Stand By Me》Avengers

Our Future

I swear, people have nothing better to do than to make up rumors about Peter and me. All the publicity was getting out of hand, so I teleported Peter and me to the roof. My eyes scanned the newspaper as I read more ridiculous things people say about Peter.

"Can we just, like, stay up here all day?" Peter asked. "It is so crazy down there."

"I wish we could but people would be looking for us," I pointed out with a roll of my eyes. It wasn't directed toward him but toward the paper. "This is ridiculous. 'Some suggest that Parker's powers include the male spider's ability to hypnotize females, which he used to seduce Raven into his cult of personality.'"

Peter chuckled. "Stop! Stop."

My nose scrunched up at the next sentence. "It is rumored that Parker used this ability to impregnate Raven -"

"Oh, god!" 

"- so he could create the perfect breed of demonic half-spiderlings." I brought the paper down. "If that were true then would I birth one child or is it going to be like one egg sac with thousands of spiders?"

Peter covered his face to hide his blush. "Stop! Stop."

"Yes, my Spider-Lord," I said in a monotone voice.

Peter and I glanced at each other before we started laughing. I sat the paper on my side and turned toward him, about to kiss him. Except the moment was ruined when Ned arrived, a bit out of breath.

"Finally, some privacy," he exhaled. "It is so crazy down there." Peter and I sat up as Ned set his bag down and took out his laptop. "So, I was thinking...When we get into MIT, we should live together."

"Yeah, for sure," Peter said the same time I said, "That's fine."

Ned pulled up the MIT website. It has mini pictures of the campus of people playing outside or people at their clubs, etc. "This is gonna be us...plus MJ, of course."

I nodded. "Yeah, except for the frisbee...and the smiling."

"MIT's obviously the dream, but if we match up our backup schools, then, either way, we'll all be together in Boston. New school, new town. I can Spider-Man there. I mean, they have crime in Boston, right?" Peter said before directing his last question at me.

"Yeah, they do. A lot worst than here," I pointed out.

"Yeah, so it'll be like a fresh start." It wouldn't be really because everyone in the world knows about Peter, now. But I didn't want to tell him that. And...what if...what if we don't get accepted to the same colleges? Or our backup colleges don't accept us? What if we all had to slit up? I guess Peter noticed the look on my face. "What's up?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "It's nothing really."

Peter reached forward and grabbed my hand. "No, seriously, what's up?"

Why does he have to know me so well? Why can't he just be like those other guys that just drop the subject if I say nothing's wrong?

"The Teen Titans? The Avengers?" I began. "Every team I've been a part of has split up in the end. Sure, it wasn't by choice but...what if...we all split up? I know MJ goes on about if you expect disappointment, then you can never really get disappointed. Believe me, I want all of us together in MIT, but what if something happens and we go our separate ways?"

"That's not going to happen. We'll all be together." Peter squeezed my hand in reassurance. "It'll be our fresh start."

I wish I could believe that but history tends to repeat itself. I sighed as I squeezed his hand back with a small smile. "Fine, a fresh start."

Ned nodded and placed his hand on top of ours. "Fresh start."

》》》》

It's been months since we got our application letters returned. The big yes or no on our future. Strange and Pepper have been so happy for me because I've been accepted to every college I applied for. I should be happy too but I haven't really told Peter about my acceptance letter. I asked Strange and Pepper to not tell anyone.

Why didn't I tell Peter?

Every school Peter applied to shot him down. Which I know is because of Spider-Man. I'm sure if the world never knew about Peter being Spider-Man then he would have gotten into those schools without a problem. Peter's smart, that is very obvious. And he has enough extracurricular activities, the 'internship',  and credit to get into a good school. So it was complete bullshit for the schools to reject him.

"Another acceptance letter," Strange announced as he held up the envelope to me. I grabbed it from him and realized it was the big one: MIT. I sighed as I tossed it on my bed. "You're not going to open it?"

"No, I'm opening it with everyone at MJ's job," I stated.

"Don't sound too happy about it."

"What makes you think I'm going to get in?"

"I don't know, maybe the other four acceptance letters you've received in the mail might have been a clue."

"Just because they did doesn't mean I'll get into MIT."

"No, you don't want to upset Peter. Which I think is stupid you're hiding the others from him."

"MIT is supposed to be our fresh start. And they're gonna reject him because he's Spider-Man, which I still don't understand how they can do that when people praise the villains who have done worst stuff. I wouldn't be surprised if Jason Todd got accepted."

"Jason..." Strange muttered as he tried to remember Jason's identity. "Oh, right, Red Hood."

"Strange, I'm being serious."

"And I'm being funny." He grabbed my letter and handed it back to me. "Peter is a big boy. Even if he didn't get accepted, he'll be happy you did." I sighed as I grabbed my letter. Strange placed his hand on my shoulder. "And congratulations. I'll let Pepper know."

"How do you even know if I got accepted?"

"Because you're a smart kid." I smiled before hugging him. "Who happens to live under the roof of the world's smartest man."

I rolled my eyes as I pulled away. "God, I hate you."

Strange gave a cheeky grin as he left my room. "No, you don't."