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‘First day, here we go’
She doesn’t pay attention to anyone, walking through the crowd as smoothly as possible. Virginia Potts is never late, and she will certainly not break that on her first day of college, despite the fact that she has no idea where to go.
She just arrived last night to the dorms, making it impossible for her to explore the campus, ergo making her completely unaware of her surroundings. Either way, Virginia never backs down so she keeps trying to find her classroom, even though it is more than possible that she isn’t even on the right building.
She starts walking slower and slower, finally paying attention to her surroundings. As she looks around, she notices people carrying tools of all kinds, wires and pieces of metal. ‘Yeah, I’m definitely not where I’m supposed to be.” Getting more anxious as seconds go by, Virginia tries to find someone, anyone who would help her get where she needs to go, but everyone she tries to stop just walk away, claiming to be too busy.
Convincing herself that she is doomed, that she will definitely not get to class on time, she leans back on one of the walls, looking up at the grey ceiling tiles, calming her breaths. ‘I can’t believe I’m going to be late on my first day of college’.
After a couple of minutes she stands back straight, wanting to just go back to her dorm and scream her stress out on her pillow. But before she turns around to leave, a boy sitting cross-legged on top of a desk in the middle of the hallway, his head down, completely engrossed on a book catches her attention. With nothing else to lose, Virginia starts walking towards him.
“Uh… Excuse me?” The boy doesn’t look up, almost as if not hearing her. “Excuse me?” She tries again, this time making the mysterious boy pay attention to her. “Do you know which one is the Business major’s building?” He stares at her, mouth slightly agape and she takes a couple of seconds to look him over.
His bangs fall slightly on his forehead and the sweatshirt he’s wearing is clearly two sizes too big for him but somehow it makes him look cute, along with some black jeans and worn-out sneakers. All of that topped of with some grease stains on his cheek, making him look even more cute.
‘What- what are you thinking? Cute? He hasn’t even said anything! Stop!’
Seeing as he still hasn’t talked, Virginia clears her throat, making him aware of the situation and blinking a few times as if trying to process everything.
“Uhh… It’s uh- it’s building E, you are in building B.” She sights “It’s a pretty long walk.” Figures. She is definitely not getting to her first class on time. “I could- I could show you.” She looks at the boy, noticing his chocolate brown eyes are a bit red, probably from exhaustion.
“Oh, yeah. That would be nice. But don’t you have class?” He closes his book and sits on the verge of the table, his feet not touching the ground at all.
“No. I don’t have any classes for another 2 hours.” He finally gets down from the table, standing next to her. He looked smaller sitting down, but because they are both wearing flats, she notices that she is just a bit taller than him.
“Then what are you doing here so early?” She points at the clock behind him, marking 8:30am.
“I’ve been here all night.” She raises her eyebrows. “I have some projects at the lab that I needed to get a head-start on.” She nods slowly, now understanding why he looks so tired. “Well, uh- do you- do you want to get going?”
“Oh, right! Yeah.” They start walking and get out of the building in complete silence, both of them too embarrassed to talk. They stay like that for a while until one of them breaks the silence.
“Oh, I’m Tony by the way.” She turns her head to him, giving him a small smile.
“I’m Virginia, but everyone calls me Pepper.” He nods, copying her smile. She notices how he keeps playing with the end of his sleeves, probably trying to calm his nerves.
“Pepper? That’s uh- that’s a nice name. My neighbor’s dog was called Pepper too.” He suddenly stops, noticing what he just said. “Not that- not that I’m comparing you to a dog. No- I didn’t mean that. It’s just that- that my brain just thought of that- not that I wanted to- It’s the only Pepper I know- before you, that is-“ He looks at her and catches his breath. “I just ruined it, didn’t I?” His head falls and she lets out a chuckle, making him look back up, shocked. “What-?”
“Nothing, nothing.” She laughs. “It’s just that your rambling is cute.” His face goes completely red, making her smile even wider. “It’s okay though. One of my friend’s dog was also named Pepper, so it’s all good.” He lets out a sight of relief as they continue their path to the Business’ building.
“So ah- this is your first year, I assume?”
“Yeah, just got here last night, so didn’t have time to find out where everything was.” He nods, understanding.
“Yeah, I get it. The first day I got here, I got so lost that I entered a classroom I wasn’t supposed to be on, but I was so embarrassed that I didn’t leave the room until the class was dismissed.” Pepper laughs, making Tony feel more relaxed and noticing he just loves that sound.
“Really? What class was that?” He lets out a chuckle, remembering that day.
“To be honest? I don’t really know. I was just so focused either on the clock or the door that I didn’t pay attention at all.”
“Oh my God. And what about the class you were supposed to be in?” He winces at the memory.
“They had a surprise test for the teacher to know everyone’s level from the beginning. At first I thought it was okay for me to miss it, but later I found out it counted as part of the grade. So it was a great start.” Looking at him, Pepper doesn’t see much of an age difference, making her wonder how old this cute- ‘Stop it!’ - guy is.
“And when was that?”
“Oh, two years ago.” She is quite surprised at that.
“Two years ago? So you are what, twenty? Twenty-one?” He smiles, shaking his head.
“No, not at all. I’m eighteen.” Now that’s a shock. “I started when I was sixteen.” He shrugs.
“Eighteen? And you are already on your third year of college?” She whistles, impressed. “Wow, that’s impressive.” He blushes, looking slightly away from her.
“Thanks, but it’s not that impressive. I’m just good at building things.” She just nods, noticing that he just doesn’t want to talk about it. “So here we are.” He points at the building. “Business building.”
“Jeez, thanks. I don’t know if I would’ve even gotten here today if it wasn’t for you.” They both stop close to the entrance of the building, her hands on the straps of her backpack, one of his holding the book and the other on his pocket.
“Oh, it was nothing.” He scratches the back of his neck with his free hand. “So- I guess this is it.” She looks at the door, seeing different people walk in.
“Well, we could have some coffee if you wanted.” This time is her who blushes, making his smile widen.
“I would love that.”
They spend almost two hours drinking coffee and getting to know each other. She finds out that Tony is a genius introvert who has the total of two friend, in or out of college, making her feel a bit sad for him, but also utterly happy that he counted her as one of those two, along with is friend Rhodes.
She also learned that he loves to come up with different inventions, promising her that he will show her all of them as soon as they are done with classes that day. And true to his word, he is there waiting six hours later, coffee and muffin in hand for her.
They talk for four more hours between his lab and the time they spent laying on the grass outside, just sharing stories of their past or even their biggest dreams and hopes for the future. It feels like they have known each other for years, Tony making her laugh being his real goofy self, while Pepper just teases him, making the young genius feel more alive than ever.
Months pass and they are inseparable, making Rhodey even a bit jealous but happy nonetheless, because his best friend has finally found someone who truly cares about him. And it’s him who actually pushes him to risk it all.
It’s his best friend who tells him to have guts and ask her what he has always wanted to ask. To finally acknowledge that what he feels is more than just friendship, and that he won’t be completely happy until he faces his feelings.
It takes a couple of weeks for him to get the courage to do it. It takes days and days of convincing from Rhodey for him to ask Pepper out, and the moment he does, she just surprises him.
“Pep, I just-“
“Will you go out with me?” He feels like he just stopped breathing, like his heart is not receiving anymore blood from his veins. Did he hear just right?
“What-?”
“I asked if you would want to go out with me.” She grabs his hands, smiling at his shocked face.
“As in-?”
“As in a date, yeah.” He squeezes her hands, pulling her closer and finally smiling, wider than her even.
“I would love that.”