Chapter Text
It had been many late nights of planning fueled by caffeine and sugar. The Solstice Ball was finally arriving. In a couple of days the prank would be over. The plan was set. On the night, you and Charlie would enter the ball and then ‘coincidentally’, you would both go to the toilets at the same time. Here was the smart part. The school had one of those air systems with the big man sized vents. They went all around the school. In the bathrooms there were little vents that you and Charlie were going to climb through.
One could be thinking; why the hell are you both running around James Bonding this shit up when you could just walk around like normal humans.
Well, unfortunately, with all the past pranks that had happened, even the Solstice Ball was being supervised. And by supervised, they really meant it. In every sense of the word. The doors to the rest of the school were going to be locked and there were security guards hired to walk around the perimeter of the school. Luckily, you and Charlie would already be inside but, the sprinkler system was in the boiler room. Which would be inside the school. Which was locked off. Which also couldn’t be entered from outside the school because of the guards.
So for the sake of the prank, you and Charlie were about to be turned into vent system cleaners for the night. There was so. Much. Dust.
You had picked out your outfit a few weeks before the ball, it was this F/C dress/ F/C suit that you had found at this old store. You had also been with Charlie when he had his suit fitted. It had been a birthday present from his mum.
You walked out of your bedroom, the walls finally having been decorated with posters and pictures, and entered the common room. Tony and Charlie both smiled when you walked in.
“You look great Y/N,” Charlie hugged you.
You exhaled a nervous breath, “Thanks, Charlie,” smiling, you continued, “you look amazing too The tailer did a great job.”
Charlie did a mock twirl and curtsy, pulling a laugh from you and Tony.
Tony stepped forward, his eyes twinkling happily. “I”m proud of you, Y/N, I know it hasn’t been easy for you, but you have been so brave and strong. And, you can’t prove that I said this, but good luck with your prank.” You and Charlie both thanked Tony. Natasha came running in with a camera and flashed you three smiling together before you could blink. Tony yelled after her and with a quick goodbye ran off in pursuit of the Black Widow.
You and Charlie looked at each other and laughed, leaving to go to the ball.
The theme of this year was ‘movies’ and yes, you may not have followed that theme and actually gotten an outfit from a movie. But you were pretty confident that you could improvise, should anyone ask.
Entering the school’s hall, The walls were covered with posters from the latest releases on one wall, as well as older classics on another. There was space for dancing, surrounded by tables of various colours. Red ones with hearts all over them, black and white ones with bullet casings in the middle, yellow and blue ones with smiles everywhere. The music playing was quiet, the atmosphere not at the dancing level yet. Everyone was still coming, the room slowly filling. Teachers were at stations around the room, chaperoning. You spied Miss Fletcher at the punch table, eyeing it to make sure that no one spiked it. The senior class a few years back had gotten way too out of control when one student decided to liven things up.
The opening announcement, by the lovely Stacy Bryers, just the all round angel of sucking up while simultaneously flipping all the teachers off behind their backs, was short and far from sweet in your eyes. Although, in your opinion, nothing was sweet about Stacy. You looked up from your knife, contemplating suddenly picking up knife throwing, and caught Charlie’s eyes. He pointed to his watch. You both stood up and headed to the toilets. Once you were in, you looked for the vent on the walls. It was pretty high up, but if you stood on one of the sinks, you could reach it. You had a screwdriver in your bag and the map that would lead you to the boiler room, along with a small torch.
The problem would be if anyone needed to use the toilet, so you had to work fast. You placed your foot on the sink and placed your hand on the wall to brace yourself. You grabbed the screwdriver and began to unscrew the grate. Sweat was threatening to break out as your heart beat a mile a minute, the adrenaline pouring through your body at the thought of being caught. You heart was thumping in your head, almost masking the sound of the door opening as you unscrewed the last screw. You launched yourself to the ground just as the door opened.
Stacy, Brianna and Jess sauntered in, laughing about some superficial joke one of them had made. You froze, shoving the screwdriver away just as they finally noticed you. Stacy’s eyes lit up, a smirk forming on her face as she placed her bag on one of the sinks, careful not to wreck her nails.
“Fitting that you’d be in here,” Stacy remarked casually. You smiled internally at the thought of Charlie’s uncle coming later to arrest those ‘chosen few’. That was one of the things that was stopping you from launching yourself at Stacy and not the floor this time. Jaw clenched, you prayed that the grate wouldn’t come crashing down.
You tried to think of something that would get Stacy out of the room quickly. Nada. Your brain short circuited and came up blank. Like staring down at an english test without having read the material, or when the video buffers. The barbie queen took this as a sign of weakness. Show no mercy.
“Is that outfit one of your parent’s?” she leaned in conspiratorially, “looks to me like it should have been crushed under all that rubble,” Her face belayed nothing, just that same fake smile plastered on. “Hell, if your parent’s dressed like that, maybe they should have died!” Jess and Brianna nodded in silent agreement.
