The Stark Trap

~13~

At school the next day, Andi was finding it harder and harder to pretend to be Melissa. She was supposed to be sweet and shy, but Andi wasn’t like that. Andi was sarcastic, sometimes rude and loud, and she definitely wasn’t as smart as Melissa. People always assumed that because she was Tony Stark’s daughter that she was a genius, but she wasn’t. Peter and her aunts and uncles always say that she’s really smart but Andi just doesn’t see it. 
 
Melissa on the other hand, was a genius, she was what you’d expect Tony Stark’s to be like, minus the sarcasm and douchery. Melissa was the type of person to help everyone with their homework or tutor them. Nobody would even think of going to Andi asking for help with anything other than pranks or something illegal. 
 
Andi had to study and work more than she had in her entire life in order to pretend to be Melissa. She didn't think it would be this hard, she thought she'd be able to sit quietly and stay out of the way, but when she did, the teachers would start asking if something was wrong, so she had to participate. 
 
As she sat at lunch, she checked her texts, surprised that she still hadn't gotten a text from Melissa or Peter. Ever since the switch, she usually got at least one text from one of them, but today she didn't. She worried that they didn't have any news, or that they were starting to get closer and doing something together and just didn't want to text her, but Andi didn't like that. She hated the thought that Peter and Melissa might start having feelings for each other, but she didn't know why she felt like that. Ever since the last FaceTime when Melissa was in Peter's room while he was laying in bed shirtless, Andi was having anxiety about what was going on while she wasn't there. She knew that they were allowed to be in a relationship with whoever they wanted, but she didn't want them to be in a relationship with each other…
 
Andi was stressed all throughout the rest of school, mainly because of the fact that she had to pretend to be smarter than she was, and partly because she was worried that someone would find out that she wasn't Melissa. 
 
After school, Andi decided to stop for coffee before she went home, which is something she and Peter would always do back home. She missed Peter a lot more than she thought she would. She knew he was a big part of her life, but she didn't know just how big a part he was. She couldn't wait to go home and see him…
 
Around 5:30, she got a text from Melissa. 
 
'Something… Interesting happened… Can we call?'
 
Slightly worried about what happened, she texted back, telling them that they could call and a few minutes later, Peter's name and a picture of him and Andi popped up on her screen, causing her to smile. "Hey" She said as Melissa and Peter popped up on the screen also in what looked to be a diner. "What's going on?"
 
Melissa glanced at Peter nervously and sighed. “So yesterday we called Christine and told her that I wanted an interview and she agreed immediately, like you said she would but to our surprise, she asked if we were free that day and I agreed.”
 
Andi was surprised. “Really? I thought it would be a few days”
 
Melissa shook her head. “It surprised us too. Anyways, we went to go talk to her and asked her if she knew Dad and she said she did, then I asked if she knew why he and Mom broke up and that’s when she started acting shady, she avoided eye contact, she stiffened, I could tell she was definitely hiding something but she didn’t tell me anything.”
 
“Was Peter there?” Andi asked, taking a sip of her coffee. 
 
Shaking her head, Melissa also took a sip of her coffee. “No, Christine said she would rather it be me so Peter came up with the idea to have droney sit in the diner where we met Christine and watch though him from across the street and use colored lights to tell me what to answer and what to avoid. Afterwards, we went back home and were talking about what to do, since we didn’t get any information and Peter remembered that Christine had an assistant that didn’t like her so we went to talk to her to see if she knew anything. We had to bribe her to convince her to talk to us and she told us that Christine drugged dad and slept with him because… She wanted Dad to choose her over Mom so she… She wanted to get pregnant… So that he would choose her…”
 
Andi’s eyes widened and her heart dropped. She didn’t know what to think, she didn’t know what to do or say… She was frozen… “I… What…?”
 
“She didn’t get pregnant, thankfully.” Melissa said quickly. “The assistant said that Christine wanted to keep trying to sleep with him and get pregnant but she didn’t because she was satisfied that she broke mom and dad up. She gave us a tape that she said was security camera footage from the party when Christine drugged Dad. She said it might help to prove to Mom what happened… We haven’t watched it, though…”
 
Andi sighed, running a hand through her hair. “So Christine wanted to get pregnant so that Dad would choose her over Mom… When he and Mom already had kids together…? That’s so dumb…”
 
“I know. But what should we do? Should we tell Mom? Or Dad?” 
 
