Tower of Secrets

Peter Parker

A/N I'm not using the same Flash Thompson from the movies, I'm gonna go with the classic jock version because movie Flash cusses and I don't cuss and it'll be easier to go with nonverbal bullying rather than verbal bullying since he won't cuss in this.

Okay, so Percy can compare with a superhero and, from the looks of it, he doesn't realize how abnormal his physical abilities are.

I mean, he was benchpressing only a little less than myself who was using my spider strength. Then, Percy can out squat me, out spar me, but at least he couldn't out shoot me. And he even spoke Greek and Latin! Although, he seemed totally taken aback when Tony mentioned the alien attacks.

According to Wanda, he's got a scent that attracts monsters and most people can't see them. He didn't understand why we could, and neither did we. What made us so different from the rest of humanity?

After several days of training, I could tell he knew that we weren't giving him our full story. Then again, I was fairly certain he wasn't be frank with us either, so we were even. After a few days, it was time for school to start at Midtown High. I brought this up to Mr. Stark.

"Don't worry, kid," Mr. Stark had told me. "You won't lose your old friends. Director Fury has arrange for Percy to join you there."

And so, the first day of school arrived. I got up extra early just to be sure that I would have enough to time to get ready, gather all my binders, writing implements, and paper into my backpack, and get breakfast.

When Percy finally entered the kitchen, I noticed how tired he looked immediately. Mr. Stark handed him a SHIELD standard issue backpack after Percy fed his sister and grabbed an apple. When he came back, I noticed that the scar on his jaw and the one that peeked out of his shirt were nowhere to be seen. I'd bet my bottom dollar he had used makeup. He wore a dark blue sweatshirt and jeans along with his blue running shoes. He twiddled with his pen-sword nervously.

"I can't wait to introduce you to my friend, Ned," I greeted. He mumbled something unintelligible and glanced away. "Wait. Are you nervous? There's no reason to be! Being the new kid isn't that hard!"

"It usually is when you have my luck," he commented. I cast him a weird look.

"Is it usually that bad?"

"I'm the ADHD and dyslexic kid, I'm a teacher's worst nightmare without trying," he chuckled. "Plus, I've got a lot of bad experiences with school bullies."

I nodded. "At Midtown you just need to watch out for Flash Thompson. The guy is a total jerk."

"As long as I can make it through the year without peanut butter being thrown in my hair, I'm happy," Percy said flashing my a lopsided grin. I hadn't really seen him smile like that since he arrived at the tower.

Jarvis spoke up. "Happy is waiting to take you to school."

"That's our cue. You still wanna take the stairs?"

"Yeah."

One mildly awkward drive later, we were officially starting our first day of school. I noticed my schedule listed me as a senior. I checked Percy's and realized that we had several similar classes. It dawned on me that Mr. Stark knew I was smart enough to skip the grades and he didn't want Percy totally alone. I figured he'd be okay if I took a night or two off to catch up to senior level.

Our first period was AP Physics 2. I briefly wondered why Percy would be in such a hard class if he was such a troubled student. I quickly realized that he had a thing for math. When I asked him about it, he just kind of rubbed that back of his neck awkwardly mentioning that he had a couple of friends that could ramble for days about similar topics.

Second period was Spanish 3 for me and an AP Ancient Greek class for Percy. I almost laughed when I remembered he was already fluent. Then, we had our AP Calculus where Percy once again showed he was one with the equations.

Then came lunch.

"Peter! I thought we'd share at least one morning class!" I heard him before I saw him: my best friend Ned. He sat down on my rught while Percy was on my left. "Who's your new friend?"

"Percy meet Ned. Ned meet Percy," I introduced, leaning back so that they could see each other. Percy and Ned gave each other a small wave before Percy dug into his food ignoring us and Ned turned to talk to me.

"He looks like he's a senior. What're you, an underclassman, doing hanging around a senior?" Ned whispered.

I smirked. "I think the real question, Ned, is why you're hanging out with a couple of seniors?"

Ned stared at me blankly. "But he's the only senior here!"

"No really. Stark internship made me skip a couple grades. I'll have to explain why later though," I whispered. While Ned and I ate, we discussed our classes and learned that we all shared a last period study hall.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom," Percy told me when he got up to take care of his tray. "I saw one on the walk here." I was a little surprised. When I first started at Midtown, I didn't know where any bathrooms where for the first week.

About a minute later, Flash sat down across from us. "What's up, losers?" Flash was big, strong, blond, and athletic--everything you'd expect from the reigning football captain.

"What do you want, Flash?" Ned sighed.

"Rumor has it, Parker's been taking some senior classes."

"So what? I skipped some grades," I muttered.

"It's just that-" Flash cut himself off, staring at a spot just above my head. He stood up. "Nothing. It's nothing."

I turned around to see Percy, glaring at Flash. Ned and and I visibly flinched and he wasn't even looking at us. He expression radiated power and authority. I didn't know how he learned to glare like that.

He smiled at us and sat down awkwardly next to me.

Ned leaned in and whispered: "I can't wait to hear all about how you met Mr. Intimidation over there."