Imagine: The List
Fic posted by members of Vo's Imaginings YahooGroup


 

"Did that law dumbass passed under the table get overturned?" A house member says a couple days later.

 

"Oh yes, when the governor was told about that he erupted since it affected so many people. And not just growers. He repealed the law and the state congress replaced it with one without that clause asswipe snuck in there. They're desperately trying to reopen the commercial farms and orchards that had to close. Those that had to declare bankruptcy are getting them dropped and money to replace what they lost."

 

"Has the department of education said anything about schools not reopening?"

 

"No, but they'll have to start talking about schools staying closed. Especially in cities that have multiple schools."

 

"And have lost a lot of students thanks to the epidemic."

 

"Not to mention schools like were shown on tv." Somebody rumbles across the aisle. "Some of those needed to be torn down years ago."

 

Peter goes out with the new snowblower after the storm, clearing the driveway and area around the maibox. Across the street the door opens to Frank's house and he comes out with his snowblower.

 

"Have you heard anything about the schools reopening?" Frank asks as he walks across the road to Peter.

 

"Nothing good, there's still people who are convinced the moron must have had a good reason for shutting down the schools last year, they just don't know what it is yet." In the door of their house Frank's wife rolls her eyes.

 

Pepper smiles as she puts down the phone. "Sue Richards had twins, a boy and a girl."

 

"Awwww!" Clint smiles as he looks at the pictures that appear in Pepper's email a few minutes later.

 

Tony looks up from working on something when Coulson comes in with some men. "Stark, these are some of the people over education here in the city. We're talking about what schools need to be consolidated thanks to so many students being lost."

 

"And some that need to be condemned and torn down even if they haven't lost that many students." Clint mutters. "Because Steve and Bucky have told me stories about schools that were old when they attended."

 

"Yes, some of our older schools are in pretty bad shape." One of the men says quietly. "There's catholic schools just as old but they're in better repair thanks to fundraisers and donations."

 

"Not to be crude, but do schools need to consolidate because of teacher as well as student loss?"

 

One of the men sighs. "Why didn't anybody think of this before now?"

 

"Because we were all thinking of other things?" One of the other snorts. "And we've got to check other employees."

 

"But the President wanted schools closed. . .why are they trying to reopen them?" Dumbass wails in his jail cell when he gets the news.

 

"Because we don't want a generation of children as stupid as you." the jailer sneers. "Your precious dumbass president only shut them down because he was sure the schools were hoarding tons of supplies he could use to make local governments do what he wanted in return for what he'd so graciously give them. When he didn't find the supplies he was expecting he ran off whining like a damn two year old."

 

"But you can't reopen the schools." He wails as the jailer walks off.

 

Two weeks later the same group arrives back at Stark.

 

"Okay, we've inspected all the schools. These," he pokes a finger at a file Coulson puts on the main screen. "Have been condemned by the city or are in need of too much work to make them feasible to reopen." Tony shakes his head, the list is longer than he would have thought. "This is a list of the remaining schools and how many students they can handle."

 

"How many students have the schools lost?"

 

"A good third for most schools, up to half for some."

 

"And none of the worst affected schools are the ones staying closed?"

 

"No, I'd rather some of the smaller schools close but the bigger schools. . ."

 

"Are the ones who need the most work." Tony sighs. The others nod. "Do we have enough spots for all the students?"

 

"No, unless we're putting the absolute maximum in each class. Or we have two sessions, one during the day, one afternoon and nights?"

 

"Do we have enough teachers?"

 

"Yes."

 

"You'd need a way for students to attend their new schools."

 

"The schools closing should have busses."

 

"And textbooks. . .but students will have to have a way of bringing their books and supplies to classes and take them back home, they won't have enough desks or lockers to leave them at the school."

 

"There'd have to be a lottery to put you in the day classes or night classes, otherwise all the families would try to get their kids in the day classes."

 

"Leaving the afternoon session second choice."

 

"Some parents will try not to send their students to a different school."

 

"They'll be before a judge then. The city won't put up with that dropouts anymore. Not unless they're working."

 

"Students will have to start the school year over again if they can't pass the year-end finals."

 

"As long as it's been I wouldn't even offer the tests." Tony says. The others nod. "Do we have any idea how many seniors will be coming back to graduate after getting their GEDS?"

 

"Can they do that?" One of the men yelps.

 

"Yes, many have done that when something required a diploma and not a GED." One of the men from the state government says. "Many universities will not accept a GED. So will some jobs. We figured on seniors coming back to graduate when we came up with the numbers."

