Thursday, June 23, 2016: Evening

They had gotten out of Queens and onto the highway, passing by the Stark Expo. Peter could see the giant globe, repaired after the events of the 2010 Expo, thinking back to when he had been there with his aunt and uncle. It was an unbelievable experience because he had met Tony Stark who patted his helmet as he passed by and afterwards saved by his hero as a drone approached, ready to fire. Iron Man was too quick and blasted the machine to pieces before the boy would be obliterated; Peter was over the moon but he was still scared at the time.

He smiled to himself at the memory and pulled out his phone to film some footage of the city. Then, an idea popped into his head; he could make a vlog of his trip, albeit secret. He could add the gruff voiceover later on, when he wasn't with a stranger because wouldn't that be awkward? He faced the window and hit record, capturing the beauty of the summer day and the giant globe that they were passing by. He kept recording as they got off the highway and into downtown New York, rotating every which way to get good footage. After a while, he stopped.

Peter decided to go through the video and see what he would keep for editing purposes. It was so spectacular what he could do with modern day technology, he made himself believe that he was already some big YouTuber. He was so engrossed in watching his video that he didn't notice Happy taking a glance at him in the rear view mirror with a quirked eyebrow. Happy had returned his gaze to the road and against, what he felt was his better judgment, spoke up.

"Hey, kid, what are you doing?"

Peter looked up, almost spooked like the typical deer in headlights.

"Um, nothing special...Just watching and editing a video?"

"Why do you sound so unsure about that? I'm just telling you, you can't post any of that. I can wipe the chip if I have to. That's a warning, Parker."

Peter looked down, his eyes wide and confused by the confrontation, but he nodded, even if Happy hadn't seen it. He shrugged off the awkward conversation, but he couldn't help but wonder if all their conversations would be like that. He worried a bit about the rest of the trip; if it continued that way, he knew he would die, cringing in eternal embarrassment. Teenage angst at its finest. Blessed be that silence that saved him from experiencing more embarrassment, but alas, it did not last. Peter wanted to refrain from saying another word, but damn it, he just had to ask a question.

"Um, Mr. Hogan-"

"Happy."

"Ok, Happy, how long is the flight from here to Berlin?"

"Around nine and a half hours. Anything else you want to know?"

"Is Mr. Stark coming with us?"

"No, he already headed out, pretty much after he talked to you."

"Oh, ok."

They settled into a more comfortable silence for a while as they neared the JFK airport and Happy was more than relieved. The boy was not what he expected; when Tony sent him to pick up Peter, he was dreading that the kid would be extremely talkative and have no sense for privacy. He assumed that he would be very curious about all the details regarding their trip but instead he only asked two questions and remained silent, busying himself with whatever things teenagers nowadays did. Happy thought he might actually get through this trip without getting a headache, yet shook his head because that might still be a pipe dream.

Peter was working on his chemistry homework but had flipped through the notes to his web formula and was looking at his newest revision. He stared at the formula and tried looking over potential variables, chewing his pencil all the while until he heard the loud ringtone from his phone. Startled by it, he tried digging it out of his bag, desperate to stop the ringing. He was so embarrassed at the music blaring that he could physically feel the blush becoming a deeper shade with each passing moment. When he was finally able to take out the still ringing phone, he pressed the accept call button and brought it up to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Pete!"

"Oh, Ned. It's just you..." Peter sighed in relief, but clutched his phone even closer as if Happy could somehow hear his conversation. Meanwhile, Happy raised an eyebrow and pressed the button for the divisor to go up.

"Uh, yeah, of course, it's me. Who else spams your phone? Is there some secret lover you have I wasn't aware of? Anyways, I had a question about chem. Remember the synthesis and decomposition worksheets?"

"Yeah. What about them?"

"I can't remember where I put six and seven. Also which ones are actually due next week? I can't believe exams are so near...It's exhausting and I don't know how much more of the workload I can take."

"Yeah, I feel you buddy. Listen, I think that Mrs. Haynes posted the sheets on Google Classroom, but the due date is next Tuesday; so whatever dilemma you're facing, we can solve by then. The pages due are three and four. If you want to double check your answers, if she doesn't have an answer key on the Classroom, I can send you mine."

"Thanks. You know, even if you're gonna be gone for a few days, I'm starting to feel our personal friendship connection starting to disconnect slowly and it's hurting me physically."

