Hearing his voice, Lainey stopped attacking him and allowed herself to relax once again.
Nothing could hurt her when Peter was around. She believed that with every fiber of her being. He'd never let anything bad happen to her if he could help it.
"Oh, sorry. You just caught me off guard." Was her response.
She was trying to convince herself that whatever she was feeling was just her mind overreacting, yet again. No one was going to hurt her, not again.
Chapter Seven:
"Alright class, time's up. Jot down your final answers and put your pencils down." Lainey's math teacher, Ms. Davis, spoke as she began walking around to collect test papers.
The test had been fairly easy for the preteen, she breezed through it while most of the class struggled. She didn't find anything challenging about pre-algebraic equations. As a matter of fact, she thought they were pretty fun to solve. But this wasn't always the case. When she was younger, she struggled with math so much that she practically failed every test and got most of the answers wrong on her homework assignments. The girl had become so frustrated, because she wanted to learn, that she got herself a math workbook and sat in her room, teaching herself formulas and strategies for hours on end.
That's when she found that she actually loved math.
"Make sure you all look over the next chapter so that you're familiar with the work for next week." The older woman spoke. "Have a nice weekend."
"Come on Lainey! Let's go jump rope for a while before we go home!" Claire smiled enthusiastically at the brunette. Her eyes shining brightly enough that Lainey thought she might need sunglasses to shield herself from the orbs of excessive happiness. "Ms. Davis let us out a little bit earlier than usual, so we have time!"
Lainey really didn't want to jump rope with Claire. In fact, she didn't want to have anything to do with Claire. The blonde had been getting on her very last nerve since the day she transferred to the school, but she was trying her best to be nice and let her down easy.
"Lainey?" Ms. Davis peeked over the rim of her glasses she was using to go over the test papers. "May I speak to you for a minute?"
Lainey was more than eager to stay behind and speak to her teacher. Anything to get away from the Bubbly Blonde Bimbo, as Lainey had previously deemed her.
"I'll see you next week then?" Claire smiled, slightly disappointed by the fact that she wouldn't be able to hang out with Lainey, but not letting it ruin her day.
"Yeah, sure." Lainey forced a smile onto her face, sighing in relief once Claire left the room.
"Lainey, I wanted to speak to you about your test grade." Ms. Davis handed the girl her paper and allowed her to look over it before speaking again. "You got a perfect score."
"Thank you." Lainey smiled politely and moved to put the graded test in her bag.
"No, you don't understand. The rest of your teachers and I have been watching you for the last couple of weeks and your work has been absolutely flawless, which is hard to pull off, transferring in as late as you did."
"Thank you." Lainey slung her backpack over her shoulder, still not getting why her teacher had wanted to speak to her.
"The reason I asked to speak with you is because we think that you'd be better off skipping a grade. We've already spoken to the principal and he thinks it's a good idea."
Wait, what?
Lainey had just gone through the trouble of transferring into this school. Sure, she was a little well adjusted and a little comfortable, but that didn't mean she didn't struggle a little bit socially.
Although, transferring would mean never seeing Claire again.
That thought alone made Lainey interested in the proposition.
But then again, she didn't want to burden Natasha with the fact that she might have to go through more paperwork. That wouldn't be fair to her. Not after all she had done for Lainey.
"Thanks, but no thanks." Was all Lainey could say, leaving her teacher with a troubled expression as she walked out of the classroom.
"What's the matter CurlyLocks?" Tony asked, noticing that for the the few minutes Lainey had been home, she hadn't said a word.
Usually she'd be talking to Steve about WW2 and he'd tell her all about him and his old friend, Bucky. Or she'd be trying to learn a language that Natasha couldn't understand to get back at her for poking fun at her in Russian. Which, unfortunately for her, was no easy task. She spent most of her time searching, as opposed to learning.
Lainey narrowed her eyes at the pet name Tony had recently given her, that she secretly loved. It made her feel included and loved. But she couldn't let him know that of course.
He penned the name, 'CurlyLocks', which he explained, derived from 'GoldiLocks'. And he couldn't very well call her that, because her hair was brown, so he settled on 'CurlyLocks' and the name stuck.
"Nothing." She shrugged, not really wanting to talk about it.
