Spinner of yarns!
"This explains so much!" said MJ as they walked towards Stark Tower. "You being so sneaky, missing practice, the bad onesie"
But Peter wasn't really listening. All the high schoolers were being encouraged into the tower past the octo-thingy. Some chose to run instead. Walking past the octo-thingy-guy, Peter felt his heart sink.
He didn't want to seem self-centred, but being Spider-Man was hard. To do the fight, win the fight and survive was a struggle.
But to have someone else, especially a bully, take the credit was torture!
So having to listen to Harry being patted on the back and given fist bumps was unbearable! But Peter's mouth remained closed and kept walking. It was Ned and MJ's mouths he was worried about.
When Peter entered the tower there were five men waiting for them. All five of them were armed with med kits, snacks and strong hot drinks for the panic infused teenagers who were still yet to calm down.
Peter didn't speak to them about his wound. He just accepted a hot chocolate and sat next to Ned and MJ on fold up seats that had been placed down for the high schoolers to calm down and try to relax a bit on. Ned and MJ were staring off at another group of teens surrounding one student.
"Osborn's bragging. What a surprise" informed MJ as she rolled her eyes and got out a book with the title 'War and Peace' and began to read. But Peter suspected she wasn't really paying any attention to it.
Peter listened through the noise of panicked teens to listen to whatever Harry was saying. His words made the victory feel more like another punch to the gut.
"So, you know when I went for the dive? Yeah, I would've been beaten but I remembered a move Tony showed me and I managed to web him up and defeat him and-"
Peter couldn't listen anymore.
MJ clicked her mouth and put down her book without saving the page. "I never thought he was Spider-Man. For a year he's quiet, next he's a bragging nightmare? Not a chance"
"Yeah!" Ned butted in "There was no way it could've been him"
But Peter's mind was somewhere else. With the octo-thingy outside who was probably going to be answering a lot of questions very soon. But all Peter could ask himself was: How did he know Harry isn't Spider-Man?
"Don't worry about that thing Peter" Ned tried to reassure him "Damage control will take care of him."
*
Tony stood in the background, away from the teenager gossip and out of sight. He, for some reason, felt uneasy about the whole situation.
He'd seen Spider-Man fight that robotic-many-armed-maniac thanks to Friday, and it didn't look very pretty.
The kid had been pushed, shoved and flung around like a basket ball. The amount of damage that was at the scene should equal many bruises and that glass that had definitely cut the kid's arm.
So where was the injuries?
Harry looked like he'd just been modelling for his high school, not fighting a killer octopus!
But as Tony stared at the teen huddle, he noticed three more teenagers sitting together on three chairs a little away from Harry. One of the kids was that Parker kid who Harry said had been bullying him. The more he looked at the familiar kid the more he noticed.
The kid had a fairly noticeable bruise to the side of his face. Tony had seen MANY bruises in his life and this one reminded him of one he had after being slammed to the ground.
'huh' Tony thought to himself 'that's odd'
Tony studied the kid more and more, looking for anything else strange.
"Alright kids" spoke up a nervous voice. It was the teens' teacher "Field trip has been cancelled for today! Please return to bus please!"
All the kids groaned, but did as they were asked. All the kids stood up. Harry was practically bouncing as he stood up. No injuries there then.
But the Parker kid stood up holding his arm to his chest in a protective manner. Almost like it was... hurt.
No. Way. In. Hell...!
Before Tony even came up with a plan, he was in full glance of all the kids and walking forward. He lightly noticed Harry stepping towards him as if expecting some sort of prise, but Tony didn't even look at him.
He, instead, stopped in front of an alarmed Parker.
All the other kids stood still and in silence. Waiting.
"Run along then you lot, I just need to borrow this kid" he informed everyone, including Harry. All the movement picked up again until everyone was gone. Except for him and Parker.
The kid stared at the floor during an awkward moment of silence which he wasn't sure how to break.
"Do you need a bandage for that arm?"