"Okay, settle down." Mrs. Murphy says, as our rowdy class finally acknowledges her authority and starts quieting down. Once the jokes finally die down and the muffled laughter ceases, she turns to us. "So, as you all know, today is the Burn Book day."
The class cheers in general, and I sink a little lower in my desk, just before MJ scratches my back.
I never know when she is going to do it. Sometimes it's once a day, in Art. Other days it's multiple times a day.
Last week she changed it up and held her hand there for a moment, like she was looking for something before taking her hand back.
Today is a two scratch day. This morning and now.
"—yes, we knew. So, I believe it's Ms. Edwards that's delivering the books via email this year. Five minutes into class is the number I heard. So…be civil." She requests politely, then walks over to her desk and pulls out her phone.
She's done.
The class quickly bursts into conversation as I check my phone for messages.
"Out for the day. Left money for food, whatever you want. I'll order for me when I get home. Love you." -May
"Sounds good. Have fun. Love you too." I reply.
Behind me, I hear Michelle starts sliding her supplies back into her bag. "What do you think they're going to say this year?" She teases me.
I was in it last year.
It's an unspoken rule of the book that Freshmen don't make it generally. They're only mentioned in passing by the authors, that year's female senior class.
The Book is part gossip rag, summarizing the school year, part bathroom "Hot or Not" poll denoted in scratches or marker, part state of the school.
And I was in it last year. As "leading contender for biggest dork as a Freshman".
It should have been Ned and I, but nope. Just me.
"Nothing good." I groan and answer Michelle, barely looking back to see her already looking at me.
She looks at me, smirking. "You did have a bad year."
Bad?
Infinity War. Civil War. Homecoming. Just over a calendar year.
So not Civil War. Right. Just a lot of things that are hard to explain.
"Got it!" Somebody says, and the class scrambles to their devices to start reading.
Midtown School of Science and Technology Burn Book: 2019 Edition
It's ironic, they named it the Burn Book after ya know, Mean Girls, but there's been a version of this thing since the mid-seventies. And people don't burn it.
Well, I guess let's see how bad this is. Probably a bunch of disappearance jokes and some shots at the Avengers and Stark through me.
I pull up the search feature, and type in 'Peter Parker'. I hit return, then am dropped right to a massive bold headline.
Peter Parker.
"Oh what a year it has been for the previous edition's "leading contender for biggest dork", Peter Parker.
If only he'd stayed as good as he seemed.
This one is as toxic and dangerous as it gets ladies. Unless you like the following checklist:
Quits marching band, robotics lab and Decathlon.
Rejoins decathlon at the last moment, only to no-show Nationals and for Midtown to win without him.
Successfully tricks beloved senior Liz Allan into going to Homecoming as her date, then promptly ditches her.
Refuses to say anything about the topic for months on end.
Ditches school sponsored trip to the Manhattan Museum of Modern Art to disappear just before the Decimation event.
Returns from said event, claiming that he had to go to his "Stark Internship"
Students of Midtown, let's be adults here. There is no internship. There is no story. He doesn't know the Avengers. Peter Parker is a messed up, chronically lying, cheating, unreliable piece of trash that you should not associate with. Point blank.
His best friend is the guy that got caught looking at porn at Homecoming. There is nothing more pathetic. Even Parker ditches him at parties. Whether it's to go to the roof or vanish completely, you can count on Parker to be a complete non factor there too.
His work in the classroom is average at best, derided every step by the repulsive Flash Thompson, who is fortunate enough to be mentioned here and nowhere else in this year's book.
We have seen what he did and what he can do. He single handedly drove Liz out of the state, and across the country. His moral compass is completely broken, if he even has one at all. Jury is out on that one, and since the Decimation, which for whatever reason he calls "The Snap", Parker has become elusive, stoic and silent, eyes glazed over in the back of every class and alone (basically) at every lunch.
