"Peter!"

The boy grinned at Ned. He'd planned on taking the train to school from the tower, but it was raining pretty hard and Happy had been willing to drive him, since Pepper had a meeting. Peter appreciated it, and had let Ned know that he was on the way so his friend had been outside the front watching for the car to pull up.

"Hey."

"Where's Benjamin?"

"He's at the compound."

"He didn't go to the tower with you?"

Peter shook his head as Ned fell in beside him, the two boys walking into the school, which was emptying quickly of students who were eager to end their day and start the weekend.

"No. Pepper gave him an assignment for today that he couldn't do at the tower."

"What kind of assignment?"

"She wanted Clint to teach him to swim."

"He doesn't know how to swim?"

"Nope. Apparently not."

"Why did Pepper tell him to learn?" Ned asked, curiously. "I thought he was Stephen's cousin…"

Whoops. Good point. Peter's hesitation wasn't too long – or noticeable. Luckily, Alec was quick to give him advice on the best answer.

"Because we're going to be swimming this weekend, most likely, and she didn't want him to feel left out. You know how she is about that kind of thing."

"Yeah, that's true."

"Did you bring your prototype?"

Ned grinned.

"Yeah. It's in my locker. We'll need to stop and pick it up before we meet Pepper."

"Okay."

The two boys walked into the classroom and were met by the rest of the team.

"Hey, Parker." Flash was sitting on one of the desks talking to Abe and a couple of the girls, but he'd noticed their entrance, immediately. "Where's Ben?"

"He's back at the compound."

"Why didn't he come?"

"He has other things to do," Ned answered, walking over and sitting near the front of the classroom, followed by Peter, who smiled a greeting to MJ. "Tony and Pepper had some things they wanted him to see."

"How long is he staying?" MJ asked, curiously.

"We're not sure," Peter replied, honestly. "He could be leaving any time."

"Too bad." She smiled. "I think he's nice."

"Of course she does," Alec said, amused. "He's you, after all, and she likes you and thinks you're nice."

Peter smiled, both at Alec's observations and at the thought that MJ in Pete's reality was actually dating him so it probably shouldn't be that much of a surprise that she connected with the guy.

Right?

"He's from California, Jones," Flash said with a smirk. "Besides, we don't want Parker to get jealous."

Peter rolled his eyes and MJ flushed, hotly, at the words but then scowled and tossed the older boy a look.

"You'd better hope that he doesn't decide to move here, Flash," she told him. "Because I've spent all of an hour around him and I already know that he's far – far – smarter than you are and would have your place on this team in a heartbeat."

That made Flash scowl, too, and Ned snorted in amusement, slapping Peter on the shoulder. MJ was not the one to mess with like that, and Flash knew it.

"And he's cute," one of the girls added, more than willing to egg on Flash, who was always willing to make a snide comment when he had a chance to.

He was an equal opportunity jerk, sometimes.

"Is he moving here, Peter?" Abe asked, curiously.

And maybe hopefully.

"I don't know…" Peter replied, uncertainly. Moving here was kind of a euphemism for stuck in this reality for the rest of his life. Peter liked Pete, but knew how he would feel if it were him that was stranded away from his real home. "I hope not."

"He wouldn't take your place on the team," one of the others assured him. "You're smart."

It made Flash roll his eyes, but Peter nodded.

"No. I mean, I know. But he's pretty happy in California. I'd rather he was where he wanted to be."

"Smooth…" Alec said.

"Nothing but the truth."

MJ purposefully moved to stand in the front of the room, satisfied that her own point was made with Flash, and she looked at the team.

"Are we ready to concentrate, now?" she asked. "I want to make sure that we're ready for Tuesday."

Not a normal day for a competition, but with the holiday coming the schedule had been tweaked a little.

"We're ready," Abe assured her, confidently. "Ask us anything."

"Ask any of us but Flash," Ned added with a smirk to the other boy.

Peter chose not to smile at that. He and Flash were getting along – a little, anyway – and he didn't want to ruin that on something that was probably a little petty. He just turned his attention to MJ, silently letting her know that he was ready to focus on the task at hand. She smiled at him and turned to the others, and they followed Peter's lead.

Soon the room was filled with her tossing out questions and the other students answering them.

OOOOOOOO

"You sure you're up to this?"

Pete nodded, smiling at Tony Stark. Tony freaking Stark! It was still hard to believe, really. Even after so many days. He and the billionaire were standing in the garage, having been notified that Pepper's car was coming up the service road to the compound and was due to arrive any minute.

"Yeah. I'm good."

The SHIELD tech was already activated, and Pete was leaning against Peter's Pontiac next to Stark. They had been in the lounge with Ironpig and Nutmeg, but when Friday had told them Pepper, Peter, and Ned were coming, they'd settled Nutmeg on his cat tree and Tony had set Ironpig in the little dog bed that alternated use for Jack or Ironpig, depending on which pampered pet was in the room and sleepy at the moment.

Since Jack had gone with Steve on the jet, it was Ironpig's property until at least later that evening when the Avengers would be back.

"We're going to have a pretty easy evening," Tony reminded the boy. "We'll eat and then you guys can decide if you want to work on the pumpkin chuckers – with me and Pep, or with just you guys – and then we'll give you a chance to play video games or whatever while Pepper tells me anything I need to know about our schedule, next week."

"Okay."

While Tony had been going over things, the garage door opened, revealing that it was still raining, and now it was getting dark. The car pulled into the garage, with Peter sitting in the front next to Pepper, and Ned in the back. Pepper stopped next to them, and Tony stepped around as soon as the engine had been turned off, so he could open the door for her.

"How was the drive?" he asked her, smiling, as he reached for her bag and pressed a kiss against her cheek.

"The rain always makes it more interesting," she told him, smiling as well. "So does Ned, though."

The boy grinned as he opened his door, not at all offended by the teasing.

"Because I'm an interesting guy," he said. "Hey Tony. Hey, Benjamin. How was the swim lesson?"

"Hey, Ned."

Pete smiled, too, even though his was a little surprised by the question.

"It was good," he replied. "I'm not very good, though."

"First lesson," Tony reminded him. "You'll get better with more practice." The billionaire looked at Ned. "Did you bring your stuff with you?"

Ned didn't need to ask what he meant. His smile widened as he raised his backpack.

"Yeah. The design's pretty cool," he said. "But I'll need to mooch materials for the manufacturing."

"Of course."

That wasn't a surprise. It was one of the reasons they were working on it at the compound. The tower would have worked, too, of course, but the compound was more interesting.

"Why don't you boys go get Ned settled?" Pepper suggested. "I'm going to go change and we'll meet you in the lounge in half an hour."

"Sounds good," Peter told her. He looked at Tony, though. "Is there anyone I need to apologize to before I do?"

Tony wasn't the only one to smile at the question.

"No," he assured the boy. "Your cat was off his game, today, and was a perfect gentleman to everyone and everything he came in contact with."

Peter raised an eyebrow at that.

"Are you sure it's Nutmeg?"

Tony nodded, and then shrugged, even as he put an around Pepper.

"Looks like him," he replied. "You can always double-check him when you guys get to the lounge."

"I might." He looked at Pete, checking the tech and not finding any spots that were slipping on the facial features of Benjamin. "Come on, guys. I want to see what Ned came up with."

"Okay."

"Don't get too distracted," Tony warned the three teens. "I'm hungry."

"Okay."