Chapter Text
It was a normal day for Peter, he’d gone through school with Flash and his strange powers over the student populus for long enough that he knew how to keep his head down. It was really no different than any other day. He’d walked to school, met up with Ned, went to class and waited for the school day to be over so he could finally shed his normal life and become Spider-Man again.
It was a normal day. Until fifth period rolled around. Fifth period was AP chem with Mr. S, the oldest teacher on campus, and Ned and, unfortunately, Flash. Peter sat towards the middle of the classroom, next to Ned and some random people that had never attempted a conversation with him once in their lives. It wasn’t that they were bad people, Peter just flew under the radar at school and everyone else had their own lives. Peter wasn’t really upset, anyway, he had Ned and he didn’t really need any new friends.
It was towards the end of class and Peter was counting down the minutes before class would end and he would be free of Flash’s stupid comments.
“Man, if I knew Spider-Man personally, I would probably just always ditch class. Nothing they couldn’t get me out of.” Flash’s obnoxious voice rang out from the front of the class. He suddenly stood to turn around and sit on his desk, staring down at Peter. “I’d have tons of friends because everyone knows that superheroes aren’t friends with losers like Penis Parker.”
Truth be told, Peter wasn’t really listening. He was coming up with different cool lines to say when he caught more bad guys. ‘ Cool superheroes always say something cool.’ Peter thought, scribbling furiously.
“I guess normal people finally have something in common with superheroes!” Flash laughed and tried to high-five the person closest to him, but she just glared at him before staring straight ahead.
A normal day for Peter Parker. That is, until another voice joined the mix. “Leave him alone, Flash.” A...girl voice? Peter finally wakes up from his trance and scans the room to find everyone staring at the girl two seats in front of him.
“Shut up, (L/N).” He scoffed, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.
“Make me, Flash.” She challenged, shooting him a lethal look.
“Looks like Parker’s got himself a girlfriend!” Flash teased, about to fire off another zinger when the girl cut him off.
“You know what, Flash? I’m tired of your bull. You’re just insecure and you take it out on everyone better than you. You’re an absolute ass whenever you get passed up for something and the fact that Parker has beaten you this whole year for top score has you pissed. Why don’t you focus on improving yourself before taking out your personal issues on everyone else,” The girl stood up and threw her bag over her shoulder, marching past the room full of stunned faces to the exit. “Asshole.” She growled before leaving.
The entire class looked back and forth between Peter and Flash, a couple of “Oh, damn!”s were shouted out and a stunned silence fell upon the room.
“Dude!” Ned whisper-shouted, turning and smacking Peter on the shoulder. “Do you know her?”
“No,” Peter whispered back, his entire face red, “I’ve seen her around but I don’t think we’ve ever spoken to each other before?”
Ned flashes Peter one of his signature goofy smiles and bounces a bit in his chair, “She stood up for you, that’s so cool.” He gasped and faced Peter completely. “I wonder if she likes you?!”
Peter ducked lower in his chair, he was paranoid that the entire class was listening to his conversation. Luckily, just before Peter could respond, the bell rang. He stood up with alarming speed, shoving everything into his bag before responding “Nah, I bet she had separate issues with Flash. She doesn’t even know me!”
Ned shakes his head disappointment evident in his features, “Sure, Dude. Sure.” Peter smacked him on the arm lightly and Ned shrugged before they left for their next class.
As Peter and Ned walked the halls, Peter couldn’t help but think of that girl. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever even spoken to her before and she was willing to stand up for him in front of the whole class! Peter had never had that sort of bravery without the suit. She was... amazing.
The next day, Peter found himself scanning the cafeteria for her, even though he knew he would have nothing to say if he found her. Would she even want to talk to him? It would be best if Peter just didn’t talk to her, right? It didn’t take long for Peter to find her sitting among the theater kids in the corner of the large room. Her head was thrown back in laughter and she gripped her stomach, falling backward. Peter stifled a laugh when she suddenly threw her arms up in panic when she realized she’d leaned back too far.
“Peter!” Ned yelled, pulling Peter’s eyes away from the mystery girl.
“What- what?” Peter asked, somewhat defensively when he saw the obvious annoyance in Ned’s eyes.
Ned turned to find out what Peter had been looking at, after all, he hadn’t seen Peter ask like this since Michelle last year. “What were you even- Ooooh,” Ned interrupted his own thought when he saw the girl from AP chem sitting with the theater kids. He turned to face Peter again, crossing his arms. “I thought you were giving up on romance after operation Vulture.”
“I am!” Peter insisted, giving one last glance at the smiling girl in the corner before turning back to Ned. “I don’t even like her I’m just curious about her,” Peter mumbled, leaning onto the table and putting his head down.
“Peter, that’s crap and we both know it.” Ned insisted. “Just go talk to her. There’s no way that something like…’ The Incident ’ would happen again!”
The bell rang out, signaling that the lunch period ended. “Ned, I’m fine. Let’s just get to class.” Peter threw away his lunch and began walking to class, maybe a bit faster than he usually would. But that totally wasn’t because he had AP chem next with that girl. No, not at all.