A Second Family

-Chapter 20-

  THIS MAY BE TRIGGERING     FOR SOME WITH THOUGHTS OF SUICIDE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
  EDITED
The student's return to school was less than welcomed. No one wanted to be there, not the kids, not the teachers, and it was evident based on the looks of disappointment and annoyance on their faces.

"Couldn't break have lasted just a week longer?" Ned complained to Peter as they both waited for their teacher to get on with the lesson. They'd been waiting for nearly twenty minutes. All Mr. Robinson managed to get done was take attendance and stare at his computer.

"Er- welcome back class," he finally drew his attention to the impatiently waiting teens. "As you may remember we have some new students. Would you please stand up?"

Two kids stood up from their desks. A girl and a boy. She had soft brown hair neatly pinned back into a pony tail and he had fluffy dirty blonde hair that could use a good combing.

"Feel free to introduce yourselves," Mr. Robinson took his seat again at his desk and continued to type on his keyboard, leaving everything for the class to take care of.

The two scholarship winners glanced at each other, neither knowing who should go first. The girl cleared her throat and spoke up, "My name is Elizabeth Fredrick and I moved here from Maine. I uh- assume that's enough." She took her seat again, feeling flustered standing in front of the class.

All eyes were locked into the boy expectantly, "Alright well, my name is Harley- Harley Keener. I moved here from Tennessee with my mom and sister," he bit his lip, not coming up with anything else to say and say back down.

Peter swore that name crossed his mind before. Did it come up in conversation with someone? Was it on the news? Parker couldn't place his finger on where he'd heard it before.

Hours later, school was dismissed and the students were headed home. Peter didn't have any after school plans besides being driven home by Happy. It wasn't a secret, the kid enjoyed his car talks with Happy, though Peter did most of the talking. Happy Hogan secretly enjoyed them too though, despite the fact he pretended not to.

"Hey Penis!" Parker turned around already expecting who it was. He was so close to the car too, now he had to deal with this. What Peter wasn't expecting was to see the new kid, Harley, not too far behind Flash. "Heading off to your 'Stark Internship?'" His voice was laced with sarcasm. Harley whispered something to Flash that Peter couldn't hear. Poor guy, he'd already been manipulated into joining Flash's gang of only slightly nicer friends. Peter didn't know Harley, but he could tell that he wasn't that kind of person.

"Yeah, I am," Parker stretched his lips into a thin line, trying not to start anything. He knew Flash would call his statement a bluff, no matter what anyone said, he'd never believe he was associated with Tony Stark.

"Pfft. Stop telling everyone that. You're gonna confuse the new kids," the bully laughed as he softly elbowed Harley's side. "Penis likes pretending he knows Tony Stark. Apparently they hangout after school."

Harley looked at Peter with wide eyes. Parker wasn't sure why. Did he really believe that he did have an internship? Because no one in school, except for Ned of course, did. "Come on kid!" Peter spun around on his heel to see Happy yelling at him from the car with the window pulled down. "The boss is waiting! He doesn't want you getting into anymore fights!"

" Right! Sorry, Happy, I'm coming! " the kid took one last glance at Flash and his posse before climbing into the car, sitting next to Happy.

"How was school?" Happy asked, eyeballing Peter as he drove.

" Alright. "

~•~

"Hey kid!" Tony eagerly greater Parker as he entered. " I've got news. I don't know if it's good or bad so just take it as you want. "

Peter nodded in understanding, taking a seat on the couch next to Stark. Possibilities skipped through his mind as to what the news may be. Trip to Disney? Nah. That'd be good news.

"You remember that wacko family we ran into on a mission that was blowing everything up?" Of course he remembered them. Their daughter literally tried blowing up the compound not that long ago. The kid was mentally begging that they didn't blow anything else up. "Well, Steve and Sam were out this morning and they found the dad. Should be taking him into Fury now. Just thought you should know that's one less problem."

"Really? That's good!" Peter smiled but was caught off guard when Tony have him a look. It was a tell all look that was trying to get him to spill everything he knew.

"You alright kid?" Peter frantically nodded but Stark was not having it. "Is that kid still bothering you at school? I can call your principal up and deal with it. I am Tony Stark after all."

"I'm okay, but thanks Mr. Stark."

"Anytime Underoos."

They were suddenly interrupted by an off settling crackling. If was coming from FRIDAY and suddenly stopped as she spoke, "Sir, incoming call from Steve Rogers."

Tony wasn't given anytime to put Cap on, it automatically connected, "Tony. Tony." Rogers sounded tired, almost out of breathe.

"Mr. Rogers! What's wrong?" Peter scrunched up his eyebrows in worry. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I'm fine. Just- you need to get down here fast. Sam's hurt. It's his leg. Tony-" Steve took a deep breath and exhaled it to calm his nerves. "Don't bring Peter down here. He doesn't- he shouldn't see this."

"Is Mr. Wilson going to be okay?" The kid whimper and didn't get an answer seeing as Tony had already hung up and was out the door.

  It felt as though Peter had been waiting for centuries for something. Anything. He'd heard nothing from Tony, Steve, and especially not Sam. When he felt he was at the point of breaking, the lift doors opened. The three said Avengers were in it and Stark quickly rushed out. Before the doors closed, Peter caught a glimpse of Steve and Sam. Captain America looked a bit banged up but nothing too bad. Falcon on the other hand had a large gash in his shin that would clearly needed stitching up.

  "Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark!" The kid jumped up from the couch and walked after Iron Man. "Is Mr. Wilson okay? What happened?!"

  But Tony chose to ignore Parker as he came up to a door and walked in, harshly shutting it on Peter's face.

  "Bruce," though muffled, Peter found himself capable of hearing the conversation.

  "Tony, do you know how the mission went? It would be great to have some good news."

  "Sorry, I wish I had some to give. Damn it, it all went  to shit."

  "Tony, what happened?"

  "They were driving him to Fury. Then it exploded. The whole car exploded. He blew himself up, he did it on purpose. God it went so wrong."