Chapter 4: The Lay of the Land
Within the first week, Peter grew accustomed to his new schedule and his niche at school. He also learned the 'lay of the land,' as Shuri called it, identifying friend groups, couples, ex-couples, and other people who had major beef with each other. Shuri had to outright explain most of it to Peter, who'd always been rather socially illiterate. Their engineering class contained the entirety of the school's meager robotics club: Shuri, Phastos, Alex, and now Peter. There were ten sophomores on the football team, only half of which were good enough to ever see actual playing time. They all vibed exactly like what Peter expected from a high school football player, except the quarterback, who was built more like a dancer than a football player. Peter thought Shuri was messing with him when she told him Carol Danvers was the quarterback.
"I didn't even know they let girls on the team," he said.
"They didn't. Until Carol."
The one time he made eye contact with her in the hallway, she winked at him for some reason. Peter was still thinking about it days after it happened.
Naturally, the football team was the epicenter for most of the school's relationship drama. The blond kid from his art class, whose name Peter finally learned was Thor, had been on-and-off with this girl named Jane for a long time. Ikaris, also from their homeroom, had just broken up with this girl named Sersi. "Actually, she broke up with him to get with this other guy, Dane," Shuri explained.
Three deaf students attended Stan Lee, two of which used sign language only: Makkari and Maya. Outside of class, they only ever talked to each other or this one kid named Druig who Shuri told him had been dating Makkari since the beginning of freshman year. He'd apparently studied and practiced the language for months before asking her out. The third kid, Clint, used hearing aids and spoken language. He apparently didn't get along with Maya and spent most of his time with the girls on the dance team.
Peter found himself far more intimidated by the dance team than the football team. Shuri's brother was on it and he swore they were all super nice, but Peter couldn't help but grow nervous anytime he saw them. Something about the ease with which they carried themselves convinced him that they would eat him alive if given the chance. Except for Kate from his math class, she was super nice. Shuri teased him for his uneasiness, saying, "Just wait until you see them perform."
Finally, there were the theater kids. The only group Peter didn't need Shuri to identify for him. Peter envied their complete lack of fear and disregard for the opinions of their classmates. He'd never be caught dead in a headband with horns or a full-blown cape, but Loki often wore one or both. Nobody seemed to think this was unusual, so it must've been something he'd been doing for a while. The kid with the Walkman from homeroom would sometimes sing and dance down the hallways to whatever song was playing through his earbuds. His name was also Peter, but everyone called him by his last name for some reason.
His first Friday night in the house, Mr. Stark wanted to have a family movie night. Peter would rather spend the night alone in his room than with him, but one pleading look from May convinced him to say yes. At least he wouldn't have to keep up a conversation during the movie. "What do you want to watch, Peter?" Mr. Stark asked. "Any long-time favorites?"
Star Wars would've been his immediate answer, but he didn't think billionaire tech moguls would be into that kind of thing. Mr. Stark struck him as the kind of person to watch old black-and-white movies or something. "I dunno," he said with a noncommittal shrug. "You pick something."
"Alright, then." A smirk that could only be described as mischievous appeared on his face.
What had Peter gotten himself into?
Mr. Stark cued up something called Flash Gordon that Peter had never heard of. The cast consisted of nobody Peter even vaguely recognized. Every single character except the main guy had some ridiculous name like "Zarkov" or "Klytus," so it wasn't unlike Star Wars. The names of the different planets, however, were just about the least original names Peter had ever heard. Mr. Stark told him the movie drew from some early runs of a comic strip, so Peter stopped blaming the film's writers for lack of originality. The whole thing was nauseatingly eighties, from the effects to the costumes to the soundtrack performed entirely by Queen.
Peter loved it.
The original Star Wars trilogy had the same nauseatingly eighties vibe. This movie's plot was a little more scatterbrained than Star Wars, with a secret police led by a guy who sort of resembled Darth Vader, an army of "hawkmen" whose were somehow less realistic than the flying monkeys from the original Wizard of Oz, several duels to the death that only once actually ended in death, and a teaser of an ending that had Peter googling whether there was a sequel or not.
As the credits rolled, May asked with a laugh, "What is it with guys I love and silly space movies?"
"A silly space movie? This is one of the greatest films in cinema history," Mr. Stark defended. "Back me up, Peter."
He shrugged. "It was pretty cool. Very retro."
"God, I'm old. This was one of my favorite movies growing up, and now it's retro."
"Anything made before 2000 is retro to people his age," May said.
"I know, I know. Glad you liked it, kid. Your aunt told me you were a big Star Wars fan so I thought I couldn't go wrong with an eighties space opera."
Aunt May had told him about Peter's love of Star Wars? How had that come up in conversation? Peter suddenly grew worried about what else Mr. Stark might know about him. Very little happened in his or May's lives that they didn't tell each other about. He didn't particularly enjoy the notion of May talking to Mr. Stark about him behind his back.
Peter decided to leave before he grew even more uncomfortable. "I'm gonna head up to bed. Thanks for the movie."
"Good night, Peter."
He saw out of the corner of his eye May scooch in closer to Tony, so he started walking faster. How long was it going to take before his home life felt even remotely normal?
~0~
Peter's second week of school started out fine, until he got to history class. Mr. Ross assigned them a group project. Every single time he'd done a group project in the past, Peter ended up doing all of the work. He worried about repeating that situation here, until Mr. Ross said, "I've chosen to be a benevolent dictator today and will allow you to choose your own groups." When the inevitable excited murmuring began, he added, "But that means I have higher expectations of you."
