I walked through the school hallway more confidently than usual. My powers made me feel like a different person. In fact, maybe I was. Harry didn't even recognize me in first period. I had been gone for two weeks, but I didn't expect him to forget about me entirely. I entered the cafeteria and sat down at our usual table, the one in the dirty old corner. We used to sit outside but Flash bothered us whenever we did. "Maybe it's nothing" I thought. "He'll sit with me at least, surely." I waited and waited and soon, I wasn't feeling so confident anymore. I stood up and started walking around, looking for him.

I didn't see Harry anywhere. As I was looking around my attention diverted to Gwen. She was an old friend from Middle School. I never understood why she hung out with us. Gwen was trendy and pretty, Harry and I were, well, awkward assholes who pushed everyone away. I still talked to her occasionally but as soon as High School came around she hung out with some girls that looked like they went to Hot Topic instead.

I tapped on her shoulder and immediately overthought it. "Who does that?" I thought. I wanted to punch myself. "Heyyyyy, Gwen." I tried to be charming but I felt like I was trying too hard. She turned around, and raised one of her eyebrows when she saw me.

"Hey, Peter." She said reluctantly, taking another bite of her fries.

"Uh.." I wasn't very good at talking to girls so I tried to look at the wall instead of at her. "Have you seen Harry?"

"Oh, yeah, totally. He sat alone the first day you were gone but ever since then he's been sitting outside. With Flash." She didn't seem to care much. Like it was normal. Like Flash and Harry hadn't been at each other's throats for the past few years.

"Oh." I walked away, not even bothering to finish talking to Gwen. The whole world seemed to fade away as I walked outside. All I saw was a black corridor with me on one side and Harry and Flash on the other. In reality, they were sitting at a table with a group of sheep around them cheering as they arm wrestled. Flash won, obviously but Harry seemed to laugh it off. Harry had gel in his hair and he was wearing a designer hoodie and Air Jordans. He looked like a Grade A fuck boy.

I knew I'd be baradded by social pressure as soon as I talked to Harry. Flash's friends were like a moat and Flash was the castle. Well, a rundown castle with a pompous jackass inside. I swallowed my pride and walked up to them. "Hey, Harry. Can we... talk?" I looked at him side-eyed.

"Uh huh." He sat there, cockily eating a piece of pizza.

"Away from everybody?" I tried to build a bridge across the moat. I wasn't comfortable talking about everything in front of everyone. Especially not Flash and his friends.

"What's wrong with us?" One of Flash's friends with a wide, gaping mouth that always reminded me of a hungry hippo guffawed.

"Yeah, what's wrong with them?" Harry crossed his arms and smirked. I rolled my eyes and sighed.

"Talk to you later, Harry." I glared at him, then turned around and walked inside. "Alright, Harry is definitely mad at me." I thought. "I guess I'll have to sit somewhere else."

Now, in the cafeteria again I walked up to Gwen and saw an open seat next to her. "Can I sit here? Harry is being a dick." I grimaced, trying to show her how I felt.

"Oh, maybe not today. I'm saving that seat for one of my friends. Maybe tomorrow?"

"Oh, okay. That's cool." It wasn't cool. Gwen clearly didn't want my company, there were other seats she could've offered if she did. I walked away and stood in the middle of the room next to a garbage can. There I was, alone again with no one who cared about me in the whole school. Like I was before Harry took pity on me. And I didn't. Even. Know. Why. I sat down, leaning my head against the garbage, and closed my eyes.

"I have the ability to crawl on buildings, to jump higher than any olympic athlete. Maybe that would get someone to care about me." I pondered. I looked at the wall and saw that football tryouts were starting after school. All of the athletic kids at my school were popular, even though our team almost always lost.

Mr. Osborn could wait a few hours. I figured It was about time for me to use my powers for myself.

I was wearing a clunky football outfit that made me sweat ten times as much as usual. It was very uncomfortable, especially since it rode up in the crotch. It was almost like we were handicapping ourselves. There were a couple other scrawny kids like me in the room but it was mostly tall athletic kids that had probably been doing this type of thing their whole lives. I didn't have experience but I knew I could get on the team with my powers. Was it fair to the other kids? No. Was it fair that I was shunned by what felt like the whole school and now my only friend too? No, no it wasn't.

I put on my helmet, determined to get back at everyone and take the glory I deserved. Then Flash and Harry walked in and I clenched my fist. Flash and Harry looked equally surprised to see me.

"Penis Parker? Since when did you do sports? Or anything physical?" Flash was very close-minded about people. Especially me. No matter how much I tried to impress him or gain his approval he'd always say the same things about me. So why did he change his mind about Harry? Was he using Harry?

"Pete?" Harry looked confused, he didn't know if he was looking at the same person. I grinded my teeth against each other and then walked past them.

"Good luck." I murmured in a kind, but quiet voice. I couldn't hate Harry and I truly did wish him the best but I still felt neglected.

All of us stood in the middle of the field. It was frigid and my arms were exposed. The coach looked at us with his dead eyes while he sniffed. He was like the alpha wolf, looking for the weakest of the pack to get rid of first.

