Throwing Caution to the Wind

Chapter 13

The next morning when Peter woke up he was ecstatic. It was Wednesday, his first official day if the internship. He was trying to figure out if he could squeeze in a half hour of patrol time before he had to be at the tower last night, but had ultimately decided against it.

When he walked out of the building, the weather was perfect. It had ended up taking last night so the world was brighter. The smells of wet pavement and earth invaded his nostrils. It was perfect. Even the sun was shining. So worth a spring in his step, and plenty of time left, he decided to walk to school.

When he got there, Ned was eating by the doors. Peter was worried until he saw that he was holding a plastic bag of cookies. Sweet. They were probably his moms cookies, and in Peter's humble opinion, Mrs Leeds made the absolute best cookies on the planet. It was an amazing start to his day.

In his first period class it was just a work period for him to work on an upcoming project, so he put on his tunes and worked diligently. These were down of his favorite periods. They were eventually the ones that he would be forgotten about. But in the moment, they were incredible. Just being able to lose himself in his work and his thoughts, with the occasional word from OneRepublic breaking through his thoughts. Though at one point his mind wandered to what would happen if Mr Stark found out about his alter ego, thankfully though, he got a word of wisdom from his music. I Lived came on. "I hope that when you take that jump, you don't fear the fall". And Peter felt that in the core of his being. He couldn't be scared of the outcome. He just had too hope that it would all turn our okay in the end. But the song had more to say "the only way you can know, if you have it all you have". His motivation levels skyrocketed. He was ready to do whatever he needed to do to. But then he heard one more line that nearly had him in tears. "And when that sub goes down, I hope you raise your cup". He needed all this to work in his favour. He was ready to tackle whatever challenges the internship might bring.

After that boost of motivation he got through the next period without any hassle. Then lunch came.

He was still riding off his morning high when Flash found him. He was heading towards his the lunch line when he was stopped by him.

"Parker, where do you think your going. You missed a lot of Fridays lately, and I don't think it's very fair to the rest of us that you just miss school like that scott-free" he said menacingly.

He felt a hand wrap around his upper arm and yank him towards the doors. He tried getting out of it, bur he was careful not to only do it.

Flash lead him outside where his group was and handed him off to someone else.

He had his arms pinned behind him whole he felt pairs of fists hammered into his stomach and ribs. It was painful. They kept going at him, until a loud snap was heard. The guy who had his arms dropped him and everyone ran. Peter ended up the ground, in serious pain. He groaned and decided that he would sit there until his healing kicked in at least a little bit.

He didn't know how long he sat there when he heard footsteps approaching.
He looked up and saw Ned and MJ coming towards them. They got down beside him.

"What happened, we watched Flash drag you out of the cafeteria and they just walked in without you" asked Ned.

"They just beat me up a little. It wasn't that bad."

MJ raised her her eyebrows at that.

"Is there any reason that you've decided to stay out here then, if it wasn't that bad". The look on her face told Peter not to lie.

"I think my ribs may be broken" he admitted.

Peter was sure that fire in MJ's eyes could have made a can of gasoline combust if she decided to so much as glance at one.

"Dude, that's not ok, you've got to tell someone. They can't keep doing that to you, or anyone else" Ned said already feeling his ribcage having done this a few times for him. Though he had yet to break a rib.

"Yeah, that a broken rib" he said when Peter flinched as be felt one move slightly.

"It should only take a few hours to heal anywa-" he whipped his head to look at MJ.

"I mean, I've heard that broken rings are some of the fastest healing injuries" he said with a bit of desperation.

"I know your Spiderman" she told him.

"Oh..."

"Yeah, you aren't very good at hiding it" she said

They helped him get to his next calss, and since he shared it with MJ, she kept close to him. Then she handed him off to Ned for his next class.

Finally the end of the day came. He walked out of class with Ned ready for his first day of the internship. But Ned had other ideas. His ideas entailed telling someone (preferably a teacher) about Flash. They stood in the hallways for a few minutes arguing and MJ even helped him. Eventually Peter pointed out that his ribs had pretty much healed by now.

He went on and boarded the subway. Unfortunately he arrived late. When he eventually arrived, he saw Mr Stark waiting for him outside the glass doors.

"Mr Stark, I'm so sorry, the subway took so long. I'll try and find a father way to get here" he said immediately thinking of his web-shooters.

"Don't worry about it kid, I'll get my driver to pick you up" he said.

"I'm sure he has better things to do this drive me" he reasoned.

"Nonsense, he might be head of security, but I still have him drive me places, I'm sure he won't mind.

"Ok...if your sure"Peter said conceding.

"Great now let's head up. Now since your going to be being picked up you'll come through the garage through the direct access elevator. But if for whatever reason you come by alone just walk up to the elevator bay in the back and Friday will open up the private one. For now I'll give you access to the penthouse and the lab, though I have a feeling you'll eventually have access to the whole tower" he finished his sentence with a wink.

"Thank you sir, this is honestly amazing" Peter said.

"None of that "sir" stuff. It makes me feel old".

"If the shoe fits, wear it" Peter said letting his alter ego take over.

"Why you little-" he cut himself off laughing.

"Kid, your going to fit in just right" he told him chuckling.

He first took Peter to the penthouse. He told him that if he was ever hungry.

The he showed him the lab. They spent a few minutes going through what everything did and how to use it safely.

"This is a lot more than your typical highschool lab, even a school as fancy as yours. So Pep convinced me to print out and laminate safety reminders for everything. I'd rather not have instructions on how to use it next to it because reading things doesn't always make sense" he pulled out a laminated sheets with a bunch of do's and don'ts on it.

For the next few hours Mr Stark gave Peter demonstrations on his to use all the different things in the room and have Pete replicate it. It was a successful few hours.

He had to leave early because May was getting home early and she had night shifts lined up for the rest of the week.