Chapter 5

The incident in the cafeteria showed Peter how stupid it was to think that his life would suddenly get better just because he secretly went to Germany to fight with the Avengers. It's not like anyone in his life actually knew what he had done, and he couldn't tell anyone what he really did. And apparently having a fake internship with Stark Industries didn't make you any more cool, or any more important as far as May was concerned. After fleeing from the cafeteria, Peter was now in one of the schools many bathrooms, hiding in a stall trying in vain to stop the tears of embarrassment, shame, and humiliation. Yes there was a difference between the three of them.

After about ten minutes, the teen heard the bathroom door open and his friends voice a moment later. "Peter are you in there?" Peter sucked in his hitching breath as silently as he could, trying to make Ned think that there was no one in the bathroom. He brought one arm up to wipe away the trails of tears that currently mixed with the gravy still clinging to his face. He wasn't ready to face his friend yet. Not that Ned had never seen him cry before, but there was something shameful that every high-schooler felt at being caught in a weak moment. Unfortunately Ned seemed to suspect that Peter might by hiding in there, because instead of leaving when no one answered his call, his heavy footsteps were heard walking into the bathroom and looking around. After another moment Ned spoke again, "Peter I can see your feet under there?"

Darn it… Peter had almost decided to climb up on the toilet stall, and stick there so it looked like the stall was empty. But he thought it would make too much noise, and really he had hoped that Ned would have just left when Peter didn't say anything. Maybe he would still walk away, if Peter remained silent. The spider teen did not make a move or sound to indicate that he had heard Ned, but silently willed for the other teen to just walk away and leave him in his misery. Ned didn't leave however. After a full minute the lock of the bathroom stall jiggled slightly, and then the door was swinging open.

Ned and him had once spent almost two hours, hiding out in one of the school bathrooms after school, when one of the school bullies were after them. When they had gotten bored of playing tic tac toe, they ended up teaching themselves how to unlock the stalls from the outside. A pretty useless skill, since when would anyone ever want to open a locked stall when someone was in there taking a dump, and Peter never would have thought that Ned would use this skill against him. He sent a light glare at his friend's worried face. Peter knew that the other teen had meant well, but that didn't stop him from feeling a little bit violated, "Don't be dick Ned… what if I had my pants down?"

"I think I would have noticed them piled around your feet," Ned responded and held out an apple. "I saved you an apple."

"I'm not hungry…" Peter looked away feeling even more embarrassed that his best friend was now seeing him hiding out in a bathroom stall, crying like a baby and covered in food. He was thankful though that Ned chose to comment on the tears.

He did finally acknowledge the food however. "Well then at least let me help you clean yourself up? I'm pretty sure going to class covered in your lunch will make things worse."

Peter didn't want to go to class though. He wanted to run away, hide, go underground for ten years and not come back up until everyone forgot what had just happened. It was an impossible dream though, he'd get in trouble if he skipped the rest of his classes, the school would call his aunt and things at home would get even worse then they would if he did go off to class wearing his lunch. So with a soft sigh, Peter exited the stall, and walked over to the sink. Ned was already pulling out some paper towels, and getting them wet under the faucet. Peter pulled off his ruined shirt, knowing that he kept a spare in his locker to put on.

The two friends spent the remainder of their lunch period getting food off of Peter's face and out of hair hair. Even though Peter still felt a little annoyed by the way Ned forced himself into his space when he only wanted to be left alone, he couldn't help but feel a new gratefulness towards his friend. Mostly because, how many friends would spend their lunch time helping you clean food out of your hair. Only a true friend would do that, and this realization made Peter wonder why he deserved a friend like Ned.

It seemed like every other person in Peter's life spent the last seven years, reminding Peter how much of a useless, annoying burden he was to the world. Everyone except Ned who should have been the person most likely to remind him of this. Except for Spiderman, Ned knew about every one of his dark secrets and every skeleton in the closet. Yet he still chose to stick by Peter's side through everything. "Why are you my friend Ned?" Peter asked suddenly as he finished wiping the last of the gravy from under eyelid.

The question wasn't asked with any sarcasm or room for it to be taken the wrong way. It was a general wonderment question and Ned seemed to know that. "Because you've been my buddy since first grade, and the only one who stood up for me when everyone else was making fun of my weight," the other teen replied with such sincerity that it made Peter's eyes water. "Sure you got beat up in the process but… from that moment on I knew that we would always be there for each other."

Peter grinned at the other teen, recalling that memory from so many years ago. It was true that ever since that one day on the playground the two had been inseparable. "Thanks man…" and this ended with the two doing their secret hand shake.

