Welcome to Stark Tower!

Peter looked at his sheet. They've been talking about the same chart for 30 minutes now. He had finished the thing in 5 minutes. But apparently his math teacher thought that it was necessary to talk about it for half an hour.

When he looked to his left he saw Ned writing something about his new Lego set. The only thing he was talking about lately, not that it bothered Peter.

In front of them sat MJ, she was drawing something in her journal. Probably someone having a crisis. In this class it wasn't hard to find someone.

After another half an hour of the most boring math lesson in history they were free. They're next lesson was science.

It was actually Peter's favourite lesson, the only problem was that Mister Harrington spent half of the lesson talking about his encounter with Bruce Banner.

Peter started to think it just wasn't his day when Mister Harrington demanded everyone's full attention. The teen looked curious to the teacher.

Mr. Harrington looked like someone just promised him a million dollars.

"Now that I have everyone's attention: I have some exciting news for you!", he started.

"What do you think it is? I hope it's something cool, I heard last year they went to Hammer Tech", Ned whispered.

"I don't know man. But Hammer Tech isn't that good", Peter answered and turned back to the teacher.

"This year we're going to, and I can't believe that myself, we are going to go to", he made a dramatic pause, "Stark Tower!".

The whole class erupted into cheers. The loudest of them all was Ned.

"Did you know about that? Did you? Did you? Why didn't you tell me that's amazing!", Ned nearly screamed in his excitement.

"First of all, no I didn't know about it. Second, this is horrible. Everyone will know me there and everyone will ask questions and this will be so embarrassing", Peter complained.

"Man, your life really is amazing. I mean everyone is freaking about the possibility of meeting the Avengers and you complain! And by the way I could meet Iron Man or Captain America! That's insane."

"My life isn't that good. And the chance to meet the Avengers isn't really big. They don't even live there anymore. The only ones who go there regularly are Mr. Stark and Miss Potts", Peter explained.

"Miss Potts is amazing. If this trip means I could meet her it isn't that bad after all", MJ interrupted their conversation.

"You see, even MJ is excited and that has to mean something", Ned stated.

"Can everybody please be quiet! There are still a few things left I have to tell you", Mr. Harrington said over the excited students.

"The trip will be on Friday in two weeks and will last the whole day. So be on time everybody. Who isn't here at 8am can't come!", He explained.

During the last part he gave Peter a knowing glance, which was completely unfair. It's not like Peter's always so late on purpose!

"Ok, so all information is on this sheet. So please read it carefully. I will need the permission slip back on Friday in a week. Who doesn't hand it in can't come. Understand?"

"Yes!", replied the class and some nodded eagerly.

When the lesson ended everybody raced to the front to get their permission slip. Peter walked slowly to the front and took his slip last.

Once in the corridor he was surrounded by overly excited students. He heard them speculate of what they might see there. It really seemed like he was the only one who wasn't excited.

"I can't believe we're going to Stark Tower! I could finally meet an Avenger!" Ned nearly screamed at his side.

"Well, the chances that we meet an Avenger there are really not high", Peter stated.

"Buuuut there is a chance", Ned contered.

"You know, maybe I can ask Mr. Stark if you can come with me to the Compound", Peter said.

"You would do that for me?! Please do that for me! Please, please, please! I'll do everything for you!"

"Well I can't promise you anything. See you tomorrow?", Peter asked.

"Yes and don't forget to ask!" "How could I?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When he arrived at his and May's apartment he thought about the field trip.

He was right, the chance to meet an Avenger there who could say something embarrassing about him was near zero.

The problem wasn't the Avengers, it was the workers at Stark Tower. Way too many of them knew him.

That wasn't bad at all. He'd love to see Flash's face when he found out his internship was real.

He's fear was that his class found out he was Spiderman! That would destroy everything. This trip could destroy everything!

Maybe he just shouldn't go, but if he'd do that everyone would assume his internship wasn't real. And to be honest he was really sick of all the bullying.

Why was his life so hard? Why couldn’t he just have a normal life like everybody else? Was this really too much to ask?

On days like this he missed his old, normal life with normal problems. Not that he didn’t enjoy being Spiderman and hanging out with Mr. Stark and the Avengers.

