Nonexistent

Chapter 1

I opened my eyes quickly, already forgetting what I was dreaming about. I had a feeling it was about stupid soulmates again.

 I turned over and caught a glimpse of shiny silver on my skin. I stared longingly at my left arm, at the loopy silver letters etched there. 

Everyone is born with their soulmate's last name scrawled on their skin. I sighed to myself and looked at the clock beside my bed. 

6:59. One minute before my alarm goes off. I glanced back at my arm. 

It still hadn't changed. 

I sighed again and turned over in my bed, ready to go back to sleep before my alarm went off. No such luck. I jumped at the shrill beeping echoing through my room. Rubbing my eyes, I slammed the 'off' button of the banshee machine. 

JARVIS' voice startled me for the second time that morning.

 "Good morning Mister Parker, should I alert Mr. Stark or Mr. Rogers of your awakening?" Geez, always so formal. The AI was nice enough, but I wasn't really in the mood for my dads to crowd me like a flock of pigeons right now.

"No thanks, JARVIS. I'll alert them myself." Throwing on a t-shirt and jeans, I headed down to the kitchen. Well, the 5th floor kitchen, that is. Dad isn't too good at cooking, but Pops always makes a big deal of getting up early to make breakfast. I could smell the bacon and waffles 50 feet away.

 "Good morning, Pete!" Uncle Bruce was the first to greet me. "Morning, is there any coffee left?" I asked groggily. Uncle Thor and Dad usually drank all of it before I could have any. 

"I believe there's enough for a few more people." Speaking of Uncle Thor. He seemed to pop out of nowhere, grabbing Uncle Bruce by the waist and kissing his nose. 

Ugh. Too early for that.

 I gave Pops a quick hug while I poured sugar and cream into a mug of coffee. He was going to give his daily lecture about the dangers of too much caffeine, but Dad rounded the corner and beat him to it. 

"Peter, you really shouldn't be drinking so much coffee. It's not healthy." He said, pouring himself his own cup.

 I scoffed. "You're really not the one to talk. You drink so much of this stuff, it's coursing through your veins." He paused before shrugging and saying, "You got me there, kid." He rolled up his sleeves, revealing the name 'Rogers' written in silver. I grimaced. 

I really didn't want to think about soulmates right now. Everyone around me knew their's, Dad with 'Rogers', Pops with 'Stark', Uncle Thor with 'Banner', Uncle Bruce with 'Odinson', Aunt Nat with 'Maximoff', Aunt Wanda with 'Romanoff', so on and so forth. 

There was only one problem with my arm: it said 'Odinson'. That may not sound so bad, but it is. There's only three (two now) known Odinsons. Uncle Thor, Uncle Loki, and Hela. Uncle Loki's soulmate is 'Grandmaster' (whoever that is) and Hela is dead. When your soulmate dies, a bloodred line is supposed to cross through your arm. It's supposed to hurt a lot, physically and mentally. 

Not something I wanted to experience. 

So my soulmate is basically nonexistent. Not a thought I really enjoyed. I set my coffee mug down harder than I'd intended. "I'm heading out." I announced before grabbing my book bag and speed walking away before anyone could stop me.

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The first few periods went by like a blur. At lunch, I stared at my arm, pondering the chance of a fourth Odinson child. My best friends, MJ and Ned, sat down on either side of me. MJ waved her hand in front of my face. "Earth to Peter, you ok dude? You've been zoning out all morning." I quickly rolled my sleeve down over my arm, but not quick enough. 

Ned sighed. "No new Odinsons in town?" I shook my head solemnly. "Any luck for you two?" They both shook their heads.

"No 'Udanku' here." MJ grumbled, stabbing her potatoes with a plastic fork.

"No 'Hollyson' here." Was Ned's response. None of us were certain we even had soulmates. I glanced up from our table and saw Liz and Flash all over each other. I groaned and lay my head down on the table. I'd had a crush on Liz for a while. I couldn't help it. I wasn't cheating on my soulmate if they didn't exist, right? 

I watched her playfully kiss Flash's cheek. I hated Flash with a passion. He's been torturing me since the 3rd grade. Another reason I didn't like him is because he had had no interest whatsoever in pursuing Liz- even though he knew they were soulmates- until he found out I liked her last year. He was suddenly the world's biggest fan of the soulmate process, and they've been dating ever since.

 I groaned again and stood up, grabbing my bag. "See you guys next period." I said, not waiting for a response before leaving the cafeteria.