By the time he was finally no longer smelling like leftover lunch, Peter was only a few minutes late to class. Luckily it was his physics class, and he happened to be a teacher favorite in that class so his teacher waved off his apologies and continued lecturing like there was no interruption. Unfortunately that small blessing wasn't enough to block out the misery that came with the rest of that school day. Word had gotten around quickly, and now Peter had to endure the whole school going at him one way or another. He was being purposely tripped, having whatever was in his arms suddenly knocked out of his hands, being shoved and pushed around. All the while, everyone asked when his new buddy Tony Stark was going to come and rescue him followed by hoots and laughter. Peter could have easily beaten them all up, or defended himself in some way. With the new found strength from the spider bite, it would be easy. But like he told Mr. Stark, he couldn't then so he shouldn't now. Not to mention that he could seriously injure someone. Not that they don't deserve it.

Ned could not stop apologizing. The other teen seemed to think that his bringing up Tony Stark to Flash at lunch time was the cause of all this backlash. And if Peter was honest with himself, he sort of agreed. If Ned hadn't said anything at all, life would be just as miserable as it was last week, instead of it being ten times more miserable. But he didn't let Ned know that, and continued to brush off all his apologies, tell his friend that it was fine and it wasn't his fault.

The relief that Peter felt when that final bell rang, was overwhelming. He bid Ned goodbye, muttering something about needing to get to the Stark Internship before rushing off campus. Since taking on his vigilante mantle as Spiderman, Peter had fallen into an after school routine. He always went out the front doors, and after making sure that no one was watching he'd jump the tall fence that surrounded the high school. This was the most efficient way to leave his school because it had a direct route to his favorite sandwich shop Delmar's Deli-Grocery. After buying himself a sandwich and a bag of gummy worms to munch on he'd make his way toward a low traffic back alley to change into his spiderman suit. Today was his first day changing into the new suit that Mr. Stark had made for him.

Peter looked over his shoulder one more time to make sure that no one was around to see him change, then quickly kicked his shoes off, and stripped down to his boxer shorts. Luckily it was in the warmer months of New York, so it wasn't that uncomfortable taking almost all his clothes off. He then pulled the spiderman suit out of his back and slipped into it, it hung very loosely over his body until he pressed the spider emblem in the center of his chest that caused the suit to shrink to form fitting. After shoving all his clothes and shoes into his backpack and webbing it to the side of the dumpster, Peter pulled the mask over his face.

Another sigh of relief fell from the boy's lips as he stared out at the alley through the mask eye holes. Even before the whole business went down with Mr. Stark in Germany, Peter always felt more comfortable and confident hidden behind the mask. The world no longer saw the puny unimportant Peter Parker that was useless to the world. Instead that saw a small time vigilante hero, who was making Queens a safer place one day at a time. Peter was certain that with his new collateral with the Avengers, he would soon be making the world a safer place. Peter felt so much more comfortable being Spiderman then Peter Parker. In fact the feeling was so strong that more than once Peter had considered faking his own death and becoming Spiderman full time. It's not like anyone would really miss Peter Parker that much. The only person Peter would feel bad leaving behind was Ned, he knew that his friend would be devastated at the thought of Peter dying. This was an easy fix however, Ned could just be in on the secret that Peter actually is still alive.

But that would mean that Peter would have to tell him about his identity as Spiderman, and Ned's always been notorious as the person that couldn't keep a secret. This and a few other things were the reason Peter hadn't tried faking his own death yet. But in a secret box he had hidden in the overhead loft in his bedroom, were some half hearted plans on how he could fake the death of Peter Parker. Maybe one day he'd get enough courage to go through with it.

Peter pressed the button on the new web shooters that Mr. Stark had given him, to turn them on and shot a web up to the high building in front of him and swung to the top. From there he was able to look out at New York; excitement filling him. This was his first official Spiderman Patrol working for Tony Stark, and he wanted to make it a good one. To prove to the billionaire that he could be an Avenger with them. It did turn out to be a very productive afternoon. He stopped a few muggings, a couple of convenience store hold ups, saved three children and an elderly lady from a building that was burning down. He even managed to stop these two guys that were trying to rob a bank. The teen felt almost invincible in this new suit. Sure he had already been pretty trough thanks to the powers he got from the spider bite, but the punches he received on occasion hurt much less while in the new suit then it did when he was wearing the old suit.