He has never known responsibility, another factor that makes his claim about the Stark Internship completely laughable and easily dismissed. Parker fanboyed over Stark from the time that he nearly died at the Stark Expo and has crafted a complete lie as a personality. He cannot be trusted or believed about anything that he says. The bullied has changed schools, switched identities. He is a wolf in sheep's clothing, and a wolf in the hen house.
Ratings:
Hot or Not: 4 out of 10
Adorkable-ness: 5 out of 10
Personality: 1 out of 10
Hollywood Factor: 1 out of 10
Fun Factor: 1 out of 10
Known love interests: None (other than his hand and mattress)
Suspected crushes, romantic hopefuls: None"
What.
I find myself blinking a few times before I come to my senses as the class is debating random snippets.
I guess when you put it like that…I'm about to be a complete social pariah. Nobody's going to want to do anything with me.
My ears are filled with what sounds like bees as I scroll back up.
"We have seen what he did and can do."
"Under no circumstance can we bring the Time Stone to Thanos. I don't think you quite understand what's at stake here."
"No. It's you who doesn't understand, that Thanos has been inside my head for six years since he sent an army to New York and now he's back!" Mr. Stark exclaims. "And I don't know what to do. So I'm not so sure if it's a better plan to fight him on out turf or his but you saw what they did, what they can do. At least on his turf, he's not expecting it. So I say we take the fight to him. Doctor. Do you concur?"
"All right, Stark, we go to him. But you have to understand this: When it comes to saving you, or the kid, or the Time Stone, I will not hesitate to let either of you die. I can't, because the universe depends on it."
Good.
Moral compass.
Flash sits up near the front of the class, reading directly off his enormous, tablet sized phone. "—Students of Midtown, let's be adults here." He laughs. "There is no internship. There is no story. He doesn't know the Avengers."
Yeah.
Mr. Stark walks away from Dr. Strange awkwardly, looking uncomfortable. "Okay kid." He says, tapping me on my left shoulder, then my right. "You're an Avenger now."
"Damn Parker. They didn't even call you a dick! I'll just have to fix that oversight."
Behind me, Michelle cracks "The only dick here is you. And I heard it's tiny. Like, need a microscope tiny."
Some of the class laughs, but notably Murphy at her desk does, causing Flash to turn around angrily before turning back to Michelle. "And you are again? Nobody? Exactly."
"I don't need a dumb book to feel good about myself."
"Yay, congratulations. You're not the point, the guy you're following around is." Flash taunts, before I see the lightbulb go off. "Oh! Hey! Add suspected crushes: Michelle Jones…on Penis Parker. Aww…"
"Hey." I snap angrily at Flash. "You're not in the book, that's enough."
That's enough. She said be civil.
Flash ignores me and continues reading "—another factor that makes his claim about the Stark Internship completely laughable and easily dismissed. Parker fanboyed over Stark from the time that—"
You know what, I've had enough. Forget this. I'm out of here.
Without a second's hesitation, I've thrown everything in my bag and am already in the hallway, walking to my locker before I realize where I am.
Shit, I've already committed. I can't really go to my locker, they'll hear it in the office.
I've just got to go.
I duck out of the closest door, then slip out behind the football fields out to the subway station.
Manhattan.
Away from here.
I want 14th and Union Square. I think it's being rerouted to 18th. That's okay, I can walk a few blocks.
I don't know how long I sit down after I paid before I notice my phone, vibrating, indicating a missed text.
I don't want to deal with that right now.
Setting my phone on Do Not Disturb, I put it back into my pocket, watch the display screen for our location and sit back again.
18th and Union. Bingo.
I attempt to blend into the mass of New Yorkers, coming from work, returning from lunch or whatever it is that they're doing before I find the nearest staircase and climb back to street level, where my eyes immediately drift up towards the skyline before I find the misshapen, jagged edge of the second building I tried to grab.
Broke that off like the first time. I don't know the name of the building.
19 seconds.122 miles per hour. 53 meters per second.