"Well, I know it's not 'nothing', but I'm not going to force you to talk. Do you mind if I just sit here with you? Keep you company?" Tony motioned to the empty space on the common room's couch.
Lainey spared him another glance and nodded, scooting over to give him more room. She didn't mind Tony's presence. They just weren't very close and didn't interact very much apart from him giving her a pet name. But Lainey didn't blame him one bit. He was a busy man with his own company and a girlfriend, all while juggling being an Avenger. Lainey was still a stranger to him.
In fact, Lainey was pretty much a stranger to everyone excluding Steve and Natasha. She had been too shy to strike up conversations with any of them, for fear of getting in the way or being told she was sticking her nose somewhere it didn't belong.
"How are you feeling? You know, after…..." Tony trailed, trying to fill the awkward silence.
"I'm okay." Lainey's voice was soft and timid.
"You know, I understand how you're feeling. I had a parent who wasn't fit to be one when I was growing up."
That got Lainey's full attention. "Really? Your mother didn't treat you well?"
"No, my mother was wonderful…." Tony ran a tense hand over his face. "It was my father…He was the one who treated me like I wasn't even his son."
Lainey studied Tony's face, confused, yet honored that he was so willing to share something so personal with her. It had to be hard for him, since he always bottled up his emotions and put on a mask to protect himself.
"I…...It didn't bother me at first, because I had my mother, I had Jarvis, I even had Obadiah." He sighed tiredly.
"Obadiah? The man who tried to kill you a few years ago?" Lainey inquired, already knowing the answer, but unwilling to let the conversation die.
"Yeah, him."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't stress about it." The billionaire waved her off. "I didn't tell you all of this for you to feel sorry for me…...I told you, so you know that…...so you know-"
"-So I know I'm not alone?" Lainey helped Tony fish for words.
"Yeah. So you know you're not alone. It's easy for someone to tell you that, but I wanted to show you. You're a good kid, don't bottle things up the way I did. You have people here that care about you. Everyone here loves you, especially Natasha. So, if you're feeling like crap, you have to let us know."
"Thanks Tony." Lainey smiled.
Maybe they weren't such strangers after all.
The sun's rays kissed Lainey's skin as they shined through her window while she did her homework, laying on her made up bed.
After her little talk with Tony, she had been feeling a lot more comfortable staying with everyone. She didn't feel as if she had to walk on eggshells whenever she entered a room anymore. And it felt good. She didn't feel like a helpless charity case.
And most importantly, she didn't feel like a burden.
A soft knock at the door snapped her out of her thoughts. "Come in Natasha."
"How'd you know it was me?" The former assassin asked, sitting down on the preteen's desk chair.
Lainey never used that desk. She always felt more comfortable doing work on her bed. She had to sit at a desk for six hours every school day, why would she want to do it at home too?
"Your knock is different from everyone else's. Your's is light and if I was making noise, I wouldn't have heard it." Lainey rattled off of the top of her head, while sitting up to face the redhead.
"Impressive."
"Perceptive." Lainey corrected with a smirk, making Natasha roll her eyes in jest.
"Actually, I came in here to talk to you about something."
"Oh." Lainey was all too familiar with talks that started like that. "It's about school, isn't it? They told you?"
Natasha only nodded in confirmation. "Your principal called and told me that you told your math teacher that you didn't want to skip a grade. Any reason?"
Lainey shook her head, not really sure how to respond.
"I'm not upset if that's what you're worried about. I just noticed that for the past couple of weeks, you've been finishing your homework at record speeds and your teachers have said that you get so bored in class that you fall asleep."
"You already went through a whole bunch of red tape. I guess, I was afraid to tell you…...but I'm not anymore."
"Good." Natasha didn't dwell on the mushy conversation for long. "Do you want to skip?"
"Yes Ms. Romanoff, I do." Lainey responded, completely forgetting to call the woman by her first name, grinning sheepishly at her mistake.
"Сколько раз я должен говорить тебе называть меня Наташей? Я собираюсь задушить тебя!" Natasha glared playfully.
"I don't understand you when you speak Russian." Lainey pouted.
Her arms were crossed over her chest and she lowered her chin just so Natasha could see the mock sadness in her eyes.