 

There's some wailing from stupid parents that their child would have to switch schools or be put in the second spot but most of them are happy to hear their children can return to school in the fall. There's some people trying to sue demanding all the schools reopen but when they walk through the buildings they realize the schools are too far gone. PODS are brought up to schools over the next few months and everything that can be salvaged is removed.

 

Letters go out to the seniors that would have graduated, letters coming back saying they wanted to finish their senior year and graduate. More than one person wails as the schools that had been gutted of everything that can be salvaged and recycled start to be torn down.

 

The gardens go in on Frank and Peter's street and soon the letters for the lottery school slots begin arriving. Care had been taken to try to keep students from the same family attending the same session though some have to attend the other session. Lists of supplies both will need are part of the letters, those children living in foster care or ophanages getting money to help with their supplies.

 

Peter sighs as he gets a letter in the mail. His aunt looks at him. "ESU is opening this fall, I can go in next week to sign up for my classes and get my books and supplies."

 

"I am so glad." May sighs. "Your uncle would have wanted you to finish your education too. Your job at Stark?"

 

"I can work around my classes."

 

Pepper nods in agreement when Peter gives her a tentative schedule for his classes the following day.

 

"Is it only schools here in the city that are opening?" Scott asks.

 

"Schools all through the state since we're pulling on our big boy pants and opening schools again instead of throwing our hands up and wailing it's hard like other states have been doing."

 

"Or blubbering that asswipe had to have had a good reason for shutitng schools down. .. they just don't know what it is yet." Pepper snorts as she walks into the room. "Peter got the letter saying ESU is opening this fall. Here's his tentative class schedule, he'll know for sure if he has to change it. . ."

 

"The closer it comes to the fall semester." Tony nods. "The kids?"

 

"Cassie's got an afternoon and evening slots but she's been able to show she was taking classes at a private school she doesn't have to start the year over again. And she can still take classes through Xavier's for stuff the schools don't offer."

 

"Are you goddamn STUPID!" The president yells at the moron blubbering in front of him. "No, I'm not going to make the governor of New York close his schools again because it's making you look bad."

 

"But we can't compete."

 

"Yes you can, get off your ass and start inspecting and opening your own schools." The president snorts. "Now get the fuck out of my office."

 

He wails as secret service agents give him disgusted looks. He scurries off. . .if the president won't do what he wants. . .the Supreme Court will have to.

 

But they don't and the guards over there throw his ass out for annoying them with his whining. The others give him disgusted looks when he goes blubbering to them and he finally shuts the hell up.

 

"Is anybody else opening schools?" Steve asks after a meeting with the governor and Coulson.

 

"Oh, the morons in congress are crowing they can open schools like . . ." Tony snaps his finger. "If they wanted to. . which they don't. Because the asshole in chief has to have had a reason to shut them down. At least that's the official reason only our state is opening schools again."

 

"And the real reason?"

 

"Like our schools they were old and in bad shape. They either have to be repaired or torn down. School districts should have been saving money with a look to reopening the schools. . ."

 

"But they didn't." Clint snorts as he walks through. "That's why the kids are still taking classes through Xavier's, the local district was going to build a new school when the schools closed and haven't started yet. They're waiting on the state and the state is sitting around with their thumbs up their ass."

 

"And they'll wail they can't understand why they were voted out of office." Sam snorts as he walks in with a couple medical journals he shares with Bruce. "Because of course it's not what I can do for you when you voted me into office, it's what's in it for me." Everybody around them nods again.

 

May nods in satisfaction when she sees the bags of books in the living room when she returns from work a week later. "Did the school lose many students or teachers?"

 

"A few teachers, too many students." Peter sighs. "There are some programs that didn't reopen since they don't have teachers. They're trying to get teachers from other schools to tape their classes so they can at least offer them to their students that way."

 

Phil taps on the door of Peter's lab the next day. "I thought you should be the first to know. . .we found a body we were able to positively identify as Dr. Octopus last year."

 

"Last year?"

 

"The exo skeleton and extra arms was a pretty good hint of who it was but the other authorities wanted a positive DNA match before we made it official."

 

"Was it the epidemic?"

 

"Possible. The body was too badly decomposed to say for sure."

 

"I've heard rumors that the deaths are going to be picking up again." He says quietly.

 

"Yes, I've heard the same rumors from the precogs. We survived this winter rather well but we still need to make plans for the future."

 

Phil heads to the board room where the others are 'patiently' waiting for them. He chuckles when he sees Tony hogtied to a chair with Clint and Natasha sitting on his lap. Steve's lips are twitching as he sketches the scene and he knows JARVIS will be delivering photos of the scene for the next few days.