Andi sat back in the booth, drumming her fingers on the table. “I don’t know… They might not believe us… Dad wouldn’t admit that someone was able to drug and assault him, not even to us, actually more like especially to us. And Mom is too hurt to believe that happened, she’d probably think that he, or even us, came up with it to try to get her to forgive him…”
 
Sighing, Melissa took another sip of her coffee. “So then what do we do? I think this could help get them back together… I know Dad won’t admit it and Mom might not believe it, but we have evidence”
 
“We don’t even know what’s on that tape Liss!” Andi said, throwing her hands up. “Are you really going to risk our whole plan by believing Christine’s assistant? She could be in on whatever Christine’s plan is! We don’t know if we can trust her and I don’t know about you but I really don’t want to watch a tape of my father having sex” She made a disgusted face. “I think right now we should, or I should, try and find out more about what exactly is going on with Mom and John and find out more about how she actually feels about Dad. If she is adamant about not wanting to get back together with him or if she’s getting serious with John then this whole plan probably won’t end up working. They both need to want to get back together, even if it's small or subconsciously… They’re not going to get back together just because we want them to, they didn’t even stay together for us…”
 
Melissa and Peter had started to walk home by now, still on the phone with Andi. “Do you think she and John are getting serious?”
 
Andi shrugged. “I’m not sure. After dinner, she had asked if I was trying to purposefully get him not to like me. She seemed upset that I didn’t like him, but we haven’t spoken about it since.” She explained everything that happened at dinner the night prior, and Melissa said that she handled it exactly the way she would. “I really don’t know if they’re getting serious, other than the fact she wanted to introduce her kid to him.”
 
Melissa and Peter got to Stark Mansion and went up to Andi’s room. Melissa sat down in one of Andi’s bean bag chairs and sighed. “I really hope they aren’t getting serious.. I want Mom to be happy, but I also want Mom and Dad back together…”
 
“Do you think your parents will be mad about this whole switch thing and not let you two see each other after you guys are switched back?” Peter asked, laying down on Andi’s bed. 
 
Melissa glared at him and Andi wanted to smack him. “Parker, you're supposed to be helping us, not giving us more anxiety.” Andi said, rolling her eyes even though Peter couldn’t see her.
 
“Sorry Drea”
 
Melissa ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "I don't want to talk about this anymore, it's giving me too much anxiety. Let's talk about something else…"
 
"Like what?" Peter asked, raising an eyebrow. 
 
"Do you guys have Halloween planned?" Andi asked. "Just in case I'm still here"
 
Peter nodded. "We do, we bought the stuff to make Halloween costumes and I think we're going to start tomorrow on them"
 
"What are you guys going to be?" Andi asked as she left the diner and started walking back home.
 
Peter smiled. "We're not telling you. We never tell anyone our costumes, remember?" His smile dropped and he looked sad. "I'm upset that you're not going to be here for your birthday… It'll be the first time since we were little that we haven't been together for one of our birthdays"
 
"I know" Andi smiled sadly. “But unless we switch back before Halloween then we’re going to have to be apart…” By now she was walking up the driveway and saw her mothers car. She stopped, not wanting to go inside with Melissa on the phone. “Looks like Mom is home, I should go. I’ll try to talk to Mom about how she feels about Dad and what exactly is going on with her and John. I don’t think you guys really need to do anything so you guys can just chill unless you can think of anything”
 
Melissa shook her head. “We’ll let you think if we think of anything. Talk to you later”
 
They hung up and Melissa sighed, looking up at the ceiling. Peter laid back on Andi’s bed and looked over at Melissa. “So, what do you want to do, now that we have a break from the plan?”
 
Melissa shrugged. “I don’t know… Start on making our costumes?”
 
Peter nodded. “Sure”
 
They started making their costumes and discussed how Melissa should act during Halloween since she’d be around a lot of people who’d be expecting classic Andi.