Chapter 5
Just as the class received their 5-minute warning for time left in this lab before moving to the next, the wall panel slid open, once again revealing the private elevator with Peter stood inside.
Upon seeing the aforementioned teen exit the lift space, Mr Turner started his march over to the younger fully prepared to give him hell for not only leaving the group but for having the audacity to block him from the elevator.
Well, that was his intention. Up until the moment when he realised Peter was not alone in the space.
“Ned! MJ! Cookies! I have cookies!” Morgan exclaimed as she appeared from behind her ‘big brother’ and ran over to the pair
“Oh wow, cookies?” MJ cooed as she swung the child onto her hip in the same way Peter does
“Yeah! Cookies for you and Ned!”
“Are they good cookies?” Ned questioned with a dramatically raised eyebrow
“The best!” she excitedly replied, “Uncle Buck made them!”
“yes” the boy gave a fist pump into the air, each elder taking the last two treats from the jar.
Using his handprint, Peter opened a secure cabinet and pulled out two items before making his way over to his friends with a smile of pure fondness (and making a conscious effort to ignore the daggers from the teacher, clearly having an internal debate with himself over whether or not he could reprimand the teen in front of the child)
“Come on little one, you know the rules for the labs-” he stated as he reached the group, pulling a tiny pair of safety goggles over Morgan’s head and handing her a miniature lab coat “- No running”
“Sorry, Pete” she apologised with a small giggle and straightening her goggles, which only served to make her ‘adorable-ness’ grow even greater and gaining ‘aawwwhhhhh’s from almost every female (and a handful of the males) in the room.
The next lab visited by the class was for robotic engineering, one which Ned and Peter loved and spent a lot of time in, as it was the perfect place to combine their skills into one project. Once again, before they were allowed into the lab, Emily provided the group with a stern warning against touching anything without permission and informed Flash that he would remain by her side whilst Peter was to ensure Morgan’s safety and remain with his friends. They were allowed 10 minutes to take in the room, before having the opportunity to create something.
Once into the large work area, Ned and Peter made a B-line directly to their joint station (with Morgan in arms, and MJ in tow) without a second thought. While the spiderling began pulling out pieces of a current project which might interest Morgan, The man in the Chair began logging into their computer server to access the coding. To which nobody batted an eye, this was their stomping ground after all.
Well… Nobody other than a certain two gentleman that may or may not be prone to bullying tendencies.
“Parker! You have been warned on numerous occasions to stop touching things! And now you’re trying to drag Leeds down with you too?” Came the venomous voice of Mr Turner
“Ha! In for it now, Penis” Flash was quick to add
Ned instantly whipped around to look at Emily with pure innocent fear coursing through his body. Peter, however, leaned forward, with his hands on the desk, and let out an exasperated sigh. It took a lot to wear out the teen's patience, but his teacher was certainly up for the challenge today. Even the ‘always totally uncaring’ MJ had anger threatening to spill as she tensed her fists by his side.
“Daddy said that was a bad language word” Morgan mused, being the first to speak up.
“Yeah, Morg, that is a bad word, we don’t repeat that, okay?” the little girl in front of him was always capable of relieving Peter of his stress, opting for the softened tone to speak to her with.
“Then why did he say it to you?”
When Peter couldn’t find a good answer, MJ was next to talk
“Because he’s a bad person, and bad people say bad words” she offered with a nonchalant shrug.
“Why you little-“ Flash made a lunge towards the older of the girls
“ah-ah” she stopped him, with her hand held up, before then motioning to the younger “child” she gave simply.
“Actually” Emily began “I believe I keep saying ‘no touching without permission’” she countered “and given that this station and everything in it is the work of these two boys, they essentially hold an always-open-permission to touch whatever they want there.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever…” Flash humphed as he made his way back to stand by the tour guide who was now just rolling her eyes.
