Starks Don't Like Bullies

Peter placed a purple piece of paper on the counter as soon as he walked out of the lift. Tony glanced over his Starkpad to skim over it then tapped Pepper's elbow to pull her attention away from writing a grocery list for Happy. Glancing at Peter, she looked down at the paper and raised an eyebrow in surprise when she realised it was a sign-up sheet for a parent-teacher conference. A parent-teacher conference that was in three days.


"Did you just get this?" she asked, picking up the paper and searching the counter for a pen.


"Yeah," he replied, putting his chin on his arms and laying on the counter. "Mr. Reed doesn't like me and gave it to me late. I'm sorry."


Pepper frowned and looked up from the paper.


"Why doesn't he like you?" Tony asked before she could.


Peter shrugged.


"You're the best sixth-grader in the world!"


"Tony," Pepper reprimanded, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.


Tony rolled his eyes.


"You know it's true," he replied, pointing at her.


Pepper agreed. "But you can't force everyone to hold your same opinions."


Tony waved her off and Pepper shared a look with Peter before looking down to sign the paper.


"He thinks I'm lying whenever I say you're my parents," Peter mumbled, taking the purple paper from Pepper and carefully folding it up. As he returned it to his backpack, Pepper and Tony shared concerned looks.


"Don't worry," Pepper promised, ruffling Peter's hair affectionately. "We'll make sure to prove him wrong when we go to our meeting."


* * * * *


Three days later, Peter sat outside Mr. Reed's classroom. His parents were running late and Mr. Reed had already snapped at him. Not wanting to wait with Mr. Reed any longer, he went into the hallway and sat against the wall. It was nearing ten minutes past the scheduled meeting time when he finally heard two people walking down the hall. He looked up just in time to see his mom playfully kiss his dad and whined in disgust.


At the familiar noise, Pepper and Tony looked around for Peter and were surprised to see him sitting on the ground.


"What are you doing out here, Peter?" Pepper asked as he climbed to his feet and hugged them both.


Peter pulled away and peered into Mr. Reed's classroom. He was grading papers.


"Mr. Reed got mad at me so I left."


He shrugged and Pepper frowned, looking into the room. Opening the door first, Pepper led Peter and Tony inside.


"Did your parents finally show up, Peter?" Mr. Reed asked, not looking up from his papers. "Or did they skip?"


"They're here," Pepper said, crossing her arms.


Behind her back, Peter and Tony grinned at each other. Mr. Reed looked up at the sound of a woman's voice and did a double-take.


"They're here and they'd like to know why you're being rude to Peter," Pepper said sharply.


Mr. Reed took off his reading glasses and fiddling with them in his hands.


"Well, I wasn't rude to him," Mr. Reed said politely.


Pepper raised an eyebrow at him.


"He's a sensitive boy, as you know. I simply asked him to stop talking so I could grade. He must have misheard me."


"I find that hard to believe," Pepper said and Mr. Reed looked away. "Peter never talks poorly about others and you must know that. We both know he would never make you out to be worse than you were."


Mr. Reed objected immediately. "I never said that."


Pepper hummed her disagreement.


"You're here for a parent-teacher conference," Mr. Reed said, clearing off his desk. "Should we begin?"


"Please."


Pepper took a seat in front of his desk and folded her hands politely in front of her. Peter and Tony watched happily as Mr. Reed looked at her nervously, moving to sit down on either side of her.


As Mr. Reed pulled out a paper with Peter's name on it, Pepper spoke up. "We'll start by asking you where you plan to work once we tell the school board you've been harassing our son and other kids."


"Now listen here, lady," Mr. Reed snapped, "I am not going to be fired because a mother decided I wasn't fair on her child!"


On Pepper's right, Tony glared darkly at him, daring him to insult her again.


"You may be rich, but I'll tell everyone you got me fired for a personal vengeance," Mr. Reed threatened, ignoring Tony's glare, but still fidgeting with his glass.


"We have enough proof again that."


Mr. Reed's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.


Tony held up Peter's wrist and tapped the watch he was wearing.


"Bugged," Tony told him and Peter's eyes widened. "Now, thank you but no thank you for our parent-teacher conference. If you'll excuse us, we have a school board to talk to."


Together, Pepper and Tony stood up and left the room, leaving Peter to hurry after them. Just before he walked out, Peter poked his head back into the room and Mr. Reed glared at him.


"I tried to warn you," he said, grinning. "Don't worry, though! I'll make sure they don't imprison you."


With that, Peter raced after his parents, slamming the classroom door behind him.


The next week, Mr. Reed was not at school. It took another week before word started to spread about what had happened, but each Stark claimed to know nothing. Anyone that thought differently knew better than to argue. After all, the Starks didn't do well with bullies.

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