Though Bucky was in pain he went to school the day after his baseball incident. It's not that he wanted to. He didn't see the point in school. There were so many jobs that didn't require it and he could get one right now! His family needed the money. None of the Barneses had invested in stocks, so the crash didn't affect them directly, but Mr. Barnes' boss had. In light of his losses he had slashed the pay to all his workers and had been continuing doing so since. 
He had overheard his parents talking and though his father insisted he could take care of it, he knew that soon they would lose their automobile and his ma would have to work at some factory again. He didn't want that, but his parents were strict about him staying in school, so he could have a better life then they did. At least that's what they told him everyday he asked not to go to school. 'Maybe they'll let me next time,' Bucky thought as he started walking over to Steve's.

   "How ya doing Buck?" Steve asked, meeting him at his door.

   "Little better...gotta love this thing," he stated, pointing to his sling. 

   "That's healin' it already?" Steve questioned.

   "Nah...but it keeps all the weight off," he explained.

They were on their way to school when Gil showed up. 'Aw no' Bucky thought, 'not today.'  Steve motioned frantically for Bucky to go hide and for once he didn't start the fight. He knew that Bucky would get pulled into it, and if Gil saw his injury he'd probably punch him right in the shoulder.
"Some dame broke up our fight last time.  Let's finish it." Gil suggested, a
smug smile spread across his face. He was looking for a fight, having fun picking on an easy target.

   Steve held back a laugh at his still crooked, swollen nose. He wanted to say, "That's not all she broke," so badly, but he kept it to himself.

   Gil lunged at Steve and he dodged it.  "How bout tomorrow? I'll meetcha in the parking lot over there*." Steve countered, gesturing across the street. 

   Gilmore considered, "Alright Rogers.  Come alone." he said grinning. 

   Steve was relieved that he said that but he couldn't show it.  "You got it Gil. You might not want to," he bragged. Gil laughed at him demeaningly and walked away.

   "Thanks Stevie," Bucky said, relieved.

   "No problem," Steve replied, walking next to him to school.

             ***************************

   Steve was in Bucky's art class at school.  They had just started teaching art in school. Bucky couldn't understand why, but it took away 10 minutes of math so he wouldn't complain. Plus, it was the only class he had with Steve, who had sufficiencied out of a couple classes.
   The only trouble with the art class for Steve was that he always worked with pencils and charcoal. In his art class they required him to use color.
   He always mixed up any color that had any red in it. Purple and blue looked the same, as did and orange and yellow.  Pink, red, and green all looked the same as brown and so he couldn't identify colors in a reference to save his life. Bucky sat next to him in class and he tried to, without embarrassing him, tell him what the colors were. It would be obvious if he handed him pencils or relayed off the colors out loud, so they had a code.  Red=1 finger up; orange=2; yellow is 3; green is 4;purple is 5. Luckily, the teacher instructed everyone to keep the pencils in the same order after every class. His first piece in the class was...a little mixed up. He didn't want to go through that again.

*"I know this neighborhood. I got beat up in that alley, and behind that dumpster, and in that parking lot"