Pointe Shoes and Spider Webs

29. A-R-T

Daphne wants to throw her alarm out the window. She stayed out at Avengers Tower until two o'clock last night, explaining everything to Tony and Spider-Man. She shifts under her blankets, groaning as she reaches for her phone. She frowns when she sees "99+ notifications". She turns on her sound.
"The hell?" she whispers as she sits upright and turns on her bed light. She unlocks her phone and browses through. It's the group chat of her class. Apparently, they had all received an e-mail from none other than Tony Stark and they are freaking out.

Caleb:
Justice! Finally!

Tyrone:
Can you believe it??? The school's actually committing fraud, jfc.

Sarah:
Aight, y'all, who snitched??"

Daphne stops reading after that. She knows how good her classmates are at gossiping and she also knows they're not afraid to gossip while the person they're gossiping about is also in the chat. She'd rather not be confronted like that. She opens the e-mail that caused the panic among her classmates and reads it carefully.

Tony Stark is suing the school. Bottom line is that the school is screwed. They were never supposed to take the money of all the students and keep it for themselves. It's a massive breach of contract and there is absolutely no way Tony could lose this case. He urges all the students to contact his financial department so he can get the right info in order to pay the money directly to the students. He's also looking for another school to work with for the art scholarship. He ends the email by asking them to keep this out of the media for the privacy of all the students.

 Daphne presses her lips on top of each other. This is happening. This is actually happening.
"Daphne!" Her father storms into the room. "Have you seen the e-mail?!"
"You got it too?"
"Yeah! Is this why you rushed out so late yesterday?" He cocks his head. "Did you go see Tony Stark?" Daphne nods. Derek walks up to her and sits himself down on her bed. He reaches in for a hug and she hugs him back. "You have no idea how proud I am of you for finally standing up like this," he says softly. His voice cracks. She holds him tighter, hiding her face in the crook of his neck. His stubble scratches her skin.

They've been together in this for so long. Her father wanted her to step to the higher-ups of the school, but when she did, she was told she'd lose her funding if she exposed David. In order to keep providing for her and her father, she needs the money. He makes a reasonable amount as a researcher at the New York Zoo, but it's not enough to comfortably live in a two-bedroom apartment in New York. He couldn't stand that she kept endangering herself for their sake, but she insisted he'd stay quiet about it. She wanted to do this for them. To be able to stay. She can feel his father's tears fall on her neck. "So proud," he whispers.

"Thanks, dad," she mutters as she tightens her grip on him. Their hug gets interrupted by her phone. A number pops up on her screen. She recognizes it from somewhere, but doesn't know who it is. She lets go of her father and shoots him a confused glance. She picks up. "Hello?"
"Hey, kid." Her eyes grow wide.
"Mr. Stark?"
"Who else?" He scoffs. "Thought you had my number already?"
"I didn't, actually."
"Huh, must've forgotten to give it to you-anyways," he interrupts himself. "Check your e-mail in give or take ten seconds."
"What?"
"Just do it, kid." She can hear him grin through the phone. "Took some work, had to pull some strings, but it's all set. You're welcome."

He hangs up on her before she can reply. She looks at her phone as a new notification pops up. An e-mail, just like Tony said. She frowns as she opens it. It looks like there's an official document attached. She opens it and it takes a little while to load, making her muscles tense in anticipation. She breathes slowly. When it opens, time seems to stop. A lump forms in her throat and her breath gets caught in her lungs. She reads the first line over and over and over and over. The words become unclear as her tears cloud her sight.
"Daph?" Her father puts his hand on her knee. "What is it?" She looks at her dad as the first tear frees itself from her eye and runs down her cheek.
"It's..." her voice breaks and she puts on a crooked smile through her tears. "It's a restraining order for David."