Euphoric | Peter Parker

04- School Bully, Mind Bully

We went out to the busy hallway. He was close as he guided me to my next course, so close that our shoulders were touching.

He wouldn't stop talking. He kept telling me about how things were and how I would have to sit with him and his friend during lunch time and other information that just didn't make any sense to me.

I grabbed him by the arm and he stopped walking.

"Peter," I said, "Why are you here?"

"What?"

"Stark didn't tell me that you'd be here."

"He didn't tell you?" He seemed hurt. "I guess he wanted it to be a surprise?"

"I guess." I crossed my arms. "Are the halls always like this?"

People swarmed around us like flies as they walked through the crowded hall.

He rolled his eyes as he guided me toward the side, close to a set of lockers. "Worse. Everyone is always shoving into everybody."

We only got a couple of steps in as a short guy waltzed up to us as if he were the king of the world, and shoved Peter straight into the set of lockers.

"Whatup, Penis Parker?" He laughed as Peter's left shoulder slammed into a locker, creating a loud noise as Peter tried to regain his balance and not fall to the ground.

I stopped in my tracks and stared at the boy.

Peter desperately grabbed me by my shoulders and twisted me around as I was preparing to charge. He was whispering panicky at me. "Alger, please. Don't engage in a fight with him."

"Who was that?" I shook his hands off of me. I could feel my skin become hot as the electricity started to flow faster throughout my body.

"Flash Thompson. He means nothing by it."

"You allow him to do that to you? To call you by the male genitalia?"

He was starting to become fidgety. "I- I can't fight him off. Not here, like this."

I was confused. Didn't Peter remember what he could do? How we both knew who he was?

"But you are Spider-"

He put his hand on my mouth. He instantly yanked his hand back in pain. "Why is your face so hot?" His face turned red. "I mean by temperature, not looks. I mean, you do look- nevermind." He shook his head as he continued on. "No one can know about.... that, alright? Like nobody can know what you can actually do either, okay? We can't share our secrets here."

"How come?"

"Because... Because Mr. Stark said so."

"Explains the sudden identity change."

He was starting to calm down. "Oh, yeah. You're no longer Alger Booth, are you?"

"You heard what the teacher called me."

"I wonder why he made you his niece? There's no record of him being a brother."

"I don't even know what it means."

"What?"

"Niece. What is that?"

"You....don't know what that means?"

I shook my head. "I was taught how to read and how to write in many languages, flash cards shown of different types of animals and different stages a human goes through, but I guess they only taught me the basics."

"Well, a niece is the daughter of someone's sibling. Like, if your brother or sister had a son, you'd call him your 'nephew'."

"Seems simple enough." I turned around and saw as the boy Flash Thompson was standing dead center in the hallway, talking loudly to somebody, gesturing constantly with his hands as if he were the most important person in the school.

I hated him.

Peter nudged me on the shoulder, telling me we should keep moving just as Flash began to walk on down the hallway in the opposite direction.

With a flick of my left index finger and lightly tapping the floor with my foot, the muscles in Flash's right leg started to spasm uncontrollably.
He collapsed to the floor as if he was tripped, and his right cheek was the first thing that slammed onto the tile. He grabbed his leg and was crying in painful agony. I smiled.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and either circled around him or just watched from where they were standing.

"Alger?" Peter whispered. "Tell me that wasn't-"

"What?" I said to him innocently as I faced him. "People get random pains in their legs all the time."

He raised an eyebrow. "Not so painful it makes them fall to the ground and cry."

I shrugged my shoulders. "People react differently to pain?"

He sighed. "Please don't kill anyone while you're here."

"Only if they deserve it."

His face turned white. I laughed.

"See? I can make a joke."

He started to walk again and I followed.

"Yeah, when I explained to you what a joke was on the plane ride back to New York, I figured you would've stuck to the knock-knock jokes I told you about."

"Those weren't funny." I deadpanned.

"That's not true!"

A loud ding echoed throughout the school. Students were starting to move more quickly through the hall.

"What's with the bells?" I asked.

"It's a warning bell," He said as he too started to move faster. "Means we only have one minute left to get to class on time." He grabbed my arm and we both shoved our way to my next class.

I mostly kept my eyes to the ground, since I could sense where everyone was moving, but I started to lose my hearing. It was as if the volume was being turned down. I couldn't feel that anything was wrong. I looked up to see what was going on.

In the midst of the sea of schoolchildren, stood someone with their arms crossed and disappointment in their eyes. They tsked as they shook their head.

"You've gotten weak, my little Blitz." They huffed as they sighed. "Do you not think that we can't find you?"

Their voice echoed as the world stopped moving. Everything was frozen except for me and them. I stared in shock. I couldn't believe it. He was back to haunt me.

I quickly glanced down in fear then looked back up. He wasn't there anymore, but I still could feel his unwanted presence. Everything started to move again where they left off; students continued to walk, I could hear again and Peter was still dragging me through the hall by my arm.

I pulled away shakily from him as I stood still.

"You know what? I can do this on my own!" I started to walk past him. "I can find-"

He grabbed my arm again. "You sure? I'm happy to show you."

"No, no." I grabbed his wrist with my other hand and ripped his grip off of me. I must've done it too hard since he held onto his wrist as if I hurt him. "You can't be late for your class! My teacher will understand if I'm late. I'm new."

He thought it over for a second then nodded his head. "I'll save you a seat for lunch." He whipped away into the crowd as kids were starting to flood themselves into the classrooms.

I ran to the nearest restroom I could find.

I didn't bother looking for the signs, I simply just sensed for the toilets as I barged in there, running into the first stall and immediately puking into the porcelain bowl.