Chapter 2
Penny was having a bad day. After her late start, she had gotten to school only to gain several weird looks. Walking down the hall she had wondered what she had done, when Liz Allan helpfully pointed out the problem.
"Oh Penny I love your new top, what is it? Get dressed in the dark chic?" Liz said, while some of her fellow cheerleaders giggled behind her. Penny didn't understand what she meant at first, but then she looked down and realised her shirt was on backwards. Embarrassed, Penny headed straight for the girl's bathroom to change, only for the bell to ring just as she was passing the room of her next class, where her teacher had 'helpfully' herded her inside. The next hour was then spent with her having to put up people sniggering before she could rush out between classes and sort herself out.
Things didn't get much better in the next class, in her rush this morning Penny had forgotten her maths homework, as so was subjected to one of Mr Jacob's lectures on responsibility and the importance of homework.
By the time lunch rolled around, Penny was in no mood to face the cafeteria. Both Gwen and Harry were off school, Gwen with a cold and Harry with his Dad on some business trip, and Penny knew from experience that sitting alone at lunch was the same as painting a target on her back. No, the cafeteria was definitely out, so instead Penny decided to get something out of the vending machine and then head outside to see if she could get any good shots with her camera. Gwen had been bugging her to help out with the year book this year after all.
Buying some crisps and a can of pop, Penny headed outside. She knew Steve would disapprove of her choice of lunch, but after the day she'd been having Penny thought she deserved a little comfort food. However before she could even open her crisp packet, a noise caught her attention.
"Eat eat eat!" A group of students chanted. Curious, Penny pushed though the group to see what was going on. When she got to the front, she spotted what all the excitement was about; Flash Thompson had picked up Andy Gladbach, a boy about half his size who was amongst the nerdiest in school, and was forcing his face into a tray of what looked like potatoes.
"Come on Andy, how you ever gonna get any taller if you don't eat your vegetables." Flash laughed looking up at his adoring crowd.
"Yo Parker!" Flash called, noticing her in the crowd. "Get your camera out, take a picture!"
"Put him down Flash!" Penny said, stepping forward out of the crowd.
"Aww come on Parker, take the picture!" Flash said.
"I said put him down! Eugene!" Penny yelled, causing the crowd to go quiet. Flash's face darkened, unlike a lot of people in the school, Penny had been in the same class of Flash since Elementary school, long before he'd gained his nickname. She knew that Flash hated his name and went to great lengths, mainly threats, to make sure it was never used. Dropping Andy, Flash marched straight over to Penny.
"You're lucky I'm above hitting a chick." Flash growled. "Or I'd send you home crying to your aunt just like when we were kids. Oh wait, she ain't around no more is she?"
Penny shoved him angrily, she just wanted to get the man out of her face but she used a little too much strength and he lost his footing, landing on the ground with a bump. An "ooooo" went around the crowd.
"Oh that's it Parker!" Flash said getting up. "I-"
"What's going on here?!" A voice said from behind the crowd. Penny turned to see Coach Winters dispelling the crowd and not looking very happy.
"This isn't over Parker." Flash said, bumping her shoulder as he walked past.
"Flash I thought I told you not to get distracted by girls, we got a big game next week." Coach Winters said, and Penny knew it was the most scolding he was going to get.
"Hey Coach it aint my fault, Parker there is just obsessed. Trying to let her down easy you know." Flash replied, shooting Penny an arrogant smirk. Penny just glare in response, on the list of people she would date, Flash was somewhere near the bottom beneath Doc Oc and a warthog.
"Sure Flash. Now if you got extra energy that needs burning The Cheerleaders are painting some sign for the pep rally. Go give them a hand and make sure it isn't too girly alright." Coach Winters said.
"Sure thing Coach." Flash said running off. Penny just glared at him and then went to check on Andy.
"Hey, you alright?" She asked, helping up.
"Fine just...just leave me alone." He said, wiping potato out of his hair. Penny couldn't help but feel bad for him, through out her life one bully or another had felt the need to splatter her with food, she knew how it felt.
"Parker." Coach Winters said, walking over. "Don't bother Flash alright, we need his head to be on the game."
