Not that it's the first time, but I couldn't focus at school. My mind would be somewhere else while my teacher is teaching in front. Even when she's taking a round around the class to make sure that every one of his/her student is doing their assigned tests, I'd be sitting there numb. I didn't answer the tests. I let the answer column empty and I wasn't panicking when my teacher called the time.
Truthfully, most of our teachers didn't know what to do with me. Mom had been called by the Principal many times, discussing about my behaviour at school, but no matter how much Mom nagged, nothing changed. Like a robot that had been scheduled, I wake up every morning, take my shower, go to school, pickup Morgan after school, then head home. Once homed, I'd sit in my room, looking out the window at the garage, wishing that I see Dad at the garage. Sometimes, I'm happy that my bedroom can oversee the garage, but sometimes, I feel like swapping bedrooms with Morgan because Morgan's overseeing the lake.
Although it's not much different today, but I got a text from Harley on the last period at school, saying that he's stopping by my house this afternoon. To be honest, I was quite excited. I hadn't had many friends since Dad died. And since Dad died, some of whom pitied me thought that it's the right thing to do to someone who's just lost her father, not because they really cared.
That hurts, though. All the opportunities I thought were genuine, but really. It only because of Tony Stark.
When I'm home after picking Morgan at her school, I saw an unfamiliar black car parked at our driveway. There was a person outside, leaning against the black car while playing with his phone and with earphones in his ears. From his demeanour, I quickly recognised him as Harley. Tall, lean, sharp jaws. His quiff fell onto his forehead making him look better.
'Hey,' I greeted once I parked my car beside his. I think it's rude to leave him to park my car in our private parking space. 'Sorry I made you wait. I had to pick up Morgan at her school.'
'Hello, Harley!' Morgan quickly greeted and before Harley could wave back, Morgan has already disappeared inside the cabin to eat and to play with her dolls. I always cook for us for lunch after school, but since Harley is visiting today, I told her beforehand that I might take extra time to cook. She just said okay, didn't complain much.
'Nah, don't worry much about it.' Harley smiled.
'Uh, let's....come inside....shall we?' I said awkwardly. I haven't known Harley that much yet so I'm quite nervous to invite Harley into my house. The only common thing we have is that we both know who my father is.
I led Harley inside the cabin.
'Is it just you and Morgan?' Harley asked as he looked around our cabin. We hadn't changed anything since Dad died. What he remembered about our cabin back when he visited us for the funeral was still probably the same now. The table plants in betweens our family pictures on the fire mantel. Some old ironman masks that Dad didn't use anymore are still on the wall.
'Yeap, just us,' I asnwered, throwing my school bag on the kitchen stool. 'Look, I'm going to cook for lunch. Do want to stay here or do you want to see the garage? Can I trust you with that?'
Harley's face lit up when I mentioned about the garage. 'Seriously?'
'Yeah. I mean, I can't keep you here or you're going get bored, am I right?' I said as confident as I could. Frankly, I'd be very happy if he said no and said that he could wait until we finish lunch because it is still hard to trust any person, but so far since I know Harley, from what Dad told me about him enough to make me trust him with Dad's techs. 'Do me a favour and bring Morgan along. You don't have to worry about her misbehaving because she's a nice kid.'
I called Morgan as soon as Harley said okay. And just like Harley, Morgan was excited to be at the garage again. These two, if it weren't because of the difference of last name, people would think that they're siblings rather than Morgan and I. They have the same interests, the same knowledge, the same brain. Meanwhile, I'm here look like an idiot.
I started cooking as Morgan and Harley are playing with Dad's toys. I put my phone on the table, ready to take action if my phone alerted me. Dad built my phone specifically with a technology that could sense danger to my family. And if anything bad that's about to happen to me, it would send signal to....Dad. I had to figure out myself how to upgrade the system since it was broken when I was lost at another planet.
While cooking, my phone suddenly rings with a ringtone that I set for someone that used to be special to me.
PETER PARKER is calling....
My heart made a flip when his name appeared on the screen. We kept in contact since Dad died, but haven't seen each other since the funeral. I thought since we have the same experience from losing a family member, and got lost onto an unknown land – although we didn't meet when were on the unknown land – we'd be closer than we were, however I was wrong. The last time we met, Peter hardly see me in the eye when we were talking. Like something in me was bothering him.
'H-Hello?'
There was a short silence at the end of the line. 'H-Hello? T-Terri?'
'Yes, Peter,' I replied. 'Long time no hear from you.'
Peter awkwardly chuckled. 'Yes, long time.' He laughed again. 'How are you? I heard that there was an attempted theft on your dad's time-machine.'
