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Guin had been out of rehab for less than two weeks and in some ways, she wished that she was still there. Tony had managed to shut down most of the press surrounding it, but there were still tabloids that reported on it. She had refused to return to her boarding school, managing to convince the therapists that part of her drug abuse was due to an abduction attempt there from the previous year.

The only benefit to her school, MidTown Tech, was that she'd be having classes with her best friend, Lance. Tony had pulled some strings with the admin, getting her the same schedule as him. He also had budgeted up all of her free time with an 'internship' - essentially, making it so she'd be supervised constantly. It was irritating, but she could hardly blame him. She had almost overdosed.

It felt a little weird, not having to wear a uniform. Tony had gotten her a bunch of MidTown Tech gear, as if that would somehow entice her to like the school. She was wearing jeans, combat boots, and a MidTown Tech sweatshirt as she grabbed her book bag and took the elevator down to the bottom floor of Stark Tower. She pulled out her walkman, a gift her father had given her for her twelfth birthday, put her earbuds in, and pressed play.

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Guin walked most of the way from Stark Tower to the high school, not caring that she ended up being late and missed homeroom entirely. She didn't understand the concept of having a class where literally nothing at all was taught. Her hands were twitching slightly and she could have killed for a cigarette. She pulled out her watch, tapping it twice as P.H.I.L. brought up her schedule for her. It was a day filled with the hardest classes Midtown Tech had to offer, and even then, she felt concerned it wouldn't be challenging enough for her.

She opened the door to her first class of the day, the bell ringing just as she did so. The physics teacher glanced over at her, a bit annoyed that she had come in so late.

"You must be Ms. Stark - you're late," the teacher said.

Guin pulled out her earbuds. "Yeah, whatever. Sue me."

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Lance was glad to have Guin back. Her being in rehab had made him feel even worse about things in his life than it had already had. He hardly could take being in the same house as his dad, or anywhere for that matter. He had spent a lot of time at Stark Tower after school, but it had always felt empty there, like there was no way for him to feel better about anything. His dad had become almost unbearable to be around with Guin gone, and the fact that only the summer before it was discovered that he was a mutant hadn't made anything any better.

He had gone to school early that day, like he always did, forgetting that Guin was attending the same school as him now. Generally, he spent as much time as possible there, allowing him to avoid his father as much as possible. He went there to finish projects, homework, research random things, and sometimes just to read, after all, the school tended to be less chaotic than his home surprisingly. He smiled a little when he sat in his physics class and Guin came in late. Lance almost said something, but bit his tongue, saying nothing.

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The teacher gave Guin a bit of a look. Sure, they were used to students being pains and acting disrespectful, but the teacher had expected more from the Stark Industries heiress. She had seen Guin's entrance exam scores - she was brilliant. But if she could pick a phrase to describe Guinevere Stark in that moment, it was teenage angst. "I am unaware how your previous schools ran things, Ms. Stark, but we do not talk to teachers that way here," the teacher said sternly.

"Whatever..." Guin said. She'd heard this thing before. "Don't even really want to be here, so if you want to kick me out, that's cool."

The teacher huffed. "Sit down, Ms. Stark. There's an open seat next to Mr. Banner. I assume you two know each other."

Guin rolled her eyes, taking a seat down next to Lance. She didn't bother to take out anything to jot down notes with. It was advanced physics, but any formula she didn't already know would be found in a textbook. The teacher shot her a bit of a look and with a groan, Guin took out a notebook and started to sketch, popping in her earbuds and listening to her music again.

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"My last name is Calrissian, not Banner..." he muttered, glancing over at Guin now. Everyone called him Banner, not by his actual last name, and it bugged him a lot. The fact that everyone just assumed that his last name was the same as his father's was the most annoying thing ever to him. He gave Guin a small smile, glad that she was here and not at some boarding school again. It made him have a reason to smile again, he hardly ever smiled around his dad, or anyone else for that matter.

The fact that the teachers called him Banner isolated him from everyone else. They feared him, and now that he had a power that he needed to hide from everyone, and he wondered if they did have a reason to fear his temper. After all, he hadn't really seen what his powers did when he was panicking, or having an emotional break down or something. He didn't even want to think about that at all, it still scared him a lot.

