Stronger

chapter two

Hey everyone! 

I wanted to point out that I'm not sure about some things, but I wrote them to the best of my ability. Some of those things are the coloring/stages of bruises, how the adoption process works, and how tf to cook. 

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His dreamless sleep was interrupted by the familiar beeping of his alarm. And just like normal, it was met with groans and shuffling from the boys trying to hold onto sleep a little longer.

His entire body ached and was sore and there were sure to be bruises formed by now. Even the hard, wood floor felt comfortable.

He slowly fumbled to his feet and got dressed before waking the boys up, so that they wouldn't have to see all the bruises.

But his plan didn't work out and as his shirt came over his head, he heard a gasp from Billy. Billy was only five years old, and the sight of dark blues, purples, and yellows all over Peter's torso was scary to him.

Peter quickly–as quickly as he could with his sore limbs at least–put on a new shirt, flicked on the lights, and made his way over to Billy, who had started to cry.

"It's okay, Billy. No need to cry," Peter comforted the small boy while taking him in his arms. "It doesn't hurt at all, it's like it's not even there." He didn't like to lie to the kids, but what else could he do in this situation?

It didn't take long to calm the boy down, so he went to wake up the girls. His morning routine never varied by much, but he liked that there was at least one stable thing in his life.

Breakfast this morning was oatmeal, and they got sandwiches again for lunch. He was running out of lunch food, which happened often when feeding twenty kids believe it or not. He'd have to go to the store soon.

Other than the slight bump when dealing with Billy, the morning was going pretty smoothly. That was until Demon herself came strolling down the stairs as the kids grabbed their lunches.

She gave an annoyed, disgusted look towards the children before meeting Peter's eyes. "We'll have visitors tomorrow looking to take one of you off my hands, so make sure this place is spotless, got it? I want you home immediately to make yourself useful and clean this place up."

"Okay, the rest of the kids will be here after school, and I'll help after work," Peter muttered quietly, wincing at the thought of last night's beating.

A scowl grew across her face as she turned to face Peter. She was a middle-aged woman, who wasn't very attractive and if looks could kill, he'd be dead in a second. His palms started to sweat. "I said immediately, did I not?"

"Well, I–I just... I need to go to work so that–"

His stuttering was promptly cut off by the sting of her hand slapping him.

"You're lucky I don't make you quit, you little runt. At least then you might be useful to me. If this place isn't spotless by tomorrow morning, you'll be the one paying for it."

She grabbed her coffee–which he didn't recall her making–and stormed back upstairs.

He sighed, knowing there was nothing he could do about it anyway, and walked out the door. His cheek stung, but compared to his other injuries, he couldn't even feel it.

The walk to the elementary school and then to his high school went by in a blink and before he knew it, he was standing in front of his locker to pick up his books. He shoved them in his backpack and closed his locker, to find Ned walking towards him.

"Wow, you're here early," Ned casually says with mock surprise.

"What do you mean, class starts in five minutes?" They started towards their physics class, sticking to the wall to get through the crowds to students.