Chapter 1
Okay, so maybe taking on a band of robbers trying to rob a jewelry shop using leftover alien tech at eleven thirty last night wasn’t the brightest idea. And maybe taking multiple blows to the head and ribs wasn’t the best idea either, but in Peter’s defense, it's not like he asked to get four broken ribs and a minor concussion; he was just looking out for the little guy. However, crawling up eight stories with a pounding headache topped them all, as Peter barely slid into his room without waking up May at such an ungodly hour.
By the time he made it home, injuries aside, it was well past twelve, and after the whole identity reveal thing where Peter had to explain to May that “hey I actually put myself into crazy amounts of danger every night but I can also stick to things so hey that's pretty cool,” May made sure that Peter was home and in bed by eleven forty-five. That whole ordeal also ended with a phone call to Tony, with May spitting out a colorful array of words that Peter has never heard her use before, resulting in Peter’s curfew as well as weekly reports to her and Tony. Peter finally got out of his suit and into his bed, the springs of the twin-sized mattress creaked as he slowly slid his aching body into the sheets. He didn’t even bother to set his alarm for school tomorrow, as his eyelids grew increasingly heavy and sleep overcame him.
The piercing sound of the smoke detector made Peter shoot up out of bed and quickly cover his ears. Usually, he isn’t too phased by the sound of the fire alarm and May’s cursing at her failed attempt to make breakfast, but with a healing concussion and overstimulated senses Peter’s head felt like it was on fire. His ears stayed covered by his hands until May came into his room fanning at the smoke detector above his door.
“Sorry sweetie, looks like May’s Homemade Breakfast™ is a bust. How does plain old toast sound?” She asks while fanning a dishcloth at the ceiling. It wasn’t until Peter’s lack of a response that May finally looked down at a distressed Peter. The smoke alarm turned off and May sat down beside the boy and put a gentle hand on his back as she hugged him close. “I’m sorry Pete, are your senses that bad today? Do you wanna skip school and stay home? It’s okay to take a day off, especially with how hard you’ve been working with Stark and at school.” May tells him while rubbing his back. Peter jolts up as May’s hand brushes past one of four broken ribs and uncovers his ears.
“Agh! May I’m fine!” He says while trying to hide the fact that he totally does not have any serious injuries from the night before. Of course, May, being the logical and smart person she is, sees right through Peter’s bs.
“Peter Benjamin Parker did you get hurt last night while on patrol?!” May practically yells at Peter as he stands up to show her that he’s fine.
“What? No May I’m fine! I just have a small headache and I’m a little sore from P.E. yesterday.” Peter retorts while throwing on a hoodie and heading towards the bathroom to get ready for school.
“Okay,” May says while standing up off Peter’s creaking mattress, “But if I get one more phone call from Stark telling me that you're stuck in the med bay, you're gonna be so grounded do you hear me?”
Peter sighs as he enters the bathroom and flickers on the light, “Yes May.” He answers while closing the bathroom door. Taking off his hoodie and lifting his shirt revealed an array of discolored bruising across his chest stretching all the way to his back. Peter sighed and as he pulled his t-shirt back down and grabbed his toothbrush from the cup alongside the sink. He brushed his teeth and washed his face, wincing as the cold water seeped into his pores. After drying his face, Peter went into his room in search of a pair of jeans and some socks, mismatched or not because at this point, he didn’t really care.
After finding what he was looking for, Peter grabbed his homework off of his desk and shoved it into his backpack, cursing at the sight of his unfinished calc homework. Oh well, he still had lunch to finish it at least. Walking out of his room he slung his backpack over his shoulder which, once again, made him wince. He grabbed a piece of not burned toast off the counter along with a sack lunch that May so graciously made for him and headed out the door.
“Peter Benjamin you are not leaving this house until you say goodbye to your aunt!” May yells at him just as took one faithful step out of the door. He sighed and turned around into the apartment while bending down to give May a hug and she kissed him on the cheek. “Have a good day at school!” She told him as he turned around and started for the door.
“Love you May!” Peter yells while sprinting down the hallway in order to catch his 7:20 subway to school.
