A web of lies, that is what Peter has found himself trapped in.
He should have known that all of his lies would finally catch up to him and bite him in the ass just like the strange Oscorp spider had bitten him a little over a year ago.
Well, the spider didn’t literally bite him in the ass — Peter shook his head to clear that image from his head. He sat up a little straighter, letting his hand fall away from where he had his cheek propped against it so he could try and pull in his focus. Ned didn’t really seem to mind that he had zoned out as he continued to go on about their field trip, but Peter still felt bad that he wasn’t paying as much attention to his best friend as he should have.
All of it was just overwhelming. Despite having months of mental preparation for the field trip, between the permission slips being sent out and the fund raisers and the general buzz and excitement at every Academic Decathlon meeting, Peter hadn’t fully accepted the idea of visiting Stark Industries with his team mates.
Sometimes he wished he could go back in time, before Aunt May found out he was Spiderman, before Liz moved away because her father had been arrested, before Toomes had dropped a building on him, before he had tried to take on an illegal arms deal on a ferry boat and disappointed Tony Stark, before Tony Stark had even set his sights on Spiderman to be on his side in a fight between friends that shouldn’t have escalated to an all out brawl on airport pavement.
He would have been excited to see Stark Industries if only it were still before… well… everything.
The only thing he could do now was smile and resist the urge to fling himself out the window every time May asked about the September Foundation or when Ned wanted to talk about his internship with The Tony Stark.
How could he tell the people closest to him that he lived a life of so many lies and that aside from helping in Germany and occasional guidance from Tony with the whole Toomes situation, he didn’t really know the man all that well.
He indulges in Ned’s idealistic fantasies, letting his friend believe in some grand internship at Stark Industries, too embarrassed to admit that he’s never walked in the halls of the building. Not as Peter Parker, anyways.
“Hey, Peter? Are you listening?”
Peter snaps back into focus, “What? Oh, sorry, I was just thinking…”
“Understandable. I mean, if I were you and had a bunch of classmates coming to my job, I would think about it a lot too!” Ned says with a pseudo-sage voice, “It could be worse, though… at least Flash isn’t still calling you ‘penis’?”
He’s right, of course. Ever since DC, sure, Flash didn’t magically become Peter’s friend, but somehow nearly dying and being rescued by Spiderman (and then being grounded for nearly a month because said vigilante totaled the car he had begged his dad to let him borrow to impress his date) really put life into perspective for the bully.
“Yeah, could be worse…” Peter muttered softly as he returned his gaze out the window of the school bus and regretted the very words that left his mouth. How could he be so dumb to speak into existence that things could be worse.
His morning leading up to the field trip had been so painfully ordinary that Peter felt as if he were standing on the edge of the tallest building in New York without his web shooters. He’d slept well, woken up on time, had a hot shower, had breakfast with May — even his train had been on time!
He could feel himself checking out of the conversation again as MJ began to talk about how she hoped they would get a chance to meet Tony Stark, and when Ned expressed his excitement over possibly meeting him, MJ just deadpanned that she wanted to inform him of how irresponsible it was for less than 1% of people to hold the majority of the worlds wealth and how damaging being a billionaire is to society.
“Hey, maybe Parker can get you a private meeting or something?” Flash calls back to MJ sarcastically, and MJ flips him off before Mr. Harrington turns to stand up and address the group of teens as the bus pulls up alongside the curb.
“Alright,” He stood at the front of the bus, holding the back of the seat he had been sat in as the bus braked, “There’s no need to remind you guys what happened in DC… but we all made it out of there in one piece so… let’s make this another awesome field trip!” He claps his hands together awkwardly, looking around at the Academic Decathlon team.
“At least if anything goes wrong, we are in Spiderman’s turf, so he will be sure to save us again.”
“That’s the spirit, Abe! Now let’s get this field trip started!”
As they climbed off the bus, Ned’s excitement only seemed to triple as he questioned if they would get to meet any of the Avengers (“Probably not, I think they are all busy right now”), or if they would get to see Peter’s personal lab (“I still make web fluid out of a drawer in Chemistry, dude. I wish I had my own lab”), or if they would get to see anything Peter’s worked on (“I’ve only really helped Mr. Stark with Spiderman things, I doubt we’d get to see any of that on the tour.”).
