Chapter 2
The little boy's name was Lewis. That was his last name, at least. The media didn't know his first, or they did and refused to say it from respect. Peter hoped it was the second. But, as anonymous the victim was, he was nine years old. He heard screaming so he hid under his bed, according to his parents. And he was on the top floor, which had crumbled and fallen quickly. That's what hit Peter when he went down. That's who's cries he heard. Peter had read everything he could about him. The family was all staying at F.E.A.S.T., a homeless shelter. The shelter's biggest priority was things like this and keeping homeless people off the streets with places to live. All Peter wanted to do was help them. But he couldn't. Spider-Man needed to help them. But... maybe Spider-Man needed to be retired. Peter thought so.
For most of the morning, people were talking about the fire and the death and the people they knew that had gotten hurt. Apparently one of the seniors was in the fire. But she was in the hospital for the time being. She made it out on her own. See, not everyone needed a Spider-Man. Maybe he didn't have to do all this. The whole... superhero business. Could he even use the term hero to describe himself?
Beside him, Ned whispered. "Peter?" His friend had seemed worried about him all morning but didn't fully grasp it yet, Peter thought. He didn't completely understand. Peter glanced his direction as a confirmation to keep talking. "You okay? Like, do I need to call someone?" Who? Who would he even call? Tony would be disappointed, and May already knew. May was busy enough as it is and didn't need this on her weekend off.
"I'm fine, I promise, Ned." Peter had been saying that a lot lately. Sure didn't feel like he was fine. He was supposed to be a hero. The bell erupted through the air, interrupting everyone's conversations. People grabbed heir things and Peter was the first one out the door and down the hall. Grabbing his milk and placing it on his tray, Peter paid for his food and thanked the lunch lady that frankly didn't know his name. But he didn't really mind besides that she assumed he was a girl. But what did you expect? Peter was too quiet to correct her.
Peter set his tray down and sighed, picking at his pizza. Ned talked about his dad traveling. His dad was a businessman for energy or something. So he was all around the world at certain times. And Ned was laughing as he mentioned how his dad had once gotten mugged in Tokyo and used only a money clip for a few months, and lately, he'd been switching between a wallet or a money clip. That reminded Peter of once when he was younger, he had found a dollar on the counter and he took it and kept it himself, and hid it in a binder clip which eventually tore it. Peter had cried the entire day as a little kid.
"Hey, Parker!" A familiar voice barked. A voice that yelled 'hey, Parker!' frequently for more sinister reasons than good ones, and frankly Peter was getting tired of. The teen turned and Flash laughed. "Why do you look so mad? Who pissed in your fruit loops?"
"Leave me alone, Flash." He grumbled. Flash turned to his table and beckoned them over, getting one of his goons to follow. The goon was one of the more athletic 'nerds', but every school had it's jocks, no matter how nerdy. Flash planted his hands on the table, right next to Peter's tray. For a moment, he thought Flash was going to flip it and get food all over them like in those cheesy high school movies. But instead, Peter's phone buzzed. Before the spiderling could grab it, the bully had it in his hands.
"Who are you texting, Parker? Your mommy?" Oh, wow, Flash. Did he even know? Probably not. It's not like the two were friends. The phone buzzed again with another incoming text, urging Flash to read it. When he did, his expression turned to pure fury. "You're fucking joking!"
"What?" Peter lunged for it, and Flash threw it to his buddy. Flash balled up his fist and punched Peter in the face, an uppercut, throwing him back against the table, his back hitting the edge of it and grasping the edge. Blood ran down his face and he fell to the ground. Flash wound up again but the bell's shrill broke his focus. Peter scrambled off and Ned helped him up.
"Holy shit, do you need to go to the nurse?" Ned asked. Blood was running down his face steadily and Peter quickly shook his head, not wanting to start this whole spiel with the nurse where she asks how it happened and he had to make up some half-assed excuse nobody would ever believe.
"No, just need to clean my face." Peter pushed past Ned into the men's restroom, trying to get blood on at least places as possible. He quickly cleaned his face and got all the blood off. Peter had mere seconds before the bell rang and it did so before he even got out of the restroom, making him curse to himself as he went and grabbed his bag from the lunch table. Rushing to class, barely any students lingered. This was a prestigious school, sort of. He rushed into chemistry. The class hadn't fully settled down yet, so it wasn't as big of a deal but Peter still felt guilty. He hadn't been late since his enrollment, which bothered him but he'd forget about it sooner or later.