Dead weight. I had compound fractures in my arm and a broken rib plus a black eye and a couple cuts on my face from bouncing around so much.
And I dropped Mr. Stark.
I don't even remember waking up. I just felt like I was lying in my bed, more sore than I'd ever been in my life, for what was long enough that I didn't even think something was wrong. Until I bounced off something, jolting my eyes open as Mr. Stark flew away from me, his body careening aimlessly.
I panicked and screamed but I barely even heard myself.
The city was screaming. Everywhere.
Everyone was screaming. I sort of remember a helicopter somewhere.
The terror paralyzed me before I saw the second building at the last second, and made a snatching grab at it, only for the metal, glass and various other materials to give way, and for me to continue falling.
I caught myself, kind of soon after on the ledge of a penthouse. Before Hulk leapt up, close enough for me to see him out of the corner of my eye, sending my brain into overdrive.
And I panicked.
I swung down as fast as I could. When I got there, Hulk had set him down by Thor and Thanos as people ran away, screaming in horror, terror, bewilderment, fear, everything.
Everything.
Then the picture. Me cradling him, as it hit me that I lost.
I failed. Tony Stark's dead.
At some point the police came. Then the National Guard. I was shuffled off to some tent somewhere inside a building.
I remember finally taking the mask off. It was two women that I didn't recognize, talking to Ant-Man before they finally convinced me to take it off so that they could see how hurt I was.
He backed up over one of the rolling tables they had set up.
He didn't think I was actually a kid.
"Hey. What are your parents' phone numbers? We need to get them down here. Let them know that you're okay."
I feel like I didn't wait long before May was hysterical. Hugging me. Crying. Clinging to me like her life depended on it. She didn't let me go, even though I was covered in dust, dirt, debris, Avengers' blood and worst of all, purple blood.
From the axe buried up to the handle in Thanos' chest before Thor savagely ripped it out at an angle, forcing him to bleed out.
The reports at the Compound said that he was conscious when the cops arrived, muttering about how we'd already lost. How he had saved everyone.
And that we had ruined it.
People were everywhere. There was footage on YouTube for days, maybe even weeks on end before the Compound finally got the worst of it down. But the screenshots will live forever.
Thor roaring at Thanos as he's completely immobilized. Colonel Danvers, literally glowing. Citizens literally within feet of them, running around them or away.
There was no "safe distance". No warning. Just at 10:48 AM, the same exact time three day prior to that, the flying donut vanished in a fancy flash of light, I, along with half of the planet just came back into the middle of Manhattan.
Right here.
I remember Thor and Colonel Danvers were waiting for us when we finally went outside, to a waiting car. Escorted us all the way out, with a fifteen block perimeter. We drove to a hanger, where there was a helicopter that flew us to the Compound.
I refused to look out the window or be near the door. I wanted to literally sit on the floor, holding onto the pilot's seat so that I'd have something physical to hold onto if Thanos somehow blew a hole in the floor and we were going down.
I can't do another fall like that again.
The buzzing in my ears subsides briefly, and I notice the crowds of tourists near the perimeter fences, here just chain link fence and green industrial fabric to block out the view. At the base of the fence, for as far as I can see without the view being obstructed by people, there's signs, stuffed animals, murals and other tokens of gratitude, sadness, honor, grief…
The makeshift memorial.
Nobody knows what they're going to do. Well, kind of.
They're making a statue for Cap outside of the UN headquarters here in New York. What of exactly, nobody has decided.
He…At Mr. Stark's funeral, apparently Cap had something written in case Tony died and he couldn't be there to speak himself. Same thing the other way around. Cap's funeral had a speech written by Tony.
My eyes drift over to the massive board that's been erected, mostly out of plywood hastily, but has something written on it. Beside it, on the side of a building, somebody has artfully spray painted Iron Man's helmet, with candles all around it.
"There will always be men like Tony Stark, to dream, to build and to create."