"That's too bad. Maybe instead of learning a language that is unfamiliar to me just to confuse me, you should be learning Russian." Natasha was clearly less than phased by the twelve year old's antics.
She had gotten used to them by now. Peter told her all about Lainey's little tricks that she used to get her own way. If she thought that she could pull one over on Natasha now, she should probably think again.
"But Russian is hard." The playful pout never left Lainey's face.
Natasha couldn't stop herself from laughing softly at the child. She was a real piece of work. But she was her piece of work. "Then let me teach you."
And before she could stop it, Lainey's entire face lit up like the lights on a Christmas tree. No one had ever taken the time to actually sit down and teach her a language. Sure, she learned Spanish from her mother, but that was only because back then, Allison's English wasn't that great. But for someone who had done so much for her already, to sit down and teach her their mother tongue, was touching to say the least.
"And if you're positive that you want to skip a grade, I'll call your school." The redhead pulled her phone out, ready to dial the number.
"I want to."
And that was all Natasha needed to hear to dial the number.
"Что бы Вы хотели на завтрак?" Natasha asked a groggy Lainey as the girl dragged herself across the room.
The weekend came and went. Natasha had spent most of her time invested in teaching Lainey how to speak and read Russian. To her surprise, the twelve year old caught on fairly quickly and was now able to say some simple phrases in the language.
"Ничего такого." Lainey shrugged as she sat down on a stool at the island in the kitchen, allowing her head to fall onto her arms.
"You can't just not eat on your first day of high school." Natasha's face held so much fondness for the child in front of her.
"Fine then, I'll have an apple." Lainey rolled her eyes and grabbed a bright Granny Smith Apple from a bowl on the counter and took a big, sour bite out of it, smiling as the taste filled her mouth.
"Are you nervous?" Natasha asked suddenly.
She had been trying gauge whether or not Lainey had the jitters all weekend, the girl seemed fine, but it could very well have been a front.
"A little...….but I have Peter…...and Ned. Michelle likes me well enough." Lainey explained.
Natasha smiled fondly and poured herself a cup of coffee in her favorite mug. Lainey had gotten her the mug a while ago...Well, she had given it to Peter when he told her that he had started training with the Avengers so he could give it to her anonymously. She never thought that she would ever meet them, but she wanted Natasha to know how much she appreciated the work she did. Lainey was no stranger to the knowledge of the redhead's past. After the Triskelion, every file on her had become available, making it easy for her to find out more about her hero. She found things that she hadn't been expecting, but that only made her feel a lot more connected to Natasha. Even though she had done some questionable things, she was still human. So the mug was just her way of saying that no matter what she did, there would always be someone who looked up to her.
The two stopped what they were doing when they heard a knock on the door and smiled at each other.
"Come in Peter." Natasha smiled in greeting, proceeding to sip her coffee.
It was black. Just the way she liked it.
"Sorry I'm late, the D was delayed." The arachnid spoke, sitting down at the island.
"Do you want something to eat?" Natasha asked him.
"I had an apple or three on the way here." Peter shrugged, knowing that Natasha wouldn't take that for an answer.
"Here." She set a plate and fork in front of him. "Lainey's not going to eat all of those pancakes, so help yourself."
And though Natasha was smiling, her eyes were hard as she glanced at Lainey, just as she was about to get up with a plate full of pancakes.
But when Natasha narrowed her eyes, Lainey smiled sheepishly and sat right back down and continued to eat, taking small bites to satisfy the woman.
But when she raised her eyebrows, Lainey began taking bigger bites. She remembered when she and Natasha had a talk about her horrible eating habits. She had told her that most days she wasn't terribly hungry because she had to eat as little as possible when she was at home, but Natasha just wasn't taking that for an answer. She had reassured the girl that she didn't have to, and wasn't going to live that way anymore and made her eat. And after the twelve year old felt as if she was finished eating, Natasha had whispered something in her ear that made her shudder.
So she had made a wise decision by sitting back down to finish her food, before standing up and putting her backpack over her shoulders.
"Uh uh." Natasha scolded, pointing to the girl's discarded beverage. "Drink that."
"But Natasha I'm-"
Lainey cut herself off when she caught the deadly look on her mentor's face and put the glass to her lips, drinking its contents in full.
