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Ms. Madeline Humphrey loved all her kids. Loved, loved her kids. But she’d be lying if she said that she loved them all equally- all twenty of her fourth graders.
There were always two or three students that stood out in particular every year, with this year’s cream of the crop being one Peter Benjamin Stark- yes, that Stark.
He was kind, curious, patient, and hella smart to boot, naturally.
So when he unexpectedly began to act out, Madeline knew something was wrong. Nodding off in class, mouthing back to her and other staff, swearing.
It was time for a parent-teacher conference.
Tony got the call whilst in the middle of a meeting. The name flashed up on his Stark Phone- Madeline (P teacher).
“Sorry, everyone. I need to take this. I’ll just be a minute.” Tony explained to the board members, before stepping out in the hallway. “Peter’s dad speaking, how may I help you?”
“Hi, Mr. Stark. How are you today?” Madeline asked over the line, trying to gauge his mood.
“I’m doing alright, just a little busy right now, but no biggie. Is there something wrong with Peter?” He asked, suddenly nervous as to the answer.
“Well, Peter’s physically stellar, but he’s been acting up a bit lately, so we were wondering if you could come in for a conference at your earliest convenience to discuss his behavior issues.” Tony stopped. Paused. Stared.
“Peter… is having behavior issues? Like, yelling? That kinda stuff?”
“We can discuss it more in person but yes, that and other untoward behaviors. Listen, we all know Peter’s a great kid, which is why we’re so concerned as to the sudden one-eighty in personality.” She explained, trying to not rile him up.
“Now that you mention it, Peter’s been off lately, but I just chalked it up to the anniversary of his mother’s death. But he’s never been… aggressive with me around this time of the year. Just quiet.” Tony mumbled the last part to himself. “Alright, how does today after school sound? When I pick him up in an hour.”
“That sounds fine to me. I’ll tell the principal.” Madeline said. “Hopefully I wasn’t too much of a bother-”
“Peter is always my number one priority.” Tony responded, not harshly. “I’ll see you then.” He said, before hanging up the call. He let out a deep breath, before walking back into the conference room. “Sorry about that. The school called about my kid, y’know how it is.” He joked, to a smattering of polite laughs. “Now, where were we?”
When Peter was asked to stay late after class by Ms. Humphrey, his first reaction was “oh, crap.” He’d had a pretty okay day- he hadn’t even gotten upset at any of the teachers! Well, he’d yelled at Flash, but that was different. He knew that he hadn’t been very good lately, but he hadn’t thought that it’d be enough to result in any kind of punishment. Stupid him, apparently.
“Peter, can you come with me down to the principal’s office? We just need to have a little chat with your dad.” Ms. Humphrey asked, a pitiful smile on her face. Peter blanched. His dad?
“Why- why did you call my dad?” He whined, suddenly feeling like his head was full of bees. Ms. Humphrey sighed.
“You’re not in trouble- officially anyways. We just… listen, Peter, we’ll discuss it in the office.” The walk down to the office, hand-in-hand with Ms. Humphrey as the other kids ran to their respective cars and buses, was humiliating. Flash stuck out his tongue at Peter in the hallway, which made the buzzing even worse. The only other time Peter experienced the feeling was when…
“Peter Stark?” Principal Reid asked, as they were now standing outside the principal’s office. “Please, come in.” Peter followed Ms. Humphrey into the room tentatively, taking in the now-familiar space. His dad was sitting in front of the big desk, scrolling through his phone. He turned his head as the door shut behind them.
“Hey, buddy.” Tony said, giving him a strained smile.
“Hi, dad.” Peter mumbled back, before sinking into the soft leather sofa in the corner of the room. Ms. Humphrey took a seat right next to his dad. Principal Reid exhaled deeply.
“Peter… do you know what this is about?” Peter shrugged, banking on maintaining his innocence through plausible deniability. “We got a complaint today from Mr. Thompson, Eugene’s dad, about something you said to him today.” Tony raised an eyebrow and looked over at Peter. “Excuse my language, but you called him a dickhead.” Principal Reid finished, shuffling around the papers on his desk.
“Peter, is that true?” Tony asked, slightly bewildered. “I don’t… why…”
“That’s because he was being one! He made fun of my mom for being dead, so I called his mom a stupid cunt.” Peter burst out, before covering his mouth with his hands.
“Peter!” Tony said, aghast.
“Mr. Stark, has Peter ever used this kind of language around you?” Ms. Humphrey asked, eyes wide. Tony shook his head slowly.
“Nope. Never.” He said, eyeing his only son as if he had grown two heads.
“See… this is why we’re concerned. This is totally unlike you, Peter. Your grades are fantastic- for the most part- but your classroom participation and cooperation scores are slipping. Drastically.” Ms. Humphrey stated. This only seemed to make Peter angrier.
“Fine. I don’t need this stupid fucking school. Nobody besides Skip likes me anyways.” He yelled, throwing his hands in the air.
“Language.” Tony warned. Principal Reid narrowed his eyes.
“Are you talking about Mr. Westcott, the after-school aide?” Peter looked at him with distrust.
“Yeah, what’s that to you?”
“I didn’t know you two were close. When did that happen?” Principal Reid asked, leaning back in his chair.
“I don’t know, September?” Peter said, crossing his skinny arms over his chest.
“So… three months ago. Right around when you began getting called down to the office.” Tony remarked. “Peter, do you think-”
Bees. Bees, bees, bees. Angry, angry, angry.
“I don’t fucking know, ask him yourself!” He spat.
“Did he tell you that using those kinds of words was acceptable?” Principal Reid asked. The fuzzy feeling in his head suddenly dissapated.
“He’s an adult, he’s allowed to swear.” Peter said, with practiced clarity. Ms. Humphrey and Principal Reid shared a look.
“Firstly, that’s not what I asked. Secondly, he certainly isn’t allowed to swear around children.”
“But I’m not a child!” Peter whined, childishly. “Skip said it himself- I’m smarter than that.” The adults in the room shared another look.
“I don’t like this.” Ms. Humphrey said, uncharacteristically frank. “Peter, I think we need to talk more about your friendship with him.”
“Why? So you can separate us? Get rid of my only friend?” Tony was staring down at his lap, a slight furrow in his brow-line.
“Peter. Please be honest with us.”
“Skip said… he said that we can’t be friends anymore if I talk about him with anyone else. He also said that my dad would stop loving me.” He muttered, pulling at the drawstrings of his hoodie.
“That’s not right. Please, Peter. It’s not right that he told you that, there’s no reason that he’d need to be a secret unless he was doing something wrong.” Ms. Humphrey pleaded.
"I'll never stop loving you baby, alright? Never. He lied to you. So please, just... tell us what's up. What's got you so bothered lately, bambino?" Tony spoke up, in an uneven tone, voice breaking on the last syllable. Peter swallowed deeply, eyes beginning to water.
“I know we’re friends, but I don’t like when he touches me under my pants.” Peter whispered.
Skip stopped being Peter’s friend that day. He stopped being many people’s friends, too.
Peter, though? Peter made many new friends after that. And he always had his dad.
Always.