"Me?! He started it! Look what he did to Andy!" Penny said, gesturing to the boy who was now cleaning potato off his glasses.
"Oh that is just horseplay. Andy could use the toughening up anyway, can't you Andy?" The Coach said, slapping Andy roughly on the back.
"Um...right." Andy said quietly. "I'm gonna...go.." He added, scurrying off.
"Boys will be boys Parker, you should just leave them too it." The Coach shrugged. "No use worrying that head of yours over it. If you want to be useful then come to game and cheer them on. Show your Wildcat spirit."
Penny clenched her fists. She hated that Flash could get away with anything, just because he was good at throwing a ball through a hoop.
"Yes sir..." Penny said, knowing that any more protest would be pointless. Nodding, the Coach turned and went on his way. Once he was gone, Penny decided she didn't feel much like taking any photos. She ates her crisps and drank her pop and spent the rest of lunch in the quiet of the library.
The rest of the day passed without incident. Penny made an effort to avoid Flash whenever she was in the hall, worried she might snap if she saw that arrogant smirk again. Every so often she heard murmurs about the lunch incident, with rumour spreading that Penny had a crush on either Flash or Andy. This bothered Penny a little, but she knew that Friday gossip almost never made it to Monday, something usual happened at the weekend to replace it. When the final bell rang, Penny almost leapt from her seat. She couldn't wait to get home, change into Spiderman gear and take her frustrations out on the muggers and other low lives of the city. Unfortunately In her rush to leave, Penny didn't notice that one of Flash's friends was keeping a particularly close eye on her and as she pushed the door to get outside, her Spidy-sense activated just in time for her to dodge the red paint can...but not the paint.
For a second, no one did anything, but as Penny turned to the glass door to check out her reflection the laugher began.
"Wow Parker, red suits you!" One of the boys from Penny's year yelled.
"Hey Penny, are you feeling ok? You look a little red!" " A Cheerleader said, holding her phone out obviously recording the whole thing. Penny could feel her eyes welling up, over the years she'd learnt to deal with the nasty remarks and name calling, but being embarrassed in front of a large group of people, that was a lot harder to handle.
"Don't cry! Not in front of them and especially not that jerk!" She thought to herself sternly. Penny moved through the crowd of laughing students, most of them dodging out of her way to avoid getting paint on their clothes. Although she couldn't see him, it didn't take a genius to know who was behind this. It would have been easy for Flash to stash some paint from that sign the cheerleaders were working on, then all he had to do was get someone to tell him when Penny was leaving the school and the job was done. Picking up her pace, Penny ran the rest of the way out of school and down the street, she refused to let Flash see his handy work close up. She hated him. She wanted to go back and put that smug face of his straight through a wall, but she knew she couldn't. Flash wasn't a super villain, he was a jerk, and if Penny really hurt him she'd be no better than the bad guy she fought on a daily basis.
After several weird looks from people in the street, Penny decided she'd had enough of being gawked at and turned into the next ally. Jumping on a litter bin, she pulled herself onto a fire escape and headed to the top of the building. Any other day she would have just climb a wall, but there was paint on her hands and she was worried anyone spotting high red hand prints after seeing a girl covered in paint, would put two and two together.
Once she was on the roof, Penny sat and assessed the damage. Luckily her back pack had been zipped up, so everything inside escaped unharmed, but the same couldn't be said for her clothes. Her top was almost completely covered and her jeans was splattered all over. She wasn't sure how easy it was to get paint out of clothes, but she had a feeling they were completely ruined for good. Running her hands through her short hair, she could feel the paint already starting to dry. She needed to get home and wash her hair as soon as possible, but the idea of going to Avenger tower made her sick. It was times like this that Penny wished she had been given her own floor of the tower to live on, but Steve had thought that would be silly since each floor easily had enough to space to hold the three of them comfortable, especially since he and Tony shared a bedroom. Normally Penny didn't mind this, but the lay out of the tower meant she had to pass through the living room to get to her room, and she couldn't stand the idea of Steve or Tony seeing her like this. An Avenger shouldn't get bullied, they were hero, they got respect. But at school Penny wasn't an Avenger, she wasn't Spiderman, she was just regular old Penny Parker, and Penny Parker got picked on all he time.
