Blood thrumming in my ears, I jog back up to Ned, which causes him to start smiling widely again.
"Already in the locker room…" he breathes out, trying not to laugh. I just try to keep an even face.
We played dodgeball today. And Flash decided to be lazy, and take potshots at me. Which turned into laser beams at my head.
After he missed in the third game, he swore so loud he spun completely around on his heel, right into a throw by Betty.
BETTY. The whole game stopped for maybe a minute as everyone caught their breath, laughing. Including Betty.
"What do you think we've got today in Warren's?" I change subjects entirely.
Ned's face slightly falls. "I don't think quiz. But that would be her style."
"It's either that or homework."
"I think I'll take the quiz?" Ned turns to me, sounding confused at his own conclusion as Betty appears behind his shoulder.
I nod, smile at Betty, then silently leave them and turn for the Boys locker room.
Better than awkwardly third wheeling it up. I've done more than I've wanted, just on accident.
I'm happy for him though. He hasn't really said anything to me about it. But that's I probably annoyed him talking about Liz.
He's playing it better.
Voices suddenly raise deep inside the locker room, causing everyone around me, and me instinctively, to run inside.
Fight? Terrible accident?
"THOMPSON! I hear Wilson yell.
Everyone around me, eager to see what has happened, surges me forward towards the showers.
Oh. That's why he came in here first. But I had that in my lock—
I turn back to see that my locker has been basically torn open, and is completely empty.
"SHUT OFF THE SHOWER! NOW!"
One of Flash's friends darts into the shower and turns the handle. But my backpack and clothes are already completely drenched.
Great. I had my phone, wallet, house keys in my backpack. Not to mention all the books not in my locker, all my notebooks and notes for class.
Phone charger. Tablet charger. The tablet that I was given at the Compound. I don't have a way to charge it.
And a whole new backpack. I'm dead. If May doesn't kill me, they'll just send Romanoff.
"—enough for you to just miss? NO! No it wasn't. You had to humiliate him, and did more to yourself in the process. Truly shameful." Wilson paces around, irate.
"Coach Denning went to grab Principal Morita." Somebody in the back chimes in, and Wilson acknowledges it with a wave.
I am so dead.
I don't hear Ned approach, I just hear "Dude."
"I'm so dead. They're gonna kill me." I say blankly.
I've done everything right. Agent Hill told me to do well in class, keep my head down, and not get into any trouble. And that they wouldn't forget about me.
But I had "reestablish normal".
Because May was still frazzled about me being Spider-Man. Because my whole situation at MOMA was too weird.
Hearing Morita's voice brings me out of my thoughts, and I see him point Flash and a couple of his friends, out the door in the direction of the office.
I know there are higher priorities than me. We're talking to other planets for the first time ever. Nobody cares about me, and that's how it should be.
Until now, when I just destroyed all of my school stuff.
"Parker!" I hear, causing me to jump and see Principal Morita looking at me before he turns to Wilson. "Get his clothes over to football and into the dryer, I'll get him back over."
Wilson nods before Morita steers me to the door before leading me down where his personal office is.
"Principal Morita, I don't know what I did wrong…" I ask quietly as we hone in on his closed door.
Morita suddenly laughs, and smiles while grabbing his keys. "You're not in trouble. I've…needed to pull you aside for a few weeks now." He confesses while pulling open his door and gesturing for me to walk inside.
"I didn't because I thought, along with everyone else in your life, that it was best for you to fall back into being normal. But if the time I waited hurt, I'm sorry Peter." Morita says solemnly.
He knows. Some level. I don't know what.
Morita laughs again, before pointing up at the picture hung up on the wall of Captain America. "Superheroes have never been just the guys on the news to me. That's my grandfather, with Captain America Peter. To him, it's not about what he did. It's who he was that made him special. Everyone thinks of it as a gift, but on many levels, it's kind of a curse. You can never be "normal"."
