Being A Stark

You flip over the quiz you had just gotten back in Chemistry and grimace at the red ink at the top of the page. A fifty three on a pop quiz was less than ideal. You hate pop quizzes. At least on quizzes and tests that you know are coming you can at least study for it and try. But pop quizzes are really hard because you don’t do well with testing already. 

“Wow, for being Tony Stark’s kid, you’re a dumb bitch aren’t you? Daddy must have paid a lot to get you into school here.” You glance over at the boy you haven’t really paid that much attention to since the year started. Kendall, Kevin? Something like that. 

“You don’t know anything.” You say sharply, hoping that you can shut this down before it gets worse.

“Maybe, but at least my dad didn’t have to pay to get me into a school whose focus is science and technology.”

“Keiron, Y/N, if you’re done chatting, we can get on with our lesson,” Mr. Dell’s voice comes from the front of the classroom. You shove the quiz into your binder, not wanting any more focus on it. You don’t know what Keiron’s problem is with you, but you try to focus the rest of the lesson on anything but him. But apparently he wants the last word, right as the bell rings.

“Better tell Daddy he’s going to need to pay for you to pass this class this year.” He says before walking towards the door. You take your time picking up your books. You don’t honestly want to be anywhere near him in the hallway, so the longer time you take, the longer he’ll have to get away from you.

“Since when do you talk to Keiron?” Betty’s voice is beside you, waiting to walk with you to the language hallway.

“I don’t? Today was the first time I’ve talked with him and hopefully the last time.”

“Good. I know you like to make new friends and all, but I haven’t heard particularly good things about him from, well, anyone.”

“I’m just trying to make it through this year with the friends I have. Trust me.” You say as you walk through the hallway towards German. 

Across the way, Peter is leaving his Spanish class after having to stay behind a few minutes to get some clarification about an assignment. Knowing you have German next period, his eyes are searching the hallway for you or Betty.  That would just be an added bonus. Plus his Mechanical Energies class is only a two minutes walk from here, so he has the time to kill, especially for his favorite girl. Hearing Betty’s voice, he knows you’re not that far off. “I just don’t get why you would get in trouble talking to him.”

“He was talking to me. Not the other way around.” You run a hand through your hair. “Can we just let this go, please?” You ask your best friend as Peter makes his way over to you. Betty spies your boyfriend making his way over to the two of you. 

“Sure. I think you’re about to be distracted anyway. I’ll see you after Spanish.” She says as she starts to peel away from you. You look at her confused until a very familiar arm pulls you into him.

“Hi.” Peter whispers into your hair.

“Hi. Don’t you have class to be heading to?”

“I’m fine. Got time to kill. Especially for my best girl.” You relax in his arms and he can’t help but wonder if Chemistry was worse than normal. “Want to talk about it?” He asks.

“Not at all.” You lean into his arms, tilting your head to place a soft kiss on his lips. He smiles into the kiss. “Maybe later.” You mumble against his lips. “I’m busy.” Slips out before another kiss lands on his lips. The five minute bell rings. “You’re going to be late.”

“Worth it.”

“Not if you get detention. Go.” You push gently against his shoulder. “I’ll see you at lunch.” 

“Frauline Stark, class is starting soon.” Your German teacher calls to you as you watch Peter start to walk away, turning back to wave at you. One more period and then you can just spend lunch being distracted by Peter and your friends. Right now you just have to conjugate some verbs and you’ll be ok. German isn’t one of the classes you struggle with, so you’ll be ok.

Sitting down at the lunch table, you’re not surprised that Peter’s arms find their way around your waist the moment you sit down. “Babe you saw me not even an hour ago.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t miss you baby.” Peter says as his lips land on your cheek to kiss you.

“I missed you too.” You roll your eyes at him, already letting what happened in Chemistry fall to the back of your mind. Maybe today was just a weird day that you would just need to forget about as the rest of the year went on.

By the end of the day, you’ve basically forgotten about what happened. Walking out the front of school, you look for the black four door that Happy usually picks you up in. But the paps going wild should have been your first sign that Happy wasn’t the one picking you up. The BMW sitting waiting for you isn’t one of your dad’s favorite cars, but if you’re remembering correctly, it isn’t a manual car, unlike a lot of the other cars he has. You can’t help but smile at your dad being here to pick you up. 

