Chapter 1
Peter shifted in his seat, glancing back at the clock every few minutes. ‘When is this class going to be over? There’s nothing Mr. Harrington can teach me that I don’t already know.’ Peter thought bitterly. The class continued to drag on, and Peter prayed for a distraction. ‘Hell, even Flash interrupting class would be more fun than this.’
(Be careful what you wish for)
There was a faint ringing noise, and Peter looked up briefly. Mr. Harrington, however, was displeased. “You guys know the rules! Whoever’s phone is ringing, answer it now please. On speaker.”
Groans erupted the class, and slowly backpack zippers began to shriek. Peter drummed his fingers on the desk, before realizing it may be his phone that was ringing. Twisting to face his backpack, Peter bent down and pulled his phone out from the side pocket. Since the bag was brand new (He lost his old one, again), the pockets were stiff and it took a little pressure to wrangle his phone free.
Peter’s eyes darted back and forth as he read the screen. ‘Incoming call from Mr. Stark’. Oh no. Peter knew better than to break the rules, he already had two weeks of detention after the stunt he pulled in D.C. Slowly, he lifted his arm in the air, wincing as it pulled on the stitches he earned last night. His body ached in protest. “Uh-Mr. Harrington? It’s me- uh- my phone, sir.” Peter mumbled, tripping over his words.
“Mr. Parker, answer it on speaker please.” Mr. Harrington commanded.
“Uhm, can I answer it outside? It’s from work.” Peter pleaded, bringing his palms together in front of him. He did not want to embarrass himself any more than he already did. And Mr. Stark would definitely try his damned best.
“No, Peter. You know the rules. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone else if I waved them just for you. Speaker. Now.” Mr Harrington said, in a harsh voice. He was still angry about him ditching the Academic Decathlon in D.C.
Peter felt his chest tighten, and his breath hitched. He slid the bar to the right, answered the phone, and put it on speaker.
“Pete! Good to see you. Are you still coming to the tower after school? I’ll order pizza! Ooh, or we could get that sandwich from that place you like. What’s it called? Mr. Delmos?” Tony said, his voice ringing out loudly. The whole class recognized it immediately, how could they not? Iron man was calling Peter Parker in class!
“Uh, Mr. Stark your on-” Peter tried, but was quickly interrupted by Tony saying “Ah-ah, don’t interrupt me. I’m trying to get you dinner”
“But Mr. Stark! It’s really important you’re on-”
“Tony! Tony. Kid, how many times do I have to tell you. It’s Tony. None of that Mr. Stark crap, it makes me feel old. Now, pizza or Mr. Delmos?” Mr Stark asked, his tone impatient and snappy.
“It’s Mr. Delmar’s, Mr. Stark. Listen, you’re on-” Peter tried again, desperately. Tony was two seconds away from saying something he couldn’t come back from.
“Mr. Delmar’s, fine. So, I have this new idea I want to try out for the suit. I want to up the repulses, but last one I tried I got thrown across the room. Think you could use that big head of yours and help me out Bambino? Plus, we could work on the Spider-Man suit some more too. Sounds fair? We can put on some music, get some food! It’ll be fun.”
Peter momentarily forgot about the gaping class behind them, and grinned ear to ear. “I would love that Mr. Stark! I have to check with May, but I think she’s got a shift until 12am anyways” he said. May had been picking up extra late shifts lately. “Ooh, and can we watch Star Wars? I can’t believe you haven’t seen all of them. Not the new ones, I don’t count those as canon. Ooh, I was thinking we could redesign those taser webs for m- Spiderman.” Peter blurred excitedly, barely keeping his words from blending together. “Ooh, and you have to try Mr. Delmar’s sandwiches. They’re so good! And will Pepper be there? Ohandfortherepulersiwasthinkingwecouldtrysomething-” Peter said, stumbling over himself.
“Kid, kid, you’re rambling. We’ll do all of that. You know what? It’s Friday, how about you spend the night? Then, we can work Saturday too.” Tony offered. Tony was just as excited as Peter. He couldn’t wait to see his kid. Uh- his mentee. His mentee.
Peter exclaimed “Really Mr. Stark? You’ll let me sleep over! That’s so cool! Oh there’s so much we could do in two days! Oh I can’t wait! Thank you D-Ton-Mr. Stark!”. Peter flushed, the tips of his ears going scarlet. He had almost called Tony his Dad. Not that he didn’t think about Tony like a father, he just didn’t want anyone else to know that. What if they thought he was weird? What if Tony didn’t feel the same way? Tony pulled Peter away from his thoughts quickly.
“Alright kid. Oh, and Thor wants to see you. He said something about you stealing his hammer?” Tony questioned, brows furrowing together.
“His hammer? Oh you mean his prop hammer? He left it on the counter so I moved it to the closet. Why does he want that one? I wont touch it again, I swear! ” Peter claimed, cocking an eyebrow.
“Uh, we’ll talk about it when you get to the tower. Hey, what are you doing on call with me? Don’t you have class Underoos?”
Oh shoot. His class. The class that was right behind him. Listening to him talk to Tony. About some confidential things like; Peter knowing Thor, and spending the night at the STARK INDUSTRIES tower. How was he going to explain himself now? Maybe he could lay all the claim on the internship, despite the fact that interns definitely did not get food and spend the night with Mr. Stark.