"Your friend, Mrs. Romanoff, the Avenger? She didn't tell me everything, but what she said made sense. Your work with Stark and the Internship whatever it is, is important enough for them to take an active role. And you can trust me to keep that a secret. I know that burden too."
He goes silent for a moment, then jokes "Now I can't just write off a detention or anything, but…" which causes me to break and reflexively laugh, causing the tension in the room to vanish.
"Sorry to lecture. But it's actually really been eating at me to get that right. That's what's important, not money or power. Or even knowledge." He smiles. "Says the Principal of a great school. It's all the teachers and students. I just do what they tell me to."
"You knew it was her? Romanoff?" I finally ask.
"Yeah." He nods. "She got into my door as Rushman, but once we'd all sat down she made things pretty clear."
Okay then.
"She said that you were doing well. Pretty quiet, but after everything, it'd be a miracle if you focused on anything for the rest of the year. You're doing good." He continues, checking his watch before hopping back up. "And if we walk slow enough to the fieldhouse, your clothes will be done drying, and we can figure out what to do with your backpack."
We can do that. It's the money that's the issue. I had a lot of stuff on me because, well, I have to. I guess we'll just figure that one out on the fly.
"I have to admit though, it didn't sound like you really taunted him or triggered this Peter. I know Flash's personality is a little brash, but this is extreme."
"I just played dodgeball." I shrug as we walk the halls, eventually outside.
Morita seems to consider this as we walk, then says "Can't punish you for doing as you were told to do in class."
Yup.
When we arrive at the fieldhouse, Morita stops and smiles at me. "Well, I have to go back to being a Principal. We can keep your bag in the office until you can go home and explain the situation if that works for you."
"Yeah, that'd be great." I smile sheepishly.
Better than my locker. It'll just get gross and semi-moldy with all the wet paper and everything else. Gross.
Morita nods, then claps me on the shoulder before starting back toward the majority of the complex. Leaving me to the laundry rooms and my drying clothes.
May will kill me though. She still hasn't forgiven me for losing all those backpacks in the fall.
Denning waves me inside when he spots me, and lets me snatch up my clothes and duck into the locker room proper to throw my now dry stuff back on.
Those have to be industrial size dryers. Because even my jeans are completely dry and a little too hot. But that'll wear off and I walk to class.
Scooping up my clothes, I quickly start back toward the main doors, stopping only to straighten my hair and fix my collar.
I doubt Flash is in class, he has to still be in the office. But everyone else is going to be looking for mistakes. Michelle is in there and sits right behind me.
And I have to make sure her view isn't ridiculous.
Quickly, I back up to the same mirror, set by the sinks.
Yeah. I'm good.
One final time, I round the lobby corner and out into the concourse connecting Football and Athletics just as Principal Morita is arriving back at the main building.
Huh. It took me a minute to get changed—
"Over here." A familiar voice calls out, not visible to me.
Black Widow.
I whirl around and try to spot her, to no luck. "Marco?"
"Polo." She says, clearly in front of me but…I can't see her. Just as I open my mouth to say something, she speaks again. "Glad to see that old tricks still work. Even on a kid who has a sixth sense." Natasha Romanoff slides out from behind the pillar to my left.
SHE WAS NOT THERE. I should have seen her, I don't understand.
"How?" I fumble out after a second of her scrutinizing me.
She smirks. "I can't just tell you and give away all my tricks. It's just an old school spy trick. Uses your eyes against you. C'mon. Car's out front. Which reminds me…"
Pulling out her phone, she quickly types out a message as we walk.
What is happening?
"He'll grab your backpack and everything." She adds after a moment. "You weren't expecting us."
I shake my head strongly. "No. I just saw my Principal when he walked me here and—"
"I politely reintroduced myself and volunteered to take you home." She says, an odd kind of smile on her features. "Unless you'd like to go back to that quiz you're missing."
This time she turns back and smirks as I laugh. "No thanks."
