A year to Remember. Part 2, the Internship

I can't do this

Once they're out of sight, I take deep breaths through the hallway, picking up my books from my locker and running over to my first class, hoping that's all for today.

-

Happy's currently driving the "Stark 5" plated car, Tony and Pepper in the back seat, driving down the Long Island expressway.

"Remember The plan Tony?", Pepper double checks. He nods, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Say we suspected foul play, and if they ask why we're interested in Peter excuse it through his Decathlon performance".

"Good", Pepper Smirks. "Didn't even need to correct you".

Tony scoffs, "it's the kid we're talking about, we don't get a second chance here", he comments as if it were the most obvious thing. "I know you're worried Tony".

"Not just me", he reminds her. "Took most of us to hold Nat, Pietro and Bucky back from killing this Eugene guy". Traumatic night, the latter of the three left to sharpen his knives. "Ok, you're all worried", Pepper amends, "But this is a manageable problem, something we can solve. Tony Stark can do that, right?".

He fake laughs at her response, their car exciting the expressway onto Woodhaven boulevard. Their extra little pep (I realised the obvious after I wrote this) talk interrupted by the sight of loose brown curls walking by.

"Wait Pep, is that the kid?". She looks behind her, through the windscreen of the car to where Tony pointed at. "I think it is".

"That was the kid!", Tony shouts as he realises, "That was the kid I told you about last week. You knew!". She turns unamused, "Yeah, I knew", she replies, ending Tony's indignance with her 'you know exactly why' stare, both opting to turn back to the Kid.

Happy notes the sudden silence, noticing the stares through his rear view mirror. "That's Peter, isn't it?". Pepper Nods, Tony supplementing a quick, soft "Yup" as they all stare.

The Kid stops suddenly, all 3 adults confused at change, him looking everywhere around him before facing directly their way. Happy makes silent eye contact before the kid smiles and speeds away. "Did you scare him Hap?", Tony asks angrily.

"I was looking at the road!", He defends, "He's the one that stared at me first". Tony's unconvinced, "You didn't need to stare back!", he argues, leaning over and over the middle panel, as if to fight him. "Boys!", Pepper stops their little fight, "It's like 8:30, maybe he's just late", she rationalises for them, not convincing Tony but it's enough for now.

Happy parks outside the school not 5 minutes later, Billionaire and CEO walking out of the car and towards the principals office, entering the admin to very familiar curls. 'Peter?',Tony thinks as he looks at the kid, tapping the screen and picking up a permission slip before he turns. 'That's Peter'

He and Pepper's eyes both meet the kids, Tony noticing his subtle change as they do. Stiffness, paling face, glazed eyes, deeper staggered breaths. Tony nods and smiles as Pepper waves at the kid. Him having done the same as he walks around them and heads to class.

He doesn't comment anything, opting to ponder over the kid's reaction as Pepper takes care of the administrative tasks before they walk into Morita's office. "Mr Morita", Pepper greets, him returning the gesture as they sort through their 3 currently selected interns.

A solid hour passes of Pepper and Morita sorting the student's internships, while Tony plays on his phone answering the occasional question, before they get to their final matter:

"Anything else I can do for you today?", Mr Morita asks, as pleasant a voice as he can make. "No, actually there's one problem we want to discuss".

Morita's face shifts to worry, concern evident in expression and tone, "of course, what problem did you find?", he asks, in the most customer service voice Pepper'd heard in a while.