Showing your pain

only generates more pain, little prince.

Hide it behind a charming smile,

And just maybe, you'll survive.

Tony's POV

It turned out Monday wasn't a school day. It was an orientation day. Jarvis stayed with me most of the day. We sat in plastic chairs while adults yammered on and on, like the teacher in the Peanuts cartoons. Then I had to get measured for a uniform. Pretending to be a soldier was fun. Being unwilfully enlisted was not.

At noon, Jarvis took a walk with me outside while I vented my thoughts.

Jarvis sighed. "You have not been enlisted in the military."

I begged to differ. "The desk and chairs were in perfectly straight lines, like soldiers standing in formation. They expect you to walk in straight lines with your troop. Everyone is expected to dress identically to make it easier for the drill sergeants to treat everyone the same."

Jarvis frowned, "Please don't let them hear you calling them drill sergeants. They're teachers."

"You have to line up for chow time and you have no say in what or when you eat. Lights out at 9:30. Follow orders at all times or you'll get in trouble. The barracks are probably rows of identical cots. No access to phones or computers. I've just become an enlisted man."

Jarvis knelt down so we could be eye to eye. He reached up and brushed his hand through the hair over my ear. "What's the motto?"

"United in public."

"And what does it mean?"

"Save the complaining and venting for at home. In public, we always agree with each other. Specifically, agree with and support Dad." Tears started to gather in my eyes, "But that isn't home anymore. They kicked me out. Mom packed all of my clothes."

"Think about how fast you grow. A few months from now none of those will fit and you and your Mom can go shopping and get a bunch more. There aren't rows of cots. You're going to have your own room and this afternoon you and I can go shopping to buy things to decorate the room."

"No." The image of a person wiring their own electric chair flew back into my mind. I swallowed hard.

"Did either of your parents explain why they sent you here?"

I shook my head no.

"There are things you need to learn. Things they teach in school. With your parents' constant travel, it wasn't feasible for you to attend a regular day school."

"What if I learn everything here? Then can I come home?"

"Anthony, you have many years of school ahead of you."

"Ye-years?" My voice stuttered and I had to suck in a breath to hold back tears. Not enlisted like Captain Rogers who choose to try and try again to get into the army. I'd been drafted against my will, and my tour of service was supposed to last years.

"There are breaks. School closes for a week at Thanksgiving and for at least two weeks at Christmas. In the meanwhile, it'll be like a giant slumber party with other children to play with and a playground to explore."

"Not a slumber party. Lights out at 9:30."

"Which is a whole 45 minutes later than Nanny Doreen tries to wrangle you into bed." Jarvis stood. "Come, it is time for lunch."

We started walking, then Jarvis began talking again. "Remember the motto. United in public. Whatever your thoughts when on your own, do your best to make them believe you agree that you do belong in boarding school. Remember, the Captain was small when he entered the army. He had to be brave and creative of thought in order to stand alongside the bigger men, and they came to respect him for it, even before he gained his mountain of muscles. Be brave and creative and united behind the Stark name. It will help with your interactions with the other students and teachers."

Jarvis setup my room while I attended, "My name is and I…" circle time hour with the other orphans. I was the only six-year-old. Everyone else was much older and much taller. The small zebras get eaten first. That's why Jarvis warned me to be brave and unite behind the Stark name. So I did the exact opposite of how scared I felt. With a lot of bravado I proclaimed, "I'm Tony Stark. They haven't figured out what grade I'm going to be in yet. And something you should know about me is I designed a computer circuit board when I was 4."

Jarvis had said goodbye to me before he left me with the group. I think he was trying to avoid a scene like the one I caused in the driveway at home. But I wouldn't have. Jarvis gets to make a lot of decisions about what I do each day, but he doesn't have a say in big things, like sending me here. And he already warned me not to make a fuss in front of outsiders. I was alone with scores of other people.

Jarvis must have gone shopping on his own because there was stuff in my room we didn't bring with us. There was a Captain American shield quilt on the bed and a stack of new comic books on a shelf. There was a box of envelopes and a roll of stamps and a Polaroid camera on the desk and three notes.

Remember to read every day (non-school stuff) and try to make some friends. Play is just as important as work. Run around and have fun, my darling.

Mom

Your homework is the same as it has always been. Figure out how to use what you learn to help improve the technology and bottom line of Stark Industries. Learning is important, but it is only truly learned if you put it to use. Mail me your ideas and send photos of the things you make.

Dad

If you need anything, ask an adult to let you call or write us a letter.

Jarvis

I didn't get to stay in my room. We were ordered outdoors. I was a heart thumping gazelle scanning a savannah. The lions each had their own pride and each pride had laid claim to a play structure: the swings, the merry-go-round, the jungle gym, and the slide. I had to be brave and creative like Steve if I was going to survive.

I tried for the jungle gym first. Lions have sharp claws. They stepped on my hands every time I grabbed a rung. I wasn't a gazelle anymore. I was a lion too, and I wanted to show them I had claws too. But I couldn't climb high enough to use my claws on their face with their constant stomping on my hands, so I tried to go for a foot instead. I let one hand be stepped on while I used the other to untie the kid's shoe, and I was going to try to yank it off of his foot and throw it the next time he lifted his foot, but the recess nanny started yelling and ordered Tommy (apparently the name of the boy crushing my fingers) to go sit by the wall.

Next, I tried to merge with the merry-go-round pride, but they refused to slow it down so I could climb on, claiming I was too small to ride it with them. "Am not!" But yelling brave words doesn't make the merry-go-round spin slower and even though I really wanted to, I couldn't just go up and push one of the merry-go-round pushers to the ground. That would make me a bully and Captain Rogers doesn't like bullies.

