"So, what do you want to be?"
It is the beginning of the year, only months away from graduation, from college. Peter just sat there on the counter, while his uncle read his paper, patient for an answer.
"I'll get back to you on that later, I gotta go or I'll be late again, love you Uncle Ben!"
To that Ben only clicked his tongue. "Excuses, excuses."
"Oh Peter," Aunt May showed up from the laundry room, "I told you to take the bus, that board of yours is really slow."
Peter quickly walked to her aunt and kissed her on the cheek, "okay, okay, I'll take the bus, but now I'm really running late, love you two, bye!"
As Peter walked out the door Aunt May shook her head.
"He really avoids that question huh?"
"Tell me about it."
…
Peter reached his class right after the bell rang. He skated, naturally, buses are not for him. As usual he found a seat at the back of the class. People say that seating in the front shows ambition, but actually sitting in the back is much more strategic, you can get a nice view of the whole board. Well, to be fair, being right in the middle of the class is the most ideal place to be, and that place has always been reserved by the one and only Gwen Stacy, the only person at school to get higher scores than him.
Peter doesn't mind though, after all, being the second best student in Midtown Science High is enough to guarantee a college scholarship, and at the same time being second doesn't bring attention at all. He even thanks Gwen for being the –loved by all- model student, it sucks all the attention from the quiet, awkward, fumbling, Peter Parker. He also likes Gwen, a lot.
They only talked once, sadly, it ended with her calling him 'stupid.' He knows that she didn't mean it in a bad way, well, calling Flash 'Eugene' and probably getting himself a concussion by it is by all means stupid, and he can't help hating himself for it.
He wonders whether Gwen knows he's smart or not.
Well he knows he is smart, because as the biology teacher asked about how DNAs are replicated and no one in class can answer, he knows he can. Well, Gwen also can, but she has the habit to wait a few seconds to give the others a chance to answer, which is commendable of her, but the others also know that Gwen will answer the question eventually, so they didn't even bother trying.
As Peter counts the seconds until Gwen would finally raise her hand, approximately eight seconds, he noted, the teacher suddenly directed her stare to the back of the class.
"Peter Parker, why don't you try to answer? I know you can, your tests are almost always perfect, including the Genetics one."
Peter is horrified.
"Come on up front and explain to your friends, okay? Give a round of applause for Peter everyone!"
The class hesitantly clapped their hands, whispers of "who is Peter?" "he's smart?" and variations thereof, can be heard everywhere.
Peter fumbled to the front, and awkwardly, though accurately, explained the process of DNA replication, all the while alternately staring at different objects in the class, from fans to windows, not making any eye contact with anyone.
"Very good Peter, you should try and be more active in class you know, I really have high hopes for you, you'll be a great biology researcher, just, brush up on your presentation skills okay?"
Peter slowly nods, and thankfully, the class isn't really paying attention, he's so good at being unnoticeable he can even pull it off in front of the class. There is though one pair of eyes eagerly paying attention, and they belong to Gwen Stacy.
…
"Hi Peter!"
"Umm… Hi?"
Everyone was gathering their things and preparing to leave for the next class, but Gwen Stacy had already proactively approached Peter's desk.
"It's Gwen, you remember right? I helped you with the whole 'Eugene' situation, a few months ba-"
"Yeah-yeah of course I remember, Gwen, thanks again, sorry, it's really embarrassing, I sh-"
"No-no-no, it's fine, really."
Gwen takes a breath, talking to Peter Parker is really challenging.
"I was just wondering, since you turn out to be good at biology, maybe we can talk sometimes- I mean nerd talks! I'm not trying to say that you're a nerd, well I'm a nerd, and it's fine to be a nerd right? So-"
Peter suddenly laughed. It was the first time Gwen ever saw Peter laugh.
"Gwen, you're captain of the debate team, don't fumble with words like me. But yeah, a nerd talk, seems cool, yeah it's cool."
Gwen laughed back.
"Great! Maybe we can do that at OsCorp, I'm head intern there you know, you can be an intern, I think you're smart enough to be one, seeing Ms. Smith's praises for you, it's really weird I never noticed that you were…into biology?"
Peter scratches the back of his head. He always does that, in the rare occasions that he has an actual conversation with someone.
"Yeah, I am into biology, but not that into biology, you get what I mean? No I don't think you do, but-but, about the intern offer, I don't know, I'll think about it okay? Umm… I think we should go now, class's about to start."
Gwen smiles, "we should."
And the two walked to their next class, continuing their awkward, but fun exchange.
It was the first time Peter ever walked together to class with anyone.
…
Peter envies people who are able to actually talk, to come up with topics that everyone likes, to make people around them laugh. He can't do any of that, but with Gwen, he kind of became more fluent, he knows Gwen understands his talk about the latest Stark technology as they walk down the halls, and that really reliefs him.
Peter also envies people who already have a clear goal. Gwen will be a scientist for sure, even jocks, as much as they are jerks, many of them already have their path drawn, to get to a good college, play good college sports, and get drafted to the NFL, NBA, and other similar competitions that Peter doesn't really know about.
Peter doesn't know what he wants to be.
He thinks maybe Gwen can help him find out.
He just needs to learn how to not have an extremely awkward conversation with Gwen. A more fun nerd talk.
…