But you, you were fuming. Something inside you snapped and you stepped right up to Stacy. Surprisingly, you were not that much shorter than her, only by an inch or so. You glared at her.
“You know what, Stacy? I’m done with this. Whatever you have against me, whatever the fuck, you think is a good excuse to torment me day in and day out, I’d love to hear it. Unless, it’s all about you as usual,” you put on a questioning expression, “is it trouble at home?”
Stacy’s eyes flickered and you paused for the briefest moment. Shock ran through your mind before the mindless anger took over again. “Even if your house life is shit, you have no right, no right. At. All. To harass me every day. I swear to you, if you don’t fuck off, I will make your life miserable, don’t think I don’t have proof of all the things that you’ve sent me. There is still such a thing as a paper trail these days,” you smirked, “not to mention that Tony Stark is my legal guardian,”
That moment would be one for the hall of fame. You would be telling this story for years to come. The look of pure shock on Stacy’s face was the best thing that you could have ever been gifted with. If only you could have recorded it.
Jess stepped forward menacingly, preparing to give you a makeover in the form of a black eye with the help of her fists. Before she could achieve that masterful art piece though, Stacy’s voice stopped her. Jess turned to look at her.
“She just insulted you and you want me to just leave it?”
Stacy picked up her bag, nails long forgotten, “We have better things to do than be here with this low life,” And with that, Stacy turned on her heel and left. Soon followed by the rest of team barbie.
Seconds of silence went by before you jumped in the air, fist bumping in victory. You yelled quietly in celebration until you remembered the prank and the grate on the wall. In no time, you had removed the grate and were on your way to the boiler room. Jumping out and landing on your feet, you brushed off as much dust as you could and waited for Charlie, who arrived not a moment later.
Soon, you too had filled the water tanks with dissolvable jelly powder, turning the water a nice shade of pink. The switch for the sprinkler was marked DO NOT PRESS. Charlie held his hand above it, “Who follows those rules anyway?” You smiled as he pressed it, both of you sprinting back to the hall with a pair of keys that Charlie had managed to find in the janitors coat.
You opened the doors to find mayhem. Everyone was either running out of the hall, running for shelter under the tables, or dancing wildly under the sugary liquid. Seems like someone did manage to spike the punch after all, judging by how well these people’s motor functions were. You turned to Charlie, “Is your uncle almost here?” He nodded, pointing to one of the open doors that lead to the car park. Faint blue and red lights were flashing outside.
Charlie had given his uncle, Officer Murel, the profiles of Stacy, Jess and Brianna just incase they tried to run away from the ‘rain’ and not just hide under a table or something. Luckily, Stacy had realised that this was a prank and was yelling at people to remain calm, her ‘natural leadership’ emerging. More like the fear she put into people if they didn’t listen to her. You nodded to Charlie and he ran to turn the water system off just as his uncle entered the building.
He walked up to Stacy, with two other officers that you didn’t know. He looked at her for a few moments before speaking, just as the sprinklers stopped. “Are you Stacy Bryers?” She nodded.
“Thank God you’re here officer, there’s been a prank-“
Officer Murel interrupted her, “Yes, we can see that, but I’m here for another reason,” He stepped forward and pulled her hands into cuffs before she could protest.
“Stacy Bryers, you are under arrest for public indecency and vandalism, you have the right to remain silent, any you do or say can and will be held against you in the court of law.” Stacy’s face was bright red, the vein in her forehead popping out.
“What?! I never, I wouldn’t…What are you talking about?!” Meanwhile, the other two officers had also ‘arrested’ Jess and Brianna for the same reasons, with just about the same reactions. You were almost in tears trying to hold in your laughter at Jess’ insistance that, "her father would be so angry", and Brianna’s, "we are going to sue you so much that you won’t be able to afford a night’s meal."
Charlie came running in just at that moment and halted in front of his uncle. “Uncle Josh? Is that you? Oh I can’t believe it how are you!” They hugged and Stacy stood in shock before Charlie turned to her, “Oh yeah, this was all a prank but thanks for the footage!” He threw finger guns her way then pointed to the phone in your hand. You smiled and waved, stopping the recording before sprinting to Charlie’s car before Stacy could get the footage and delete it.
When you were both safely away, Charlie pulled up to the curb. You both burst out cheering in joy. The prank had worked! You thought of all the times in the future that you woule be telling this story. It would never get old in your eyes.
You hugged your best friend. “Thank you for everything, Charlie. You’ve been such an incredible help and I can’t tell you how much I love you.” Charlie smiled at your words.
“I love you too Y/N, and hey, you’ve been great as well.”
Charlie dropped you off at the Avengers tower before heading home. You stood watching him drive off before going up to your floor.
That night you sat with the Avengers and told them everything that had happened in the prank. Everyone agreed that it had been a huge success. You all laughed when you showed them the arrest video and you found yourself in tears on the floor with Clint and Natasha.
You knew that you were still healing, and it would still take time before the scars began to fade. But in that moment, you knew that this was finally your home.