Chapter 4
By the time Tony finished at Morgan’s school, there were only twenty minutes until the big kids got out of school so he sent a quick text to Happy and started off for their school.
He sat in the pickup line for a few minutes before the bell rang and kids started spilling out of the school. He watched the doors for a few minutes before Harley came out followed by Abbie and a scary-looking girl he assumed to be the infamous MJ. The three of them stood there for a few minutes until Georgia came out followed by a young boy about Peter’s age who he figured was Ned.
They all stood there for another few minutes until the trickle of students had stopped and still Peter was nowhere to be found. Tony started to freak out a bit until he saw Peter coming around the side of the building and making a beeline for the car. The other kids saw him and started after him, but Peter made it to the car first.
Tony had thought he was trying to get the front seat but he opened the backdoor and climbed into the back seat.
“Hi, Morgan. What are you doing out of school?”
“My teacher thought I was lying and called daddy to talk to her.”
The other kids jumped into the car all noticing Morgan.
“Mo?” Harley climbed into the back seat next to Peter.
“Bean why are you here? Georgia got the front seat.
“What up Morgan?” Abbie sat down next to Morgan.
“Hi! My teacher thought I was lying and got me in trouble so daddy came to my school and fixed everything but I got to leave early.”
Tony listened to his kids chat about their days until they got back to the tower. As soon as the car was parked Peter was launching himself out of the car and running to the elevator clearly trying to avoid something. Tony thought it was weird but didn't want to ask about it with all of the other kids there so he helped get Morgan out of the car and followed Peter to the elevator.
When they got upstairs Peter was the first out of the elevator saying something about homework.
Tony asked the other kids to help Morgan get a snack before heading down the hallway towards Peter’s room. When he got there he knocked and heard a bang before Peter told him to come in.
Peter was sitting at his desk but his backpack was across the room and he had nothing in front of him.
“Pete, what's going on?”
“Nothing, nothing. All is well. Nothing is going on with me.”
“Peter I can tell you are lying.”
Tony started at Peter for a moment before he broke and spoke as fast as he could, “TheyfoundoutaboutFlash’sbullyingandwanttoknowwhyIlethimtalktomelikethat.”
“What was that Pete?”
“Ugh. Georgia, Abbie, and Harley found out about Flash’s bullying and they want to know why I let him talk to me like that.”
“Bullying??”
“Um… Yeah.”
“Since when?”
Peter mumbled something under his breath that Tony couldn't hear but after a stern look spoke louder, “Freshman year.”
“Freshman year!? Does May know?”
Peter just shook his head and looked at the floor like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
Tony knelt down in front of him and gently lifted his head so they were making eye contact. “Why?”
“I didn’t want him to hurt anyone else and I can take it.”
“That is not your responsibility, you are just a kid you shouldn't have to worry about things like that. It is up to your teachers to do something, not you.”
“Yeah, but Flash’s parents donate a lot of money to the school and so no one is allowed to reprimand him or they could lose their jobs.”
“I have donated more.”
“What?”
“Yeah, before you all went back to school I donated a bunch of money so they could upgrade their security system. Which actually should have caught any incident that may have occurred. Tomorrow morning before school you and I will have a little chat with your principal.”
“You don’t have to do that! It's fine! I just ignore him.”
“Pete I am not going to let you get bullied at school when I could do something about it. And if I don’t do something you know your siblings will.”
“Fineeeee.”
“Great!” Tony pulled himself off of the floor and gave Peter a quick kiss on the top of his head before leaving the room to see what the other kids were up to.