The New Kid

The Midtown senior class were anxiously waiting for the new student to arrive. Many of them were standing at the front of the school, waiting for him to arrive.

Finally, an unfamiliar kid pulled into the parking lot. He parked his car, it wasn't anything expensive like they would expect for someone allegedly so close with Tony Stark but parts of it looked custom built.

A kid stepped out, curly brown hair, not too tall, but not short, from what could be seen of his body, he looked like he worked out. He was wearing a pair of ripped black skinny jeans and a loose sweater.

He somehow looked so soft but confident as well. His eyes scanned the front of the school, somehow his gaze made the people watching him feel nervous so that he looked away.

He approached the front of the building, Flash and his friends looked ready to jump him to recruit him to their group and many others were gearing up to talk to him.

Shockingly he walked right up to Ned Leeds with a smile on his face. "Hello, I'm new here. Do you think you can take me to the principal's office? I don't want to get lost and be late on my first day."

Ned stared at him with wide eyes at first, "Um, I- sure, just follow me. I can be your personal tour guide if you want. School doesn't start for a bit, maybe I can show you around." Ned rambled, seemingly happy to be chosen. He didn't really have any friends at school.

"That'd be great, I love your T-Shirt." He grinned, eyeing the Star Wars shirt Ned was wearing.

"Really, uh thanks, man. You like Star Wars?"

"Definitely, look at this shirt I designed." The boy pulled something up on his phone and showed it to Ned. Everyone was staring at the pair in disbelief.

Ned looked at him like he grew two heads. "You gave Tony Stark a matching shirt with that on it and he wore it?"

Now people were starting to get jealous, he was sharing pictures of Ironman.

"He lost a bet but now he wears it in the lab all the time."

Flash stormed up to the pair, "Are you talking with this loser? Why don't you ditch him and I'll show you around. I'm Flash."

Ned winced, getting ready to be ditched.

"Oh no thank you, my new friend Ned was just about to take me to the principals' office. Nice to meet you though, Flash."

He started to pull Ned away towards the entrance, ignoring Flash who was yelling after them.

"Dude how'd you know my name?"

"Ned Leeds right? We went to elementary school together."

They didn't hear his answer, Ned and the new kid went inside and continued their conversation on the way to the principals' office.

"Holy shit, he's hot." Someone commented.

"Did you see how ripped he was?"

"Can't believe he turned Flash down like that."

"For Ned!"

"I think it was hilarious."

Everyone turned to Michelle who had her head in her sketchbook.

"What? It made a good drawing." She turned her drawing to the crowd, it was an impressive sketch of the look of confusion on Flash's face as the two boys walked away.

"Okay, but did anyone get a name?" Betty questioned wanting to get the scoop.

Everyone shook their heads.

"Didn't he say he went to elementary school with Ned? I was at that school. It was a gifted private school, wonder why he didn't end up going here. But I don't remember anyone like that." Cindy pipes in.

"Well, we'll find out soon enough."

...

The new kid's first class was Ap Chemistry. He and Ned strolled in a minute late, Ned was laughing at something he said.

"You must be the new kid."

"I'm sorry Mrs. Smith, Mr. Morita told me to give him a tour. We got a bit carried away."

"That's alright, sit down Ned. And why don't you introduce yourself to the class if you're comfortable telling us a bit about yourself? If not that's okay."

"I can do that." He stood at the front of the class with a smile, "Hi my name is Peter Parker, I'm 17 I've lived in Queens all my life. I currently live with my aunt. I'm a senior, I like to build things I guess, solve equations, chemistry is my jam but someone I know is trying to convince me to move to the engineering dark side for college. It's nice to meet everyone, I look forward to getting to know you all."

"That's great Peter, I'm glad to have a student passionate about chemistry. That means you shouldn't be behind."

"No ma'am, besides my aunt made sure the school sent me the work I was missing. I have it if you want it."

She nodded, "You can give it to me on your way out."

Immediately, the class erupted in questions.

"Calm down everyone, please don't bombard Peter like this. Are you okay to take questions, Peter? I'm sure everyone is curious about you when they heard you were coming."

Peter blushed, "Sure, only three questions, don't want to take up your lesson time. Just one at a time. My ears are sensitive.

"How did you meet Tony Stark?" The question everyone wanted to know.

Peter smiled fondly. "I was doing some freelance inventing to help my aunt with money. But I came up with something very innovative and my lawyer friend Matt helped me get it patented. Tony wanted to meet the guy behind it, he was very surprised when it was a 15-year-old kid from Queens. But he offered me access to his lab to improve it. Eventually, I started to help him out with his projects and he offered me a job."

"Why'd you come to Midtown your senior year?"

"Well, the people there weren't very nice. Also last year people overheard me talking about my job and accused me of lying. Teachers and administration included. I almost got expelled, Tony had to clear it up. I figured after that it was time I left and I was eyeing this school since middle school."

"Then why didn't you come here?"

"That's three, financial issues. When I applied my family had two paychecks and were able to pay for it but my aunt lost her job before I got accepted. I couldn't imagine making them budget to pay for a fancy school when I could just go to the public school down the street. But I'm here now and I'm excited about senior year."

"Thank you, Peter, why don't you sit down next to Michelle." She pointed to the empty desk in the back.

Peter walked over and greeted her brightly. It was a shock to see Michelle give him a little smile back.

