A few weeks went by. Peter was rapidly making a name for himself at school, as a science 'wiz', much to the pleasure of his mission handlers. He was still waiting for further instructions, and wondered why he had been assigned to Midtown High. However, he wasn't going to bring this up to May, as she would use any excuse to go back to the Hydra base. She was getting increasingly snappy at him - even the neighbours were starting to notice that her smile was forced, but thankfully they didn't say anything. Peter did his best to avoid her and spend the most time in his room 'to do his homework'. Every weekend, he travelled to an abandoned warehouse near his flat and met with the Asset for his physical training. He missed training at the base with the Asset only, because here a few high-ranked Hydra doctors and scientists came to sit at the side of the room, watching his every move and scribbling notes down with excitement. He knew better than to ask why they came to his training sessions, however, but was silently dreading his return to the Hydra base plannified for the Christmas holidays.

Ned had invited him for a sleepover a few times. After days of asking May if he could go, she caved in, but "this is the only time, Peter. I'm only letting you go to maintain your cover. Hydra would not be pleased if people suspected anything."

Peter's blood chilled at that, as he knew too well what Hydra, and possibly worse, his relatives, would do to him if he failed to accomplish his mission. But that didn't stop the young teenager from having the time of his life at Ned's place, building the Death Star with Lego bricks after a Star Wars marathon. Ned told Peter that he needed to catch up on years of good movies, and after watching Star Wars, Peter could only agree. The movies were just too good! He could envision himself as a modern-day Jedi, and that made the young teenager feel much better about his undercover mission.

At 3am, Ned's mum burst into the bedroom and berated them for still being awake. The scene was slightly similar to his uncle coming into his room to drag him out of bed to one of the medical tests, and Peter had started to shake slightly. Thankfully Ned didn't notice his reaction, and after a few deep breaths, Peter returned to normal.

His friend stood up to unplug his laptop charger and turn the lights off. Peter leaned back into his makeshift bed and closed his eyes. He couldn't help but see that Ned's mum was caring and sweet, the complete opposite of his relatives. He wondered, again, what his life would have been like if Hydra hadn't existed.

Peter berated himself for his thoughts. Although his relatives' treatment of him wasn't ideal, he had an important role to play. His training and the medical tests were small sacrifices to make for the betterment of the world. He was like a Jedi, or better yet a padawan, training for a grand purpose. Repeating this to himself a few times, he fell into an agitated sleep, dreaming about Californian sun, easier days, and a city made of gold.

Ned's alarm rang out way too soon for both boys, and they staggered out of his bedroom, eyes half-open, to get ready for school. They ended up running to the subway and making it into their physics classroom just as the school bell rang.

The teacher smiled at them as they sat down, amused, before addressing the class.

"I've got some important announcements to make today. First, there will be an in-class test as soon as I stop talking", he smirked as everyone loudly sighed before continuing, "and this is perfectly within my bounds, so there's no point in complaining."

His eyes sweeped across the classroom, stopping for an instant on Peter.

"Secondly, this school, as you probably know, takes part in a national science exhibition held here in New York during the first week of December. Every student in this school has a month to prepare an individual project. We will select the most innovative work to represent our school at the exhibition. This is a chance for you to be noticed by future employers, like Stark Industries."

Atthis, the whole class erupted into excited whispers. Peter's eyes went wide – this was why he had been sent to Midtown High. The school was just his springboard to get into Stark's tower.

He recalled Ned's admiration for Tony Stark, and frowned. His classmates shouldn't be excited to have the opportunity to intern for him. Stark and the Avengers were cold-blooded murderers. Many of the people at the base sent out on assignments had been killed by the Avengers and by SHIELD over the years. And since he was 8, the knowledge that the Hydra base he lived in could be destroyed by them had been engrained in him through many terrifying and stressful drills and simulations of attacks. Once when he was 10, he had been running into the stronghold where he was supposed to hide himself from SHIELD if they attacked, when an explosion – supposed to represent the effect of one of Iron man's repulsors - had propelled him into a wall, snapping his wrist, and leaving him with a nasty ringing in the left ear for a few months. Ever since then, he had had a very sour image of the 'man of iron'. He rubbed his ear, forcing himself to take long breaths.

Peter had also gone through specific physical training to make him resistant to the Avengers' trademark weapons. He particularly disliked Thor and his lightning – scientists at the lab had electrocuted Peter with varying intensities of shocks once a few years ago, and discovered that he could withstand very high currents without outwardly showing any pain. This medical trial had led his trainers to desensitise him to most electrical shocks through a few very painful sessions, knowing that the young boy could take it. Peter knew that this was so that he could resist Thor's attacks, but he still had many nightmares about the Asgardian after this, and flinched whenever there was a thunderstorm.

He snapped back into the present when an exam script was placed in front of him. He gritted his teeth. This was going to be a long day.

At lunch, Ned and MJ – a girl with a puzzling attitude and a wicked sense of humour – sat down next to him.

Ned, who had looked even more hyper than usual since the physics teacher's announcement, said, "I can't wait to get home and start brainstorming for ideas for that science project. Last year I made a small R2D2 model that could project Leia's hologram," he recounted with stars in his eyes, "so this year I will perhaps work on C3PO. He's a bit tougher to build though, more joints and limbs."

MJ rolled her eyes at this and stabbed her brussels sprouts with her fork, "I'm not going to take part in a contest aimed at getting us a well-paid job so that we join a mind-numbing consumerist society".

She finished her sprouts, opened a book, and started to read.

After a beat, Ned asked Peter what he was thinking of doing. Peter had given some thought to this during the Chemistry period, and knew what he was going to do.

"I was thinking of doing a material science project. Like a sticky, elastic, and very resistant substance that you could use for', Peter moved along the bench to let another group of students sit down next to them, before continuing "holding things together. It could be useful for disaster relief, you know, to hold buildings together in case of earthquakes, for instance."

MJ, who hadn't actually been reading – she was still on the same page - looked mildly impressed at that, but that could just be Peter imagining it.