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Bypassing Joss when Y/n woke up again had proved easy. The kitchen had been totally trashed when the brunette exited the safety of her room but she didn't care. It wasn't her problem. Joss had serious issues that Y/n wasn't going to be a part of.
The brunette decided that the best decision was to just let Joss figure things out for herself and if that didn't align with what Y/n was doing, then the latter would most likely be moved out. Y/n was just going to avoid Joss at all cost.
Ribs burning with each step, Y/n recalled the surfacing splotchy, purple bruises that would probably be visible completely by the end of the day. Familiar faces passed her while she walked down the path near the chain link fence outside the football field. The bleachers were drying from the morning sun and the small drops flared back white light towards the sky.
Arriving at the concrete pad in the front of the school by the stairs, Y/n suddenly stopped at the noticing of a gaggle of kids moving onto a long yellow school bus.
The girl turned towards it, spectating the situation. MJ suddenly turned and waved at the girl. She was standing next to Ned and Peter who were finishing their handshake. Both of them were wearing their backpacks like normal people while MJ had a big nurse on her hip.
The curly haired girl motioned for Y/n to come towards them so she did.
"Y/n, where's your permission slip for the field trip?" Ned asked like it was obvious that she should have it.
"What field trip?" Y/n answered, shaking her head.
"The one to Stark industries--hey what happened to your face?" Peter looked skeptically at the brunette.
Y/n ignored his comment about her face, it wasn't her fault that she was naturally beautiful. She was joking of course. She knew she had a huge bruise.
"Stark Industries? I never--oh shit, I missed a day of school for work! That must've been the day--"
"Its all good, I got you," MJ handed a piece of green printer paper to the other girl.
It was signed and everything. The boys looked at her like she was breaking the law.
"Oh thanks, man. I was so going to go find one and do it myself," Y/n laughed.
MJ smiled and nodded. "Better get on the bus, don't wanna get run over. Harrington's a terrible driver. Probably why his wife left him," the girl shrugged, turning onto the bus.
Ned accidentally bumped into Y/n as he was walking and a hiss of pain escaped her. Luckily she managed to hold it together, earning only a confused glance from Parker.
Y/n rolled her eyes unbeknownst to him and boarded the bus. She passed the green paper to Mr. Dell and continued on after hearing a curt good morning.
Immediately, the smell of the chunky leather seats filled her nose and she moved down the aisle, gently plopping herself down in the compartment where MJ was.
The brown eyed girl immediately pulled out a book and started reading. Y/n didn't even bother to read the title, probably something about death or conspiracies. It was interesting but when MJ and her had been close, Y/n preffered to hear it from her. MJ had a better way with saying the unusual than anyone else Y/n knew.
Stark industries. Y/n couldn't believe it. All the Avengers lived there besides Hawkeye and Thor. But Y/n wasn't supposed to know that. She hoped in the pit of her aching stomach that the class would be able to see them but she tried not to acknowledge that. It would make her nervous.
The amount of close calls the girl had had to meeting even one Avenger was insane. The time she hacked into a bank security camera minutes after Balck Widow left. When Iron Man saved her from a Chatauri. The time she thought she saw Captain America disguised in a crowd at the Smithsonian. Or even when Bruce Banner had made an appearance at one of the decathlon competitions where he literally handed Y/n the trophy.
Everything was insane.
"MJ, are we going to look around or what's the plan?"
MJ lowered her book for a second and continued reading. "There's a tour and then procedure for whoever wants to try for an internship. Most kids spent the whole week preparing. There's like a test or something."
Y/n nodded. Obviously there was no chance she was going to leave without trying for an internship. Even though she hadn't studied for any of that but still. The possibility that she could be considered for an internship wasn't worth missing. And if she did get it, then she wouldn't have to work so hard in every other aspect of her life. She could stop track--she hated it and only did it because it was a chance for her to get a life.
Maybe Y/n could have friends like she did before or--
Her aunt was still a bag though. And who was she kidding, she wasn't nearly smart enough to get an internship.
It was fine. Her life right now was fine.
"Are you gonna try?"
MJ shook her head, continuing to scan her eyes over the pages of her novel. "No, not a big fan of Stark. Although, if getting an internship meant meeting Black Widow, then possibly. But no, because it's a Stark internship."
Y/n jutted out her bottom lip and nodded in acceptance. The pneumatic systems in the bus came to life with a compressed whooshing sound and then the yellow bus began to pull out from the school.
They were on their way. Those Avengers better watch out.
~ ~ ~
Tony had been worrying all night that kid had just suddenly stopped talking. But he wasn't about to frantically ask her if she was alive or not. Yet, the man was nearing his phone. One text wouldn't hurt, if she didn't wanna talk, she didn't wanna talk.
