A Second Family

-Chapter 4-

EDITED
  When Peter realized where they were going, his eyes gazed down to his feet, "So we're checking on May?" Tony nodded and looked into the mirror at the kid with sad eyes.

They found a spot to park in and walked into the hospital. Tony went up to the receptionist behind the counter as Peter sluggishly walked behind him. "We're here to see May Parker," Tony gripped the counter and drummed his fingers on it while waiting for the room.

"Room 104 sir," the woman looked up and when she did, she nearly fell out of her seat. "Oh my god! You're Tony Stark!"

"Yep!" Tony smiled at her but then looked over to Peter. "C'mon Pete, we're going to room 104."

The kid pulled himself out of the chair that he hadn't quite gotten himself comfortable in yet. They walked down a hallway to get to May's room but it didn't take long to find it. They walked in to see May laying in a bed draped with white sheets, asleep.

"Sh-She's not awake yet?" Peter could feel his throat suddenly become unimaginably dry. He could feel the tears threaten to fall down he's cheeks, but there was no way he'd let that happen. He did not want to have Iron Man pitying him.

  "Hey, kid," Tony placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. "She's getting better. I'm sure everything will be fine in a matter of days."

Those words that Tony had said stuck with Peter for the week, and the more he thought about them, the worse he felt. May hadn't woken up yet. He knew he shouldn't have, but he felt lied to, betrayed even. Tony Stark had told him that everything would be okay, that was far from true. When Peter had finally started going back to school, his mood never peeked up, which did in fact bleed into his grades.

  Peter started to get C's and D's on his assignments and he knew that at some point the principal would call home. Plus, bullying from Flash escalated when the school learned of what happened to May and Peter. But what made it worse was when Parker was asked where he was staying, he got a bit excited, not even thinking, and said that he was staying with Tony Stark.

  "Penis Parker!" Flash hollered as he pushed Peter into the lockers, then walked off as if he'd done nothing.

  Ned, who'd been next to Peter during that glimpse of the poor kid's bullying, quickly helped out his friend. But he just couldn't help himself from saying, "Peter, why don't you just spit venom at him?"

  Peter rolled his eyes as he turned around to open his locker he'd just had very close contact with. "Ned, I've already told you, I don't spit venom." He slammed his locker shut and continued to whisper. "Even if I could, I wouldn't. I'd be in loads of trouble with Mr. Stark and the whole school would know I'm Spiderman."

  "Yeah, I guess you're right," Ned looked down at his feet as they walked to their first class. "Hey, you wanna come over to my house after school? I just got a LEGO Millennium Falcon set we can build, 1329 pieces."

  "Yeah, sure man," Peter let the corners of his mouth curve upwards slightly as they both took a seat in chemistry class.

  The bell rang and class went on as it normally would, that was until it was time for homework to be turned in, which Peter didn't have. This may seem like a surprise, but at this point it was nothing knew, every one of his homework assignments went missing or just was forgotten about.

  "Mr. Parker?" The teacher went up to Peter with a face as if saying, 'are you kidding me?' "Do you have your homework to give to me?"

  The kid sighed and shook his head, "No, I'm sorry ma'am I just forgot..."

  The teacher placed her hand on her hip, "Peter, this is the third time this week you've 'forgotten'. I'm expecting to see you in detention after school today so we can talk about what's going on."

  Peter huffed and slouched down in his seat to wait out the last minute of class.

  Eventually the day had ended and it was time for him to got to detention, but Peter had no intention of going. He already had enough on his plate, plus he'd already promised Ned they'd hang out.

  The two friends caught up to each other and left the school, but before they started to walk to Ned's place, they were stopped by Flash.

  "Hey Penis Parker!" Peter tried so hard to ignore the bully. "Are you and Ned going to Tony Stark's house to play with your Legos?" He chuckled, but he wasn't quite done with his insults. The next thing he'd said, finally made Peter snap. "Or are you just gonna cry about your dead aunt?"

  Peter stopped in his tracks, Ned could see that his friend was practically fuming. But before anyone could react, Peter'd sent a punch straight towards Flash's jaw. Peter realized what he'd done, but now the bully was just as angry as the bullied. He lunged himself towards Parker, tackling him to the ground, inflicting punch after punch to his face.

  Peter couldn't get himself to fight back, he'd already felt bad for the first hit he'd given Flash, he couldn't do another.

  Just as Peter started to see black splotches in his vision, he suddenly felt the weight of Flash be taken off of him. When Parker's vision finally cleared, he saw Ned pulling him off the ground and Flash curled up in a ball, clutching his nose. "C'mon Peter! We need to go! Now!" Ned put his arm under his best friend's shoulders for support as they ran to his house.

  "Ned? What happened?" Peter drowsily asked as they walked up the steps to Ned's apartment.

  "I punched Flash in the nose! It was pretty cool!" He started to get excited, but eventually calmed himself down. "But you're not looking too good Peter."

  "Is it that bad?"

  Ned cringed not wanting to tell Peter just how bad his face looked, "I can already see a black eye, and there's a lot of blood. But don't worry, my mom can help you out."

  Peter nodded, but to Ned's surprise, he smiled, "Thanks Ned. That was really cool what you did back there. I couldn't ask for a better best friend." Ned smiled back, feeling a sense of pride in himself.

Seeing Infinity War on Friday and I cannot wait!!!