Chapter Text
Senior year. One of the most stressful years of Peter's life. But at least it was coming to a close: only the finals and their senior-year field trip to worry about. However, it was less of a worry and more of intense excitement surrounding the field trip. They had yet to be told where the trip was going to be. Everyone had a different place they were hoping for it to be. Today was the day they were announcing where they would go. Peter was honestly fine with anywhere, though he was cautious, as his track record with field trips wasn't the cleanest. He was determined to make this the best field trip he had gone on by far.
Ned was vibrating in the seat next to him. The boy had been looking forward to this trip even more than Peter himself had. Ned had speculated about where they were going to go and even made a chart of where previous classes had gone and the probability of them going to those places due to patterns and frequency.
MJ, on the other hand, though having expressed some excitement, looked calmer, even compared to the rest of the class, who were waiting for this news in a more normal way than Ned. When asked where she wanted their senior trip to be, the most she would say was ‘somewhere interesting ’, not willing to elaborate further on what interesting places they could go, nor explaining what something needed to be considered interesting.
The door to the classroom creaked open, and Mr. Harrington walked in. The class was still rowdy- of course it was- but the noise calmed down when he walked in. They had all been anticipating this trip for practically the whole year. It was something that all seniors were told they could look forward to before the standardized tests and finals took place. Mr. Harrington was carrying a pile of papers, much thicker than what was usual for a field trip, which of course got the class talking: where were they going- somewhere out of state?
“Quiet!” Mr Harrington said, his voice raised so it could be heard over the overlap of people's voices. The class settled down; noise settled to a whisper of air through the ducts.
“As you all know, or should know by now. We have been keeping the location of the senior field trip under tight wraps so far, tighter than any previous year.” There was a snicker from the back of the class; however, Mr. Harrington ignored it in favour of staying on topic.
“Because of this, I’m sure the speculation and excitement about this trip has been through the roof. I do want to remind all of you, before I announce where we are going, that it is not guaranteed that you will go; it is a privilege to go, not a right, and if you act up before, on the way to, at, or during this field trip, you will not be able to participate any further.” Mr. Harrington eyed some students pointedly. “Now, where we will be going for the Midtown senior field trip is-”
All whispering stopped, and the students' attention became laser-focused on their teacher. Peter held his breath, he really wanted to go on this trip- but he had an awful knack for getting in trouble, he prayed to the gods above, all of them- from whatever religion and mythology that he could remember, for nothing to go wrong and stop him from enjoying this field trip, for nothing to go wrong, for this field trip to become one of the most enjoyable days he ever has sans his wedding day, the birth or acquisition of any future children, human or otherwise.
“The Manhattan branch of Stark Industries!"
Fuck.
The class cheered around Peter. Though some were still disappointed that it wasn't an amusement park- or somewhere farther from home- this was still a STEM school, and everyone was still ecstatic they were going to be going somewhere so cool. Everyone except Peter. His heart dropped to his stomach. He didn't know what he had done to wrong all of the heavenly/omnipotent beings out there, but clearly it was something unthinkably awful.
A field trip to his place of work. A field trip to a place where he had his own bedroom because of how often he stayed over. A field trip to the place where he was currently living as his aunt was out of the country.
Fucking Parker Luck.
..
Permission slips were handed out with thick documents they were told were NDAs that had to be read thoroughly, though the school had already skimmed them and handed them out with the permission slips. Both the NDA and the permission slips had to be signed by both the student and one of their legal guardians. Peter already knew this was going to be an issue, as Aunt May was unable to sign it and his only other two legal guardians were Tony and Pepper, neither of whom, especially Tony, did Peter want to tell about the field trip to S.I.
With a groan, Peter let his head drop onto his desk, lifting it and dropping it once again a few more times, listening to the thud of head against desk.
Peter heard Ned gushing about S.I. beside him, despite having gone there before and visiting places off-limits to regular tour groups and guests. Peter was about to respond when he heard this aggravating voice call out to him from the other side of the room.
