The Web Heads

“I can’t believe you think Ocarina of Time is the greatest video game ever.” Ned said to his father, while he held the GameCube controller and watched Link wander through the Zora Palace. “I mean, I expected this from mom but not you.” 

Ned’s father, Edward, rolled his eyes. “It’s all about the graphics, son.”

It was Ned’s turn to roll his eyes. Ever since he could walk, his father was a graphic designer and he had Ned testing out video games for business. But Ned enjoyed video games for their storyline and plot, not for their graphics. 

“Peter would think it’s all about the plot.” Ned mumbled.

“That’s why Peter isn’t allowed to come over.”

It was a joke, Ned knew that, but it was a pretty bad one considering Peter never did get to come over anymore. Not since Ned’s baby sister was born. She needed plenty of naps and plenty of quiet and when Ned was with Peter, they weren’t quiet. 

It didn’t matter, though, because Ned got to go to Peter’s house almost every night, so it was all good. Even if Peter hasn’t invited him over in the past two weeks, it was okay. He knew his friend was busy with the Stark Internship. 

“Sorry son. I didn’t mean to infer he could never come over again, it’s just with your sister being so colicky, your mother and I can’t watch two teenage boys.”

“It’s totally cool. I completely understand.”

Edward clasped his son’s shoulder with a proud smile. Ned wished it would have lasted longer, but his Mom walked in with a disappointed look on her face. 

“All right, now what’s this about a Saturday detention?” 

Looking at his hands in his lap, Ned shrugged his shoulders. He felt guilty for making such a simple mistake but he knew he needed to be honest. His parents were cool. They would understand. 

“Well, I was building my LEGO Death Star and I lost track of time so I missed class. That’s how I got detention today, and then I was out of my seat during detention so I got one on Saturday.”

His mother fixed him with a glare. “Why were you out of your seat, young man?”

“Flash was trying to punch Peter.”

Their reactions were explosive. His mother looked ready to attack something or shake her fist at the sky, and his Dad nearly threw the GameCube to the floor when he leaped out of his seat. 

“Why would someone try to hurt Peter!” 

Ned felt himself chuckle, and that was definitely not what he wanted to do. Not when his parents were so upset, but he couldn’t help but smile at their protectiveness. It was no secret they both loved Peter. They bought him presents at Christmas and his Dad even offered to help with any air conditioning or heater problems that May might encounter now that Ben’s passed away. At one point, Ned’s Dad even offered to teach Peter how to drive. So it was no secret, they cared about Peter almost as much as they cared about Ned. 

“This isn’t funny. Why would this Flash boy try and hurt Peter?” His mom reiterated. 

“Because Flash is a bully. He hurts everyone.” Ned explained. 

“Does he pick on you?” 

“Sometimes.” Ned admitted, looking sheepishly at his hands again. 

“Oh my God.” His mother whispered.

“No, mom. It’s nothing. It’s not a big deal.”

“I should call the principal and -“

“Don’t bother,” Ned shook his head sadly, “A bunch of people already tried. No one can get Flash in trouble because his father is on the school board and he never punishes Flash for anything.” 

“How do you know that?”

Ned shrugged, “Well sources, very reliable ones, have said that they’ve seen Flash flip off the principal with his Dad sitting right there next to him, and he didn’t do anything about it.” 

“That’s ridiculous.” His father crossed his arms. 

“Do you want me to call the school and get you out of detention?” His mom asked. 

Ned thought about this for a moment. Yeah, he would love to spend his Saturday playing   Fortnite but he didn’t want to do that without Peter. 

“No, it’s okay. I’ll go so Peter doesn’t have to be alone.” 

His mom smiled, leaning foreword to brush his cheek with her thumb. It was a sweet gesture which normally Ned would pull away from, claiming he’s too old, but at this moment it felt really nice. 

“I’m proud of you, sweetie.” 

Ned knew he was awesome. But now he felt really awesome. 

                     __________________  

Getting up early the next morning did not feel so awesome. It was Saturday. He should be able to sleep in forever, but instead he had a seven hour prison sentence to look forward to. 

After smothering his toast with strawberry jelly, Ned changed into some comfy clothes and took the bus to Peter’s apartment. 

Peter took longer than usual to come outside, and Ned feared that he forgot he had Saturday detention, until he spotted a mop of messy brown hair exiting the building.

“Hey bro, you had me worried. I thought you were going to ditch me.” 

“Sorry.” Peter looked genuinely upset. 