"That's what I thought. And I would prefer not to wait long…" She mutters, checking her watch as we walk up to a nondescript black car.
If Happy is here, which this looks like his car, we're all set except for my backpack. Unless we brought a third?
Which seems dumb if the goal is for nobody to notice that I'm gone.
Casually, she opens the driver's side door, revealing that it's empty.
She's driving.
"Get in. On the infinitesimal chance there's a sniper…" She grumbles at me, and I pull open the door and duck inside as fast as I can.
"Sorry."
"I said infinitesimal…now don't tell me you're lost." I hear her scowl as she looks back to her phone again.
This is a similar car to the one Happy always drives in. They probably just own the car, and use it for trips into New York like this one.
Spontaneously, the door on my left opens, revealing Dr. Bruce Banner climbing in. Hastily, I give him space before he closes the door.
"About time. What'd you do, stop for coffee?" Romanoff questions him, seamlessly pulling out at the same time.
Dr. Banner rolls his shoulders, buckling in. "It took a minute. And I got caught looking at a mural. Did anyone mention to you that this is where Howard Stark went to school?"
"No." Romanoff shakes her head.
Yeah. He and Dr. Erskine, the man who created Cap's super soldier serum are both alumni of Midtown. It's our claim to fame.
"Did Tony reroute you here?" Banner turns to me.
"No." I shake my head. "Tested in."
Kind of. My grades didn't speak to my test scores. May and Principal Morita talked about my admission.
Grades are a lot better now.
"Hell of a coincidence. And explains why he didn't just pull Peter out of school. Tutor him with us." Romanoff comments, then eying me using the mirrors.
I quickly break her eye contact, then see that my bag is on the floor by Banner's feet. "Oh, my bad." I quickly apologize and snatch it over the divide in the middle and set it by my feet.
"You're fine. What'd they do anyway? Just throw it in the showers just because?" Banner waves away my concern.
"Basically." I nod. "I, uhm, had the charger for my tablet in here. I'm really sorry…"
Get out in front of it. Brace the news a bit.
Banner instead, just looks at me, slightly confused. "Okay?"
"We'll get you a new one." Romanoff dismisses my concern. "The tablet wasn't in there was it?"
"No. I keep it at home."
Dr. Banner asks "No problem."
"No problem?" I ask again.
"Yeah, we'll get all new stuff." He nods. "We can get Karen on transcribing your notes into new notebooks so you don't have to rewrite everything—"
"It might help him to study by writing it again."
"No." I jump in. "I'm okay with transcribing it."
Dr. Banner laughs quietly. "I'm Bruce, by the way." he extends his hand to me. Out of habit, I shake his hand before he continues "I know we didn't get to really talk before you had to come back. But we figured that waiting might work out too."
Romanoff glances back at me again. "Are you hungry Peter? Before we totally get out of the city?"
No, I'm fine right now. And I can get something at the Compound. If we're going there.
"I'm fine, thank you. Are we going upstate?" I glance into the mirror.
Nope.
"Yeah. Let you know what's sort of going on with everything that's going on. You can't really help right now, you're in school and that's important—I know you want to help but hang on." Dr. Banner cuts me off.
"I've been in school this whole time. When I got my powers, stopped that flying vulture guy, the guys in the ship that I met you at—" I tell Dr. Banner. "What's different?"
Banner and Widow share a meaningful look in the mirror, before Widow turns to me. "Thor."
"Thor?" I repeat.
Why Thor?
"Asgard got destroyed. His home. Big long story, but point is that I was there. Hulk saw it happen. I can see it now. He now needs a new home."
"Which he now has." Chimes in Widow.
"Okay, where?"
"He basically bought Oklahoma and some of Kansas and Colorado." Banner shrugs.
Bought?
"I…thought states couldn't be bought. When'd that become a thing?" I ask.
And if it's a thing, can somebody please put an end to New Jersey?
Widow explains "In exchange for protection of the planet. Earth is his home now, and the land he bought will be his."
