"Babe!" May's voice called out, and she stuck her head into his room. "Come on, get up and get ready, or you'll be late." Peter groaned, and tried to pull his bedsheets over his head. May moved over, and pulled them off him entirely.

"Aunt May!" Peter complained, sticking his head under his pillow. May pulled that out as well.

"Come on Pete, you've got to hand in your photography coursework today!" When her nephew didn't move, she shoved him lightly. "You have to go to school honey."

"Or I could not." May laughed.

"Go have a shower and get dressed, you reek."

"Love you too." When May finally left, Peter realised that there was no chance of falling back asleep. Sighing, he grabbed a towel and some clothes, and made his way to the bathroom. He turned the shower on and stripped down, before getting under the water. As soon as he got him, he froze, the cold water bringing back unpleasant memories of being dropped in the lake by the Vulture. Forcing himself to stay in the present, he turned the heating up, and enjoyed the rest of his shower in contentment.

Walking back to his room, he paused outside the door. Something was wrong; his Spidey Sense was tingling awkwardly. After debating whether the threat was lethal or not, he slowly pushed open his door, and froze at the sight in front of him. Everything he owned was covered with water. His bed, his walls, his open closet, his desk- his desk! Peter sprinted over, and picked up the photography portfolio he had been working on for months. The thin paper immediately tore and fell to the ground. All of the carefully taken photos had fallen out, and the ink was running badly on all of them, making the pictures blurry messes. The writing he had spent hours perfecting, written in May's fanciest pen, was unintelligible. Hearing a soft chuckle from behind him, he turned to see Lily grinning, holding a water gun that was bigger than she was.

"Pranked you!" She yelled, and Peter stared at her, a few tears dripping down his face. Lily frowned, obviously confused. "Why are you crying? It was funny!"

"What's going on?" May's voice called out, and she walked in, holding a tea towel in her hands. Looking at the mess in front of her, she gasped, and her eyes fell on Peter's ruined portfolio. "Oh my god." She walked over to Peter, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hun…"

"I'm fucked." Peter said, staring at the sodden paper in his hands, not caring about the repercussions of swearing in front of his cousin. "I am well and truly fucked."

"He said a bad word, he said a bad word, he said-"

"Lily!" May reprimanded harshly. Upon seeing the young girl's quivering lip, and teary eyes, she sighed, and ran a hand over her face. "Go wait in the lounge." As Lily walked out, May turned back to Peter. "Honey, I-" she paused. "I need to go to work, and drop your cousin off at school."

"Okay." Peter whispered, still crying.

"Petey..." May put a hand on his shoulder, and forced him to face her. "I'm so sorry. It'll be okay."

"Yeah."

May swiftly kissed his forehead, and walked out, taking a last lingering glance at the mess behind her. "I'll be back around eight. We can put Lily to bed, and have a movie night if you want?"

"Sure.""Hey," May tilted his head up. "Bit more enthusiasm?"

"That sound great Aunt May. Truly." Peter gave her a watery smile.

Kissing her nephews forehead, she smiled at him. "Atta boy. See you tonight."

And with that, she walked out of the small room, leaving Peter to listen to the small click of the apartment's front door closing behind her. Sighing, Peter did his best to clean up his room before he had to leave for school. Remembering about a few polaroid photos he had under his bed, he sprinted over and pulled out the tattered box. Mentally praying that they would be intact, he opened the box, and let out a pleased gasp. They were all okay. Pulling out a handful without really looking at them, he shoved the old polaroids into his (dry) bag, planning to write out a couple of sentences for each of them at recess. He knew it wasn't going to be good enough to get any decent grade, but he couldn't not and anything in. Mr Ford would kill him.

Peter grabbed an apple, put his earphones in and walked out of his apartment. His train left in twenty minutes. Pausing just before he reached the staircase out of the tower block, he shook his head, and started jogging back to the apartment. Pushing open the door, he rushed into the bathroom and pulled out a bottle of Ativan. It wouldn't do much what with his metabolism, but it'd help in the long run. And, who knows, maybe it would have a bit of a placebo effect on him. Either way, he took a pill, and swallowed it, shoving the bottle in his backpack.


"Dude," Ned said excitedly, as he saw his friend approach him at recess that day. "Have you seen it?"

"Seen what?" Peter sat down opposite Ned and MJ, Harry Osborn sitting next to him.

"The Daily Bugle released a new article on Spider-Man." Harry said, leaning back in his chair.

"Oh. That's it?" Peter pulled out the loose polaroids and some paper out of his bag. "Can I borrow a pen?" He asked MJ. She handed one over without looking up from her book.

"What do you mean 'that's it'? Don't you want to know what they said?" Ned asked incredulously.

"Not particularly. They're all dickheads."

"True. But this article's interesting, and you know that if I'm saying that it's true." Harry picked up one of Peter's polaroids. "What're you doing?"

"Lily fucked up my photography portfolio. I'm trying to get something together before next period." Peter wrote out a title on his paper.

"What? But you spent months on that!" MJ put down her book and stared at Peter.

"Yeah."

"Did… did you look at these photos before you brought them?" Ned asked, gingerly picking up one.

"No, I didn't have time, why?" He looked over to the one Harry was holding. "Fuck. No, no, no!" Peter grabbed a handful of the pictures and shuffled through them, anxiously checking them all. "Fuck!" They were shitty photos of him and his friends from last few months. He dropped the photos back on the table. "I must have grabbed the wrong box." He whispered. He felt tears begin to form in his eyes, and he blinked angrily.

"It's fine. You can just explain to Ford that your cousin ruined your portfolio. He'll understand." Ned said. They all knew he was wrong.

"I'm just gonna go." Peter shoved everything back into his bag, and swung it onto his back.

"You can't just leave." MJ said. She glared at Peter disapprovingly.

"Yeah, man, you've been in enough trouble these last few years as it it. You get like a dozen detentions a day. You'll be suspended if you bunk off now." Harry tugged on his sleeve.

"I won't be bunking off. Tell Ford that I'm sick."

"None of us are in your class!" Harry argued.

"Then tell someone who is, Haz!" Peter snapped, and he left his friends gaping at his sudden change in demeanor.

Peter immediately regretted his outburst, and he was too distracted as he jumped the school gate to acknowledge his Spidey Sense going off. He barely felt the taser attacking his back , and he realised his whole body had gone numb. He was being thrown into the back seat of a car, and there was nothing he could do about it. No point in resisting. That was what he had always been taught.

Don't resist.


A/N: OH MY GOD WHAT? SHE DID IT? I actually got the next chapter up! Plot twist guys, I'm not a total failure! Still struggling to carry the story forward, so this is just how Pete got in the situation he's in during the last chapter. I'm not in a perfect state mentally, so this is really hard for me to do at the moment, but I love writing, so I'm torn! It's like my mind wants me to be productive and do shit, but my body won't cooperate. This chapter's really short, I know, but I just sat down and wrote 800 words, so I'm proud of myself! Y'all are amazing, so incredible, I love you all so, so much!