Chapter Text
Peter had been having a good day. Well, a good enough day. Flash has been bugging him all day long, which is odd because usually he has at least a little bit of peace during the day… Then he gets to his Academic Decathlon meeting after school. He isn’t late for once, which is great because that means at least MJ won’t bite his head off about his tardiness. Mr. Harrington is oddly excited about something and has a giant stack of papers in his hand which can only mean one thing. Field Trip.
Mr. Harrington stands at the front of the AcaDec group and starts to talk.
“Alright everyone! I have a very special announcement. We were finally approved for this year’s Academic Decathlon mid-year field trip. We’re going to….” He pauses for dramatic effect and Cindy in the corner groans. “Alright, alright! We’re going to STARK INDUSTRIES!”
There are excited gasps and murmuring until Harrington gets everyone to settle down while he passes out the field trip forms. They’re more like packets really, with all the written safety waivers and rules. Peter takes his and look at Ned next to him as if his world is ending. Ned is too excited about this.
“Peter, isn’t this awesome?! A field trip to Stark Industries! I mean, I know you practically live there half the time, and you go there almost every day. But this is so cool, man!” Peter doesn’t have the heart to rain on Ned’s little parade so he just sucks it up and smiles back. It’s fine… he’ll just get May to sign the forms and not even mention it to Mr. Stark. There’s no way the man wouldn’t take the opportunity to embarrass him and he does not need that.
Of course, Flash has to find any chance he has to embarrass Peter too. But does he have to do it in front of the whole team? “Yo, Penis Parker! You ready for us to all see how much of a liar you are about that stupid little ‘internship’?” Flash teases and taunts, yelling from across the room. Everyone hears it and Peter swears he sees Mr. Harrington suck in a breath as if he’s anticipating some kind of disaster.
“Anyway, guys,” Harrington redirects the conversation. “I know it’s last minute, but we had to get our permission form to pass through so we can actually go. But that does mean that your permission slips are due this Thursday, and not a moment later. We’ll be leaving school at 7:30 sharp Friday morning so don’t be late.” He looks directly at Peter for that part before walking out. It’s Monday so the AcaDec team should have plenty of time to get the form signed and turn it in on Thursday.
———
Peter gets home and just silently hand the packet to May. She takes it, and immediately starts laughing.
“Seriously? A field trip to the place you work and practically live at half the time? Oh that is just golden, Peter!” She chuckles to herself as she signs the paper and pats him on the shoulder as a small apology.
———
The rest of the week is just what Peter expected. Flash being Flash and bringing up his ‘fake internship’ every chance he gets, still going to the tower to do his internship on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then, Friday morning rolls around. Peter shows up to school and is already dreading this stupid trip. The AcaDec Team is waiting outside the school for the bus to show up. When it finally does, Mr Harrington loads them all on, but stops Peter. Ned gives him a look, but says he’ll save a seat.
“Peter, listen. You’re… a smart kid. Everyone knows it. But— it’s not okay to lie about things. We’ve all been letting it slide, because we know you’re probably going through a lot in your life. But we’re actually going to Stark Industries. You can’t keep lying about that internship. I don’t want to see you actually ruin your shot at working there when you’re older just because of an stress-based lie you tell everyone at school so that they don’t remind you about your parents and uncle.” Mr. Harrington looks Peter dead in the eyes, and he sounds so genuine. Peter can’t believe Mr. Harrington just told him that.
“Mr. Harrington, didn’t you get the paperwork I sent to the office? The official Stark Industries internship paperwork so that I could get credit and certain excused absences? It’s real, it’s all real, that’s what the paperwork was-“ Peter doesn’t even get to finish his sentence, anxiety and something sadder curling up in his chest.
“Peter. Like I said, we all know you’re smart. Smart enough to forge paperwork for sure. Those papers weren’t real. You know that. The school knows that. I just need you to behave on this trip, okay?” Mr. Harrington looks more stern now, and Peter has to basically choke back tears. He feels pathetic, but that’s his favorite teacher, and not even he believes Peter about his internship. Mr. Harrington gestures to the bus and waits for Peter to get on. Peter makes a beeline for Ned, who shifts to let him sit by the window, where he feels more comfortable.
