Scared To Be Lonely

Chapter 2: Maybe It's Different Here

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After a restless night, Nick was then woken up by JARVIS. "Miss Mendes, Mr. Stark would like to see you in the lab."

The girl rolled her eyes and just turned over in her bed, since she was too tired to deal with an attempted lecture, especially since she hadn't seen Tony all week. But that caused JARVIS to turn on all the lights in her room, as well as opening the curtains so that the daylight would shine right on her. 

Nick groaned loudly as she looked up, "Seriously?"

"He wishes to speak with you right now."

"Bueno, apesta ser él entonces. Estoy cansado." [Well, it sucks to be him then. I'm tired.] She grumbled while pulling the blanket over her head, but once she closed her eyes again, her alarm began going off. Nick shot up in the bed as she glared at the alarm, then around her room. "Did you seriously hack my alarm clock?"

As a response, the alarm stopped, making her roll her eyes and finally get up. She changed into a pair of light blue jeans and a black sweater before putting on the watch that her and Tony had found and fixed after the mansion had been destroyed. She then slipped on a pair of black socks before pulling on the floral combat boots, which were only a month old but already had scuff marks on the toes of them. 

Then she left her room while brushing a hand through her tangled hair and made her way over to the elevator, which then took her to the very top floor, which used to be the loft but was now the main room. She walked over and headed down the little stairs and into the lab, where she saw Tony sat at a table and adjusting something on his newish Iron Man suit. 

But when she entered the room, he stopped what he was doing and glanced over at her. "Well, hello, sleepy head. JARVIS told me about you not wanting to get up."

"Didn't get much sleep." She shrugged and moved to sit down on the stool next to him, as he turned back to his suit. A couple moments of silence passed between them before he then said, "Pepper thinks you should be grounded again, but I don't see that helping at all so just go get ready for school. Happy will be driving you to Midtown High in a few minutes."

Nick gave him a look, "That's it?"

"Happy told me that you got into a fight with a bully, so... that's it." He shrugged and she cautiously stood up, but once she was about to leave the room, he added. "But, can you just tell me why you keep getting yourself expelled?"

Nick turned around with a nod, "I knew that wouldn't be it."

He raised an eyebrow, "Bambi, what's going on?"

"I don't know." She shrugged with a frown, crossing her arms over her chest. "I guess I just miss my friends."

"Well, you can make new friends, you know." He said with a look, and she just rolled her eyes. "Wow. I didn't, actually. Thanks for that."