SO ALRIGHT, COOL, WHATEVER | PETER PARKER

3

CHAPTER THREE | SCHOOL? NO, HELL.

One Week Later

The alarm had been ringing for a few minutes. Oliver had been awake, he just couldn't find the motivation to get up. Finally, he turned his lamp on and moved his hands until he blindly grabbed his phone.

First days of school were never good. For his experience, making essays and presentations about himself never turned out good. Then the amount of papers that needed to be signed, and the donations to be donated, were just annoying.

Oliver had never had to switch schools though. He always had a solid group of a few people for the jump to junior high, and a couple more for the jump to high school. But now he had nobody.

And then there were the weird nightmares he'd been having of what happened at the hospital. Then add that his powers have been on the fritz, Oliver was stressed.

So stressed that he wasn't stressed anymore.

Getting ready in the morning was rushed, due to Oliver not getting up, he somehow messed everything up.

By the time he was forced into the car, he had his shoes in his hands and his backpack was still open.

The morning radio did nothing to calm his nerves. The latest hits were drowned out by over-thinking and panicked thoughts. Two things that Oliver excelled in.

It was obvious to his Mom that her kid was a few minutes away from exploding. His bouncing leg and jittery hands were just the physical clues. She knew that she was going to have to intervene, to try and calm him down from the mess that she played a part in creating.

"Hey Oli, honey?" He quickly turned to her, "You're going to have to calm down before you go to class, you look like you might vomit."

Oliver always loved his Mom's bluntness, how she just says things like it is. But in moments where it involved him, he was less in awe.

"Sorry, just you know," He moved his hands in obscure gestures, "New school, new state, I don't know anyone, I don't know where my classes are, sorry that I'm a little anxious."

Oliver winced at how bitter it came out. Whenever he was overwhelmed or stressed, he got moody and would snap at anyone near him.

"Sorry Mama, I didn't mean it like that," He told her. She sighed.

"Listen Oliver, I know that I just dragged you across the country and basically flipped your entire world upside down without a warning," She sighed, "You have every right to be upset and snap at me, sometimes, I just don't want you to go into this with a negative attitude,"

Oliver nodded in understanding. It wasn't often that he and his Mom had talks like this, normally he would talk about Doctor Who or a video he watched and his Mom would nod along to what he was saying. Now everything was different, and they were both extremely stressed and worried.

Although he was worried about going to a new school, she was worried about her dying father. But both of them felt worse for the other than they did for themselves.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence. Only breaking it with "I love you"'s when Oliver got out.

Midtown Tech, as his Mom called it, was completely different from his old high school. Compared to Midtown, Harbour was a piece of shit.

Midtown was indoors, which Harbour High wasn't, and he bet that the quad and stair wouldn't flood when it rained. At Harbour all of the hallways were exposed, and since it was in the forest, it was a hike to each class. It definitely kept Oliver in shape, but sprinting to get to classes across the campus was not fun.