Is that the reason why he called me? Not genuinely because of my current being and my family?
Half-heartedly, I replied, 'Um, yeah, yeah. Happy told me yesterday, but personally, I haven't contacted anyone from the Avengers to confirm the status.'
'The Avengers....' I heard Peter mumbled under his breath. 'Anyone that's left....'
Silence again. I know Peter was only talking to himself so I didn't reply him. Partly because I was disappointed. At him. Does he really think that we're okay even though he called to ask about the time-machine? Didn't he care about my mental being? How I've been catching up with me new routine? Balancing my life between school and taking care of Morgan. I know Mom must feel stressed about it, too. She used to do them with Dad, but now she's doing them alone.
Not long after that, when he didn't sound like he's talking anymore, I asked, 'How's school?'
'It's great!' He cheered. 'My school is conducting a European trip this summer and I'm joining. Me, Ned and– so I'm currently busy with the passport and....everything else.'
'Oh,' was only that I can say.
A European trip. That sounds fun. I remember back when Dad brought us around a few countries in Europe for my birthday. Or following my parents to their offshore meeting. They'd free themselves for a few days to visit fascinating places together with me as a family (although this rarely happen, but I loved it when they do that for me). I didn't want to come home and go back to school. I wished I was homeschooled or my teacher follows us to our trip so I could continue traveling. Now I wonder if I could get that life back.
When I was about to open my mouth to say something to Peter, I heard a girl calling her. Peter responded. They talked. Then Peter said, 'Hey, I gotta go. I'll call you again next time, alright? Bye!' before he quickly hung up.
That hurt.
~***~
I watched as Harley taught Morgan a few compartments although, I believe, Morgan knew some of them. But Morgan listened to him intently, carefully and remembering every detail Harley told her. When Harley asked her to repeat what he said to test her understanding, she repeated every single thing without a miss.
Harley smiled, both at Morgan and at himself. If it was Dad, he would say 'You're welcome' before you thanking him and boasting about himself being a genius and that I should be proud to have him as a father – someone to look up to, someone every generation will love. Literally, young and old women, all loved him. I cringe whenver girls my age loved Dad in....weird ways.
Then Harley turned to me.
I blinked.
'Do you want to learn too?' he asked.
'What? No, thanks. I'm too dumb for these,' I said, remembering how frustrated Dad was when he attempted to teach me about technologies so that one day I could be like him.
'Don't say that,' he said softly. 'Maybe your brain can't catch up these things as fast as when you're learning accounting, but I believe that if you put extra effort to learning these, you could be just like your Dad.'
How does he know about me being good at account management?
'Okay....I'll try, but promise not to be mad at me if I done wrong.'
Harley laughed. 'I'll try to understand your IQ level in technologies.'
I smiled at him. While Morgan began to get destracted with her toys and played with Leggos, I let Harley teach a few stuffs about technologies – specifially, mechanical things. What does it called for certain equipments, why do they have different shapes, which part must the wyres connectted to to make the object run, and why it needs a certain detailed formula to make things work. I may have made it sound like they're not making sense at all, but that's what Harley was teaching me. At the end of the short lesson, I begin to understand a little bit how Dad built his robots and other machines.
'I wonder how he built that time-machine. It was a really big piece of junk.'
Harley's eyebrows raised. 'You've seen it?'
I nodded my head. 'Once, but it was complicated to run that thing. They explained to me a few things, but I just let the Avengers have it and protect it. They're the superheroes. They need it most.'
'The Avengers,' I heard Harley mumbled. 'Whoever that's left.' Just like what Peter said. Am I missing something? Then, he came back to me when he asked, 'How do you know that they need it most?'
'I don't know. I just thought.'
Harley stared into space as he thinks.
'Harley?' I waved my hand in front of his face to get his attentiom back. 'Hey!'
'Huh? Sorry, did you say something?'
'I didn't say anything. You just suddenly....zoned out.'
'Sorry.' He scratched the back of his head. 'It's a habit when I'm thinking.'
I didn't point, but I did take a note at his behaviour. Maybe that's just how he is when he's thinking whatever he's thinking. My mind already feels like exploding to ask what's bothering him.
Not long after that, Harley excused himself to head back to his rented apartment since he needed to get ready for work. 'Do you mind if I come over again? I really had fun teaching Morgan – and you – about your Dad's stuffs.'
Although it's a tough decision (I invited him yesterday only because I was too excited to meet him again. My bad.) I shrugged. 'Sure. Why not?' I smiled.