Chapter Text
Peter was a little early to his class. Lunch had just been and he knew he needed to get out of there before Flash and his cronies would find him. One of the safest places to be was Mr. Harrington’s class and Peter knew the teacher would be there early eating his lunch. Peter barged into the classroom and sure enough there his homeroom teacher was situated, eating a salad and seemingly unphased at the young teen barging in.
“Hey Mr. Harrington?” Peter asks, before stepping forward. “Could I just talk to you for a sec?”
Mr. Harrington mumbled an affirmative around his food, and nodded his head to try and convey that Peter can come in. He motions for the student to close the door behind him and to sit down. As he swallows his bite of the salad he gives Peter a real smile and a greeting.
“What’s up, kid? What do you want to talk about?”
Peter sighed, shoulders hunched and suddenly the nerves started to creep up. At first it seemed like a good plan, Mr. Harrington told him he could always come to him if there was anything after his uncle died, but it didn’t help that he sucked at opening up to people.
“Nothing much, sir. I just- the whole thing is-” Peter took a deep breath while fiddling with his hands. “After everything happened, eating lunch in the lunch hall is… a lot. The noise, the lights – and it makes it difficult for me to eat and in turn it makes me dizzy so I guess I wanted to ask if there was any exception I would be able to get to eat my lunch elsewhere?”
It was a half lie, it was mostly his Spidey senses that set him off, an added benefit would be being able to evade Flash’ taunts and jests. He would miss eating lunch with Ned, but his best friend encouraged him to seek a solution first. To just talk to Mr. Harrington for once. Peter only listened after MJ threatened him to just ask for the aid that he needed or she would do it, and that Ned would not be alone with her around. MJ didn’t know of his Spidey senses, but he guesses the overstimulation is linked enough to neurodivergency that she suspects he’s on the spectrum somewhere. She isn’t completely off either.
Peter’s head is tilted, and he hunches in on himself even further as he expects rejection. The opposite happens however as a hand lands on his and he looks up to his teacher. Mr. Harrington is smiling at him, softly, and gives him another encouraging nod as he finishes chewing on the food still in his mouth.
“Peter, it’s completely fine for you to feel that way. I’ll make it so you can eat lunch with me in this classroom for at least the next two or so weeks. Ned and MJ are also free to join you if they want to. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
Peter swallowed. He had another thing to talk about, actually, but he had no idea how to bring it up. Instead he felt his emotions betray him and from the sheer relief of having his homeroom teacher actually listen to him and adjust something based on his needs. School had never felt safe, and it had gotten so much worse after he had been bitten by that radioactive spider. Then uncle Ben died, and then he got roped into going to Germany with Mr. Stark and his life had taken such a huge turn it was difficult to navigate it through the grief. May had to work twice as hard as well to make sure he could eat, and his larger appetite just made him feel guilty. His aunt had been nothing but supportive and accepting. A bit hesitant when she found out about the whole Spider-Man thing, but she tried to listen to him and they worked out a compromise.
As the first tear fell, Mr. Harrington dropped his fork to try and see what had happened, which emotion came with the tears and the hiccups. Peter instead just looked up and then quietly asked for a hug. His teacher gathered him into his arms in an instant and kept the pressure tight. Nothing had been tight enough to satisfy Peter since he gained his abilities, but this was the best he could get and he would savour it.
As Peter calmed down the warning bell rang that lunch would be over in five minutes and Peter scrambled to get himself ready and seemingly busy reading a book before the other students would come streaming in. Ned and MJ were the first. Ned sitting down beside him and MJ behind them. Ned just gave Peter a small smile and Peter in turn gave a thumbs up, whispering he would text Ned and MJ what had transpired later.
✧˖°. 🕸️🕷️🕸️ .°˖✧
The next day he comes into school, Peter smiles at Mr. Harrington during homeroom, and is then off to his advanced physics class. He has the class with Ned, and regrettably Flash, but with their current seating plan that should not pose an issue.
Wishful thinking.
For an experiment they were shuffled around and Flash was positioned on the long table behind Peter. He did his best to try and shove Peter as much as he could, and he kept up his taunts. Peter really had to hold back from not letting out a snarky remark, aware that the consequent beating after school would not be worth the small victory in the end. Peter was trying to focus back on the task at hand as well as on helping his lab partner out. It was one of the girls he could barely remember the names of. She belonged to one of the friend groups that stayed mostly to themselves and on the outskirts of the school’s social bubble. Peter only knew she was part of the group that always hung around the theatre department, and that MJ had talked about her once or twice as she was a part of the tech squad.
The lesson went by almost like any other lesson where Flash would be close to him, until the very end when the bell rang and Peter hung up his lab coat, glasses and gathered his bag. The second he is out the door to head towards history he gets pushed over, and his books fly through the hallway.
“Watch where you’re walking, Penis.”
Flash spit close to where his hands were and Peter could feel his Spidey sense fly up for the second time in two minutes as a kick to his thigh is slightly too well placed.
That was going to bruise.