Prologue
September 1984 - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
(AN: Don’t know when classes started on MIT in ‘84 so I couldn’t get the exact date)
As the morning sun begins to shine on the massive campus of the infamous university of MIT, a young 14 year old boy can be seen running across one of the institute’s many open grass fields.
This rambunctious young man was none other than Anthony “Tony” Stark.
Ever since he was born, Tony Stark lived a life that many would dream of: child of a wealthy father, a mind years ahead of its time, and a promise of a great future. What many don’t know was that Tony currently hated his life.
Despite Tony living in a wealthy house, he never felt a single shred of love from his infamous father Howard Stark. Howard was a man that focused a large majority of his time on his company Stark Industries and he would sometimes be seen in his home office getting drunk from the liquor cabinet for some apparent unexplained reason.
At first, Tony didn’t know what to think about his father because of Howard’s complete focus on his work. It is only when Tony presented the completed working circuit board that Howard couldn’t solve for weeks did it cement Tony’s perspective as a horrible father. The moment Tony presented the board is when Howard began to see his son as an upcoming star that could easily shine brighter than him in the very near future.
The time that came from that moment became the time when Howard would always be envious and cold toward his son to the point that Tony was sent to boarding school until he graduated early. It is only in his acceptance into MIT that Tony felt he had a chance to truly live his life.
As to why Tony is running to class like the devil was chasing him was because he was late for his first class in college.
Despite Tony running for his life, time didn’t give a shit about him and still kept ticking on without a care in the world.
‘I’m Late! I’m Late! I’m Late! I’m Late!Damn it! Why did I think partying with those dorm mates of mine was such a good idea!’
Those words ran through Tony’s mind just as he reached the building his class was in.
Without caring how fast he was running, Tony hastily grabbed the handle of the door and try to push himself in….
BANG!
…...only to smash right into the door itself.
‘Aw fu-, what the hell!?’
When Tony finally looked at the door, he realized that the door only opens outward and not both ways.
(LINEBREAK)
“….as we begin to go deeper into the mechanics of engineering, you will be assigned with different types of projects..”
As the words of the professor droned out of his mouth, the students can be seen trying to hold on every word that was spoken despite the tone.
BANG!
It was with the slam of the classroom door opening that threw everyone’s attention.
Tony can be seen standing there with his legs wide open while having large deep breaths of the air that has escaped him.
“Ah. Mr. Stark. It is quite an honor for you to attend this prestigious academy. However, I do not tolerate tardiness in this course.”
“Sorry, I had uh…um… a..an entrance initiation last night.” replied Tony.
“Whatever the reason, you are in my class now and I expect you to be on time starting today.” the professor said as he slowly resumed his focus to the presentation on the board.
“Ya, I’ll...um...make sure to...uh...not be late….and I’ll just go find my seat.” said Tony as he slowly went to the only seat available in the room.
As we was walking towards the seat, Tony quietly heard whispers of other students talking mostly about him.
‘I can’t believe he’s only 14.’
‘I really want to work at Stark’s R&D.’
‘Hey, you think his dad is willing to listen to my ideas if he vouched for me.’
‘Can’t believe some rich man’s kid is here attending in a place like this.’
‘At least he’ll be better than that girl over there.’
Out of all the comments he quietly heard, the last statement caught Tony’s attention the most. When the word ‘girl’ entered his brain, he instinctively looked up and searched for where this ‘girl’ may be.
Turns out, he didn’t have to look too long since the aforementioned girl was sitting right next to the only available seat he needed.
When the student said ‘girl’, they were probably a little accurate since the girl was also around the same age as him.
The way her face had little traces of baby fat still on her skin with a small amount of freckles detected on her face was a big hint into knowing what her age was.
The one unique feature about her was the long red orange braided hair that went towards her back.
‘Huh, a redhead’, Tony thought.
Throughout all his life, Tony Stark was very grateful for the few things that were rarely ever related to his father, being born a boy was the top one (most likely) thing on that list.
Despite America granting many rights to many walks of life over the century, women were still being seen as slightly inferior to men. Even in this class, only one handful of students were women, and right now only one of them was Tony’s age.
This girl was probably looked down the most because not only was she younger than the other students in the class, but she was also a young woman.
Tony didn’t believe in the women-is-inferior stigma and instead treated them based on how intelligent, hardworking, and stubborn they are.
(This is of course before he realized the pleasure of the flesh, but it still doesn’t affect his view on women)
The minute Tony sat down right next to the mystery girl, the latter just took a peek at the former and resumed her attention to the front of the class.
‘Did she just see me as another student? Huh.’ Tony thought.
With nothing else to do, Tony decided to just pay attention to the class he was going to take this semester and see if he can learn anything new here.
After Class
‘I learned absolutely nothing.’ Tony droned out as he prepared to get out of the classroom as soon as possible.
Most of the stuff he learned or will be learned was already things Tony self taught when his dad wasn’t looking.
Seeing as nothing in the class seemed difficult or worth anything to relearn about, Tony decided to see if he can skip a course to try and find something else that he can learn.
It was when he was walking near the door that he noticed the girl walking next to him.
“Oh, sorry about that.” said the girl.
“No, no. You’re fine.” Tony nonchalantly replied.
“Yea, sorry about that.”
“A lot on your mind?”
“Nah, it’s just…I feel like I’m not really able to learn anything new here.”
“You…you do?’
“Yea, I learned all this stuff in high school. Didn’t feel like it was my kind of challenge.”
“I…I kinda get what you’re feeling.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. It’s that feeling when there’s nothing that’s interesting enough to get your attention so you feel like…uh…”
“You feel like you're stuck in a place that is below you and you want something more challenging?” finished the girl.
“Yeah! Exactly!”
“Huh, I think I know what you’re getting at.”
“Yeah…Oh wait, we’ve been talking all this time and we don’t know each other's name,” said Tony.
“Yeah…but I don’t think you need to know your name since everyone in the world knows it by now.”
“Well, not to toot my own horn, but my name is Anthony Stark. Yes, yes, the same name as Stark Industries with Howard Stark being my old man. Call me Tony tho” Tony said jokingly.
The girl replied with a smile and a small giggle that seem to grab every focusing power Tony has on it for some unknown reason.
“Well, Tony, I hope that you enjoy MIT so far because, for the next few years, you’re stuck with me in completing this lazy, sad excuse of a course until we either waste our time to finish it with high grades or we try to go to a more advanced class.” replied the girl.
The statement also seems to make Tony laugh a little inside while showing his charming closed-mouth smile to the girl.
“Alright, Miss…what your name by the way? I don’t think I got it yet,” said Tony.
“Well, if you must know, my name is Elizabet, Elizabet Sobeck.”