Peter and Eddie made it to their school; Midtown Science High and began crossing the streets in front of the entrance gate. Peter's mind was wandering about the changes to him as he was crossing and he felt the strange feeling in his head and leaped out of the way as a fancy car was passing.
"Move out of the way loser..." said the large muscular blonde haired boy rudely putting his head out of the car. Peter jumped upon realising who it was; Eugene 'Flash' Thompson the ego driven big man on campus: the captain of the Football team the Midtown Tigers who was being scouted by some major universities with big football teams. Probably the first time he acknowledged his existence; besides him and his friends on the team shoving him and any unpopular student out of their way.
"Oh man Pete... You really dodged a bullet there... If you got hit by his car; no way Flash would take that well if you ended up bleeding on that... I am certain that it costs more than what your aunt and uncle makes..." Eddie told him checking on Peter as he was taking in what had just happened. Peter went with Eddie but saw at the parking lot there was a limo and out came a beautiful redheaded girl his age who had her arm caught by a man in the limo for a final word. Peter could see the hint of Mayor Osborn but found the girl familiar looking...
8 year old Peter was going back to his apartment room with his skateboard and stopped as he heard the shouting from the apartment next door. Out came a redhead girl his age. "Oh hi MJ... Your Mum again?" Peter asked startling the girl as she realised that he was there.
"Oh yeah... Hi Peter.. It is just Mum being difficult again... Wishing I was different but refusing to say what she wants me to be... I kind of envy you having a loving aunt and uncle..." the girl MJ told him as Peter was silent.
"Sorry that your Mum is like that... Do you know why?" Peter asked as MJ sighed.
"Who knows... I think plans for her failed and it might have to do with my Dad or where he went... Saw a show where a dad walked out on his family but the Mum isn't as bad as my one is..." MJ said as Peter sighed.
"Well... Sorry to hear about that... Hope things get better for you..." Peter said as they waved eachother goodbye and Peter went to his apartment.
"I know what you are thinking bro but out of your league... That's Mary Jane Osborn... The girl the Mayor adopted all those years ago... Don't want to get mixed in with her... I suspect she and Flash will be prom king and queen in a couple years..." Eddie told him as they went in through the school doors.
"Parker!" shouted a voice and there was an aged balding man with a goatee and a suit.
"Mr Jameson sir..." Peter said to Mr Jameson who acted as a feared not shy about opinions teacher at Midtown.
"Principal Jameson now... Warren was caught embezzling the school's money... Sorry allegedly so I am now acting as Principal... As well as continuing to be in charge of the school paper and your guidance counsellor since the school's budget is legit worse than I thought and that's saying something..." Jameson informed them as their eyes widened at this. "Now I need you to do something Parker..." Jameson said motioning Peter to follow him and Peter gulped as he followed him to the principal's office and then entered together.
"Is this something serious..." Peter asked as Jameson went to the desk of the small office and Peter heard the door open. In came none other than Mary Jane Osborn. "MJ... I mean Ms Osborn..." Peter said jumping on the spot as Mary Jane smiled at him.
"Don't be so formal... Peter Parker; aren't you? I remember when we lived next to eachother... Do you?" Mary Jane asked as Peter saw that she remembered and nodded.
"Great... You both know eachother... Good... Mayor Osborn was real specific about wanting a trustworthy student to show her around school and your grades and record speaks for itself Parker so can I trust you to look after her? Try and keep her away from Brock and any bad eggs in the school?" Jameson asked as Peter looked nervous as he nodded.
"Nice to be able to catch up with you Peter..." Mary Jane said as they exited the room together as Eddie came up to them. "So is this the 'Brock' boy that the Principal wants me to stay away from?" Mary Jane asked as Eddie was taken aback.
"Peter... What happened... I saw Ms Osborn here coming into the Principal's office as I was waiting for you..." Eddie asked as Peter sighed.
"Principal Jameson wants me to show MJ around and sorry bro but... He was clear that you stay away from her... We can catch up later... When I am not as upset with you..." Peter told Eddie who shrugged his shoulders.
"Jameson is tough on me just because he wants me to do better... He wants me to prove myself... That's why he won't let me on the school paper..." Eddie said as Peter rolled his eyes as they looked at Mary Jane's schedule and Peter showed her to their first class together.
in an abandoned warehouse in one of the poorest areas of New York; there were were people working at several tables producing and mixing chemicals while wearing protective clothing. The other workers there were either keeping guard while armed with guns, keeping watch or everyone, moving the chemicals being mixed together or putting the completed samples into containers.
"What are we supposed to making here anyway?" asked one of the guards looking quite bored as the 'foreman' of the operation went over to him.
"Keep quiet Carradine; we are working on a new product that is set to rule the drug market in this area of the city... Not made anywhere else and some of these chemicals are illegal and rare... The end result is something real addictive and special..." the foreman told the guard looking quite annoyed as Carradine grinned.
