Tower of Secrets

Peter Parker

In case you were wondering, my birthday was great! I got to hang out with Ned, Percy, and MJ, and then Mr. Stark showed me how to golf. I don't mean to brag (okay, yes I do), but I could initially drive the ball 150 yards. Now, if you've been playing golf for a while, you'd hope to have a bit more distance than that, but I'd been playing for a total of ten minutes by the time I started consistently driving that far. Thank goodness for super strength, amiright?

Of course, that Monday wasn't filled was the same sort of bliss. No, that Monday could practically be defined as dread filled.

It was the day Percy and I were to start our missions.

I woke up with butterflies in my stomach about the whole ordeal. Today is the day! I rushed to throw on some clothes and brushed my teeth. Hastily, I applied an ample amount of deodorant. I refused to let potentially stinky pits put a damper on my day. I skidded into the kitchen (gotta love the sensation of socks on hardwood) and greeting Percy.

"Hiya, Perce!"

Percy didn't bother to turn around. He let out a groan. "It's too early for this, Peter."

"But, today's the day we-!"

"-start that mission? My point exactly," he sighed, turning to face me with a mug of coffee in hand. His eye bags had eye bags. Had he spent the whole night worrying about today? "Look, you might not know this yet because you're new to questing, but they never end well. They're dangerous and scary and can get you killed in very nasty ways."

I faltered. "I dunno. This one seems pretty harmless."

Percy wiped a hand down his face. He was mumbling pretty bad, so I had a hard time making out what he was saying. "That's what I thought when airs(?) wanted his shelf(?) back."

"What?"

"Nothing." He gave me a worn out glance. "Look, I don't wanna crush your hopes and dreams or whatever, but don't set your sights too high with this, okay? I don't want you to be distracted later."

"Okay."

Despite his warning, my hopes continued to rise, and my spirit elated accordingly. I shared excited whispers with Ned about it throughout the whole day. We got a few weird looks, but it was worth it. Everything was turning up Parker!

"Hey, Loser," MJ greeted as she sat down next to me at the beginning of lunch. "What have you and the other dork been going on about?"

I grinned and leaned in. Suspicious, she drew closer as well. "I'm starting an undercover mission."

She gave me a blank look. "Let's hope you act more natural that you did today."

I let out a puff of air. "I can act natural."

She squinted. "Pop quiz: you have to leave to do some sloothing. What's your excuse?"

I took a deep breath. "I have to-"

"Do not say that you have to use the bathroom," MJ chuckled. "You'll get outed within the first week."

I bit my lip. I knew that Percy would be there to cover for me, but I couldn't tell her that yet. I'd probably be breaking some sort of whack SHIELD law or something - I don't know. I don't want to go to jail. "Then what do you suggest?"

"I suggest you make up errands to do."

"That sounds a lot like on-the-spot improv," I shuddered. "I think we both know my acting skills were trash."

"They were fine at the party."

"That wasn't acting as much as living out a fantasy."

She shot me an unimpressed look.

"What? I'm allowed to be open about liking my girlfriend, right?"

"Well," she drawled, "I just always thought you'd be the sort to take things slow."

"And I will," I assured her, worried that my not taking things at a turtled pace might somehow upset her. "I-I don't want to ruin our dynamic. That was just my imagination thought we'd end up like - not-not to say that it has to end up looking like that; it's just that-"

"I'm going to cut you off right there," Michelle said with a smile, "even though your nervous rants are kind of - now don't quote me on this, Loser - cute." I clamped my mouth shut. Had the school always been this hot? "I know what you mean. If I ever think you've said something horrible, I'll just tell you, so there's no point in making life harder for yourself."

I decompressed. I hadn't even realized how much I'd tensed up, but I think MJ had if her look of mild relief was anything to go by. "Right. Thanks, M."

"Of course. I like to think that I'm a decent human being from time to time."

"My sweaty palms would like to testify that you're a good human being all the time."

"Your talking hands are biased - doesn't count."

I scoffed and shook my head, glancing up to see Ned sitting down and Percy was quick to follow. I gave them a happy greeting (Percy was noticeably less elated) before digging into the cafeteria's latest concoction of just-barely-edible.

A few hours later, Percy and I found ourselves seated in the back of Happy's car as he took us to the first day of our internship. "This is going to be great!" I tried to tell Percy, would shook his head.

After several minutes of pestering on my part, Percy sighed. "Y'know, you might actually find a way to enjoy this. You just have to be a good liar, so you're probably got that down with the whole 'double-life' thing."

I gave him no reply aside from a clenched laugh. I really hadn't thought this through. I sucked at lying on the spot!

As the building came into sight, my stomach clenched, and I became all too aware of those butterflies that had been in my stomach all day. In my new state of attentiveness, I realized something that I'd failed to notice throughout the course of the morning and early afternoon: there weren't any butterflies in my stomach at all.

However, there were moths, and those moths were gnawing away at my insides.

A/N sorry for the wait! Golf was golf and scholarships were a big thing and Inktober was time consuming :/

(For those of you unaware, I wrote a fic using the Inktober prompts as chapter titles. It's Spider-Man: Who Let the Spiders Out?)

Anyways, the distractions are almost completely gone, so I'm back :)