Chapter 1. Teen Idle

I wanna be a bottle blonde
I don't know why but I feel conned
I wanna be an idle teen
I wish I hadn't been so clean

Queens was a world's away from Los Angeles.

You wouldn't think the two cities would be all that different, but from the smells to the weather almost nothing was the same. Save for a couple of wealthy assholes. You could find those everywhere you went. She hated them all. Their snobbish attitude and the way they made problems disappear with money grated on her nerves. She hadn't wanted to move. Her mother insisted that it would be better this way and her father...

He was the reason she agreed.

However, she had to admit, a place that didn't know the name Black Cat made her purr with excitement.

Peter

Peter was exhausted.

He had spent the better part of the night patrolling and then doing his homework. Writing a paper on The Scarlet Letter was the last thing Peter wanted to do, but it was part of the deal he made with Aunt May. As long as he wasn't failing he could keep being Spider-man. It was hard, but crime didn't stop just because he needed sleep or had homework. Luckily, today should be a relatively easy one. He was charged with showing a new student around, which meant no morning classes. The tour shouldn't take long and Peter could take a nap until lunch.

"Peter? I would like to introduce you to Felicia Hardy," Principle Morita said, snapping Peter from his thoughts. He looked up and saw a mouse of a girl. She was short with long, wavy blond hair some of it falling on her forehead like bangs. She was wearing a pale pink sweater that seemed to make her even smaller with plain black leggings.

"I'm Peter Parker," he tried for a smile and stuck his hand out for her to shake.

"Felica Hardy-sorry you already knew that. You can just call me Felicia, I mean of course you would. Why would you call me by my first and last name? Sorry, I'm being verbose," she stammered. After some hesitation, Felicia gripped Peters hand a little too hard and let it go just as quickly.

"Uh it's fine," was all Peter could say. Awkward.

"Peter I trust you'll give Miss Hardy your full attention and answer every question she has?"

Peter straightened his back and looked over at his principle. "Yes, sir."

Morita smiled, "Then I'll leave you to it." With that, he spun around and walked back into his office.

Peter turned to Felicia, "And so begins our tour." When she didn't smile Peter pointed at a nearby water fountain. "This is the water fountain Flash Thompson rigged to spray my pants when I went to use it."

Her eyes widened, "Did he really?"

"Actually, he got someone else to it and laughed at me. He's quirky that way," Peter responded.

The corners of her lips turned upwards. "Interesting. Is the entire tour going to be like this?"

Peter grinned, he was thankful that she didn't seem to be so nervous anymore. For the first time ever he was thankful for Flash being an ass. "Oh it's only going to get more interesting from here, just wait until you see the locker room where Flash stole all of my clothes, leaving me in my underwear until my Aunt dropped some off."

"Stealing your clothes? How original," she grinned.

Peter nodded, a faux-serious look on his face. "Indeed, the creative mind that is Flash Thompson knows no bounds."

In a shocking turn of events, Felicia's tour lasted all morning. Not that it bothered Peter. Sure he was still tired, but he had had a lot of fun giving Felicia a tour. She laughed at most of his jokes-something that only Ned and Aunt May did, MJ just narrowed her eyes at him, he chose to believe she was laughing on the inside-and she made just as many jokes once she warmed up to him.

Now it was time for lunch.

"My mom isn't picking me up until after lunch," Felicia had told him. She twisted the ring around her finger several times. She was nervous.

"Luckily for you, here at Midtown School of Science and Technology, we have a wide range of food options; such as pizza, spaghetti, a salad if the meat isn't for you, and the ever-popular mystery meat," he said. When Felicia's body remained tense and her ring kept turning Peter frowned. He tapped her shoulder causing Felicia to flinch before turning her head to look at him. "Until you find your own friends in this school you are more than welcome to sit with me and my friends. Ned doesn't bite, but I'm not sure about MJ."

Felicia's hand stilled, eyes wide as she opened her mouth, "I don't want to impose."

Peter smiled, "You won't be, now come on, I see a slice of pizza with my name on it."

While waiting in line, the two kept up some small talk. Felicia was surprisingly talkative once she warmed up to him. When she laughed her nose scrunched up and her eyes lit up when Peter asked her about her interests. It was...cute. "So you moved here from LA?"