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Guin snorted a bit at Lance's comment, cracking a smile at him in return. She understood why everyone assumed his last name was Banner - and she especially understood his irritation with people insisting on using it. Had she ever been called by her mother's surname, she would have gone ballistic. The teacher was lecturing on the fundamental forces of the world and Guin yawned a bit, scribbling down random phrases on her piece of paper. They looked like the buzzwords for a thought cloud:


She then looked at Lance and poked him with her pencil. "Pssst. How much longer until this class is over? I'm dying of boredom and it's only been two minutes..." she whispered.

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Lance was trying to pay attention to what the teacher was saying, taking notes as the teacher spoke. At first, he tried to ignore Guin's words, he wasn't used to people talking to him in school still. He was a loner, and everyone was afraid of him, even a lot of the staff at the school was. He didn't want to get into trouble for talking to Guin during class, but he doubted that she would leave him alone until he answered her.

"Look, you just have to deal with it Guin. We have to go to school, and there is nothing you can do to make the time go by faster. Now be quiet, I don't want to get in trouble," he muttered to her, before he went back to listening to the teacher. Lance really hoped that the teacher hadn't heard him talk to Guin, he really, really didn't want to get into trouble with anyone.

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"Wow, someone's in a shitty mood today," Guin whispered to him, poking Lance with her pencil again. Sure, she knew that she should just leave Lance alone and pay attention in class. There was a chance that she could even learn something that she didn't already know. But the teacher was talking so slowly, going over the most basic concepts again and again. It made Guin want to poke her eyes out with her pencil, rather than poking Lance with it.

"Ms. Stark - talking in class is not tolerated," the teacher said sternly.

"Good to know," Guin said, doodling a picture of an arc reactor on her paper.

Clearly, that wasn't the correct response by any means. A few of the students in the class were snickering and Guin was smirking a bit at the teacher. She once had been told at rehab that she acted out in order to get attention - some nonsense about not getting enough love from her father when she was little, despite his recent efforts to be there for her now. The drugs, the running away, the defiance - according to them, it all stemmed from her father basically never being there for her until she was ten years old - from being sent away to boarding schools and then ushered into the arms of the help. She was a spoiled rich depressed intelligent selfishly selfless heroic brat.

"I'm sure you'll also find it good to know that you'll be serving detention tonight."

"Oh, that's fantastic. Just brings a whole new level of joy to my day."

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Lance remained silent when the teacher spoke up to Guin about her talking. It was clear that Guin didn't really know him at all anymore if she thought he was in a bad mood now. This was his normal mood, the quiet guy who didn't want to act out or get in trouble, so people didn't have a reason to fear him. Guin was not the nicest person around when she got started about things like that. She had been in school for a whole 5 minutes and she had detention already.

"A whole 5 minutes in here and you already got detention," he muttered to Guin, still paying attention to the teacher's words and not looking at her. He didn't want to get in trouble still. Guin wasn't going to be heading back with him to Stark Tower after school, that much was obvious to him, and it made him a little mad at her. He didn't want to have to be back there alone, and she got detention.

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"I know, I must be slacking - thought it would've been in three minutes," Guin whispered wistfully. The rest of the day had been a little bit better. She had problems with authority but after getting detention right off the bat, she tried to reign in her attitude a little bit, knowing that her dad would be pissed. And she really didn't want to be sent back to another boarding school. Too many painful things had happened at McClaine Academy - too many dark memories resided in those halls.

At lunch, she had sat with Lance. A few of the popular kids had tried to steal her away, going on and on about how cool it was to have her there - and when she asked them why, all they could do was talk about her dad and the Avengers. Only Lance and a few other boys seemed to be interested in Guin because of who she was, rather than who her father was. At least at her old school, everyone's parents were famous. She hadn't gotten this type of attention when the kids of Prime Ministers were in attendance.

Eventually, the bell ring, signaling the end of the school day. She sighed a bit, pulling out her detention slip. "I should probably go to this, Lando...I'm guessing you'll be at the Tower?" she asked him. She doubted he was going to go back to his dad's apartment. She waited for a moment, before she pulled out her phone. "Probably should let my dad know I got detention too..." she mumbled. Guin pulled up Tony's contact information and called his cell.