Peter smiled and snorted, rolling his eyes in amusement. Leave it to Ned to be such a drama queen even though he was still in the city.

"Dude, I haven't left the city yet. Still ever present in the red, white, and blue with fifty stars smacked dab in the middle. You don't have to be so dramatic, but I will humour you; I can feel that our connection with the Force is going a bit haywire due to us being near the Death Star that is the JFK airport. Are you feeling the reconnection yet?"

"Peter, that was...that was j-just...so beautiful, Shakespeare would not be able to understand the emotional integrity of it. That's coming from someone who digs a nitty-gritty and dark play like Macbeth, even though I know you prefer Twelfth Night. You know what, I think all the warped up dark history of Shakespeare and all these other stories we had to read in English are finally catching up to me. The amount of descriptions we have for this exam is messing me up so hard, I really need that marathon when you get back, please."

"Ned, you will be fine, I promise you. We'll have that marathon and a study sesh all rolled up into one of your mom's amazing apple casseroles and my aunt's great cold cocoa. Capiche?"

"..."

"I'll take that as a yes. But, now I have to go and I will call you when I'm rested up, if I don't get too busy, ok? Bye."

"Bye, just don't forget where you belong. H-o-o-o-o-m-m-m-me!"

"Ok, please don't do that. You know that Zayn leaving One Direction is still a bit of a sore spot for me and I still haven't learned how those guys are able to charm the ladies so well, so I'm trying to take notes. Don't expose me. Now, for real, bye. I'll miss you, Ned."

"I'll miss you more, my young padawan."

With a laugh, Peter finally ended the call and looked at the phone screen for a second, his mouth twisted as thoughts ran through his mind. How the heck are we supposed to survive exam week? Now that I think about it, I really do believe our English teacher wants us to suffer in eternal misery because of those novels. What have I done?

As he stared off into space, traumatized by his teacher's betrayal, because of that stupid, extra long, unnecessarily detailed package, he did not notice the divisor lowering. Happy was looking into the mirror at him and again, with the quirked eyebrow; it was his signature look when he wasn't looking like sucked on sour lemons.

"Kid, kid, are you good?" Happy asked. The teenage boy in the back was still in a state of frozen denial, the betrayal increasingly tearing him up from the inside. Peter had sunk into a deep void, only thoughts of homework, assignments, tests, projects, and the vague, droning voices of teachers overlapping as if they were echoes. It was torture. Until...

"Kid! Peter, are you in there? Kid, come on, don't pull this shit with me now. I don't have time for this," Happy was saying, snapping his fingers at the reflection of the fourteen-year-old to get his attention, but nothing was working. He was pulling into the JFK airport and going to the private sector where the Stark Industries jet would be waiting for the two of them to board. In his haste, Happy grabbed the file with papers for Peter and threw them at Peter's chest, hoping that would get him out of his weird phase. "I don't get paid enough for this. Next time, he might just find a resignation letter on his desk as his Christmas present."

When the document was about to hit him, Peter finally reacted when his Spidey Sense alerted him of something about to him and with lightning fast reflexes, he snatched the papers.

"Finally! Jeez, kid. What was that? You looked traumatized for a second there. Listen, those papers contain information for passing through inspection at the airport and you will also find that Tony put in a sheet debriefing what's going on and instructions on what you should do when the time comes. I'll explain more when we are on the plane."

"Okay," Peter answered and stared at the brown file for a good while, curious to see what was inside, but not daring to do so, yet. It felt like a forbidden treasure that was not to be opened, unless he was in private with no prying eyes around. That's weird, why would you think that? Awkward lingo. He just shook his head at the thought and looked out the window to see that they were arriving at a checkpoint as Happy slowed down the acceleration of the car. There was a small security building on two ends with security guards within both, waiting for people to come by and check in. As they neared the checkpoint, Peter felt queasy again, the knots in his stomach tightening. This is it...The final frontier. The dramatic narrator in him was taking full advantage of him, making him feel like he was going off to war. Maybe he was, who knew? After all, the world of superheroes was mysterious and covered with a thick layer of fog, it was nerve racking. To enter that world of the unknown was questionable and to understand the complexity, alone, it took one to know one and the rest, especially a group as well known as the Avengers. All he knew was that currently he was leaving his home city.

Goodbye NYC. It was nice knowing ya.