Chapter 27

History was her second least favorite subject, being topped only by Physics. Then again, Physics class had one thing going for it: she shared it with Tony. There was nothing good about History class. Having History during first period, by herself, sucked. Having History class that reminded you of your own sad history and poor decisions, was the absolute worst.

Well, maybe History class did have one thing going for it, too: the Professor loved to talk about history and did not seem to care if anyone was listening – or learning, for that matter. This had always given Pepper the opportunity to daydream during class. Nevertheless, today was not a day that she was grateful for this class to allow her mind to wander.

Today, any chance to think was a knife to the heart.

Last night's conversation with Tony about their spot in Breakdancing with Celebrities this weekend had stirred up within her feelings she had thought she had dealt with. Then again, shoving repressed emotions into a corner of your heart for twelve years could not really be counted as dealing with anything. Then again, again, at the tender age of six, what was she to do? The adults in the room should have guided her, but they had not. The social worker that had led the case against her mother's abuse had only recommended therapy for Pepper, but she had not mandated it. Virgil, with his best intentions at heart, had decided to instead move her and himself away from Jersey and to New York, and Sam and her mother had moved to Pittsburgh. Virgil Potts had fervently believed that time, love, and distance would help Pepper heal.

To be completely honest, so had she.

As it turned out, not thinking or talking about something that defined your childhood – and your relationship with your sister – did not equate to healing. If it had, then Sam's current presence in her life would have not flipped it upside down so easily and so quickly as it had. If Sam had not been here, then Pepper would have not been randomly freaking out about her sister moving in on her boyfriend. Or, worse yet – her boyfriend finding out from her sister about the horrible thing that the ginger had done to the brunette; to her then-4-year-old baby sister.

Pepper inwardly groaned.

Regret felt like being almost drowned.

And she knew what being almost drowned felt like. Her mother had made sure of it. Several times.

What would the people she cared for think about her if they found out what she did? Back then, in front of a jury and in the middle of a trial that she hardly understood, her action had not seemed to be a big deal. Now, over a decade later, she realized how much damage her simple response had caused. The only saving grace of the situation was that, based on conversations she had overheard from her father in the past few days, it did not seem as if Sam was going back to Pittsburgh again. As far as she could discern, her mother had finally gotten in enough trouble to lose custody of Sam forever. Her mother, it seemed, would finally get the punishment she deserved.

On the one hand, she was relieved that her sister was free from the witch their mother had always been. On the other hand, that meant that Sam's presence in her home and life was no longer a temporary thing. Sam was here to stay. Forever.

History had come back to bite her on the butt.

There was no escaping it anymore.

And to think, none of this would be happening, if she had simply answered the crucial question she had been asked with something other than no.

It was too late now. There was no turning back. All she could do was brace for the possibility that everything she cherished could be lost in the blink of an eye.

Oh, the irony! Oh, the karma!

In the blink of an eye… just as it had been the case for Sam, twelve years ago.

xxxXXXxxx

Tony Stark was not sure if all senior years at all high schools in the world were this crappy, but he was willing to bet his inheritance that it was just a Tomorrow Academy thing. Or maybe a child cruelty thing. Or maybe all the above. Or maybe they were not mutually exclusive, and the idea of transferring to an easier school was not too insane, after all. He would even drag Pepper and Rhodey with him. Or maybe they should all just go the route of homeschooling.

Because, honestly, who tortured students with loads of strictly graded assignments or unplanned heavily weighed assessments when they only had three weeks left of high school?

Professor Klein, that was who!

The soft-spoken teacher had decided that today was a good day to do a pop quiz that counted for one third of the cycle's grade. His reasoning had been that, with prom and graduation around the corner, waiting to evaluate students closer to the end of the school year had proven to be a recipe for disaster in previous years.

"Students are tired by then," Klein had argued.

"We are tired now," Pepper had whispered to him. The inventor had then chuckled under his breath; the redhead was always able to pull a smile from him, even at the worst of times.

Pepper, Tony sighed at the memory of what had taken place after her jest.

The look on Pepper's face had broken his heart when Klein had begun distributing the pop quiz and she had looked at it. He knew that she hated Physics and, while it was not his fault that their teacher had woken up with a deep rooted need to ruin teenagers' lives, he still felt guilty that he had not been using his time with Pepper to study for class as they had done so in the past. They had instead been filling their alone time with either heavily making out until their lips were swollen and raw, or practicing for their dance spot – or both.

In fact, last night, practicing their choreography at the Makluan Temple had led them to ending half-naked on the couch, sweating and breathing hard as they had just barely managed to keep at bay going all the way for a second time.

