You Heard Me Correctly, Mr Parker

wednesday is the middle finger of the week

WEDNESDAY

If there was one thing Peter could say with complete confidence, it was that he hated his spidey-sense.

For what used to be like thunder rumbling in the back of his mind, was now the lightning bolt hitting the earth's surface every five minutes.

Unironically, Peter could tell a storm was brewing, and he thought that the climax of the storm would break on Monday. He was wrong.

Quite wrong, in fact. Almost 5 days off, wrong.

For the climax of the storm reached the students at Midtown High as soon as Wednesday.

Once again, for the last few minutes, Mr Harrington had collected all the forms and gone over a few extra rules, guidelines, and precautions for the field trip. 

Peter had kept his head right down, scribbling in the notebook he had unofficially deemed the 'suit-ideas notebook'- very original- while the rest of the class got up to hand in their forms.

Flash, of course, had noticed this at once, but he seemed to have the brains to keep his mouth shut until after they exited the classroom.

Peter could say he was surprised, or until he could until he realised Flash's attitude for this day.

Ned had practically dragged him out of the classroom even though there was not a single part of him that wanted to stay in there for a second longer.

It was more like Peter was avoiding the one person who he was sure would find the most glee in his situation.

And that person was standing right outside the door, arms crossed and smirking.

"Penis Parker."

"Eugene. What do you want?" Peter didn't make eye contact and pulled his bag onto his shoulder. 

If he could just walk away ...

"In a hurry to get somewhere, Parker? Maybe your fake ass internship!" Flash high fived one of his minions who had all slowly begun to surround Peter and Ned. Peter needed to get Ned out of the circle and to safety.

"I- uh- lost the internship, Flash, let us go."

The crowd went silent as Flash's taunting smirk turned into an evil grin.

"HA! I knew it! See, everyone! See! Puny Penis Parker made up the internship all along to get popular! And now he has 'lost' it just before the field trip! How convenient!" Flash yelled to the silent hallway.

The breath had left Peter's body, no no no no. He couldn't let Flash spread rumours like that about him!

"I didn't lie and I'm not lying!" Peter grabbed Ned and walked towards the smallest guy in Flash's group.

"Keep telling yourself that, Penis!" Flash called after them as Peter pushed the smaller minion out of the way, "Bet he can't afford it either."

Peter heard Flash whisper that to Angus as they left, courtesy of his super-hearing. 

Fuck superpowers! 

He wanted to go back and punch the words out of Flash's mouth, but he knew Ned was uncomfortable and needed to get him to calm down.

"Peter?" Ned gasped as the crowd of students started to thin.

"What?" Peter snapped.

"I just- uh- are you okay?"

Shit.

"Sorry Ned, god, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped. And I shouldn't let Flash get to me but he just got under my skin and with everything that's happened-" Peter rambled, pacing up and down in front of Ned, staring at his hands as if they were covered in dripping red blood.

"It's okay Peter!"

Peter stopped abruptly and looked up at Ned through his bangs. Is it okay?

"It isn't Ned. I can't keep- I can't keep going on as if nothing happened!"

"You never told me what happened," said Ned, "Maybe if you tell someone it'll feel- lighter?"

"No! I've heard that bullshit before. Telling someone your problems doesn't make it better, it just inflicts the problem onto them," Peter said, shaking his head, "I can't drag you into my messes as Spi- you-know-who."

Ned stayed silent for a moment, then muttered, "I get it, man."

<>*<>*<>

Peter's eyes were watering and his behind had begun to go numb. Being seated at his desk for at least three hours will do that to you!

May had let him eat dinner in his room tonight. 

Usually she refused as dinner was one of the only times the two of them got to spend time together during busy weeks like this one, however Peter had finally broken the news of his banishment to her.

And lucky for him, May had let Peter eat in his room out of pity, even after he made an excuse about a load of homework, trust me, May, it's the size of this building!.

And now he sat at his desk, dinner plate just balancing on a stack of books, while his 'suit-ideas notebook' sat on his keyboard in front of him.

He stared at the same equation on his computer.

How could it fit- maybe with the- no no no no! It's all wrong!

Peter's head fell onto his arms. He would never get past this extremely important hurdle. Not without help and the best help he could get was way out of reach.

He burned that bridge six months ago.

Maybe there's a different design he could try? Or maybe there's a different life he could try? This played in the back of his mind.

Peter ignored it.

Peter always ignored it. When you have the power to stop the bad thing from happening, you use it.

He dragged his 'suit-ideas notebook' from underneath his head. He had filled at least half of it already and it had only been a day.

Six months ago he would've had this done in a day.

He knew how to- a bit- but without the equipment or help from- no! Peter could do this now without them!

He knew how to start, he just didn't know how to continue.

His phone began to buzz in his pocket. As Peter drew it out he noticed the time, 11:12pm. Guess he wasn't patrolling tonight.

It Ned was calling him,

"Hey Ned, what're you doin' up this late?"

"Could ask you the same question," came Ned's voice, "But that's not why I called."

Peter waited for him to continue but he didn't.

"Well? Did you fall 'sleep or somethin'" Peter urged.

"No, um, I fell asleep really early, right, like less than an hour after I got home I fell asleep."

"What? Are you good man, are you sick?" Peter immediately asked. Ned usually isn't the one to have a bad sleep schedule out of the two of them.

"Oh yeah, 'm fine, just went to bed late last night because we were at the hospital with my sister, you know, she had the baby."

Peter recalled the conversation this morning, "Yeah! Did you tell her I said congrats?" he asked.

"Of course I did, but that's not the reason I called, Peter!" Ned said, "I called because when I woke up I checked my phone and the news said Spider-Man didn't patrol. Are you good?"

Peter was shocked into silence. Ned called him because he didn't patrol as Spider-Man?

"I'm fine Ned, I just got busy with-" Peter cut himself off. 

Ned hacked his old suit.
Ned practically built their robot for the robotics club by himself.
Ned worked on a new suit design in robotics clubs all by himself.
Ned's a tech genius,

"Ned!"

"Yes?" Ned said, slightly wary.

"Is there any way you could get to mine?"