He turned around, and noticed Mr. Harrington on the floor, looking rather pale. His eyes were closed, and he was slumped over in an uncomfortable position. Ned was looking rather smug, and giving flash a look. Everyone was staring, and their mouths were catching flies. The blood drained from Peter’s face, and he swallowed down the lump in his throat. What was he supposed to do? Lying wasn’t his greatest strength, and he wasn’t so good under awkward pressure. He shuffled his feet nervously, his shoe scraping loudly across the floor. A few people winced from the displeasing noise, Peter included.
“Uh, Mr. Stark? I’m gonna have to call you back! I will talk to you after school! Haveagooddaybye” Peter blurted quickly, hoping he wasn’t rude. Tony tried to say something, but Peter didn't hear it before he hung up the phone. His eyes darted between faces, gauging their reactions. He was going to have to do some serious damage control. He hurriedly walked over to Mr. Harrington and lightly shook him until he woke back up. Poor teacher. This was way above his pay grade.
“Mr. Harrington? Are you with us, sir? It’s gonna be okay.” Peter snatched his lunch box, and pulled out Saltines and a water bottle. He used these for shaken up victims he saved, but perhaps Mr. Harrington was the victim today. He passed them to Mr. Harrington’s shaking hands. Peter winced, squinting his eyes shut.
Peter helped Mr. Harrington up, careful with his strength. He sat Mr. Harrington down on his desk, and smiled. “How are you feeling?” Peter asked, eyeing him cautiously.
“I feel alright, Peter. Thank you.” Mr. Harrington said, but his eyes didn’t match his cheery tone. Peter didn’t understand why he looked so worried.
Peter turned to face the class, some of which seemed to have recovered. Flash, however, practically had steam coming out of his ears.
“What the fuck was that, penis? Iron Man calling you? For a so-called internship?!! What’s really going on?! Nobody’s gonna buy that. That’s a really cool stunt you pulled there, had the idiots fooled.” Flash spit, his expression hard and his hands balled into fists. Flash looked like he was about to deck Peter, so he wisely took a few steps back. However, usually the class laughed when Flash made fun of him. However, a lot of people were looking at Flash like he was the one who was crazy.
Ned spoke up, bravely defending Peter “Flash! That was obviously Tony Stark! Who else could do his voice like that? You’re just jealous that Peter has Iron Man’s number. Because Peter is awesome, and he wouldn’t ever call someone a ‘penis’…. Maybe he is just better than you?” Ned grinned, finding the strength to smile, even when he was likely to get hit.
Peter grinned at Ned, and mouthed ‘Thank you’. Ned just nodded and gave him a thumbs up, a sly smile spreading across his face.
Flash sputters, turned red. “I AM NOT JEALOUS OF PETER! There is just no possible way that Peter would ever know someone like Tony Stark! PETER IS NOT BETTER THAN ME! Flags screamed, voice cracking. He swung his fist at Ned, but Peter was there before the aim could land. Peter caught his fist and looked him in the eye.
“Hey! Don’t hit Ned! If you’re gonna hit someone, hit me!” Peter shouted, letting his anger bleed through. He was fine with Flash hitting him, but he wasn’t willing to let him hit anyone else. Especially not someone as awesome as Ned.
Flash gaped at Peter, his fist still in Peter’s palm. He pulled his arm back, and Peter let go. No one had ever seen Peter move so fast, and he never fought back. ‘Where did that strength come from?’ MJ wondered.
Peter spun around, eyeing the entire room, before slowly speaking “Nothing about that call leaves this room. No one's gonna believe any of you anyways. Can we get back to class please? It’s not a big deal.”
“Of course it’s a big deal! Iron Man just called you and asked you to spend the night and get sandwiches. You get to work on the Iron Man suit and the Spider-Man suit! That’s the coolest thing anyone in this room has ever heard.” Abe said, waving his hands around as he spoke.
Ned jumped in “Well, he did say he had an internship. You all chose to not believe him.”
Peter rubbed the back of his neck, shifting his weight on the balls of his foot. “Uh, I don’t really want to talk about it. All of you guys staring is really uncomfortable.” He said, squirming.
“Let’s not badger Peter about his work or relationship with Tony Stark. Back to the lesson, kids!” Mr Harrington jumped in, smiling reassuringly at Peter. He just nodded, and sat back down at his seat, face feeling warm.
“Thank you Mr. Harrington.” Peter said, eyes carefully avoiding everyone else’s. Whispers spread like wildfire, but Peter could distinctly hear each and every one. Thanks, super hearing.
“Oh my gosh, I don’t believe it. Peter?”
“What a show off. I bet that was on purpose”
“He gets to work on the Iron Man and Spider-Man suit? Lucky son of a bitch!”
“I dunno, maybe we should be friends with Peter?”
“What a lair. That Penis has never even been to the Stark Tower, much less met Tony Stark. Pfft.”
That last one was Flash, no doubt about it. Great. So now he was going to deal with fake friends and people who thought he was a liar. At least he had Ned, who was friends with him long before he ever became Spider-Man. He slumped further down in his chair, face receding into his own jacket. He closed his eyes, praying for the humiliation to be over. Maybe he’ll wake up from schmoozing in class? There's no way this could have actually happened, right?
He sighed, looking up from his jacket. He kicked his feet back and forth, and desperately thought up a distraction. Tony. He was going to the tower and working on the suits. At least he was going to have a fun evening. Nothing could get worse, right?
“Incoming call from President Ellis” Peter’s phone blared, Karen reading it out loud. She was supposed to read aloud only the most urgent calls, like ones from homeland security. Oh great.