Guess what? I'm back with another chapter! And also had a revelation when writing but it had nothing to do with writing. It's just that I realized that mammoths weren't mammoths to the people that lived with them is all. Blew my mind straight out the window. Anyway, enjoy.
So turns out that letter your teacher gave you to hand your dad was an invitation for a parent teacher conference so now you and your dad were sitting opposite Mrs Foster who was going on over your grades and work. She was saying that she had been giving you more difficult work that was for 4th graders and above to test her theory.
You were extremely under challanged with the second grade material. And understood more advanced materials with ease. Meaning now you should seriously consider what to do now. And there really were just two options. Skip a grade or be given more advanced courses and material while remaining in the same grades as your friends.
And with that you and your dad were left to make that decision.
Your dad wasn't a fan of the idea of skipping a grade. He feared that you might not be able to befriend older kids that would be your classmates. Not that he told you that but he's just worried. About everything to be honest but especially things that concern you.
The day after the talk with the teacher he sat you down and explained to you in detail what either thing would do. And left you to form your own opinion.
It was a lot to take in for an almost 8 year old. So you did what sounded coolest to you and your friends. And all of you thought it would be really cool for you to skip some grades.
So you told your dad that you want to skip instead of getting advanced work. The teachers gave your dad lots of the curricular of the 4th grade for you to test your knowledge with. So on weekends and after school you got different homework then your peers. 4th grade math, English and such. To everyone's surprise it was easy and didn't took longer than your usual homework. So one more grade was put on the skip list.
5th grade work was harder and at least gave you a bit of a challenge but it wasn't impossible so arrangements were made that if your grades held up you would be skipping 3rd and 4th grade.
You found that very exciting and worked hard despite school not being challenging at all. And when summer break arrived you were given the clear to skip the next two grades. The next school year you will be in 5th grade.
You won't be changing schools though as your school was both elementary and middle school in one. It was just different rooms.
But you didn't have to worry about that yet. Because it was finally summer break and you could lounge about at home and do whatever the f you want!
You, your dad, Pepper, and Happy were all spending the break in New York for the most part. Because they were planning on building a tower there which is cool in your opinion. Peppers idea. What wasn't so cool however was that you had to spend a considerable amount of time inside of office buildings or the apartment they had rented, as both of them were busy and neither really wanted to go outside in this city and cause a ruckus. So Happy was basically a godsend whenever he was free.
When he didn't have to drive anyone around he spends time with you. You actually got to explore the city because of him.
Today Happy was taking you around Central Park while your dad were in a meeting room discussing the buying of some property where they want to build that tower.
You were meanwhile making friends in the park. And were all around having a much more pleasant time.
You were climbing up a tree near the playground when a boy approached you.
"Woah you're really high up!" The boy pointed out. And you were. The branches were getting thinner though so you couldn't climb much higher.
"You're really good at climbing." He pointed out and you responded with a polite "Thank you."
Making your way down you jumped off the last branch and landed infront of the kid.
"My name is Y/n, do you wanna play together?"
"Yes! What do you want to play?" The boy responded in high pitched happy tone, not giving you his name.
The two of you wandered back onto the playground and dug as deep a hole into the sand as possible together.
"Its like a tiger trap." The boy mused and your head lit up with an idea.
"We can cover it up like a trap!" You stood up, wiped the sand off your legs and ran off looking for branches and leaves. Just like in TV.
You told the other boy to do the same and put it next to the hole. Together you covered the hole with sticks, then threw on the leaf litter and topped it off with sand.
It was still clearly visible if you looked for it, but from above it just looked like an average little sand mount.
"Now we only have to wait for tigers to smell the meat." The boy said as he placed a rock on top of the mount as a lure.
"We better hide." You pointed out and the two of you ran off the hide behind a tree to wait for the tiger to come.
And the tiger came. But not like you'd have expected. Happy, who had been reading something on his cell phone before looked up and realized you were gone out of his sight.
He jumped to his feet and looked about the playground not noticing the newly covered up hole in his search for you. With one step he broke the twigs and branches and his foot disappeared into the hole.
You bust out giggling as you ran forward to shout about the tiger being captured.
The boy was more shocked, he seemed flustered and apologetic towards your uncle.
