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It hurt when people threw bricks through our apartment window.
It hurt when mid-swing on patrol, a young kid yelled that I was an evil monster.
It hurt when I got rejected from MIT due to ‘recent controversies.’ Especially when Ned and MJ also got rejected, just for being friends with me.
But what I think will hurt most will be having to endure the rest of Senior Year.
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Last week, my lawyer, Matt, proved in court that I didn’t murder Mysterio, well not intentionally. It was kind of his own fault. And that Aunt May did not put me in harm's way. I still think that it’s crazy how they tried to convict May of “child endangerment.” They should’ve known that I was Spiderman before she found out and that I wasn’t going to stop. AND that I had Tony frickin Stark looking after me. Well… for a little while.
The case was a little funny to watch when Matt kept entering new evidence that proved my innocence to the Jury. Such as, the broken drone MJ found, Nick Fury’s sworn testimony, Beck’s motion tracker suit that he wore to control all the drones, EDITH’s saved memory, etcetera. And then seeing the opposition scramble to come up with something to say. We celebrated with Thai after we won.
I was gone from school that week to prepare for the case. But to be honest, I hate school nowadays. Everyone pays me too much attention. I enjoyed being a nobody. Now everyone knows my extracurricular activity. Sometimes I got hateful notes passed to me, or got blocked on my way to class by a wall of girls who ‘don’t believe that I killed Mysterio’. Most of my energy couldn’t be spent on learning, but on avoiding crowded hallways and piercing stares. At least now Mr. Harrington didn’t question me why I go missing so often on field trips.
So I enjoy substituting homework for late night calls with MJ, or lego building time with Ned. But if I want to pass Senior Year and have a chance for re-applying to college in the fall, I have to go back to school.
Maybe it won’t be so bad now that people officially know that I am not a murderer.
Who am I kidding… With my luck, it’ll be much worse.
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“It’s official, I was able to switch into Ms. Markel’s English class! Whoop whoop!” Ned beamed over the phone.
Peter let a smirk cross over his face, “That’s great that you're in my class now, but man. I don’t think even you can save me from Cindy’s flirting. I can practically hear her biting her lip at me from two desks back.” Peter retorted.
“Wait… isn’t she dating Brad?” Ned questioned
“She must just have a taste for my spider pheromones" Peter emphasized by wiggling his fingers as he began walking toward the 7 line.
Public transportation was impossible for the past few weeks. Peter was always afraid if he might be attacked or worse, stared at. But now, he decided to give it a try. If he was going back to school for good, then why not attempt to let other aspects of his life return to normal.
“So what have I missed?” Peter changed the subject.
“Eh, not much. We got through three more chapters of To Kill A Mockingbird, got assigned another still life drawing, this time on an apple ‘ooh-ahh’” Peter chuckled. “and started the pre-lab for the fetal pig dissection.”
“What, no!” The curly-haired teen protested. “Mr. Doerr has been hyping up that lab for the entire year! Even when I was being questioned by the police I was thinking "if I get arrested, when will I be able to make up Doerr’s fetal pig dissection?”
“Ha!” Ned snorted. “Speaking of, has anyone else reached out to you after the verdict?”
“Umm, actually Liz sent me a DM on Instagram. Gimmie a sec, lemme pull up what she said.” Peter untucked his phone from between his neck and shoulder and pulled up the aforementioned app. Only twenty new death threats, score! He thought while scrolling past his newly acquired millions of followers to Liz’s profile, quickly looking at her new senior photos she posted before going to messages.
“She said: ‘Hi Peter, I know it’s been a while’ something-something-something ‘I’m really happy that you are home free and no longer a wanted man, although I think you could of pulled off an orange jumpsuit well’ blah-blah-blah aaaaand ‘I don’t blame you for what happened between you and my dad. You were keeping the city safe and I admire you for that, even if it meant I had to move to California. There’s better Mexican food here anyways.’ heart-emoji” Peter recited with a monotone inflection.
“Huh, that’s nice. Even if she is extremely wrong about the Mexican food being better there”
“I mean, Mexico is closer to California than New York. So it would make sense that Mexican food would be better there”
“Yeah, but we are a city of immigrants. Which means better food. Don’t you remember Hamilton!” Ned defended.
“Touché” Peter relented, ending the line conversation so he could get on the train. “Hey I gotta go, but I’ll see you at school”
“Alright, and remember I got your back. If anyone gives you any shit, send em my way and I’ll make quick work of them. Hoo-Ha-Heeyah” Ned’s karate noises eliciting a slight chuckle from Peter.
“Thanks man, see ya” He responded, then hung up the phone.
