Chapter 3

The next morning the senior physics class were waiting to board the bus while Mr Harrington was checking that everyone on his list was there. Ned and MJ were discussing what they thought was going to happen throughout the day and speculating about whose labs the class would be allowed to visit. MJ had brought her 'People in Crisis' sketchbook with her, to capture, in her words, "Flash's stupid face the second he finds out just how ridiculous he's been for not believing Peter".

They were just taking bets on how many Avengers would show up throughout the day when Flash's loud, obnoxious voice interrupted them. "See Penis isn't even here! He's too chicken to face the truth. I can't wait to see him on Monday after his lies have all come to light. Like Stark Industries would ever hire a loser like him."

"Shut up Flash, he's meeting us there," Ned retorted.

"Yeah because Parker thinks he has to have special treatment for everything! Just face it, he's not coming because now everyone's gonna know the truth."

"I would shut up if I were you, Eugene. You'll see the truth soon enough." MJ warned, with a glare strong enough to send Flash running onto the bus and into a seat. She really loved how scared of her he was.

The rest of the class loaded onto the bus and chatted excitedly the whole way there. Ned messaged Peter to see if he was ready for the day and letting him know that the class was on their way. He laughed when Peter replied that he had only just got up. Only Peter could be running late for a trip to his own house.

Despite the late start, Peter managed to be down in the lobby waiting for them when his class arrived. He greeted his friends and asked if they were ready for the antics that were bound to happen that day. It was safe to say that they were more excited than he was, probably because they wouldn't have to suffer the humiliation of having their family members popping up throughout the day to embarrass them.

While Peter had been greeting his friends, their tour guide had arrived and Peter was glad to see it was Emma, who not only knew Peter but also had enough contact with the higher ups in the company that she wouldn't freak out if Tony or some of the others decided to gatecrash later on. She was busy explaining SI's rules and policies, including the no bullying policy, which Flash was completely ignoring.

All of a sudden something set off Peter's spider sense and he turned around just in time to catch Harley as he threw himself at Peter.

"Noooo," Peter groaned. "Why?"

Harley gave what would be an innocent smile on anyone else, but on Harley just meant trouble. "I missed you darlin' and thought I'd come see ya!"

He leaned in to give Peter a kiss, but Peter quickly dodged and hissed "Not in front of my class!" while Ned laughed at their antics and even MJ looked slightly amused.

Unfortunately, by now they had drawn the attention of one Mr Harrington, who marched over and dragged Peter over to a corner further away form the class. Peter looked down at where Harrington's hand was squeezing his arm and raised an eyebrow, causing Harrington to let go, but not without frowning at Peter.

"Who is that young man Mr Parker?" he asked. However Harley had followed them over and didn't give Peter a chance to answer.

"Hey there, I'm Harley. Harley Keener." He said, tipping an imaginary hat at the teacher.

"And how do you know Mr Parker?" Harrington asked, looking rather unimpressed.

At this Harley's smile grew, but took on an edge that Peter knew meant trouble. "Well he's my boyfriend sir."

At that Mr Harrington turned to Peter, looking far more cross than the situation warranted. "I don't care how important you think you are Mr Parker, but you do not get to bring a plus one with you on a school trip. Do you remember seeing an invite on the permission slip to bring a plus one?"

"No sir, but I didn't exactly invite him, he just turned up." Peter implored his teacher, ignoring Harley looking mock hurt at his words.

"I don't care why he is here, I suggest you get rid of him. And quickly- our tour is about to start."

At this point Harley decided to pipe up again, much to Peter's chagrin. "I'm afraid I wont be going anywhere. Sir." The "sir" was said in such a mocking tone that it was immediately clear that Harley did not see the teacher as a person of authority and the glare on Mr Harrington's face made it obvious that he saw Harley as nothing more than a troublemaker who should be put in his place. Although that could be more to do with the fact that he hated anyone associated with Peter on principle, even if no-one knew why.

"Young man I suggest you remove yourself from the premisses before I get security to escort you out and get you expelled from school."

This brought a huge grin out on Harley's face. "Well you'll struggle with that since I don't go anywhere to get expelled from." With that he grabbed Peter's hand and dragged him back towards his friends, muttering "Gods he's a dick!" to Peter under his breath.