"Are you hurt sir?" He asked shyly expecting the worst.
"No kiddo it's fine. That's a nice trap you two build there. Can you fill it back up so nobody else falls in?" He directed the last question at you. You sighed, nodded and got to work. The boy joined you and soon enough the hole was no more. Happy gave you a thumbs up at that and you turned back to your new friend.
"Eugene, it's time to go." It sounded from the benches not even 10 minutes into your new game. A younger looking woman was waiting there looking over the playground.
You turned your head to see which one of the kids were going when your friend started to leave.
Oh, so his name was Eugene.
You followed him to, what you assumed was his mother. Not really ready to have him go yet.
"Do we have to?" Eugene sulked but was beside her non the less.
"Yes, your mother said she'll meet us at the zoo in 15 minutes. So we have to go now."
"You're going to the Zoo?" You chimed in grinning.
"Yes, what's your name?" The lady who was not his mother asked.
"Just call me Claudia. Yes, we're going to the zoo. Are you alone here? Where are your parents?"
"My uncle is right there."
She asked you a few more polite questions a person might ask to entertain a strangers child.
"We have to go now. Eugene be nice and say Goodbye to your friend." She finally said and pushed said boy forward a little. He hugged you a bit too tightly and waved to you as he left. Being polite you waved back.
With a sigh you turned to Happy who was now writing something in his phone. How boring. You wished you had your costume so you could play superhero.
Now that Eugene was gone you didn't know what to do with yourself. So you did the next logical thing and plopped yourself down next to Happy and stared off I to the abyss.
"You ready to leave?" Happy asked after putting away his phone.
And so you both stood up and started walking along a nearby path. As you were walking Happy pulled up his arm to look at the watch on his wrist.
"We still have about an hour to spare. What do you wanna do?"
A lightbulb went off in your head and your whole demeanour changed in an instant.
"The zoo? Sure." So Happy being the all knowing person he is turned and steered you in the direction of the central park zoo.
After paying you sprinted from exhibit to exhibit looking to spot as many animals as you could and maybe even spot Eugene again.
Happy could barely keep track of you in the crowds of people. It was summer vacation so lots of people were visiting the small zoo.
For the next animals you walked into a building. Happy however walked past it not having seen you enter it. You were oblivious to his absence and stared at the cute lil snake in it's big terrarium.
When you reached the exit you turned to see how far Happy was lagging behind you. When you saw that he wasn't. Now you were small and he could be just behind some tall people so you waited a little thinking he'd come eventually.
But he didn't. So you panicked. Much like Happy who was backtracking to where he last saw you. Just a few seconds after he passed the exit you came out looking like the scared kid you were.
You were already thinking about how you'd get to the apartment on your own. You sort of know the way, but only barely. And the address was out of the question.
You wanted to cry, but you knew that that wouldn't help. And also you didn't like crying in the first place, much less in public. So with a blurred vision you pushed past groups and families in a blind search for your uncle.
Meanwhile he was debating whether calling the police right now was a bit too early. What about your dad? He would have his head if something happens to you.
You passed the seal enclosure and climbed up on a bench trying to see over the crowd, looking for any sign of the one person that could save you in this situation. Your family and teacher had told you what to do in the case you were in but in your panic everything flew out the window. The whole "stay put" "find a family and ask for help" "find an employee/Police officer" wasn't coming to mind right now. All that was on your mind was that you were alone and scared and in a city that you didn't know.
A woman looked in your direction and frowned. She saw the distressed look on your face and came over tugging along a boy not much younger than you. Followed by an adult man.
"Are you okay, sweetheart?" She asked prompting you to look to her. She saw the tears building in your eyes and knew what happened.
"I can't find my uncle." You said your voice wavering dangerously, confirming her suspicion.
"Sit down sweetheart. What's your name? Mine's May." She said softly laying her hand on your forearm.
"Alright Y/n, do you know what your uncles name is? What does he look like?" The man now asked, he was crouching down in front of you.
The boy sat down on the other side of you, obviously concerned.
"His na-me is, is Happy but that's not his real name," you explained as the almost crying hiccups in your breath started, "His real name is, is Harold Hogan. And hes taller- than you and chubby. Wi-th brown hair that is short."
