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It was not an uncommon occurrence for Peter to skip school.
[Not that any of them liked it, but at least they were used to it.]
Mr. Harrington just shook his head after finishing roll call. Ned and MJ shot a text to their group chat. The entire Decathlon team smiled fondly (if a bit exasperatedly).
Then, everyone got on the bus.
It wasn’t the first time they saw Stark Tower with their own eyes, or would it be the last. They lived in New York, after all.
Still, they couldn’t help but gape at the building like it was made of gold (even their driver slowed down to admire it, not that they were complaining). Standing at too-many-feet-to-count tall, the Tower glimmered as if Tony Stark had somehow managed to create a miniature sunray and store it inside his home.
In fewer words: it was absolutely amazing.
It took Mr. Harrington all of 115 seconds to make them form a straight line outside the bus. Once they were deemed “presentable” enough, their teacher (who wasn’t fooling anyone and did little hops every few steps –it was, frankly, adorable) managed to herd them all into the lobby.
While they were busy trying not to (hypothetically) drool over the very expensive marble floor, their teacher went to the Tower’s receptionist: a man that couldn’t have been older than 20 wearing a plain white button-up shirt with a tie that was entirely compromised of gold and pink roses.
[They all shared a single brain cell and immediately decided that it was the coolest tie in the world.]
The guy immediately perked up when he spotted roughly ten teenagers and their teacher, all in bright yellow uniforms that could not have screamed anything other than we’re huge nerds! The receptionist (whose nametag read Nigel) walked towards their teacher with the same excitement of someone that had no right to be happy at too-early in the morning.
[It was already 10 a.m.]
“Good morning! You must be Midtown High, we’re so glad that you could come visit Stark Industries today! Your tour guide will be here shortly; meanwhile, please put anything metallic on those lockers to your left. You’ll get a key after you go through security, but we don’t want the metal detectors going crazy. If you have any kind of metal on your person that cannot be removed, you let me know and we’ll sort it out.”
They all nodded in unison, going through the motions of removing cellphones, belts, and the odd pennies and placing them where they were told.
When they were all finished, there was a woman in a lab coat waiting for them. Her hair was dyed a bright blue and her hand clutched a hand-made notebook tightly, a bunch of post-it notes and what looked to be newspaper cutouts stuck out of the pages.
[They could also see a chocolate bar peeking through one of the many pockets of her lab coat, but no one could fault her for that. Lab coats just had so much space .]
“Hello, Midtown! I trust that Nigel here told you all about the metal detectors and how not to set them off. Now, before we begin the tour, you’ll each need one of these VISITOR lanyards that I’ve got on my hands. Please don’t take them off, because that would mean that we’d have to escort you out of the building.”
She started passing the lanyards around, eyeing them carefully to make sure they all had put them on like a good tour group.
[Of course they did. This was Stark Industries they were talking about, no way were they escorting them out.]
Their tour guide clapped her hands approvingly.
“Excellent! Now, I have two very simple rules that I need you guys to follow at all times. Number one: you always remain with your group. We don’t want the poor security guards chasing you around the Tower–” MJ quietly chuckled at that, there was no way that they could get lost inside the building, especially not with FRIDAY tracking their every move –“Rule number two: please don’t touch anything unless you’re told that you can. This applies to all the floors we’ll be visiting, but will be enforced the most on the R&D labs. Got it?”
The whole team nodded enthusiastically. Their tour guide beamed.
“In that case, my name is Lauren and I’ll be your tour guide for the day. Welcome to Stark Industries!”
They made their way to the elevator, and went inside.
[Not before going through the metal detectors, which were set off only once, thank you very much.]
Their first stop is on floor 24.
The second the elevator doors open, they’re immediately faced with an indoor greenhouse that has them wishing for their phones or even a polaroid camera.
“Man, I can’t believe Peter works here…”
What was meant to be a whispered comment to MJ turned into a bunch of heads (including Lauren’s) turning to look at Ned as if he had grown an extra pair of arms.
“Peter? As in, Peter Parker?”
Ned perked up when their tour guide recognized his best friend.
[To be fair, everyone did. If Peter had been coming here after school every day and hadn’t told them about all the cool stuff, he was getting all the History questions for a month. ]
“Yeah, that’s him! He’s our classmate!”
Lauren nodded wisely, smiling like she knew a secret they did not.
