Reputation
The next few weeks passed almost peacefully.
The boys sharing his room had warmed up to him, mostly because of the snacks he was sneaking into them. True to his word, the covers of his textbooks contained different chocolate bars and sweets to try to please all of his customers. The food was still shit, and the atmosphere was still tense, but it was tolerable.
School was great. The Stark Competition ignited something inside Peter, who spent all of his spare time working out different chemicals and techniques to make his prototype the best he could. Ned was trying to develop a pair of gloves that translated sign language to spoken word through a computer - his little sister was deaf and his whole family signed which made it a genius idea that could help a lot of people. Although it was failing spectacularly, which they both laughed about daily, Peter could tell this was going to be a long term project that Ned was determined to complete successfully, so while the Stark competition was out of the window, his goal of MIT for college seemed much closer with this project.
Mj was being as secretive as always surround hers, despite persistent nagging from Peter. He suspected she was writing some kind of protest letter - although about what he had no idea.
The murmurs that followed Peter constantly however did not die down. Flash and his goons looked down on Peter in disgust taking every opportunity to degrade him, from exposing every detail of his turbulent childhood, to tipping his lunch tray to the ground, or declaring him a dangerous criminal. Unfortunately, some of the freshman were now avoiding him on the basis of his criminal status, and he couldn't lie but every time one of them moved out of the way of him in the corridor, it was like a punch to the stomach.
"Sorry - I-I didn't mean to- " stuttered an awkward skinny kid that had accidentally bumped into Peter. He had gone bright red and the stuttering speech didn't help.
Other people were looking as well. There were some attempts at subtly but the silent glances were agonisingly obvious.
"It's okay, it's fine," Peter comforted, in an attempt to calm the boy down, but he scurried away quickly.
He turned to Mj, who was concealing a smirk, with a baffled look.
"Don't worry, it's just the buzzcut, you're a teddy bear really," Mj laughed, pulling him into a loose headlock. There were a few shocked stares in their direction, but that only encouraged their play fighting.
Until a teacher came down stamping down the hallway.
"Mr Parker, we do not tolerate that behaviour at Midtown High," she scolded cruelly, with a reprimanding glare fixed on Peter.
"Oh no, sorry, it was me just joking around," Mj tried to explain, immediately stepping away from Peter to deescalate.
"With the more physically stronger physique and the reputation that Mr Parker possesses, I do not tolerate engagement in any kind of physical violence from him, " the teacher continued harshly.
"Reputation?!?" Mj squawked with a fierce outrage evident in her voice, " That is a cruel and unfair stereotype of teenagers in the foster care system. Peter is a straight A student, with a full ride scholarship who participates in multiple activities, including being a member of my decathlon team who might I remind you won nationals last year. He is also my best friend, who I was messing around with. How dare you be so presumptuous to even suggest- " Mj rambled furiously before being cut off by an embarrassed looking Peter.
"Em, it's fine," he said, grabbing hold of her hand, "sorry about that Miss but we have to go to class," he spat out quickly before dragging a furious Mj away.
"How can you put up with that?" She demanded, pulling her hand away in anger. They were still stood in the middle of the hallway, drawing attention of other students, but one look at Mj's face showed an utter outrage at the injustice that would not be subdued by public attention.
"It fine - who cares?" Peter replied with a nonchalant look.
"I do," Mj whispered, "You're the most incredible person Peter, and I wish the world would see that."
Peter's heartbeat sped up, thumping out of his chest. A heat rose up his necks and his hands were very clammy.
"I guess I'm used to it - everyone treats me like that. Social workers, foster parents, police, teachers. It gets worse if you like fight back or whatever so I usually just ignore it," a defeated response came.
Pools of tears formed in Mj's eyes as she desperately tried to blink them away. Hearing her best friend talk like that - he had basically accepted a rejection from the world. He had unfairly been branded some criminal, and he was resigned to it. How sad that this boy who had experienced so many hardships just accepted when people talked horribly to him, because he was used to it? Mj was horrified - it was one thing joking about freshman avoiding him and it was another seeing this teacher (the supposed good guy) blatantly ignore any of the achievements Peter has made, in favour of making up aggressive altercations.
"Wait - are you crying? I didn't mean to make you cry. I'm sorry," Peter panicked, bringing a hand to her cheeks to wipe away the tears.
"No, I just- " Mj smiled, " I'm fine, sorry."
"Please don't cry, I don't like seeing you cry," he said quietly.
"Okay, I won't," she laughed softly in return. She held onto him as they walked to class.
Peter was doodling in his notebook again, mainly ideas around his spider web material design, partially around like actual spiders, when Ms Warren called for the class's attention about the essay due today.
Peter approached her desk timidly after a waiting in a line of people. He handed her his handwritten essay - he had to guess how much exactly to write since the word count with a specified font and letter size wasn't exactly applicable for hand writing the essay. He hoped she wouldn't mind the smudges of ink on the side either, or the stain from the water Jude spilled on it last night, accidentally or deliberately Peter didn't know.
"I asked for this to be a typed essay, would you please type it up and hand in in tomorrow,” she requested.
Pete paused awkwardly.
“Ummm, I’m sorry, but umm I don’t have access to a computer or anything,” he stuttered.
“What about your school one?”
“I’m not allowed any electronics at all,” he said lowering his voice.
“I’m sure you could ask your parents to have it back for a school assignment,” dismissed Ms Warren.
“I don’t have parents. The group home I’m in took my phone, my money, my laptop, all of my clothes. I can’t ask for my stuff back, cause they were already hesitant about letting me come here and any more- ” he cut himself off with a short breath, “ I’m sorry but I can only handwrite essays.”
With an apologetic look on her face and wide eyes, she nodded quickly, taking his essay onto the pile. Once again, embarrassment shot through Peter, as if enough people didn’t already know about his life, he had to run his big mouth. He shrunk back into his seat, wishing the ground would swallow him whole.
The differences between him and the other kids sitting around him, slapped him in the face amongst every day. Overhearing conversations about annoying parents that wouldn’t buy them the newest shoes made him laugh. He couldn’t be more different if he tried, he thought as he turned over to a blank sheet of paper. However, if he kept his head down, worked hard at school and avoid any issues, he would be free - get a scholarship to a good school and be free from all of this shit.
Only two more years … right?