Rumors

Rumors. Everyone has dealt with them at some point or another. With ‘Parker Luck’ though, it got out of hand.

Ever since the spider bite, Peter’s been Spider-Man. It’s nice. It has its moments. He feels good when he helps someone. But with good there always comes bad. In this case, testing.

Tony Stark, after finding Peter, had run a few tests himself. Bruce too. But they realized that Dr. Cho would be a better doctor for Peter, so she ended up being the one to do it. Blood work. Brain scans. Physical tests. You name it, it was done.

With this though, came a problem. School. School sucked. But missing school sucked even more. You miss one day, a million things happen and a million more assignments are due.

With the amount of schoolwork and missing days, Bruce suggested that Dr. Cho become his ‘legal’ doctor in a way. Not that this wasn’t completely consensual and safe, and have permission from May, but with the school knowing that Peter has regular doctors appointments, it’ll be easier for him to get an extension on schoolwork and an excuse that didn’t involve him saying ‘oh yeah I’m Spider-Man’.

But then his classmates noticed that something was wrong. Peter would come in late. Leave early. Go to the nurse’s office. Get sick randomly. Etc. Etc. And with teenagers comes rumors and gossip.

“Dude, no way. He just looks like crap because he’s a high school student.”

“Possible, but he’s probably suffering from effects of inter-dimensional travel. Those can be tricky you know.”

“He’s just another burnt out gifted kid like the rest of us. Chill out.”

“Everyone slips up from time to time. Nothing to worry about. He’ll fix himself.”

“Why do we even care? It’s his life. We should just leave him alone.”

——

The first time anyone wondered anything was when Peter started looking like crap a few months back. It was after a field trip to some lab that no one can remember the name of. He looked awful and then missed like a week of school. Apparently he was in the hospital. He came back like nothing had happened, and a hell of a lot of makeup work. And he moved on. Everyone moved on.

Peter was acting weird though, for a few weeks. Tripping a lot. Very ungraceful. Coming in late. That eventually evened out and it became a thing of the past. He’d come in tired here and there but it’s high school, everyone’s tired.

Then months later, it started again. He would miss a day here and there, nothing to worry about. He’d leave early, nothing to worry about. He’d come in late, nothing to worry about.

But it was too much happening in a short time span. He’d come in late at least once a week. He’d come in tired at least three times a week. He was missing assignments too. It was getting worse.

Hell, he’d go to the nurse’s office every day actually. Another student, Betty Brant, spends her time in there a lot. She’s what people call not graceful, like at all. Tripping, twisting her ankle, bruising her side, whatever you can think of she’s done it. She even knows the nurse by first name. But then Betty noticed Peter Parker going in. And not just here and there like she does, but practically every day.

“Here you go, Mr. Parker, your medication,” the nurse said as she handed him the bottle. “Do you need water?”

“No, thanks. I got some,” Peter said before grabbing the water from his bag.

Peter opened up the medication bottle and grabbed a pill before taking it. He closed the bottle and handed it back to the nurse.

“Remember, ten minutes here and then you can go. Watch the clock,” she said before walking away, Peter nodding.

Betty looked at him weirdly for a second before Peter realized she was staring at him.

“You’re probably wondering why I have to stay here,” Peter guessed.

“Yeah,” Betty said before smiling. “If you don’t mind me asking.”

“No, it’s fine. She said that with the school rules after giving a student their medication, they have to stay here for a few minutes,” Peter said. “It makes sense but it also means I miss part of math. And honestly, that’s both good and bad.”

Betty smiled.

“What’s the medication for?” Betty asked.

“Oh, it’s…it’s nothing,” Peter said quietly as he tried to hide his face.

Betty took the hint that Peter didn’t want to share anymore, which was fine with her. It’s his life and he can tell her as much or as little as he wants, especially since it’s regarding his medication and his life.

“Alright, Betty. You’re good to go,” the nurse said before.

Betty got up and handed the nurse the melted ice pack she used on her wrist. She tripped earlier and ended up in here, thankfully missing part of her English class. But she was kinda more worried about Peter. She’d seen him go into the nurse’s office before but didn’t realize it was for medication. And she wondered what it was for.