( Which, she probably did.)
“Well, he’s an excellent intern and a pleasure to work with. We’ll probably see him running around the Tower today.”
It wasn’t hard to imagine Peter running (and probably stumbling) around in the hallways, it happened often enough at school.
“Anyway! This right here is the biology lab. We have more than one, but the lab on floor 24 specializes mostly on plants. We have fifteen minutes here to look around and ask questions, then we’re off to the chemistry labs.”
She made a shooing motion with her hands and they all scattered.
After twenty minutes (they so did not mind those five minutes that had to be taken from their lunch) Lauren herded the group of teenagers and one adult, who had all seemed to acquire various bags with assorted seeds and a single potted cactus the whole group had decided to name Philip, into the elevator and five floors up.
In the short ride, Lauren told them about the lab they would be visiting, which actually worked closely with the bio lab, and was in the process of making biodegradable fuels, and were promptly told to use the security equipment they would find in bright red boxes once the doors opened.
True to Lauren’s words, they came face to face with two boxes filled to the brim with googles and plastic gloves. They all hurried to put them on, leaving Philip on the floor, away from danger.
When they turned around, they found their teacher hugging the most famous scientist of their generation like they were old friends.
[And how dare their teacher not tell him that he was friends with the Bruce Banner.]
Their tour guide subtly cleared her throat after they spent the better part of five minutes staring at their teacher like he had grown a second head. Tapping her wristwatch, she reminded the group that they had twelve minutes left to wander around that floor.
Fifteen minutes later, they were all back on the elevator, a stray napkin filled with all the equations and notes they could fit on it.
[Yeah, they should’ve brought a notebook.]
Their next elevator ride was a quick stop at the cafeteria, where they all had pizza (and Charles tried to sketch Philip on a napkin that had been stained with ketchup and Thor-knows-what-else.)
His drawing had broken the thin paper in two different places, MJ still gave him a thumbs up.
After their meal was finished, Lauren led them back to the first floors of the Tower, into the biggest conference room they had seen in their lives. They had been instructed to keep quiet and find seats close to the back since the conference (that had been promised in their permission slip and was actually the main event of their day) had already started.
And there, in the middle of the stage, wearing a science-pun shirt, jeans and a lab coat, was Peter Parker.
Their Peter Parker.
He was confidently holding what looked to be a very advanced hearing-aid, if the pictures dancing on the biggest screen they had ever seen behind him were any indication. Peter was explaining the mechanics of the device to a bunch of men in suits in front of him, and a crowd of reporters.
They would be lying if they said it was the first time they saw him like this: sure of himself, presenting something that he was proud of, and knew like the back of his hand. The whole team saw this side of Peter at the start of every Decathlon practice.
It was tradition by now to start practice by giving a two-minute explanation about any topic you wanted. Mr. Harrington had thought it would be a good idea to make them learn more weird facts that had the possibility of being a question in one of their competitions.
Peter always looked like that, except, he often had to talk standing on top of a library chair, with a bunch of flashcards in hand, and to only ten people.
Their teammate owned the stage, and finished his explanation ten minutes after the Decathlon team had gone inside the conference room. He spent half an hour answering questions.
And then, he was done. Smiling like an idiot at the cameras, holding his invention proudly. Everyone in the room started clapping.
Their team stood up, and clapped the loudest out of everyone.
Camera flashes flooded the room, voices shouting Mr. Parker! Look over here! Mr. Parker! , asking questions left and right.
[Peter’s smile faltered slightly.]
Their classmate lifted his hand in a placating motion, thanked everyone in the room for coming, and promptly stepped out of the stage.
[The reporters were still shouting questions. Some cameras were focusing on the Decathlon team.]
Lauren came from the row of seats behind them, raising her voice just enough to be heard above the flashes.
“We can go and visit Peter backstage, if you want?”
They were out of their seats before they even realized.
The backstage area was everything they would have expected from Stark Industries: modern furniture, coffee machines that they were pretty sure you couldn’t buy in any store, and huge windows that would’ve given an amazing view if there hadn’t been dark curtains pulled over them.
In fact, the whole room was almost pitch-black.
Still, they could see a faint silhouette in the middle of the room, illuminated by the cracked screen of a phone in the lowest brightness possible.
It was Peter.