“Hey man, it’s chill.” Ned smiled but Peter looked anxious. He was gripping the straps of his backpack and rocking back and forth on his heels. Instead of walking he was staring at Ned mournfully, as if he wanted to say something. Most of the time he was looking at Ned, but Ned caught him darting fearful little looks to his apartment building every once and a while. 

“Did you forget something?” 

Peter shook his head, but it looked like the words barely registered. He was lost in his own mind. 

Ned found himself transported back in time. There was one winter in particular that stood out in his mind. Peter and Ned had to been about ten years old when they spent nearly everyday together after school. It was during this year that Ned’s parents were never home. They were spending every moment of free time at the hospital with his grandfather, which meant that Ned was practically living in Peter’s apartment for the winter. And one night, the two of them had the bright idea they would go sledding in Forest Park alone. 

“Are you sure we’re allowed to be here?” Peter would ask as they climbed the hill with their wooden sled fit for two. 

“Of course.” Ned assured him, even though he wasn’t sure at all. 

They stood at the top of the hill and peered over at the double bump.

“It’s going to feel like a rollercoaster.” Ned promised.

The first time they went down they felt a little jump. Nothing really exciting and Ned was disappointed. 

Turned out the snow wasn’t compacted yet. The second time they went down, they gained a little more momentum, enough to bring a smile to their faces. 

Well after doing it four or five times, the snow was so compacted that they were sure to be speeding really fast, and that’s when Peter got the idea to get a running head-start. 

Ned sat in the front, while Peter ran, jumping into the back of the sled. As soon as his body hit the sled, it tipped over the edge of the hill and Ned knew it was going to be bad. 

“Hold on tight!” 

They were gaining so much speed as they approached the jump, Peter was clutching his arm for dear life. When they dropped over the second hill, for a good three seconds they were flying in midair. It was breathtaking. If there was ever a moment to pause in life, that would have been it. 

Of course there was no pause button, and the flying feeling was very short lived. The sled dropped like a stone two seconds later, and when it landed it cracked into a million pieces. Both Peter and Ned went rolling in different directions down the snowy hill. 

At last, Ned was on his stomach with his face planted in the snow. By the time he got his head out of the ground, Peter was laughing so hard he was shaking like he was having a convulsion. Fat tears were rolling down his pink cheeks while he fell back against the white snow. 

“Oh my God.” He cried, “That was great.” He took a deep breath and sighed, “That was too great.”

Ned agreed. It was one of the greatest nights of his life, despite what happened later. They laughed the entire way home to Ned’s house, singing Christmas Carols at the top of their lungs. Running across the sidewalks, and dancing to their lovely singing voices. 

“I don’t know if they’ll be snow but have a cup of cheer.” 

“Have a holly Jolly Christmas and when you walk down the street, say hello to friends you know, and everyone you meet.”

It was one of the most freeing experiences of Ned’s life. But when he walked through the front door of his house, he was met with his mother standing in the middle of the room with a funny expression on her face. 

They stopped talking immediately. An eerie silence followed before his mother completely broke down. Grandpa was dying. He had a stroke while in the hospital, and the doctors gave him a week to live. 

The days that followed, Ned would come home from the hospital with his mother, and she would be craving a quiet moment where she could just think and catch her breath. And Ned would be lost in his thoughts thinking about his grandfather’s illness, and all the little children he saw sitting in hospital beds while he was there. He felt weighed down by the unjust suffering in the world. Kids shouldn’t have to go through that. 

Peter was there through it all. He was at the hospital. He was in the car. And somehow Peter was just there in Ned’s house. And when it was too much, and Ned was lost in his thoughts, Peter would walk up to him, put his hand on his shoulder and sing so quietly, “I don’t know if there’ll be snow, but have a cup of cheer.”  

For a split second, Peter looked as though he thought he had made a horrible mistake. Like maybe Ned thought he was making fun of him, but Ned laughed and threw himself at Peter, hugging him tightly. 

“I’m so sorry, Ned. I’m so sorry.” 

Ned pulled away from the embrace, and shook his head, still smiling despite the tears. “Let’s keep singing.”

So they did, they sang until they were cackling with laugher because they needed to laugh. 

                      ————————

So now that Peter was standing on the sidewalk, lost in thought the way Ned was all those years ago, he figured it was time to return the favor.

“Hey bro, have a cup of cheer.” 

And just like that, a smile returned to Peter’s face. 

“I can’t believe you just said that.” He laughed, turning to give another glance at his apartment, before quickly turning back.

“We should go.”

“Yeah, we don’t want to be late for our date with Jabba the Hutt.” Ned mumbled but Peter made a face. 