"So we are making a monopoly; what cut of the operation do we get for keeping it all safe!" asked Carradine as the foreman was ready to leave.
"That's up to 'the Big Man'." the foreman said as Carradine looked annoyed.
"Who is this 'Big Man' anyway and why do we let him dictate things?" Carradine asked as the other guards became nervous as the foreman then got into Carradine's face.
"The Big Man runs this city... You should be lucky that he isn't here to hear your disrespect..." warned the foreman to Carradine who didn't' look pleased but looked like he wouldn't be doing any more ranting. The foreman then started walking away as Carradine grumbled behind his breath.
Peter thought that the school day went by quickly and it seemed like a normal day and he went to the gates after the final bell went by and he waved goodbye to Mary Jane as he got to the gate but then he felt the weird sense in his head as he found his wrists being caught by 2 of the football team members.
"Come on... Don't be so tight in him... So... Parker; is it?" Flash asked getting in front of Peter as other students steered clear and Peter felt afraid. "Don't be like that... I just want a favour The mayor' s hot daughter... I heard you were told to show her around and I think you could be helping setting us to get to know eachother... Talk up of how great I am to her... Least you could do since I was told you were the one who almost dented my dad's car with your body this morning..." Flash said looking casual but Peter looked frightened.
"I could tell her about you but I don't know enough about her to know if she's interested..." Peter managed to say but Flash looked closer and more threatening.
"Let me make this clear... Things are going to be tougher for you if you don't listen to me as I can make or break your time here..." Flash said warningly as Peter muscled up his strength to try and get free and ended up pulling his hands free and ended up accidentally punching Flash hard in the face drawing blood.
Peter was dumbstruck as was Flash's goons but Peter then took the chance to start running away and across the street as Flash caught his nose and began running carelessly across the street and was almost hit by a limo.
"What the hell.. Who do you think you are... You could have injured Flash Thompson; I am the heart and soul of the Midtown Tigers... Show your face and I better hear an apology or else..." Flash yelled without thinking due to how angry he was as he went to the car window of the limo as the window went down to reveal someone in the passenger's seat. Flash stopped once he found himself and realised he was looking at the glaring face of Mayor Osborn.
Peter ran home unable to believe that he would ever be able to do something like that; him punching Flash Thompson that hard? Unthinkable... That spider bite must have done something to him but what to do with it?
He made his way to the apartment and went through the door to hear Ben and May talking at the table. "It's madness... Osborn is cutting the budget of the health services and we are both struggling as a result... The bills just keep coming and it's because our Mayor doesn't think to open his wallet to help his city..." Ben was saying as Peter went closer to see that they had bills on the table.
They both noticed he was there and Ben hid the bills as May asked "Peter... How was school?"
"Fine... Mr Jameson is now the principal if you can believe it... He asked me to show Mary Jane around... Used to live next door and is starting at our school..." Peter answered as they took that in.
"I remember her... Poor girl with her mother having died... I hope things are alright..." May said as Ben grumbled.
"As long as having been adopted by the Mayor hasn't ruined her..." Ben said as May slapped him on the shoulder.
"What were you talking about?" Peter asked as Ben and May just put on smiles as Ben got up and began showing Peter to his room.
"Don't worry about it Peter... Just you focus on your schoolwork or watch TV or go on the computer..." Ben said as Peter could tell that they were trying to hide that they were having money problems from him.
He wished he could help as they were there for him when his parents died when he was young but how could he... Going on his phone he went to YouTube and there was a costumed street performer video on his recommended page who was doing some impressive handstands and manoeuvres.
Thinking of the street performers and his new abilities made him get some inspiration; he looked to the web wrist devices he was creating and he was sure that he could come up with some impressive tricks for people to put their money towards. He looked to a sewing machine that he had found in a dumpster and fixed back up and thought that he needed a costume. Getting what he had he went out telling his aunt and uncle that he wanted to do some shopping...
Decided for Flash to focus on loving his big man on campus who doesn't go out of his way to be a bully but acts all superior to who he considers loser and Peter is not a favourite target of his since Flash here doesn't care enough about who he calls losers to even remember who they are. So he had to be reminded of who Peter is when told who is showing Mary Jane around. Plus yeah I decided to do something different with Jonah here.
Yeah Mary Jane is inspired by the cancelled James Cameron movie that was going to have her surname as Osborn; doubt that there would be the actual Osborns down the line as the movie's take on Electro filled the role of the corrupt businessman supervillain. Before you ask the pairing is not set in stone and I'm still having plans about that so please don't ask. Plus yes like in that cancelled movie; Peter's idea on what to use his powers for instead of wrestling where especially nowadays he would need to do some signing and a legit ID to sign up (hate having to admit that the part of the origin doesn't hold up much as a lifelong wrestling fan) is to be a street performer. Not only that but Fisk is going by 'Big Man of Crime'; he was supposed to fill the role in Spectacular Spider-Man but the rights were unavailable since Marvel officially classified Fisk as a Daredevil character so they changed Tombstone to fill the role.