#hell i graduated as a valedictorian with the highest test scores in my high school

[halfdeadwallfly]

the only thing getting me through is the thought that i don't have physics lab next week

[ofstarsandvibranium]

Greatest Work

Fandom: Marvel (High School AU)

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Summary: You and James “Bucky” Barnes are tied to be the valedictorian at your high school graduation. Throughout senior year, you and James compete with each other to see who will be the valedictorian and give that heartwarming, end of High School speech.

A/N: angst if you squint. also bucky and reader are super smart. unlike me irl.

James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes was the golden boy at SHIELD High School. He was the star quarterback, good looking, kind, funny, and, most of all, smart. He was also your biggest academic rival. 

You two were always at each other’s throats.Trying to get the best grade in every class, on every test, for every project, etc. No matter how hard you tried, James was constantly at your level and you hated it.

You nervously sat in Principal Fury’s office. Beside you sat none other than Bucky Barnes himself. Fury, leaned against his chair, his one eye glancing back and forth to you and Bucky.

“So, since we’ve hit the middle of the year, I’d like to inform you that both of you are tied to be valedictorian for your graduating class. Unfortunately, only one of you can be it. The person with the highest grade point average will be anointed that position. I don’t expect you to see this as a competition, but I’d just like you to know what’s at stake here.”

Bucky cleared his throat, flashing a smile that always seemed to charm the teachers, staff, and, well, pretty much anyone, “I just like to say, sir, that I don’t see this as a competition at all,” he turns to you and smirks, “-because I’m clearly going to win.”

Your jaw and fists clenched together as you glared at Bucky, “Then may the best student win, Barnes.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I will.” he picked up his backpack and waltzed out of Fury’s office, head held high. 

You immediately stood up, grabbing your own back, and marching out the door, Fury mumbling out, “Good luck,” before you slammed it shut.

________________________________

“He is insufferable, Billy!” you exclaimed at your computer as you facetimed with your best friend, Billy Russo, “All he does is flash a smile, say something funny, and everyone falls at his feet! He thinks he’s the king of the school!”

“Y/N, he kind of is,” Billy notes.

“He isn’t! And I’ll prove it when I’m the one who gets a perfect score on Selvig’s final project! Barnes won’t know what’ll hit him and it’ll me who’ll be giving that valedictorian speech at graduation!” you say with an proud and somewhat evil smile.

Billy gives you a concerned look through your screen, “Do you even know what you’re going to make? He expects an impeccable invention that no one has thought of before.”

You nod, “Trust me, Bill, I got it in the bag.”

________________________________

“She’s so annoying, Steve! Such a stuck up, prissy chick! She doesn’t know how to have fun or take a joke or anything! And she honestly thinks that she’ll get to be valedictorian. Against me!” he snorts, “Can you believe that?!”

Steve shrugs as he watches his best friend hunch over his desk, tinkering away at his project for Dr. Selvig’s final project, “She is pretty smart, Buck,” he mumbles out.

Bucky scoffs, “Not as smart as me though. Has she been offered a scholarship to MIT, Stanford, Harvard, and Yale? I don’t think so!”

“Why’s it such a big deal to be valedictorian then if you have all these scholarships offered to you?”

“I don’t care about being valedictorian, Stevie, it’s just the principle of the thing.”

“Which is?”

Bucky glances over his shoulder with a smile, “That I’m better than Y/N L/N.”

_____________________________

For months now, you’ve been spending all of your time perfecting your project. You just knew you were getting that A+ from Dr. Selvig and you couldn’t wait to rub it in Bucky’s face.

You waltzed into the gym where the presentations were going to be held. All of Dr. Selvig’s students were given the same project: to create an invention made to help the misfortuned. You decided to make a prosthetic arm made out of a titanium-alloy. It could sync up to your brain which allowed it to move however the person wanted it to. 

You walked towards the table set ups, all of which were labelled for each student. Ironically enough, your table was next to Bucky’s. 