“No way, Coach Murch is nothing like Jabba the Hutt. He’s not cool enough to be one of the Galaxy’s most powerful gangsters.“

“You’re right. Let’s be real, that would totally be Tony Stark.” 

“Dude.” Peter said, shaking his head. “No.”

“So what’s it like working at the Stark internship?”

“Come on, Ned. You always ask me this.”

“I just want to know. It must be nice working for Tony Stark.”

“Yeah.. it’s all right. Would be nicer if I actually got to see him. But he’s busy doing stuff and I’m just here waiting for when he says he needs me.”

They were hot and panting as they hitched up their backpacks and started walking. Ned groaned under the weight of his backpack. He had brought a million things to keep him occupied during the eight hour day, but he might pass out from how heavy it was to carry. 

“What did you bring?” Peter asked, a flash of concern in his eyes. He had his hands held out just in case Ned fell over. 

“Books, my phone charger, snacks -“

“Wooo, Doritos?”

“Duh.” Ned said proudly.

“Did you get the sweet and spicy kind?” Peter asked, excitedly. 

“I thought you didn’t like spicy things.” Ned said. 

“I don’t...but I do.” He burst into laughter at the look on Ned’s face. “It’s just those Doritos. They kinda got me addicted.”

“But you like the Nacho Cheese kind still, right?” 

“Yeah of course. Don’t insult me Ned. That’s my number one go-to snack.”

“Well lucky for you, I brought both.”

Peter’s eyes widened staring at Ned with a  star struck expression, a tiny gasp escaped his lips. 

“No way?! That’s awesome! You’re the best!” 

Ned shrugged, unable to wipe the smirk off of his face or deny Peter’s logic. He paused at the traffic light, waiting until he saw the green walking man light up before crossing. Both he and Peter were looking at Mr. Delmar’s Deli-Grocery store ahead of them. 

“Wish we could get a sandwich like Mr. Delmar’s for lunch. But I bet we’ll be forced to eat cafeteria food.”

Ned raised his eyebrows. “Peter... we’re supposed to pack lunch for Saturday detention.”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Yeah. I can’t believe you didn’t know that.”

“Well Ned, it’s not like I’ve ever been to Saturday detention before.” 

Ned never really thought about it, but it was true. Peter didn’t get detention. He just didn’t. 

“Oh wow. How did your aunt handle it? Are you grounded? Did she take your phone? Or did she give you one of those long lectures that always ends in a hug and you don’t get in any trouble because -“

“I don’t want to talk about it, Ned.” His friend snapped. 

“Jeez, why don’t you want to talk about it? Is it because you think my parents were mad, because surprisingly, they weren’t.”

“That’s great. Hey, come on. Let’s stop at Mr. Delmar’s since I need to buy lunch now.”

Ned nodded, walking behind Peter, into the grocery store. Something was off with how Peter was walking. It was like he had a really mild limp. 

“Did you twist your ankle?” He whispered after Peter ordered his sandwich smooshed down with extra pickles. 

“What? No.” Peter whispered back, confusion clouding his eyes. 

Ned was confused too. Not only was Peter walking weird, but he was acting sort of different. 

He was mostly the same fun loving Peter, happy-go-lucky, willing to talk about anything, except he was touchy on some topics that he never used to be sensitive about. 

On the short subway to school, Ned learned all the points Peter refused to talk about: the Stark Internship, his aunt, and learning to drive. 

He did talk about everything else, though. Especially about Star Wars, the Avengers, and MJ. But he claimed he had a crush on Liz Allan. Ned knew this for a while now, but he wasn’t sure if he could believe it. Peter didn’t seem to love Liz, he seemed to love MJ. 

Meanwhile, Ned didn’t have his eyes on any girls. But Peter did tease him for his awkward moments in the hallway with Betty Brant. 

“She’s cute, okay, I’ll admit it. But I’m a bachelor, Peter. I need to experience the world first.” Ned said. 

“So you’re scared to ask her out.”

Ned rolled his eyes, realizing suddenly that he had a touchy subject as well. So maybe there was nothing strange going on with Peter at all. He was changing, just like Ned, and there was nothing wrong with that. 

It’s like when they were twelve and Ned still wanted to play sword fighting outside at recess, but Peter said he felt funny doing it at school cause people were staring so they should just save it for home. Now they don’t sword fight at all, and that’s okay too.

After a little while of talking, Peter offered one of his headphones to Ned and they started jamming. 

“This is the song Happy let me listen to during our trip to Germany together.” Peter explained. He loved talking about his trip to Germany, but wouldn’t say anything about what actually happened when he was there. 

