Chapter Text
People at school noticed Peter’s change in appearance and personality after break, and they also knew that Gwen Stacy had lost her life. Apparently, in the cross fires of a fight on the outskirts of New York City. Anything other than that was confidential, and a mystery to Midtown and the rest of anyone who knew of the police in cheif’s only daughter. Ms. Stacy left the city after losing everything. Of course, people had questions. And they could only think of one person to ask. But, when Peter Parker returned to Midtown High, nobody felt like getting them answered. It was obvious he wasn’t doing well. He was different. Anyone who’s anyone knows about Parker’s luck, and how he seems to lose someone close to him every year. Only this time, he lost someone close to everyone else too.
Gwen Stacy.
Her name rang in the mind of every student and teacher since they heard the news over break, and echoed even as they walked the halls on their first day back to school. It was heart wrenching to see the empty seat she once occupied.
~
“Rise and shine, Peter. It’s currently 7:35 in the morning and a sunny 68 degrees outside. You have approximately forty-five minutes to be up and ready for school.” Peter’s personalized AI, Karen, lightened the tint on the windows to let the morning sun in, effectively waking her creator up.
And with a groan, the teenager slowly started getting ready for a (probably) terrible day at school.
Peter was dreading going back. Freshman year, he lost Uncle Ben. Sophomore year, it was Aunt may. And now he’s seventeen, with another death under his belt. He had nobody. It’s been close to two months. He spent the whole of his summer fighting bad guys and getting drunk after patrol to die down the physical and emotional pain. But if you ask Peter, he’s just going through the motions and is, in fact, fine.
Except for right now, because his nightly adventures include last night, and he now has a splitting headache with a hint of bile in the back of his throat— not to mention the few cuts and bruises that are left over from patrol after his healing factor. Picking out some clothes, he heads to the bathroom as he is in desperate need of a shower. Looking in the mirror turns out to be a dreadful idea as he brushes his teeth. He doesn’t look very good. The bags under his eyes and the sickly color to his skin is a clear indication of his two-month hangover. Plus, he’s tired.
It’s difficult living on his own. It’s lonely.
After the passing of his beloved Aunt May, Peter was so utterly lost. But, he knew he didn’t want to go into foster care. Not another set of parents. He has bad luck with those apparently. A curse, maybe. The foster system was also known for being terrible, and he wanted nothing to do with it. So, he did anything a logical sixteen year old orphan would do.
He forged some documents. It was easy in his opinion, if not unnerving. Peter now lives officially with a distant relative named Angela Rodriguez, in a small apartment close to his school, Midtown High of Science and Technology.
Unofficially, he lives in a modern and high-tech penthouse in Manhattan. See, Peter Parker is something of a genius. He’s always been ridiculously smart, smart enough to go to college years before now. But he and May could never afford to send him to one. Which was fine. Peter enjoyed school with Ned Leeds and Michelle Jones— and… some others.
But after May, he had to make a living for himself. Worried about CPS and the constant anxiety that someone may look into his cousin, Angela, and find she doesn’t really exist, always pricks at the back of Peter’s mind. He knows he’s committing a crime. So a typical part-time job for a teenager was out of the question. It wouldn’t make ends meet anyway. Instead, Peter dived into his savings.
It was originally for college. After Ben died, Peter started selling some of his inventions. He’s built projects in his free-time using school supplies through the years. Considering they were never recorded, he didn’t have to worry about anything being tracked back to him. And they sold for a lot. Of course, the school’s technology in itself he used was nothing short of mediocre, but with some coding and upgrading he could turn anything less than extraordinary into exactly that. Peter never told May what he was doing. She didn’t like him worrying about money, and especially wouldn’t like him selling his self-defense technology and biochemistry inventions under the radar to anyone who would take it. it was never anything dangerous, and he never caught the eye of any scientists in the field at the time (thank god), but nevertheless, it happened.
And good thing it did. He used the money to buy a dingy apartment (or rather, ‘Angela Rodriguez’ did). From there, his small underground business grew. He was able to afford better quality materials, and sell them for even better prices. He got a few patents. He operated under an alias, Silver Alkyon. And through Spider-Man, Peter made good friends in Matt Murdock and Wade Wilson (aka, Daredevil and Deadpool). Seeing as he was too young to own a company, and needed to stay under the radar, Matt is the face of the business— and that’s about it. Now owning a small building as well, Peter has hired employees to work on technology to keep with supply and demand. Matt’s the “CEO,” but he’s a lawyer, not a scientist. Everyone knows it too. Only a small group of employees have actually met Peter. And they passed through the grapevine that the boss is young. He was very particular in choosing who could work for him, and knows his employees trust him too, despite not knowing him directly. So, he does his paper work and communicates through Karen and emails to get the job done.
Thus, Peter Parker was living three lives. One, as a nerdy teenager with a tragic backstory, and a small apartment with a cousin in queens. Two, the rich owner of Alexo Industries. And three, a vigilante known as the Amazing Spider-Man.
Which brings us back to 7:35, Monday morning, August 22nd, first day of junior year.
And yes, Peter is dreading going back. But also, excited. Could you blame him? As he stands under the hot water of the shower, he realizes how much he misses Ned and Michelle.
Peter should be used to death, he thinks. But that didn’t stop him from spending his whole summer wallowing in work and misery. And during that, he also cut contact from his friends. He didn’t answer the many texts from Ned, dwindling in numbers as the days went by, and he didn’t answer the few concerned messages from Michelle either. But he read them. And Peter knew they understood where he was at mentally, and that he needed space. But they were worried, and probably pretty angry. .
With that thought in mind, he swiftly turns off the water, gets dressed, grabs his back back, and makes his way to school.