Archive of Our Own

Peter Parker was loath to admit he was embarrassed after being held back after Academic Decathlon practice by Mr. Harrington. It’d just been announced that Midtown High had somehow been lucky enough to land an excursion to Stark Industries tower, and permission slips had been passed out to all the students, but Mr. Harrington was still holding Peter’s in his hand. Flash had laughed and told everyone in the club that ‘Penis Parker’ was probably being told off for lying about his internship. Nobody said anything, as per usual, although MJ narrowed her eyes with an expression that looked as annoyed as ever when Flash spoke.

Mr. Harrington waited for the classroom to be cleared before speaking. “Peter,” the teacher started as Peter gulped, “You have several more absences than anyone in this club—or, probably, your year.” He held out the permission slip so Peter could take it. “The tour may be on next Friday, but one more absence from any class from now until then and you won’t be able to attend.”

Peter took the paper from Mr. Harrington’s hands, looking at the large box at the top of the slip of requirements. 

It was a miracle Peter had only been absent from 3 classes in the past month in the first place. After noting this, he looked back up at his teacher and muttered a soft “yes sir.”

Mr. Harrington smiled and patted Peter’s back in two soft thumps, telling him, “I believe in you, Peter,” before walking off.

Another thing Peter Parker was loath to admit was that he did not want to go on this field trip. He’d left it on the dining table by accident so May had already signed it, so Peter was already considering a few options.

1. He could ‘accidentally’ forget his slip at home on the day of handing it in. However this would mean that Peter would actually have to show up on the day, stand up when everybody else was placing it on Mr. Harrington’s desk, and admit out loud that he’d forgotten it in front of the whole class, which would undoubtedly give Flash an invitation to sneer and comment about how he was just reluctant to get busted for lying about the internship.
2. He could ‘unfortunately’ be late to class within the week to a class with a strict teacher because he got ‘held up’ at the previous class and get a detention. However this would mean that Peter would have to be turned down to go on the bus on the day of excursion in front of the whole class and have to just go back home after Flash would 100% talk about how he didn’t want to admit to lying about the internship.
3. He could ‘unintentionally’ be absent for another class and just go Spider-Man-ning instead. However, this led to the exact same conclusion as number 2. He would be labelled a coward by Flash, and although he knew his friends would stand up for him, (despite repeatedly telling them he didn’t care enough about Flash to argue with him over every stupid thing that came out of his mouth, which was, unsurprisingly, a lot of things) Mr. Harrington would be extremely disappointed in him. Maybe even kicked out of AcDec at this point. It would be super embarrassing, and he already felt enough of that at school.

And with that, Peter came to the conclusion that he had no choice but to actually attend the field trip to Stark Industries. He even winced at the thought. He was bound to run into someone he knew there—the receptionist he always greeted when entering the building every Friday for lab time with Mr. Stark, the other interns he enjoyed working with in the intern labs even when Mr. Stark told him he could just work in his section in his private lab, and, oh no, Mr. Stark loved embarrassing Peter in any way possible, and Mr. Stark definitely had something to do with Midtown High (of all places) being accepted for a school trip at Stark Industries. Peter didn’t even want to think about the possibility of Mr. Stark ‘accidentally’ passing by his class during the tour and embarrassing Peter. Despite the fact that anybody recognising Peter would be a telltale sign that he wasn’t lying about the internship, he just didn’t want to draw any more attention to himself than he already had. If he did, it’d merely be that much harder to be absent from so many classes if more than a couple people were actually noticing and/or caring. 

On the unsettled, rackety school bus that could only belong to Midtown High, Peter was sat next to Ned on the worn down seats. Ned was rattling on about whatnot, and Peter really did try to listen, but he was just so tired from staring up into his bedroom ceiling as he thought about all the ways this trip could go wrong last night. Peter hadn’t even been paying attention to when Flash made fun of him on the ride over. Rubbing his eyes drowsily, the bus came to a stop, and Mr. Harrington stood up at the front. 

“Class, we’ve arrived at Stark Industries!” The class of nerdy teenagers let out whoops of excitement before the teacher continued. “Remember that we’ve all got to be on our best behaviour-” a pointed look was given towards both Flash and Peter, “-as you exit the bus in an orderly fashion. No pushing, no shoving, and no leaving in the middle of the trip.” Only one person was given a look this time. “None of that inside the building either. As I’ve previously mentioned, this is an amazing opportunity for our school and we don’t want to give anyone here a bad impression of us. Everybody got that?” The class responded with nods and muttered agreements before Mr. Harrington clapped his hands with a smile. “Alright, class. That’s what I like to see.” 

Eventually, the class made their way into the building and into the reception where they were greeted by a man with a smile. “Midtown School of Science and Technology, correct?” 