When it was getting close to the time for him to head back home for dinner, Peter called up Happy's number to give a report on his patrol. He was certain that even though the man seemed annoyed with him most of the time, he would at least get a 'great job' when he heard all that he had done that afternoon. The boy was a bit disappointed when the phone went to voicemail after about four rings. That's too many rings to indicate that the phone was turned off, but not enough rings for it be a full call. Which probably meant that the man had chosen to ignore his call.

Peter tried not to take it too personally, as he knew that the man must be pretty busy. Maybe he was in a meeting or something. So he just left a message of the report and said to call back if he had any questions. After ending the call, Peter made his way back to the alley where his backpack was waiting, trying really hard not to feel disheartened. It didn't take long for him to get back to the alley and retrieve his backpack. He didn't change back into his street clothes yet, because he was still an hour train ride back to his apartment, and it was so much faster to just swing home and get changed in the alley behind the apartment building. So instead he just slung the backpack over his shoulder and shot another web to swing his way home.

It only took him twenty minutes to get home. Now hidden in the shadows of the apartment building; the first thing that Peter noted when he pulled the mask off his face, was the shrieking voice of his Aunt May, picked up by his enhanced hearing. This was followed by a shout from Henry. Peter couldn't really make out what they were saying, but it was obvious that the two were having their usual spat of the day. A heavy sigh fell from the teen's lips. He had hoped they would have been done with it by the time he got home, either they started late or it was going extra long this evening. After a brief debate on whether he should wait a bit before going up, Peter decided against it. If he waited much longer then he'd be considered late, and he'd rather not have his aunt go off on him when she was already in a bad mood. He'd just have to go in and hide in his room until they were done.

When he exited out of the elevator, Peter no longer needed his enhanced hearing. They could easily be heard rattling the walls from all the way down the hallway. "Maybe if you weren't always such a hoe you might actually be worth something in this world!" Henry shouted at the top of his lungs

Peter couldn't help but roll his eyes. Now that sounded familiar. He didn't really pay attention to May's response. Now he could clearly hear what they were saying, but he couldn't actually figure out what they were arguing about. It seemed like they were at the point of throwing personal attacks at each other, which means that they've been going at it for awhile. When Peter approached the door, he reached into his pocket, pulled out his keys and unlocked the deadbolt. The moment he opened the door, his spider sense flared; telling him to duck! He did so, just in time before a ceramic plate sailed past his head and smashed against the wall. "I told you to get the f- out of my house!" May's face was beat red with anger. She stood in the hallway about ten feet from the door, another plate was in her hand ready to throw.

Henry was standing opposite of her, about three feet past door. His face also looked thunderous with anger, and his eyes had a glazed over look showing that he was just on the edge of being drunk. "You can't afford to kick me out bitch! I know way too much about your f-'ed up life, and I can tell the world all about your dirty little secrets. I'll make it so you'll never want to show your face in this town again! Maybe that'll be a good thing!"

"You dare even try it, and I'll call the f-ing police on you!"

Peter knew that this was all a bunch of empty threats from both of them. He'd heard various verson's of it all before. Other than him being spiderman, May and Peter didn't really have any skeletons in the closet that the world would be interested in. Unless Henry knew something about May that he didn't know about. And May would never willingly involve the police in their lives. She'd only do it if she had to. The two adults continued having a shouting match at each other; Peter wanted to go hide in his room but he didn't want to risk it when May was still holding something that could be thrown. "All right! I'm leaving, I'm leaving!" Henry yelled after May threw the other plate she was holding at him. This time she hit her mark and it hit the man right in the center of his chest, probably leaving at least a bruise, before falling to the ground in pieces.

The man walked past Peter, through the door, and out the hallway; not evening bothering to close the door. Peter's aunt ran towards the open door and shouted down the hallway. "And don't you even think about coming back here for any of your stuff asshole!" with that she slammed the door shut so hard that the walls shook.

Peter took one step back when his aunt swung around to face him. If was rare for their fights to get to the point where May became violent, but they had happened a few times; and this was the first time Peter had witnessed any of it. Normally he'd listen to behind the closed door of his bedroom or came home to the aftermath of it. At seeing the alarmed look on her nephew's face, May's livid facial features crumbled and she began to sob. Peter could only stand there in shock, he had heard his aunt cry on many occasions, especially after his uncle died. But he had never seen her cry before, and seeing it was so much worse then hearing it. He didn't have to stand in the awkwardness for long. She only let out a few sobs before rushing off to her bedroom and shutting the door.

Two guys are allowed by be friends without being gay for each other. They're even allowed to love each other without it being romantic. It's tragic that the majority of world doesn't understand this. That being said Ned and Peter and are only friends.