Upside-Down

Chapter 6

Peter wakes up in the morning, back aching, and rolls over. He slowly opens his eyes to see Fish staring vigilantly out across the city. Peter groans. "I have to go to school, Fish." He crawls out of his sleeping bag and opens his backpack, pulling out a pop tart. He eats one quickly, then breaks off a piece of the second and offers it to Fish. It's a cloudy day. A miserable Friday. What will be do over the weekend? Work, he reminds himself. Peter puts on his mask, slings his backpack over his shoulder, and picks up Fish.

He swings down to the ground and hesitantly places the cat on the pavement. "You know where you get food," Peter tells him, "come back when yellow buses are going by." He hopes he'll see the cat again.

Peter goes to a near by store and gets ready for school in the bathroom. He washes his face and hair, and changes into clean clothes. He leaves the building and walks the rest of the way to school' never noticing the black cat slinking in the shadows.

Once he gets to school, Ned finds him. "Hey Peter!" He smiles, "ready for the Chem test?"

Peter stiffens than nods. The test would be easy for him. Even though he didn't study.

"By the way, do you want to come stay at my house this weekend? We can finish the Millenium Falcon and have a Star Wars movie marathon!"

Peter can't help but smile. This would be free food... a hot shower... and Star Wars. "Sure Ned. That sounds fun." Then he hesitates, closing his locker. "Wait... I got a new cat. I can't leave him."

Ned smiles wider, "You got a cat? What's its name? You can bring it too!"

"Really? Thanks Ned. His name is Fish. By the way, did we have any math home-"

"Hey Punny Parker!" Flash Thompson slams his shoulder into the locker next to Peter's, making a horrible crashing noise.

"Flash," Peter takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. "I can't do this today."

"Oh yes you can." The shorter boy grins. Shoving his shoulder into the locker again "How's your family doing?" He sneers, "oh wait- your parents are dead-"

He doesn't continue. He can't continue. Peter punched him in the face in a burst of rage. Flash rebounds off the locker and onto the other side of the hall. Fuming, he picked Flash up by the collar of his shirt, pinning him to the wall.

The other boy whimpers, blood poring out of his nose. It's bent at an odd angle.

"Don't you ever talk about my family," he anunciantes ever syllable.

Flash claws at his hand, and when a drop of blood falls on to Peters hand, he realizes what he was doing. He turns around. All eyes are on him. The normal hall way chatter has stopped.

He lowers Flash's feet to the floor, carefully releasing the blood stained shirt.

His books litter the floor. He doesn't stop to pick them up. He runs.

He runs, but he doesn't know where he's going. The bell rings. The crowds dissipate. Peter slows down. He can still hear Flash's whining in his ears. He directs his feet to the office.

"I'm sorry," He whispers, "he was..." the secretary directs him to the principles office.

"Peter..." the man says. "This was so out of character for you... we ran the security footage. We know you were provoked."

Peter doesn't say anything. He just stares at his hands. The principle continues, "in the wake of your Aunt's death, your behavior is understood. You will not be suspended, but you will have daily sessions with a counselor until this is resolved."

Peter nods.

"Mr. Hogan will pick you up from school today."

Peter pales... no. No no no no. I can't- he... Peter thinks, talking deep breaths trying to calm himself down. I leave school the back way. I can't come back- he'll come for me here next. He hates me... he hates me...

He nods. His principle sends him to class. Everyone looks surprised to see him. He sits down next to Ned, hesitantly smiles at Peter. "What was the verdict?"

"Therapy."

The rest of the school day passes. Everyone looks at Peter differently. With terror. And... maybe... awe. At lunch, Peter sit across the table from Ned, who immediately starts talking about how awesome that was, and it looked like he did it so easily, and that Flash would never bug him again, and-

The girl who normally on the other end of the table abruptly places her tray next to Ned's. She sits down like nothing strange was happening. She opens a book and starts reading, while eating at the same time.

Ned just stares at her. He wasn't mad... he was just astonished. He points at her, mouthing at Peter, you should've punched him earlier.

A few minutes into lunch, a pretty girl comes up to the table. "Hi Peter," her smile looks fake. "Do you want to come sit with me and my friends?" She motions at a table fillies with giggling girls.

Before Peter can say anything, the reading girl says, "Buzz off Liz." Liz looks frustrated, but heads back to her table.

Peter turns to the reader, mouth still hanging open. "Did-"

The girl closes her book. "Trust me, as soon as your fame calms down she'd ditch you like moldy bread."

"How-"

"I'm MJ." She says, holding out her hand. "Just trust me." She points behind him.

Peter glances over his shoulder to see Liz bringing some other boy back the the table, and he shakes MJ's hand. "Thank you... but why did you sit here? Is it not because I'm suddenly famous?"

"No," she picks up her burger. "You need to be protected from those vultures," she hesitates, "plus you seem to have character, something most of this school lacks. You too Ned." She bites into the burger.

After a few moments of silent eating, Peter notices what book she's reading. Atlas Shrugged. "Hey MJ?" She looks up. "Who is John Galt?"

She bursts out laughing, and Peter grins like an idiot. Throughout the rest of the lunch period, Peter and MJ joke and fight about Atlas Shrugged, and Ned, who had never read the 1,200 pages book, sat watching them argue like it was a ping-pong match.

A few moments before the bell rang, MJ gave them her number, and Peter promised he'd make a group chat later.

After that they all went their separate ways, Ned telling Peter to be at his house by 7:00, or he'd unbox the Lego set before he got there, and to not forget the cat. Then he adds, "Say hi to May for me!" And Peter crumples inside.

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I should be studying...

I hope you liked this chapter! Thank you for reading.

Feed back is greatly appreciated, whether it be comments or voted, these things keep me writing! Tell me what you like or hate, either is great.

By the way, I also have this story posted on Archive of Our Own under the name Ranger4o4, if you prefer  that platform.

Thank you all so much! :)