[And Tony freaking Stark. ]
From their place by the door, they could see their classmate’s tear-streaked face frantically searching for something on his phone. Tony Start ( Tony Stark ) beside him, with his arms around Peter’s shoulders; his chest moved exaggeratedly, Peter’s hand right above where everyone knew the arc reactor sat on the billionaire’s chest, trying to copy his breathing.
A lot of things happened way too fast.
Mr. Harrington grabbed his work phone (allowed by SI in case of emergency and totally not to take a selfie with Dr. Banner).
MJ takes off her scarf and slowly presses it into Peter’s cheek. His hands grab it in a death grip and guide it to cover his eyes.
Ned grabbed a pair of noise-canceling headphones from Tony Stark’s hands (and Tony Stark let him ) and rushed to put them over Peter’s ears.
Flash closed the door as quietly as he could, effectively making the room even darker and shielding Peter from the lights of the hallway.
Cindy took Peter’s phone after he handed it to empty air.
Hello! My name is Peter. If I’m giving you my phone, it means that I may be going through an anxiety attack or a sensory overload. I can still communicate using this app. Please click on Continue to open a chat.
hey parker, is there anything you need?
just tell me anything
Cindy gave the phone to Charles. The whole team got together in a semi-circle on the floor, waiting their turn.
we saw your presentation, it was pretty awesome dude
thx man
we’re all super proud of u dude
<3
also, we got a cactus, his name’s philip
awww
yep. also, mr harrington knows THE bruce banner
he does?!
yup, hugged like bffs
:0
there’s this cool guy on the reception
nigel??
yeah, his tie was dope
Peter’s phone went back and forth, each person on the team telling him about their day. The pizza, the time Charles definitely did not set off the metal detector, the bags full of seeds that would all have scientist names…
Gradually, Peter’s breathing slowed down.
The scarf came off his eyes, and they’d talk about how cool it was that he could see the phone screen through it… later.
The headphones stayed on.
Roger Harrington cared for his students.
If he was telling the truth, he loved them and would do anything in his power to help them.
Unfortunately, that included a group chat with all their parents, that most mornings flooded with different pictures of Tweetie Bird wishing him an excellent week.
Fortunately, it gave him May Parker’s phone number.
“Hello? This is May Parker.”
Roger sneaked a glance at Peter, crouched on the ground with Tony Stark by his side, passing his phone to his classmates.
“Hello, May. This is Roger Harrington, Peter’s chemistry teacher. We’re at a field trip to Stark Industries and, well… we came across Peter–”
“I’d expect you to, he had a presentation today.”
He involuntarily smiled when he remembered Peter’s presentation, he had felt so proud of his student.
“Yes, yes, we did see it. It was remarkable, but I didn’t call you for that… you see, Peter seems to be going through some kind of anxiety attack? I can’t really be sure, but as his legal guardian, I thought you might want to know.”
He heard May’s sharp gasp through the phone, followed by a very tired sigh.
“He… he gets those. Is there anyone with him at the moment?”
He nodded, even though he was sure May couldn’t see it.
“Yes, actually, Tony Stark is here with us. The whole Decathlon team is, we wanted to see him backstage.”
An ambulance siren blared in May’s background, she sighed in relief.
“Oh, that’s perfectly fine. I had him added as Peter’s emergency contact not long ago. I- I have to go, Mr. Harrington, but thank you so much for the call.”
May hung up.
Half an hour later, Peter manages to stand up and lets Tony Stark (seriously, Tony Stark ) guide him to the elevator, up into the penthouse level.
Lauren catches their attention and leads them back to the lobby, tells them to get their things back from the lockers.
Their bus driver is already outside of the building.
Flash is Philip-sitting, and the little cactus looks very comfortable tucked in his arms.
Mr. Harrington thanks the receptionist, shakes their tour guide’s hand.
Just before they leave for the bus, Lauren clears her throat. They all look at her.
“Peter is very lucky to have you.” She smiles at them and goes back inside, notebook still clutched in her hand.
They step outside, and the Tower still glimmers like a miniature sun.
[Ned will admit it to no one, but his brain comes up with the very, very cheesy thought of Peter being its sun.]
It’s the best field trip they’ve ever had.
AcaDeca Team (pls don’t change the name)
fastest_man_alive: Sooooo, Mr. Harrington, how do you know Bruce Banner?