May was taking mental notes, the guy sounded sort of familiar.
"And what's your full name, sweetie?" She asked.
"(Full/n)-Stark." You said as the damm finally broke. You wanted to go home, you wanted your dad, you wanted to not be here right now. It was all to much and you just let it out as the younger boy patted your back.
May had been stunned speechless by your name but called into action as your cries reached her ears.
"Shhh, shhh, baby it's alright, well find him don't worry." As she consoled with words she also pulled you into her arms. This was just supposed to be a nice afternoon with Peter and her Husband and now it turned into a rescue mission for a celebrity's child. But you were a child first, and a very scared one at that.
As your sobs quieted down she had made a decision on how to find the man.
"Y/n, are you alright to stay here for a moment? I'll go look for your uncle and you stay here with Ben and Peter, okay?" She pointed at the two people who had accompanied her respectively to show which ones which.
You nodded reluctantly and leaned against the back of the bench. Now with a red nose and slightly puffy eyes.
"Peter, you look over him okay?"
The boy, Peter nodded dutifully and took your hand and started talking after May had left.
"Are you okay now?" His voice was full of concern.
"Do you want some water?" Ben now asked and held a bottle towards you.
It was silent for a moment. None really knowing what to do.
"Okay, let's talk about your day then shall we?" The adult tried again, attempting to keep your mind from worrying thoughts, "What did you do today?"
"I was at the Playground. And I played with a boy named Eugene."
"That's nice, me and Peter made breakfast together today. Right Pete?"
"Yeah! We made bug pancakes to surprise aunt May," the boy beamed, " They were bigger than my face and we put syrup and strawberries and stuff on them! Do you like pancakes?"
"Yeah. But I never eat them with strawberries."
"Why not? They're tasty like that!"
"Because Pepper is allergic and so we can't have them incase the strawberry stuff gets on other stuff. It's called cross contamination and it's dangerous if you're allergic."
"Hey!" Ben chimed in at that kind of language.
"Do you at least like Strawberries?"
You shrugged. They weren't your favourite but definetly not the worst.
May looked around herself quickly spotting an employee of the zoo. But before she could approach them for help a better option walked into her vision. The man himself looking around panicked, trying to spot the small lost child in the crowd.
"Excuse me!" She half shouted and jogged over to him.
"Excuse me are you maybe looking for a little lost boy?"
Happy's head turned up with a mixture of relief and confusion.
"Yes! Hes about this big, (colour) hair, wears a Blue T-shirt with a lion on it. His name is Y/n."
"That's him, I found him looking for you over there, follow me."
"Oh my God, thank you so much! I can't tell you how grateful I am that you found him!" Happy followed her to the bench were you were animatedly talking with the young boy over various breakfast foods.
You perked up at the familiar voice. Before you could even process that your uncle was there you were already swooped up into a hug. Happy visibly relaxed having you back on his radar. With a sigh he put you back on your feet and took your hand in his.
"I don't know how I can thank you Mrs...."
"Parker, and it's nothing really. I'm sure anyone would have done the same." She waved him off.
Happy contemplated before coming up with a thank you thing to do.
Next thing you know you're holding hands with Peter and eating some ice cream together with the three adults.
Peter had taken your other hand as soon as Happy started to walk towards the ice cream vendor and was now talking about everything and nothing inbetween licks of strawberry flavoured ice cream as you wandered through the zoo together. Closely followed by Happy, May and Ben, who you felt very uncomfortable adressing with their first name.
Half an hour later the ice cream long finished you parted ways with the Parker family having turned the bad thing into something great. You've also learned a lot about Peter. Apparently he really likes both animals and Superheroes and was fumbling with excitement when you told him that not only did you have a pet but you also had a superhero dad.
On the ride home you gushed very excitedly to Happy about the boy and his interests. Your new friend was so cool in your opinion even if he was a year younger.
Peter was doing the same on his ride home. Not being able to comprehend that he just met the kid of Iron Man! Who kept a crayfish as a pet! Who does that? He just met someone who did. And he didn't even know he was gonna meet him again not all that long into the future.
Tags: @shannonr2003 @art-estrange @tater-thotties @tonystanktheirondad @gaylemonshark @emilaa2001 @kindahadeschild @actualcringetm
