Tony had woken up tremendously in a bad mood that Monday morning, and was seriously considering not coming to class that day to stay in his own room, holed up in his bed; to curb him was the fact that if he had, he would surely have had to face one of his father's endless and boring remarks about things like having to be responsible, about how expensive the fee he paid to allow his son to study and blah-blah-blah.
He knew that from the week before he was the protagonist of the chatter in the hallway, even if nobody had the balls to say it to his face, and he knew that so much clamor was due to what happened in the cafeteria: that girl, Helena, had been the first to have the courage to challenge him so openly, even managing to put the famous Tony Stark to flight.
That's what was said around, and he knew it.
He had researched that girl, it had been a piece of cake for him, computer genius, to access all the information he needed, and it was certain that it would not be difficult to get rid of that thorn in his side before his social image came out irreparably disfigured ... but he was wrong.
<< Mr. Stark in this university we do not indulge the whims of spoiled children, here we reward merit and goodwill, so you can say whatever you want, you can even send your father if you like, but I will not drive out one of the most promising students in the entire history of the school just to satisfy your pride.>>
So Dean Fury had dismissed him when he went to tell what had happened in the hope of finding justice.
Now he felt like an idiot, he made a fool of himself not only in front of the students, but also in front of the headmaster's eyes, and ended up looking like a whining kid - just like Helena told him.
<< Damn it! >> he inaccurately moved his sheets in a bad way and sat on the bed. The truth was that that girl had sent him in tilt with half a look and two words, it was terrifying the way those emerald eyes seemed to dig into your soul, and even more terrifying were the words aimed at touching the most painful buttons of his pride, as if Helena knew him forever, as if she knew perfectly well that he did not have a good relationship with his father and that this, combined with his innate pride, would never allow him to run to his parent to seek help for such a matter, all the more so if that was what she expected of him.
In the end, however, she had played the girl's game anyway, rushing to tell Fury everything and feeling like a liver less baby.
What an idiot he had been.
He took a deep breath and decided to get ready to go to class. Perhaps the best thing to do was to behave as if nothing had happened, to show everyone that what had happened hadn't affected him in any way, so surely everyone would soon forget those useless gossip.
Yes, it was the right thing to do.
The beginning of the lessons was still a bit away, and like every morning for some days now Hel and Loki met to have breakfast together. Their pseudo-friendliness was evolving, you could see it especially from the fact that Helena had stopped calling the boy by his last name, and from the fact that he had already learned by heart all of her favorite sweets; he would never have said so, but that dark little dwarf was crazy about sweets.
She was lost in tasting her huge muffin with custard and pine nuts when Loki asked her what sport she was going to choose for that semester. All SHIELD students were required to choose, in addition to their course of study, an extra sports course from those offered by the college, which included a fair variety of disciplines.
Enrollment began on that day and had to be completed within two weeks, at the end of the period the extra courses would begin.
Hel weighed on it and then shrugged his shoulders << I still have to take a look at the list of available activities. What about you? >>
<< I certainly don't swim. It's my brother's sport! >> he said with a sneer.
Hel got angry and looked at his friend with a serious frown << Why is there all this rancor between you and your brother? >> He asked in no uncertain terms and without worrying about being brazen; delicacy was not part of his character, and this Loki had understood it all too well, so he did not feel annoyed by that direct question, but he would have preferred to avoid that rather painful speech.
to be continued https://zen.yandex.ru/media/id/5d95c339aad43600afc75fd8/the-time-to-grow-up-part-10-5d95f2f4a660d700ad74ec66