“Y/N,” he says with a smirk, looking incredibly proud.

You rolled your eyes as you set your project onto your table, “Barnes.”

“So? What did you end up making?”

“Well let me show you,” you opened your box which held your project. You set it on the table.

Bucky snorted, “Wow. An arm made out of aluminum foil. Gotta say, doll, not your best work.”

Your eyes glared when you picked up the synthetic skin chip and pressed it behind your ear, allowing it to stick to your skin. You clasped your hands together in front of you, eyes still narrowed at Bucky. 

“What’re you-”

“Shut up and watch, Barnes,” you sneered. He kept his eyes on the arm and watched as it twitched to life. The fingers wiggling around and oh so slowly did the middle finger raise up.

Bucky’s eyes widened, “Holy shit.”

You smirked, “You’re right on one thing, Barnes, it’s not my best work. It’s my greatest work.”

“Y/N!” you turn to see Billy at the gym’s entrance, waving at you.

“Hey!” you turn to Bucky with a glare, ”touch my project and you die, Barnes.” you then ran over to meet Billy, the glare that was once on your face was gone, now replaced with a smile.

Bucky’s heart dropped when he saw Billy encompass you with a hug. There was a funny feeling in his stomach and he couldn’t figure out why. 

His eyes glanced from you and Billy to your project. A darkness filled within him. He had a plan. A very terrible plan, but he didn’t know how to execute it. 

“Hey, Buck!” Steve exclaimed as he walked toward Bucky with a lunch tray. A cup of water balanced on top. Perfect.

Bucky rushed up to Steve, “Hey, Stevie, lemme get that for ya, pal.” grabbing the tray from him, “So, how’s it goin’?” Steve began to talk about his day so far, but Bucky wasn’t paying any attention. His head just nodding and saying, “Uh huh,” every second or so. When they got to his and yours table, Bucky “tripped”, the food and water on the tray flying forward and landing exactly on your project.

There was a crackling sizzle and a puff of smoke billowed from the metal arm. 

“NO!!” he heard you cry and you ran over to your table, “WHAT THE HELL!” your eyes took in the crime scene before you. Food and water completely covered your project.

“Oops,” you heard Bucky say and your head whipped towards him.

“YOU DID THIS ON PURPOSE!” you screamed as you began to hit him.

“Ah! Jesus! What? No, it was an accident, I swear!”

“One minute my project is fine and as soon as I leave, it’s ruined and you happen to be right next to it! You trying to tell me that’s a coincidence, Barnes?!”

“Uh, yeah,” Bucky said it as if it was an obvious answer.

“What’s going on here?” Dr. Selvig asked.

You pointed a finger at Bucky immediately, “Barnes ruined my project!”

“Sir, I did not! I was just helping Steve carry his tray of food and I tripped!”

“Tripped on what?! Air?!” you yelled.

“It happens!” Bucky yelled back.

Dr. Selvig stepped in-between the both of you, “Hey! Enough with the yelling match! James, did you purposely ruin Y/N’s project.” 

Bucky shook his head, “Of course not, sir.”

“LIAR!” 

Dr. Selvig turned to you, “Y/N, please.”

“Doctor Selvig, please, I worked so hard and-”

“I’m sure you did. Unfortunately, there isn’t time for you to fix it, which means I can only grade you on your write-up and blueprints.” He gave you a reassuring pat on the shoulder and walked away. 

That was when Bucky got a look at your face. It was red and your eyes were watery. You looked so...broken, “You won. Are you happy with yourself, Barnes? You won and now I’ll never get that scholarship to MIT!” you said with a cracked voice. You ran out of the gym as fast as you could. 

Billy caught eyes with Bucky. If looks could kill, Bucky was sure he’d dropped dead, “You better watch yourself, Barnes.” with that, he left to go after you.

Bucky should’ve felt proud and relieved. He’d definitely get to be valedictorian now, but why did he have a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Buck,” Steve mumbled.