Despite the never ending stream of questions reminding Peter of how royally he’d messed up by letting his friend believe that he got to do all of these amazing things, they somehow also helped calm his nerves as they walked into the open doors of Stark Industries and gathered in the spacious lobby.
“Welcome, Midtown School of Science and Technology! My name is Emily and I’ll be your tour guide today… if you would all please follow me so we can get your visitor badges and begin your tour!”
Flash brushed past Peter as they queued in front of Emily to get a visitor badge, “Shouldn’t you have an intern badge or something, Parker?”
It was tame compared to the school yard style bullying Flash used to be known for, but Peter still felt an uncomfortable prickle at the words. He just knew that by the end of the day, Flash would get that smug smile that made Peter’s skin crawl, and he wouldn’t even need to say the words for Peter to hear the “I told you so” that he knew Flash had been dying to say ever since Ned told everyone about his internship.
Even with being as lost in his thoughts as he had been all morning, the tour itself is nothing short of amazing. Emily takes them through each level of Stark Industries, answering their questions with practiced ease. Peter regrets every thought he had had about skipping the field trip just because of the web of lies he’d spun himself into.
It is no secret that Stark Industries’ R&D labs are some of the most advanced in the world, but to see the actual interns at work drives home just how many bright and intelligent people SI employees to continue the progression of the technological field. Peter couldn’t help but feel inspired just standing in the building.
When Emily paused for questions, Cindy was the first one with her hand in the air.
“Does Mr. Stark have any intentions of using the binarily augmented retro-framing technology to further the field of psychology and help those with PTSD and other mental disorders?” Cindy asks as MJ nods along.
“That is an excellent question, Cindy! Currently, we have a team of interns assigned to continue developing the binarily augmented retro-framing technology, or as Mr. Stark calls it, the B.A.R.F, to not only make it more accessible and affordable but to seamlessly weave it into already existing forms of therapy. With the help of Sam Wilson, who you guys may know better as The Falcon, we have already begun testing our newest designs with soldiers who are troubled by their actions in war and are suffering from severe PTSD.”
Cindy looks pleased with the answer and Emily continues on, “Although some projects here at Stark Industries are assigned by department heads, Mr. Stark encourages interns to take charge and follow their passions.”
“Which project are you working on, Peter?”
Sally’s question is innocent enough, lacking the snark and sarcasm of Flash’s teasing, and Peter knows that most of the decathlon team falls somewhere between Ned’s enthusiastic reassurance that he 100% believes Peter and Flash’s deadpan sarcasm of disbelief in Peter. However, no one besides Ned (and Flash when he overhears them) brings up his internship and Peter feels his face fluster to a bright shade of red that makes him feel as if he’s wearing his Spiderman mask.
“Peter is an intern here,” Abe’s voice breaks the awkward silence before he adds a quiet, uncertain, “Right?”
“I’ve met most of the interns… the only underage intern that I know of is a young teenager that Mr. Stark met through one of his adventures as Iron Man,” Emily says, her eyes still on Peter’s face as if trying to will her brain to recognize him, “He works occasionally with the engineering department via live stream since he doesn’t live in the area.”
She notices the looks shared among the Academic Decathlon team and laughs lightly, “I’m only one person, though, and Stark Industries employees thousands of people. We could have easily just not have run into each other yet… Peter, is it? Which department do you work under?”
“Uh… I’m not really sure which department I fall under.” Peter mumbles, feeling relieved that Emily didn’t out right call him a liar.
“That’s fine. I know the department heads can get quite confusing with interns shuffling around so many different projects. Friday?”
Peter’s positive that his heart stutters and stops the second the AI registers Emily using her name— what if Mr. Stark hadn’t bothered to put him in the system at all, or worse, what if he only put him in as Spiderman? Peter couldn’t decide which option was worse. Sure, he would be embarrassed if Mr. Stark hadn’t put his name under a dummy internship since the whole lie had been his idea in the first place, but would that really be a better option than his class finding out he was Spiderman?
He wasn’t sure if he was ready for Flash to go back to bullying him and calling him ‘Penis Parker’ — not that he was ready to be outed as Spiderman either.
