Chapter One

"Oof." Sixteen year old Peter Parker grimaced as his SAT book fell flat on his face. He wrinkled his nose. As a junior he should be studying and focusing on his SAT especially since he lost months thanks to Thanos. But for some reason he couldn't concentrate.

Maybe it was because the SAT was boring as hell. Or maybe it was because it had only been a month since Thanos was killed and he was finally getting back into the grove of school. Or maybe it was because Peter was feeling fidgety and he had been through so much that solving inequalities and reading poems about some dead guy wasn't doing it anymore.

Peter gave a frustrated sigh and reminded himself that if he didn't get a decent score on his SAT he was going to end up as Mr. Stark's intern for the rest of his life. Which didn't sound so bad after all. Though the idea of being a 40 year old intern did freak him out a bit.

Peter stood up and put his SAT book on the bed, promising that he would get to it later. He grabbed a cassette that Quill had given him and that had been titled The Best of the 80's. Tony had scoffed at the idea, but Peter had been grateful. He had even managed to find a cassette player at a garage sale in Brooklynn.

He placed the cassette inside and immediately the band Journey started playing. Peter started humming the lyrics while ignoring the pile on homework that he had failed to work on. Even though he had been 'dead' for several months apparently that was not a valid excuse for his teachers.

Thanos had been killed a month ago and since then the city had been quiet. The biggest thing that Peter had worked on was a stolen bike. Not even the Avengers had contacted him, well except for his mentor, but that was only to ask him if he knew a good Chinese place in Queens.

Peter was so bored that he couldn't believe that he was actually hoping that some crime would take place as bad as it sounded. Peter sniffed the air. It smelled like tomato sauce and pasta and it smelled surprisingly edible.

It took Peter a moment for her to realize that today was the day that May's new boyfriend was coming over. She had been gushing to Peter all week, he couldn't believe that he had forgotten, but he had a lot of things on his mind-like failing his SAT's.

May hadn't had a boyfriend since Ben had died. She had dated of course, but nothing serious and it never went past the first date or two. Peter could tell that May thought that this man was the "one" because Peter was actually meeting him.

May had told him before that she would never introduce Peter to a complete jackass. If Peter was finally meeting this famous boyfriend then that meant that it was serious. Peter stepped out of his room to go into the kitchen where May was hastily trying to make garlic bread.

"Pete, honey!" May said hurriedly. "Could you help me set the table? Scott is going to be here any minute and I still have to fix this." She pointed to her messy hair that was held back by three pencils and a Hello Kitty hair clip.

"Sure." Peter said as he started setting the table. He opened the fridge and pulled out the butter. "So this thing with Scott seems pretty serious."

"We just started seeing each other." May said quickly. "But I'm convince he's not a complete asshole. You'll love him Pete, I know you will."

"You have good taste, May." Peter reassured his nervous aunt as May added way too much tomato sauce to the pasta. "I'm sure he and I will get along just fine. Um, May you didn't tell him about the whole. . .Spiderman thing right?"

"Of course not," May said, sounding almost offended. "That's not my secret to tell, you tell him when you're ready. If you want to." The doorbell rang and May gave a nervous shriek as she went to the bathroom to rearrange her hair leaving Peter to open the door.

He opened the door and saw a tall, broad man with blond hair and wearing a blue cardigan and holding a bouquet of flowers. He smiled at Peter, nervously. "Hi, you must be the famous Peter that May keeps talking about. I'm Scott McDaniel." He offered Peter his hand.

"Hi," Peter said as he shook Scott's hand. He felt a chill down his spine and he frowned. Why was his spidey sense tingling? Was their danger? His ears perked up, but nothing. Weird.

"Peter, are you ok?" Scott looked concerned as he let go off Peter's hand.

Peter forced a smile, trying to ignore the weird moment that had happened between them just now. "I'm sorry, I just have a little headache. Come on in."

Scott stepped inside and looked around. "You and your aunt have a beautiful home, Peter. I'm glad that May is not keeping you to herself anymore."

Peter laughed as May came in, she had a pretty flush on her cheeks as she kissed Scott. Peter looked away feeling embarrassed. May took the flowers. "Scott, I see you've finally meet Peter. I'm glad that I have my two boys under the same roof. Come let's have dinner."

Halfway through their dinner Scott directed a question to Peter as he tore into a piece of garlic bread. "So Peter tell me about your exciting life as a high school junior. Sports? Cute girlfriend?"

Peter nearly choked on his pasta, the only "sport" that him and Ned played was running to the comic book store after school. "No. No girlfriend and me and footballs don't get along." Scott frowned and there was an awkward silence.

May broke it by quickly chirping. "Peter is a straight A student Scott, he's on the decathlon team I think this time they are going to Nationals in DC right, Peter?"

Peter nodded. "Mr. Harrington says we have a good chance of winning this year."

"Awesome." Scott said dryly as he began talking to May about a trip he wanted to take to Napa Valley.

Dinner ended soon after, May told Peter that they were going to catch a movie and if Peter wanted to come. Peter declined and told them that he had a lot of SAT prep problems to study for. Scott almost looked relieved.

"It was nice meeting you." Peter quipped politely.

Scott nodded as he placed a hand on May's waist. "See you later, kid." He closed the door and Peter found himself alone. He sighed, that hadn't gone as well as he had hoped, but he seemed nice enough. If May was happy then he was happy.