Feeling the tears beginning to well up again, Penny stood to leave. She couldn't stay on the rooftop forever, and if she had any chance of getting the paint out of her hair she needed to get home and shower soon. Sighing, Penny thought that maybe she'd get lucky, and Steve and Tony would be out. Maybe she could get in the shower before they saw her and then they wouldn't have to know anything about what had happened. However, the way Penny's day had been going, it was more likely some crisis would strike and the whole Avengers team would be waiting in the living room when she got in.
Jumping across the roof tops, it took Penny about twenty minutes to reach Avengers tower. She thought about changing into the Spiderman costume in her back pack and swinging home, but decided she didn't want to ruin that as well by getting paint on it.
Heading through the secret back entrance, as she always did so not to be spotted by the public, Penny got into the lift and headed up to her floor.
"Javis?" Penny said as the lift began it's ascent.
"Yes Miss Parker?" The disimbodied voice replied.
"Is anyone around today?"
"Just Master Stark and Master Rogers. Would you like me to inform them you are home?"
"No!" Penny almost screamed.
"Alright Miss Parker." Javis replied. "And, just so you are aware, I belive that nail polish remover can be used to get paint out of clothes, should you need to."
"Oh...thanks Javis." Penny said quietly, not exactly sure how one handles pity from a robot.
As the lift doors opened, Penny thought for a moment she was in the clear, but as she stepped out she heard voices coming from the living room.
"Personally Capsicle, I find that sleep is over rated." Tony said, taking a sip of coffee.
"It has been 2 days, whatever you are working on can wait." Steve scolded.
"Actually no, sleep can wait, iId like to get this done today." Tony said, getting up to return to the lab.
"Tony you- Penny?" Steve said, spotting the girl who was unsuccessfully trying to sneak down the hall.
"Well that is...definitely a fashion statement." Tony said, looking over the paint stained girl.
"What happened?" Steve asked concerned.
"I-" Penny began, but she could feel herself starting to cry again.
"Don't show them how pathetic you are!" A voice in her head scolded. Penny turned and sprinted down the hall, slamming her door behind her. Throwing her bag on the ground, she headed straight into her en-suit and turned on the shower. She didn't bother to take off her clothes, they were already ruined so what would a little water matter? Atleast she could get off the paint that hadn't dried. Letting the water run over her, Penny finally allowed herself to cry properly, in the one place no one could see her.
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"Penny!" Steve called moving to follow the obviously upset girl.
"Steve wait." Tony said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I'd leave her a while, she'll atleast want to wash that stuff off."
"Yeah..you're right." Steve said sadly. "But what happened? Did you think someone happened as Spiderman?"
"Well unless she was fighting paint man." Tony replied sarcastically. "I think that is unlikely, especially since it is all over her civilian clothes."
"Well what then? Do you think that happened at school?" Steve asked.
"Maybe." Tony replied. "Javis, you have her class lists in your memory, do a scan of social networking sites, see what you can find."
"Already on going sir." Javis replied. "Preliminary scans seems to indicate that Miss Parker was the victim of some sort of prank."
"What?!" Steve said. "Well is she being bullied, has this happened before?!"
"Calm down Cap" Tony said. "Teenages are can be jerks, it is probably just some stupid one time joke that got out of hand."
"Really? But she was so upset.." Steve said sadly. "Maybe I should go talk to her."
"Give her some space for now Cap. She'll talk to us when she is ready."
"Right, yeah okay.."
"Try and take your mind off it. You'll drive yourself crazy and it'll all turn out to be nothing." Tony said, heading back into the lab.
"Yeah you are right...I'll start Dinner." Steve replied heading into the kitchen. Opening the freezer door, Steve pulled out some BBQ chicken wings that he knew were one of Penny's favourite foods. He might not be able to talk to her just yet, but at least he could make something to cheer her up.
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In his lab, Tony sat and worked on a update to the Ironman suit. He'd spent the last two days working on it and, much to Steve's annoyance, had even pulled an all nighter. He was sure he was almost finished with it, but for some reason was finding it hard to concentrate.