“Hey, Penis Parker, are you ready for all your lies to be exposed? I can’t wait to see your fuckin’ face; I might even get you banned from Stark Industries for lying!”
Eugene ‘Flash’ Thompson. One of the many pieces of scum to pollute this earth, though his assholeness affected Peter's daily life more than others. Flash had been a constant pain for Peter ever since he met the boy, always picking on him, calling him names, at times even physically pushing him or tripping him in the halls. Normally, this behaviour would get reported and dealt with by the school. Unfortunately for everyone at Midtown who wasn't one of Flash's gang of goons, one of the major sponsors of the school was Flash's dad, practically granting him immunity from any punishment. That was part of the reason why Peter never fought back. He could handle it- the bullying- and if it stopped Flash from harassing at least a handful of other kids, it was worth it.
“You sure seem interested in penis’s being exposed. Are you sure there is nothing you want to tell us, Flash?” M.J.'s snarky quip cut through the room, making Flash sputter. M.J turned back around, acting as if nothing was said. And to M.J., nothing probably was.
..
Ned, having finally stopped gushing after Flash's comment, asked how Peter was feeling for the trip to Stark Industries.
Peter sighed, out loud this time instead of in his head like previous expressions of exasperation. “Ned, we're practically going on a field trip to my place of work. It would be like taking a trip to the pool if you worked there as a lifeguard, plus you have been there a couple of times before.”
“Lifeguards still want to swim sometimes. And sure, I've been there, but this is completely different, plus don't you wanna see the labs from a different perspective? And we're gonna see some places like the museum and meeting rooms, and such! Things you wouldn't see often!”
“Okay- maybe my analogy was shit- but still- it's not going to be fun, at least not for me- it’s going to be awful- worst field trip ever.”
“And why is that?” M.J. asked quickly, sketching Peter's look of anguish onto a page in her sketchbook.
“One, Tony will be there, two- dont know how flash will react to being proven wrong, three, the Avengers know us, four, Tony would be there, five, something confidential- like the heir thing-could leak, six, Tony will be there, seven Flash will be in my home, berating me, trying to get me kicked out, oh and did I mention Tony will be there!?” Peter sighed. “But I’m excited for you guys. I’ve heard that the field trips are really thought out- you get a tour and even get a bit of lab time to build a robot- or invention”
Peter was sure the Trip would be super cool- for them, for the class- but for him, there were so many variables that could go wrong, and he didn't know where the dominoes would stop falling if one of them did go wrong. In a perfect reality, he would be fine, but no reality is perfect, and definitely not this one. Example A.
Flash sauntered up to the group once again, a smirk on his face, one that had proven again and again that nothing good was going to happen.
“Hey Peter, you think they will show you all the coffee machines at Stark Tower? Cause if you ever get a job there, it would be cause they need a coffee boy”
Peter tried his best to ignore Flash; he did, in fact, know where all the coffee machines were, mostly because he once tried coffee from every machine to determine which was the best, and Peter didn't even like coffee that much.
“Punny Parker- I’m talking to you” Flash growled, his anger clearly starting to grow.
“Mr. Thomson, quit that, pay attention instead of chattering in the back of the class” Mr. Herrington's voice cut through the buz of excited students.
Flash turned to look at their teacher, he sent one last glare to Peter before shuffling back to his desk.
..
After what seemed like ages of Awkward silence, the bell rang, freeing the students of Midtown from their classes and onto the streets of New York. Peter shoved his pencils and the permission slip into his bag, ready to leave the classroom as fast as he possibly could.
“Peter- can you stay for a bit after class? There is something I need to talk to you about.”Mr. Harrington said, his voice piercing through the air. Peter groaned; he just wanted to go home and scheme up a way to either forge a signature or to avoid going on the field trip. Instead, he listened and stayed back, waiting for everyone else to leave.