 

"You're late Agent." he says dryly. "Get up, he's here. I'm not leaving now." They get up and untie him.

 

"I was telling Peter that Dr. Octopus's body was positively identified by DNA." Tony adds that to the database of the dead villains. "Growing areas?"

 

"I started an offdimension one, right now it's tropical fruits, potatoes, and herbs but I plan on expanding it in the future." Tony sends a file to Phil who nods. "I'm in the process of building a second hydroponics area here in the city. Last year proved they both will be needed, even if stores start getting more fresh fruit and veggies over the winter." Everybody nods.

 

"Especially since congress seems to have their heads permanently up their asses on some stuff."

 

"Try most stuff." Pepper snorts. "New York is still the only state even close to opening schools again, they still tried voting down funding to hospitals for supplies, to the NIH and CDC to try to find a cure for that damn disease, and that asshole is still whining about us getting in supplies."

 

"Because factories aren't producing enough to satisfy them yet." Clint snorts. "Though if you look at shelves it's only high end shit that they think everybody needs that's got empty spaces on shelves.

 

"Yes, and they'll be stunned when they all are voted out of office in the elections because people got a long memory."

 

"Especially when they're looking at their children's dead bodies." Scott says. Clint nods in agreement. Sam pats them both on the shoulders and they settle back down. "Okay, changing the subject. . .are we getting in more homeschooling supplies? Otherwise I have an invitation to a expo for private schools, Professor Xavier is sending one of his people to attend and he's got a free membership."

 

"Go." Tony and Phil say in unison. "Get information for us, SHIELD, and Richards. Is there anything else?"

 

"We're getting in extra supplies, beyond what we got last year since the precogs are still seeing more deaths."

 

"Lord knows there's not a lack of empty buildings we can use to store them." Tony sighs. "What are the precogs saying about the deaths?"

 

"At least fifty percent in the areas that weren't targeted in the first attack." Coulson says. Everybody sighs. "Does anybody know yet if by surviving it once you're immune?"

 

"We've got scientists looking into it. But I'm afraid that we won't know for sure until we see deaths in people we know had the virus."

 

"And any notes that his pet scientists would have kept would be suspect at best." Scott says. Coulson nods.

 

"Are we opening a conference center for people to come and look through the stuff salvaged from homes?"

 

"Next week, people will have days they're allowed to come in."

 

"Back to school sales."

 

"Yes, though it will only be stores in the state advertising."

 

"I'm sure the lost back to school advertising in the other states will be eclipsed by the damn Black Friday ads." Clint mutters. The others snicker but nod. "How are our classes in making clothes, knitting, and quilting coming along?"

 

"Good, they're always full. People are getting used to making do for now."

 

"Are the boundaries moving?" Coulson asks Tony after the meeting breaks up. Pepper has left Tony in the office to run downstairs and get in more yarn for a project she's working on.

 

"Yes, a hundred miles in all directions. Have you heard about problems with other state governments?"

 

"Yes, New Jersey's governor is dying. His trusted advisors are all dead or gone and any government that might pull together falls apart rapidly due to infighting. Massachusetts is trying, but they're floundering thanks to a lack of strong management. The President is looking at putting them both under martial law until they can build strong new governments again."

 

Peter pulls a small panel truck in Frank's driveway a couple weeks later, the other man reaching for a weapon until he sees Peter stick his head out the window. "Canning supplies for the garden."

 

"What kinds of supplies?" He comes out as Peter jumps out the door and opens the back.

 

"Canning jars and whatever else we need to make stuff. Books of recipes." His wife looks everything over in satisfaction before it's moved into the house next door until needed. May looks at the identical supplies Peter puts in the other house they use for overflow supplies and nods in satisfaction.

 

"Have you heard anything about fresh fruit and vegetables this winter?"

 

"The law that dumbass passed keeping the food from being sent out of state was taken out by the governor, the new law their congress passed to replace that didn't have the clause in it. They reopened the commercial farms and orchards closed but everybody's short-handed."

 

"Are you fucking stupid?" The president says icily in DC, glaring at the whining fool in front of him. "No, I'm not going to order New York's schools to close again. Get that stupidity the hell out of your head here and now. Now unless you want to go back in that damn cell for the rest of your fucking life I'd leave New York and Stark the hell alone."

 

"But it's not fair that they're opening their schools again."

 

"No, it's not fair that the rest of you are so fucking stupid you'd rather an entire generation go to hell for a lack of schools rather than you get off your asses and reopen them."

 

"But he had to have had a reason to close them." he wails as he's dragged off by secret service agents.