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Lance shook his head at Guin, but said nothing else. The rest of the day was the usual for him. He didn't even care if people tried to take Guin from being with him. It made more sense for her to go with them, otherwise she would be labelled an outcast like he was, and he didn't want that to happen. The others just wanted to talk to her because of her dad, while no one wanted to talk to him for the same reasons as that.

After school, he met up with Guin again. "Wow, you actually are going to own up and take responsibility for your actions. I'm impressed Guin. Yeah, I'll be at the Tower, unfortunately... I'll see you later then," he said with a smile, as he grabbed his things and walked out the door of the school. He was thinking that maybe walking would be a good thing for him to do, as it would take him longer to get home, and maybe even long enough for Guin to beat him there.

"Hey there Guin how was school?" Tony's voice came over the phone.

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Lance's remark about her taking responsibility for her actions made Guin want to not attend detention. But he was already out the door and she huffed a bit, turning her attention back to her dad on the other end of the line as she walked through the rapidly emptying hallways. "Yo, Stark! How 'bout you hang with us tonight?" some boys on the track team jeered at her and she gave them the middle finger, continuing to keep on walking.

"Pretty boring," Guin replied, wondering just exactly how to tell him she'd be home late as she got detention for mouthing off in class. She figured the direct approach would probably be for the best as she entered the detention room, handing over her slip of paper and sitting down in the back. Detention wouldn't start for another ten minutes, so she had some time to kill on the phone at least before it was confiscated. "May or may not have already gotten detention, Dad..."

A few of the other kids reporting to serve attention did a double take when they saw her in the back. She just glared at them a bit and they walked on by, leaving herself in the back corner of the room, alone. She had noticed that Lance wanted her to make friends with other people at the school but she didn't really care. No one here - besides Lance and maybe that kid Peter - was really worth her time. They couldn't keep up with her on an intellectual level - so why waste her energy on them? They were still struggling with Newton's Second Law, while she was tackling Maxwell's equations with ease.

If it hadn't been for her father insisting that she'd benefit from the social development, she would've applied to graduate early and go to university already - probably an engineering program at NYU. New York City was her happy place.

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As Lance left the school, a white stretch limo would pull up next to him. Its passenger would lean their blonde head out of the window, giving Lance a winning smile. "Lance Calrissian, right?" he asked. "Justin Hammer, Hammer Industries - I think you and I have a lot to talk about, buddy. How about I give you a lift home?" Hammer offered. Hammer put his head back inside of the limo, opening the door for Lance, still grinning at him. There used to be two giants in weapons manufacturing - and ever since Stark Industries stopped producing weapons, Hammer Industries was the number one supplier of new tech to the US Military. Unfortunately, their tech was nowhere near the same quality.

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"Of course you did... What did we talk about getting into trouble? How long did it take you to get it?" Tony asked, letting out a sigh on the other end of the line. "Also, I wouldn't blame you if you sucker punched those guys who said those words to you."

Lance had been starting to walk away from the school when Hammer pulled up in the limo. He didn't expect him to pull up next to him of all people, since most people tended to ignore his existence. When Hammer called to him, and actually used his last name, it made him stop walking and turn to look and see who it was. This person who wanted to talk to him, and used his proper name was a little strange, since no one ever did that.

Lance glanced over at him, unsure of what to do, but he did know that he didn't want to go to Stark Tower quite yet. For once in his life he decided to go out on a limb and made a rash decision without thinking. "Nice to meet you Mr. Hammer," he said as he got into the limo, but he said nothing more to him, just waiting for him to start talking.

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Guin thought back to the exact conversation she had had with Tony. "Something about not doing anything you would do and simultaneously not doing anything you wouldn't do?" she answered. There had also been something in there called the What Would Cap Do test, but it had seemed a little silly to her. And after she had to watch a Captain America Public Service Announcement in gym class that day, she hadn't really been too keen to apply Uncle Steve's judgment to these situations. "And....I think Lance said it was five minutes in."

She ignored her dad's comment about the boys that had catcalled her a bit in the hallway. She didn't have the perfect attitude to be a normal high school student, sure, but she didn't feel like getting into fights - especially since she already knew that she'd win them. "Anyways, I'll be home late because of that..." Guin added. She was tempted to put her feet up on the desk in front of her but she doubted the teacher monitoring detention would be all too thrilled about that. However, she couldn't help but notice he seemed as excited to be there as she was. In fact, she couldn't help but wonder what would happen if, when detention started, she just...left.

