At four years old, Peter Parker had been in Central Park, on his bike with his father at his side. The man had been chastising him, yelling, shouting, screaming when his young son failed.
"Failure is never an option, Peter. Never."
It was Richard Parker's catchphrase. The man said it at the littlest of things, at the most minuscule of shortcomings, either due to a broken record on repeat in his brain or him attempting to hammer it into his son's consciousness, no-one knows and no-one will.
The words had stuck more than Peter, his aunt, mother or uncle had ever wanted them to. They lingered in his mind, perhaps due to Peter turning around around and looking to the looming, black hole in the sky with what seemed like space-worms coming out of it, or perhaps it was his twisted, one-sided love of his father that kept it alive.
Either way, there were two quotes that defined Peter Parker, two quotes the boy hated more than anything and hated what baggage they brought with them.
Subsequently, the fact that-
"-me! Excuse me, Mr. Parker! Are you actually listening?"
Peter blinked once, twice, and then thrice, looking around the class and hearing barely subdued sniggering.
"No, sir. You sent me to sleep."
The class quietened down, a few gasps here and there, but mostly silence. The teacher (whatever his name was) burned a hole in Peter's head, staring through him like he was an object.
"Are you striving for detention, Mr. Parker?"
The bio-chem teacher (Mr. Rogers? Mr. Barnes? Mr Davis...? Mr Davis, right) was a notorious dick among students, nicknamed by Peter's semi-good friend Flash as the "bio-cunt ", a phrase so quick and easy it spawned a chant in the halls ("Bio-cunt! Bio-cunt!") and something the man could not escape to this day. Perhaps Peter's joke mug is what got him on such bad terms with the teacher, perhaps it was his work ethic in class (even though he had the highest GPA in the State of New York), perhaps it was just him falling asleep there.
Or perhaps it was his poor attitude combined with his top-tier work that peeved the teacher just enough, that don't give a fuck attitude combined with his unmoving top spot that made the teacher annoyed, that a sloth-like student was the best his class had to offer.
Either way, the man was not a happy camper and was not a Parker fan at all.
"Do we really have the time to do this? Can't you just do your work, we'll do ours and you could, perhaps... melt down later?"
Peter let a ghost of a smirk invade his face as a few girls giggled at his comment and the teacher reddened further, before fizzling out and begrudgingly continuing his work.
"Get ur ass to the track we should go a run"
"Yo! Pete! Wanna build that Death Star rn? :)"
"In fact, sir, I gotta go. Sorry, family issue."
The teacher's eyes narrowed, before he closed them and sighed.
"At least get a note next time, Mr. Parker."
"Okay, sir."
Peter left, feeling lingering stares on his tall form.
'God, don't know what Idid.'
Peter opened his phone once again, copying his usual reply of, "nah dude, gotta dostuff with my aunt rn. thnx for asking thocya soon", and headed towards the men's toilets.
Five minutes later, the news caught Spider-Man preventing a robbery.
Arriving at twelve-thirty-three in the afternoon, Peter (freshly adorned with a cut to his lip and a black eye) bumped into Ned, who was standing at the door, smiling widely.
"So, Pete... how was your night? Rough, huh?" Ned poked his shoulder, smiling.
"Yeah man, was watching Empire after some asshole tried to mug me." Peter smiles back, ignoring the stinging pain in his bottom lip.
"Shit, really? What was he wanting?"
The two began to walk.
"Ned, I don't think he was aiming for anything specifically. It's a robbery, he'd have taken what he wanted."
Ned shook his head, still smiling.
"How'd you get out then?"
Peter felt a familiar twinge of uneasiness, a pang in the back of his mind that had been there since the spider took a little old munch out of his hand. Rubbing the scar above his thumb, Peter ignored it as soon as it came up and smiled once more.
"Uh, you okay man?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, little bit messed up from it but thank God Spider-Man exists. I swear, Ned, the guy would've killed-"
Ned snorts.
Peter glowers.
"What ?"
"Peter," he starts to whisper, between laughs, "Dude, just shut up."
Peter's eyes narrowed.
