Your Friendly Riverdale Spiderman | RIVERDALE/SPIDERMAN CROSSOVER ¦

12.

Peter and Betty parted ways to go to their separate lockers. Peter pulled his hood up over his head and took a different route to his locker in an attempt to avoid the inevitable awkwardness of meeting Casey again. It wasn't at all successful though, as the moment he rounded the corner and came within view of his locker, right beside Casey's, there was Casey looking right at him. It was too late to turn around and walk out of school right then and there. Casey had seen him, and it would only make things worse to make if Peter made his avoidance attempts any more blatantly obvious than they already were.
Casey's smile, usually so confident and cocky, was tentative as Peter pushed back his hood and approached him at their lockers.
"Hey," Peter said, unable to meet Casey's eyes as he went straight to putting in his locker combination. This person was his brother. His own flesh and blood. He still couldn't bring himself to really believe it.
"Hey, you feeling okay?" Casey asked, and if Peter hadn't known better he would have thought he'd heard a hint of nervousness in Casey's words.
Peter nodded, staring into his pitifully empty locker. "Sorry about last night," he said slowly. "I, uh, I just..."
"You weren't really not feeling well," Casey said. A statement, bit a question. So he'd seen straight through Peters lie. He better come up with another one, and fast.
Taking a deep breath, Peter turned to face Casey. "It was just talking about my mum. And hearing about yours. It's.. It's hard, you know?"
Casey nodded. "I don't talk about her a lot either," he said softly. "I guess you can't miss the people you never reallly got to know but it's still hard, right?"
Peter nodded, and for a brief moment it felt like something, some mutual understanding, passed between him and Casey. Maybe it was to do with the fact that they had both lost their mother, or maybe that that mother was one and the same for each of them. Whatever it was made Peter long to reveal what he knew to Casey. To spill the truth about his mother; their mother.
Unfortunately, or very fortunately, the brief moment was cut short by Cheryl, who Peter had never had a proper conversation with and yes, he'd fought other worldly beasts to save the world but somehow, some way, he found this fiery haired girl marching towards them from down the corridor incredibly intimidating.
"Out of my way, Spider," Cheryl snapped, using a gloved hand to push Casey out of her way. Peter saw anger flash across his face but it seemed he repressed it and simply rolled his eyes.
"What?" He drawled back. "You upset because our gangs cooler than yours?" Cheryl swung to face Casey, giving Peter a glimpse at the South Side Serpent symbol on the back as she folded her arms across her chest and let out a long suffering sigh.
"No, you retch," she said disgustedly. "I'm upset because you took that name, and now I can't wear my favourite Spider brooches, so why don't you do us all a favour and crawl far, far away with all the rest of you creepy crawly gang."
Casey grinned, and thought he didn't know him all that well, Peter had spent enough time around the boy since arriving in Riverdale to know that was most definitely a fake grin.
"You're out of luck, honey, these Spiders are spinning webs all through Riverdale."
"Good think Serpents eat Spiders for breakfast, lunch and dinner," Cheryl said, all sweetness again as she turned to Peter, clearly done with Casey. She looked him up and down as if sizing him up and then let out another sigh. "I don't know what she sees in you," Cheryl muttered, shaking her head. Raising her voice again, she spun on one very tall heel and started back the way she'd come. "Chop chop," she called over her shoulder. "Betty is waiting."