It was just so difficult sometimes. He was so busy all the time. There were days he just felt so lonely. At least now he could talk with May, Ned and the other Avengers about it. But it still felt like no one of them really understood him.

They all understood a part of him and his problems, but they couldn’t understand all of them. No one of them was a teenage superhero after all.

“I’m home!”, he heard May call. She then closed the door behind her and put down her purse. “How was school? Did something interesting happen?”, she wanted to know.

“It was ok. I mean we literally had the most boring math lesson in the history of math lessons, but it really could have been worse. Oh and we found out where our field trip will go.”

“And? Where will you go?”, May kept asking. “Yeah, well that’s the bad part. We’re going to Stark Tower”, Peter told her.

“And why again is that so bad?”

“It’s because everyone will know me there and they will all ask me questions, questions I maybe can’t answer! Oh and what if they find out that I’m freaking Spiderman?!” Peter freaked out.

“You’re a bit over reacting, don’t you think? I mean it’s just a field trip. I bet it will be fun. You can tell them all the interesting fun facts, how bad could it go?”

Yes, she was right. How bad could it go? It wasn’t like he nearly got killed on the last field trips. Much worse really wasn’t possible. Maybe luck would be on his side, just this one time.

“You may have a point there”, Peter sighed. “Ok, since this is solved, what do you want for dinner?”

“Pizza?” Peter asked hopefully. “Why not?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After homework Peter went out to go on an uneventful patrol. Except for stopping a bicycle robbery nothing happened.

Right before Peter wanted to go to bed he got a message.

Mr. Stark
Hey, you wanna come over on Thursday? Got some interesting stuff to work on…

Peter
What interesting stuff?

Mr. Stark
You'll see soon enough

Peter
🥺

Mr. Stark
Not working

Peter
😢

Mr. Stark
See you on Thursday?

Peter
Yeah!

Now that Mr. Stark had written to him, Peter started to ask himself if he knew about the field trip. Maybe he even was the one who arranged it.

Maybe he should ask him about it? But what if the billionaire didn't know about it? It would definitely be better that way.

He would just wait and watch how Tony acts.

"Hey May, it's okay when I go over to Stark Tower on Thursday right?", he asked.

"Of course!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On Thursday afternoon Peter was the first to leave school. He practically flew into Happy's car.

"Hey Happy", he greeted the bodyguard.

"Hi kid, did Tony tell you why he wants you over?"

"He only said he had some interesting stuff to work on", Peter explained.

"Interesting", Happy answered. "Wait, what's interesting? What do you know? Tell me please", Peter begged.

"Oh, this won't be fun", Happy sighed. "What? What will be fun? Happy!"

Happy just looked in the rearview mirror and then rolled out the separator.

"Great", Peter mumbled.

20 minutes later they arrived at the Tower. They entered through the garage and took the lift to Tony's private lab.

"Hey Mister Stark", he called while entering.

"Hi, Pete. How was school?", the billionaire asked.

"It was ok. Ned asked if maybe he could come over some time? But you don't have to say yes. I told him that I can't promise him anything", Peter told him.

"Yeah why not. Tell Ted he can come over whenever he wants. A friend of yours is a friend of mine", Tony agreed.

"Ned."

"What?"

"His name is Ned. And he’ll be over the moon. Thank you Mr. Stark!”

“Yeah, yeah enough small talk. Let’s go upstairs, I have to show you something”, the billionaire interrupted.

“Upstairs? What do you want to show me upstairs?”, Peter questioned.

“You’ll see soon enough. Let’s go!”

They walked back into the elevator and went up into Tony’s living area. When they stepped out Peter was a boy, around his age, sitting on the cough.

“Hey Harley, come over and introduce yourself”, Mr. Stark said.

They boy got up and walked over. He stretched his hand out and introduced himself: ”Hi, I’m Harley Keener. Might have guessed that. I’m 17 and I’ll be staying here for the next month. And you must be Peter right?”

“Right. I’m Peter Parker, nice to meet you”, he said while shaking the other boy’s hand.

“Right. I’ll let you two get to know each other ok? Have to do some stuff or Pepper will kill me”, Tony asked.