“Peter..? What happened, what did Mr. Harrington want?” Ned just looks so concerned, Peter can’t take it anymore. His favorite teacher doesn’t believe him, Flash is the same bully as always, he’s choking back tears, and now his best friend is looking at him like something wrong and nothing is even wrong! (It is, but Peter would never admit he’s struggling.)
“Nothing, Ned.. just. Wanted to remind me not to bring up my ‘fake internship’ is all.” He almost laughs at the thought. He stays over at the tower four nights a week and goes over for lab time like every day. Happy Hogan himself practically chauffeurs him from school to the tower or the tower to school in the morning after he stays over. He knows his internship is real, but no one else seems to think he’s smart enough to pull it off. It’s… kind of insulting, in a way.
———
The bus ride was quiet somehow, even Flash seemed to be too amped up to pick on Peter. They reach Stark Industries eventually, but Peter had been zoning out the entire ride up, so he barely even noticed they arrived. Until Ned starts shaking his shoulder making squealing fanboy sounds, that is.
They all file off the bus and make their way inside the lobby. Mr. Harrington walks up to the front desk and introduces them. They lady working reception looks up and thinks for a moment before realizing who they are and reaching under her desk to get a little bin of visitor passes for the class. She clicks something on her computer and a minute later, someone comes over and takes the bin from her.
“Hello Midtown High Academic Decathlon Team! I’m Lorraine, but you can call me Lori. I’ll be your tour guide today.” Lorraine, or Lori, smiles at them all. “So, what I have here in this bin are your visitor passes. They have your names printed on them.” She holds up one of the plain white passes. “You have to wear them at all times, like this,” she points to her own, blue badge, that’s clipped onto her shirt pocket.
“Okay. I’ll call out your names and when I do, just come up and get your badge.” She pulls out a little roster, “Abraham Brown. Cindy Moon. Charles Murphy. Edward Leeds. Sally Avril. Michelle Jones. And… Eugene Thompson.” She waits for everyone to clip their pass on and almost immediately, Flash’s hand shoots up. He doesn’t even wait to be called on, just shouts and points at Peter.
“Pun- Peter. Didn’t get a badge! Doesn’t he need one??” Flash, loud and obnoxious as ever. Lori looks up and seems confused, then looks down at her roster again. She reads a little and nods as if it just solved the whole problem. And it did, sort of. “It says here he already has a badge. Peter Parker, right?” She waits for a nod before continuing, “Okay, good. Just clip it on and we’ll be good to go.” She waits for him to do so, and he clips on a red badge that has his photo and name on it. “Alrighty then. Does anyone have any questions before we go through the scanner and start the tour?” Lori smiles at the group again. She assumes there will be lots of questions throughout the tour. Midtown is a STEM school after all.
Cindy’s hand shoots up, along with Sally’s. They seem to be fighting over who gets picked first. Lori picks Sally, who immediately sticks her tongue out at Cindy. “Okay, so- our badges are white and say our names, but yours is blue and just says Temporary. Why are they different?” Lori seems almost excited to explain the answer to that.
