~Marching Through The Eye Of The Storm~

Chapter 9

August 15, 2017

Peter climbed up the steel ladder and up to the open window, he remembered it being Harper's room and he recognized her bedding and her bookshelf and desk that now had a glass tank on the bookshelf with a small tan tortoise inside that was half hidden under a fake log.

"Harper?" Peter asked, his voice soft so nobody else in the apartment would hear.

He listened carefully and could hear quick breathing coming from beside her bed.

"Harper?" Peter's voice raised in pitch slightly when he realized it was her.

Peter quickly made his way to the curled up person and wrapped his arms around her.

"Harper," Peter whispered in her ear, "just breathe."

"W-what's ha-happening?" Harper's voice was broken and she stuttered.

"Hey, we're going to figure this out," Peter told her, "I promise, Harper."

Harper nodded into Peter's chest.

When he let her out of his grip and she looked at her alarm clock on her desk that read 5:04 A.M.

"Get ready and we'll head to school early. I'll call Mr. Stark while we wait for everyone else to show up. Then we'll head to the tower after school because we don't have marching band today," Peter explained, "Happy will just pick us up from school too."

Harper nodded and stood up and went to sit on her bed and Peter joined her.

"How did you meet Tony Stark anyway?" Harper asked, trying to distract herself.

Peter realized that she didn't want to talk about the dream and went with it, "It's embarrassing."

"Please?" Harper begged until he cracked and told her the entire story, from the coffee shop to slamming the door in his idols faces when they showed up at the apartment to being offered the internship and Harper laughed at his embarrassment.

At six o'clock, Harper gathered her clothes from her closet and dresser and left Peter in her room and she ran to the bathroom that she shared with her brothers that was across the hall. She quickly changed and went to the kitchen and wrote a note telling Braxton that she left early before going back to her room and gathering her school supplies and her flute and oboe and fed Apollo before the two climbed out the window and used the fire escape. Harper hadn't even realized that Peter had gotten dressed for school and had his backpack before he had even shown up.

They walked to Midtown, barley making small talk as they walked. They arrived at the school gates at 6:40 and sat down, waiting for one of the custodians to open it. While they waited, Peter called Mr. Stark.

"Mr. Stark?" Peter asked when he heard someone pick up.

"Kid, why are you calling me so early?" the familiar voice greeted the teen.

"Like you were asleep anyway," Peter sassed his boss, "How long has it been? 56 hours?"

"52, thank you very much," Stark replied, "but why are you calling, why did you leave at 4:30 this morning, FRIDAY is concerned, not me."

"Sure, Mr. Stark, FRI," Peter chuckled, "can I have a," Peter looked to Harper, "a friend over after school?"

"That depends on who and why?"

"It's Harper, the girl I met during band camp," Peter explained, "we need to talk to you aout something."

"Ah, the girl," Mr. Stark said in recognition, "sure, she can come over as long as she isn't Hydra planning to brainwash us all."