Mr. Harrington nodded. 

“Perfect. Can you please hand me the IDs of everybody in the class?” 

After some rustling through bags and pockets, they were all given to the receptionist as he checked their IDs with the people listed in the class to be on the school tour. At the ID of a certain kid, the receptionist looked up at Peter and gave him a smile before continuing. It took another few minutes (which was filled because everyone in the class was whispering with clear enthusiasm, including Ned, rambling about being able to see the Avengers museum) before he was finished and returned the student’s ID cards and gave Mr. Harrington a box of visitors passes. Flash was eyeing them already, clearly scheming to take his home or something else quintessentially Flash.

“Everyone must have their visitor pass visible at all times,” the receptionist began. “Failure to do so will result in being escorted off of the premises. They will become inactive and have to be handed in to the security desk after the tour is finished.” 

With a nod, Mr. Harrington began calling out the name on each SI pass for students to collect it. Peter’s was last, and the teacher looked at it confused, squinting slightly, before reading out his name slowly. “Peter Parker.” 

Flash sneered, whispering to Peter as he went past, “I bet he finally found out you’ve been lying about the internship the whole time.” 

Ignoring the obvious bait that Peter refused to rise up to, he went forward to collect his badge, unsure of what could’ve sparked Mr. Harrington’s reaction. It was just a visitor’s pass like everyone else’s, right? It had to be. He didn’t even own an intern pass (it’s not like he’d have it in his possession for long before he lost it anyways) because FRIDAY just used a biometric scanner for him, like Peter knew the AI did for Mr. Stark too. 

He looked down at the pass. It had a Stark Industries logo on the top, white against a black background, and the rest of it had a background of a blue holographic world on it. In the middle was a slab of text Peter was glad he didn’t have to squint to read that said “This badge is property of Peter Parker, who is not to be questioned under any circumstances. Please refer to Tony Stark personally if any issues arise.” That was not a good sign. There was a barcode at the bottom, and right above it was a large black box with white text inside that read “Classified”. 

Oh no. This was definitely the doing of Mr. Stark. 

Ned glanced over at Peter’s pass and gaped. “No way, dude. That’s sick! I didn’t know you had a special pass! I thought FRIDAY just did that scanny-thing and then you’re in.” 

Peter looked at Ned’s pass. The logo, background, and barcode part was the same. What wasn’t was the slab of text that read “This badge is the property of Stark Industries must be returned to the security desk upon completion of visit.” The other, massive difference was the large box above the barcode, this one red, that had “Visitor” written on it in bold. 

Peter quickly flipped his badge around so nobody saw that his was any different to theirs before turning to look at Ned. “Yeah. That does usually happen. I didn’t know I had a special pass either.” 

Both of their astonished, unblinking faces were interrupted by the arrival of a tour guide. “Heya, guys! My name’s Dylan, and I’ll be your tour guide for the day! How are we all doing?” His introduction was met with a wave of garbled “hi’s/hello’s,” “good,” and the replies by the few that responded to small talk with real answers. “Now that we all have our badges,” he started after scanning everybody to check they did, in fact, have their badges, “Go forward through the security checkpoint. It’s just like an airport, empty your pockets and place your bags and belongings on the trays and let them go through the scanner. The building’s AI, FRIDAY, will say your name out loud as you proceed through the body scanner.”

And so, everybody went through, putting their belongings on the trays and so on so forth. As they scanned their badges, FRIDAY’s voice ran through the speakers. Peter almost felt as if the voice was slightly more monotone than usual, although perhaps he was just making things up from lack of sleep. Yeah, that’s probably it. 

Peter just started to zone back in as the last people went through the body scanner.

“Michelle (MJ) Jones, Visitor.”

Alright. Peter’s should be normal like that, and just say classified at the end in a very monotone voice. No biggie. Mr. Stark wouldn’t have done anything else. No, of course not!

“Eugene (Flash) Thompson, Visitor.” 

Peter could swear that FRIDAY’s voice sounded distasteful as the AI said Flash’s name. 

“Edward (Ted) Leeds, Visitor.” 

That was not normal. Ned looked puzzled, before grinning at the memory of Tony Stark saying his name wrong the multiple times he’d met the billionaire. Oh no. The last one was Peter, and now everybody was whispering and staring at him and waiting for him to prove that he did actually have an internship. Flash had a mad smile on his face, ready to boast to the class that he’d been right all along, before it dropped as he went through and FRIDAY spoke his name in a warmer tone than it had with others. 

“Peter (Underoos, [Redacted], [Redacted]) Parker, Classified.”

Now, seeing the way Flash refused to back down on his claim that ‘Puny Parker’ was a liar and a hacker, Peter Parker was loath to see what else Mr. Stark had planned to embarrass him.