“Oh! The reason for the colors being different is because Stark Industries utilizes a color based security hierarchy. Visitors, like yourself, have white badges. You have access to the bathrooms, the lobby, the Cafeterias, and the Stark/Avengers Museum, and need someone with a higher pass to go anywhere else. Purple is for Legal, PR, HR, and the like. They have access to their assigned floors and occasionally other floors that they might need to go to. I usually have a Purple badge. Powder Blue is for Research And Development interns that are working in the intern labs. They have access to the interns labs but not much else unless someone with a higher badge is with them. Green is above that, and that’s for the petiole working in our Clean Energy Labs. They have access to floors that they work on, along with the staff cafeterias. Then there’s Pale Orange, and that’s for the people working in our Technology/Electronics labs,” she takes a breath and continues. “Pale Pink is after that, which is assigned to the employees in our Robotics labs. After that is Lavender, for the people in our Defense labs. They develop small home defense systems mostly. The level above that is Light Green, for our Medical Engineering labs. After Stark Industries stopped producing weapons, Dr Stark wanted to find better way to help people instead. Then comes the Blue badges. Those are for people that work in our upper R&D labs. They don’t really have a set focus, they all just kinda work on whatever is needed. I have one of those today,” she hold up her badge while talking. “But that’s only because I needed a bit more access so that I could give you guys a good tour,” she winks before continuing. “Dark Purple gets you up to floors 80 and 81. That’s where the uppermost conference rooms are located and where Miss Pepper Potts’ office is. If you ever need to get up there, someone with a Dark Purple badge needs to escort you. Black is for Security. They need to be able to go wherever they need at any given time for security purposes. Then it’s Orange. That’s for the Avengers that don’t live in the tower, but still visit frequently. And above it all is Red, which is All Access. Red is for residents of the tower. So someone like Doctor Bruce Banner, better known as The Hulk, would have a Red Badge. That’s because he basically lives in the tower and has his own private lab on the upper floors. Obviously IronMan himself has a Red Badge, and Miss Potts. However, people with a Red Badge also have their biometrics in the system, so they don’t technically need their badge with them to get around.” She makes eye contact with Sally again. “Did that answer your question?” She waits for the nod before leading them over to the scanner.
“This is how you enter the tower. You have to scan your badge here and walk through, like this.” She scans her badge and walks through the scanner. The light above dings and a voice comes from the ceiling.
“-Lorraine Beckett; Level Two, Purple. Temporary Access Level Five, Blue. Welcome back, Lori.-” Lori laughs when everyone jumps and looks around. “That is FRIDAY. She’s Mr. Stark’s personal AI, and she runs the tower security and systems. She only talks to certain people though, so don’t try. She’ll be calling out your name and access level as you walk through the scanner. If the light above flashes red, don’t worry, just step off to the side so that our security people can pat you down or check your bag. Who’s first?”
Flash is all too eager and rushes to the front of the group. He flashes a smug grin to the team before scanning his badge and walking through. “-Eugene Thompson. Access Level One, White.-” The process repeats for the rest of the team, until finally Mr. Harrington is ushering Peter through the scanner. He doesn’t even get the chance to scan the badge before the green light above flashes and FRIDAY speaks. “-Hello Peter. Would you like me to tell the boss that you’ve arrived?-” Peter doesn’t get the chance to tell FRIDAY no before Flash yells that he probably hacked the AI to get it to say that. He tries to respond, but is immediately cut off by Mr. Harrington.
“Peter! I don’t know how you got the AI to say that, but this is out of hand. Did you really think you could hack Tony Stark’s personal AI just to further fabricate this ‘internship’ of yours and no one would know? Please, just- behave, Peter.” Mr. Harrington from practically glares at him before offering an apology to Lori, who just looks confused and tries to keep the tour group in line.
The first place they go is the Avengers museum. Ned drags him over to every exhibit until they finally reach the Spider-Man section. Peter hadn’t even known Peter put that there… he looks at the replica of the Iron Spider suit and is pulled from his thoughts when Flash pushes him into the display case. “Move it loser, I need pictures for my vlog! This is super cool Spider-Man stuff, and I don’t need your ugly nerd face in the frame.” Flash gets super close to the Fun Facts portion and tells about how it’s so weird that Spider-Man is allergic to peppermint. Ned and MJ give him an odd look at that.
Peter rolls his eyes a little and whispers to the both of them, “It’s a spider thing. Happened after the bite. Really ruins the Holiday Spirit sometimes…” he tries to joke, though it doesn’t land well with Flash’s eccentric behavior not even five feet away from them. It’s always a little funny how rude he is to Peter and then not even three seconds later is showering Spider-Man with praise.