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Hammer tapped twice on the glass partition and the limo driver pulled away from the school. He was taking the scenic route, with Hammer being in no rush to take Lance back home. There was a lot on his mind, with the Stark Expo coming up so soon and he heard it from a good source that Stark was about to unveil a major breakthrough. Tired of playing second fiddle to someone who wasn't even in the weapons business anymore, Hammer had put together a plan. "So, Lance - can I call you Lance? You can call me Justin," Hammer prefaced, grabbing a chilled Dr. Pepper and handing it to Lance. "You're a smart kid. Top of your class. Show a lot of initiative - I like that about you, Lance, I really do. I want you to come intern for me at Hammer Industries. How's that sound?"

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"Alright, stay out of trouble Guin, I'll see you when you get back here." he said as he hung up the phone, letting Guin go, since usually having phone conversations in detention was frowned upon.

Lance didn't know what to say about this. It was strange, and it was making him start to regret getting into the limo. He noticed that they were taking the long way home, and if Hammer knew his name and who he was, odds were that he knew who his dad was, and who he was best friends with. This guy seemed to know a lot about him, and it was freaking him out a little. It was weird still, having someone treat him like his own person, and not his dad's son.

"Uh... I'm flattered... But I'm guessing since you know who I am, you know who my dad's best friend is... I don't think I'd be able to intern with Hammer, if I was an intern anywhere it would probably be at Stark Industries..." he said, looking at him. He didn't feel comfortable calling Hammer by his first name, especially since he did just meet the man today.

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Guin sighed slightly, putting in her headphones and turning on her music. She glanced at the detention monitor to see if they cared and they didn't, just playing another one of those ridiculous Captain America PSA videos. She still couldn't believe Uncle Steve wore that outfit sometimes. It was so ridiculously patriotic that it made her feel a little bit sick at times. It was one of the main reasons that she made sure she stuck the word freedom in front of everything he did. Uncle Steve said it was 70 degrees outside? He's reading the temperature in freedom units! He's doing his laundry? He's folding his freedom clothes!

She pulled out her phone and went to the news app, scrolling through it. The Brotherhood apparently had been sighted causing mayhem somewhere in Louisiana and she couldn't help but roll her eyes slightly. It was such a weird name for an organization, in her opinion. Might as well call it the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants - it was already sexist, so why not go for being blatantly obvious as well? She glanced around the room, seeing the pictures of famous scientists on the wall. Her grandfather was up there, as well as Lance's dad.

"Hey, do you actually care what I do while I'm here?" Guin asked the detention monitor.

"Yeah, I do, Stark."

"Okay, just checking..."

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Hammer sighed a bit, putting a hand on Lance's shoulder. "Lance, Lance, Lance...Don't limit yourself. Tony Stark - he's a good friend of mine. He's a reasonable guy. Sure, people think we don't get along but we work in completely different sectors now. He's in the energy business and I design weapons. And I honestly think that the Stark Industries internship program is beneath you. You're ready to sink your teeth into a real challenge, right buddy? Something that might actually cause you to have to break a mental sweat, right?" He then dropped his voice slightly. "And believe me, he'll spend all of his time focused on his kid, Guinevere...But at Hammer Industries, you'll get the attention you deserve. So - what'll it be?"

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Lance wasn't too sure what to think about Hammer calling him buddy. It was his dad's nickname for him, back when they actually had decent conversations. He might still call him that, but he never paid attention enough to care anymore. Someone else calling him that just sounded weird, especially since he didn't know the guy at all, aside from what the media, and Guin, told him about Hammer Tech. The guy was a complete stranger to him, but the problem is, his words did hit him pretty hard.

No one seemed to notice anything he did with his experiments at Stark Tower, not even his dad noticed or seemed to care if he accidentally blew something up or something. When Guin went into rehab, all of that got worse, since most people were worried about her, and sometimes even seeming to ignore his existence. He didn't really want an internship anywhere, his dad had mentioned it maybe years ago, but he didn't really want to focus on that sort of thing now. "I'm going to have to say no... I'm not really looking for an internship right now anyway," he said, looking at Hammer.

