Chapter 3.
October 14th (later that morning)
[INCOMING MESSAGE FROM: Fitz 🐵—> Good luck today!]
Peter smiled, the message from Fitz appearing before the eyes of his mask as he landed on the roof of Midtown. “Karen, send back- Thanks, apparently it’s turned into an Avengers level event. Clint Barton was at the Penthouse today with Rhodey.” It was only a few seconds later that he received confirmation that the message had been sent, so he tapped his wrist to retract the Nanites and fixed his sleeve to cover the wristband that held them.
His phone buzzed a moment later with a new message from Fitz. ‘He’s really going all out, isn’t he? Your classmates are going to love it.’
”Oh, I know.” Peter said aloud, rolling his eyes as he slipped in through the door he, Ned, and MJ snuck out of almost daily to escape the crazy of school and to have the chance to talk freely without anyone eavesdropping.
———
“Hey Penis, excited for the field trip today?”
Peter inwardly groaned, flinching away from Flash’s touch when the boy slapped him on the shoulder. Flash and his friends were one of the sole reasons Peter wasn’t excited about the trip, because for whatever reason, the guy was determined to make Peter’s school life as miserable as possible.
“Why would he be excited dude. He lives there,” Ned scoffed, earning a glare from Peter and his friend immediately backpedaled. “I mean, he practically lives there, with the internship and all. Dude, just relax. Don’t you have some homework to make up or something?”
”You know, I wondered how you keep friends, Parker. But clearly selling lies to make them like you is your ticket in. Your lies won’t fool me though. We’ll all see today,” Flash smirked, then walked away, rushing to hop on the bus before he or Ned had a chance to respond, probably trying to assure he had a seat towards the front.
“Dude,” Peter hissed, looking over his shoulder before gently elbowing Ned in the side. “You know I haven’t really told anyone but you and MJ about my living situation.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I don’t really know why though. It’s so cool, and I don’t think anyone would really even care besides probably Flash.”
“Right, and clearly Flash would not believe it anyway and convince everyone I was lying for attention. So what’s the point,” Peter argued, though that was hardly the reason to keep his life guarded, it definitely did help in his decision to keep it quiet at school.
Everyone knew that Tony Stark had found his long lost son. It had been a media frenzy and there had been a million rumors about it. But they never released his name and no one suspected Peter Parker was that long lost son. Tony had kept him private when he was born, and he was still doing his best to keep him private now, and Peter could understand that. It took him some time to wrap his head around it all, but his new life meant everything to him and he wanted to keep that safeguarded as close to him as possible.
Even if it didn’t fully make sense to others. It made sense to him, in some weird way. Maybe it was just him being selfish.
“Come on, losers. We’re going to miss the bus if we just stand here sulking,” MJ’s voice filtered through his thoughts, and for a second, Peter thought he saw a flicker of concern on her face before it returned to her usual feigned bored annoyance as she passed them and strolled onto the bus in front of them.
———
The entire bus ride to the new Stark Tower was filled with Mr. Harrington’s ramblings about the rules and the all of the great things they all could learn from there and practically no one was listening to him.
Then soon they were all filing in through the giant glass doors of the main entrance, with FRIDAY’s voice echoing through the foyer to welcome the class from Midtown to the building. Peter’s eyes shot up toward the ceiling, a slight smile forming on his face despite himself. This building was less than a year old, and he only used this entrance a couple of times. Even Ned hadn’t seen this entrance before, and he’d been to the Tower plenty of times.
The obvious display of Stark’s technology was all over the place and they were just a few feet inside the building.
“Welcome Class! Over here please,” a woman’s voice called from a nearby table, holding a clipboard, and Peter froze when he looked over and saw who was standing next to her with a handful of lanyards.
“Happy!?” He blurted, and the man just rolled his eyes at him with a smirk, and he didn’t miss the confused glare he got from Flash in response.
“Class, this is Mr. Hogan. He’s head of security and will be assisting in handing out your badges.” As she started her speech, Happy was already moving, giving a lanyard to first Mr. Harrington, and then each of the students. “Please keep these with you at all times. If for some reason you become separated from the group, these lanyards will assist you in getting back to us safely, and let everyone as well as our AI, FRIDAY, know that you belong here with the class.”
She paused again, scanning the class to make sure that everyone had one. “Ma’am, Peter didn’t get one,” Flash sneered, raising his hand to point towards Peter accusingly, and Happy immediately rounded on him, his face pinched with annoyance.
“Peter has his own badge for access. FRIDAY knows who he is, he’ll be fine,” Happy explained, his voice oddly calm compared to the expression he was wearing. “Worry about keeping your own badge safe, kid, and there won’t be any trouble. Are we all good here?” Flash just blinked at him a few times before finally nodding, dropping his hand back to his side and taking a step away from Happy and Peter. Happy just huffed, and walked away.
“Okay, now that that’s settled, are we ready class?” The guide smiled, tapping her clipboard as if nothing had happened before giving her free hand a wave for the class to follow her. The class gave varying forms of affirmations between nodding and mutterings of “yes” or “yes, ma’am” as Peter and Ned shared a pointed look with raised brows at what had just happened before following the rest of the class and the tour guide.
The next couple hours of the tour went like most tours, mostly uneventful, with Flash doing everything he could to avoid Peter and Ned while also trying to show off as much as possible to the tour guide. Peter was even enjoying himself and seeing parts of the tower he hadn’t yet seen. Soon enough, it was time for lunch and they were in the vast food court back on the first floor. So far, there had been no sign of Tony or any other Avengers. In fact, Peter barley saw anyone he recognized, and he was starting to wonder if that had been on purpose.
Either way, he was starting to think either something came up, or his father had changed his mind for whatever he had planned for Peter’s field trip.
“Okay, you have the next 45 minutes to enjoy your lunch. Your badges are locked to the food court for that time for your safety so please do not try to sneak off. We will meet back here after the slotted 45 minutes, and then we have a special treat for the class upstairs! Enjoy!” The guide- who Peter had learned was named Sarah, informed the class with an enthusiastic smile before walking away to grab her own lunch.
“Special treat, I wonder what that could be?” He heard Betty ask Flash as they walked over towards the Thai place in the corner of the food court.
“Do you think it’s…?” Ned asked Peter, as they walked side by side across the hall to their favorite taco vendor as Peter nodded. He was willing to bet something hadn’t come up after all, and that Tony still very much had something planned.