This isn't the first time I've gone through this, at some of the other Orphanages something like this has happened, but not as bad as this. I decide to text Peter just to make sure he doesn't tell anyone, I can't have this getting out.
~ Messages ~
Hope:
Hey, so about the message you saw. It was my friend from my old school, we got in an argument and she thought I was moving back to her school so yeah. Please don't tell anyone, it's not that serious.
Parker:
Uh yeah. I won't tell anyone but I really think you should
He doesn't finish the message and he starts typing again after a couple of minutes.
Peter:
You can talk to me if you need to, you know that right?
Hope:
Thank you Peter, but everything is fine here. I have to go, my stop is coming up. See you Monday.
Peter:
Yeah, see you soon, hopefully. I mean not hopefully but like see you soon hopefully safely... What I mean is see you Monday.
He stumbled the last few messages, making me wonder if he really did believe me or not.
~ Back At The Orphanage ~
When I get to the orphanage I open the door and see Mrs. Bernadine in the kitchen. I try to sneak past her but she hears the creaky floorboard as I step on it. I squeeze my eyes shut, scared of what's going to come next.
She turns her head quickly and stares into my soul, like she learnt everything about me in just that look and is judging me for all of it. My confidence wavers slightly at this as she stomps over with her heavy feet and raises her arm above me.
"Wait! You can't hit me. People are starting to suspect things! And it hurts which isn't great." I shout quickly, my hands blocking my face as my eyes squeeze shut, waiting for impact.
Luckily, she puts her arm down and thinks for a second, "They may be able to notice the marks on your face, but that's not going to get you out of trouble missy." Her voice sounds scary as she quickly reaches round my head, grabbing a fistful of hair.
I let out a small yelp as she tugs on it slightly, my eyes beginning to water. I look inter her eyes, hoping to find a bit of sympathy, anything. But there was nothing.
"You're worthless. You know that? You're just a murderous child, I bet you killed your parents didn't you?" She spits out, her saliva landing on my face. "I bet you whining drove them insane enough that they drove themselves into a lamppost, hoping to kill you off!" She shouts.
I gasp as she throws my back against a wall, using the grasp she had on my hair. I wince, a quiet sob leaving my lips. I didn't know she knew about my parents crash, but I guess she's made up her own stories about it.
The only thing is, she's only speaking facts. It is my fault. I did this to myself. I did this to them. This is what I deserve.
As I repeat that in my head over and over again, I watch as Mrs. Bernadine grabs her walking stick that she issues occasionally. I suck in a deep breath as she sends a large blow to my ribs, where she kicked not too many days ago.
I keeled over in pain, my knees banging harshly against the floor. This doesn't stop her as she sends another hack to my stomach. If I had eaten anything for the past couple days, it would've been all over the floor.
Luckily, I didn't get to eat my food in the cafe due to my quick exit, otherwise I'd me even more embarrassed right now.
Mrs. Bernadine continues to hit me as I lay helpless on the floor, a small laugh leaving her lips every couple of minutes.
After a few more hits, her breathing begins to rise, so she stops, taking a step back and leaning down towards me.
"You're a pathetic murderer. Aren't you?" She asks which elicits a small sob from my mouth. "Aren't you!" She screams loudly in my face, expecting my to reply.
All I can do is send her a small nod, my eyes still squeezed tightly as she seems to get angered at my response. "Say it." She says simply.
My eyes snap open and look at her. "What?" My raw voice manages to crack out, the past few minutes causing it to come out huskily and broken.
"Say. It." She repeats, this time enunciating it clearly so I can understand. I search her eyes, waiting for her to say it was all a joke, but that never happens.
"I'm a pathetic murder." I say, tears pricking my eyes again. She scoffs sending me a small kick to the leg as she stands up.
"Damn right you are." She mutters, turning away from my frail and broken body lying on the floor. She uses her walking stick to walk back into the kitchen as she starts to hum. As if nothing happened.
I let myself lay there, all the thoughts of what just happened running through my head. A few sons leave my mouth as I try and stay quiet, hoping not to draw any attention back from Mrs B.
After a few minutes I pull myself together and stumble up the stairs to my room. I find my way to my bed and let all the anger leave me through my tears. I hate it here! I deserve to be locked in here forever! I did this to myself!
The words repeat in my head, causing me to let out a scream into my pillow. That action causing pain to shoot through my body. I'm just glad Mrs. Bernadine isn't strong enough to break a bone, I'm not sure what I'd do then.
I start to calm down, realising I need to find a way to live with these bruises for a while, without being suspicious. I grab my phone and start googling ways I could help treat myself.
Honey suddenly walks in without knocking and she sits next to me. "Hope. Will Mrs. Bernadine give me some of those?" She says pointing at my eye which has mostly heeled by now. I wince at her question, glad she can't see the rest of me...
"Of course not! I won't let her, Hun. Now, you should focus on your chores, you know how Mrs. B gets when you forget." I say with a small smile, turning her around with my hand.
She smiles. "Thank you Hope!" She skips over to the door but before she goes I call out to her.
"Hey, could you bring me up some frozen pees? They're in a bad at the bottom of the fridge." I smile sweetly. She sends me back an innocent smile and nods, making her way out my room.
~ The Next Day ~
I wake up the next day with only around 2 hours of sleep. My body still in pain even after holding something cold on my injuries for hours on end.