Grabbing a plate of spaghetti, Felicia nodded. "Yeah, and before you ask no I never ran into any celebrities."

"Not one? That's crazy," Peter said. "This way," he added after the two paid for their food.

"LA is a pretty big place and I'm not a very social creature. What about you? I mean New York is like the super-hero hot spot. Ever been saved by Captain America?"

Peter immediately thought back to over a year ago when he was fighting Captain America. For obvious reasons, he couldn't tell her that. "No, but I held his shield one time."

Felicia's jaw dropped. "No way."

Peter grinned, "Way."

"Well I don't mean to brag or anything, but one time I took a "What Avenger are You?" quiz on Buzzfeed and I got Iron Man," Felicia said, flipping her hair behind her shoulder.

At that moment Peter had never felt more jealous of a person who had never even met any of the Avengers. No matter how many quizzes he took, he always got Hawkeye. Swallowing his envy Peter said, "Well you know, those quizzes aren't very accurate anyway."

"Well, well, if it isn't Penis Parker," a voice said.

"So close," Peter murmured. They were so close to MJ and Ned, he could see Ned talking animatedly to MJ, who was reading but nodding along to the conversation. Reluctantly, Peter turned from Felicia to Flash. "Hey Flash, what's up?" From the corner of his eye, Peter noticed Felicia twisting the ring on her finger again.

Flash took a step toward Peter. "Well if you must know, someone bumped into me and I dropped my pizza on the floor."

Peter took a step back, "Yeah man that sucks. You know just last week I-"

"Cut the shit, Parker. Just give me yours and we'll be square," Flash said. Then he peered around Peter to look at Felicia-Peter hadn't realized he had moved in front of her during his and Flash's exchange. "Well hello, and who might you be?"

Now, Peter would be the first to admit, Flash Thompson wasn't a very intimidating person, even now when he was peering curiously at Felicia. However, just from the short period of time Peter had spent with her, Felicia didn't seem to do well with people.

Thinking fast, Peter pushed the pizza towards Flash. "Here Flash just take the pizza and I'll see you at decathlon practice."

Ignoring his offering, Flash moved took a step towards Felicia.

Something happened.

The hairs on the back of Peters' neck stood on edge and before he could process what was happening Flash lost his footing and tripped. Right onto Felicia's plate of spaghetti causing it to fly in the air and land right on Flash's head.

Peter frowned. It wasn't the first time something triggered his spidey-sense, however, it was the first time it had been triggered over something so small. It was like a chemical had been released into the air messing with Peters senses. This was definitely something he was going to discuss with Ned later.

At the thought of his friend, Peter turned to Felicia. He noticed she was shaking. "Hey, are you alright?" Concern was laced in his voice. "Do you want to go somewhere quiet?" She looked like she was about to have a meltdown and Peter knew from experience it was best to be away from so many people in moments like this.

Felicia nodded, and wordlessly Peter led her out into the hall. The two sat down and remained quiet for several minutes. Peter stared down at his pizza. "All of that commotion over a slice of school pizza. I told you Flash had a flair for the dramatic," he joked. When Felicia didn't laugh Peter furrowed his brows, "Are you okay?"

"I don't know, I just don't...I don't know how to explain it. People make me nervous I guess," she said. There was a small part of Peter that suspected there was more to the story, but he had only known Felicia for a day so he wasn't going to push the subject.

"Flash shouldn't have been bothering you. Anyone could tell you were nervous," Peter responded. When she didn't say anything Peter gave her a lopsided smile, "Anyway the real question here is did you see the look on Flash's face when that spaghetti landed on his head? Priceless."

Felicia laughed. "Yeah that was pretty funny, but what about that entrance? Who is he some type of comic book villain?" She puffed out her cheeks and stuck her chest out, "Well, well, if it isn't Penis Parker. I mean who does that?"

It was Peter's turn to laugh. Grateful to have cheered her up, Peter and Felicia remained on the hallway floor until it was time for Felicia to go. The two said their goodbyes and Peter smiled as he watched the smaller girl go.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"What do you mean it felt different?"

It was later in the afternoon and Peter and Ned were discussing what Peter had dubbed a glitch in his spidey-sense. Ned was sitting on Peters bed while Peter paced on the ceiling. The TV was on some news channel, adding to the steady hum of conversation.