Or she was dead and not replying because some crackhead killed her.
Genius:
hey kid, I hope you're not dead
The billionaire waited in his garage for a few seconds, tinkering on one of his newest suit.
Eventually his phone dinged and he read the message immediately.
Y/n: haha, I'm good. Only a few bruises
Genius:
what?!
Y/n: I'm kidding.
Y/n: I fell asleep on shift. But that doesn't matter. Guess what! My school's going on a field trip to Stark Industies today and we get to try out for internships if we want :D
Genius:
That's great, kid
Genius:
You should try for one
Y/n: I dunno... there's gonna be super smart people there. Tony Stark is gonna be there and Bruce Banner! That's insane
Genius:
What's wrong with that? You dont like smart people or something?
Y/n: no, it's just that my aunt's kinda a pain in my ribs lately. I dont think she'd want me to be gone
Y/n: and also Tony Stark is a litteral genius and I cannot mess up in front of someone so amazing
Genius:
I don't think he'd care if you messed up, kid. People mess up all the time, even him
Genius:
Also, you work every night and go to school in the daytime, I'm pretty sure your aunt can be alone for two days a week
Y/n: that's reassuring
Y/n: wait, how did you know that it was two days a week?
Genius:
Well I work there. I know about the internships
Y/n: YOU WORK AT STARK INDUSTRIES?!
Y/n: So you live in New York huh?
Y/n: who's the criminal now
Genius:
Debatable
Genius:
Definitely try for the internship. If you get it, fantastic, if you don't whatever. Just try, you might surprise yourself, kid
Y/n: doesnt hurt, I guess
Genius:
Exactly
Y/n: hey maybe I could meet you! That would be cool :)
Genius:
Dunno kid, I'm really busy but I'll see how things play out
Y/n: shit, were here
Genius:
You'll do great :) talk to you later kid
Y/n: thanks
Y/n: aww your learning, I cant believe you used smiley face :)
Genius:
Whatever, kid
"Who're you texting?"
Tony nearly jumped out of his skin. "Gosh, Romanoff. We need to get you a bell or something," he mumbled as he stood up.
"Hmm, yeah. Who was that?" Natasha crossed her arms and motioned her head towards Tony's now turned off phone.
"It was Steve, wasn't it," Natasha smirked, crossing her arms.
"No way, I'm not about to take your honey pie, Romanoff," Tony smirked, getting into the elevator.
The redhead followed, stepping in and turning to face the way they entered.
"Dammit, Stark, tell me who it was or I'm going to find out myself," Nat threatened.
"Easy, Rushman--I'll get back to you within three to four business days," Tony noticed her death stare. "Or right now. It was Pepper, alright? Jeez..."
Tony sounded fairly convincing in his own ears, but Flames over here was a triple imposter. One could never be too careful.
Fine Stark, you won't tell me the truth, I'll find out myself, Natasha thought.
Tony grumbled as he stepped out of the elevator and walked towards the couch where Clint was clipping his toenails.
"Knew I shoulda brought the grinder down," Tony sighed fakely.
"You're hilarious, Stark," Clint responded from his spot.
The billionaire made a beeline for the coffee maker. The wonder boy was there as well as Bruce. Both were reading something of their own style. Bruce, a book about emotions, typical. And Cap, a newspaper. Right up your alley, buddy.
Unnoticeably glancing out the huge windows down at the street nearly a thousand feet down as he pored himself a cup. Expectedly, there were two school buses as small as ants down below.
"Hey Stevie," Tony called to Cap. His head shot up and he rolled his eyes after. "Natasha here was just saying she wants to go for a visit--if you know what I mean. You could take her to the eagle's nest," Tony suggested with a taunting eyebrow raise.
Steven turned bright red. And Clint snickered over his foot. "No, no, no, no. Don't go there Stark," he chuckled breathily.
"I'm gonna beat the s--" Natasha was held back by Bruce.
"C'mon, Tony what're you, a child?" Bruce scolded and Tony ignored him.
"Now you know what happens when you scare the soul right out of me, Ginga Ninja," Tony smirked.
Plus, he just wanted Scaredy Stevie over there to get together with her already.
Pepper came out of nowhere and pecked him on the cheek. "Midtown Tech is coming for a tour today, Tony."
"Yeah, uhuh. There's gonna be intern testing right? How ever many you were going to accept before--great, keep it like that. But I need a personal intern, alright? Thanks Pep," Tony spoke nonchalantly leaving only Natasha and Pepper slightly confused.
The billionaire made his way back to the elevator. Time to invoke a nervous terror on some school kids, Tony thought a bit evilly.
