Chapter 8

It was a Friday, yet Ali had to wake up earlier than usual since the coaches that the school had hired to take them to the Avengers tower, were to arrive at 7:30.

When she walked into the kitchen it was no surprise to find that nobody was up. Since Wanda was doing her A-levels online she got to sleep in and didn't have to go anywhere. Bucky was probably on a morning run with Steve and Clint would never be seen up this early unless someone had purposely woken him up. Nobody could ever be sure what Vision did in the mornings, but he would never be found in the kitchen. Natasha was probably up planning her demise.

She managed to leave before anyone else woke up and questioned her as to why she wasn't in her school uniform and why her bag looked so empty.

The walk to school which usually seemed to take for ever was over far too quickly and within no time at all Ali could see the school gates and the coaches parked outside them. It seemed like her whole class was staring at her with smug smiles.

Maya was by the front of the first coach, so Ali ran over to her and tried to avoid the stares.

Looking down Ali saw that Maya was carrying an extra bag. Her PE bag. In the rush to leave this morning Ali had completely forgotten that they were supposed to bring a PE bag. What for, she still had no idea as she couldn't find it anywhere online.

She had two options, draw more attention to herself and potentially miss out on an activity that could be quite fun especially since it had something to do with PE or call Natasha and get her to drop her kit off at reception.

Since her mum was one for staying in the shadows Ali decided to call her. She picked up on the first ring and Ali could just see the evil grin on her face.

"Can you please take my PE bag down to reception as I forgot it. If you put anything in it that isn't supposed to be in it then I have programmed FRIDAY to tell me, and you will have a prank war on your hands."

"I wouldn't even dream of it."

With that Natasha hung up and Ali put her phone back into her pocket.

"Threatening your super spy mother, way to go."

Maya always knew have to get rid of some of Ali's stress and make her feel more at ease.

Thankfully the teachers allowed the students to sit wherever they wanted on the 2 coaches but they had to take a register before you got on the coaches. As each person's name was called out, they got onto the bus but they started at the end of the alphabet so Maya and Ali were two of the last people to get on. This meant that they were stuck in seats next to each other behind the teachers.

It was only a 10-minute drive there, but Maya and Ali still managed to get through half of the snacks that they had brought. They had listened to music on the way there and soon discovered that Mr Cole (who was one of the PE teacher) was one of the funniest teachers Ali had ever known. He was also the only one, apart from Ali's form tutor, to pay no attention to the rumours.

Once the coaches had finally parked and they were all allowed to get off, another register was taken before they were all split into 8 groups. Each group would do the same activities just in a different order. However, after lunch all the groups would merge for two final activities. What the activities were Ali didn't know as she had a sneaky suspicion that Natasha had prevented them from being uploaded onto a mobile device.

Thankfully Ali and Maya were in the same group and they had Mr Cole as their group teacher. There were 20 people in their group, and it was an even split of boys and girls. Looking around Ali saw Peter who was standing on his own at the back of the group. It was obvious that his friends had been put in a different group, so Ali walked over to him while Maya sent her a questioning look.

"Hey Peter."

"Hi Ali. Are you looking forward to this trip?"

"Not really as I know I am at some point today going to end up getting extremely embarrassed and pranked."

"Sound like this is going to be a fun trip."

Ali felt better once she heard Peter's laughter though she could now see Maya's pointed glances at the two since Ali had never told Maya or introduced her to Peter.

"Oh, you haven't met my best friend."

She practically dragged him over to Maya so that she could stop the glances that she kept getting sent.

"Maya, Peter. Peter, Maya."

"So how did you and Ali meet?"

Maya was practically grinning from ear to ear and Ali was glaring at Maya while Peter seemed to be oblivious to what was going on.

"On the way to school on the first day she tripped so I helped her up."

This was a way better story than the one Maya had been thinking of and she knew that at some point she was most definitely going to try and set the two up on a date

Thankfully Mr Cole saved Ali from having more questions and glances thrown at her from Maya. The other groups had been heading into the reception one by one and now Ali's group was the only group left.

They all went into the reception together and saw that the group that had gone in last were all crowded around something in the hallway that led off from the reception.

Mr Cole went up to the desk in the room while everybody else was looking around the room.

Ali heard someone from the middle of the group speak before she saw him stand up. Maya saw Ali as she quickly hid herself from view behind her. She looked over to where Ali had been looking a second before. There was Ali's Uncle Clint. Ali was so screwed and this was going to be hilarious.

Mr Cole handed out some passes that the reception had given him and told them that they had to keep them on at all times. Ali didn't need one but took the one that she got offered anyways.

Their tour guide was unfortunately late and to make matters worse for Ali the group in the hallway had been forced to move on so now Ali's uncle was walking towards her group with her PE bag in hand.

She was still hiding behind Maya and Peter but they both heard her say,

"No...! Why me? Why does this have to happen to me?"

Maya and Peter both silently laughed but stayed exactly where they were so that Ali was still hidden from view.