Peter knew what it was for, obviously since he was taking it. It was a ‘nutritional supplement thingy’ as May phrased it. It basically gave him extra calories since he needed so much. Bruce came up with the idea. And honestly, it was a good one idea too. Peter already felt bad for eating so much anyway, even though he needed to eat a lot. And even though May knew he was Spider-Man, he still felt guilty for eating so much. The nutritional supplements helped ease his mindset a bit.

——

Another student, Abraham, ended up noticing something off about Peter too. They were in a decathlon meeting when someone got a call on their cellphone.

“Phones off,” Mr. Harrington said.

“But…But I have to take this,” Peter said awkwardly as he looked at his phone screen.

Mr. Harrington was almost…he was surprised when he realized it was Peter’s phone ringing, which was weird. He nodded to Peter, who quickly thanked him and ran out of the room. Mr. Harrington was really chill but he preferred having phones off during meetings.

A few students exchanged glances before getting back to answering questions. Only a minute or two later did Peter come back into the room, looking paler than before.

“Everything okay, Peter?” Mr. Harrington asked discretely.

Peter nodded tiredly before sitting down, almost like he’d been without sleep all night. It was really weird, especially since he had energy right before he ran out of the room. But when he came back, it took him longer to get to his chair than it had for him to leave the room and be on his phone call.

“You sure about that?” Cindy asked Peter.

Peter nodded before flinching when Abraham dinged the bell in front of him.

“That’s a lie,” Abraham said.

“Alright, enough. Stop abusing the bell,” Mr. Harrington said, everyone quieting down.

Peter rested his head on the table and closed his eyes. He really did not want to deal with this right now. He’d just gotten a call from Cho saying that when Peter came to the tower to expect another brain scan. He hated those. He was fine with blood tests because it was just a quick needle and then he was done being a human pincushion. But with brain scans you had to stay still, which, given Peter’s new anxiety levels with loud noises, wasn’t easy to do in a machine that made noise. But he was tired enough to probably sleep through the entire thing, so that was nice.

He didn’t even notice the rest of the decathlon team giving each other silent glances. Even Flash was confused.

——

Speaking of Flash, he was the reason the rest of the school was spreading rumors. He didn’t spread them, but when Sally Avril was giving out peppermint sticks, due to her mom accidentally pressing way too many keys on her computer and ordering a lot more than she should have, she gave them out at school. It was something nice to do and honestly, she didn’t need over ten thousand sticks of peppermint. Honest mistakes. Her mom would have returned them but since it’s food, it had a no return policy. So the entire cafeteria was starting to smell like peppermint.

Flash crushed one up and slipped it into Peter’s drink in the cafeteria. A harmless joke. Except it wasn’t harmless. Peter took one sniff of the drink and exploded into a coughing fit. Flash was seriously confused but then turned slightly into worry when Ned dragged Peter out of the cafeteria.

And rumors spread like wildfire after that. No one knew Flash put the peppermint into Peter’s drink, and no one ever found out, but all they knew was that Peter got into a coughing fit, a bad one, enough to leave the cafeteria and not come back.

Peter continued coughing down the hallway before Ned dragged him into the bathroom. He shoved Peter into a stall and waited patiently outside.

“Peter? You okay?” Ned asked.

“I feel like I’m dying,” Peter slurred.

“Just get it all out. It’s okay,” Ned said quietly.

Ned checked under a few stalls to make sure no one else was in the bathroom. He turned back to Peter when he heard throwing up.

“Peppermint, I hate it,” Peter said tiredly as he leaned against the wall of the stall. “You know, spiders hate the smell of it, Google told me.”

“Do you get all your information off of Google?” Ned asked.

“Well yeah,” Peter said before smiling.

Peter went to get up but fell back on the floor. He groaned slightly. Ned handed him his water bottle and Peter smiled.

“Thanks, Ned. You’re a good friend,” Peter said with a smile before taking a sip.

“You okay now?” Ned asked, Peter nodding.

