1 | ISSUES ( Peter Parker )

05

CHAPTER FIVE | WHO IS PETER PARKER?

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never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. make it your strength. then it can never be your weakness. armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.

-george rr martin

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Bella was sipping on her Chai latte like she'd find God at the bottom of that Starbucks cup.

"How are you, Bella?" Arden asked, snickering slightly.

"Tired," Bella moaned, slumping forward against her desk. "I was on Tumblr for, like, five hours last night."

"Why?"

"Well, at first I was on the because of Walking Dead, but then I spiraled down a hole of Game of Thrones fanfiction."

"You're pathetic," Arden snorted.

"Hey, I'm human. I'm flawed. Sue me."

"Mm, I'll get right on that lawsuit."

"Fucking fight me, Roberts."

"Speaking of fights..."

Arden's voice trailed off, sounding very intrigued. Bella lifted her head and followed Arden's gaze. Reece Manning, the best friend of Flash Thompson and cliché bully, had Peter Parker backed up against a locker. There was a wet stain on Flash's sleeve and he looked pissed. Reece was basically Flash's body guard and it appeared that Reece was filling in that role to bring a smack down upon Peter. Peter was stammering out an apology, looking terrified at Reece's monstrous stature. Bella frowned; Peter didn't really need to get yet another beating. The one he took Friday night was brutal enough.

Bella sighed and stood up, storming towards the crowd of idiots that had gathered around Flash, Reece, and Peter. Several kids had their phones out, prompting a withering glare from Bella towards all of them. She elbowed her way to the front, but before she could go anything, Reece swung and something insane happened.

Peter caught Reece's fist in his hand.

Judging from the look on Peter's face, he was as confused as everybody around him.

Reece snarled and swung his other fist. This time, Peter ducked just before Reece could hit him and Reece's hand barreled into the locker. Reece clutched his hand, yelling out in pain.

"All right, everyone," Bella yelled, stepping into the circle and crossing her arms. "Nothing to see here. Go back to your lives."

They listened without problem, causing Bella to smile a little. She wasn't the sophomore class president for nothing.

"Reece, you okay?" Bella asked.

"M'fine," he groaned, clutching his wrist to his body.

"I'd go to the nurse to get that checked out if I were you," Bella said with a frown.

With a grunt, Reece walked away with Flash at his side, leaving Peter and Bella in the deserted hallway. Smiling slightly, she sat next to him against the lockers.

"That was pretty badass, Parker," she told him.

Peter was flushed but managed to smile at her sweetly.

"I don't even know where that came from."

Bella glanced up and down at Peter before getting up and smiling at him. She extended her hand and helped him get up as well. His hands were large and warm, slightly rough but still soft enough to feel nice. After a moment, Bella realized that she had been holding onto his hand for a little too long, prompting her to cough quietly and shove her hands into the pockets of her jeans.

"No glasses?" she asked.

Peter touched his face absentmindedly.

"I, like, got mugged Friday night and the glasses broke."

"You got m—"

"Yeah, but it's fine," Peter said quickly. "Poltergeist kinda saved my ass."

"Poltergeist? Really?"

"Yeah," Peter grinned. "She was, like, wicked badass, Bella."

"Nice," Bella said, trying not to smirk. "This world needs some more female superheroes. So, wanna walk me to chem?"

"Sure."

Something about Peter made Bella feel perfectly at ease, and she was reveling in that as they walked to Bella's chemistry class.

"So, I was thinking we could start working on our bio project today after school?" Peter suggested. "I would say we could go over my place, but my Aunt May is hosting her book club meeting."

Bella cracked a grin at his words. She thought for a moment and bit her lip, eyeing the boy playfully.

"Oh, see, I'm not sure if that'll work, Peter," she said with a slight frown. "My brother wouldn't be too fond of me being alone in the apartment with a strange boy."

Several hours later, however, Bella was unlocking the door to her apartment and ushering Peter inside. His face reflected the emotion of complete and utter awe as he looked around.

"This is not an apartment," Peter said, his voice soft and he spun around to take in all the sights of the Parsons home. "This... this is a mansion."

Bella smiled, watching Peter's face. Cute, she noted.

Soon, they got to work. They sat at Bella's dining room table, a multitude of papers, snacks, and drinks spread out in front of them. After an hour or so, they both got dreadfully bored of their project. They were talking about senseless things that should have meant nothing, but Bella knew these small things made up an entire universe.

There was something about Peter Parker that thrilled and attracted her. She wanted to know who he was at the very core of his being. And that terrified her a little bit.

"All right," Peter said, his face and voice serious. "Favorite superhero. Go."

"Captain America," Bella said instantly.

"Iron Man," Peter replied.

Bella scoffed. She had met Tony Stark. He was a dick.

"Tony Stark is a dick," she told Peter, rolling her eyes.

"You've met him?" Peter howled.

"Once or twice," Bella said. "When I was, like, thirteen."

"Wow," Peter sighed, leaning forward and placing his forearms on the table. "Well, I do think Poltergeist is the coolest."

Bella couldn't hide her grin. It was a little self-obsessed, but she couldn't help it. As Poltergeist she was making a difference. And it helped that this perfectly nerdy and totally cute kid was sitting in front of her, gushing about how 'bad ass' her alter ego is.

"And when I talked to her," Peter continued, "she sounded young. Like, around our age, maybe a little older. It's just really impressive. And I think that, like, if you have powers like that or the ability to help people you most definitely should... because what's the use if you don't?"

Softly, Bella smiled at Peter and nodded. The way she got her powers disgusted her... but if she didn't use them for good, to help people... it would make her feel dirty, unclean. She had to use them and spit in the face of the people that tortured her – spit in the face of her father and his cruelty.

"I completely agree," she said, voice barely about a whisper.

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bella and peter are so freaking cute. i think their shipname should be parkson bc i can't figure out how to mesh their first names together in a cute way... like, petella sounds like "patella" which is your knee cap so...

-bleuseys