Trigger Warnings: Physical and emotional abuse (A small part at the beginning)

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"Ah ah where do you think you are going? Hmm?" she said roughly grabbing the back of my ACDC shirt as I was halfway out the door.

The kids look at me scared and Scarlet gives me a sympathetic look. I shoo them away, motioning them to go wait outside on the sidewalk, I will deal with this.

"I'm sorry miss, did I wake you?" I made sure to say 'I' instead of 'we' hoping to just keep even thoughts of the others out of her mind, I refuse to ever let her lay a hand on them.

(Abuse warning starts here)

"You did, and you know what that means don't you, you little shit?"

I nod, quickly checking behind me to make sure that the littles are not watching, and was thankful to see that Scarlet and Benedict are distracting them, making them look the other way.

Satan pulls me back inside to hell and pushes me against the wall. Instantly punching me in the gut. Honestly, she has a pretty decent swing, it took a lot for me to not follow my natural reaction to crumple over or shield myself, but I knew that if I did it would only make it worse, so I stand my ground.

"You all are so worthless" Punch "Do nothing but cause trouble," Punch "Do nothing but be a burden to everyone around you" Punch "I can't even get a moment of peace from you all" Punch "You ungrateful little shits" Punch My body finally caves in and I crumple to the floor where she then turns to repeatedly kick me and continue to shout insults at me.

I try to let the insults roll over me, trying to tell myself that it is not true and that they are simply words, but after years of hearing the same things over and over every day for years, they start to slither their way into my head and I can't help but believe their constant looming whispers.

There was no doubt that I have at least a few broken ribs at this point, and probably some internal bleeding also, but it will be finneeeee... I have always had very fast healing and metabolism, but that also just meant that she is able to kick me around even more often than usual. Kind of turned out to be a curse honestly.

She finally gets tired and pushes me out the door as she goes to grab a beer from the fridge and falls onto the couch. I quickly pick myself up, wincing as I do, and make my way over to the kids. We are going to be late for school if we don't hurry up, so I quickly dismiss Scarlet and Benedict's worried looks and usher them to get a move on.

We walk to the elementary and middle school first to drop off the littles. It was quite a sight to see, myself, obviously still a kid, with 18 others trailing behind me like a flock of ducklings through the hectic streets of New York and all holding onto the person in front of them. We have a pretty good system, everyone has a buddy that they will stick with whenever we go into public, usually one of the older ones with each younger one. We also have several code word systems for many different occasions, most of which will probably never be necessary, but it couldn't hurt. It was also fun for the kids to come up with all the random code words.

Eventually, we get to the elementary and middle school and drop most of them off. This is then where Benedict, Scarlet, and I split up, the two of them will head to the local high school, and I will walk to Midtown School of Science and Technology since I got a scholarship there when my teachers realized that all my classes were too easy for me. Yeah... I was smart, but I would never dare admit it.

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After about a 20-minute walk (but 7 if I ran) I rush into school just as the bell rings. I quickly shovel things around in my locker and sprint to my first class, AP Calculus.

"Ah nice of you to join us today, Finnley." Mr. Gibbons spits.

Jeez man, how would you like to try sprinting 3 miles with several broken ribs?? And plus I was only a minute and 37- 38 seconds late, what kind of stick did you shove up your ass this morning??

But of course, I don't say that because I can not afford to get detention, I have work right after school, and for... other obvious reasons.

"Sorry sir, won't happen again." I walk to the back of the class and practically fall into my seat.

That was a bad idea. I wince as I fall and my ribs practically feel like they are grinding against each other.

"Are you ok?" Peter Parker carefully whispers from next to me.

Ew, pity. Peter was great though, we weren't necessarily friends, I mean I didn't have any friends unless you count my siblings. We had one of those relationships where we would make small talk or say hi to each other in the hallways every now and then, but not much more than that. We are also both Flash's main targets, so I feel like that sort of automatically bonds us in some weird way. He is also one of the few people that doesn't try to avoid me at all costs. For some reason pretty much everyone in this school (besides Flash and his goons of course) is incredibly intimidated by me, even though once you get to know me and as long as you do not get on my bad side, I am probably one of the least intimidating people out there (unless I want to be of course). Although I always hated pity, no matter who it was, I could handle myself and I don't need people feeling bad for me thinking I am weak, especially when there is nothing that they can do.

"Yeah, fine," I said bitterly.

He looks hesitant but eventually looks away. I don't even bother listening to the lesson and just zone out. I already know all this stuff from when I got bored and roamed the college textbooks at the library one day, and if I didn't I would be able to figure it out quickly.

Sadly I am snapped out of my daydream when the teacher ever so smugly hisses at me to answer the question displayed on the board, probably trying to get me in trouble and catch me not paying attention. Mr. Gibbons always hated me, don't know why, I never really did anything he just decided that I am apparently his mortal enemy since day one. Maybe he is just mad that I am smarter than him, I thought.

I grudgingly glance up at the board and quickly solve the long equation in my head within a few seconds. "The answer is 12 divided by 1 + in 8, sir"

And then he has the audacity to look shocked. Flash then turns around in his seat and gives me a glare trying to tell me that 'I am dead'. Uuuhghggg and here I almost forgot that Flash was in this class, I can never get a break.

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The rest of the day goes on extremely slowly, the only good part was when I was sitting in the library for lunch, like usual, and found a new Norse mythology book that they just got in. I always loved and was fascinated with Norse mythology, in fact, the first book that I ever bought for myself was the Prose Edda, the poetry is absolutely stunning and I was hooked ever since.

