The Accident
The final bell was still ringing as Peter bounced down the steps of midtown. It was lab day! He was going to get to spend hours eating junk food and blasting music with THE Tony Stark while they tinkered with the Iron Man suit and Spiderman’s web-shooters. Peter had so many ideas to improve the web design to be stronger and lighter, that he thought Mr. Stark would be impressed. Peter loved the way Mr. Stark looked at him as he explained everything from thermodynamics to the algebra test that he nailed. Mr. Stark’s eyes would light up, and he would clap him on the back and say ‘nice job kid.’
Since Ben died, Peter had felt like he didn’t have someone he could talk to about certain things. May was great and all, and he loved May, but he couldn’t just talk to May about how he was ‘flowering.’ Granted he would never talk to Mr. Stark about THAT, more of just, he understood physics and math the way May just couldn’t. For Peter, Mr. Stark was easy to talk to, he just understood when it felt like no one else would.
As Peter scanned the pickup line, he looked for Happy’s car. Happy always picked him up for lab day in his black Audi, which at least didn’t stand out too much from the other kids getting rides. There was always Flash and his stupid dad’s car… ugh.
Finally, Peter spotted Happy and ran to his car. Happy did not like to be kept waiting. As he yanked open the passenger door, Happy grunted,
“Backseat kid, bosses orders. He’ll kill me if I let you sit in the front seat, remember last time?” Mr. Stark had flipped out, saying Peter was way too young and small to sit in the front seat, he would go right through the window if anything happened.
“Oh Common!!!” Peter whined.
“Sorry kid I don’t make the rules.” Peter sighed, and crawled into the back seat.
After Peter buckled in, Happy sped off, clearly not in the mood to talk. Peter opened his mouth to talk, but Happy turned on the music at full blast.
Maybe it was the music. Maybe it was the fact Peter had stayed out until 4 am last night as Spiderman. Maybe it was the Spanish quiz. Whatever it was, Peter didn’t notice his spider-sense flare up until it was too late.
The last thing Peter heard was the truck slamming into the side of Happy’s car. He felt the shards of metal cut through his skin and felt the car flip over and over again. He was unconscious by the second roll.