I have the ability to speed up healing processes, but I never really use it. It tires me out tremendously if I use it in things like this, and I could even die from it. That's why I avoid doing it, I tried to heal my parents, which put me in a coma for days after the accident.
However, I need to do something about this. So I decided I would spend the day attempting to heal myself. I start with my face as the bruises are wearing off and are only gain now.
I raise my hand against my face, staring at my injury in the mirror. My eyes are set hard against my target as I begin to shake slightly.
Finally, the bruises begin to fade, leaving nothing but a memory of the pain. I release a quick breath and hold my head in my hands, even something as small as that taking energy out of me. This is gonna be a long day...
A few hours go by, I've managed to heal the bruises on my back from when I got pushed against the door handle, but not much progress has gone on with my new and improved bruises. I sigh, ready to leave them be.
Suddenly, there's a knock at the door. I scramble to grab a too and put it on quickly, covering my bruises. "Come in!" I shout sitting back down on my bed casually.
As the person opens the door, my eyes widen in shock. Mr. Stark? That definitely was not who I was expecting. I stand up quickly greeting him with a small smile.
"Hello Hope. It's nice to see you again. Hopefully it will go better than the last time we met." He jokes, closing the door behind him and looking around my torn up room.
He swipes up dust with his fingers and flicks it across the room, a face of disgust planted on him.
"What do you want?" I ask rudely. I mean I'm not gonna act nice when he starts looking my room up and down like it's no worse than being a hobo. I actually quite liked this room.
He sits on the bed next to me and it lets out a horrible screech. I cringe slightly as it adds to his negative looks.
"What I want is for you to be safe. And to help you control your telekinesis." He says, and a weird feeling flies up my spine.
Safe? I don't feel that much anymore. Apart from when I'm with my friends. Well, mainly Peter, actually. He makes me feel as if he's watching out for me, like if anything was to happen, he would know and be there in a click of a finger.
But that's probably cause he's spiderman, right?
I stand up moving away from him, "Thanks for the offer. Again. But I'll have to kindly decline. Again." I say with a sigh. As much as I want to believe him, I don't think anyone can control this.
He stands up and hands me a piece of paper, "I assume Peter doesn't know about your living situation?" He asks, his eyes glancing around my room. I look to the floor avoiding his gaze.
My reaction gives him the answer already so he continues, "I won't tell him, I respect your decision. That is my number. When you change your mind, ring me." He says as he takes one more look around the room then back at me.
I know he's waiting for me to give up but I just stare at him. He seems to be arguing with me with his eyes. Damn, he's persuasive.
After a few minutes I finally give up, letting out a breath, "Fine. If I go to your massive house sort of building thingy today, will you leave me alone?" I rush out, ready to get this man away from me.
He smiles knowing he won, "deal. I'll wait downstairs." I roll my eyes and shut the door. I hope this doesn't involve getting kicked or punched in the body. I don't think my body could bear it.
I get changed and then go meet Mr. Stark downstairs, passing Mrs. Bernadine who was staring at him with a little bit of drool on her chin. Jeez, who knew she was desperate like that.
~ Stark Industries ~
"So, what are we doing here?" I ask, ready to get this over with. He smiles as he pushes open a door leading into a big room with a table planted in the middle.
There are people sitting around the table all smiling at me, my hands begin to sweat nervously. "Hope, meet the avengers." He says casually, a small smile on his lips.
I laugh a little looking at the people in front of me before I then realise he's being serious, "oh. Uh hi. I'm Hope. Lovely to meet you all and stuff like that." I mumble out, a little nervous.
They all stare at me, unsure of what to say. "Can I go now? I'm not sure what's happening here, I'm not looking to join a cult or anything." I say seriously as I look back at Mr. Stark who holds a look of surprise.
Then finally, someone at the table speaks up. He has blonde hair and he's wearing a red cape. "I like this girl." He says with a big grin, a little chuckle leaving his lips.
"well thank you. I like your... cape?" I say, trying to find a compliment to give back to him. A few chuckles escape through the room at my awkwardness and I just shuffle my feet.
"Well, really should get back. My beds getting a bit lonely, and who am I to deny it comfort?" I excuse myself, wanting to get out of this awkward situation as soon as possible, but it only seems to make the situation last longer.
I take a look at the people around the table, they're all laughing as Mr. Stark stands with his mouth open.
"I'm sorry, do you not care that you are in the presence of most of the avengers?" He asks astounded. I only reply with a simple shrug and a shake of the head.
"I mean, thank you for your services and all that but, seriously, what's the big deal?" I ask sending him a tight lipped smile.
"I- Big deal?" He questions as if what I said was insane. "What- uh. The big deal is that it took me hours to wrangle up these people in this room, all to hear you talk about your bed?" He complains. A bewildered look on his face as he processes the situation.
"Okay I'm sorry." I say putting my hands up in defence, "if I knew you were going to throw a hissy fit about it I would've pretended to care." I finalise, shrugging again.
A few more laughs erupt around the room as Mr stark snaps his head back to me. "Right let's move on." He says gruffly. He's practically pouting that I didn't give him the reaction he wanted.
I'm sorry, but like, they're just like me. People who have powers or are tech savvy enough to create powers. What was I supposed to do? Ask for their autograph?
I wave at everyone before walking with Mr. Stark out of the room, let's see what's next I guess.