Chapter 3
They waited six whole weeks for a placement. They almost had one two weeks ago, but then their social worker called and said that she found another family. They were slightly disappointed, and a little relieved. Now they were getting excited and nervous all over again.
Pepper was pacing back and forth to every room making sure nothing was out of place. She was just fluffing the pillows in the guest bedroom for the fourth time when there was a knock on the door.
She ran her hands up and down her pants. She wasn't used to wearing these types of clothes, but she couldn't put herself in a professional stereotype. That might be too intimidating.
Tony sped walked to the door and opened it, without even having a second thought to collect himself or worse... pretending they weren't home.
He was greeted by their social worker and a young blonde boy who was simply hiding behind the woman.
Tony allowed himself to go first, "Hi welcome, welcome." Way to be... welcoming.
"I'm glad you guys were available." Their social worker glided to the side to allow a full unobstructed view of the kid. "I told him a little bit about you guys on our way over here, I'm very excited for all three of you to get to know each other." She nodded to herself, "Harley, this is Tony and Pepper Stark. Mr. and Mrs. Stark, this is Harley."
Pepper steps forward about an inch, she's really trying to not be intimidating. She's read in all the books to look as vulnerable as possible in these situations.
"Hi, nice to meet you Harley," Pepper goes to stretch her hand out for a shake but veers it to swipe at her pants instead at the last second.
"Is this your guys first time?" Now that is one blunt child. Tony would've expected anything else to come out of his mouth.
"That obvious huh?"
They gave Harley a tour of the house after the social worker left, the last room they showed was the guest bedroom where he would be staying. The room consisted of a bed with grey bedding, two side tables, each with a lamp, a desk that was empty, some shelves that held a couple books, but was also mostly empty. The walls were a light gray, with one wall having a darker gray. It gave Harley a very 'beige mom' vibe.
He threw his two backpacks onto the floor by the window and turned around to see Pepper and Tony watching his reaction. So, he threw his arms up and did jazz hands.
"Okay, thanks."
Pepper inched forward, "I thought we could decorate the room together after you get settled."
Harley focused on not rolling his eyes, as nice as that sounded to an outsider, it was practically pointless to decorate a room where he may not even be occupying it by the end of the month. He wanted to respond with, 'bless your heart', but thought better than it. They will learn soon enough that their effort isn't needed.
"Okay..." He repeated, "Thanks."
"I guess we'll leave you to it then, dinner will be ready in an hour. Pizza, okay?"
"Uh, yeah." They slowly backed out of the room to leave; Harley walked up and closed the door after them and panicked when he realized there was no lock. He opened the door and called after them, "wait! Uhm, is there no locks?"
Tony and Pepper locked eyes with each other, having a silent conversation with their eyes. Tony eventually shrugged and walked back to the bedroom.
"Sorry, we were going to wait in order not to freak you out or whatever. We have an AI that runs our house, nothing too drastic, she runs the AC, water temp, files our taxes, gives life advice, nothing crazy." Right, Harley thought, that's not insane at all. "But she can also lock your door."
Harley nodded along, "sooo, how?"
"Right, right, Jarvis can you say hi to Harley."
"Hello Harley," came a male voice from somewhere, Harley ducked as if something were coming at him.
"Hi!?" he replied to everywhere?
Tony gave the kid a thumbs up, "you can talk to Jarvis whenever you want, and ask him for anything too, if you don't want to ask us."
"Cool, cool."
_____
~~~~~~
"I'm not gonna have no crying kid," Richard whipped himself around and dragged Peter by the arm until he was nudged up against a stool. Peter got the idea pretty quickly and sat on the wobbly seat.
Richard squatted down in front of him, eye level, placed a razor cellphone into his palm.
"You stay here. Do not move. You wait until I come back, do you hear me?"
He knew this task. Sit. Do not move. Do not move, no matter what. And especially above all...
"And don't you cry."
So, he sat. And sat. And sat. And sat.
The television across the room had been playing cartoons, but now it was stagnant on informercials. The room having been lit by the sun had become only luminated by the nightlight, which had been placed just above the stove.
He tried not to cry and to not move, but then he had to pee. And when he had to pee, but he couldn't move, well that's when the tears started. So at least he only broke one rule.
~~~~~~
Peter tried to not think about those memories when writing his plan to get his dad out of jail, but he just couldn't help it. It wasn't his dad's fault; he was just a busy man and Peter sometimes got in his way. He had happy memories too, like tons upon tons. He swore it.
He bit the end of his pencil, making dents on the metal part that held the eraser. He rested his head on his right knee that was propped up on the chair, his brain replaying that night over and over again in his brain. It wouldn't leave his thoughts even when he told his brain to just shut up! He closed his eyes and bawled up his piece of paper. Screw the plan. Screw all the plans. He was just going to wing it, and he didn't need stupid Mary to do it either.
He took the pencil out of his mouth and looked down at its irregularities. A reflection of himself, he declared. He tossed that too.
The next day he told the old couple that he had a long tutoring session after school for a chemistry class that he was failing. He wasn't technically lying. He did have a scheduled tutoring session, and he was failing chemistry, but he wasn't going, and he didn't care.
His knee bounced in every single class, watching the clock tick on the wall, willing it to move faster. He secured two detention slips for not paying attention, shoved them each into separate pockets of his bag. Ned was talking enough for the both of them at lunch, while Peter bit the inside of his cheek for lunch instead of the cardboard cutout of sausage pizza. He was a pineapple kind of guy anyways.
