PICK YOUR POISON// PETER PARKER

school trip...

Wake up, glasses, get dressed, write the note for the day. That's the way Peter Parker woke up. He woke up, grasping blindly at his bedside table for his glasses, he got dressed, in the usual attire, and he wrote Isobel Osborn's note for the day. The note, that's something he'll come back to later. His eyes suddenly darted to his alarm. He was late for the bus. Again. The normal morning for Peter Parker...

XXX

"Charles, can we drive around the corner please?" Isobel asked their driver with a fake, deceiving smile plastered on her face as the car came to a stop outside the college campus.

"Why?" Her father, Norman Osborn, asked both her and her brother, Harry Osborn, hoping for more insight. Norman was definitely pissed off with his daughter's behavior, but didn't want to push her. He made that mistake and it ended badly. Very badly. "The entrance is right there."

"Dad, these are public school kids." Harry reminded him. "We're not showing up in a Rolls."

"What, you want me to trade in my car for a Jetta...because you both flunked out of every private school I sent you both to?"

"Yes, Father, thank you for reminding me how much of a failure I am and how I brought down Harry's future with me." Isobel turned to her father with an extremely sarcastic smile on her face.

"It wasn't for me." Harry shrugged, trying to take some of the blame off of his sister, as he always did.

"Of course it was." Norman looked at his son, disgusted for the moment. "Don't ever be ashamed of who you are."

"You mean the son and daughter of a pretentious billionaire who let his daughter slip into depression and substance abuse?" Isobel questioned him rhetorically.

"Isobel..."

"Don't 'Isobel' me, Norman." She shot back, fed up with her father's preconceptions about his children's past, present, and future.

"Iz, come on, let up a bit." Harry tried to reason with his twin.

"I let up a bit every day, Har. I'm sick of it." She slid on her backpack, and without another word to her father or brother, left the car.

"Bye, Dad." Harry mumbled quickly, rushing out of the car after his sister.

XXX

"Hey Pete." Isobel put on a smile as she approached her friend. This wasn't one of those fake, deceiving smiles she was famous for. This was just Isobel Osborn talking to her closest guy friend.

"Hey, Iz." Just as Harry reached the two, Peter hugged Isobel, successfully slipping a small, yellow post it note into her bag.

As the two pulled away, Isobel's eyes landed on her other best friend, Mary Jane Watson. "I see MJ. I'll see you guys later. She gave each of the boys a kiss on the cheek, leaving one much more flustered than the other.

"Harry!" Peter was forced out of his trance when Harry's father approached them both. "Won't you be needing this?"

"Thanks, Dad." Harry looked awkwardly between the two for a moment. "Peter, may I introduce my father, Norman Osborn."

"I've heard so much about you." Norman gave a half-hearted smile as he shook the eager boy's hand.

"Great honor to meet you, sir."

"Harry says you're a science wiz." Norman recalled. "I assume Isobel would too if she decided to talk to her old man anymore." There was disdain in his voice while he recited the sentence autonomously. "Uh, anyways, I'm something of a scientist myself." He gloated, putting on a much more genuine smile at the moment.

"I read all your research on nanotechnology. Really brilliant."

"And you understood it?" Norman asked him in clear shock.

"Yes, I wrote a paper on it."

"Impressive. Your parents must be proud."

"I live with my aunt and uncle." Peter corrected him quickly. "They are proud."

"Hey, you two!" Their teacher called from a distance away. "Let's move!"

"Nice to meet you." Peter reached his hand out.

"Hope to see you again." Norman shook his hand, much less reluctant than the last time.

As the two boys turned their back on the billionaire and began to walk away, a thought from what Harry and Isobel had told him crossed his mind. "He doesn't seem that bad."

"Not if you're a genius." Harry corrected him. "I think he wants to adopt you."

XXX

"There are over 32,000 known species of spider in the world. They're in the order Araneae, divided into three suborders." The tour guide informed the class as they walked across the floor of the lab.

"Hey, do me a favor?" MJ asked her best friend softly.

"Anything."

"Take a photo of me with the spider." She pointed to a creature locked behind a glass cage.

"Weird request, but okay." Isobel agreed, beginning to dig through her bag for her camera. The camera was easily found, but with a small, yellow post-it attached to the front.

"Oh my god- is that..." MJ couldn't finish her sentence, being so excited for her best friend.

Happily, Isobel unfolded the tiny piece of paper, ready to read what her secret admirer had written inside. "'Messy or not, your hair falls perfectly into place.'" Isobel read the note, pouting her bottom lip slightly in happiness.

"Okay, we need to find out who this person is before graduation." MJ reminded her.

XXX

As the two girls laughed across the room, Peter watched, almost stalker-like, as Isobel looked repeatedly at the note. The note that he had written.

"Okay, are you ever going to stop writing those stupid little notes and actually tell her that stuff or what?" Harry confronted him, bringing his attention away from the other Osborn momentarily.

"How'd you know about the notes?" Peter squinted through his glasses at his friend.

"Iz may be oblivious, but I'm not." There was a silence between the two as Peter's eyes started drifting back over to Isobel. "Okay, I'm not doing this." Harry brought back Peter's attention.

"Doing what?"

"You're going to suck it up and tell her how you feel." Harry muttered casually, dragging Peter over to where the girls stood.

"Wait, what? I can't do-" Peter was cut off by Harry as they reached the two girls.

"Hey, Iz, Peter has something he wants to tell you."

"Yeah, what's up, Pete?" Peter stayed quiet, silently searching for some way to stall. He looked down at the camera resting loosely around his neck before finally speaking up.

"I, uh, I was just wondering if you and Mary Jane would be okay if I took your picture for the school paper?" Harry hit his head with his hands and walked away as Peter waited for his answer.

"I'm cool with it if MJ is?" Isobel looked at her best friend hopefully.

"Yeah, sure." The two posed as Peter snapped the picture quickly.

"All done."

From a distance, some of MJ's other friends called both girls over. "Thanks, Pete." Isobel smiled at him as MJ dragged her away, forcing her to stand there while she socialized with the group.

Watching from a distance, Peter barely noticed when a mysterious red and black spider bit him, only feeling a small sting as its teeth sunk into his skin. The spider crawled away quickly, leaving Peter there alone, a new, unfound power inside of him.