"Javis." He said, sitting up in his chair and pushing his work to the side. "Show me all the status updates from people in Penny's school for today."
"Ofcourse sir." Javis replied, bring up another screen filled with different statues. "All privacy settings have been over ridden."
"Good, filter to afternoon. Highlight anything that mention Penny." Tony said. It took Javis only a couple seconds, and soon the tens of statuses decreased to just over a dozen. Tony read through them all quickly, a couple showed sympathy towards the young girl, but most called her a loser or talked about how funny the whole thing was.
"Sir, I believe a Miss Havenwood has just uploaded footage of the event." Javis said, bringing a video up on the screen. The quality wasn't great, obviously filmed on a phone, but it showed the event in full. Tony could hear two girls giggling and then they were shhed as another voice said she was coming, the camera then zoomed in to show Penny opening the door to leave, only for paint to be dropped on her from above. The rest of the footage showed Penny being taunted and laughed at till she ran out of the school, seemingly in tears.
Something in Tony's chest tightened and he played the vidoe again, this time concentrating on the split second the dropper of the pain can was exposed.
"Javis pause video!" Tony ordered. "Enhance image and scan against profile pictures, find out who that is."
"Yes Sir." Javis replied, getting to work.
"You know this is all Steve's fault." Tony said, sitting back in his chair.
"Sir?" Javis replied.
"I told him bringing a teenager into the house was a bad idea, but he didn't listen. And then he doesn't even have the decency to get a stroppy one, that hates us and is always in a mood. I could ignore one like that!" Tony complained. "No he gets a nice one, who like science and looks up to me. So what happens? I start to care and then something like this happens and I obsess instead of working."
"You remember when I used to only care about myself? Life was so much simpler then." Tony added, sitting back in his chair.
"I think back on it fondly sir." Javis replied sarcastically. "I believe I had identified the boy, but may I ask what you plan to do with his identity? I believe the courts would look badly on Ironman engaging him in a fight."
"I'm not sure you could call me blasting him through a wall a fight." Tony replied "Bring him up" He added, gesturing to the screen.
"I took the liberty of scanning his previous updates and private messages, as well as Miss Parker's" Javis said, bringing up Flash Thompson page on the screen. "It seems that this isn't the first incident that has occurred between the two."
"Looks like a meat head." Tony said, taking in the information. There wasn't a lot of detail on what had occurred each time, but Flash had a lot of statuses that talked about how he had "Shown Parker" which would correspond with a message between some girl named Gwen and Penny, and talked about how much of a jerk this Flash was. It made Tony angry to see how to see how long this had been going on, and he wondered to himself why Penny hadn't said anything before.
"There is nothing I can do is there?" Tony said after a moment. He wanted to go and teach this guy a lesson, but flying in as Ironman would only get him arrested, and Tony Stark didn't have much sway over a public school.
"I believe the best course of action is to talk to Miss Parker." Javis replied.
"That isn't exactly my strong suit. Can't I just buy the school and kick that guy out?" Tony asked.
"I believe the parents of the school would object." Javis said.
"Fine." Tony said "Though I think I'll need a stiff drink."
"Perhaps it would be best to leave this to Master Rogers." Javis replied.
"Good idea." Tony said.
Closing all the screens, Tony picked up his soldering iron and went back to work on his suit.
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In her room, Penny lay on her bed with her head buried in her pillow. She'd spent over an hour in the shower and still barely managed to get all the paint out of her hair. As for her clothes, she had washed off the worst of the paint, but they were still horribly stained. She decided she'd have another go at cleaning them tomorrow, but right now all she wanted was for the ground to open and shallow her whole.
"Penny?" Steve said knocking on her door. "Dinner is ready."
"I'm not hungry." Penny replied. She knew that if she left the room Tony and Steve would bombard her with questions, and she wasn't in the mood to face that right now.
"Alright..." Steve said after a moment. "I'll leave a plate by your door, if you get hungry later."
"Thanks Steve." Penny said sticking her face back into her pillow. She listened to Steve's footsteps as he walked down the hall and prayed that some disaster would strike the empty school in the next two days, and she wouldn't have to return there for a long long time.
End Chapter 2