Most days, Peter would have just swung to school, as it was much faster and easier than finding a spot on the crowded subway; it smelled like old people and pee, scents he could only pick up thanks to his advanced sense of smell, that never seemed to benefit him in any situation. He decided to take the pee-smelling locomotive of torture to escape the pain of swinging with healing broken ribs, and besides, he couldn’t afford to lose another backpack. This was his third one this month, and May had about had it with Peter and his amazing ability to lose backpacks.
The subway there wasn’t too bad, Peter just kept his earbuds in and head low, still recovering from the concussion he had attained the night before. As he walked into the school, he made sure to ignore Flash’s constant taunting and his trademarked “Penis Parker” name-calling and headed for his locker. He had about four minutes until the bell rang as he unloaded his books into his locker and took his earbuds out of his ears and into the small pocket of his backpack. All was well until the familiar tingling at the base of his neck pricked at his skin as his senses screamed at him “Danger! Turn around!” Peter did as his senses commanded but ended up knocking the stack of library books out of MJ’s hands.
“Dammit loser, you made me lose my page!” She yelled at him as she bent down to pick up the books sprawled across the gum-ridden floor. Ned came up behind her and bent down as well. Peter did the same while cursing under his breath.
“I’m so sorry MJ I didn’t know it was you!” Peter said while staking MJ’s ungodly number of books in her hands. He wondered why his spidey sense was alerting him of Michelle, it’s not like she’s some dangerous criminal or anything. She looked at him while she stood up and sighed.
“It’s fine.” She said while looking back at Ned with a concerned face. She noticed the bags under Peter’s brown eyes, not that she was looking at him or anything, she’s just very observant. Ned seemed to notice as well as he took a step towards Peter and silently looked him over.
“Are you okay dude?” Ned asks as Peter snaps out of a train of thought that was taking him absolutely nowhere.
“Um yeah, I’m fine, just tired from the-the Stark Internship.” He stutters out while letting out a sigh he didn’t know he was holding in. Ned gave him a worried look knowing what the “Stark Internship” really entailed. Peter shot him a reassuring nod letting Ned know that he was fine even though he was indeed not fine unless you count several broken bones and a slight concussion as fine.
“C’mon guys, let’s get to class before the bell rings. I don’t want Harrington on my ass all of Decathlon practice for being late to his class.” MJ says as the three walk away from the lockers and into the classroom. They all took their seats, Peter let out a quiet groan as his ribs protested against any and all upper body motion as he sank down in the cold plastic chair. He had a migraine coming on and the constant tapping of feet and gum chewing only made it ten times worse.
The final bell rang and the last few students sat down in their seats as Mr. Harrington stood behind the podium at the front of the classroom to take attendance. Name by name was called, starting with Betty’s and ending with Flash’s, as it did every day. Students gave out a small “here” or just a simple hand raise as their name slipped out of Mr. Harrington’s mouth. Their voices sounded almost robotic, luring Peter into a sleep-like trance. It was when Mr. Harrington yelled Peter’s name that Peter shot his head up and looked around until his eyes locked with his teacher’s.
“Peter? Earth to Peter?” Mr. Harrington said as the class let out a silent chuckle. Peter rubbed his eyes and let out a sarcastic “here” and Mr. Harrington moved down the list. After Eugene Thompson was called, (Flash’s face turned a deep shade of crimson every time his real name was called), Mr. Harrington moved to his desk and began to hand out small half sheets of paper.
“Alight class, as you guys all know Midtown High goes on one field trip a school year, and this year we have an extra special trip planned for the class of 2020!” He said excitedly as the papers were being passed down the rows of desks. “The school had to pull some strings for this one but, we are going to tour THE Avengers Compound!” The class erupted with cheer as multiple “Hell yeahs” and high-pitched “Yes’s” were shouted among the students. Peter sank lower into the desk as the plastic chair dug into his back. Ned turned around and gave him a look and Peter just shook his head.
“Aren’t you excited Peter? This is gonna be like, soooo awesome!!!” Ned said while practically bouncing out of his seat.
“Yeah,” Peter replied with an extra side of sarcasm, “It’s gonna be great.”