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Time was going by way too slowly for Guin's liking. No matter how loud she turned up her music to be, or how many news articles she scrolled through, nothing seemed to hold her attention. She had tried entertaining herself by tapping her pencil against the desk, by folding paper into airplanes and seeing if she could hit the picture of Banner in the eye, and even just taking a nap. She checked her watch to see how much time she had managed to kill after all of that.

"Fifteen minutes?!" Guin exclaimed. "That's some class A bullshit..."

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Hammer gave Lance a stiff and frozen smile. It was taking all of his self control to not punch the roof of the limousine. He'd be lying if he claimed he hadn't anticipated for Lance to reject his offer - in fact, he'd prepared for just this scenario. It was only a matter of sending a text to an interested third party and welcoming them aboard to the operation. If everything went according to plan, he'd have power to spare. All he needed was to ensure the cooperation of Lance Banner.

"You're breaking my heart, buddy," Hammer said, tapping twice on the partition to signal for the driver to take Lance home. He'd been watching Lance for some time and knew that he'd likely be headed back to Stark Tower. Hammer then reached into his pocket, pulling out a business card before handing it over to Lance. "You change your mind? Give me a call. That's my personal cell - any time of night or day, okay buddy?" Hammer said, giving Lance an artificial grin.

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Ok, now the guy was starting to sound a lot like his dad it was almost kind of creepy. Part of him wondered if Hammer was purposefully using words that his dad sometimes said to him, but he didn't know if that was true. When the limo pulled up to Stark Tower, he said nothing as Hammer handed him his card, and he got out. He put the business card in his pocket, saying nothing more as he walked inside. He was not going to tell anyone about that conversation, though something had definitely been off about the entire situation. Why would Hammer be approaching him about this sort of thing now? None of this really made sense to him.

To pass the time until Guin showed up, and to get his mind off of what had happened with Hammer, he finished up the little bit of homework that he hadn't finished during class. It was all pretty easy for him, but he still did the work like he was told. Though he doubted that Guin would actually do the work at all, he wondered how her detention was going too. It once again proved to him how different they were, as he had never once had detention, and always did what he was told for the most part, unlike Guin.

He didn't even go to the lab when he was done with his work, no matter how much he wanted to. He knew he'd run into his dad down there, and that was the last thing he wanted. Lance simply sat on a couch and was reading a book, waiting for Guin to show up.

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When detention ended, Guin rushed out the door and didn't stop until she was outside of the school. The sun wouldn't set for another hour or two, and while she could see Stark Tower in the distance, she knew it'd be a long walk. Sure, she could've taken the Subway home but she actually relished the idea of just breathing in the city as she walked. She didn't know how long it'd be until her dad changed his mind and she was shipped off to another boarding school. And it wasn't like she was in any sort of rush to go home and do homework. She supposed she could have used detention to finish the assignments, but they were so dull she didn't find them worth doing.

She stuck in her headphones and jumped up onto the railing, putting her arms out for balance as she walked and sang along to her music softly. She had an honest and relaxed grin on her face for the first time all day, even pushing herself to do a bit of a skip as she ran down the railing like a ninja.

"If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
'Til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with
If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with"

Eventually, she made it all the way to Stark Tower and she headed inside, giving Happy a friendly wave as she made her way up to the top floor. She figured her dad was going to give her a proper lecture about getting detention, but she'd heard worse before. And in her opinion, it wasn't like she was using again or anything.

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"Hey Guin," Lance said when she finally showed up. He figured that she had probably not been in too big of a hurry to get to the Tower, much like him. He was still debating about telling her about his conversation with Justin Hammer, but was leaning towards keeping it to himself. After all, Hammer Industries was a big rival to Stark, and he didn't want to cause any problems by mentioning that he had even talked to the man.

All of that went out of his mind when Tony walked in and saw Guin. "Mind explaining to me how it is possible for you to get detention on your first day, when you were in class for a total of what, 5 minutes or so? Guin, how is that even possible?" he asked her, waiting for an answer. Lance knew what the answer was, but kept quiet, going back to the book he was reading. He wanted to stay out of it, since it wasn't his problem. Seeing Tony made him wonder where his dad was and what he was doing, but he didn't ask.