 17, as usual was not paying attention in class. Rather he was slumped into the less-than-comfortable plastic chair in the backrow, with a pair of headphones draped around his neck playing Aerosmith loud enough to probably be obnoxious to those nearest him trying to take notes as the teacher lectured. One of those students was Bruce Banner, who sat in the chair ahead of him, hunched over his notebook. Cute kid, really, and the youngest in the class-- everyone besides him and himself were seniors. It was a high level AP course after all. Not to mention, not hard /at all/. Tony tapped his foot on the worn linoleum to the rhythm, mimicking the riff with his fingers in proper air guitar fashion as the song hit the chorus.  

[Zphal]

Bruce’s handwriting skipped a bit off the line, distracted by the too loud music blasting from the speakers of the kid behind him. He took a deep breath, trying not to be bothered by the fact that he now had an awkward slash trough the word bio-metrical. He sighed turning around slightly to address the boy behind him, “is there any chance you can turn that down, or shove them in your ears or something…Not that I dont love uh… whatever that is… but its hard to focus.” He said managing not to stutter sound as scared as he felt.

Tony perked up in his seat when Bruce turned around and addressed him. "Aerosmith," he supplied quickly as he popped the headphones off from around his neck. He held them out, offering them towards the boy with a wolfish grin, "Want a listen?" The 17-year old seemed to be completely ignoring the part where Bruce had expressed the current tune-- Get Your Wings-- was disruptive (also that sharing music in the classroom would probably be frowned upon if noticed by the teacher).  

[Zphal]

Bruce smiled at him sadly, “maybe another time, you know… notes.” he said gesturing to his notebook and then to the teacher who was still mumbling on about lots of things Bruce was sure he would regret missing in a few minutes. He smiled at the nice boy behind him, feeling slightly bad for rejecting his music.

"Uh huh... notes..." Tony said. He scratched at his goatee (which was still growing in), glancing at his own open-- and decidedly /empty/-- notebook. 'Notes!' it occurred to him suddenly. He proceeded to put the headphones over his ears as formerly requested, leaning back in his seat once more to tap the rhythm out with his pencil instead. The highschooler waited for Bruce to turn his attention back to lecture before scribbling a brief message sideways on the corner of the page: 'Another time??' He pinched his tongue in the corner of his lips as he carefully tore it out of the paper, making sure to leave enough space for a reply, then folded it over to conceal it before leaning forward across his desk to poke the other student in the side, offering the small scrap to Bruce with a smile.  

[Zphal]

Bruce gasped a bit at the poke, twisting around to glance at the piece of paper like it was going to bite him before taking it hesitantly and reading the immaculate handwriting at the top. “another time” he mumbled under his breath wondering why the popular boy was even bothering to speak to him let alone express intrest in sharing his music. Bruce sighed scribbling “yeah” in response before he slid the paper back onto the desk of the strange kid behind him.

Tony licked his lips and nabbed the paper up lickety-split, grinning ear-to-ear when he read the response. "Right on," he said, bobbing his head. His quick eyes noticed he'd attracted the attention of the teacher and hastily he tucked the note away in a jean pocket, flipped over the incriminating sheet in his notebook and pretended to be taking notes. He'd approach Banner later in the hall about 'when' and 'where'. Only 15 minutes of class left; patience was not his strong point.  

[Zphal]

Bruce sighed struggling to take down three minutes worth of notes in three seconds before the teacher switched the slides, he didnt know how the kid behind him; Timmy… he thought his name was Timmy, maybe it was something else… he hadnt really been paying attention when the teacher had called role the first few days of school. Either way he didnt know how the kid was passing, obviously he was passing or they would have kicked him out, but he wasnt taking notes, and half the time he just sat in the back of the classroom listening to music. It was like, it bored him. Not that Bruce didnt understand the feeling, AP Chemistry last year had just been a breeze but this was AP Calculus,… it was advanced for college students. It was not a class you just lazed your way trough by passing notes and blasting music. At least not for Bruce anyway, But who knows maybe this Timmy kid was like… a Super Wizz Kid. Bruce rushed to take down the last of the notes as the bell rang before he started to hastily shove his stuff together and into his bag.