Peter immediately turned to Shuri, ecstatic when he saw she'd reciprocated the gesture. However, he had no idea who in the class could complete their group of four. Glancing around, he noticed everyone had grouped up as expected. The four football boys joined up. Clint joined two dance team people: Kate and Shang-Chi. Makkari, Maya, Druig, and Ajak made up the last group, leaving Monica and Stephen to join Peter and Shuri. He hadn't officially met either of them, but Shuri knew them. Mr. Ross let them switch seats to join their groups and explained the assignment.
"This week we'll be starting World War II. No matter what you think you know about this era and your personal opinions, you must all swear to keep your discussion in my classroom respectful. Is that clear?"
They answered in chorus, "Yes, Mr. Ross."
The presence of the warning made Peter nervous. World War II and the multiple genocides associated with it was a heavy topic in itself, and the kinds of people with enough money to attend private school tended to overlap with the kinds of people to have strong opinions about certain historical groups.
"I will be lecturing during class every day, and there will be no associated exam at the end of the unit. Instead, your homework during this unit will be to work with your group to create a presentation. You must choose one current event and explain how it's analogous to something that led to the outbreak of the war."
"Oh that's dark," Shuri muttered.
"I will post the rubric so you know exactly what your expectations are. If you don't have it already, take five minutes to exchange contact information and brainstorm ideas with your groupmates." With that, he pulled out a newspaper and sat down.
"You guys know Peter, right?" Shuri asked.
"I know of Peter," Stephen said. "Nice to officially meet you."
"You too."
Shuri started a group chat, since she was the only one to have all of their numbers already. Peter quickly added Monica and Stephen to his meager list of contacts. "Anyone have any ideas?" Shuri asked.
"Economic depression," Stephen proposed.
Shuri immediately shut that down. "Boring."
"Expanding militarism?" Monica suggested. "Or we could look through people who just entered positions of power in countries around the world, see if anyone is…you know."
"A potential Hitler of World War III?" Stephen questioned.
"Yeah, sorta."
"What if we did something about the rise of vigilantism?" Shuri asked.
"Everyone's going to do that one," Monica protested. "People care more about the extinction of the supers than any of the other horrible genocides that also happened."
"She has a point," Peter said. He vividly remembered watching a cartoon-documentary thing about the Standardization of Humanity all the way back in elementary school. It was all anyone talked about for months, including Peter. He'd been so disappointed that didn't get to live at the same time as a real-life superhero, and then Iron Man came onto the scene and fulfilled all his childhood dreams. The idea that the hero's very existence could drive the world to the brink of another global conflict didn't sit well with him.
"Yeah, I'm afraid the Standardization is bound to be a popular topic," Stephen added.
"You're right, you're right."
"I like Monica's idea of trying to identify people in government with similarly radical ideals," Peter said.
Just as they settled on that idea, Mr. Ross called them back to attention for the day's lecture.
~0~
Peter reached into his desk drawer for a third piece of paper to finish his math homework. It wasn't a particularly long assignment, but Peter's handwriting was big and he tended to scrawl his work all over the page as he worked through a problem. Just as he set pencil to paper to continue, someone knocked on his door.
"Come in."
"How's it going?" May asked as she sat down on his bed.
"Fine. Just finishing up my homework."
"Can we talk for a bit?"
Peter sighed and set his pencil down. He had a sinking suspicion he knew exactly what this was about. "Yeah."
"Have you given any thought to Tony's proposition?"
Honestly, Peter had nearly forgotten about it. But May's reminder instantly rekindled the ire he felt towards Mr. Stark for suggesting it so early in their relationship. May's frown told him that he'd failed to disguise his ill feelings. He didn't want to come off as a bratty little kid, so he explained, "I just feel weird about it."
"Why?"
"Because I've only known him like a year and I know next to nothing about him. When you and Ben became my parents, I'd already known you my whole life."
"Okay. I understand, but by the time you know Tony for that long, you'll be an adult and he can't legally adopt you."
Peter didn't see any problem with that whatsoever. He remained silent.
"What if there's an emergency? A lot of legal matters would be much easier if we had it on paper that he's your guardian."
"If you want it so badly, why are you bothering trying to convince me? Why not just do it against my will?"
"Peter, we don't want to do anything against your will."
"Well, I didn't want you to get married and you did that anyway," he snapped. He might as well have slapped May across the face.
She didn't say anything for a long time. When she finally did speak, it was with heartbreak in her voice. "I thought you were happy for me."
Now Peter wanted to cry. "I am happy for you." He was, truly. He only wished that May's happiness wasn't contingent on this weird new living situation and family dynamic. "May, I am so happy for you, I promise. I just don't know where I fit in this new family."
"You're still my nephew. You'll always be that, no matter who I'm married to."
"I know. It's just gonna take me a while to warm up to Mr. Stark, okay?"
"Okay." May took a deep breath. "He's trying, you know. I told him you liked Star Wars, which is why he picked that Flash Gordon movie. Apparently, it's a childhood favorite of his."
"I liked the movie." Peter did appreciate Mr. Stark trying to relate to him, but he'd have to do a lot more than just pick a movie Peter liked to become his adopted father. He didn't know exactly what it would take before he felt anything but revulsion towards the idea, but it would be pretty easy to tell once he crossed that threshold.