Chapter Eight

"Oh, Peter I am so disappointed in you," May sighed as she brushed Peter's brown curls out of his face. They were sitting at the small square table in the kitchen eating burnt pasta. Peter hadn't eaten a thing and instead was passing the overcooked broccoli back and forth. "Fighting in school and getting suspended in your freshman year of high school. What am I going to do with you, baby?"

Peter's cheeks flushed red as he looked down at his food. He was trying his best not to move as his back was still hurting painfully from the strokes of Jake's belt. Every move that he made caused his delicate skin to scream out in pain from the sting two hours later after the punishment. He knew his healing abilities would take care of removing the marks in the next day or so, but until then he had used cheap Tylenol to numb some of the pain the welts were causing.

"Sorry, May," he mumbled.

"I already took care of laying down the law, May," Jake chugged at his beer. "No friends and no going out for a month. Pete here has to take out the trash and wash the dishes every night as well."

May looked uncomfortable at punishing Peter, she had never had to before as Peter was generally a good kid and eager to please everyone, but then again she couldn't let him get away with fighting his classmates in school.

"Peter." She squeezed his hand gently. "What possessed you to hurt Flash like that? You've been in the same class since first grade."

Because I'm pretty sure he's a psychopath, Peter put down his fork even though he hadn't eaten anything. "May I be excused? I'm not feeling well."

May frowned. "You do look a little pale. Go to bed, Peter. I'll wash the dishes tonight,"

Thankfully, Jake did not complain as Peter limped into his room. He had to wait two more hours before Jake and May fell asleep and when he did, he put on his old Spiderman suit even though Mr. Stark had warned him to wait until he got his new one. He needed to patrol. Needed the fresh air. Needed time away from Jake and needed to ignore the beating he had gotten.

Thankfully, he was in the city that never slept. But for some reason Peter couldn't concentrate. He was out of breath, and he couldn't stop thinking about what Jake had done.

He winced when he accidentally slammed his face into a wall when he wasn't looking. He crawled to the top of the building and rubbed his face while he sat on the edge. His whole body shook, and he scolded himself for crying as tears poured down his face.

"Stop crying," he hissed at himself as he desperately tried to rub the tears away, but they kept falling. "Stop crying."

The whipping he had received from Jake had hurt, but not enough for Peter to have a mental breakdown in the middle of the city. Peter didn't know for how long he cried all he knew was that when he got back to his apartment he went back under the covers.

Tony called Peter three days after he told his aunt and step-uncle about his "internship" not wanting to sound pushy, when in reality he wanted to meet with Peter every day. The more he met up with the kid the less time he would have to be sneaky. Plus, it was Saturday, so Peter didn't have an excuse to avoid him which Tony knew he was doing by avoiding his calls.

He dialed Peter's cell phone making a mental note to get Peter a phone that wasn't from the early 2000's. Peter answered almost immediately in a sulky voice. "Hello."

"You sound great. Who died?" He teased him.

"Everyone in my life," he snapped and Tony bit his lip, bad move Tony, extremely sensitive subject.

"Sorry kid, if it makes you feel any better my folks died too."

"It doesn't," Peter responded tightly, sounding like an eighty-year-old instead of a fourteen-year-old. "Is there anything I can do for you, Mr. Stark?"

"So polite." Tony's voice was edged with sarcasm, and he privately wondered how he was going to deal with Peter the teenage drama queen. "Listen, Pete-"

"Don't call me, Pete. I hate when people do that."

"Why?"

Silence.

Tony rolled his eyes, slowly losing his patience. "Fine, Peter. Just calling to let you know I'm going to send Happy with the car in about an hour to pick you up. There are still some things we have to go over in regard to your spiderlingly."

Peter coughed. "I can't."

"Why the hell not?"

Peter grumbled. "I'm grounded for a month."

"Oh." Sometimes Tony forgot they were dealing with a fourteen-year-old kid. "What did you do? Set the school on fire?

"I got into a fight with another student," Peter grumbled on the other end, obviously embarrassed. "With my enhanced abilities, obviously."

Tony nodded, that could definitely be a problem. The last thing he needed was for Peter to act like he was in some kind of fight club. "Did you win?"

"Well, yeah."

"Then you should have nothing to feel sorry about. Let me talk to Aunt Hottie, kid."

"Aunt May? Ok." He handed the phone to May and a breezy voice answered.

It didn't take long for Tony to convince May to let Peter attend his "Stark Internship", he could be very charming when he wanted to. Not to mention he kept throwing words like letters of recommendation and scholarship around which he knew the Parkers needed. In the end May agreed to let Peter go with Tony to Avengers HQ for four hours.

"Incoming!" Tony said in a bored voice as a kickball speeded through the air from a cannon ball machine and towards Peter who was still clad in the rags he called a proper costume. Tony had offered him three times to make him a decent suit, but so far Peter had refused, and he had a feeling he was going to have to make him take it.

Peter easily managed to escape three kickballs from hitting him from various directions as he let out an excited squeal. Tony felt like he could relax, Peter was starting to sound like a kid again instead of a moody teenager. Even though he was fourteen.

"Kid, let's take a break." Tony tossed him a Gatorade and a bag of salty pretzels. "You're good kid, nice reflexes. You might be faster than me."

Peter gave a small shrug.

"So, a little bird told me you got suspended."

Peter nearly spit out his drink. "May?"

He nodded. "For fighting, huh? I must admit I didn't think you had it in you. You seem like such a goody two shoes." Peter blushed. "Don't sweat it kid, by the time I was your age I had been suspended five times, kicked out of boarding school twice, and my dad had to pay some hush money to MIT when I accidentally set a building on fire." Peter didn't say anything, but he played with his pretzels. This apparently was a sore subject for him. "Did the bastard deserve it at least?"

It took a while, but Peter finally responded quietly, "Yes."

"Then no harm, no foul as far as I'm concerned. Chin up, kid." Tony tossed an empty soda can in the trash can behind Peter. "Now get up and let's check on that enhanced hearing you brag about."

-End of Chapter Eight-