The Stark Trap

~3~

~The Next Day~ 

Melissa woke up early the next day, excited for what today would bring. After getting ready, she went downstairs to the hotel lobby where Mrs. Howard and Mr. Trevor were sitting in the hotel dining room eating breakfast. 

"Melissa, you're up early" Mrs. Howard said, surprised. 

Melissa nodded, sitting down next to her. "I wanted to make sure I was ready early!" 

Smiling, Mrs. Howard gave her a bagel from the basket on the table and went back to her conversation with Mr. Trevor. 

~•~

"Leave me alone Parker" Andi groaned, pulling her pillow over her head as Peter tried to wake her up. 

"You're going to be late for school"

"Have I ever cared about being late Peter?"

Peter rolled his eyes. "No but if you're late to school again your dad is going to be mad and he might actually send you to boarding school, and I don't want to lose my best friend" 

Andi shrugged "You have Ned"

"Yeah but you're my Drea" 

Andi groaned again, she pulled the pillow off of her head and sat up. "Fine but you're buying me coffee"

Playfully rolling his eyes, he lightly shoved her shoulder. "I always buy you coffee"

"Fine, then you're also buying me a muffin"

He shrugged as he left the room. "Only if you're downstairs in five minutes"

Andi got dressed into a dark gray tank top, jeans, her leather jacket and her black ankle boots. She quickly ran a brush through her hair and brushed her teeth and then met up with Peter and Harley by the front door. 

"Are you two dressing up for Halloween?" Harley asked the two of them as they walked to the diner near the Mansion. 

Peter nodded. "Andi and I always do a theme, but we're not sure what theme we're doing this year" 

"Awe, you guys do cheesy couples costumes" Harley teased. 

Andi punched him in the shoulder, causing him to wince. "It's not a couples costume. We've been doing themed costumes since we were four, we're not going to stop the tradition now." They got to the diner and got their coffees and muffins, and then continued their trek to school. "We're going to go to the mall later and see if we can get costume ideas if you want to join us" Andi said, turning to Harley. 

Harley shook his head. "Nah I'm fine. I don't know if I'm going to dress up or not."

"Ya know…" Andi smirked as an idea came to her. "My father will probably be working on Halloween, cause what else is new, we should have a party"

"I like the way you think," Harley said, smirking. 

Peter sighed. "You sure that's a good idea? You're dad is mad enough as it is, you don't want to add fuel to the fire"

Andi nudged his shoulder with hers. "C'mon Pete, it's not like he's never had parties while his parents were away"

Rolling his eyes, Peter shook his head. "Whatever, I'm not going to argue with you. But if you get in trouble don't say I didn't warn you"

Andi gave him a side hug and she and Harley started planning the party. 

~A Few Hours Later~

Notepad in hand, Melissa was checking off the activities they had already done. 

"Next up is Stark Industries" Mrs. Howard said, pulling the bus up to said tower. 

Melissa hurried out of the bus and looked up at the tower, eyes wide with excitement. The teachers led the students into the lobby where there were two tour guides waiting for them. 

The tour guides took them around the tower, showing them how Stark Industries worked and they even showed the kids one of the labs. 

Then to everyone's surprise, Tony Stark himself came down to greet the kids. Melissa ended up getting pushed to the back of the group as kids ran forwards to see Iron Man. 

Sighing, Melissa tried to push her way back to the front but it was no use, she kept getting elbowed and pushed. She had really wanted to ask Tony a question or two but she knew that it wouldn't be possible. Melissa was starting to get a headache from everyone yelling over everyone else, trying to get their questions heard by Iron Man so she went over to the other side of the room and sat on a bench to wait until everyone was done, since she knew she wouldn't be able to talk with Tony. 

After the tour of Stark Industries was over, they had a free hour before they had to go to their next activity so the teachers took the kids to the mall and allowed them to spend some of the money that their parents had given them. 

Melissa wanted to get her mother a present as a thank you for letting her go on the trip, so she decided to get her an original Tenderheart Care Bear, which had been her mother's favorite, and then she went to the candy store a few stores away. 

Meanwhile, Andi and Peter were going to the many different Halloween stores, looking for costume ideas. 

"Oh dang it" Peter said, stopping in his tracks as they walked out of another store without any ideas. "I forgot, May wanted me to pick something up for her. I'll meet you at the food court?"

Andi nodded. "Yeah, I wanna head to the candy store and then I'll meet you there"

Going their separate ways, Andi headed to the candy store just as Melissa was leaving. As she was looking through her bag to make sure she had everything, Melissa walked straight into one of the benches in the middle of the mall, causing her to fall backwards and land on her butt.

"Ouch!" Melissa winced, rubbing her lower back. 

"Are you okay?" Andi asked, going over to help her up. 

Melissa nodded as Andi held out her hand. "Yeah, thanks." She looked up to take Andi's hand and both their eyes widened. 

"Holy shit…" They said in unison.