The doors screamed open, seeming extra loud due to his elevated sense of hearing. And hot air rushed out, flushing his face. Grumbling people began to make their way out of the train. Black puffy jackets melded together in a crowd of unhappy New Yorkers. Peter inconspicuously moved onto the train, comforted by the familiar ads for accident injury lawyers and the smell of pee. He kept his head down aiming to be as normal as everyone else on the train. No one from Midtown was in his train car, which he considered a win. All seats were taken due to the morning rush of college students and office workers. Peter grabbed a pole instead. As the train jolted forwards, smoothing into a steady pattern of bumps and shakes, Peter saw the gray, sad sky that covered New York. It looked like the city was as tired and uncomfortable as he was. Yet now all Peter had to do was remain low-profile and no one would–
“Peter!” A voice parted through the hum of electricity and unenthusiastic conversations.
Oh no
“Peter, what's going on! I watched the trial and nearly jumped out of my seat when I heard the judge say ‘not guilty’ and bang her gavel. Better than watching the masters tournament. Well, that's a tiny lie because if you have seen Tiger Woods’ 2005 final holes, the whole time you’re thinking ‘will he tie up Arnold Palmer’s record or not?’ and THAT is exciting. But how are you fairing?”
I would be faring much better if you didn’t announce my presence to the entire train while wearing your ‘Flashpoint’ jacket but otherwise I’m doing great. Peter wanted to say with sarcasm layered on thick as crude oil. But he didn’t.
“I-um I’m doing okay Flash” Peter sputtered. He wished his spider sense would have announced Flash’s presence before he got in this car, but sometimes it was finicky.
“That's good” an awkward silence blossomed between the two teens. “Hey I just want to say sorry again for being rude to you for the past, um three years or so. I was just kind of insecure or something. You know my dad hasn’t always-”
Peter tersely interrupted him, “It’s fine, Flash.”
This was something Peter would never be able to adjust to, he thought. Flash had been a constant in his life. When came back from Germany after fighting alongside Mr. Stark, Flash asked him if he was out of school because he needed a medical circumcision. When Peter was at school, the day after getting stabbed by a Wolverine wannabe in an alley, Flash told him he looked like a dying Victorian child. Hell, even when he RETURNED FROM SPACE and lost his mentor, the first thing Flash said to him at school was that he was sad to see that Parker was still kicking around. It was almost sad that Flash would no longer insult his skinny figure or aversion to loud hand dryers. But so much has changed in the past few months, that Peter figured he better as well roll with the punches.
At this point in their conversation other people in the train car started whispering and staring. The familiar buzz of being watched settled at the base of his neck and on the hairs of his forearms. They had noticed that Spiderman was riding the same train as them. Peter heard a kid whisper to her mom:
“Why doesn’t Mr. Spidey swing around everywhere?” Her mom quickly shushed her in reply and returned to pretending not to notice the recently exonerated murderer fifteen feet away from her kids.
She asked a fair question. Why didn’t he just swing to school? If people already know where he lives, what he does when he’s not doing homework, and where he goes to school, then why does he have to pretend that he has to take the subway? Peter figures that it is to instill a sense of normalcy in his life and another way to separate Peter Parker from Spiderman after countless news outlets and members on the Spidey Hate Train tried to insist that they are one in the same. Peter needed some normalcy. He needed something familiar to latch onto. Or else his whole sense of self would collapse. And he probably couldn’t deal with that right now.
“Okay, well I just want to say that I am really, really, really-” Peter tuned out Flash’s apology in favor of counting down the seconds until he could get off this train from hell with Flash.
Years of painful small talk seemed to pass until the train screamed into the stop closest to Midtown.
Peter speed walked straight out of the train, down the stairs from the elevated track, and rounding the corner into Midtown’s main courtyard.
Ned! He noticed standing and probably scrolling on his broken android that he insisted was worth the green bubbles everyone else got when Ned texted them. Peter beelined for his best friend.
“Hey man” Peter called out, causing Ned’s head to snap away from Minesweeper.
“My sticky best friend!” Ned teased while beginning their special handshake. “Has anyone earned themselves a trip to pound town” Ned emphasized while cracking his knuckles.
“Ew dude, that does not mean what you think that means. Unless you want to do things to Flash that I don’t really want to think about right now” Peter cringed, making distance from his oblivious friend.
“I would rather slap The Hulk straight across the face” He said, eyes widening. “I haven’t even seen Flash today. Did he spam apology text you again?”
“No, but we did share a subway car where he inadvertently announced my presence in front of everyone else”
Ned sucked in air through his teeth, “Ouch. Should I pound him for you?”
“Shut up”
“Have it your way” The best friends began walking into the school day with a slightly lighter air to them and mild smirks spread across their faces. Now both feeling able to make it to the last bell.