5 minutes later, it was time for the class to start their activity
“Okay, so, everyone gets into pairs, grab a box from that shelf, and find a space at that big table. You have 30 minutes to build a robot. It can do whatever you want, but it has to be able to do at least one command.” Emily gave gestures to the applicable areas as she spoke “I do note, however, there is an odd number of you. Junior, I already know you can do this in your sleep, so do you want to use this time to take the little one back upstairs?” as the guide gave her suggestion, she could tell Mr Turner was going to dispute the idea, which was cut off by her hand before he could even open his mouth.
“But I wanna build a robot!” Morgan whined “Please Pete? Harley isn’t even here yet and you said I could stay until he came, so, pleeease?” she gave her best possible puppy dog eyes, a skill learned from Peter himself.
Looking to Emily for confirmation, who just gave a shrug and a nod
“Yeah, okay then, come on,” he said, picking her up again so she could reach the boxes before they got to work – Peter sat on a chair with his legs crisscrossed and Morgan in his lap as she instantly fell into a spiel of ideas, which just earned a giggle of fondness from the elder as he wrapped his arms round her and gave a squeeze in a quick hug from behind.
Before anyone knew it, the 30 minutes was up and it was time for a little show and tell from the pairs to Emily and a few of the lab workers who needed a break.
First up were Abe and Betty whose creation was small and simple but working well. Their choice of action was to make their robot do the robot dance moves, earning a general laugh from the group.
Flash and Brad were next as the pair were eager to brag about how their model was the best. It was not. In fact, it was so far away from being the best, that as soon as they hit the button to make it move it just fell apart, landing in a heap of scraps on the desk. This lead to an even bigger laugh from the group than the first received.
After a few more presentations, it was Ned and MJ’s turn to show off. The pair’s invention was actually the best so far. The item in front of them had wheels and working 4 digit hands which meant it was able to pick up and move items. For their demonstration, they instructed it to build a tower out of blocks, and it worked perfectly.
The rest of the groups finished their displays and the tour guide began to instruct them to pack up as the scientists made their way back to their work, but apparently, they had gone too long without any comments from Flash as he spoke up.
“How come Pen-Peter didn’t show his robot” he questioned, correcting the name he was about to use, remember there was a child present “Not up for the embarrassment of failure?”
“I mean… we can show you if you want?” This resulted in most of the class agreeing and becoming excited. It had been proven time and time again that Peter did, in fact, have an internship, so his creation must be good, right?
Right!
“Do you wanna tell them about it, Morgs?”
“Yeah! This is our robot, it looks like my daddy!” she began. The robot did actually look a bit like a mini unpainted iron man suit. “It’s super cool! It can jump, and dance, and fight! Look!” she exclaimed, before turning to Peter and speaking quieter “Show ‘em! Show ‘em!”
.
On command, the intern made their robot walk over to the remnants of Flash and Brad’s before it then kicked and punched the heap, took a step back, and done a little victory dance. The class watched the action in awe before offering a round of applause.
“Okay Okay guys, calm down, I know I’m amazin’ an’ all but you can stop now”
“Ha’ley!”
As the class were busy clapping, they failed to notice Harley step out of the private elevator, only being alerted when the southerner made his terrible joke, before being tackled by the hyperactive 4 year old.
After the attack, Morgan grabbed Harley by his sleeve and led him over to the table and next to Peter.
“I know I have to go upstairs, but look at our robot! It’s the bestest one and Ned and MJ’s is super good too and I don’t want to leave, pleeeaaaasssseeeee”
“Com’on Morgs, I know down here is fun just now, but the class will be busy and it will get boring, and Miss Emily here has some important stuff to do with the big kids” the current babysitter spoke, whilst trying his hardest to fight off the puppy dog eyes getting shot his way
“Actually” Emily spoke up again “We’re about to head to the cafeteria for our lunch break, so there’s no issues with it just now”
“Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!” Morgan chants whilst punctuating each time with a tug of Harley’s shirt, earning just an eye roll as he picked her up, placed he on his hip, and began following the class over to the service elevator.