Peter followed as Cheryl led him quickly towards the Blue and Gold room, wondering what the reason for Betty summoning him so soon after they had parted ways could possibly be.
"Here we are," Cheryl said sweetly, stopping in front of the door and spinning around to face Peter, blocking his entry. "You should know," she hissed, bringing her face very close to his. "If you hurt my cousin, there will be hell to pay with me and with all of the Serpents. She may not be our Queen but she's still family."
Peter nodded, eyes wide. Again, he couldn't help but find this girl so incredibly intimidating for reasons that he didn't even understand. As she stepped aside, he pushed quickly through the door, eager to get out of the uncomfortable situation.
Betty's face was a sight for sore eyes, and Peter couldn't help but smile as he saw her lounging behind the desk. She raised a hand, holding what appeared to be Peters phone. The smile dropped from his face and he patted his pockets, realizing he must have left it in her car.
"Thanks," he said nervously, moving to take it from her. She pulled it out of his reach.
"You let this thing die."
Peter frowned. Why was that a big deal? "I've had a lot on my mind," he said with a shrug.
"There's a charger over there," Betty said with a sigh, motioning to the back of the room. As Peter headed over to plug in his phone, Betty continued. "Did you tell anyone where you were staying?"
Peter frowned, thinking she was talking about Casey or the other Spiders. "I said I was in a caravan on Blossom land."
"I mean anyone from back home."
"Oh." Peter was surprised. "Uh, I might have mentioned to one person." He racked his brains, trying to remember the extent of what he'd told Happy.
"Okay, well, Archie got a call this morning asking to speak to his dad about you."
Peter stilled. Had he said anything to Happy about the Andrews family? Or would that have been Aunt May "Who called?" 
"Some guy called Happy," Betty said, watching as Peter let out a sigh of relief. "He was insistent that Archie get a hold of you for him. Archie said he didn't really know you and gave the guy my number."
"Oh," Peter said. "Did Happy call you then?"
"He did." Betty nodded. "He was quite angry that your phone wasn't on. He's been trying to reach you since yesterday."
"Shoot," Peter muttered, turning to his phone and holding down the power button. As he watched it slowly come to life again, Betty continued.
"He said someone called MJ is convinced you're dead, and is stressing your aunt out by constantly calling to ask if you've called."
"Shoot," Peter muttered again, tapping his phone impatiently as it slowly turned on.
"I take it you haven't kept friends or family very updated on, well, anything?"
"Not really, no," Peter said distractedly as his phone finally came on to his lock screen. The lock screen, a photo of him with both Ned and MJ from homecoming the year before. It was the first homecoming he'd actually made it to.
As he went to unlock it, it started to vibrate a couple from Pepper came up, though Peter assumed that would be life updates and check ins rather than what everyone else was freaking out about. 
He had a total of twenty four missed calls, eleven voice mails, and about eighty text messages. The most recent were from Happy and, ignoring the four voice mails he'd left, Peter pressed the return call option.
"Calling Happy back?" Betty asked. Peter nodded. "He seemed pretty scary when he called me. Who is he?"
Peter didn't get a chance to answer as Happy picked up on only the second ring.
"Did we not agree," he asked, sounding exhausted. "That should you go away on any sort of mission or even a school trip, seeing as those inevitably turn into missions, you would keep myself if not your aunt up to date on what's going on? And never, ever, ever turn your phone off?"
"I know, I know, I'm sorry," Peter mumbled, rubbing a hand over his face. "Some stuff came up and I had a lot on my mind, I didn't even realize it had died."
"Well, realize it," Happy snapped. "And I want to know what's going on so I can at least reassure your aunt that you're safe."
"I thought you were going to lie? Couldn't you have told her it was a training thing and I wasn't allowed my phone or something?"
"Peter, you should know that I am a very bad liar. Also, your girlfriend is freaking out, she's convinced your dead."
Peter sighed. "I'll call her right after this."
"No, you won't, you'll call your aunt," Happy said, his voice firm. "She's been worried sick. She took my word that you were safe enough until MJ started calling her every two minutes to ask about your life or death status."
"Okay, I'll call her first then," Peter said. "I'll go do that now. Can I call you back later? I have some stuff I need to discuss. I'll potentially be needing you to research some stuff for me."
"Can't you get Ned to do it?" Happy asked, sounding exasperated. 
"No, I don't think so," Peter said softly. "It's about my parents and I kinda want to keep it quiet."
Happy was silent for a moment. "Alright," he said. "Call me later. And promise to keep in touch with me and your aunt. And your girlfriend to stop her going crazy and in turn making us crazy. And by the way, you should probably know that Ned hacked into my data base and potentially knows where you are, so I wouldn't be surprised if he showed up there."
"Wait, what?!" Peter exclaimed. "He can't come here, Happy, he-"
"I tried to explain that to him, but I don't think your friend takes me seriously."
Peter rubbed his neck nervously. "Okay. Okay, I promise to call Aunt May soon but could you let her know I'm okay real quick? I have to get a hold of Ned first and make sure he's not coming. It could ruin everything."
"Peter, you need to call her-"
"I will, okay! Just not right now."
"Peter-"
"Bye, Happy! Love You!"
With that, Peter hung up the call and pressed his hands to his face. He felt a tentative hand on his shoulder and turned to see Betty standing just behind him.
"Everything okay?" She asked softly.
"Everyone's freaking out because I haven't been in contact," Peter said. "And my best friend could be coming here right now which could ruin everything." He quickly scrolled down to Ned's number and hit call. It only rang a few times before someone picked up.
"Oh, so now you decide to call!" MJ said loudly down the line.
"I'm sorry my phone died," Peter said. "Why do you have Ned's phone?"
"Because he's driving," MJ said simply. "And I do not condone talking on the phone while driving. You know, we're all super mad at you."
"Why is he driving?" Peter asked, his heart sinking. "Please tell me you're not both coming here."
"Of course we are," MJ said simply. "You clearly can't take care of yourself if you can't even keep your phone charged. Even Spiderman needs back up sometimes, and haven't we agreed we work best as a team?"
"MJ, tell Ned to turn around. I have things sorted. As much as I'd love to see you it could ruin everything. Please-"
"Welcome to Riverdale, baby!" Ned's voice said faintly over the phone.
"Too late, Peter," MJ said quietly. "Guess we'll see you soon."