"Parker!" Of course he picked me. I was the shortest and the least muscular of the whole group. "Catch." He bent his arm in a 135 degree angle and then straightened his arm, taking a step forward. The ball took off and broke through the air like a fighter jet. I grabbed a nail from my pocket and tried to stab myself while the ball was taking off, all of the sudden I heard a faint ringing and the whole world slowed down. I could see the saliva from the coach's mouth slowly falling, I could see individual rain drops and leaves falling. I looked at the ball, bent my knees and took off.

I had gained control over my jumps when Dr. Connors and Mr. Osborn were observing me. I learned just the right amount of pressure and just the right angle. As I got close to the ball, my perspective of time returned to normal. I snatched the it from mid-air and landed on my feet. Then I threw it back to the coach and it took off like a bullet, he caught it but the pressure knocked him off his feet.

All the other kids were losing their minds, cheering me on or laughing. Some were frozen in shock. I snapped out of my adrenaline rush and ran towards the coach. "Are you okay, sir?" He coughed for a bit then stood up and looked upset.

"You're on the team."

I grinned. "Yes." I tried to contain my excitement. "But what about the other tests?"

"After what you just did, I don't need other tests. You're in, and you're the uarterback."

One of the older kids yelled "Maybe with him we'll actually win for once!" Everyone on the field except Flash and Harry started laughing.

I sat on the stands watching everyone else try out. Flash was picked for Defensive Tackle and one of the older kids named Diante got to be Linebacker. Harry did pretty decent so the coach made him left guard.

My teammates eventually came to the lockeroom with me and taught me handshakes for the team. Everyone told me how much they were relying on me and even acted like my friends, but I couldn't help but think about Harry the whole time. I had to put everything behind us if we were going to work together on football. The only reason I signed up in the first place is because I needed new friends, I didn't want new friends. I wanted Harry.

Diante, the linebacker put his arm on my shoulder. "Who wants to come to my place to celebrate?" Most of the team, including Harry and Flash, were pretty happy with that idea, they all started walking off until Diane noticed me still sitting there alone. "You coming?"

"Yeah, sure." I didn't want to wait for later to talk to Harry. I already stopped myself once and if I waited any longer I could've lost him. I followed him to the car.

When we got to Diante's house it was empty, clearly he planned this.

"It's been team tradition for two years now to throw these parties so think of it as an initiation." Another kid-Musafar-broke the silence.

There were bags of weed on the table and a box of beer on the counter. Now I understood why the coach wasn't invited. Harry and I looked visibly uncomfortable but also excited. I held my arms close to my sides, and boxed myself up.

"So… Who's gonna invite the girls?" Flash had his arms crossed with a cocky expression.

"I got you, fam." Rodney, the backup Quaterback pulled out his phone. Harry and I were wide-eyed, we looked at each other awkwardly. He and I weren't usually invited to parties. We also weren't used to dating or girls, besides Gwen who gave both of us our first kisses.

I avoided drinking, smoking, or talking to anyone for the next hour as more and more people came in, mostly girls in revealing clothing. I stood in the corner, trying to build up enough courage to talk to Harry. Or anyone, really. Then I sucked up my pride and walked over to Harry and Flash who were smoking pot, while Liz Allen sat on Harry's lap.

"Harry, we need to talk. Now."

"What do you want?" Harry coughed violently, put the blunt down and then closed his eyes as Liz licked his face.

"I don't know what I did to you or why you're hanging out with Flash but things clearly aren't okay

between us." I said in a serious tone, trying to yell over the music.

"Oh, it's simple. You've got a new best friend and so do I."

"What do you mean?"

"You know I hate my dad. He's an embarrassment. You've been avoiding me for the past three weeks to hang out with him." Harry avoided looking at me, and instead paid attention to Liz.

"I'm helping him with his research, Harry and even if that's true why are you hanging out with Flash of all people?"

Harry stopped looking at Liz and looked me straight in the eyes. "Flash and I were friends before you and I were. He's been telling me that he could save me from you and your faggot aura if I just dropped you for months. "I took pity on you, Parker and I suffered for it."

I started breathing heavily. Harry didn't just have to abandon me, he had to humiliate me and claim I never mattered. "If you didn't want me hanging out with your dad, why didn't you just tell me?"

Harry forced Liz off of him, stood up, and looked down at me. "I trusted you Peter. I wanted you to be able to fufill your dreams of being a scientist. I always worried you were just friends with me to get to my dad but I took a chance. I called you over and over and over again. You never picked up. I waited outside for you after school and you didn't show up."

"I was in a coma!"

"Who was the first person you came to see after your coma? My dad. Did you come see if I was okay? No. In those two weeks that you were gone Flash showed me the most friendship I've gotten in years."

"You're worthless, Parker. Not only are you a deadbeat and a fag, you're also a terrible friend. You deserve to be alone." Flash growled, standing up.

People were watching, I closed my eyes and started breathing deeply.

"Just leave, no one wants you here." Flash pushed me. Something snapped. I was done being humilated, I was done being a victim. I was given my power for a reason and I was going to use it. No more would people like Flash pick on me. Football wasn't enough. I needed to teach him a lesson.

I grabbed Flash's arm, carefully. "What the fuck are you doing?" He screeched. The music stopped and everyone looked at us. I clenched my fist in my one free arm and punched him, right in the jaw, as hard as I could. Blood sprayed all over the couch and on my fist. Flash spit out blood like crazy. He passed out on the ground and a few teeth came out. Liz started screaming wildly.