Tony's (not so) Little Girl

12: Time to Make A Decision

The tears didn't fall. I wouldn't let them. I refused to let everyone around me see me cry.

I only started to choke on the silent sobs when Natasha and I entered the empty, almost spooky and ghostly because of how empty it was, locker room. A room that was usually filled with kids was now filled with empty couches, blacked out windows leading to teachers offices and half open, unlocked lockers.

But I still preffered it then to when it was full.

Though the tears blurred my eyes I located my locker and pulled out only what belonged to me. If it was the schools then it could stay there as far as I was concerned. The books that I should probably have returned to the library? They stayed. My school books? They stayed. The laptop? Was technically the schools so it stayed. All I put in my bag (that was originally in the locker to begin with) was my pencil case and my visual diary. They were, really, the only two things that mattered.

"There are other schools," Natasha said gently, putting her hand on my shoulder, but it almost sounded forced "This isn't the only one."
"I ref, refu, refuse, use to go back to that fuck, ing religious cesspool of a s, ch, oo, ool. I was bull, llied worse there than I ever was here," I explained through my sobs as we walked out of the school and towards a car "I just.... I mean, I guess I would, cou, wou, could go back to online school, like I did last year. It's not id, ideal but all I have to do next year is maths. And this year is prac, prac, practic, practically over, which will mean I will have, am, have, will have half graduated. I just... I never thought it would come to this. I didn't think I was the kind of... the kind of kid to be expelled, you know? No, you know what? I need to talk to Artemis..."

Sighing, I slid myself into the back sest of the car. Natasha got in the drivers side of the front and the conversation ended there. I don't know why but I think I was hoping that she would ask who Artemis was... but then she just never did.

But I couldn't talk to Artemis, we hadn't spoken at all for the past two weeks because her father kept dragging her along to company meetings, and time zones were hard. Artemis, who went by her middle name instead of her first name because it was more feminine.

By the gods did I miss that girl.

When we got home I got out of the car and trudged on into the house. I didn't feel like I could even face my mother. I didn't want to see her dissapointed face. And then when I opened the door to see the entire group of Avengers, as well as her, all sitting around and conversing in the loungeroom it took everything I had not to burst into tesrs again.

"...now is not the best time to ask her!" I heard Mum exclaim "She's not in the right mental state!"
"Ask me what?" I asked tersley, dropping my bag by the door and looking at all of them
"Tony wants to ask if you would reconsider and go over to America with him when they leave this weekend IF," And Mum was really stressing that last word "Heather and I were to go with you."
"Sure, I mean, it's not like I have anything left here anymore. I can almost guarontee that if I go back to online schooling, which I probably will, I'll fall out of contact with anyone that isn't Analise soooooo...."
"But what about Artemis?" Mum asked
"Mum... You do know that technically she lives in America... right?" I asked, sighibg at the end "It doesn't matter, really, whether I stay or whether I go. But Heather might be able to do bigger, better things with her life if we go sooooo..."
"So you want to come back with us?" Tony asked incredulously "All it took was you being expelled? I should have told them to expell you from the start."
"School is Lil's life," Bruce broke in "Im sure that if you had have had her expelled she wouldn't be cominh with us."

Shaking my head I moved towards my bedroom. I had to start packing, had to start considering what I was taking over and what I wasn't. Stark could figure out visas and such for us later, I had thought. That was his problem to deal with. As I was beginning to pack I shot my girlfriend a message, knowing that she probably wouldn't see it until much, much later.

Lillith:
i dont know when this will get to you but... im moving to America. Turns out Im the daugjter of your father's rival. Whoda thunk it.

And with that, the packing commenced.

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It wasn't long and I was done. The clothes I wanted to take with me immediately had been packed into a suitcase and everythibg else had made it into various bags and boxes. And I didn't intend on taking everything across, either. All that I had oacked were clothes (including shoes, jewelry and accessories), electronics, my teacup collection, my books and my many photos. With them backed my bedroom still looked lived in, still looked like the bedroom of a nerdy, geeky teenage girl but it no longer looked like my bedroom.

Over the next few dayd what we weren't taking was sold. Furniture, clothes, trinkets... it was all sold. What we didn't sell we took to the local opotunity shop in the hopes that it brought someone else as much joy as it had brought us.

I even parted with the bear that I had been attached to sibce the day after I was born. It was hard, but everythibg had to go and I knew that it would bring some other child happiness and the sense of ssfety that it had given me over the years.