3
Peter woke up bright and early the next day. He had managed to get a meeting with Midtown’s principal for just himself with the excuse that his mom had an important job and couldn’t take time off of work to be there. He’s pretty sure Morita just felt bad for him and didn’t want him to miss out just because his mom was too busy, but Peter would take whatever he could get.
He didn’t know what to expect at the meeting, but he wanted to be prepared, so he packed all of his fake IDs, his fake moms included, as well as every other document he could need. Midtown was a private STEM school that came with a hefty fee, so he was glad he had taken plenty of money when he did, there was no way he would have ever been able to afford it if he didn’t.
Once he was sure he had everything, Peter hopped in the shower, happy he could finally wash himself with something other than just water and wrapped a towel around himself as he stepped out. He didn’t know what to wear in these situations, so he decided on a simple pair of black jeans and a white shirt, wanting to play it safe and not make himself look like a total idiot.
Looking at the time as he went back into the living room, Peter cursed, noticing it was already eight thirty and grabbed his bag, running out the door. Breakfast would have to wait.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
At first, Peter had been sure he knew the subway system by now, but after taking a new route he realized he was completely wrong; whoever invented this system deserved jail time for making it so complicated and causing him to almost be late. With two minutes to spare, Peter walked into what he assumed was the office and waited for the secretary to notice him.
“How can I help you?” she asked.
“I have a meeting with the principal at nine-thirty,” Peter smiled, hoping he was being polite. He wasn’t too well-versed in the real world.
The secretary nodded and pointed him to an empty seat, asking him to wait a few minutes for the man to be ready. Looking around, Peter was happy to notice that he recognised many of the scientists on the walls, he was a little worried that his smarts wouldn’t be up to midtown’s standards since the Red Room didn’t let him read anything that wouldn’t benefit them but surely if he knew who all of these people were then he couldn’t be too far behind.
A few minutes later, a door opened and a man who Peter assumed to be Principal Morita stepped out.
“Mr Parker?” Peter nodded, standing up to greet him.
“Let’s talk in my office,”
He followed the man and took a seat opposite the desk. He was a little nervous in the hallway, but now that he was in the man’s office he felt the anxiety hit him at full strength; he had never done anything like this before, where he had to talk about himself and not make himself look like a fool. During his time in the Red Room, the only time he ever had to talk was during a mission, when he was interrogating someone and that was easy for him, it was how he was raised; he was raised to be intimidating and ever since he had escaped, he had to consciously remind himself that day to day tasks were not a mission and he didn’t need to glare at everyone he looked at.
As the meeting went on, Peter eventually realized he had nothing to be nervous about, most of it was lying and he was the master of lying, the only time he felt a little unsure of himself was when he was asked a question about himself and even then, he just improvised. In his opinion, it went as well as it could’ve.
“Now, since this is a STEM school, you need to take an entrance exam before we can enrol you, if you have time to do it now we can have it graded and you enrolled by today,”
“I can do it now,” Peter replied, enthusiastically.
Smiling, Morita led Peter to an empty classroom where a teacher was waiting with a thick packet. He sat down and opened the test, smothering his grin when he noticed he knew all of the answers, it was all things he had learned before he had even turned ten. Maybe the Red Room had let him learn more than he thought.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“I’m finished,” Peter spoke, after a short twenty minutes. The teacher looked surprised for a moment but it quickly turned into a smile as he looked over the test.
“I’m not even going to bother grading this, you passed, I can’t see a wrong answer anywhere,” he said, shocked, as he called the principal back in.
“How did it go?” Morita asked.
“I think we have a new record holder,” Harrington answered, handing the test over.
“That’s amazing, why don’t we finish enrolling you and you can start tomorrow?”
Peter nodded, no longer able to hide the grin on his face. He knew he was smart but he started to doubt himself as he waited for the meeting so it’s nice to know it was all in his head and he’s not a complete idiot like he had managed to convince himself.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Peter left the main office, smiling gently as he thought about how he was finally getting the chance to go to school and have a real life, how he wouldn’t be stuck between the same four walls for hours on end when he sensed another person in the hallway and looked up to see a boy around his age running, rummaging through his backpack.
The boy clearly didn’t have the same senses as Peter did, that was made clear when a few seconds later he ran straight into Peter, dropping his stuff on the ground.
The boy looked up at Peter and immediately sputtered out a million apologies, looking like he was on the brink of a panic attack. Peter didn’t understand why the boy was panicking so badly until he realized he was glaring at him, probably looking like he was about to kill him and softened his expression, hoping it would calm him down.
“Sorry,” the boy laughed, awkwardly, “I’m Ned, by the way,”
“It’s okay, you didn’t mean to, I’m peter,”
“Are you new? I haven’t seen you before,’’ Ned asked, still cramming his stuff into his bag.
“Yeah, I start tomorrow,”
“Cool, do you wanna meet me on the stairs in the morning? I can show you around,” Ned offered.
“Sure, thanks,” Peter smiled. The boys quickly exchanged numbers and Peter left the school, excited for this new chapter in his life.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Peter wandered around the Target aisles, not having a clue what he was supposed to take to school. They had way too many options for him to narrow it down and he was starting to panic. He started school the next day so he wouldn’t have another opportunity to get his supplies and turning up without them wasn’t an option, he wasn’t about to set such low expectations for himself on the first day.
He was about to ask another kid in the store what he needed, willing to let go of his ego for a moment, when he remembered he had gotten Ned’s number. He was still at school so he didn’t know if he would reply but it was worth a shot.
Surprisingly, Ned replied almost immediately, giving Peter a long list of things he would need, he was probably a little confused as to why Peter didn’t know what he needed but that was a future problem.
With Ned’s help, Peter was able to get everything and be out of the store within twenty minutes. With all of the bags in his hands and now two hundred dollars short, he made his way back to the subway station; but as he was walking a building caught his attention. The Avengers Tower. Like the last time he saw it, he felt immense guilt at the fact he had all of the information on a group that Natasha Romanoff thought she had taken down. He felt so guilty that he was keeping that from her when in reality she deserved to know and Peter could be the one to tell her and let her know that the Red Room was still up and running. He had to tell them. He had to tell her.