That was a battle not even worth fighting. Especially since she knew Natasha was right.
She shouldn't be skipping out on any nutrition knowing that she was prone to get headaches if she did.
She wasn't home anymore. She didn't have to ration food like she did before because no one was going to starve her. She could eat as much as she needed to satisfy her body and not get in trouble for it. She just needed to be reminded from time to time.
"This is it." Peter told Lainey as the two stood outside of the school building. It was a whole lot bigger than the previous one with some of the tallest kids she had ever seen.
"You have your schedule, right?"
Lainey nodded and handed Peter the neatly folded piece of paper she had been carrying in her pocket the entire morning.
"Sweet, you're in like...…all of my classes except for Spanish and Math. I take Geometry and you take Algebra which is right down the hall." The teen spoke as they made their way into the building.
Lainey looked at the different types of people in the hallway and wondered how she would fit in. She wasn't nervous to start, maybe it was because she had Peter, or maybe it was because she knew things would be different.
She liked different.
"Hey Penis! Got yourself a new girlfriend?" A tanned looking boy called out to Peter.
Lainey furrowed her eyebrows at the horrible and unoriginal nickname before looking at Peter to see how he would handle the situation.
"She's not my girlfriend. She's just a family friend Flash. Don't make it weird." He grimaced.
"Parker dates little girls!" Flash screamed so the entire hallway got wind of the conversation.
The corridors were filled with mixed reactions. Those who cared enough to listen in, either laughed as they walked by, or pretended not to hear anything as they made their way to class. Those who didn't really care for Flash or anything he did, looked at him in disgust, yet refused to come to Peter's aid.
Peter didn't even want to give the kid the time of day, so he took Lainey's arm and led her to their first class of the day, Biology.
"Look, I'm sorry you had to go through that on your first day, he wasn't trying to attack you, he was after me and-"
"-Who was that?" Lainey cut Peter off, not really in the mood to listen to him apologize for something that he had no control over.
She would much rather know more about the creep so she could figure out how to stop him.
She hated bullies.
"Oh him? That was just Flash...…Eugene Thompson. He makes it his life's mission to make me miserable. It's no big deal. I'm just sorry you got dragged into it."
"Why didn't you tell me about him? I could help."
"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to help. This isn't your problem. I don't want you to get involved in something that you shouldn't. I'm the one who's supposed to be protecting you, remember?"
"I'm not sure that's how the relationship works." Lainey crossed her arms, sitting in the seat next to Petter which was always empty as he preferred to work alone most days. "Weird flex, but okay."
Peter gave the twelve year old an incredulous look before rolling his eyes and waving to Michelle as she made her way to her seat, which happened to be directly in front of them.
"Hey loser." She smirked. "Kid."
Lainey rolled her eyes at the teen, but greeted her anyway. "Michelle."
"I heard you skipped another grade. You're such a nerd."
If anyone else had said that to Lainey, she might have taken offense to it, but this was Michelle. And even though the girl made some pretty off-colored remarks, she knew that deep down, she cared.
"I prefer the term, 'Prodigy'." Lainey smiled sweetly, not giving the older girl the reaction she wanted.
"Whatever you say Kid." And with that, Michelle turned around in time for their teacher to walk into the room.
"That's Mr. Edwards. He's pretty cool once you get to know him and he gives out pretty easy quizzes." Peter explained to Lainey as she watched the man put his briefcase down on his desk.
Mr. Edwards was a tall and slender man with brown eyes and full mop of brown hair to match. On his face he wore wired aviator glasses that reminded Lainey of Tom Cruise in Top Gun. Except with the mustache that sat above his upper lip, he looked more like Goose than Maverick.
"I see that we have a new student joining us today. Alayna Taylor?" Mr. Edwards called her.
Lainey raised her hand and smiled politely in greeting. She could feel about seventeen different eyes on her, boring through her soul. Her heart began to hammer against her ribcage as anxiety tried to take over her body. She could hear small whispers and giggles of the students in the room as they tried to figure out who she was or if they had seen her before.
"Welcome. Why don't you tell us about yourself? Where are you from? Any hobbies?"
Fantastic.
"My name is Lainey…...I'm from New York-"
"-What part?" A girl a few seats down asked Lainey sheepishly.
