A year to Remember. Part 2, the Internship

Sabotage & Second Thoughts

"You sure you did the right thing?", Ned asks Peter as they walk out, MJ right behind them. "I'm sure Ned, I don't want to risk running into the avengers, I'm not ready for something like that". All three head over to Peter's. May having insisted on bringing them over for a joint movie night after they took care of Peter the previous Friday.

-

*Saturday morning*

"Tony!", Pepper calls for him, the man sprinting to her, questions shooting out of his mouth faster than his run. "Are they here, what's the kid's score, did he ace it, when can he work for me!".

Pepper stares at him, watching him pant for breath due to his sprint and rapid fire questions. "The tests are here Tony", she lifts her hand to stop the next flood of queries. "You made them, it's yours job to mark and grade them", His mood deflates, the concept of more work clearly not tasteful to his palate. "And no Tony, I'm not telling you his name or showing you his test".

"Why not?", He whines, actively over the top just for Pepper. "Because you promised to the Kid, and I'm not helping you break that promise", She replies quite smugly. "And because I want to avoid accusations of nepotism. It wouldn't mean the same to Peter if he didn't feel like he earned it. Pick the interns you wanna hire, then I'll tell you".

Tony concedes at this, her final point hitting home. "You're right Pep, gotta do this right". His anxieties stronger than before, the idea he might say no to his kid running cold through his spine.

He speeds to his lab and asks Friday to grade the scanned tests and the extended question, his AI performing the action as she displays ambiguous answers for Tony to make the final call on. More work than he anticipated but the anxiety of the kid's test potentially being one of them too much not to try.

2 hours later he and Friday run through 250 internship tests, double checking that all tests were properly graded before calling it. "Friday, let's start with the extended question. How did they do?".

FRIDAY pulls up the statistics, describing them as they come up. "37% of students fell for your trick. 58% were completely incorrect. 12 people had notable answers and only 4 people got the right direction but failed anyways, test number 118 getting the closest". Tony shortlists test 118 for future reference before moving on to his next few questions. "Alright, Pull up the 3 highest scoring tests per subject area".

A total of 8 tests come on holo-display in front of Tony, FRIDAY answering the inevitable question "4 tests attained a top position in more than 1 category". He sees them light up, "Let's start with those", Tony calls as all 4 are selected. "Why are tests 158 and 159 identically ranked?".

"Both tests answered an equal amount of questions correctly. Notably they used different methods for the physics, robotics and programming questions, and their responses in the biochemistry sections focus on different elements. It appears to be a genuine coincidence". Tony nods, looking over some of their answers, agreeing with Friday's assessment. "And how did they do with the extended question?".

"Neither succeeded, they are amongst the notable answers but not amongst the ones that were on the path to succeed".

Tony looks over their final response, seeing good uses of molecular physics and chemistry. "Creative answers, bookmark both".

"Done Boss".

He turns to the other 2 tests. "Test 37, they got the top position for Programming and robotics, and second to physics. What was their position on biochemistry?". Friday pulls up their biochemistry ranking, adding the missing rankings to all other tests. "They were 6th in biochemistry. Overall the highest scoring test."