Finally, the last bell rang, he already had his bag slung over his left shoulder thirty minutes before the fact. He stood up to tear out of the room, when a hand landed on his shoulder and pulled him back. He shrugged it off but ultimately turned around when his best friend started talking.
"What's going on with you today?" The look of concern that melted Ned's usual bubbly expression was enough to almost get him to spill what he was about to do. Almost.
He slung the other side of his bag strap on, "nothing man. Just, ready to go home." He started walking out, Ned by his side as they fled the building with the rest of the school.
As he walked down the path towards the car rider line, he was hit with a sudden realization, this may be the last time he sees Ned if his 'not plan' works. He slowed to stop, Ned stopping in time with him. He could feel Ned look at him, but he just looked forward at all the students getting into cars and lingering.
"What's wro-"
Peter slammed his arms around Ned, his chin falling onto Ned's shoulder. Ned awkwardly slung his arms around him in return.
Peter straightened himself out, sniffing his snot up into his nose, ignoring the single tear that fell down his face. A bit embarrassing if he thought himself, "Sorry."
Ned shook his head, confused by the entire interaction.
"Ned, I just need you to know that I really appreciate you," he nodded to himself, his lips closed tight, trying to will his feet to just move on and leave. He didn't owe anyone anything, but maybe just this once he could deal with his emotions like an adult and just get his point across. Not leave his best fucking friend in the dark.
But he wasn't an adult, so he took off, running across the road, not looking back to see if his friend was following. Because he knew he wasn't, no one ever did. He did not want to see another anguished facial expression, especially knowing that he was the one that put it there.
The walking that led him to this building allowed him to think what he was going to do and say. Or he thought that's what would happen, but in reality, it really amped up his anger that had been inside him for the past seven years. He threw open the front door of the Metropolitan Correctional Center, walking right up to the front desk like the words would just fall out of his mouth once he got there. His mouth stayed shut.
"Hi son, do you need help?" The man behind the counter had a deep raspy voice, his eyebrow was cocked far up his head, and he wore his attitude on his sleeve.
"No," he said with impatience, his fingers stretched out across the counter, tapping. "I mean, yes."
"What can I help you with?"
"My dad. He's an inmate here, I need to see him."
"What's your name?"
"Peter... Peter Parker," he let out a small huff of air he didn't know he was holding. He looked around the room while the man type on the computer, he locked eyes with a gruff looking man sitting in a chair and looked back at the computer man.
"Sorry, kid but you're not in the system, have you been pre-approved for a visitation?"
Fuck.
"Well, no, but-"
"Then unfortunately there's nothing I can do from here; you'll have to fill out a visitation form online. Make sure a parent or guardian fills it out too."
"Look, I can't wait. I have been waiting for years. I can't wait another day, can you please just let me see my dad?"
The man rolled his eyes, "I can help you fill out a visitation form, but it takes a while to get read and approved. All inmates have a right to refuse a visitor. What's your dad's name?"
"Richard Parker," he tapped his foot against the linoleum, hiking up his backpack a little higher.
The computer guy hummed to himself as he clacked away, "Sorry, there's no Richard Parker in our systems."
"Okay? Try Richard Williams Parker."
"There's no Richard Williams Parker in our system either. He may have moved facilities."
"Then tell me what facility he is at."
"I can't see from my end where they go, this is a high secure prison kid, the system stays locked."
"Fuck you." He spat, turning on his heel and out the door. He'll find him his goddamn self. Incompetent loser this man was. And by himself, he meant Ned. Which just makes his last interaction with him just plain embarrassing.
"Ned, can you please stop talking about feelings. I told you I'm fine, now puh-lease hack the damn main frame."
"Fine, but go get us some popcorn from the cabinet," Ned cracked his knuckles and got to work. Satisfied that his friend was set to business, he toed out of the bedroom, down the hall and into the kitchen.
He never felt like an outsider in the Leeds house, his mom always made sure to give him extra food on his plates because she knew he was too polite to ask for seconds. She would also send both kids off to the bedroom with heaps of snacks, and something inside of Peter told him that she only did this when he was here. He dug around in the cabinet until he spotted the extra buttered popcorn, he tore off the plastic and opened the microwave. He hit the popcorn button, even though the button was never accurate. He listened as the kernels started popping, each pop cut into his head. He was getting a headache, this is not how he expected his day to go, it was supposed to go smoothly. He opened the microwave door once the popping started dwindling down.
"Shit," he tossed the bag on the counter when his hand got scalding hot butter onto it. He grabbed a big bowl from one of the cabinets next to the microwave and dumped the entire bag into it. He swiftly walked back to Ned's room, taking larger than needed steps. He swung the door open with the side of his hip.
He plopped himself down on the bed, face first, making sure to keep the bowl level so nothing would fall out. He rolled over and popped some into his mouth.
"So, did you get into it?" He asked with a full mouth. He turned his head at an awkward angle to look up at his friend, as he was sitting behind him. "Ned?" Getting no response, he sat up and threw a couple pieces of popcorn at him.
"I think you're going to want to see this," Ned's voice cracked.
Peter stood up and squatted down and looked at the computer screen. Half the screen was coding and the other was booking dates that followed where his dad was placed. He squinted his eyes, because he didn't know what Ned wanted him to see.
"What am I looking at?" He threw some more kernels into his mouth.
Ned licked his lips, "Pete... your dad..."
Peter looked at him, "what? Spit it out."
"He was released ten months ago."