Saving Grace Extras

What If... Tony Hadn't Sheltered Grace?

Being the daughter of Tony Stark, Grace Stark had plenty advantages in her life — there was no doubt about that. But there were downsides no one really thought, or least cared, about.

For instance, everywhere she turned, every corner she walked down, there was a camera in her face and somebody asking her a question. Sometimes they were good questions, even. But mostly they were inconsequential, prying questions about her father or the other Avengers. She just kept her mouth shut like her father told her to do, though he wasn't the best example.

There were also people who hated her father who then hated her by association, but her father made her her own suit to help with her protection pretty early on after making his own. He also trained her, and so did Natasha after she came along. Grace was never really worried about things like that unless they were imminent, and even then, it always turned out... mostly fine.

The thing that bothered Grace the most was making friends.

She was popular — the most popular girl in school from the get go — but not because people actually liked her. They wanted to get an invitation to Stark Tower, to meet her father, they wanted her to throw parties — which her father would ground her from here to the next century for. Nobody cared about her. They cared about her last name. They cared about her money. And she had no right to complain, but it still kind of sucked. So, Grace Stark, the most popular girl in school, had no friends.

Until high school.

Her father was researching the best schools in the area, and Midtown High was high on the list. It was a science school, but it still had a decent arts program, and the academics in general were great. It was in Queens, but that wasn't far enough that it would too big of an issue for the quality of education she would be getting. It was also not so big that she would feel swallowed up in a giant campus with a whole bunch of people who may or may not crowd her for obvious reasons. It was great, but not too high profile. That might mean important people sending their kids there and people trying to get her father through her or just her getting bothered too much in general. In short, they decided to try out Midtown.

Grace easily passed the test to get in, and she walked in on the first day of school to find a new environment and a bunch of people she didn't know. Part of her hoped for a fresh start, a chance to be somebody new. But the other part of her knew everybody knew her already — at least, they thought they did. And it wouldn't be easy to change their minds.

People soon recognized her, and she ended up having plenty of conversations about the same stuff, talking as vaguely about her father as she could. By the time lunch came around, she waited until just about everybody was already sitting to actually go sit down, wanting to sit by herself. She found an empty table and made it without being accosted, but it wasn't empty for long. Two boys sat down further down the table. 

For a moment, she internally sighed, waiting for the inevitable. But they didn't say anything to her. Then, she mentally chided herself. Not everything was about her, not everyone was paying attention to her. They just sat down here because there was room. They probably wouldn't even talk to her.

Except they did.

"Oh, hi!" one boy said. "Sorry, we didn't see you there. Are you a freshman, too?"

She looked up and met his brown eyes behind his glasses. "Yeah."

Those eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh, you're Grace Stark!"

"That's so cool!" the other boy said.

"Yep," Grace replied.

"Sorry," the first boy said, "you probably get that a lot."

"Too much," she said.

He nodded a bit, then said, "I-I'm Peter. Peter Parker. This is Ned Leeds."

"Hi," Ned said.

Grace smiled a bit, still not convinced. "Hi."

"Do you mind if we... eat lunch with you?" Peter asked. Grace hesitated, and he panicked. "If not, that's totally cool, we were just trying to make friends in high school and if you don't wanna be our friend-"

Grace chuckled. "You guys can eat lunch with me, Parker."

He smiled, relieved. "C-Cool. Okay. Awesome."

He and Ned scooted down to her end of the table, sitting across from her. She waited to see what they would say, hope welling up inside her, but she didn't trust it just yet. Finally, Ned spoke. "So... how's your first day been?"

Grace shrugged. "Okay. What about yours?"

"Pretty great," he smiled.

"Except for gym," Peter added.

"What happened in gym?" Grace asked.

Ned started laughing. "Peter did the dumbest thing-!"

"No, don't tell her!" Peter protested.

"No, tell me!" Grace insisted, and Ned told her everything while Peter blushed and Grace laughed for about five minutes. And not once did they ask about her dad.

~~~~

By the time freshman year was drawing to a close, Peter and Ned had been to Stark Tower several times and seen her father each time. The first time they met him was very amusing; they both were speechless until Ned started asking every question he had ever thought of in his entire life, and her father answered none of them. Over time, though, they all got comfortable with each other.

Towards the end of the year, the biology classes were all taking a big field trip to a special research study on spiders. Peter, Grace, Ned, and MJ (who joined them at lunch in the second week of school) were all in biology, though with different teachers. However, they all took the trip together.

While Grace didn't care for spiders too much, the research itself was interesting. There were all kinds of different spiders, mentions of even a radioactive one, though they never actually saw it. Why, the research team didn't say, but they distracted the disappointed students with other cool things. 

Peter paused during the tour, looking at one spider in particular, and Grace joined him. 

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Look at him," he said, pointing at a yellow spider. "He's kinda cool."

"Sure," Grace said. "Come on, we're falling behind and Mrs. Greene will throw a fit if she catches us."

"Look, if you're scared of spiders, just say it," Peter teased.

Grace shoved his shoulder. "I'm not scared of spiders. I just think they're gross. Let's just go, Parker."

He held up his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, fine."

He moved on, but Grace paused, glancing back at the yellow spider once more. She grimaced, then turned to follow Peter, but stopped when she felt a sharp pain on her left hand. When she looked down, there was a spider there, and she quickly shook it away and stamped it into the floor. But it had already bitten her. 

And something told her it was not a normal spider.