"Look, to your left," Ned's eyes widen in alarm as Peter's whole body starts to turn around, "Subtly!"
Peter's eyebrows rise three feet.
"Okay, what?"
"Dude, that ginger chick is checking you all the way out !"
"Eh?"
Peter looked to his left and spotted what seemed like-
Whoah.
Suddenly, his steady-fading Master of Puppets t-shirt, bobbled Nike shortsand worn-out Jordans felt uncomfortable and itchy.
'His heart grew three sizes that day... hehehe, the Grinch. Shit, what?'
Peter smiled at the frankly stunning girl who he'd never even seen (how?!) and she proceeded to find herself an unhealthy shade of red. Peter turned round and Ned giggled like a little schoolgirl.
"You gonna talk to her? Eh?"
Peter smiled.
"Nope."
Ned's jaw hit the floor.
At lunch, Flash Thompson was sitting with Liz Allan, arms waving high in the air and mouth open, seemingly in the midst of telling one of his (in)famous true stories, including the classic I-punched-a-guy-into-the-air story, before he spotted Peter and his mouth closed. Turning to Liz, she simply nodded and he jogged over towards his friend.
"How've you been bro?"
"Not up to much, Flash. You?"
Flash let out a mighty guffaw.
"Guess."
"Hmm... going to Liz's, playing football, what else...?" Peter said in a faux-inquisitive tone, making Flash snort once more.
"Bang on, nerd."
Peter shook his head.
"Liking Lego and metal is cool, trust me."
Flash shook his head, smiling, and looked at Ned.
"Sup man, how you been, big boy?"
Ned looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"Life's been alright, I guess."
"Good, good. Oh, shit, forgot to ask. Parker, you've seen Spider-Man in the flesh, yeah?"
Peter nods, face puzzled.
"I see him fairly often, swinging about. Spoke to him a few days ago by chance. Why?"
"Sick! Tell him to get me an autograph!"
Peter rolled his eyes, his heart calming down once more.
"Fine, fine."
After eating his doughy, undercooked pizza and granting Ned a farewell, Peter headed towards his locker to refill his web shooters when a familiar face stood in his path.
"Hey, Peter."
She knew his name?
'She knows my name?'
"Hey, uh... sorry, I don't really pay attention, it's a bad habit and-"
"Mary-Jane, but please, call me MJ."
MJ, huh?
"Okay, MJ, what's up?"
She giggled slightly.
"I need your help."
Peter nodded.
"Studying?"
MJ nodded back.
"What's up?"
"So," she released a sigh and continued, "I'm, uh... I'm failing calculus."
'Simple enough.'
"And biochem."
'Bit trickier, but manageable in a single session.'
"And geometry."
Peter still looked at her oddly.
"Is that it?"
"Yes, that's it." She giggled out again, her face once again that unhealthy shade of red.
Peter scrutinised her.
"Right, gotcha. I'll be free at... seven, and- shit, gimme two seconds," Peter scribbled furiously and with focus onto a piece of scrap paper that he'd found in his pocket, "Right, right! So, here's my number and my address..."
Peter's eyebrow quirked at the sight of Mary Jane's shocked face.
"What? Queens isn't that bad... right?"
"No, no, we're... neighbours, like, next-door neighbours. How did I not know?"
Peter's face gained the same shock he'd seen on MJ's.
"How did I not know? What the hell?"
He turned to walk away, before awkwardly turning back and looking at her one last time.
"In fact, I might be a little bit busy tonight... no, no, mine at seven. Or yours. Or mine. Up to you really, I mean we're next door and all, so it's honestly-"
MJ giggled once again, sighing and looking down.
"Yours. See you there, tiger."
Peter smiled, before turning round and fist-pumping.
"I can still see you, you know."
"See you at seven!"
So.
I made Peter popular.
Fucking sue me! It's gonna tie into his character, believe me, I'm not doing it for no reason at all. And honestly, I can't wait to see where this goes. I have a few ideas, so please rr and let me know your ideas for where you want the story to go! Thanks for reading you lot, and here's to a spectacular 2022!
-FH