Once they had all left, Mr. Herrington pushed his glasses up on his face before starting to speak to Peter.
“As you know, this is the first time our school has been chosen for the privilege of going to Stark Industries. Because of this, we have to be role models, make sure that we can be invited again, and this is why I’m going to ask you not to bring up the internship thing that you have going on.”
“... you mean my internship at Stark Industries?”
“Yes, I know you have gone through a lot, your parents and your Uncle- but I’m asking you not to bring up that particular coping mechanism while we are at Stark Tower, as- well, it’s probably best for everyone. I don't want this… delusion of yours to keep you from getting a respectable job when you grow up”
Peter opened his mouth, then closed it again. How was he supposed to respond to that?
“My internship isn't fake- the school has the paperwork-”
“And I’m sure it’s very convincing, Parker; don’t argue with me on this. You’re barely allowed on the trip as is; don’t make it harder for yourself.
“Yes, Mr. Herrington”
“Alright,” he sighed, clearly not completely believing Peter. “ You can go now”
Peter rushed out into the hall, mind filled with questions about the conversation that just occurred. Does the school not think he has an internship, or is it just Mr. Herrington who is skeptical? Is he getting credit for all the work he’s doing? Do they think he’s faking the bi-weekly reports? But most of all, what about Flash? Flash is the one who brings up Peter's internship all the time; he probably talks about it and brings it up more than Peter does himself. Is Flash going to be talked to about not bringing it up? Probably not. What was Peter kidding? Flash wouldn't be talked to about something like that, not when his father helps fund the school.
This field trip was going to be worse than he thought. He hoped the ‘record anything bad happening to Peter because he hides his injuries’ code in Karen doesn't extend to the tower.
..
A black car was waiting for him outside the school; it was one of the less conspicuous cars Tony had. It was still a stupidly expensive car, but less so than his sports and muscle cars. Peter slipped into the backseat of the car unnoticed by any schoolmates who may still be loitering around on school property. The divider between the front and back seat was lowered, not overly uncommon, for Happy to turn to look and talk to him; however, was quite rare.
“Kid, you’re late, wanna explain why?”
Peter couldn't get a good gauge of what Happy’s expression was beneath his professional exterior. He would have to guess what the right answer to his question was. Because of his uncertainty about where this question came from, Peter decided to tell (mostly) the truth without giving too much away.
“A teacher wanted to talk to me. It took longer than I thought it would; otherwise, I would have called or texted or something”
Happy seemed to take that answer as he nodded and turned back to the front of the vehicle, switching the car from Parked to Drive, and exiting the lot.
It was a quiet drive. Peter didn't talk, nor did Happy. The divider between the two sections of the car stayed in the down, though it wouldn't make much of a difference if it were up.
Houses and buildings, skyscrapers and cars, all passed through the window, blurred because of the motion. Some people walked with leisure and others urgency. It was never quiet in New York. But in moments like these, the noise seemed negligible compared to the thick silence.
Soon the buildings turned taller, towering over everything below; the streets, though not from his neighbourhood, were familiar. Happy turned down a street and into the private underground parking of Stark Industries. The cold overhead lights filled the space. It was fairly barren as far as parking lots go. It housed a few of Tony's cars that he drove more frequently than those he kept in the garage, and company vehicles used to transport the Avengers, Tony, Pepper, and now Peter around. Depending on the event, some of these cars were used to drive high-importance employees, though they usually used a different selection of vehicles to do that, ones housed in the public underground parking.
Peter opened his door and stepped out of the car, breathing in the scent of the particular kind of air that only exists in underground parking, the subway, or other underground man-made areas.
The car he had been riding in was one that Tony had gotten specifically for Happy to drive Peter around in, one that neither he nor anyone else affiliated with Stark Industries had been seen in to give him a little extra protection from the media's always-watching eyes.
..