A painful nudge in the ribs from Ned reminds him to breathe and when Peter looked around he realized the others were no longer staring at him with those strange expressions but rather at the ceiling with curiosity as they tried to figure out where Friday’s voice had come from.
“Could you please pull Peter Parker’s work records to see which department he falls under?” Emily asked, no hint of malice or disbelief in her voice.
“Initiating Protocol: Nosy People. Lock down on Level 6. Contacting Mr. Stark.”
Emily’s face paled as the sliding glass doors closed around them, leaving the small tour group trapped in the hallway. She pulled the badge up from her hip and hovered it over the scanner by the door to open it, “Friday, really, there’s no need to bother Mr. Stark —”
“Override not authorized. Please remain where you are.”
Emily let out a nervous laugh, looking more like she was about to throw up or pass out as she turned back to the class. “Uhm… so… that is Friday,” She began to explain in a wispy, barely there voice, “She is Mr. Stark’s personal AI and has full control over the building, and while only a select few have full access to her, she is always around for quick guidance — however, calling Tony Stark himself is something far out of my clearance level…”
Peter wanted to melt into the floor as she made eye contact with him, as if he were some anomaly. Maybe he was, after all, what sort of clearance would he have to have that Tony Stark would be called the second his name was mentioned.
Mr. Harrington was rubbing his temples, mumbling about how this was DC all over again as the other Academic Decathlon members shared strange looks that Peter didn’t understand.
“ — I really don’t care who is at the tower today, Fri, I just want to know why she’s asking about the kid. Just run the background check— oh. Hello.” Tony stops dead in his tracks as he steps off the elevator at the end of the hall, lifting his sunglasses as his eyes scan over the small group of teenagers staring back at him with a wide mix of emotions. His gaze lingers on the poor tour guide who looks as if she were ready to accept her own death, “Right. There are… children here.”
He puts back on his sunglasses and claps his hands together, “Right okay, Emily, is it? Why don’t you go take a break, get yourself a nice cup of tea, just don’t let Dummy make it for you, I’ll take over from here.”
Peter wonders for a second if he could leave and join Emily for that cup of tea, he would even drink whatever motor-oil concoction Dummy made if it meant not standing there awkwardly with the rest of his team mates in front of The Tony Stark.
“So, where were we on this tour.”
“We were trying to figure out what department Peter works for.”
The glare that MJ gave Abe the second he spoke didn’t go unnoticed by Peter and he wondered if Friday would open a window for him to fling himself out.
“Right and then Friday went all lock down mode,” Tony said with a careless flip of his hand, “Peter is a personal intern project of mine, confidential stuff really… speaking of confidential things, how about we take a detour from all this boring stuff and go look at some real science!”
Peter breathes out a sigh of relief as the Academic Decathlon students are easily distracted by Tony announcing a detour to see his personal labs and what he’s been working on for Iron Man. If he ignores the strange look MJ casts back at him when Tony lingers towards the back of the group to speak to him, then its easy enough to pretend that the heat is fully off of him and his fake-but-real internship.
“Hey kid, why didn’t you tell me your classmates were coming here for a field trip?” Tony asks in a low whisper, eyeing Peter through the tint of his sunglasses.
“You were busy and I didn’t want to bug you… besides… I’m not really an intern here… I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal…” Peter mumbles, scuffing his sneaker against the smooth tile of the floor.
“Well, next time bug me, kid… I’m never too busy to make sure your identity stays safe…” Tony clasped Peter awkwardly on the shoulder before rejoining the students and explaining his latest Iron Man tech as if he were on stage at an expo.
Peter felt as if a weight had lifted off his shoulders. No one was accusing him of lying about his internship, there wasn’t any weird alien tech to cause danger to the academic decathlon team, he wasn’t bitten or attacked by any enhanced or mutated science projects. He didn’t really know how he did it, but somehow, he’d managed to survive a field trip with only mild embarrassment.
(And maybe that's why he didn't notice the other shoe dropping at the end of their field trip when Sally texted the group chat that he wasn't a part of, and everyone shared a knowing look behind his back because Peter didn't know they knew, and they intended to keep it that way.)