Chapter Six:

Peter spun his pencil between his fingers, a rather poor attempt to keep himself awake during calculus, but it worked. Now if only his mind would concentrate on his teacher and not workout what route he should take home today. A grumble from his stomach made him note that he probably should stop somewhere, as himself not Spiderman, that was a mistake one only made once, for a bite to eat. "Parker! Are you paying attention?!" His math teacher barked out suddenly, causing him to jump into the air.

Peter nodded frantically at that, his eyes widening just slightly. He really didn't need to get in trouble for not paying attention. "As I was saying, King T'challa of Wakanda will be speaking to the school tomorrow about some, eh hem, exciting scientifical discoveries that can improve our future."

Peter tapped his pencil against his notebook, making a mental note about that announcement. Truth be told it sounded rather fun. If you were a science geek like himself... the bell rang out, the shrill sound nearly deafening Peter's sensitive ears. Hastily gathering his stuff up, he bolted to the door. Maybe he could break his record for avoiding Anya and friends!

"Hiya Peter!" Never mind. Anya seemingly appeared out of nowhere, thankfully her arms were filled with books so she couldn't sling an arm around my shoulders.

Miles smiled sheepishly over her shoulder at him, looking semi-embarrassed about the situation. Peter vaguely wondered if he would be mortified if he knew that he knew about her plan to befriend him. Probably would be truth be told. Peter forced himself to smile at them, giving a small wave, before pulling out some index cards he had made ahead of time. What time and place are we meeting up at to work on our project?

"Good question!" Anya chirped far too happily for his liking, before turning to face the others.

Gwen shrugged, pushing her hair out of her face. "How about Harry's place again? Around eight, give us time to eat dinner and let our families know where we're going to be at."

Peter nodded at that idea, relief flashing through him. He liked that idea simply because it allowed him to steal a few more things, maybe even fight crime. Truth be told he preferred crime fighting over stealing...but he had to survive somehow. Harry shoved his hands into his pockets, a grin crossing his features. "Then it's settled then. My place again."

With that said, and finally confirmed, Peter bolted for it. He didn't need friends... it was too dangerous, and befriending Gwen was even more dangerous than the others.

Spiderman dropped down next to the gas station, eyeing the store attached to it. So far, no one had noticed the humanoid arachnid crouched down behind the bush, a large gash in his side bleeding profusely. His breath came out in short bursts as he reached a hand down, pressing it firmly against the injury. He definitely needed to keep his head down for a while... HE found him. HIS stupid Clones had attacked him. Not only that, but there had been a few Sharkals with them... and he was without his water gun. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, trying to stifle the pain. Just enough to spray webbing over the wound to seal it long enough for him to go in there and buy a medkit. He still had some of the money he stole from Captain America in his back pocket...that should be more than plenty to get the kit.

"Spiderman? Whoa! I never noticed the stitching on your uniform before! You have to tell me who sews for you!" Janet Van Dyne, a.k.a. The Wasp, suddenly flew into his face.

"Um...I sew my own outfits. Can you please..? Kinda trying my best not to bleed out right now." Spiderman gestured to his injured side.

Janet gasped loudly at the sight of the injury, her eyes widening in horror. "What happened?! No wait, don't tell me. I don't actually know."

"Good. I've no intention to tell you either." Spiderman semi-joked, knowing that he needed to play this down to keep her from calling 911. That and besides, this was his fight to fight, not hers.

Janet hummed, quickly moving to the store. "Wait here." Spiderman raised an eyebrow at that, where did she exactly thought he was gonna go with a hole in his side. A minute later, she came out of the store with a medkit. "Here. Let me see that injury."

Spiderman sighed heavily, before obliging to the rather eager to help Avenger. A few minutes later, while it still stung like nuts, his injury was properly wrapped, allowing him to finally leave. "Thanks Wasp."

"Nothing to it." Spiderman webbed away from before the sentence was fully out of her mouth, aware that he was supposed to be somewhere else five minutes ago.

"Jan?" Hank approached his girlfriend, having not wanting to be the one to interrupt her little interaction with the surprisingly friendly Spider-thief. "I didn't want to say anything earlier...but we're supposed to be arresting him."

"Oops."

Peter flopped down unceremoniously onto Harry's large and surprisingly cloudlike couch. He barely bit back a wince as his side throbbed angrily at him. He really needed to keep his eyes peeled. "You okay there Peter?" Especially if Anya continued to insist that she and her friends team up to befriend him.

Peter hastily shot a thumbs up in her direction, pulling out his notebook. It wasn't long before the teens were pouring over various robot parts, and typing away at a computer to get the programming done. A butler came in briefly, just long enough to give them a tray full of snacks, which Peter hesitantly helped himself to. He really didn't want to short the others, and he knew he needed to eat more than most people.

Eventually, they called it a night and Peter happily headed home, where he could cuddle with Arahna and heal without drawing looks.

Anya patiently waited until after they had piled into Harry's limo, he was driving them all home since it was late, before speaking up. "How come Peter refused to look Gwen in the eye the entire time we were working on the project?"

A/N: Umm, still no reviews...are you all still out there? I'm alive, and this story is still going.