Peter kept bouncing his leg. What did the text say, anyway? Why was Flash so fucking pissed off? He kept bouncing his leg, getting a fuckton of anxiety. He glanced at MJ who was reading her book. She looked up at him and flipped him off when the teacher had turned her back. Peter frowned and faced forwards. Watching his teacher drone on was hell. He was anxious and he felt like his heart was leaping out of his chest. Thank god Flash wasn't in this class or he'd probably have a meltdown.
About three minutes before the class ended, the usual time when the teacher stopped teaching, MJ came up to him. "So are you going to be at practice?"
"I mean, maybe. I can ask if Happy can pick me up later, but I'm not sure if Mr. Stark has anything important for me to work on-"
"Who's Happy?"
"Oh, his driver. Bodyguard? I'm not one hundred percent sure."
"Yeah. Okay." She seemed pissed off that he was missing it. "Why do you skip so much?" Oh, fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
"The internship, I guess? But I'll try to get there more often, I promise. I'll tell Mr. Stark my schedule, and-"
"He doesn't even know your schedule? Aren't you two like father and son?"
"No! I just don't tell him about it." Tony always, always asked about school. Hell, he had the parent email to get into his grades. Which he always complimented. Sometimes he'd scold him to do his homework before working on the suit, and it always made Peter grin.
"Why? Is this not important to you?" God, this is why MJ was so good with debating. She could get in your mind and break it.
"I just think it's just Happy that asks, I just sort of assumed he wouldn't care, I guess." Happy had asked about his schedule once or twice but that was really it. He never texted back, which was what pissed Peter off sometimes.
"Seems pretty shitty."
"I guess." Peter shrugged. MJ had never ever liked Tony Stark. She used to go on rants about how he sexualized his assistant or whatever, and once said she'd read something about him assaulting her- which was proven fake! She also hated him for selling weapons and doing things to keep the leftists happy, etc. etc. She wasn't quiet about it all.
"Well. See you." Michelle shrugged and walked off. Peter gathered his things, going to Ned's locker. The inside had a mirror you could get at the dollar store and a photo of Peter and Ned in freshman year. God, Peter looked so young in that picture. His hair looked stupid and he looked so feminine. "Hey, uh, can I borrow your phone?"
"Yeah, why?" He handed it over. His phone was newer than Peter's, but then again his dad was kind of loaded.
"I need to call Happy. Flash took mine." Peter dialed Happy's cell in and it auto-filled it in. "Why did you keep his phone number?"
"It's Tony Stark's driver! Why wouldn't I keep it?"
"That's weird, man."
NED L.
hey, can you pick me up later? decathlon practice is about an hour
its peter
parker
I'm using my friend's phone
"So you'll be at decathlon today?" Ned asked as he put his phone back in his pocket.
"Yeah. I don't really want to go to Mr. Stark's, anyway. I think he knows about the whole fire thing."
"You don't want to go to Tony Stark's compound?! Since when?!" Ned had always been jealous about not going. In a good way. Like he admired Tony so much.
"I dunno! He texted me this morning for me to call him and I just haven't. He's really weird to text. Like, do I use proper grammar or just text like I always do-"
"That's why Flash punched you."
Peter paused, smacking his lips together. "What?"
"Yeah, you got a text from him, right? That's why he got so mad?"
"Oh, shit! Maybe! I swear to god, he better give it back."
"He probably will. He's not that bad." Peter gave him a look. Yes, Flash really was that bad. Ned shrugged and walked with him to their next class. "Okay, that's on me. You're right."
"Yeah, I know I am. He's the worst."
"Don't make me tell him you said that!"
"You wouldn't dare!" Peter gasped sarcastically, knowing full well that his friend would never. Neither of them ever liked Flash. Even before he was a bully. He'd always been a jerk to other people and constantly jealous. And Ned was always very supportive of Team Iron Man and hated how rude the bully was towards Peter about knowing him.
"You're right. I wouldn't."