“Wow, perfect time to tell your dad that the dumb bitch needs more money given to the school since she can’t do Chemistry.” Keiron’s voice calls out softly from beside you as he smiles almost sinisterly at you.

“Kiddo, let’s go.” Tony calls from the rolled down window.

“Daddy’s calling.” Keiron jeers as he walks in the opposite direction. You bite your lip as you sit down in the front seat of the car.

“New friend?”

“Far from. Just a kid from my chemistry class.” You turn away from your dad as you buckle in. “Are you even allowed to drive?” You ask, changing the subject.

“As of my appointment yesterday, yes. As long as I feel comfortable.”

“Why didn’t you say anything at dinner yesterday?”

“Wanted to surprise you.”

“Color me surprised.”

“We got a letter in the mail today.” Your dad says like it’s a big piece of news, like your family doesn’t get mail every day.

“Wow. Exciting.”

“It is exciting. It was from TrialNet.”

“Wait really?” This catches your attention. You’ve been waiting to find out about Morgan and her antibodies for about two weeks now and you wanted to know. “What did it say?”

“Zero antibodies.” For the first time since you had the thought about Morgan getting Type One, you feel like you can finally breathe again. She can’t get it unless something goes really wrong with something else. She doesn’t have the antibodies. 

“She’s safe from it.”

“That she is.”

“She can have a normal childhood.” The one you should have had. You don’t say it but you’re pretty sure, you and your dad both hear it. 

“As normal as it can be with being a Stark.”

“True. Being a Stark, it’s weird for sure. Especially that Tony guy.”

“Ha ha kiddo. Don’t make me make you walk home.”

“You would never. You love me too much to make me suffer like that.”

Your dad nods. “That is very true. I do love you too much to let anything hurt you.” 

You force a smile, but you know that if he knew, if he heard the things Keiron had said, he wouldn’t be happy. Even if it is true. But the last thing you need is Tony Stark causing national news by fighting a teenager. You know you can handle it without saying anything to your parents. You’ve dealt with things before, you can deal with them now. No need for anyone to be a knight in shining armor when they don’t need to be.

Plus, it’s not your dad’s fault that God made a mistake with you. Sure God might have made the sun and the moon, but there was only so much time for creativity and smarts. Not everyone can have that. Also, with genius inventor and superhero Tony Stark as a father and a kickass CEO Pepper Stark as your mom, there’s no way you can be as good at things as they are. That would be too much for one family. Oh. Wait, no biologically, Mom isn’t your mom. Your mom was a druggie. Guess she had more of an effect on you than you thought. She may have died on the streets, but maybe any chance you had of being a Stark, a smart Stark like your dad, died with her.

Luckily, before your dad can call you out on the fact that you’ve gone silent, your phone goes off. We’re All In This Together, your group chat with Ned, MJ, Betty, and Peter, has new notifications.

BB: Did you all see that Spider-Man crashed into a building while he was swinging around Queens yesterday?

MJ: He did what now? [crying laughing emoji]

PP: That… that doesn’t sound true. He would never do that. [wide eye emoji]

BB: [sends video clip]

BB: Apparently, there was a news team filming locally and caught it in the background.

NL: Maybe he’s having an off day?

MJ: Seems like it. I’m pretty sure that Spider-Man is supposed to have really good swinging abilities.

BB: you should see the memes that are already happening. Look!

BB: [sends a couple memes and a tiktok of Wrecking Ball but Spider-Man edition]

You can’t help but laugh out loud at the video. Clearly Peter was having a bad day, but the memes are top tier.

“What’s so funny?”

“Spider-Man had an off day, but the memes created from it are too good.”

“What did our spiderling do today?” Your dad asks as he swings the car into park in the garage.

“Well he swung into a building yesterday. But meme culture got a hold of it and created some masterpieces. Like this,” you turn your phone to play the video for your dad. And he laughs just as you had. How could he not?

Maybe today wasn’t the worst day after all.