"Finally!" Tony leapt up from his seat when the bell went off, not shy about announcing his euphoria. He stuffed his notebook into his backpack, along with his headphones and music player, quickly pulling the zipper shut over the items and slinging it over a single shoulder. He was the first one out of the classroom, but he hung by the door in the hall outside, leaned against the wall in practiced pose-- both hands stuffed into his jeans pockets, a foot over an ankle. Yeah, he looked cool and knew it. He exchanged nods with a few of the seniors he was in good with as they exited the room, but Tony was really waiting for the boy in glasses to emerge.  

[Zphal]

Bruce finished the last few words of his notes slowly, before clipping his notebook into his binder and smoothing off any stray eraser marks before placing his calculator and his binder into his backpack and zipping it shut. “Have a good night Sir.” he said politely before pushing in his chair, and the kid behind him’s and walking out the classroom door.

As the room emptied, Tony started to wonder if that Bruce kid was actually going to come out or just stay in there. He began tapping his foot once more-- he never really could stay still for a terribly long time. It was just as his impatience was almost too much to bear that the younger student finally materialized, and not skipping a beat, Tony plastered a grin a mile-wide on his face. "There you are! I was starting to think you were hiding from me," he said, sidling up to him.  

[Zphal]

“I, er… not…” Bruce stuttered at the close proximity, sidestepping slightly to put space between him and Tony. “I Just didn’t Jump out of the room like it was on fire” he managed tugging on his backpack straps awkwardly. He didn’t really do this whole, friendship thing. His friends hadn’t changed since he was 12, before, everything… Easy to say he was out of practice with talking to anyone he didnt know. He avoided it for the most part, He entertained the thought that perhaps this was one of those things where the popular kids pretend to be your friend and then laugh at how stupid you were for believing them. “so uh, what is this?” he asked gesturing between them, “Because I’m really not looking to be that kid who got a slushie poured on him at homecoming last year when the football team voted him homecoming king and then made fun of him after.” he said, knowing he sounded pessimistic, but it was high school and that was the harsh reality of the situation.

"It /wasn't/ on fire?" Tony asked with faux-incredulousness, looking back at it momentarily in joking gesture. He laughed loudly at the memory of the 'slushie-fiasco', ignoring Bruce's personal space and stepping back close to him. "Nah, nah, nothing like that. I just figure... you're a smart kid, and I could use someone to hang out with this year, you know?" A bunch of his upperclassmen friends had graduated the previous year, and it never hurt to widen your sphere of influence. He'd had his eye on Bruce for the better part of a week and a half-- kid seemed shy, but Tony imagined he could help fix that, and a little geeky, but in the cute sort of way, not the annoying kind.  

[Zphal]

“err, no it wasn’t” he laughed awkwardly fiddling with the straps on his backpack as they walked. At least this wasn’t one of those things, not that someone would have admitted it if it was, but they would have hesitated a bit before lying. Bruce smiled awkwardly, “so, how are you not failing this class already? you pay no attention” he asked honestly confused, he didnt have to work his a** off in this class but he did have to pay attention at least to manage his perfect average.

"I'm paying attention," Tony said defensively. "Could be paying more, but..." he trailed off with a shrug. "I dunno... I've just always learned better from textbooks than lectures. I slack off and cram the night before tests, always seemed to work," the 17-year old grinned. He reached out and delivered a poke to Banner's chest. "You though, you seem like the studious type. Bet all the teachers love you."  

[Zphal]

Bruce laughed slightly uncomfortable, “yeah well apparently teachers cant make up their minds, they ‘worry about me’ because im lacking the social aspect of high school” he scoffed, there wasnt too much to miss, stupid parties with too much alcohol. Dumb games where you tackle other people and slap their asses, and more people who might tick him off and have something horrible happen to them as a result. Social just wasnt something he needed to be. However having… one more acquaintance couldnt really hurt too much. what was wrong with being acquaintances, Bruce’s brain reasoned. “well we have a test next week, I bet if you start studying now you might even beat me.” he laughed, knowing it was unlikely, the year before he hadn’t scored below a 98 on any test given. “I could study with you, if you wanted.” he offered, feeling extremely awkward… was that how you did this… made plans? Jess just kindof showed up whenever she wanted and he didnt hang out with anyone else outside of school. he hoped he hadnt just royally screwed that up.

Tony let his sneakers scuff along the linoleum. "A study-buddy, eh?" he considered aloud-- he rarely ever started studying more than a day or two in advance, but maybe he'd make an exception just this once, he was feeling spontaneous. "Alright, you're on. You free after 8th period?"  

