Chapter 9

The dismissal bell rang loudly in the halls of the Tomorrow Academy, and while it signified to every student and teacher on campus that it was time to go home, to the two teenagers sitting outside the Principal's office, the bell was just a reminder that they had been sitting in the main office for nearly three hours. Rhodey had been called inside the office nearly an hour ago, and while their friend had been locked up in the room, neither Pepper nor Tony had said a word.

Pepper was worrying about what could be happening to Rhodey or what had happened to Happy. She was also fearful of whatever the Principal had ready for Tony, and the only thing that kept her in check right now was the fact that she knew Roberta and Howard were inside. If it had been just her, the Principal and her father, she knew she would have been toast.

Tony, on the other hand, was silently seething in the feelings of jealousy that increased by the second. He could not wrap his head around the reason why it had bothered him so much that Pepper and Happy had shared an innocent hug, but it was making his blood boil. He had seen Pepper interact with plenty of guys before – Gene included – and not once before had he ever felt like ripping off the boy's head from their bodies with his bare hands.

What's wrong with me? He pondered. Pepper is with me, not with Happy or anyone else. Why can't I chill out? But, she just… she just let Happy hug her like that…

The chairs were becoming uncomfortable, so the genius rearranged his position in the chair. The movement caught the attention of the redhead who had been deep in thought since James had been called in. Her right middle finger flew to her teeth and she began chewing on her nail. She stared briefly at the still locked door before she turned to her right to speak to Tony for the first time in what had felt as forever for the both of them.

"Do you think they're torturing him? Maybe they've already killed him and are digging the grave? What's taking them so long?"

Tony's expression was not one of happiness, and before he could measure his words, he spoke up. "Oh, you're talking to me again?"

Pepper was taken aback by his comment but her tone of voice did not change. "What do you mean 'again'?"

"Well," Tony crossed his arms over his chest. "When Happy was here, I turned invisible to you. But now he's gone, so I guess now you're talking to me again."

Pepper's mouth hung and almost made a hole in the floor. Her look of disbelief did not faze the mounting anger within the inventor, but in fact fueled it even more with the premise that she had no right to act as if he had just said something that was completely out of place. Pepper's mouth opened and closed several times as her mind processed his accusation but no words came out.

"Are you going to cry again?" Tony spat, anger blinding his usual tender attitude towards Pepper. "Do you want me to get Happy for you? Give him another hug? Maybe even make out behind the stalls in the gym room so that you can feel better?"

Pepper felt tears reach her eyes but she blinked them back. Hearing Tony's hurtful words and seeing the marked grimace on his face was the last straw Pepper could take today. From everything everyone had said to her, it was Tony's words that pained her the most. She slowly got up from her chair to move away from him, so as to not continue the argument between them, but Tony was not done with his rant just yet.

"Where are you going now? Gonna look for Happy already? Do you miss your other boy –" Tony's words stopped when he felt his head snap to the right. His left hand instinctively covered the reddening cheek, and as he rubbed the sore spot and began to form the question he wanted to ask, he heard Pepper's cracking voice.

"You're such a jerk, Tony Stark."

By the time Tony realized what he had done, Glenda was outside the Principal's office, waiting to escort the young billionaire inside the room.

xxxXXXxxx

"Take a seat, Mr. Stark," Principal Nara said as his open hand indicated the chair in the middle of the room. Tony sat in it and stared around, wondering if Happy and Rhodey had to go through the same experience he was about to witness first hand. Principal Nara was sitting in his chair across from Tony, the older man's large desk between them. Glenda was sitting to Nara's left, apparently taking notes. Miss Jones stood by Nara's right, arms crossed over her chest, a scowl on her face.

To Tony's left and standing by the wall were the three parental units, their faces unreadable. Tony did not bother to stare at them and focused his eyes on the kind-looking principal when he cleared his throat.

"Alright, Tony, do you know why you're here?"

Tony shrugged. "Because you had me sent here?" the inventor responded, which cause Howard to verbally scold his son for his attitude. Tony sighed loudly and shook his head. He adjusted his position in the chair and cleared his throat.

"Sorry, Principal Nara. I didn't mean to be rude to you."

"It's quite alright. From what I hear, you haven't had the best of days, today."

"Could be worse, I guess," he trailed, his right foot tapping the floor and his eyes briefly traveling to the opposite wall to the where the silent parents stood.

"And we don't want that for you or anyone else in this school. So, can you tell me what happened this morning when you arrived at school?"

"Pepper and I walked to her locker to get her books, and –" Tony began but was interrupted by the principal's hand.

"Did you arrive at the same time, you and Miss Potts?" The principal asked and Tony nodded.

"I went to pick her up at her home this morning."

"Did you two drive here? Or maybe… flew… here?" Nara asked, not finding another way to ask if Tony or Pepper had suited-up to come to school.

"No," Tony shook his head. "We walked."

"Is it typical of you to do this?"

"First time."

"And, may I ask what compelled you to do this today?"

Tony shrugged, feeling the eyes of everyone on him. "She's my girlfriend. Thought it would be nice."

"How long have you been dating Miss Potts?"

Tony scratched the side of his head. "18 hours?" He responded and almost missed Miss Jones' roll of her eyes. "We just started yesterday. How is this relevant to why I'm here?"

"We are investigating the events of today so that we may understand what triggered them, and in order for me to make an informed decision of what disciplinary action should be taken and against whom, I'd like to hear everyone's side of the story."
"What story? There IS no story!" Tony said louder than needed. "The only thing you need to know is that some girls are planning to make Pepper's life miserable!"

"Do you have any evidence of that?"

