Chances

Chapter Three

Chapter Three: Specialty Paint Stores

"Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start." -Nido Qubein 

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"Alex," I tap on my friend's window, "Alexander, wake up."

 "What are you doing, Mon? Crap, you know you can't fly your suit here," Alex rubs the back of his head as he comes to the window.

 "It's finished."

 "Monica, what are you-" Alex's eyes widen as he realizes what I'm talking about, "No way."

 "Yes way! This baby is functioning completely on this thing right here," I tap on the triangle shape in my chest.

 "I thought you didn't want it to be a triangle?" Alex squints at the glowing light, "You know so it didn't look like Tony's..."

 "I didn't," I sigh, "But it creates the best flow for the energy than any other shape- maximizing its power."

 "Ah."

 "You want to come with me to pick up the paint?"

 "It's five-fifteen in the morning, where on earth are you buying paint?"

 "Lowe's! It opens at five-thirty."

 "Okay, but what about your suit? You can't just walk into Lowe's in your suit," Alex whispers.

 "I'll take it off," I roll my eyes.

 "And hide it where? Behind a dumpster?" Alex raises an eyebrow.

 "Shut up and trust me," I reach out my hand.

 "I need new friends, you know?" Alex mutters as he grabs my hand, climbing out of the window.

 "Stiffen up," I commend him as I wrap an arm tightly around his torso.

 I rocket up into the sky. I see out of the corner of my eye a big grin on Alex's face.

 Alex and I have been friends since kindergarten. While all the other girls played with dolls, I decided to join the boys in playing with blocks at recess. The other boys ran away yelling "cooties"; Alex didn't want to play with the blocks alone. And that was a simple start to our friendship. Since then, Alex has been my only consistant friend. When you're skipping grades every year during high school, one tends to lose friends quickly. Plus, I found it hard to relate to most girls who cared mostly about the superficial aspects of life. In no means am I saying they were not wonderful people, but only that they could not take an interest in the topics of science and engineering that Alex could. 

 Alex also shares my interest in engineering. He doesn't build the extreme things like I do, but he loves helping me out whenever I am working on anything. He does enjoy helping me figure a formula or misconnection out or even working on the project himself. Alex is extremely gifted when it comes to computer design and creating programs; I often find him on my laptop working to tweak and perfect my suit's programs. Other times Alex will simply sit in the workshop to keep me company. Either way I fully enjoy having him by my side. Alex graduated from our high school midterm last January and is striving to start classes in the fall for his computer science and programming.

 Alex is the only one outside of my family who knows Tony Stark is my dad. He figured out when he was over at my house and my mom decided to make a surprise visit. Both nearly passed out at the sight of one another; my mom went into a panicked frenzy as she knew our secret had been carelessly blown and Alex could not make out a coherent sentence that Pepper Potts was standing before him. I had to do a lot of explaining that night.