Peter's last period class could be described as boring as hell. Not much to say about it. His mind kept wandering back to the little boy, and how to fix it. How could he fix something like that, really? He royally fucked up and it affected someone else besides him. That wasn't what usually happened. The only other recognizable thing that had happened in the class is that the girl sitting next to him kept chewing peppermint gum and it was driving Peter nuts. He used to love peppermint as a kid but soon after the spider-bite, it'd burn his mouth and he would spit it out almost immediately. He couldn't stand the taste or smell. It revolted him and nearly made him throw up. He felt uncomfortable all class sitting next to her until she spat it out, leaving her smelling of bad breath mixed with the cursed candy.
Peter walked into decathlon, MJ smirking at him. "Ah, you've finally decided to join us."
"Yeah, I promised, didn't I? I'll just get picked up later."
"Peter!" Ned came over, sitting next to him. "Happy responded to me!"
"Yeah, I'd hope so. What did he say?"
"He said 'okay', and asked what time, so I told him." Ned grinned.
"Congrats, he barely ever responds to me." Peter shrugged as they took a seat. The questions were about to begin.
"What is the border between Palestinians and Israelis called?" MJ asked. She knew it full well and so did Peter. But Flash, living up to his nickname, slammed his hand on the bell.
"The West Bank!" Flash announced what felt like seconds before Peter could ring his own.
"Nope!"
"The Conflict Zone!" Peter corrected.
"That's right, Peter. You should come more often, you'd be able to kick Flash's ass that way."
Peter felt a blush creep across his pale face as he broke out into an involuntary grin. Flash shot daggers at him every time the boy corrected his wrongdoing. Peter had read most the textbooks back to pack while patrolling and had nothing better to do when he had his backpack with him. He fist-bumped Ned, whom he'd confided in all about his thoughts about MJ. He really wanted to be her friend, or at least closer to her. She was so cool and all around badass, to be honest.
The bell rang for the after-school buses to arrive and they all packed up their things. Peter grabbed his backpack off the ground, going to Ned. "Has Happy responded to you yet? Like, about him being here, or..?"
"He hasn't said anything yet. Sorry, dude. You said he doesn't reply a lot, so maybe just wait outside? He knows where to go, right?"
"Yeah, he does." The two ventured out through the empty halls. The school never felt the same after hours. Like it was abandoned but still lively. It was weird to see the school without random kids flying drones or girls waiting outside the bathroom to ditch class.
"Oh, there's my dad, see you later Pete!" Ned waved and climbed into the car. Peter sighed, sitting on the bench.
The wind ran through Peter's hair and through the trees, sending a shiver through his sweatshirt. It was a plain slightly-muted red color, with a white and gray plaid collar poking out the top and his wrists. He had grabbed a random pair of black jeans hoping it'd work well. He didn't really mind what he wore anymore. It's not like anyone cared, to be honest. Only he did. And he just wanted to be comfortable.
"Hey, Parker!" A voice yelled behind him. Flash grabbed his hair, yanking it back as someone pressed their foot on Peter's back, throwing him down the stairs. Peter landed on his shoulder, scraping his hands and roughing up his sweater near to tears. Peter groaned, trying to get up and not be so dizzy. He got lightheaded quickly. But the back of his bag was grabbed and yanked off him, thrown into the grass. Peter rushed after it but a the same foot tripped soon after his sneakers made contact with grass.
"You think you're so high and mighty because you know one answer to a question and you intern for Tony Stark- I bet he doesn't even know you exist!" Flash slapped him across the face. The bully slammed his foot onto his upper thigh/waist and pressed hard. "You're just some stupid orphan! Like he would pity some little freak who's parents are fucking dead!"
Peter tried to grab Flash's foot but he felt like the world needed to stop spinning and coming at him. Flash grabbed his shoulders and shoved him. He grabbed Peter's bag, throwing it away from him. Flash hurled something at his face, the corner of the rounded-rectangle object hitting him right in the eye and causing him to yell out in pain. It was his phone, which bounced off his face and fell onto the concrete.
"Fucking freak!" Flash barked, storming off. Peter sighed, happy it was over. Peter lied on the ground, taking deep breaths. His chest hurt. He grabbed his bag and lied on the ground for a moment. He grabbed his phone and took a break, laid on the floor for a bit.
Peter stared up at the sky, catching his breath. Why was Flash so furious? He didn't mean to be a jerk to him. He just liked decathlon- okay, maybe he showed off to him for a bit. After what felt like forever, There was a voice. "Kid?" Happy called. "Peter?"
Oh, fuck.