When I finally get to my last class of the day, Advanced Sciences and Biochemistry, which is thankfully with my favorite teacher Mr. Harrington, I once again drop into my chair and wince. I really need to stop doing that.

"Alright class, we have something very special today! Please clear off your desks, we are going to take a test!" Everyone groans and I hear several heads drop and hit their desks probably hoping that they would drop dead then and there. "Don't worry, this is not going to be graded or anything. This test was sent to all students here at Midtown and other prestigious schools in New York by Stark Industries. They are looking for interns, so if you do well on this test you may have a chance to become an intern!" He said practically bouncing giddily.

Several heads perk up at this and everyone is now practically throwing the things off their desk.

Working at Stark Industries would literally be a dream come true. Plus, if I got the internship I would most likely be able to get a full-ride scholarship to pretty much any college of my choosing, then I might actually have a chance of being able to go to college! However, I would first have to actually get the internship, and that is very unlikely. I know I am smart, but I can't be that smart, like come on! It's Stark Industries for crying out loud! Tony freaking 'i am iron man' Stark is the owner, he is not going to hire some wimpy high schooler. But then, even if I did, by some miracle, get the internship, I don't even know if I would actually be able to accept it. I would have to balance school, work, the kids, AND the internship. It just didn't seem possible.

I decided to humor myself though and take the test anyways, I mean it couldn't hurt, I could always just turn it down if needed, but I am more just curious and bored.

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It was surprisingly very easy, which threw me off. I thought that I must be getting everything wrong if I was getting through it this fast. It was mostly on a bunch of kinds of science and technology, all of which are my strong suits, but it still left me with a lot of worries. The only question that took me a while to answer was the last one which asked what my goal would be if I were to get hired. Normally, people would be smart enough to put something motivational, something that they would want to hear, like how they want to help people and make an impact in the world blah blah blah, all that mumbo jumbo. However, in my idiot self ways, I decided that it would be a good idea to write: "uuh, idk, probably like make a robot to make breakfast so I don't have to get up so damn early. I don't know man. Oh! Or I could make an AI to do people's homework, that would be pretty cool. I would also be rich, that would be a plus." then I drew a little picture of a porcupine named Alfred at the bottom.

When I finally finish and walk up to the front of the classroom to drop it off, I realize that everyone else is nowhere near done.

"You're done already?" Mr. Harrington asks, surprised.

"Yeah?"

He laughs slightly, shaking his head as he says, "You are too smart for your own good, Finnley, I'm sure that you will get in."

I let out a breathless laugh, "I don't know about that Mr. Harrington, but thank you, sir."

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After another 10 minutes, Peter is the next to finish. He is extremely smart, top of the class, and probably too smart for even this school. I was honestly surprised that I finished before him. Half an hour later Ned finishes, he is Peter's friend and seems cool, a real dork, but a sweet dork. Then Flash finishes looking more smug than ever, I wouldn't be surprised if he stuck a check with his daddy's money in with his in order to try and bribe his way in. Soon after everyone else slowly starts turning theirs in, most looking extremely disheartened, some even with bald patches in their hair from how much they were ripping it out during the test.

Thankfully we have the rest of the class off, so I just continue drawing up plans for the AI to do homework that I mentioned, because that actually wasn't that bad of an idea and should be easy enough.

As I am in the middle of writing down the basic code that I would need for the baseline of the AI Peter leans over. "So how do you think that you did?"

"Honestly, I'm not sure, it seemed easy, but that probably just means that I got all of them wrong." I chuckled.

"You thought it was easy?! Damn, knowing you Finn, you probably aced it." He said in disbelief.

"I highly doubt that, Peter. Plus if anyone were to get the internship, it would be you, you deserve it." I slightly smile at him.

"Thanks, Finn, that really means a lot, who knows though, maybe we will get in together!"

"Sure Peter, maybe," I say, growing slightly solemn, knowing that I probably wouldn't be able to accept it even if I did get it.

"So what are you working on?" He leans over trying to look at my paper.

"An AI to do my homework because I can't be bothered to do it myself." I breathlessly chuckle.

"Whoa, that's so cool! You should send me some of the basic codes for that! I could definitely use that as well! Especially with my whole busy schedule and being spi- I m-mean being spin class instructor... y-yeah..."

(Amazing save peter...)

I turned towards him scrunching my eyebrows and giving him a 'seriously?' look. "Uh-huh... Sure, just once I figure out this one section that I am stuck on, I am having a hard time figuring out how to allow it to fact-check itself but with multiple internet sources." I say deciding to simply ignore his very obvious lie. Seriously, this guy is supposed to be a genius... yet he picks 'spin class instructor'??? The same guy that couldn't even do a pushup the last time I was in gym class with him???

"Let me see, maybe I can help."

A/n - I have only taken some basic classes on coding and I most certainly have no idea how to make an actual AI or what goes into it, so I have absolutely no idea what I am talking about and I'm just saying random bullshit so bare with me.

So that's how the rest of the class went, me and Peter slouching over my desk working together scratching away at code messily on a sheet of notebook paper. I decide that I will have to go to the library sometime soon to use the computer to actually write and make the code.

When the bell finally rings signaling the end of the day Peter nearly falls out of his chair and everyone quickly scurries out of the prison that is school. I thank every deity out there that I am able to make it out without running into Flash and his goons, just narrowly avoiding another beating for today.

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A/n - I double god dare you to go drink at least one glass of water right now and get some food if you haven't eaten 3 full meals yet today!! (You literally can not ignore this, it's a double dog dare so you are legally obligated to, my lawyer Matt Murdock said so)

Love all you beautiful humans!! Hope you have the bestist most amazing day/night <333