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Ch. 12

Peter had forgotten he had school the next day.  He'd been so happy the conference had gone well that he completely forgot about school until May was waking him up for breakfast much too early for his liking.  He ate his toast then walked to school.  He was in a surprisingly good mood until he spotted the front doors.  Cameramen stood out front and multiple students were talking to various reporters.  Peter stood frozen on the sidewalk, watching and listening as the reporters asked his peers about him.  Of course, no one really had good answers since they didn't know him, but Peter knew that wouldn't stop them from hounding the kids.

He sent Mr. Stark a quick text, telling him there were reporters outside, but he would be fine.  Taking a deep breath and rolling back his shoulders, Peter started towards the school again.  As soon as the cameramen spotted him, they abandoned their interviews with his peers and ran to ask him questions.  He had to move a lot slower once he was surrounded, but he continued towards the front doors.  He tried his hardest to ignore the people around him, keeping his eyes directly on the doors ahead, but struggled with each flash of a camera.

"Peter!"  Michelle yelled, shoving through cameramen and not caring who received a sharp jab of her elbow.  She grabbed Peter's hand and pulled him out of the crowd.  Peter happily let her tug him through the doors and into the safety of the school.  Apparently the cameramen knew they weren't allowed inside the building which was nice for Peter.  That meant the only thing he had to worry about were his peers and teachers.

"Thanks,"  Peter told her.  Michelle brushed it off and continued down the hall beside him.

"You should make Stark take care of those idiots,"  she said.  Peter shrugged as he opened up his locker.

"It's not that big of a deal,"  he replied.  Michelle raised an eyebrow but he didn't see it.  "Besides, they'll leave me alone in a couple days once this dies down."

"Peter, you know that's not true,"  she said.  He just groaned and shut his locker so he could bang his head against it.  "Hey!  Alright, alright!"  Michelle said, pulling him away from his locker.  He had a red spot on his forehead from where he'd hit his head, but she wasn't too worried about it.

"Maybe this was a really bad idea,"  Peter said.

"I mean, yeah,"  Michelle agreed.  Peter didn't necessarily need to hear that right now, though, so she continued.  "But it had to happen and it's better now than later, right?  Mr. Stark can help you navigate the ways of the press,"  she said, waving her hands mockingly at the last part.  Peter gave her a look.  "Fine, but it's happened and now you have to figure it out."

"I just didn't think it would be this stressful,"  Peter said.

* * * * *

Needless to say, Tony was beyond pissed when he got Peter's text.  He'd made sure he was clear when he told the press they weren't allowed to go near Peter unless it was for a conference and it hadn't even been a day before they had begun to invade his space.  Peter didn't need that with all his finals going on and Tony was going to make sure they stopped.

Without Pepper to tell him not to, Tony wrote out a long tweet about how the next time he got a text from Peter saying the press was following him, they would have Iron Man to answer to.  He had just pressed 'send' when Pepper walked into the penthouse on her tablet.  Tony shoved his phone away and looked up as she joined him on the couch.

"The press is having a field day with the news of Peter,"  she told him.  She handed him the tablet with a list of articles all relating to Peter.  "Some are saying he's your son while others are just talking about the press conference."

"Yeah, well soon they'll be talking about what school he goes to,"  Tony mumbled, handing the tablet back.  Pepper looked at him in confusion.  "Peter texted me.  There's reporters all outside his school."

"Oh god,"  Pepper groaned.  Tony nodded.  "I knew that would happen."

"But I told them not to!"  Tony exclaimed.  Pepper put a hand on his cheek and rubbed his stubble with her thumb.

"Honey, they won't listen if it means getting the latest scoop on the next big thing,"  she said.  Tony pursed his lips angrily and she sighed.  "I'll deal with it.  Don't do anything, okay?"

"Okay,"  Tony agreed.  Pepper stood up from the couch and walked towards the elevator.  "Just out of curiosity, does tweeting count as doing something?"

"Yes,"  she replied without looking up.  Tony nodded, but didn't fess up.  He watched as she walked into the elevator then disappeared before he got up and went to his lab.  He might as well mess around in his lab until Pepper discovered he'd already tweeted something.