“Yeah, we’re going to be alright. Enjoy your work”, Harley answered for both of them.

“Yeah”, Mr. Stark snorted. He then turned around and walked into the elevator. Again.

“So, where did you meet Mr. Stark?”

“I met him in my garage, he broke into it.”

“He, what into where?!”, Peter exclaimed.

“He broke into my garage. Crash landed in the middle of nowhere. Was in 2012 after the Mandarin attack. Everyone thought he was dead. But he wasn’t and I helped him catch the bad guys. Pretty cool huh?” Harley explained.

“Yes, pretty impressive”, Peter agreed.

“And well after that we kinda stayed in contact. Now I’m planning to go to MIT and Tony said I could spend my time before college here. Get some experiences and stuff.”

“Sounds cool.”

“And how did you meet Tony?” Harley questioned.

"Well uh, he just kind of noticed me on uh because of a school project. And Mr. Stark thought I had potential so he kinda made me his intern", Peter tried to explain.

"Ok, did Mr. Stark already show you around here?"

"I know where all the important things are. Bed, lab refrigerator, TV", Harley joked.

"Hey uh do you wanna play Mario kart?"

"If you are willing to lose"

"Keep on dreaming", Peter said while walking over to the TV.

He took two controllers and asked Friday to start the TV and the PlayStation 5.

"Hey, what are you going to do here the next few days?", Peter asked after a few minutes.

"Well, I'm not sure. I want to do some work in the lab of course, but Tony wants me to do some other stuff too."

"Sounds interesting. Any ideas what he has in mind? Finances? Board meetings", Peter asked curiously.

"Ah actually he wanted me to be the tour guide for some stupid school trip", Harley complained.

"Wait, wait what?! When?", Peter screamed.

"In two weeks. I don't know why he wants me to do that!"

"Nooooo!"

"Wait what's wrong?"

"That's my school, my school trip. I hoped Mr. Stark wouldn't know about it. This will be horrible and cringe. Why does this always happen to me?!"

"Hey, I promise I won't embarrass my new best friend", Harley swore.

"It's not you I'm worried about. It's Mr. Stark. I don't want everyone asking questions about how I know him!", Peter whined.

"Hey, who's asking questions?", Mr. Stark, who came back at this exact moment, asked.

"You knew about my school trip! How? You never read any files!"

"You're right. I don't, Pepper told me", Tony smiled.

"Traitor. Please Mr. Stark, don't make this embarrassing. I really need to stay under the radar because of you know what."

"Me embarrassing? Never! I just want to make sure that everyone believes you after that. Just some accidental meeting. And before you say something Pepper agreed!"

"Great. Will she be there too? Did you invite Thor and Cap as well?", Peter asked ironically.

"I didn't invite them, but they are all free to come. If they decide to"

"Then why am I forced to go there?", Harley asked.

"Because I let you live in my house and I needed a good tour guide for Peter", Tony explained deadly seriously.

"Pf I'm the worst tour guide I'm the history of tour guides. I've never even guided a tour!"

"So how could you know you're bad, huh?", Tony questioned.

"I don't wanna do this stupid tour I want to see New York!", the boy complained.

"Well give Peter's class a nice tour, don't embarrass him and I'm sure he'll show you some nice places and people here. Right, Pete?"

Peter was a bit surprised to be part of the conversation again. And actually he didn't like to be included in their argument.

"Well uh yeah sure, but actually I don't have that many friends", Peter mumbled.

"Well I have zero so it sounds great", Harley smiled.

"You see everything's great!", Mr. Stark said proudly.

"Ok now let's get back to the important stuff. I heard you have a private cinema here with the best movies, is that true?"

"Of course it's true who you think I am? " Tony exclaimed.

"Then let's go!"

Peter thought this to be a nice idea. So he and Harley followed Tony to the cinema room.

After half an hour of arguing they decided to watch Tony's movie.

He talked a bit with Harley but after some glares from Tony's side and the long explanation of "how could you talk during such a masterpiece" they stopped.

On his way back home he thought about Harley. The boy seemed nice. Maybe his field trip wouldn't be as bad as he thought it would.