A smile fell over Ned’s face as he listened to the upbeat song, Hooked on a Feeling. He began bobbing his head, ignoring the dirty looks he got from a few others. 

“You should have heard Happy trying to sing this.” Peter laughed. 

Ned began to mouth the words to the song quietly, not wanting to actually sing in front of the entire train of people. Soon, Peter caught on, and was happily mouthing the words with him. 

By the time they got to school, Peter took the stairs a little more hesitantly, and Ned assumed he was nervous to see Flash again. But part of him thought it might be because of that limp Peter has going. It seemed to get worse with stairs. 

“Don’t worry, I think Flash will be more calm  today.”

“What makes you think that?” Peter asked.

“Well, he doesn’t want to get another detention, so he’ll probably be on his best behavior.”  

As they were walking down the hall, Peter turned to go to Mr. Davis’ classroom again but Ned grabbed his arm to steer him in the right direction. Peter flinched. 

“No no no, Saturday Detentions are held in shop class.”

Peter raised his eyebrows, “So they stick us down in the basement with a bunch of tools and gadgets to play with?” 

Ned nodded slowly. 

“This is going to be fun. I can work on building my web -“

Peter paused, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. “Uh! Web...site. I can work on my Website.” 

“You have a website?”

“Uh-huh.” Peter choked out in nearly a whimper. He was lying through his teeth, Ned knew this, but he didn’t care. He just wanted Peter to relax. 

“Cool,” He said to alleviate his friend’s tension, “But I don’t think we are allowed to use the workshop tools.” 

Peter frowned but nodded his head, “Yeah that makes sense cause it’s like a punishment and all.”

The basement hallway to shop class always had an unpleasant odor, like someone was forgetting to wear deodorant. Ned’s shoes felt like deadweights as he stood outside the classroom door. He really didn’t want to be here and risk Flash making fun of him again. But there wasn’t much he could do about it now. 

Taking a calming breath, he reached for the door handle and then confidently swung the door open and stepped inside. He instantly regretted his decision when the entire room of students looked up at him with glares. 

What did he do? It took Ned a moment to realize, but the group was unhappy in general, and it wasn’t directed at him. Phew!

Ned and Peter walked towards the desks in the front where no one else liked to sit and slipped into their seats, preparing for the day. 

Coach Murch was sitting at the front desk, reading a book, and causally glancing at this watch. At exactly 7:35am, Coach put down the book and stood up.

“Welcome to detention. I know you don’t think you all deserve to be here - hell, I don’t deserve to be here but I get paid by the hour so thank you for the overtime. I’ve been instructed to give each of you an assignment to complete by the end of today. It’s a biology worksheet.” 

Coach Murch passed back the papers as he continued talking. Ned frowned at how thick the stack of paper was. 

“You will not talk, you will not move from your seats, and you will not sleep. You may eat at exactly 11am. Nothing before and nothing after 1pm.” 

“I have to be on the field today because I am coaching the football team, but I will be in this room periodically to check on you. If I see anyone breaking the rules you will get another detention and a call home, is that understood?”

He turned away before anyone had a chance to speak. 

“Good. I’ll see you in a little bit.”

Once Coach Murch was out of the room, Ned opened his biology textbook and began searching for the chapter indicated on his worksheet, when out of the corner of his eye he spotted Liz Allan picking sparkles off of her pink blouse and flicking them onto the floor. 

No one moved as the wall clock ticked loudly, each tick signifying one less minute they had to spend together. Ned could tell everyone was irritated at each other for getting in this situation in the first place. 

Cell phones were out in a matter of minutes, and they kept everyone occupied for a few hours. But there were only so many Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat stories a person could look at without getting bored of that, or even more upset. So that’s how everyone found themselves either working on their biology packet, or scribbling on the desk. 

Ned had been playing video games on his phone, but he knew he needed to get started on his work or else he might get another Saturday detention. So he grabbed his pencil and stared at the paper. 

But soon his eyes drifted to the other people in the shop classroom. MJ was slouched in her seat, a scowl on her face. Liz had earbuds in, swaying softly. Flash was wearing his signature varsity jacket while he sat with his boots up on the table, and sunglasses over his eyes. He seemed the most restless out of everyone. Ned assumed it was because he wanted to be out on the field rather than in detention. He was tapping his pencil on the desk. The noise grew in volume with each passing second. 

“Oh my God!” Liz suddenly exploded. “Stop it!”

Flash leaped out of his seat. Oh, here we go, Ned thought miserably, shrinking as he watched Flash pace in front of the classroom. 

“You know what? Let’s play a game.” Flash suggested out of nowhere. 

That was random.