Chapter 2
“Dude, I can’t believe you told everyone!” Ned flops down onto the cozy couch in Peter’s room, gently moving the arms of his squid doll that Wanda had sewed for him years ago. “The whole team has been going nuts texting the chat!”
“Trust me, I know. I had to have Friday mute my notifications or else I was going to go crazy.” Peter groans, falling onto his bed.
“You need to respond.” MJ shakes her head. “I think Betty is going to break something if you don’t give her something for the school news instagram.”
“Fine, fine, I will… How’s Flash taking this?” He can’t help the grin that stretches over his face. Flash got expelled after the stunt he pulled on the field trip, but he returned the year after due to “good behavior” and daddy’s money. Tony nearly flipped, but Peter calmed him down.
Since then, Flash hasn’t done much besides spread rumors and make nasty comments just out of earshot of the teachers. There’s been some shoving against lockers, but it was super toned down out of fear of more repercussions. MJ found out that his father was going to disown him if he got in trouble like that again.
Peter’s a bit worried about how senior year will go, just like he has been at the start of every year, but he can handle it, even more than he could freshman year.
He may or may not now have a reputation for being a bad boy after a video of him taking down Flash at SI was released during Flash’s expulsion hearing. And after a couple more fights stopping other shitty alphas from hurting other omegas. He still can’t defend himself to his fullest capabilities, using his abilities and killing students is pretty frowned upon, but he’s far from defenseless if it comes to it.
“Just pull up the aca-dec chat, man, you’re going to love it,” Ned cackles. Peter shakes his head, before finding the phone he’d hidden in his desk drawer for the past few days.
Aca-Nerds Group Chat
Abe the babe: HOLY SHIT HAVE YOU GUYS SEEN THE NEWS
Abe the babe sent a link
Abe the babe: HOW DID WE NOT KNOW THIS?
The Queen: He literally told you. Multiple times.
Abe the babe: Yea but HOLY SHIT
Flash and dash: what the fuck. What the FUCK.
Sith-Kabob: This is going to be good
Flash and dash: How is this - I don’t - NO!
Bet on it: Is someone with @flash and dash I want this on video
Flash and dash is offline.
Bet on it: awwww
Abe the babe: where the hell is Peter I have QUESTIONS
The messages keep going, a lot of asking for Peter to get the hell online, a lot of Flash keyboard smashing and ranting, and a lot of “why the hell didn’t we believe him again everyone remember that field trip?” There are over two hundred messages, and frankly, he couldn’t give a damn about half of them.
“Isn’t it great?” Ned laughs. “Oh and check your email, Mr. Harrison apparently sent you something.”
“Of course he did.” Peter sighs.
“If it’s anything but an apology I have the brass knuckles.” MJ looks up briefly from her book. Peter opens his emails, finding hundreds from his mom’s PR people, Twitter messages he forgot to turn off when he made the account, school emails about the start of school he actually should read now that he thinks of it, and nestled among offers for interviews, one email from Mr. Harrison.
“Is it wrong I’m surprised that it’s an apology?” Peter frowns, reading the thing. “Like, he’s nothing but nice, but he’s never been shy about telling me to stop lying. And I’ve always gotten the vibe he was on Flash’s side back then even after the video.”
“Well, he did let a potential rapist back on the team, so I’d say your vibe was warranted.” MJ scoffs. She had not been quiet about her objection to that, but since she hadn’t been captain of the team at the time she couldn’t object, and since there was nothing that happened after she became captain last year, Mr. Harrison wouldn’t let her remove him then.
Peter couldn’t say he was thrilled having Flash back on the team, but seeing him benched while Peter brought their team to the nationals as their chemistry and mathematics whiz, he wasn’t overly bothered.
Showing up people was kind of fun when you knew you wouldn’t die if you didn’t. Less pressure and all.
“How’s the Twitter thing going? I still can’t believe you made one without asking your mom.” Ned snorts.
“Yea, how did she react?”
“She didn’t actually care, really. Thought it was a good idea for the world to get to know me in a way that was more comfortable for me than press conferences. She just passed the account over to PR so they could tweak the bio and get me verified and stuff and told me to be careful about what I post. So… yeah.” Peter shrugs. “It’s weird though, I got millions of subscribers in a few hours and everyone was asking me questions. I got overwhelmed really quickly and hid in the lab for a day or two.”
“Oh, so that’s why you didn’t answer our texts?” MJ raises an eyebrow, crossing her arms as she leans against the couch.
“I told you I was okay this time! And what was happening! Don’t give me that look dang it.” he pouts. He thought he did good this time!
“Just teasing you. I’m proud of you Peter. That has got to have been a rough thing to do, but hey, things will calm down soon enough, right?”
“Hopefully.”
“Well hello there Peter and minions,” Tony knocks on the door, peeking his head in. “I presume you are the ones who ordered Chinese food?”
“Technically it was Steve who ordered, he just asked us if we wanted any too.” Peter grins.
“Ah, well that explains why it took an entire cart to move all those bags. I suggest you three get your fill before the super soldiers attack it. Peter, I’ll be in the lab with Morgan, come on down whenever you want.”
“Sure thing dad. Grab some egg rolls, mom will get mad if you don’t eat again!”
“Yea, yea,” Tony waves his hand as he leaves, grumbling about getting called out by his whole family.
“Is Morgan supposed to be in the lab? Isn’t she like, five? You guys work with repulsors and weapons.” Ned frowns.
“No, but trust me when I say you don’t want to be the one to tell mom.” Peter shudders. “She won’t kill the messenger, but she will scare the ever-loving shit out of you.”
“I love her.” MJ sighs.
“That’s gay.” He gets flipped off.
“Come on, he wasn’t kidding. They always order less than they technically should so we really need to get there first.”
“I call dibs on the dumplings!” Ned darts ahead. Peter laughs, watching MJ and Ned start fighting over whether or not he can actually eat two large orders of dumplings.
He’s not sure why he was worried things would change with his friends. They already knew who he was, after all. But still, it’s one thing to visit Stark Tower to visit with your friend, and another for that friend to suddenly be the most talked about teenager in the country.
He should know better by now.