If only, instead of exploring her almost bare chest, he had been showing her why speed and acceleration were not the same thing. If only, instead of enjoying the feel of her body grinding against him while she sat on him, he had been explaining to her how to determine when the force formula was needed as opposed to the weight formula. If only, instead of practicing how he could use his hand to trigger those amazing sounds she made when he made her feel good, he would have encouraged her to practice applications of net force.

If only they had opened a physics book rather than the buttons on their clothes.

Alas, that had been last night. Today, he was stuck on the roof blaming himself for putting their hormones over their study routine for so long. They had to talk about this to help each other keep the other in check. They had the entire summer to enjoy themselves before going to college. In fact, as far as Tony was concerned, they had their entire lives together to fool around and more.

Tony's mind would have continued replaying the scenes of last night, had he not remembered he was not alone on the roof. As opposed to life a month ago, there was now a second student that also finished assignments as quickly as he did.

"So," Sam begun, "You guys are really doing this Breakdancing with Celebrities thing, huh?"

"Yup."

"Why?"

"Pepper likes it," Tony replied, his tone denoting how obvious the answer should have been to the smart brunette.

"But you don't."

Tony half-shrugged. "I don't hate it."

"But you don't like it."

"It ain't hurting anything. Plus, it's for a good cause."

Sam's head recoiled and she then rolled her eyes. "Good cause? Giving in to Pepper's wishes is a good cause?"

Tony's head snapped in the direction of the girl, eyeing her up and down for a minute to try to determine the intent behind her words. The young Potts sister had been attending the Tomorrow Academy for little over a month now, but he still had trouble knowing when she was being sarcastic or not. It was a rollercoaster, engaging with her: one moment, she was OK with her sister. The next, all hell would break lose and she would put Pepper down without remorse.

If he was not exhausted from last night and throwing himself a pity party about the pop quiz, he might have replied in kind.

"The show is opening a donation window during our spotlight. It's only two minutes or so, but Stark Solutions will match the donations times ten."

Sam's eyebrows rose. "For real? So, if people raise $500,000 bucks in those two minutes, you're willing to add FIVE MIL to it?"

"Like I said: it's for a good cause," Tony answered as he looked away from her again and rested the back of his head against the brick wall behind them. The girl did not need to learn that this dancing thing was part of his long apology for spending their four-month anniversary with the brunette rather than the redhead.

"Donating to charity, I guess?"

"Yeah," Tony nodded.

"Which one?"

"SCA Foundation."

"SCA Foundation? Never heard of it. What do they do?" the brunette casually asked as she pulled up her internet browser on her phone to dig deeper into this knowledge she had received.

"Stop Child Abuse Foundation," Tony replied, inwardly bracing for the response he knew his answer would invite.

Not one to disappoint, Sam stopped her web search to stare at the inventor with wide eyes and a slack jaw. She did not speak immediately, but she knew that she had to pull more information from the blue-eyed boy, right now. Her strategy to give Pepper a taste of her own medicine relied heavily on the redhead not knowing that her beloved boyfriend had gone behind her back to find out more about a subject she had not wanted to disclose in the first place – at least not until it was the right time. It was imperative that this fact remained true. She was finalizing the last of her plans this week so that she could go full force on her vengeance starting next week before school ended.

Before Senior Prom arrived.

Sam felt her heart beating faster than usual. Her hands began to sweat. Yet, she kept only a surprised look on her face and not a shocked one that might give away her true intentions. She was so close to taking the next step in her revenge against her sister. She had worked so hard to get where she was now. She could not let a stupid dance on television ruin her best chance at exacting her retaliation on her ungrateful and underserving older sibling.

"Does… does Pepper know WHY you chose that one charity?"

"No."

"Are you gonna tell her?"

Tony sighed. "I don't know. I mean: I know it's the right thing to do. But it doesn't seem like the right time to tell her, either."

"Agreed," Sam internally sighed in relief. "You should probably wait until after graduation. That gives you time to figure out how you're gonna make it up to her for betraying her."

Tony did not reply to her comment, but he felt the sting of her words. She was not wrong, either. Tony had betrayed Pepper's trust with that PI act of his. It was too late to take it back now, however.

"I guess I'll just hope I have enough goodwill accrued with her that she'll forgive me… eventually."

Sam scoffed. "Don't hold your breath."

"Jeez," Tony rolled his eyes. "Thanks for the encouragement."

"Anytime."

Sam's response gave him pause.

It could not be that bad, could it? He had been planting the seed of knowledge in Pepper that he did not think less of her because she had been abused as a child. At least, he hoped that she had gathered that much from his conversation with her about the reasons why he had chosen that charity to support. He hoped, against all the odds in the world, that when the time came to talk about it, she would consider those views above any anger she may feel at finding out what he had done.

Just in case, however, he would make sure that his surprise to celebrate their five-month anniversary, which was coming up in six days, added to the goodwill he hoped to bank on later.

A/N: Hi! Missed me? ^_^