Outnumbered

Chapter 3

"Homework," Peter mumbles before Tony can ask how his school day was, the teen bypassing his usual afternoon snack at the kitchen island and heading straight for his room.

"My day was just okay, too," Tony calls out jokingly, Peter's door slamming closed in response.

The interaction isn't unusual to Tony, but Peter's slew of breakdowns the past week have him more aware of the slight changes in Peter's language and behavior.

He figures he'll give Peter some time to himself before checking on him around dinner.

He grabs an apple from the island, gets comfortable on a stool, and takes a bite while scrolling through emails on his StarkPad. Most are the usual Grumman, Lockheed, and General Dynamics emails and calendar meeting reminders. He accepts the meeting invites Pepper reminded him about earlier and replies to her texts about picking up Morgan from gymnastics at six. It takes him a while, but there, in the middle of the unread list, are two emails from Peter's school, back-to-back. One is from Peter's math teacher, Mr. Griggs, and the second is from the nurse, Shannon. He chooses the nurse's email first, because he's met her face-to-face, and he's glad he does, because she details an impromptu pump site change after Peter's was leaking insulin rather than delivering it, which explains the 350 with one arrow straight up that he saw on the Dexcom follow app earlier today. He was pretty distraught, she explained. I take it this was his first solo site change. Took us nearly twenty minutes to get him to gather the courage to insert it. There were some tears, but he did it all on his own.

The painful Dexcom and site changes have been Tony's responsibility, and while he knows Peter will need to be able to do it all on his own by the time he leaves for college next year, he feels guilty pushing the issue right now. He knows that this diagnosis was unexpected and has been difficult for Peter. He's thankful for Shannon's updates and her help while Peter's at school, makes a mental note to send her a thank you.

The email from Peter's math teacher, however, is of a different tone entirely. Peter was using his phone during class despite a strict no cell phone use policy. At his refusal to hand it over, Peter was given a referral to see the Dean. When Peter finally handed it over, the texts on the screen read, "You're high. How much did you take at lunch?" Because of the possible drug use, I sent him to the Dean's office with a referral in-hand, only he never showed, which is why he is now slated for two days of after-school detention this week.

Well, that explains the mood, Tony thinks to himself. He'd sent the you're high and how much did you take at lunch? texts, had been referring to Peter's blood sugar and units of insulin to cover the carb count for the sandwich and snacks they'd discussed and packed for lunch.

Tony takes a deep breath, tosses the apple in the garbage can, and walks to Peter's bedroom. "Kiddo?" he asks, knocking.

No answer.

"I'm coming in."

x

Peter's belly-down on the bed, face turned toward the wall, feeling like an absolute failure. Nothing went right at school today, from the failed English quiz to spilling juice down his shirt, and finally, what happened in math class.

"Hey, bad day at school?" Tony asks, entering.

"Did the Dean email you?" Peter's voice is small, barely above a whisper. He's trying not to give away how hard he's been crying, how hoarse his voice is, but he knows he's failing at that, too.

"No, but Mr. Griggs and the nurse did. Heard you did your first solo site change," Tony says, sitting on the edge of Peter's bed. "Proud of you, kiddo. I know that's been hard for you."