[Zphal]

Bruce smiled, “me? have a social life? hmm you must be thinking of someone else” he joked shifting his back pack to a more comfortable position, he swore with all the giant books he had to lug around he was surprised he didnt have a chiropractor on retainer. “in other words,” he continued, “yeah, im free.”

"Well, you never know," Tony shrugged, "maybe you had chess club or something dorky after school," he jabbed, pushing his elbow into the other student's side. "Where you wanna meet?"  

[Zphal]

Bruce snorted, “The chess club geeks dont even talk to me.” he said with a laugh, not ashamed of how big a dork he really was. “Any where’s fine really, I get a ride home so ill just cancel on her im sure she will be ecstatic.” he said with a smile, one more period left in the day that was it. Unfortunately for him, it was PE…

Tony scratched at his stomach through his shirt. "You like donuts?" he asked, "The donut shop down the road is usually pretty quiet in the afternoon." He had an appetite befitting someone his age, so it wasn't uncommon that he'd nab something on his way home to tide him over until dinner. Not that dinner was terribly elaborate in the Stark household. Usually a TV dinner.  

[Zphal]

Bruce grinned, “is there a human on earth who doesnt like donuts?” he asked incredulously, as if the notion gave him literal pain to think about.

"Then the donut place it is!" Tony grinned. "I'll catch you later on the front steps; this is my classroom," he jerked his head at the door now beside them. "Don't leave me waiting, Brucey," he winked at the kid and gave a click-click with his tongue before dodging inside.  

[Zphal]

Bruce smirked, He didnt even know this kids name for sure and he was making study dates with him, what was wrong with him? Bruce sighed suddenly feeling an overwhelming need to not go to PE. he pulled out his phone, they still had three minutes left in passing period, he sighed. pressing in the number two and hitting the green button he pressed the phone to his ear, “Hey Alexis,… yeah, im fine. Could you get me out of PE?” he asked hopefully knowing his cousins uncanny ability to sound just like his aunt. “thank you so much i love you! you are the absolute best cousin in all of the universe” Bruce grinned turning himself around and making his way to the library, today was going pretty good he thought with a smile.

Tony quickly found his favorite seat in the backrow and plopped into it-- assigned seating was for students who /didn't/ have a rich father donating to the school. His eyes caught on a girl towards the front who was turned around in her seat specifically to stare at him. He didn't know her, but he gave her an alluring grin and nod which caused her to blush and rapidly turn back towards the front. The typical effect. He considered pulling his headphones out once again, but to be honest, he'd listened to most of his current favorite albums already today. Instead he got out his pad of graph paper-- the one filled with schematics for projects he'd dreamt up (mostly during classes when he wasn't paying attention)-- and opened it up to a recent sketch of a rocket. He grinned, clicking his mechanical pencil twice to get the lead out and leaned over to fiddle with the fuselage.  

[Zphal]

Bruce sighed happily at the smell of old dusty books that filled their schools library, he made a bee line for the science section pulled out a book at random and settled down in the abandoned sector of the library. he had read every book from this section and plenty of others from pretty much every section in the library but today felt like a science day. The laws of astrophysics to be precise now that he noted the title of the book. he leaned back against the barely used stacks and cracked open the book.

Tony was so absorbed he didn't even notice when the teacher came in and started lecturing, nor did he immediately notice when he stopped. The man was coming down the row with a stack of papers in his grip, handing one to each student. Oh, quiz time. Tony swept his stuff off his desk and set it on the ground. What class was this again? The teacher extended a sheet to him and he took it, glancing at the top. Economics, riiight. Well, he had ten minutes to figure out the answers; he set to it.  

[Zphal]

Bruce sighed, closing the around 400 page book with a sigh, well that was a interesting read. He thought with a smile, before putting it on the shelf and checking the time, he had 20 minutes left before the period was over, great. He thanked the librarian and wished her a good weekend before making his way to his locker across the school, if he timed things right he would make it to meet that… timmy kid without running into any of the jocks that liked to play human ping pong with him and the lockers.

Okay, so maybe ten minutes wasn't quite enough. Tony winced as the bell rang and all the students that hadn't finished set down their pens. He scribbled the very last of a bullshit answer about consumer demand and handed it forward. That would be a quiz he'd have to make up for some other way. Economics was stupid anyway. He packed up and headed out, moving quickly down the hall with a spring in his step; it wasn't his nature to be bummed out for too long about anything.