Tony exhaled in frustration. "Of course I do!" he threw his hands in the air. "Pepper's locker was busted open and trashed!"

"Was anything taken?"

"No. But they pretty much made anything in there unusable. Her books, her electronic devices… even her P.E. uniform was torn and written on."

"Written on? What was written on it?"

Tony's eyes again darted to his dad for a moment before he answered the question. "They wrote 'ugly bitch' on it, with permanent marker, I think."

The room became silent for a moment and Tony thought he was done being interrogated, but Principal Nara continued his questioning.

"Do you have any idea of why anyone would have done this to her?"

"Because we're dating, and they don't like it."

"'They'? Who's 'they'?"

"Probably the same girls that were chasing me yesterday."

"You were being chased yesterday? Did you notify any of the teachers?"

"No. What was I supposed to say: save me from the crazy girls?"

Principal Nara shrugged. "Well, tell me what happened after the school property vandalism was discovered."

"S-s-school property vandalism?" Tony said, aghast. "This was more than that! This was a personal attack against Pepper!"

"We are not certain of that, Mr. Stark."

Tony scoffed. "Maybe you aren't, but I am."

"And this certainty led you to do things you usually wouldn't do?" "You mean what I told Miss Jones?" he pointed to the woman. "No, that she earned all by herself."

"Anthony Edward Stark!" Tony heard Howard say as he walked closer to his son. "Watch your tone!"

"The only one that needs to watch what she says is her!" Tony spat. "She just went off on Pepper for no reason!"

"Tony, stop screaming," his father warned.

"I'm not screaming! You want screaming? THIS IS SCREAMING!"

"What is the matter with you?" Miss Jones yelled back. "Do you think you can just treat everyone as if they were less than you because you have money, Mr. Stark?"

"And you think you can just treat everyone as if they were less than you because you're the teacher? Pepper didn't do shit to you!"

"TONY!"

"No! I don't know what her problem is, but she had no right to do what she did!"

"Will you stop it?" Howard said, closing the distance between he and his son and pushing him back onto the chair Tony had stood up from to point at Miss Jones. "What has gotten into you?"

"Me?" Tony pointed a finger to his chest. "What has gotten into me? Why is no one seeing what she did wrong? Someone is threatening Pepper and no one cares about that? You're worried about a locker? Vandalism? Really? If the locker is such a big deal to you, I'll buy you a thousand new ones! I just want Pepper to not feel like she can't come to school!"

"And we are working on that, Mr. Stark," Principal Nara assured the agitated teen. "But you also need to see this objectively. Don't let your relationship with Miss Potts blind you."

"I don't think I'm the one who's blind. It's everyone else in this room that's blind."

"What I meant to say, Tony," Nara continued. "Is that we are aware that the safety of Miss Potts is in jeopardy, but we will not tolerate disrespect from anyone to anyone, teacher or student."

"Then you should start with her," Tony pointed at Miss Jones as his dad pushed him back onto the chair once more. "I wish there was a camera in the classroom so you could see she's wrong."

"Actually, Mr. Stark, there is one and I am waiting for the encoding of it so we can review it." At Nara's words, Miss Jones visibly paled, and Tony's face lit up a bit. "However, I think Miss Jones is owed an apology from you."

Tony groaned in disapproval but finally nodded. He took in a deep breath and his eyes avoided his father's angry ones. He could already tell he was going to get yelled at when he arrived home. "I guess so."

"Finally," Miss Jones mumbled under her breath but whatever she was going to say after that died on her lips with one look from the principal. Tony's eyes fixated on the woman's as he spoke.

"Miss Jones, I'm sorry…" he began with a smile. "I'm sorry that you haven't picked up a chemistry book since you were carving stories on walls in caves, and have been teaching generations of kids the wrong material of compound analysis and representation."

Howard narrowed his eyes at his son before he turned to face Roberta and walked away from Tony. A simple glance from Stark Sr. was all it took for the woman to walk toward the young inventor and smack him upside the head. "That's enough, Tony."

Tony rubbed the back of his head and pursed his lips. It was one thing for his father to try to discipline him, but Roberta was a whole different story for Tony, and his father knew this.

"Fine," Tony finally conceded. "I'm sorry, Miss Jones."

"Thank you, Tony," Principal Nara said before he turned to face Miss Jones. "Now, Miss Jones-Lowe, it is time for you to apologize to Tony for using his relationship with Pepper in an unethical way."

"WHAT?" It was Miss Jones' turn to yell. Tony stared at her with narrowed eyes, his mind repeating the name the principal had just used to address her. Jones-Lowe? Is she related to Janet?

"I'm not apologizing to that spoiled brat!" she pointed towards Tony, smoke almost coming out of her ears.

"I don't care," Tony uttered. "I won't lose sleep tonight if you don't apologize."

"Why you little…"

"Miss Jones, that's enough," Nara said as he stood up from the chair. "We will have a one-on-one discussion later, Loraine. Tony, I have one last question before you are free to go."

"What is it?"

"Did you and Miss Potts engage in sexual conduct during school hours, whether on or off of the campus' grounds, during lunch time?"

Tony could almost hear the FBI-issued gun cocking behind him.

"Not that is any of your business," Tony stood up from the chair and adjusted his backpack. "Or anyone else's for that matter," he added as he headed for the door. "But no, Pepper and I didn't do anything you might be thinking, or could have heard in the halls."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark," Principal Nara said with a nod to let Tony know he was dismissed. The last thing Tony heard behind him as the door closed was his father's voice saying that he was better off heading straight home.

A/N: What did I say? Reviews = Updates. Hope you liked it, and I'm not done with Miss Jones.