One: Of Skirts and Bullies

The beginning of Penny Parker's junior year brought some sort of unhappy surprises that she hadn't been expecting. As if it hadn't been enough that her new friend Liz's father had been the Vulture, Midtown High School had started imposing some new rules that made Penny wonder if it wouldn't be better if she had just dropped out.

She was smart, no doubt about that, but Penny had so much on her mind other than studying. She was feeling. . .itchy. Was that the right word to describe her? Or would desperate be a better word?

Either one, she knew that, that was the reason why Mr. Stark had barely called her on any missions or invited her to the lab or whatever. May had probably snitched to him that it was barely October and she had already failed half her classes. In fact, Penny was surprised that she hadn't received a call from Mr. Stark already.

Penny pulled on her blue plaid skirt, feeling uncomfortable in the short skirt. She relied on jeans most of the time and wearing this skirt made her uncomfortable, but there was one thing that she did like. Wearing a skirt made it easier to ger into her Spider Woman suit.

"Hey," Someone poked Penny with the back of a pencil. MJ was staring at her with a disbelief look on her face. Her curly brown hair was all over the place and there were several protests signs sticking from her backpack. "I've been calling you for the past five minutes. You are so zoned out. What's on your mind?"

Penny shrugged. "I guess I'm just sleepy." She had managed to sneak back into the apartment at 3 AM. MJ rolled her eyes. "You can be such an air head," MJ poked her waist playfully. "Hey are you and Ned helping me protest this whole uniform fiasco after school? Don't worry, I have enough protest signs for all."

"Uh, sure." The last thing that Penny wanted to do was spend her afternoon protesting when she should have been patrolling, but if she didn't help MJ she would never hear the end of it. Besides she didn't really care about the uniform rule that much especially when she spent the majority of her time in jeans and oversize sweatshirts.

MJ threw her a brief smile and then went to chase down the science teacher who was trying to avoid her by hiding behind one of the trash cans. Her phone buzzed and she practically raced to grabbed it and she found out that it was a text from Happy.

Her heart jumped a little, Happy never texted her if he could avoid it. In fact he always send her to voicemail or he would ignore her texts. This time he was willingly seeking her out. My how times have changed.

Happy-The boss wants to meet with you at the lab this afternoon. I'll pick you when you get out of school. Be ready. I don't want to be keep waiting.

Penny was about to respond when she felt her Spidey senses go off. Before she could even blink she felt something hard hit her across the face. A soccer ball.

Penny heard a familiar laugh and she cringed, Flash. Of course, the man had been determined to make her life a living hell since the beginning.

"Nice face, Penis Parker." Flash hollered at her as he laughed with his friends. Flash had started calling her Penis Parker in the fourth grade ever since May have given her an unfortunate bowl cut in the third grade that made her look like a boy.

"Penny!" Ned was quickly by her side and flashed a glared at him. "Cut it out Flash!"

"Well, I guess I should stop now that your boyfriend is here," Flash sneered. "Later Penis."

"Are you ok?" Ned blabbered. "Maybe we should go to the nurse. Your eye looks black, Penny."

"It's nothing," Penny lied. The truth was that her eye was throbbing, but it didn't hurt as much as her other "incidents" besides she knew that the black eye would be gone by the end of the day.

Crap, she though Mr. Stark. She was supposed to meet with him this afternoon. Penny fumbled with her phone. Homework. That was always a valid excused. He wouldn't want Penny to risk her education after all, otherwise Aunt May would have his head. Yes, she needed to avoid him, the last thing that she needed was to answer any more questions.

The rest of the day went by without incident, though Flash did get detention even though he claimed that it had been an accident. Penny avoided him for the rest of the day. She knew that she was more than capable of dealing with Flash, but she didn't want to deal with him, not to mention that Penny was much stronger than him. It wouldn't be a fair fight.

Penny hurried outside of Midtown while giving Ned a quick goodbye. She needed to get home and use some of her makeup to hide this black eye before May went to scream at the principle herself. It wasn't as bad now, it was now more purple than black which to Penny was a major improvement.

"Kid," Penny flinched. "What the hell happened to your face?" Happy screeched as he looked at Penny as if she were a zombie.

"Happy," Penny felt weak. "What are you doing here? I told you that I had too much homework."

Happy shrugged. "Boss asked me to pick you up, he says he hasn't seen you in weeks. You didn't answer my question. What happened to your face?"

"I," Penny stuttered. She wasn't the best when it came to lying, I fell down their stairs. . .and towards the door. . .and I hit my face against the wall."

Happy looked like he didn't believe her, but he also didn't want to fight with a teenage girl in the middle of the school parking lot. He grabbed her arm. "Let's go. It's a long wait to the compound."

"Hold still will you," Tony mumbled as he flashed an unbelievably bright light in Penny's eyes trying not to squint. "I'm trying to make sure that, that bastard didn't rip your eye out."

Penny squirmed as she sat in one of Mr. Stark's chairs while Tony used Dummy as a nursing assistant. Tony pressed something cold against her eye.

"I told you, I fell-"

"Spider Woman fell down a flight of stairs?" Tony asked dryly. "Cut the bull crap please and just so that you know, Happy didn't fall for that idiotic story either. Now, I'm not going to ask again what the hell happened, Penelope?"

Penny blushed as she looked at her lap. Tony only called her Penelope when he was annoyed with her. Penny didn't say anything and Tony gave a long suffering sigh as he leaned down so that he could talk to her face to face with her. "Pen, is someone bullying you. Is someone hurting you?"

"No." her voice squeaked.

"Pen, is someone at school isn't it?" Tony prompted. "You can tell me. Happy says he found you behind a trash can the other day and now you're here with this bruise? Is it a boy? Or a girl?"

"It's a boy." She finally admitted. "It's a boy named Flash, making me miserable has been his life's work."

Tony snorted, he looked annoyed. "He needs to get a hobby then. Why don't you just strangle the little weasel."

Penny shrugged. "I guess I'm just used to it, besides I'm Spider Woman. I can handle a punch, Flash can't. It's fine-"

"It's not fine, Penny." Tony scowled. "You can't allow him to do this to you, and what kind of school-"

Penny groaned. "Oh, please don't go to the school, you'll just make a big scene out of nothing."

"This isn't nothing and perhaps someone needs to make a scene." He started putting some ointment on her eye. "I am serious Pen, you are a great gal and you might be a crime fighting spider, but you don't need to be anyone's punching bag."

Her eye was much better the following morning and with a bit of concealer Aunt May could hardly tell the difference as she made her way to school. She almost felt happy, she didn't know if it was because of the conversation that she had with Tony or because she wasn't going to see Flash until Decathlon practice. Either way she was going to soak in the moment.

Penny stopped short when she saw a flashy car parked in front of the school. It was so new that it basically shined in the morning sun. Penny recognized the license plate.

Oh, no. No. She told him not to meddle in this.

A crowd was gathered around the school cafeteria as Flash was huddled against the wall, while Tony stared him down. Thanks to her hearing ability she was able to heat the last bit of conversation. ". . .If I hear that you are bothering my intern again, I will make it my life's mission to make sure that even the local community college rejects you and that you'll end up as a dishwasher for the rest on your life. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir," Flash was bobbing his head up and down. "Sorry, sir." Tony smirked.

Tony started walking back toward the car, he noticed Penny gaping at him and he winked at her. You're welcome he mouthed.

-End of Part One-

Thank you for your incredibly kind reviews! Expect a lot of Dad! Tony. If any of you have any suggestions I would love to hear them. However, unlike any of my other stories, this story will not include Spideypool.