The Amazing Spider-Woman [PP]

2.

Jessica didn't hate her new school, far from it actually, though she supposed she should stop calling it her new school since she had already begun second year there. Nevertheless, Midtown School of Science and Technology was one of the most welcome changes that came with her move to New York City. The school was well funded and equipped with the newest technologies in education and had some killer labs. It truly couldn't have fit her needs as a Stark and Spider-Woman any better. Back before Germany, the back stations of the science and engineering labs were where Jess got most of her investigating and inventing done. She made her first web fluid in the back of Mr. Cobbwell's chemistry class. However, no matter how helpful Midtown had been to her, she still dreaded attending like every other student in the country.

"Can't I just not go?" She pleaded with her dad Sunday night.

"Not a chance, cupcake." Tony replied, ruffling her hair affectionately as he walked past her work station in the lab. "The only way a child of mine is missing school without a valid reason is over my dead body."

"Dad." Jess warned, glaring at him over the mountain of school supplies that covered her work space.

The Stark household was often times a lawless land, with rules or lack thereof changing from day to day, but the one constant was that no one could joke about dying or being dead. Tony and Jess had developed the rule after Tony had been kidnapped when Jess was eight but it wasn't really enforced until three years ago, when they were both nearly killed by an attack on their Malibu home. Now that Jess had become Spider-Woman, the pair were in more danger than ever and neither could really bare the thought of the other's death, despite it being a joke.

"I'm sorry, kiddo." He said, coming back to pull his daughter into a reassuring hug.

"I thought you liked Midtown?" Tony frowned, pulling back from the hug but still holding his daughter by her shoulders.

"I do like Midtown!" Jess was quick to reassure him, "but I am still a teenager and school still sucks."

"What about the labs? Aren't you excited to get back into the labs? You never shut up about them last year." Tony inquired, trying to get his daughter excited about her education.

"That was back when I had to sneak around to do Spider-Woman stuff. The Midtown labs are fine but the ones here are so much nicer." Jess whined. "You should just homeschool me."

"You need a proper education."

"And I could get one right here!" She exclaimed. "Dr. Banner and Shuri can teach me science and math, you can teach me mechanics and engineering, Pepper can teach me business. That's already a better education than I could receive anywhere else!"

"What about history and social studies?" Tony questioned, brow raised inquisitively and arms crossed.

"I can video chat Steve."

Tony tensed up at the mention of Captain America and Jess winced, immediately realizing she had screwed up.

"Rodgers is a fugitive." Tony said crossly, and his daughter didn't miss the pain in his eyes.

"Yeah for a bullshit reason." She muttered, frustrated herself.

It had taken some time for Jess to forgive Steve, Sam, Nat, and Wanda for what happened in Germany in the spring, for hurting her father and abandoning her, but eventually the team had reached out to her through Vision and she had found a way to continue to love them through the pain and heartbreak they had caused her. They weren't able to talk much, with them being fugitives and all, but they'd contact her when they could and Jess was grateful for that, they were her family after all. However, clearly her dad hadn't been able to forgive Steve quite yet. She understood why but it hurt all the same to know that her family was still splintered in two and would remain that way for some time.