 

"Yes, he was a goddamn fool who wanted power and thought that closing schools would make him a fucking big hero to the rest of the country. When the massive amounts of supplies schools were supposed to be hoarding didn't appear he ran off whining." the agent snorts. They toss him out the door, making a presentation of wiping off their hands in sight of him.

 

The HYDRA agent waits a couple minutes then goes into the oval office with a pot of coffee and bottle of aspirin.

 

"Thank you Horace." The president knows that he's HYDRA and the agent knows that he knows he's HYDRA. . .but he's also the best damn administrative assistant he's ever seen. "Is there any news about New Jersey?"

 

"His doctors don't expect the governor to last the night." He hands over a folder. Sighing, the president reads it and grabs a pen to sign the executive order. "Which generals are we seconding to SHIELD to deal with police and national guardsmen?" Horace lists a couple names and he nods.

 

Phil gets the news a couple days later, sighing and saying a silent prayer. "Anything else Bobbi?"

 

"Not everybody is happy that the schools are reopening, some old fool wanted to put up a paddleboat franchise up and down the Hudson river, they're whining this way they can't use kids as cheap labor. The governor kicked his ass up around his ears and sent him off with a scathing critique of his ancestors. . .the ones that hadn't inbred had bred with various animals." Phil chuckles despite himself. "A business like that would work better in the south, where they have better weather." Bobbi nods. "School supplies are coming in and everything is on track for the schools to reopen next month."

 

"Anything new?"

 

"The local fire departments have finished their inspections of buildings." Fitz says as he walks into the room.

 

"Gods yes, we don't want repeats of the fires they've been talking about on the news." Bobbi shudders. "Have all the houses been inspected?"

 

"Yes, and updated in many cases."

 

A couple weeks later Stark and Coulson are dragged into a meeting with the generals who took over New Jersey.

 

"Thanks for coming to meet us Director Coulson, Mr. Stark. . . I know you're both busy getting schools ready to open and supplies in for the winter." One of them says.

 

"Do you have a list of priorities?"

 

"Yes, first is making sure everybody has supplies for the winter, we're putting up growing buildings in vacant buildings. Shelter and heat is next. . ." the others nod. "Medical needs and finally after winter is done inspecting schools so they can reopen next fall. . . if possible. Planting gardens when the ground thaws"

 

"What the hell part of leave them alone did you think didn't apply to you?" The president says as he walks up to a cell. "SHUT UP!" he bellows at the whining fool on the other side. He gulps and quits whining about how everybody was mean to him. "What the hell did you think you were doing throwing yourself in front of a school door in New York the morning they were opening? ANSWER ME DAMN YOU!"

 

"But I was sure they'd have to shut down then." He wails in the cell. "They walked all over me. I'm sure some of those brats kicked me deliberately. Then the authorities kept hitting and kicking me. I thought I was going to die." He wails.

 

"Too bad you didn't. Enjoy the rest of your miserable life in that cell." the President snorts as he walks away.

 

"But you can't leave me in here."

 

"Yes I can, you were told to leave them the hell alone. That the New York schools were going to open no matter what you wanted. You're too damn stupid to realize that this was good advice."

 

"But I haven't been charged with anything!" he yells as they walk off. The door shuts in front of him, leaving a slot for the food to be pushed through.

 

"You can't do this to me." He wails as the sound of the door slamming echoes through his cell.

 

"Have any psychologists talked to him?" The president sighs as he gets in his limo, now powered by an electric engine.

 

"Yes, he's not mentally ill. Just a miserable old bastard who wants to run the damn world. And sulking with his buddy-buddy the former president gone, he can't make people do what he wants."

 

In New York Tony shakes his head as he gets the report from Coulson. "Are we getting in supplies for the winter?"

 

"Yes, stocking up on everything that won't go bad over the winter. Have we got the room for perishables?"

 

"Yes, I've put stasis supplies on three tesseracted rooms. So far I haven't seen any change in anything."

 

"Are people whining about the President making farming so important?" Clint asks, walking through.

 

"Yes, but when they were reminded people don't farm people don't eat they shut right up." Tony says dryly. Clint sniggers. "I'm sure the next whining will come from debutantes who can't understand why there's no designer clothing this season." Coulson just gives Clint a look. He scampers off grinning at having twitted his former handler.

 

"Long story?"

 

"I had to go undercover as a designer years ago. Clint never lets me forget it." He gives a sour look the direction Clint had left and Pepper hides a chuckle. Tony's broadly grinning and Coulson gives him a look. . .but like Clint it doesn't affect him anymore. Clint might have been a tad upset that Coulson hadn't let him know he was alive but after Natasha had drugged them both and locked them in a room they had talked for hours and were rebuilding their relationship.

 

 

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