Peter Parker // Whump

Fever

A fever induced by high levels of stress and anxiety is called a psychogenic fever. This means that instead of viral or bacterial factors, psychological factors are the cause. A person with chronic stress can experience a low grade fever from 99°F(37.2°C) to 100°F (37.7°C).

So that's why I have a fever then. Peter Parker was on his phone scrolling through websites when he found Healthline. He had a fever, and ever since the spider bite he had been physically unable to contract a disease. So, he needed to find an answer as to why he was shivering but also sweating. The thermometer had read 102.6°F (39.2°C) which was definitely above the average body temperature of 98.6°F (37°C).

Curled up under four blankets the light from the phone shone around his otherwise dark room. He must have a stress/anxiety related headache too because even that light was too much. With the super senses heightened to 11, he was pretty much dying. When his alarm went off it got worse, but he had school so he dragged himself out of bed and went straight to the bathroom. He caught a glimpse of himself as he walked past the mirror, anyone with an ounce of sight would be able to tell he was sick. With sunken eyes that were glasses and red, the sheen of sweat on his brow, and the constant shaking of his hands. At least May wears makeup. He thought to himself as he grabbed the concealer he stole from her. He covered up the dark circles and finished getting ready. He waved goodbye to May and started his walk to school.

About a minute into the walk he remembered the massive test they had today, and his anxiety shot through the roof. Karen spoke through his ear buds, "Peter you appear to be on the verge of an anxiety attack. Would you like me to call Mr. Stark?"

"No, Karen I'll be good I've just got a big test today"

"Alright Peter, good luck" he continued his walk to school anxiety gnawing at his skin and making it hard to breathe. But was he making it up? Was it actually easy to breathe and he's tricking himself, this is weird, it's like I can't breathe but I don't know if it's real or if I'm trying to fool
Some one, but who would I be trying to fool? Myself? He just continued to breathe, and inhaling was easy it was exhaling which made it hard to breathe. It felt like he was choking but he couldn't focus on that he had just arrived and could see Ned at his locker like usual. Don't let him know.

"Hey Ned" Peter waved as he walked over.

"Hey Peter, so we have that huge test today and I heard it's worth like 90% of our grade. I think that's a little extreme because if we do bad we basically fail the class" Peters hands started to shake and he felt cold again, the fever was coming back and stronger. He hadn't even realized it was gone until it started again. He tried to take a deep breath and respond but couldn't.

"Peter? Oh sorry, you're probably running over the study guide in your mind" Ned chuckled patting Peter on the shoulder. That's a good idea, keep my mind occupied. So it's a chapter ten test, based on the alkalinity of elements and the suborbital levels, such a random complication of topics but it's just meant to confuse us. Oh someone's talking, what are they saying I can't tell. it that ringing oh the bell got to go.

"So anyways, what I thought was you could come over to mine or I could go to yours and we could build the new set I got"  Ned finished. Peter looked around, when did he get to this class? "Or we can meet up at the library but if we want to discuss the movies we would have to whisper, oh the test good luck"

"You too" he said as a reflex, what am I saying good luck about? Oh it's very cold in here, am I sweating. Oh she put the paper down... what does alkalinity mean? What are suborbital's? Oh shit, I'm supposed to know this, this is the big test. I can't do this if I can't concentrate. Ok Parker listen, look at the paper and solve the problems... not too bad. Wait that's not right, I can't do this. What's that ringing? The bell already? No no no I didn't answer the test, hold on maybe I did? I don't remember writing this I hope it's right.