That sounds bad to me. Thor isn't like magic. He's a god, but I don't think that's how this works. I don't think people are going to just not commit terrible crimes just because we have a god. They don't care.
They're criminals. It's a mindset thing with them.
"You're not sold." Dr. Banner observes.
Widow's eyes flash to me again. "Why not?"
It takes me a moment to get out "The Accords." I tell her, then look to Dr. Banner. "Have you had a chance to look at them?"
"A little bit, why?" He asks, looking genuine.
"You fought on Stark's side." Widow fires at me.
I nod. "So did you."
Banner's head pops up. "You did?"
"I was handed a problem and no real solutions. It was either that, retirement, or jail." Romanoff defends herself. "I tried to make the best of a bad situation."
"That law's bad. I didn't read it until after that fight at the airport." I explain to them. "There's all sorts of clauses and loopholes. Especially for 'vigilante heroes'. Hmm?"
You can't trust Ross. May can't stand him, and I'm starting to see her point.
"Ross isn't heartless. I'd bet he was told to find a solution, just like you said Nat." Dr. Banner replies evenly.
I counter "Well, if that's in effect after this? Am I next? Or do I have to retire?"
"You're not retiring. Relax." Romanoff coolly replies. "The world's just changing. And we all have to change with it."
"Okay, then what do I do?"
"First. We give you your suit back." Dr. Banner says with a smile. "We fixed it, separated it from the Iron Spider suit and stored that away. And we tricked it out a little more."
It's tricked out enough. I don't need anything else. What I have is fine.
"I think I'll just take my old suit." I answer confidently.
Widow looks up at me again. "We'll see. Oh damn, Bruce. Call his Aunt. Your phone's busted, isn't it."
"Yeah." I nod, then look away, feeling my cheeks get hot again.
"Oh! That reminds me. Nat. You'll never guess who I saw." Dr. Banner suddenly smiles
"Who?"
"His girlfriend. Outside the office that our friend was in. Apparently she went off on one of them after she heard what they did." Banner smiles widely, looking from Widow and back to me.
"I don't have a girlfriend." I interject.
She. Michelle is in gym, Betty wouldn't do that…
They can't be talking about Michelle. She's not, no no no.
She barely pays attention to me. And I've tried to be a better decathlon teammate.
Romanoff laughs quietly up front. "You don't? Maria Hill said that she's the main person you talk to. Before class, in the library, in your shared classes, via text, in your decathlon…"
"Sounds like a girlfriend to me." Dr. Banner confesses.
They think Michelle is my girlfriend.
"No, she's not. Who are you even talking about?" I ask him.
Dr. Banner simply pulls out his phone, activates the screen and scrolls right to a series of files, taps multiple times before a profile of Michelle pops up. He effortlessly flips it around so that Michelle's face is facing me. "That's her."
And that's an old photo. From freshman year.
"No." I shake my head.
Widow's eyes find me again as we're now out of the city and beginning to hit the tunnels that lead onto the larger highways. "No?"
"No. Michelle's just my friend." I say strongly. "Head of our decathlon team, I have some classes with her. And yeah, I guess I do text her. But I don't see the problem with that—"
"No problem." Banner jumps in, smiling. "There's no problem."
"But she did go to see you on the roof. At the party when you first came back."
Horrified, I snap back to look at her. "How'd you—"
"We are paying attention to you. Maria Hill told us." She smiles.
"How?" I raise my voice. "I get keeping an eye on me but c'mon!"
"We didn't actually hear anything. Just saw you through some security cameras."
And now you think she's my girlfriend.
I laugh. "Okay. But Michelle's not my girlfriend."
"Okay." Romanoff shakes her head. "She is pretty though. She won't be single for very long."
Dr. Banner smiles to himself, then shrugs at me. "I agree with her Pete."
"You would if you knew what's good for you." Romanoff comments, shifting in the driver's seat. Leaving Dr. Banner to helplessly smile at me.