I spent the next couple of weeks sleeping in Tony's room, either in his bed or halfway through his door on the floor with a pillow and blanket from my own bed. If I didn't, I had nightmares of losing him again and things would fly off the shelves in my bedroom because of my powers. Tony suggested one day at breakfast that we should super-glue all of my belongings down.
It was a sunny morning and I was sitting on the couch doing some math homework, when I could faintly hear the sound of people's voices coming from somewhere. I stood up and walked quickly to the front door, peaking out the side windows. My eyes widened.
"Tony!" I yelled.
"What?"
"You're gonna wanna see this!"
I heard footsteps on the stairs. "What?"
I kept staring out the front windows and soon I could see Tony doing the same in my peripheral vision.
"Who are all these people?" I asked, staring at the crowd in front of our house. There were some vans parked further behind them and some people held microphones.
"Idiots, that's what." Tony moved me out of the way slightly and unlocked the door, only opening it enough to peak his head out. The voices got loud and I almost covered my ears, but wanted to hear what Tony was going to say.
"All of you can go home, neither of us are coming out to talk to you—" he yelled, getting cut off.
"Mr. Stark, can we talk to Victoria? The one who saved us all?"
"No, no, you all need to leave."
"Dad," I grabbed his arm and he looked at me. "It's okay."
I moved him enough for me to be able to fit through the door. The crowd erupted in questions and shoved their microphones and cameras in my face. The flashes hurt my eyes. I tried to answer the questions I could hear.
"I'm fine."
"You're welcome."
"My arm hurts, but it's getting better."
"I don't know how I did it."
"Thank you."
They began crowding closer and closer to me and finding their way up the front steps, so Tony stepped in, though he couldn't have been more than 4 inches away the whole time. He put himself in front of me.
"Okay, that's enough. If you all don't get off my property in the next 2 minutes I'll send my drones after you." Tony yelled you them as he shut the door in their faces.
"You have drones?!"
"No, but I can make some."
I rolled my eyes at him and watched as the crowd of people slowly disappeared.
"This has been the craziest 3 weeks of my life..." I said as I watched. "And that's saying something considering I'm your daughter."
"You're telling me, I was the one that turned to dust."
"That's crazy..."
"Everything is crazy." Tony smirked.
"You're crazy."
"You're crazy."
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...
The following Monday, I finally returned to school. It felt weird, almost foreign, being there again. Even though it'd only been 3 weeks. As soon as I walked inside I had a bunch of people crowding around me. I guess this is something I'd better get used to.
"Excuse me, sorry, pardon me..." I tried my best to push through and make it to my locker alive.
When I reached it, it was covered in letters and notes from people, I assumed, from the school. I smiled as I took one down to read it.
"Dear Victoria Stark, Thank you for saving us. You are the bravest and strongest person I have ever seen in my life!"
I peeled the rest of the notes off the door and put them into a pile inside my locker so I could read the rest of them later. It made me all fuzzy inside to know people thought of me like that, I mean, I felt like a regular person. Just little ol' me... saving the world now, I guess?
The bell rang and I headed to my class. When I walked inside, I saw Lily sitting at her regular desk, with my empty one next to it.
"Lily!" I said. She looked up and a smile spread across her face.
"Victoria! You're back!" She ran and hugged me, making me grunt because of my arm. "Oh, sorry— you're like famous, this is crazy!" She whispered the last part as if it were a secret.
"I wouldn't say famous." I laughed, taking my seat. She sat back down as well.
"Are you kidding? You're all anyone's talking about! It's all over every social media, look!" She pulled out her phone and showed me.
There I was, on the screen. She refreshed it and another photo of me popped up, then another, then another...
"It's kind of weird, I'm used to Tony getting all the attention. I usually just stand on the sidelines."
"You deserve it," Lily smiled. "You saved us."
We were a couple minutes into class when there was a buzz on the PA system.
"Good morning students and teachers, we apologize for the interruption but we want to ask all classes to head to the gymnasium for an assembly. Thank you."
We all looked around at each other in confusion. An assembly? For what? It was Christmas or Thanksgiving...
Nonetheless, we all stood up and headed out the door, walking toward the gym. There were chairs placed in rows that we all filed into. Lily and I sat close to the front, a couple of rows back. I could feel people's eyes on me and watched as people whispered to each other while shooting me glances. I shifted uncomfortably.
"Good morning everyone," the principal's voice caught all of our attention. She stood on the stage behind a microphone. "I understand you're probably all wondering why we called you all down here today. Well, this morning we want to honour a brave and courageous student in our school. Without her, some of us wouldn't be here today. Victoria Stark, would you come up here please?"
The gymnasium erupted in applause and my mouth dropped. Lily tapped my shoulder and ushered me to stand up. I walked up the center isle, then up the steps and onto the stage next to the principal.
"Victoria, we appreciate your act of bravery and want to reward you with a Plaque of Courage." She looked to the side where Peter walked out, holding a plaque in his hands.
I covered my mouth in shock, a huge smile spreading across my face. Peter walked with a limp, and I held onto him when he reached me to stabilize him. He handed me the plaque which read "This Plaque of Courage is awarded to Victoria Stark, for her act of bravery and kindness."
