《CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE》
THE NEXT DAY, CARTER was slightly more prepared. She was ready with the basics of what kids were interested in, thanks to Tony.
What surprised her, however, was that at lunch, the topic of conversation strayed to the Avengers. As Carter was taking a sip of water, Elias asked "What do you think about the Avengers?"
Not expecting that, she choked on her water. Quickly putting her bottle back in the table, she began to cough as Aiden reached over to hit her back. Once she composed herself, she muttered "Sorry. Went down wrong."
Now seeing that she was okay, the two boys began to laugh, Carter soon joining in.
"But anyway," said Elias. "Do you like the Avengers?"
"Oh, uh, yeah. They're really... cool."
"Have you heard about the new Avenger?" Aiden asked.
"You mean the really young one?" Questioned Elias. He immediately turned to his best friend, eyes wide open in excitement and a big smile on his face.
"Yeah! It's supposed to be a girl who's really young. Apparently she's been spotted with Tony Stark out in public before! No one's gotten a good picture, though. They're all really blurry."
Carter tried to cover her growing smile. They thought that she was an Avenger! Her! She was silently relieved that no one had gotten a good picture of her with Tony, however. If everyone knew who she was, her life would definitely not be normal. She made a mental note to be more careful if she ever went anywhere in public with Tony again.
"Which Avenger is your favourite?" Aiden asked her.
Carter thought for a moment. "Probably Ste-- Captain America."
"Mine's Thor!" Said Elias.
"Iron man is definitely the best," argued Aiden.
"No way! Thor could easily win against Iron Man. He's a God! The God of thunder!" Elias shot back, rolling his eyes as he did so, as if to say 'duh!'
"Iron Man is way smarter than Thor! He makes his own suits and he's a billionaire!" Aiden said matter of factly.
"That doesn't even nearly compare to a God!"
Their argument continued for the rest of lunch and Carter soon joined in, telling them that Captain America would definitely win in a fight. And even though she didn't say it, he basically did win. Well, kind of. He still managed to get away with Bucky, even though Tony and many other superheroes were against him.
She wondered if Thor were there, would it have been any different? What about Bruce? She hadn't seen either of them in ages and wondered what they were up to. Carter hoped she'd see them again soon; she missed them.
~\☆/~
Carter sat in the kitchen with Tony as she ate dinner. Tony was reading what seemed to be some sort of document, but Carter had no idea what it was for.
He absentmindedly asked her about her school day, to which she replied saying her friends asked her about the Avengers.
"What?!" Demanded Tony, immediately looking up from the paper, much more alert than he was in the previous few moments.
"They just asked whether or not I liked them and who my favourite Avenger is." She kept her tone calm, knowing that she didn't let anything slip that she wasn't supposed to.
"And what did you say?" Asked Tony. He relaxed a bit, but raised his eyebrow when he asked the question.
"I just said they're cool. Don't worry, I didn't say anything about knowing them."
"Forget that!" Exclaimed Tony. "Who did you say was your favourite?"
Carter looked down at her food, a smirk growing on her face as she answered "Captain America."
When she looked up, Tony was scowling at her. She burst into laughter once she saw his face and it almost seemed like he was about to crack a smile, too. Almost.
"One of my friends said Thor," she added.
"Oh, did he, now?" Asked Tony in an irritated voice.
"The other one said you," she muttered with a roll of her eyes.
"Oh, did he, now?" He asked once again, this time in a much more pleased tone. "I like this kid. What's their name?"
"Aiden."
"Hmph. A boy. Still, he has a fine taste in superheroes. I'll allow you to be friends with him."
"Yeah, yeah," she muttered.
~\☆/~
That night, Carter's night terrors came rather vividly. In this particular nightmare, she was surprised that she remembered it, for she had been so young when the event had occurred.
A five year old Carter sat with Mr. Reyes. She never saw him that much, only every so often around the lab.
Still, Carter sat on a chair as he taught her to tie a shoelace. She didn't get it right the first time, and even after Mr. Reyes impatiently explained it for a second time, still couldn't grasp how to do it.
"You idiot child!" He exclaimed. "It isn't difficult. I've showed you twice, you should have it by now. You are useless."
Carter's bottom lip trembled. She never liked getting in trouble, especially when she knew it could lead to a punishment.
"Don't you dare start crying. Just the the damn lace!"
Her hands began to shake as she bent down again. It proved to be more difficult, so she tried to calm herself down, which was hard considering she was still under the intense glare of Mr. Reyes.
She messed it up again, so Mr. Reyes made a fist and brought it down on to her knee, sending a wave of pain through it. She grabbed her knee as her eyes began to tear up. Luckily, Carter managed to hold them in. She didn't want to know what he would do if she began crying.
"There's plenty more where that came from," he growled. "You are staying here until you learn to tie the damn lace!"
~\☆/~
When Carter got home from school one day, Tony was very excited for a reason unknown to her. Happy brought her to the kitchen of the facility once they arrived, telling her that Tony had something important to show her. He didn't seem impressed as he steered her through the facility, sighing many times before they reached the final destination.
Tony was standing at one of the tables and Carter noticed a Ben & Jerry's tub by his hands. It was turned around, the flavour name facing away from her.
She walked towards him with a confused expression on her face. " You requested to see me?"
He slowly turned the tub around, very dramatically in Carter's opinion. Once turned around, he didn't say anything, just spread out his arms.
She approached the tub as Happy rolled his eyes. Picking it up, she read the flavour name:
'Stark Raving Hazelnut'
And she burst out laughing.
"What the- what the heck," she managed to get out in between laughs.
He snatched the tub from her grasp. "That is not the appropriate reaction," he said angrily.
"Stark- Stark raving h-hazelnut!"
"You know what I think this is?" Shouted Tony over the laughs. "You're just jealous that you don't have one named after you."
"Just wait until you tell her what Bruce's one is called," muttered Happy as he turned to leave.
"Bruce has one!?" Shouted Carter as her laughing fit grew stronger.
"No..."
"It's called 'Hunka-hulka burnin' fudge'," shouted Happy from outside the kitchen.
Carter couldn't take it anymore. She let herself drop to the floor as she held onto her stomach, which was beginning to hurt from laughing so much. She was sure that she had never laughed so hard in her life. She had never had the feeling of almost not being able to breathe because of laughter, only having that feeling due to being drowned in water. She had never had the feeling of a sore stomach from laughter, only from getting kicked in the stomach. She had never had the feeling of sore face muscles due to smiling so much, only having that feeling due to straining those muscles as she lay in her rickety bed, crying herself to sleep.
Her life was finally good. But can everything stay like that forever?
AUTHOR'S NOTE
_________________________________
I feel like these chapters are pretty boring and they're very jumpy... oh well.
__
This story has reached over 20k reads! I literally reached 10k 16 days ago... what!?