Clint had no idea that Ali was here and didn't even know what school these school kids came from. He still got bombarded with questions as soon as one of them saw him and recognised him as Hawkeye. Sometimes he wished he could be more like Natasha as nobody had ever matched her code name to her face unless they had already been told.

After managing to escape from one of the school groups he walked down the corridor and into the reception. Natasha had told him to drop Ali's PE kit off there though he still had no idea why he was being asked to do it or why Natasha had had an evil grin on her face as she walked away.

He was planning on quickly depositing Ali's PE kit before the thing exploded but a familiar face stopped him.

Ali's best friend, Maya was standing right in front of him and was talking to a boy who was stood next to her. Both were grinning. If Maya was here with the school groups that he had already met and seen, then that would mean that this was Ali's class. Many things clicked in his head including why he had been sent to deliver her PE kit. Natasha was giving him the go ahead to hijack the tour and hadn't hidden a prank in the PE bag that he was currently holding.

"So where may I ask is my favourite niece?"

Maya giggled while Peter looked star struck. Ali was standing right behind the both of them and was not going to look scared at the knowledge that he was going to prank and embarrass her throughout the whole trip. That was why she walked out from behind them and stood beside Maya. Everybody was now staring at Ali including Mr Cole.

"I am your only niece and unfortunately for me I am right here but if you do anything then I will promise you that you will have a prank war on your hands, and I won't be holding back."

"Oh, I was never even considering doing anything, nothing at all..."

Clint had started backing up down the corridor as he had already dumped Ali's PE kit by her feet.

"...but now that you have mentioned it..."

He shrugged his shoulders before running out of the reception and down the corridor. Ali could have easily caught him but there was no way that her teacher was going to let her so instead she quickly created a block of ice down the corridor which Clint slammed into with a thump. By the time Clint had hit the floor the ice had vanished.

"I did warn you!"

Clint's grunt of a response sent both Ali and Maya into fits of laughter. Peter was smiling but still hadn't completely come out of his daze.

The whole of Ali's group was now staring at the three of them with faces of disbelief. Ali was relieved to see that no one thought that she was a liar anymore though a shot her jealous looks.

The tour guide turned up at the perfect time and avoided Ali from having to be asked any questions or answer any either./

Ali wasn't really paying attention as the tour guide started explaining the rules as they were such trivial things. One of the rules that technically didn't apply to either Ali or Maya was that the passes had to be visible and stay around your neck at all times. FRIDAY used the passes to identify who was meant to be there and who wasn't. Since both Ali and Maya had been up to the private section of the tower FRIDAY had been programmed to remember them.

They got led down the corridor and up several flights of stairs before coming to a door with a scanner next to it. The tour guide demonstrated what they each had to do before she swiped her own pass and walked through the door.

"Kate Reynolds, tour guide, Level access 4."

Everybody apart from Maya, Ali and Peter jumped at hearing FRIDAY's voice. Both Maya and Ali looked questioningly at Peter since he had never met FRIDAY before as far as they were aware.

"I did my research into the tower before we came here, and I found out about FRIDAY."

Ali and Maya nodded their heads as they were satisfied with that answer, but Ali knew that he wasn't telling the full truth.

While they had been having their discussion the rest of the group had already organised themselves into a line so the three of them were forced to go to the back.

Ali could see the smiles on people's faces as FRIDAY read their names and level access out. Since they were guests on a tour, they all had level access one but with a tour guide they could go to any level that the tour guide could.

Peter went through before Maya and Ali.

"Peter Parker, guest, Level 1 access."

When Maya swiped her pass, FRIDAY greeted her though Ali wasn't entirely sure if her uncle Tony or someone else was telling FRIDAY to introduce her Maya differently and if they were then Ali was screwed.

"Welcome back Maya."

"Thanks FRIDAY."

"May I add that you are not required to wear or carry that pass as you have been added to my database of people."

Maya nodded knowing that FRIDAY would see her nod of acknowledgement, before walking through the door into a sea full of faces of confusion and more disbelief. The tour guide was the most confused of them all but believed that she had merely been here before and FRIDAY had taken a notice to her. Before today Ali had never met any of the tour guides so this one had no idea that she lived here. That was what worried her as she walked through the door and didn't even stop to swipe her pass.

"I hope you have a good school trip Ali and Steve wished to remind you that it is your choice of film tonight."

That caused a lot of whispers to break out and for the tour guide to look extremely angry. Ali was not ready to face her yet so kept on talking to FRIDAY.

"Tell him that I know and can you please tell Mum to not let them hijack the trip."

"She has responded with too late."

Maya was now laughing while everybody else was discussing whether the Steve that FRIDAY had mention was Steve Rogers. Mr Cole was trying to silence them all while Peter looked confused. He didn't understand who was hijacking the trip.

While Mr Cole was trying to silence everyone the tour guide came over to Ali who had stepped through the door but was still the one closest to it.

