To All Those Brave and Lovely

High School

She's sort of famous now.

Which, maybe she was before, since Nora was THE GIRL WHO WALKED AWAY, was a certified HERO, and had been the one who GIRL THROWS HERSELF OUT BUILDING DURING TERRORIST ROBOT ATTACK.  It certainly gets you recognized, and that had gotten her a few second glances while she's walking down the street, not to mention a few people asking nosy questions and a few strange requests for autographs.

But now she's Tony Stark's daughter, and she goes with Pepper Potts (GIRLFRIEND OF BILLIONAIRE PLAYBOY TONY STARK, STARK INDUSTRIES CEO, OUT TO EAT WITH ADOPTED DAUGTHER) to brunch every Saturday just like Pepper had promised they would, and she's been spotted hanging out with members of the actual Avengers (WANDA SEEN HANGING WITH STARKS' NEW DAUGHTER, CAP TEACHES NORA REYNOLDS HOW TO DRIVE, WOULD TEENAGE DRAMA BE ENOUGH TO BRING THE HULK OUT).  

Nora has honest to god paparrazi follow her, and her face pops up on the covers of those trashy magazines you look at while in the grocery line.  Ned seems particularly amused by that, especially the time he got to take a picture of two magazines side by side, one saying that she was dating Peter and the other claiming that she was in love with MJ.  She's also getting invited to come along with Tony to most move premieres and concerts, most of which she politely turns down, except the invite to get backstage passes to the Halsey concert.

Eden drives in to go with her to that, and MJ and Wanda meet them there, and all four of them agree she should use her celebrity status more often if it gets her to do stuff like that.

"You're something special now,"  Eden tells her in the dark that night, her whisper barely audible even though they were only inches away.  They were sleeping in the same bed like they had when they were little and the heating in their houses was out, clinging to each other and buried under blankets just to stay warm.  "You found it, Nora."

"Found what?"  She doesn't want to talk about this, because then she might admit that she loves living here, loves her new friends almost as much as she loves Eden, and loves Tony more than she loved her dad.  And then the guilt might swallow her up, because she's grateful that she's here even though it meant leaving people she cared about behind, and she's only here beause her dad died.

"Your bigger and better.  Remember?"  She did remember, sitting on that roof and dreaming their impossible dreams, looking out at where the skyline met the earth and thinking that they would run away together, keep running until they reached that point where the two worlds came together.  Nora wonders why, if that was true, she still felt like running.

"I wish I went to your school."  It's something that's been bubbling up in her for a while now, as the summer draws to a close and school becomes a reality she can't quite escape, not with the piles of binders and notebooks and pens popping up in her room.  

"Why?"  Peter looks over at her from his spot on the curb.  It's become their place, because Peter swore that this shop was the best place to get sandwiches.  She remembered coming in here the first time and meeting the owner, who Peter was clearly friends with, and when the man called her a pretty girl, Peter carried on the rest of the conversation in fluent Italian, blushing furiously.  Tony had told her that Peter was smart and went to a school for other smart kids, but it had been the only time that she had seen an example of it.  "It sucks just as much as any other high school."

He had told her, in offhand comments that piled up to form a not so pretty picture, about what its like for him at school.  How no one had besides Ned and MJ actually believed that he had the internship, about this kid flash and how he really seemed to hate Peter for a reason no one could figure out.  About eating lunch alone and getting shoved around in the hallways.  It makes Nora want to punch someone.