Before Mr Harrington could tell Peter off further or try to get Harley kicked out of the building, Emma called everyone to her so that she could start passing badges out. "Right, so you are all going to be given a badge, which will allow you access to certain areas of the tower. We have lots of different levels and sub levels of clearance. To make it easier, the levels are split into colours, with white being the lowest and gold being the highest and each level is split by 3 sub-levels, just numbered one to three. You guys will be given a white level two badge, which will allow you to access the elevator, the lowest levels and of course our cafeteria. Other areas may be accessed if I give an override code, but you will not get anywhere without that." With that she started moving around students handing out the badges.

"Now one at a time your name will be called and you will go through this security scanner here." She indicated the large silver scanner to their left. "Once you have gone through, please keep your badge visible somewhere upon your person for the duration of your trip. You may keep them after, but they will be deactivated at the end of your trip."

By now everyone had been given their badges and Flash had to stick his nose in to try to get Peter in trouble. "Excuse me Miss, you didn't give them a badge." He said, indicating Peter, Ned and MJ.

Emma looked up and said "Oh, I thought you guys had brought your own," with a small frown on her face.

"Don't worry Emma, we did." Peter assured her. She then started calling people forward to the scanner, preventing Flash from saying anything more.

Betty was first to go through and jumped a mile when Friday activated for the first time. "Betty Brant, white level two, enjoy your tour Miss Brant.

"Don't worry, that's just Friday, Mr Stark's AI. She runs the building," Emma explained before moving onto the next name on her list.

When it was Flash's turn he preened as he was announced by the AI as if he was something special, even though his greeting was no different to anyone else's.

MJ was the first out of their friend group to be called up. "Michelle Jones, Silver level three, frequent visitor. Welcome back MJ, have a nice tour." Friday announced.

"Thanks Friday!" MJ returned. Flash's eyebrows rose, but his fear of MJ prevented him from saying anything.

Ned received a similar greeting from Friday which made his smile split his face. Again, Flash looked furious but kept his mouth shut.

Then it was Peter's turn and he reluctantly stepped up to the scanner. "Peter Parker, Gold level three, unlimited access. Good morning Peter, why are you scanning your pass, you know that is no longer necessary?" Friday asked.

"Just trying to fit in with my tour Fri," Peter answered, grimacing slightly.

"Well have a pleasant day Mini Boss, would you like me to lock up the lab for you?"

"Yes please Fri. Thank you." Peter then moved out of the way to allow the remaining class members to go through the scanner. Unfortunately this brought Peter closer to Flash, who of course couldn't accept that Peter could've been telling the truth about his internship.

"Hey Penis, how much time did you have to spend on your knees to get someone to hack the AI for you?"

"No one can hack Friday Flash, she was built by Mr Stark. She's incredible." Peter retorted, already loosing patience. It was going to be a long day!

"It can't be that good if you can get it to say that you have gold clearance Parker."

"It's not just Friday, I have a badge too Flash." Peter showed it to Flash, the black print against the gold background clearly marking it as belonging to one Peter Parker.

"That's obviously a fake!" Flash scoffed.

Peter just rolled his eyes and moved away from Flash and back over to Harley, who had merely called "Mornin' Fri" as he walked past the barrier and over towards Ned and MJ. Peter wrapped his arms around Harley and buried his head in his chest.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take," He mumbled.

"Aww chin up doll, the day's only just begun."

"Doll?" Peter asked, raising his head.

"Guess I've been spending too much time around Bucky. You don't like it darlin'?"

"I never said that Harls," Peter said with a blush, clearly giving his permission to keep using the nickname.

After everyone had passed through the scanner Emma herded them all into the elevator. "Right now that that's all done, we can get to our first stop on our tour. The R&D Labs!" This gets excited yells from almost everyone in the elevator. "Yeah it's exciting! You'll get to see several new projects that SI are working on, all in different stages of development. Some of them have even been sent down from Tony Stark or one of his personal assistants."

Ned grabbed onto Peter to excitedly ask if any of the work in the Lab was going to be stuff that Peter had worked on. "Honestly, I don't know Ned, if it's super interesting I work on it myself, if not I sort of lose track of where my projects end up."

Unfortunately, this gave Flash a chance to get closer to Harley, whom he'd obviously decided he liked the look of. "You can do some R&D on me Hottie," he said in what he thought was a seductive manner. However Harley just burst out laughing.

"Oh my gods thats gotta be the worst pick up line I've ever heard! Is there a competition going or something?" He laughed, but moved back over to Peter, ignoring anything else Flash might have to say. He then started up a bad-pickup-line competition with his three friends. Within a minute, the elevator doors opened to a cacophony of noise.

"Right everyone, Welcome to R&D!" Emma called.