That's practically a planetary motto right now.
Dream. Build. Create.
Beat Thanos into the pavement next time.
I finally made myself actually looked at the files that Banner and the others had made, back in…the version of events that led to the Snap. I can't put it all together right now. They had to use Mr. Stark's 'Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing' device, combined with Colonel Danvers, to mess with time.
That's about all I understood.
But that's what happened. They cleared out the entire compound except for essential personnel to run the whole thing so that the changes would be minimal.
We don't have tons of people appearing in places they aren't supposed to be. That shatters the fabric of reality. Just small examples like me.
And look where that's gotten me.
Here.
We have to take the torch from Stark and Cap. That's why I'm here. The Avengers have picked up where we all left off.
I guess I have to too.
Next time we'll be ready.
"Thanks for having my back today." I grab another slice of pizza and look at the screens Karen has up.
Still waiting to hear back from the Benatar. Colonel Danvers updated the Compound yesterday. And Thor calls when he wants to.
"You're welcome. He was being a dick."
I wasn't expecting an immediate response. Huh.
"Did I miss anything?" I decide to politely reply.
I kind of can't believe that I just walked out of class in fifth period. I mean, I did it, but I'm really about to get it.
I haven't heard from Hill all day, I think it's a day off for her.
She deserves it, having to drive around, first with the security install, then taking me to Michelle's on top of doing her actual job.
"Dude." - Ned
Uh oh.
"How bad are we talking?" I reply, fearing the answer.
That damn book crushed him without even saying his name. That doesn't even matter because he's my friend.
Betty has to do something after everybody remembers the Homecoming fiasco.
And they were just starting to get rolling too.
"I'm drowning. I think we're done." Ned panics.
"No…blame everything on me. It was me. I told you to go to the lab for me."
I take a bite and pace around the kitchen.
It was me.
"We had to stop Liz's dad!" Ned shoots right back. "I was the guy in the chair! I don't regret it!"
Yeah. Those first few weeks afterward weren't even that hard to get through. I was so excited that I actually saved that plane's cargo and stopped everything that the trouble kind of didn't matter.
"You're taking too much blame."
"Who can literally carry it? You or me?"
Ned can't lose Betty over me. No. He's been super happy. I can't do that to him.
"I kind of think her mind is made up though." Ned's response pop up.
Yeah.
Behind me, the front door finally rattles with the sound of keys being inserted. "—Peter?" the door opens revealing May and…
Hill.
"Hi!" May smiles at me.
I'm not sure I like this. May looks like she does when she sips too much wine watching Lifetime movies.
Behind her, Hill is giving me a different look, but I turn away and smile at May. "Hi. Food?"
"Yes please. You know my Korean order." May smiles as she sets her bag down.
Hill wordlessly pulls Karen's screens to her as she crosses the room to lean on my doorframe. "Do you want anything?"
"What's May having?" She asks, shooting me a brief glance.
"It's Korean steak with vegetables and soy mostly." I shrug as May digs in the fridge. It's good."
May usually doesn't finish it all, but I love it at 2 AM. And she's only threatened me over eating it once, so that's a win in my books.
"Sure."
I nod, moving past my texts and to start ordering Korean.
Now I understand why I didn't hear from her all day.
"Sorry we're home late. Wine tasting down in Alexandria. It was really fun, but we talked too much."
"You, talking too much?" I glance up and smile at May. "I can't believe it."
"Oh that's not fair. Boo." She waves me off. "We had fun, didn't we?"
"Yeah." Hill nods.
She's not in Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D mode at all. She's dressed like May.
She looks kind of awesome.
May pours herself some water. "What's he looking at?"
"The front lines." Hill responds without pausing her reading. "With Danvers and Quill out in space." Instantly, May turns to look at me.
"Why are you looking at that?" May asks me pointedly, causing me to look back to Hill.
Hill finally looks up from the screens. "We're going to have to teach you a poker face."