~ ~ ~
"Who was that?" MJ asked curiously as Y/n shoved her phone in her pocket but masking it with a monotone voice.
"A stranger I accidentally texted and am continuing to," Y/n answered blandly. Yet truthfully. If Genius ended up being a killer, at least MJ would be a the one to figure it out.
The curly haired girl was silent for a second as she took in the weight of her friend's words. "Sounds legit," she convinced.
The two exited the bus, following the two teachers at the front. Luckily, Y/n hadn't been paying enough attention to Harrington's driving to know if they almost died or not. Looking back and remembering the spontaneous screams of Betty, it was safe to say maybe three times were close to near death.
Slick, tall and classy building that was Avengers Tower, also known as Stark Industries, towered over the group as they entered the ground floor.
It was cool on the inside. Tan leather couches way in the back near glassed off rooms with coffee machines on counters. In the middle of the room was a huge front desk with three ladies working at it. But before you could get there, a serious of machinery like arches were lined up in front like that of an airport security.
A man in a suit was standing near each one of the five entrances to the machines holding a bin of badges. One kid stood out more than the others, he looked totally nervous. A man with a graying beard stood of to the right of him. He was larger and scarier--more professional looking.
"And you pass 'em the badges--Nigel. Where the hell is your badge?" The man spoke in a New York accent as the class arrived.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Hogan, my dog is a menace..." the kid spoke. He seemed like only a college student. Most likely an intern or maybe a security guard in training.
"Your kiddin' me right, the old 'my dog ate my homework' story? One more time and your done, kid. No one, I repeat, no one gets in here without a badge," the older man confirmed.
The kid nodded, brown eyes shining with worry.
"Hi yes, I'm Mr. Harrington with Midtown Tech," the teacher spoke, turning and gesturing to the accumulating cloud of high school students.
"Yeah, yeah. Get 'em to make five lines behind each security scanner, alright?"
The teacher turned to his class, Mr. Dell standing there uselessly. "You heard him, five lines."
Y/n made her way to a line, great for her, it was the scary Hogan guy's line. There was a huge couple of bins on a conveyor belt and Y/n guessed it was for anything metal like phones and what not.
The bustling began and whispers broke out. Peter was at the front of the line and he looked just as nervous as Y/n felt. Mr. Hogan looked kinda fed up and he spoke the instruction impatiently.
"All metals go into the bins on your turn, alright. Cellphones, watches, bracelets. All of it. No exceptions."
Someone piped up from the back of the line.
"What if you have a prosthesis?" The girl looked worried, clutching her arm.
Hogan rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Okay, there's a few exceptions alright? Prostheses being one of them."
One by one, each kid emptied their pockets of metal and placed their backpacks in the bins, walking through the scanners and collecting their things on the other side.
Hogan, impatient seeming to be his main quality, began encouraging the kids not so encouragingly to to hurry it up. Nigel looked like he was ready to quit his job with Mr. Hogan always piping up over his shoulder.
It was all great entertainment.
Eventually, it was Y/n's turn and she went through relatively quick. She briefly thought what if she was a robot and they saw her as a threat but she was sure if she was a robot, she would know. But yet there was always the possibility that she just didn't know.
The girl place her bag in the bin along with her phone and a pair of earings like silver arc reactors. Shuffling through the scanner, the girl then collected all her things and waited with the kids on the other side after having been given a badge for clearance from levels one to five with a guide. Also known as the visitor's badge.
After everyone was scanned a pretty woman with a classy cream business suit and strawberry blonde hair appeared with a binder clutched to her chest. MJ squealed quietly beside Y/n.
This was Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries.
Y/n could barely believe it. Miss. Potts was probably the prettiest person she'd ever seen and she was the most powerful woman in the world besides the president. Recently, a girl called Sharon Carter had been elected for President. She promised good things so hopefully America could turn around from the shit-show they called normal.
Blue eyes shining with a gentle smile, Miss. Potts began to speak. Welcoming the group to SI. To be honest, Y/n could barely catch a word due to the volumes of her presence. Pepper Potts was the best. Literally no joke.
"Tony just informed me this morning that he would like a personal intern. So there are ten spots to be filled like originally planned and whoever scores highest on the test will be the eleventh candidate and will intern under Tony," the woman smiled again.
She had an unrelenting smile. Y/n was sure that even if her husband was drying, she'd try to keep a smile even then.
People immediately began to whisper. But Miss. Potts settled that down right away.
"Yes, I'm sure some of you who choose to test are extremely nervous or excited but there will be more explanation on the internships at the time being. For now, I'll show you all around, this part will be brief since the students who choose to test will be in the examination for most of the time here," Miss. Potts spoke, heels clacking as she walked, the cloud of students following her.
