Good morning, good morning! Hope you all are having a wonderful weekend wherever you are! Stay happy and please enjoy :D

"Amy."

"Psst. Amy!"

"Hmm?"

"Time to get up sweetheart."

"Hmm."

"Did you hear me?"

"Hm, mm."

"I need actual words, hun."

Amy groaned and rolled over to face the whisper-yelling voice that was her mom at the door.

"Time s'it?" She grumbled, still only half awake.

"Almost ten."

That answer had Amy sitting up so fast she got a headrush.

"Wha..?! Mom, what about school?!"

"I called in sick for you today, but that's something I wanted to talk to you about. Get ready and come eat breakfast. We'll talk then."

"O...kay?"

Remembering she'd left her screen on last night, Amy stumbled out of bed to her desk and looked around for Tony. Seems he wasn't there at the moment. Cutting the connection, she shut down the computer to give it a rest and went about getting dressed.

By the time she was done, her mom had a plate heaped with waffles, eggs, bacon and berries waiting for her on the table and was digging into her own.

"Morning, sweetie."

"Morning, Mom. How was work?"

"Tiring. I swear, this is the last time I let them talk me into a night course! The kids are great but I'm so tired I can barely talk straight, let alone teach!"

"You say that every time." Amy pointed out with a grin.

"Well, this time I mean it. Speaking of work, how's it going with Tony?"

"Maddeningly and yet fantastically all at the same time! Oh, you have to remind me to show you this hilarious video clip of him! He…"

Eliza let Amy chatter through half her breakfast before finally broaching her main topic of concern.

"So. School."

"Yeah...School."

"I'm sure you know I've gotten several concerned phone calls from your teachers."

"Yeah, I know." Amy muttered.

"Your attendance is spotty. Your grades have dropped. Your attention span is non-existent…"

"I know. But I can't help it! Everything they're covering is so...mundane. Nothing is interesting. Or at least, not as interesting as everything I'm learning from Tony! I've learned more from him in one week than I have from school in one semester! Granted it's all on one or two subjects, but it's on real world stuff. It just makes school seem like a waste of time!" Amy defended, sawing angrily at her mutilated waffle.

"I agree." Eliza stated calmly.

Amy froze in shock, "What?"

"Amy, you've found something that sparks your interest and passion unlike anything I've seen before. The longer I force you to continue to go to a school that, frankly, began failing to challenge you almost a year ago now, the more your grades and attendance will suffer. The more that happens, the less likely it'll be that you'll get into a college that will fit your needs. I think it's time to let you graduate."

"Really?" Amy whispered, hope sparking in her eyes.

"Really." Eliza confirmed, "You have the credits. I had hoped you'd use the opportunity to expand your social life but you're not even pretending to do that anymore…"

Amy smiled sheepishly. Nothing got past her mom.

"So I think I'll explain to your principal that you've been offered an internship with Stark Industries that's taking up more of your time than either of us realized. If you could get Tony to sign something saying that, it would go a long way towards making the transition easier. After that, we'll get you your diploma and you'll get to start your summer a couple months early."

Amy shot out of her chair and ran around the table to hug her mom exuberantly. This was all she could have ever asked for!

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She squealed in delight, making Eliza laugh.

"You're welcome. But! There's a small catch. Aside from whatever project you're working on with Tony, I really want you to put some thought into what you want to do. I want to see you apply yourself to your future. Understand?"

"Yep! Can I go tell Tony?!"

Eliza raised an eyebrow at her daughter's cavalier attitude but decided to let it go for now.

"Finish your breakfast first."

"Okay!" Amy agreed happily.

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"TONY!"

"Jeez, kid! Volume control! What?!"

"Oh, right, sorry!" She grinned, having forgotten that if she yelled into a mic like that, it might create some sharp feedback.

"No you're not!" Tony grumbled as he went back to fiddling with the fit of his metal arm.

"Is that the flight stabilizer?!" Amy asked excitedly.

"Yep. What's got you all hyped? Too much coffee?"

"Nope! But you're not going to believe it!"

"Believe what?" He asked absently.

"Mom's letting me graduate early! Granted it's only a couple months early, but still! No more high school for me! No more boring lessons! No more slowing down to fit the curriculum! No more socializing with self-absorbed teenagers and their silly dramas! No more…"

Tony caught familiar movement out of the corner of his eye.

"Mute." He ordered quickly, right before Pepper opened the sound proof door to the shop. He really didn't need to try to explain to her why there was a teenage girl chattering his ear off right now. Hopefully the kid would get it and not override the system.

Amy was downright insulted at first when he muted her and had every intention of manually overriding his command until she saw the tall, slim redhead enter the room without preamble. This had to be the famous Pepper Potts. Tony's assistant, secretary and right-hand woman.

"I've been buzzing you. Didn't you hear the intercom?"

"Yeah, everything's...what?"

"Obadiah's upstairs."

"Great!"

"What would you like me to tell him?"

"Great. I'll be right up. Okay." Tony answered absently as he lifted his encased arm off the stand.

"I thought you said you were done making weapons." Pepper pointed out.

"It isn't. It's a flight stabilizer. It's completely harmless." So saying, he powered it up, being careful to keep it pointed away from his skeptical assistant. And good thing too. Amy watched in amusement as he, yet again, overestimated the amount of power needed and blasted himself backwards. She felt bad for Pepper though, who looked torn between concern, exasperation and anger. A feeling Amy could completely understand after having worked with him.

"I wasn't expecting that." Tony mumbled from his corner, causing Amy to giggle to herself. He could be such a kid, sometimes. Pepper didn't look amused. She simply shook her head with a sigh and picked her way daintily back to the door. Amy waited until the door was fully closed, locks engaged, before overriding the mute command.

"So that's Pepper? She seems nice...Pretty too."

"Need to re-calibrate...keep the power more spread out...less concentrated..." Tony was muttering to himself as he stalked back to his work table to remove the arm, "What?"

"Pepper. She's nice." Amy repeated patiently.

"Clearly you've never seen her at an art auction." Tony answered with a grin, "Feisty...Uh, tell you what. Since I'm needed upstairs, why don't you get a start on getting the power outsource right with this arm. I need it to be less of a beam and more of a rocket. Ya feel me?"

"Sure. Hey, who's Obadiah?"

But he was already gone.

"Alrighty then. Guess I'll just find out myself." Amy muttered as she turned her attention to her computer.