Peter proved to be all the genius he was talked up to be. Answering all the questions and diving into deeper side conversations with Mrs. Smith. They were talking about things way advanced their level. Not that anyone was complaining, Peter took about twenty minutes off their lesson chatting with the teacher who seemed excited at his energetic self.

His attitude was infectious, he just seemed so genuinely happy and excited about everything, he was not what they were expecting at all.

When the bell rang, Peter handed in his work and called after Michelle. "Michelle, you're the captain of the academic decathlon team aren't you? I competed against you last year."

Michelle snorted, "Yeah Parker, the only reason your team won was because of you."

Peter chuckled, "Yeah they're fucked now that I left. I was hoping you guys have any extra spots, I'd love to join. Your team was really impressive."

"Lucky you, we're down one member. Can you stay after today? I'll let Mr. Harrington know."

"Yes! I'll be there, um what room?"

"I'll come find you after school. See you there dork."

...

By the time lunch rolls around, everyone is talking about Peter Parker.

Queens was a small place and Peter, even before he met Tony Stark stood out. Many of his fellow seniors had competed against him in a pleura of events. Decathlon, band, debate, various science fairs, even dance.

And the common factor, he almost always won.

While many didn't recognize him at first, he was seemingly more confident and held a certain swagger that wasn't there before.

The people who had never seen him found out about him quickly. He was nice to everybody, answered questions when asked, and chatted to teachers with their respective subjects passionately.

Peter followed Ned to his usual seat. He had decided early on that they were destined to be friends. Ned was cool and they had a lot in common. Michelle was already sitting there with a book in her hand. Ned looked at her in surprise.

"Since when did you sit here?"

"I've been sitting here since sophomore year, are you blind?"

"Huh, makes sense. But why are you sitting here?" He threw Peter a confused look.

"I don’t understand."

"You got a ton of better offers, why’d you sit with me?"

"You’re a cool guy Ned, you shouldn’t sell yourself short."

He opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by a loud "Parker!"

"Yes Flash?" Peter turned to him with an eyebrow raised, there was a great amount of tension between them. Flash looked pissed while Peter was staring at him innocently. People were trying to secretly listen in on the conversation.

"You’re Peter Parker."

"Yes Eugene, glad you learned my first name since elementary school. It’d be quite immature to call a guy penis when you’re 17 years old." Peter casually took a sip out of his water bottle, he didn’t look very concerned about the teen standing in front of him.

Flash was bright red, people didn’t usually talk to him like that and the Peter he knew didn’t either. But Peter grew up and changed. And that Peter clearly wouldn’t be taking shit from Flash.

"Whatever, stay out of my way will ya?" He glared at Ned before walking off.

"Does he bully you?"

"Not really, he’s kind of just rude now. He stopped being a bully after middle school, not sure what was with the change of attitude. His friend group is worse, I’d stay away from them if I were you. They think they’re better than everyone else and make more than just a few comments."

"Hm."

Ned was kind of scared at the look on Peter’s face. It was dark and calculating, there was something scary about the other teen. He looked so soft on the outside but he had a darker aura to him when you looked closer.

The scary aura around Peter went away and he started chatting to Ned about the latest episode of a show that they both watched. Peter carried the lunch conversation, he talked a lot Ned was just along for the ride. Occasionally he would address Michelle and she'd answer.

Ned liked Michelle, she was the closest thing he had to a friend here but he had always been afraid to label her like that. She was closed off and distant most times, Ned thought she was just around so she wasn’t alone. But lunch with her and Peter had been pleasant.

He never thought he would find people he could call friends this year but it seemed like this would be his year.

...

"Bye guys, see you tomorrow." Peter parted ways with the decathlon team. He joined their team today, two of their members graduated last year and they had only gained one new one. It wasn’t a particularly popular club, it took a lot of hard work to be good. They all seemed relieved when Peter joined, they weren’t going to be able to compete in their first competition without him so he came at a good time.

Michelle was a good captain and Mr. Harrington was nice, the other members were welcoming even Flash who surprisingly hasn’t provoked Peter at all.

For some reason, Flash hated him in elementary school, he was always picking on Peter, he even beat him up a bit. Maybe it was because Peter was the smartest kid in the school or because Peter would always step in between whoever Flash was picking on. And for whatever reason Flash thought calling him ‘Penis Parker’ was funny.

Peter was honestly surprised Flash hadn’t gone at him. Peter wondered if it was his connection to Tony that was stopping him. But Ned said Flash wasn’t that bad anymore. And there was this sad look in his eyes Peter couldn’t ignore, it looked familiar but he couldn’t pinpoint why. His senses were telling him something was wrong, he’d have to figure that out later.

Peter shot Tony a quick text, letting him know that school went well and he would tell him all about it later on. Tony was off at an overseas conference in Japan, Peter wouldn’t see him for another week. No doubt Tony was waiting up for the verdict on his day, no matter what time it was over there.

Peter pocketed his phone and started to drive off to a safe area where he could get changed and start patrolling. Now that he was back at school he was going to have to change things up. He couldn’t stay out as late as usual now.

The crime rate was pretty low right now so he wasn’t too worried. Matt did text him to come over to Hell's Kitchen when he could. But Peter figured that wasn’t for crime-fighting, even though Matt pretended he didn’t care about Peter’s personal life, he clearly did.

'I’m not that kind of lawyer.' He said but still helped May sue Peter’s old school.

Peter knew Matt just wanted to make sure he was being treated well. But that could wait. He’d deal with the overprotective parents later, now, he was just going to stop some criminals and maybe do some homework.