“I just…need a minute, for the dizzy spell to end,” Peter said tiredly.

“Need me to call Doctor Cho for you? Or Doctor Bruce?” Ned asked.

“Uh, I don’t know yet. Just…give me a second,” Peter said, Ned nodding again.

What Ned didn’t know was that someone was in the bathroom. The very end stall, which was always locked. Jason Ionello smoked there during lunch occasionally, and always hid whenever someone came in. And of course, Peter was too disoriented to notice or hear him. Jason’s gotten pretty good at hiding throughout the years.

And he told a friend of his, who told another. And it spread.

Peter Parker was seeing a doctor. Peter Parker took medication regularly in the nurses office. Peter Parker left school and came late and missed classes and got mysterious calls during school and everything in between.

And those observations brought rumors. Was he sick?

——

Over the week, rumors spread. Peter couldn’t control that. But he also didn’t know what was going on. He noticed people looking at him for too long. He noticed people talking to him more, which they didn’t do before. Hell, one girl even asked if they wanted to study together, but he declined saying he had somewhere to be after school. It was another appointment with Cho, and he could have been with a girl. He really did want to say yes, but Cho mentioned this appointment couldn’t be postponed.

Everyone being too interested in his life brought anxiety for him. Did they figure out he was Spider-Man? No, they couldn’t have. Did they suspect it? Again, no. He hasn’t shown any proof. Hell, he doesn’t even take gym because of ‘medical reasons’, which was Cho and Bruce saying that he shouldn’t take it since he could potentially expose himself as an enhanced. All these glances and attention brought so much anxiety that it was affecting his schoolwork.

During a particularly easy test, Peter couldn’t even focus. Too much was going on. People looking at him. People were staring. He had homework to do because of missing class. He had to get things done. He had-

Peter froze and realized that he had wrapped his hand around a chunk of his hair and…pulled it out. He stared at the clump in his hand before noticing Flash staring at him with widened eyes.

Flash had been hearing Peter’s leg tapping on the floor anxiously for a bit. And usually, he’d snap at Peter. But with the rumors going around that he’s sick, not like a cold but actually sick, he learned that he didn’t hate the guy. He just…he didn’t even know why he bullied him. But he stopped when the rumors started. It made sense that Parker was sick, with how much he missed school, acted strange, got phone calls and answered them, and the mention of Doctor Cho and another doctor too. Everything added up.

Peter grabbed his bag and ran out of the classroom, not even bothering to ask the teacher if he could leave. He just ran. He panicked. Whenever his anxiety got bad, his stickiness kicked in. And he just ripped out a chunk of his hair during class. When Peter got to a door he needed to open, he just used his elbows. And he just ran out of the school, not even caring if security or anyone would stop him. He ran and ran and ran. And he didn’t stop, not until he got to home.

——

“Peter? You okay?” Ned asked as he walked into Peter’s room and saw him with a hat on.

“You know how people say ‘if you never shaved your head you can never say that you shaved your head’?” Peter asked.

“Um…I’m so confused,” Ned said awkwardly. “What does that have to do with…”

Peter removed the hat slowly, Ned freezing. His eyes widened extremely.

“I ripped part of my hair out with my sticky hands and strength,” Peter said quietly. “I didn’t wanna go around with a bald spot. Hair grows back but…my heads cold now so…so I need a hat now.”

Peter put the hat back on, Ned sighing.

“You okay?” Ned asked.

Peter shook his head slowly. Ned sat on the floor across from his friend.

“It’s too much,” Peter said quietly in a mumble as he curled into a ball. “Being Spider-Man, having powers, the tests that I need to get done, needing to do schoolwork, people staring at me all the time. Everything is just too much. I just need a break.”

“Well, winter break is coming up soon,” Ned said.

“I’ll need to get all of my work done before then and…I can’t even focus on one assignment, let alone like 25,” Peter said before sniffling. “It’s too much, Ned.”

“We got this, Peter,” Ned said.

“No we don’t,” Peter said.

“Don’t be so negative,” Ned said.

“Yay, I don’t got this. Whoo,” Peter said sarcastically.