The elevators in Stark Tower were the best elevators Peter had ever been on, the only ones he'd ever really felt safe on since the Washington Monument elevator failed with his class inside. There was quiet music, not the awful kind they played in most elevators, but some nice instrumentals and songs that could be selected from, meaning it was never the same tune on repeat.
Since stepping foot in the building, Peter had known he needed a plan; that's why he activated the Avoid Avengers and Starks protocol, though it was mainly just asking Karen or Friday to notify him when someone was entering the floor that he was on so he could properly avoid them.
Currently, Peter was avoiding the penthouse, Tony's lab, the biology floors, and the Avengers training room. All of which held people he currently wanted nothing to do with. It wasn't that he didn’t want to see them per se; it was more that he needed to figure out how to deal with the whole field trip thing. He didn't know if Pepper or Tony had already been informed by the school, or if they even had anything to do with the Stark Industries tour department. If they did know, convincing them to let him skip would be harder than just not giving them the forms. On the other hand, Peter didn't quite know if he wanted the skip. Staying at school would be awful and inhumanely boring, as he had no catch-up work to do, and he definitely had too many absences to stay home.
It was a dilemma, and he was nowhere near the answer, so avoiding as many people who could impact his decision-making process just made sense.
The level three cafeteria seemed the safest place to be. Tony was busy, Pepper too, Bruce was working, Natasha, Clint, Steve and Bucky were in the training room. And Thor avoided this cafeteria like the plague, something about how the food was a ‘disgrace to Odin’; this was because of a small restaurant that had items titled with the names of a plethora of gods from different mythologies, and the Odin burger contained bell peppers, which Thor thought were made in the deepest pits of Nastrond.
So there Peter sat at a table that was permanently ever so slightly sticky, the smell of grease and frying oil wafting through the air, working on a few ideas to increase the strength of his webbing, and a way to develop a way to potentially make a separate compartment to hold a vial that contains a webbing that takes longer to dissolve, or possibly has to be dissolved by a special spray that could be given to the NYPD so it could only be dissolved by a police officer, though the second could be risky if a criminal got their hands on the spray and mass produced it and sold it on the streets to anybody willing to pay enough.
It was here, in the cafeteria on the third floor, that Peter would eventually decide what he was going to do about the field trip. He would put off telling Tony and the Avengers about the trip, hopefully avoid telling them at all, while getting Pepper to sign the forms and deal with anything that needed to be dealt with security-wise, for instance, any nicknames saved to Karen's database for him, Ned, and MJ that could put the identity of Spider-Man at risk
..
Checking in with Karen Peter started to head for Pepper's office, the sooner he got the permission form signed the better, knowing he then wouldn't be actively hiding anything from Tony and the rest of the avengers. The elevator had just gone up a floor or two when it opened. Peter didn't look up at first, there were other people in the building, and the likelihood of it being some one he was actively avoiding was so, so very low, plus karen would have alerted him before hand-
‘Peter, Dr. Banner Has entered the Elevator on the fifth floor’ chimed a familiar robotic voice in his ear.
Just his fucking luck.
Peter looked up to see Bruce entering the elevator. He smiled. At least it wasn't Tony or Clint, or anyone really who would ask way too much about his day at school.
Bruce smiled back and turned around to face the doors as they closed, his arms full of papers.
“How was your day, kid?” The Doctor said.
“It was okay, pretty normal,” Peter replied, praying that he sounded convincing. Luckily he did, or if he didn't Banner didn't comment on it. As the conversation ended there and silence filled the ride up till it stopped on one of the RnD floors and Peter stepped out of the elevator, taking a deep breath after he turned the corner. Giving himself a second to recenter and gather his thoughts. He wasn't going to be able to avoid them all forever, he just needed to make it to pepper before he ran into any of the rest of them so he would look less like he was hiding something. As he had been told again and again it's quite obvious when he was lying.
This was the wrong floor, but he couldn't stand sitting in that silence for any longer, he would take the next elevator, and this time ensure that no one, and he meant no one, was going to run into him on the way up to peppers office.