“Yeah?”

“Tell me the truth, did you trip on purpose? Did you wanna ruin Y/N’s project?”

He wanted to tell the truth. He should’ve...but he just couldn’t, “Nah, Stevie. It was an accident. I swear.”

_______________________________

Bucky didn’t see you at school the next two days. For once, you’d miss school, which was a shock to him and your teachers. Again, he should feel relieved, but...he didn’t. Seeing your empty seat in every single class just made him feel guiltier and guiltier. He got a perfect score from Dr. Selvig and also his project was going to be proposed to some of the highest tech companies in the world

He was given the Valedictorian sash and was given a ‘Congratulations’ from Principal Fury...but he didn’t deserve it. You did.

So after school, he made his way to your place. With a knock on your door, he waited for someone to answer. He just didn’t expect it to be Billy Russo.

“What the hell do you want?” He sneered and Bucky gulped.

“Can I see Y/N?” 

“No. Now get outta here before I punch your teeth in.”

“Please, Billy, I just-I need to apologize to her!”

“No fucking-”

“It’s okay, Bill.” you come up to his side and pull him back, “It’ll be quick.”

Billy glared at Bucky again, “Fine. But just say the word and I’ll beat him to a pulp.”

You give him a small smile, “I know you will.” you pushed him inside and closed the door behind you. You crossed your arms over your chest, “What?”

“I-” Bucky cleared his throat, “I didn’t see you in school today.”

You shrugged, “Didn’t feel like going.”

He nodded, “Oh...um.” he opened his bag to pull out a sash with your school’s color on it. ‘Valedictorian’ was sewn onto it, “Here,” he offered it to you, “I told Doctor Selvig and Fury what I did. I was given an F for sabotage and, well, I couldn’t be valedictorian since I didn’t have the highest GPA.”

You took it, your thumb rubbing over the satin, “Why, Bucky? Why did you do it?”

He sighed, “I don’t know. I just...whenever it comes to you I just-I’m not myself! I get competitive, I say mean things, and do messed up shit. I just-I don’t know! You make me feel things that I’ve never felt before. You’re incredibly smart, funny, friendly, creative. You’re amazing, Y/N.”

“So what? You like me or something?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know. I think so?”

You scoffed, “If you like someone, Bucky, this isn’t how you’re supposed to treat them.”

His shoulders sagged and his head hung down, “I know. I’m sorry.”

“Well, um, thanks for this,” you gestured to the sash, “and for telling Selvig and Fury the truth.”

He nodded, “Yeah. You’re welcome.”

“So...I’ll see you at graduation then?”

“Yeah. See ya.” he watched as you slowly walked back to your door and go inside, softly shutting the door behind you. Bucky let out a breath of relief and went to his car to go home.

___________________________

10 Years

You’re at your high school reunion, catching up with old classmates. It was nice to see how everyone was doing, but you did wish that Billy was here. He couldn’t make it do to his tour in Iraq. Yeah. Billy was soldier, a Marine. You missed him like crazy, but you knew he was doing something that he dreamed of. 

“Y/N?” you turned around to meet a pair of blue eyes that you haven’t seen in a long time.

“James Barnes?”

He chuckled, “Yeah. Um, that’s me.” he waved, your eyes immediately catching a glint of silver. Bucky, noticing this, immediately smiled sheepishly, “Oh, um, I was in the army and got hit with a grenade.’ he shrugged off his jacket to reveal an all too familiar metal arm.

“Wait, is that-”

“The arm you designed for Selvig’s project? Yeah. Funny right?”

You immediately grabbed a hold of it, examining it on him, “I mean, I knew it was being produced and distributed to people all around the world, I just didn’t expect you to be one of ‘em.”

“Yeah. Neither did I. But when my doctor offered up the trials for it, I immediately said yes.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s your greatest work yet.”

You smiled at him, “Do you wanna get a drink after this?” you asked him.

Bucky smiled, “I love that.”