Masked

By: d1sAstUr

Whitney Stane was a changed woman.

She strut through the halls of Stark International with a bounce in her step; a bounce that has been missing for quite some time. Her hair flowed behind her and her eyes were set straight, ignoring those who paused to look at the daughter of their boss. They all knew her well enough to not stand in her way when she wanted to visit her father.

She let the doors slide open and strode in without so much as a greeting. Obadiah Stane looked up from his work and his frown deepened more. "Again, Whitney?" he said standing up. "What is it this time? You know I don't have time—"

"I give up."

He raised an eyebrow. "What?" He was expecting her to yell at him for not making time for her, but he didn't expect to hear the next words to come out of her mouth.

She crossed her arms, keeping her voice steady as she talked. "I'm sick and tired of asking, begging for you to spend time with me. This has been going on for too long and I've cried out all my tears over this. When a daughter has to waste so much time and energy to ask her own father to clear even a minute to spend time with her—" she shook her head, "its unheard of."

Obadiah

Obadiah sighed angrily, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I don't have time for this, Whitney—"

"Do you even remember my birthday anymore?" She cut him off.

He looked surprised. "Of course I remember your birthday. Its tomorrow."

Whitney shook her head, almost as if in disgust. "It's today." And with that she turned on her heel and walked away, ignoring her father and the other people who tried to stop her. When she stepped outside she took a deep breath that she didn't know she was holding. That's one thing down, she thought. She planned on changing everything today. Today marks the start of a new her. She reached in her bag and took something out. The start of a new me, she thought, touching the porcelain surface of the mask of Madame Mask.

Suddenly her phone vibrated, signaling a text message. It was from Tony Stark: Where are you? First bell is about to ring. & happy birthday (:

Whitney smiled. She walked forward and dropped the mask in a trashcan, then, ignoring her driver, she walked to the Tomorrow Academy. "Today," she said aloud, "is going to be a good day."

"Today is going to SUCK!"

Pepper Potts slammed her head repeatedly into the locker adjacent to Tony's, earning strange looks from passing students.

"Today barely started," Rhodey pointed out.

"Yeah, Pepper," Tony said shutting his locker and putting away his phone. "What makes you say that?"

"Do you really want to know?" she grimaced.

She expected them to say "No," but when they said nothing, she took a deep breath. "My dad stopped giving me allowance since I came home last night helping your sorry butt—" she pointed accusingly to Tony, who but his hands up in surrender, "—and, therefore, I don't have money for the bus OR money for lunch, I'm still sick from that stupid virus that has been going around, I forgot my drama homework at home WHICH IS NEXT PERIOD, I have a pounding headache from lack of oxygen because I'm yelling at you guys, and to top it all off, I have my period!"

Both boys chorused, "Ew," and cringed. Pepper now pointed accusingly at her stomach. "My intestines feel like they're moving around in my abdomen and I'm bleeding from my—"

"Hi Tony!"

Both Tony and Rhodey sighed in relief when someone cut Pepper off. The trio turned around to find Whitney smiling… at all of them.

"Hey Whitney!" Tony rushed to her side with open arms. "Happy birthday!" They hugged and Rhodey could practically feel Pepper's aura of anger. "And my dad just got even worse," the growled. Rhodey took a safe step away from the girl.

As if on cue, the first bell of the day rang, and Pepper immediately stormed off. Tony and Rhodey exchanged looks.

"Is she ok?"

The boys did a double take, not entirely sure if those words came out of Whitney Stane's mouth. She looked up at Tony and he stumbled for a response. "Its uh…" he glanced at his best friend, who was still a bit stunned, "It's a… girl thing?"

Whitney nodded her head. "Ohh…" she said, as if she completely understood.

"So, uh," Rhodey said, feeling awkward. "I'm going to be late for class so…." He glanced at Whitney and quickly said "Happy birthday," and turned around to walk.

"Thank you!" she called after him, and Rhodey quickened his pace until he turned the corner.

Tony looked at Whitney, eyebrow quirked. "You're in a good mood," he walked her to her class. She shrugged. "It's my birthday," she said, "A new year, a new me."

It was Tony's turn to nod as if he completely understood. "So, any plans for tonight?" he asked out of curiosity.

"Not really," she said, "A few of my friends from my old school are taking me to this cool pool bar near Union Square."

"Hey, that's cool, my dad used to have a pool table in his office."

Whitney looked down and Tony stopped talking. She knew her father probably had that sold or destroyed. Tony was thinking about how he always used to beat his father, no matter what he did. They used to play with every spare moment they had together at the office.

There was an awkward moment of silence before she spoke up again, breaking Tony's train of thought. "Hey do you want to come with us?"

Tony did another double take, responding with a dumb, "Huh?"

"Come on, it'll be fun!" she said turning to face him.

"I can't, I, uh," he thought of something quickly, "I have plans with Rhodey and Pepper already." He mentally sighed, thinking he was out of the snake pit.

"Then just bring them along! I don't mind." Fate shoved him back in the snake pit. "I'm sure the others wouldn't mind either."

The late bell rang and Whitney jogged forward to her class. "I'll text you the address!" she called back at him. Clearly, she wouldn't take "No," for an answer, and Tony didn't even have the chance to answer.

"No."

"Absolutely positively never in a few trillion years!"

Tony was practically on his knees. "Please?? Pleeeeaaasseeee?!"

Rhodey and Pepper crossed their arms and exchanged looks, then looked back at their friend. "No."

Tony let his arms fall to his side and he sighed, dejected.

"Honestly, Tony," Rhodey tried to reason, "Do you really think that we'd fit in, or have fun, with a bunch of rich kids?"

"They're not just 'a bunch of rich kids'," Tony said for what seemed to be the nth time. "They're just normal kids whose parents just happened to have a lot of money."

"That's not very convincing," Pepper said, looking everywhere but at him.

"If I weren't heir to the multibillion dollar weapons distributor and just an average kid with an unusual knack for being excellent at science, would you still be my friends?" Tony asked with a straight face.

His friends said nothing.

"It's just one night," he continued. "Besides, we all need a break from everything. School, Iron Man, parents," he looked at Pepper at the mention of 'parents', but she still didn't look at him.

"So, say we do go, hypothetically," Rhodey said, "How are we going to get in? You said it was a bar, right?"

Tony has a cocky smile, the one that always made Pepper go a little weak at the knees. "Fortunately for you, I am heir to the multibillion dollar weapons distributor and not just an average kid with an unusual knack for being excellent at science." He winked, "I have my ways."

Rhodey sighed in defeat. "Fine," he said. Tony grinned, and looked at Pepper. She still wasn't looking at him, but at the ground, shuffling her feet. It was quiet between the three of them for a moment, a moment in which Tony wanted to rip his hair out if Pepper didn't give him an answer. She mumbled her response, and Tony literally jumped for joy. "YES! Thank you!" Out of whim he gave Pepper a bear hug, and the girl almost screamed in surprise. He let go of her before she could even process what just happened and Tony dragged Rhodey away. "Meet us at the lab at 7!" he called back at Pepper.

She watched them go and shook her head, wondering what she just got herself into.

Well what do you think? I know it was really short, but I promise that the following chapters will be much longer! It's my first fanfic ever, so let me know if it was good, or just so bad it made you want to barff all over your keyboard.

`d1sAstUr