The next elevator opened, and a few interns stepped out. Peter kept his head low, knowing how most of them felt about him. Once the elevator was clear of people Peter stepped in, hitting the close door button to hopefully send the elevator up before anyone else could think about stepping into it.
He was half thinking that he should ask Friday to ensure that this elevator went straight to the office floors before opening its doors once again, but that felt like an abuse of power, which was something that he didn't ever really want to use unless he had to, not wanting to be known as someone who abused the power he had to get what he wanted easily, those were some of the people he hated the most, and it would kill him if ended up like them.
..
The doors opened to reveal the hallway where lots of the higher up’s offices were, like the head of HR, the CEO’s office, a few board rooms, and other offices scattered around. The coast appeared clear, no one in sight, no sound of anyone crawling through the vents. It felt almost- empty, which for Peter's purpose was wonderful. Quickly bringing up his mental map of the place, he turned left and headed towards Peppers Office.
Pepper's office had its own private hallway with a secretary and waiting area, though that was mostly just for show or if some corporate partners, or government officials are ones she really doesn't want to see, especially that one officer they keep sending to try and get stark industries to produce weapons for the military again (which was something that was never going to happen).
Once Peter turned into this separate hallway he knew something was wrong, there was no secretary seated behind the desk. Nor was there any indication they just left to pick something up from the printer. There was something, or someone, in Pepper's office that the Secretary can’t, shouldn't, or didn't want to hear.
His suspicions were quickly answered when the person he least wanted to see burst out of peppers office with a triumphant look on his face, that changed to a smile once he saw Peter. (Tony was followed by a sighing pepper, though that didn't seem to bother him)
There in the hallway Peter stood still, hoping Tony would just pat him on the shoulder and walk past. Unfortunately, as with what seemed like everything today, he wouldn't be so lucky.
“Petey! How was school? Happy said you were unusually quiet in the car today, wanna tell me why?”
it was going to be so hard to lie to him, not only was Peter notoriously bad at lying, he was even worse at it when the person genuinely seemed interested, its how he got dragged into showing this couple to some of the best pizza places in Queens when he was supposed to be going home so he could finish his abandoned homework from the night before.
“School was- fine” he said, hoping his face didn't betray how much of a shitshow the senior team meeting felt like.
Tony looked like he could see right through Peter, stripping down his words. “You wanna try that again kid, it was clearly not fine your acting off- is it about your senior year field trip? Wasn't that supposed to be announced sometime this week?”
Peter was fucked- he could see it on tony’s face when he realised thats what it was
“I mean I guess- i’m just kinda wishing we were going somewhere else”
“It can’t be that bad, where are you going??”
This was it, he could lie and say they were going somewhere else- but he knew his face would give away that that isn't where they were really going.
“I uh-” he sighed “We’re coming here, Stark Industries, but I need you to not tell anyone, and I need you to be really cool and not do anything the day of the tour. And I guess- I need you or Pepper to sign my permission slips and the NDA’s that they handed us out- though- I wanted to talk to peper about that because I don't know how much of the NDA actually applies to me”
Tony’s smile changed to a grin- his eyes twinkling with mischief.
Pepper saw this and tried to nip the bud before it started to grow.
“Tony, you heard the boy, don't do anything and don't tell anyone. You messing up this school trip could be detrimental to his enjoyment, and our company's reputation, not to mention Peter is supposed to keep a low profile. Of course we will at some point need to tell the others about what is happening and why they need to treat Peter like he has no idea who he is, or if they do know who he is its in passing as an intern
Tony’s smile dropped. “We’ll see about that”
Peter mentally slammed his head against a wall. There was no way Tony wasn't going to at least make an appearance and make it so that everyone knows exactly how important he is to how things run in the tower. Peter just prayed to god that no one would make the connection that he of all people is spiderman
This field trip was going to be a mess, hopefully nothing goes wrong and everyone leaves unscathed and no one suspects a thing.
To be continued…….