She looked as if she was shy, but really wanted to make Lainey feel welcome, so she pushed those feelings aside and asked the question before she lost the courage to.
"The Bronx." Lainey answered with a smile before continuing to answer their teacher's questions. "And I like to read."
"Do you have a favorite book?" Mr. Edwards asked gently.
Apparently, it was a rare occurrence for this generation to read at their on volition, so he was curious as to how she would answer the question.
"Matilda. It's an old children's classic, but I can never stop reading it." A fond smile creeped onto the twelve year old's face as she thought about the book.
"I like that book too." Mr. Edwards winked. "Alright, why don't you all take out the sheets we worked on for the skeletal system." He got down to business, handing Lainey a worksheet, before beginning to teach.
Lainey took out a pen and looked at the worksheet, smiling when she didn't know the answers to some of the questions.
This was going to be a great year.
"Lainey? Are you okay?" Peter asked as they walked out of the school towards the train station.
The school day had been great for Lainey. She had really enjoyed herself and even made a new friend, Sarah, who happened to be that shy girl in her biology class. Turns out, they were in the same math class, so they quickly became fast friends.
All her classes were interesting, and she didn't feel so bored that she would fall asleep anymore, which was a plus, but during the last class of the day, she got that bone-chilling feeling that someone was watching her again.
But every time she looked, she didn't see anyone.
The first time it happened, Lainey decided to think nothing of it. It was just her imagination. But her imagination wouldn't play tricks on her like that again, would it?
"Yeah. I'm fine. I was just thinking." Lainey answered, pulling some of her thick hair away from her face, only for the breeze to blow it right back where it was.
Peter nodded and decided not to push her as they swiped their metro cards instead of hopping the turnstile the way most people did.
He didn't have time to really find out what was wrong, because his train arrived pretty early, but he didn't want to leave her alone with her thoughts, so he let the train pass.
"Wasn't that your train?" Lainey asked, confusion written all over her face.
"Yeah. I have something to ask Mr. Stark anyway. I've been trying to upgrade my web shooters, but I can't find an element to replace what I'm already working with." Peter lied the way Natasha taught him to.
If you're going to lie, make sure you have a story to back it up. But don't you dare lie to me, I'll know. She had said.
"Oh...…okay." Lainey couldn't tell whether or not Peter was lying, because she knew that he and Tony had been working on some tech, so she didn't question his motives.
Besides, she was grateful for the company. As the minutes passed, the feeling of someone watching her grew stronger and stronger. And this time, when she turned around, she did see someone.
It was a man in a black peacoat with shiny black shoes, and black tinted sunglasses. He clearly didn't realize that Lainey had spotted him at first and continued to speak into a small burner phone.
The noise of the people on the platform and the sound of the next train pulling into the station drowned out whatever it is he was talking about, but it did catch his attention. He looked up, and saw that Lainey was looking in his direction and immediately turned away.
But before Lainey could watch what he was about to do next, Peter, who had been calling her and trying to get her attention, pulled her into one of the train cars.
"Stand clear of the closing doors please."
As the doors closed, Lainey looked back to find that the man had disappeared. But the sinking feeling in her stomach didn't. Why would anyone be watching her? What were they trying to find out? Maybe she was just overreacting. It could just be someone from the press who has seen her leaving the Tower and wanted to expose Tony for having some illegitimate love child or something. She needed to stop overreacting. Not everyone was out to get her.
Or so she thought.
As the train pulled away, the man in black looked at the empty train tracks and grinned like a cheshire cat.
"Hey Boss? I found her. Today she wasn't alone, but don't worry. Once I find her on her own, she's all yours."
Сколько раз я должен говорить тебе называть меня Наташей? Я собираюсь задушить тебя! - How many times do I have to tell you to call me Natasha? I'm going to strangle you!
Что бы Вы хотели на завтрак? - What would you like for breakfast?
Ничего такого - Nothing
A/N: Hiiiii! This chapter wasn't as well paced as I had originally hoped it would be, but things are picking up! Lainey's being followed, she's in a new environment, she's bonding with Tony ,and she's making new friends! Unfortunately, her happiness never really lasts long, does it? Until next time! XOXOXO