"Why does FRIDAY know you?"

She said it in a demanding voice, but it was quiet enough not to be heard over the roar of chatter from the other 17 pupils and teacher.

"I live here."

The tour guide scoffed in disbelief but decided that if the girl in front of her couldn't even tell a convincing lie, then there was no way that she would be able to hack FRIDAY or be a danger in any way.

"Nobody apart from the Avengers live here."

With that she walked away to stand at the front of the group. Only Maya and Peter had heard what she said. Maya knew the truth so was smiling to herself at her best friend being called an Avenger while Peter was looking very confused. He knew Ali hadn't been lying about living here since he knew that she wouldn't lie about something like that. He also trusted her, but he didn't believe that she could be an Avenger. In the end he came to the conclusion that the tour guide simply didn't know everything that happened in the tower.

Once everyone was quiet the tour guide led the way down the corridor and into an empty conference room. There were 5 tables, so their group was split into 5 teams. Luckily, they had Mr Cole, so he let them pick their own teams. Maya, Peter and Ali all grabbed the table at the back of the room before waiting for the tour guide to explain what they were meant to be doing.

They were told and given instructions to make a simple robot. A box of parts, instructions and a computer were put on each desk and Ali immediately took the computer before hacking her way into her own online database and logging herself in. This only took her a minute but, in that minute, she had completely zoned out of the world around her and it wasn't until she looked up that she noticed both Maya and Peter looking over her shoulder with stunned faces.

"And when did you forget to mention that you are amazing with computers?"

Ali blushed and smiled.

"So, we have an amazing computer and hacker and the smartest person in our whole school. We are going to be able to make the best robot ever!"

Peter now had a blush on his face and was about to disagree but both Ali and Maya shot him a look and he shut up.

They had two hours to build their robot but had completely abandoned the instructions for the robot after glancing at them.

Ali had been given the job of coding it while both Peter and Maya built it. The two mainly just followed Peter's instructions and in the end, they had managed to build a robot that could not only roll across the floor but also go where you told it to go and follow you around without the use of a remote.

All the other groups had stuck to the instructions and there were varying degrees of success. One of the scientists that worked in the tower had come in to judge the winner. He only glanced at Ali's group's robot before moving on. It looked nothing like the one that you made when using the instructions so he believed that it wouldn't work. Thankfully Mr Cole intervened before the winner could be announced and suggested that they all do a demonstration with their robots.

Only 1 group out of the 4 manged to get their robot to work exactly as it was supposed to. Two other groups came close while the lasts groups robot didn't move.

Ali's group went last. They brought their mini robot up to the front before putting it down on the floor. Over the two hours that they had been given, Ali had managed to download FRIDAY's resources and data onto the robot, so it now knew who everybody in the whole tower was.

"For our robot we didn't follow the instructions that we were given. Ali did the coding side with some instructions from Peter on what it needed to be able to do and Peter and I built it."

Maya stopped speaking and allowed Peter to continue her speech.

"Our robot has been designed to find anyone by name so I can call out someone in the towers name and it will go and find them."

Ali was left to do the demonstration. In the end they had called the robot Autumn since it was autumn, and they couldn't come up with a good acronym or a better name.

"Autumn find Mr Cole."

The robot immediately wheeled itself quite quickly over to her teacher. The class looked impressed, and Mr Cole carefully picked up the robot that was sitting by his feet and with a huge grin on his face said,

"Well, it seems we have a clear winner."

Maya, Ali and Peter got given a chocolate bar each. The Scientist had been impressed by what they had done but didn't think much of it as he left the room.

The next few hours before lunch were spent looking at the history of Stark Industry and the Avengers. They got a tour of a couple of labs but never went higher than floor 50. Ali was relived to find that the whole morning was free of any pranks or embarrassments. She knew though from the fact that her family had done nothing yet, that something big was going to happen.

They all ate their packed lunches in the break room where Ali had discovered Year 9 and Monsieur Dupont as well as a few other teachers on their school trip over a month ago.

Peter was talking animatedly to them both, about the History of this place and how cool it all was. Ali was only half listening but still heard everything that he said. She was trying to work out what her families plan was. All the original 8 groups were all in the break room as well as the 10 teachers. Ali, Peter and Maya had managed to get a table to themselves but still heard the rumours which were mostly about Ali and what had happened this morning with Clint.

They only got a half an hour lunch before they had to move on to their next activity. All Ali knew about it was that they were going to need to change into their PE kits for it.

All the tour guides had left them to eat lunch and the break room was empty of everyone apart from the teachers and students but at the end of the 30 minutes one of the tour guides came back into the room with a grin on their face.

"Your tour has been upgraded but I have been asked to keep what you are going to be doing a secret so that you can find out for yourself. If you could all follow me this way towards two rooms where you will all be needed to change into your sportswear."

As the scraping of chairs reached Ali's ears something clicked in her mind.

Her whole class was going to have a PE lesson with her family instructing them. This was going to be awful.