There was an empty swing and I went for it. The swing pride, mostly girls, didn't seem to mind my presence. There were two other boys and we started to see who could swing the highest. We all got pretty high. Then one of them upped the ante, asking who had the courage to jump from the swing while it was zooming upward. I went for it! For about 3 seconds I was Peter Pan flying through the air, before I came tumbling to the ground. When I unrolled and looked up the recess nanny was glaring daggers and pointing to the timeout wall. Sigh. Adults are no fun.

Dinner was just like I told Jarvis it would be. Line up. Take your tray with the little compartments filled with food you don't get to choose and none of it as good as what is served at home. Just like when I'd go to military bases with Dad. I missed Dad.

After dinner I still didn't get to go to my room. They wanted to go over more rules and do more "bonding" activities. Specifically, they wanted us to play boardgames together.

One of the girls from the swing pride offered to play Candyland with me. Nope. Not getting trapped into that one again. I went for the Monopoly group. They didn't want to let me in, saying I probably didn't even know how to count or read, but the nighttime nanny ordered them to let me join.

I rock at this game! Obie bought it for me for my birthday. I pleaded with him to play it with me. Dad teased him, saying he should have bought me a toy I could play with on my own. But it was my birthday, so Mom pushed Dad into playing too. Since that day, it's mostly been my nanny playing with me and sometimes Jarvis, but I did get Dad to play while we were on the jet flying to Europe. It's a really long flight. He insisted on teaching me buying and selling strategies, so that it was a lesson, not just a game. That's why I'm so good at winning; I've got technique.

My nanny insisted on using the rules in the game book when she played with me, much to the detriment of my opponents in this penitentiary.

Joey turned down Vermont Avenue. I held up the white bill and exclaimed, "$10.00."

They all looked at me bewildered and one asked, "What are you doing?"

"Bidding. When someone turns down a property a bidding war begins between the other players to see who's going to buy it and the lowest bid allowed is $10."

"What in the world are you talking about?"

And they accused me of not being able to read. "Page 4 of the directions, assuming your reading skills are up to the challenge."

Oops. Maybe a bit too brave. The one with blonde hair looked ready to deck me.

I decided to go for charm. "Which, of course they are. The question is, do you have the guts to go against a Stark in a bidding war?"

"$15."

"$18."

"$23."

"$45."

Then he offered "$65."

I remembered Obie telling me that in business you need to let your business partners win the haggle, or at least think they had. I let him have it. There were better properties available, and I'd just got him high enough that he wouldn't be able to afford the full cost for any properties until he hits Go, forcing everything he lands on to go up for bid.

By the first full circuit of the board I already owned three, high value properties, all purchased at bargain prices when someone landed on a square they had to turn down because they couldn't afford it. By round 4 I was buying full neighborhoods of houses. Some people thought it was a good idea to put hotels on your squares, because you get more money when someone lands on it. I knew better than to use hotels. If you buy hotels you burst the housing bubble and then there are enough of the little green structures for everyone to put them on their avenues, and then the game would be too even and would never end!

They also didn't like when I purchased a 4th mansion for Park Place just as Adam's shoe was stepping on it. They tried to claim that I couldn't do that, but I reminded them that I could read and that according to page 6 of the instructions I could buy houses whenever I wanted. Adam went broke and was out of the game, causing his land to go into auction. I outbid my opponents and picked up another 4 parcels of land.

Sadly, I think they let me outbid them because they were tired of losing against me and wanted to quit. My family never gave up on a challenge that easily. How were you supposed to succeed if you gave up?

Then the night nanny brought out cookies and small cartoons of milk and passed them around. I didn't want to be here. I wanted Mom. I wanted Nanny Doreen trying to convince me to leave my lab. But she was probably laid off and I'd never see her again. I wanted the chef's cookies, not store bought, hard cookies. I wanted to build with Dad and play Monopoly with Obie and my nanny, who actually knows the rules and don't run from a challenge. I wanted to go home!

But I can't let anyone know that because then I'll be baby zebra carrion, being devoured by lions and picked at by vultures.

I ate the cookies and chattered, and flashed the smile meant for the cameras that follow Mom around. I tried to make small talk, like my parents do at parties when they're gathering intel. It was hard to keep on a smile when I felt so sad and mad, but part of having a united front was having a good poker face.

When one of the drill sergeants told us to get ready for bed it was such a relief. Not that I wanted to go to sleep, but it gave me an excuse to get away from the other kids. In my room, on my own, I didn't have to put on a brave face anymore. There was no one to see that I wasn't united with the idea of being here.

But then it all came flooding back in. I was all alone. They'd sent me away. Tears dripped on my pillow. There was no one here that cares that I am sad. I crawled under the shield and curled into a ball.

Author's Note: Candyland was actually one of my favorite childhood boardgames, I just don't think it would be Tony's style. I learned of the Monopoly rules recently from a friend and confirmed them on YouTube, as I don't own a copy.

I was re-living my childhood recess in this chapter. My fingers were the ones stepped on by other kids on the jungle gym. I rarely got to ride the merry-go-round, but that was mostly because it was full and I couldn't run fast enough to get to it before it filled. Two of my friends loved jumping from the moving swings. I thought it looked thrilling, but my rare attempts were from a low height. One of my friends broke their wrist after one flight. Thereafter, anyone who attempted was put in timeout.

Please review. Even just the words thank you will help increase the number of readers. Thanks for reading!