MJ gave Y/n a smirk and continued walking with the group.
The redhead brought the group swiftly around the tower into the most important rooms that weren't private quarters for the Avengers. Miss. Potts explained about which rooms were conference rooms and which parts of levels had workers on them.
There was a huge laboratory for the interns and workers there to publicly use and work on projects either for SI or not. There was huge stations with chem labs and all sorts of supplies. Someone had a huge car set up--Miss Potts explained that it was a prototype for renuable energy.
The woman also explained that there would be, in the future, an organization called W.E.B. It stands for Worldwide Engineer Branch. It was created to encourage young engineers to help create amazing things and collaborate to save the world. Like a eco version of the Avengers and without the fighting. The only thing was it wasn't fully developed at the moment.
Miss. Potts said that if the internships didn't work out for some people, they can always get a W.E.B. membership and try to help be a part of something bigger.
Y/n liked the idea, it was a good way for people to help. If she didn't get an internship, it could be a good backup, although she'd probably need backup for that too. Things with Stark Industries were never set in stone unless you were the best of the best.
Eventually, the tour was over and they're nightmares began.
"Anyone who would like to test for the internship please follow me. Anyone who does not wish to, please stay with your teachers and my assistant will direct you," Miss Potts motioned to her friend that had recently showed up.
He was tall with dusty blonde hair, more moussy. He wore a suit as well and had brown eyes. He smiled slightly and gave a small wave. This guy looked to be about the Y/n's age but he wa super tall. Nearing Miss, Potts' height.
MJ gave Y/n's hand a small squeeze and left to stand by the teachers. A few select others and Ned wandered off as well to stand by Mr. Harrington and Mr. Dell. The brown haired boy went to join them.
"Hi, I'm Harley Keener, you can call me whatever. I don't mind stupid nicknames at all," he chuckled. "I work mostly with W.E.B. and am helping my fellow interns to get it off the ground. Your classmates will probably be in the examination for a couple hours so I'm taking you guys down to the lab."
Y/n 's attention was caught by Miss Potts speaking again. "I brought in a therapy dog because I know these things can be stressful. Let's just keep it between us that he's not actually a therapy dog. You'll probably be intrigued to know that this is Hawkeye's dog. Lucky," the woman spoke as freaking Hawkeye rolled up to the group with his purple hearing aids clearly visible in his ears and a dog leading the way wearing a purple harness.
Kate would be so jealous.
"Lucky the Pizza Dog. Remember that," Mr. Barton spoke, giving his dog a pat. "Take good care of him. I'm sorry to say he doesn't eat paper so please do not feed him your tests," the man spoke lightly, passing him off to the nearest kid in the front.
Miss. Potts started speaking again and Y/n's attention was returned.
"Lucky will be in the back of the room during the exam," the woman said as she opened the door and led the kids to file in.
Y/n saw Peter and Ned exchange a glance beside her. They had eventually gravitated back to her through the tour.
"Please sit," the woman instructed. Individual desks were scattered in rows. A tablet and stylus on each one.
Each kid followed the directions, Y/n ending up somewhere near the left side of the room at the back. The kids were completely silent in the still room. Glass walls surrounded them and it made Y/n feel slightly uncomfortable.
Then Miss. Potts touched one of the windows and it immediately turned darker to hide the outside room.
The woman stood in the front of the examination room. Y/n quickly glanced to the back of the room and saw the dog sitting on a cute little dog bed with purple targets and bows and arrows decorating it.
Miss. Potts' voice snatched Y/n's head and turned it to the face the front of the room once more.
"The test is digital, however, no matter how self explanitory, I'll explain. Use the devices like paper. The stylus is exactly like a pencil. You can erase with the other end. Once a question is answered, press the submit button and move to the next. After the last question, put in your full name and which school you belong to. Submit it after that and you'll be done."
The redhead smiled slightly once more.
"Is that clear to everyone?"
Various yeses and head nods waved through the class to answer the CEO.
"Take your time, you have most of the day. I'll let you guys know when one hour is left. If you need a break, take it. Stress is a normal reaction, do not hesitate to take a moment to breathe," the woman said and sat down at the front of the room in a big chair with a desk in front.
After a quick head count, Y/n realized there were over forty-five of them, as well as however many other schools with that many as well. Maybe even more. The chance of getting into one of the eleven spots seemed extremely slim.
Y/n grabbed the stylus and waited for the screen to change after a few seconds, Miss. Potts announced go time and the screen flashed on.
May the odds be ever in your favour.
To be honest, everything seemed fine. Like a normal school test with extra nerves but it was fine, that was until Tony freaking Stark walked in through the doors.