"It wasn't that it felt different, it was different. It was like something else triggered it," Peter explained. "My spidey-sense doesn't just go off when someone is about to trip. There would have to be actual danger to trigger it."

"What could have set it off then?" Ned asked. The two went silent for a moment, then Ned started talking, "You said that Felicia seemed really nervous right? So maybe because she was feeling high levels of stress your spidey-sense thought there was something wrong and tried to warn you.'

Peter walked onto the floor, "Maybe, but I'm not sure. I'll have to run some tests."

Ned raised a brow, "That sounded very Tony Stark of you."

Peter ignored him, he was already thinking about patrol tonight. "Too bad you and MJ didn't get to meet Felicia," Peter murmured. He would need to go out tonight and find some high-stress missions. That was something Ned couldn't help with.

"Yeah I saw the two of you in the hall today, she seemed nice," Ned responded.

Peter looked at him, Ned was currently trying on Peters old Spider-man mask. "Why didn't you come over and say hi?"

Ned shrugged, "I don't know. The way you two were laughing I just didn't want to interrupt whatever you two were talking about. Besides, did you see her at lunch? She seems a little nervous towards people."

"That's just because Flash was being a creep, once you get her laughing she'll warm up to you," Peter responded. He tossed a ball of paper at Ned. The paper bounced harmlessly off Ned's knee.

Ned opened his mouth to respond, but the sound of alarm bells cut him off. The two boys directed their attention to the TV.

"Here we go again," Peter muttered.

On the screen an older man with salt and pepper hair and a mustache yelled into the camera, "Welcome back to Just the Facts with J. Jonah Jameson, I'm J. Jonah Jameson and I going to talk about my least favorite webbed menace. It was reported that just last night that the so-called Spider-man put himself in the middle of an illegal arms dealing between two gangs, one led by the notorious Kingpin. Instead of leaving it to the professionals, your friendly-neighborhood Spider-Menace puts himself in the middle of it, destroying several buildings within a block radius. Not only that but several of these gang members got away including-"

Jameson's rant was cut shut due to Ned turning the TV off. Peter was glaring at the screen, his fist clenched. "Nothing is ever good enough for that guy. Does he not realize that if I hadn't stopped that arms dealing when I did Kingpin would have leveled that entire block?"

"Peter-"

"No, of course he doesn't. All that he cares about is that some bad guys got away. Two buildings Ned, two buildings were destroyed and I got everyone out safely. The only people that were hurt were a few bad guys."

"Not everyone is going to be happy with super-heroes Peter. There's a reason why the Accords were made. Sometimes your best isn't good enough for other people. Jameson is just really loud about his opinions," Ned reasoned.

Peter shook his head, he started to pace. "I go out there every night and risk my life because it's the right thing to do. What does that get me? An angry old man and a bunch of people who would rather I did nothing than help anyone at all. I mean sure I save someone's life and yeah that feels good, but does Mr. Stark care? No. He'll send Happy to give me a pat on the back or tell me when Mr. Stark has new ideas for my suit."

Peter slumped down into a chair, "I'm just tired of it all."

Ned gave Peter a sympathetic look, "Then take a break, Peter. You can't keep pushing yourself like this."

Peter sighed, "I can't. I have a duty and besides, I need to figure out what's affecting my senses."

Ned checked his phone, "Well I've got to head home, but call me if something happens. I'll see you at school tomorrow."

Peter muttered a tired good-bye as Ned left. Peter checked his watch. "Five thirty, May won't be home until seven so that gives me an hour and a half to catch up on some sleep." He set an alarm for seven and flopped down onto his bed, not bothering to go under the covers. As soon as his head hit the pillow, Peter fell into a dreamless sleep.

Do I have another fic that I could be working on? Yes. Do I have any self-control? NO. I'm so excited to get into this storyline. Black Cat in this story isn't going to be the same as the one in the comics because I couldn't just make a teenager sexy. That's kind of gross. Still, I plan on making Black Cat as close to the original as my conscience will allow. I really want to explore the angry teen version of Peter in this story. He's tired, things still aren't as great as he would want them to be with Mr. Stark, and he's got a very angry and opinionated J. Jonah Jameson breathing down his neck.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this first chapter of Amaryllis.