I Am The Storm

Chapter Five

 It was the end of the school day, and Peter Parker could not be more thankful. While Peter usually enjoyed school, Fridays were bittersweet days. Often there were several quizzes and there was always at least one teacher that assigned weekend homework, which put a dent in Peter's Spider-Manning schedule. And honestly, who really wanted to work on weekends?

"Hey, Peter," Ned said, walking up next to Peter as they made their way out of school, "You wanna come over to my house and rebuild my lego Death Star? I was moving it yesterday and I tripped, so it's broken now. Again" he added.

"I can't. You know the Stark Internship?"

"Yeah, the one with Spider-Man and stuff," Ned said, lowering his voice in case anyone decided to eavesdrop.

"Yeah. Mr. Stark has been inviting me over to the lab every Friday to work lately, so it's now sort of an actual internship now? It's really strange, but it's fun,"

Ned stared at Peter.

"And when were you going to tell me this," the boy had betrayal written all over his face, but it disappeared in a second after Peter spoke.

"I told you a couple weeks ago when it first happened,"

"I thought that was a kinda one time thing,"

"Same here, but it turned into an every Friday kind of thing, and I could never find a time to tell you when someone wasn't watching,"

"Makes sense I guess," Ned shrugged, "It's still so cool that you get to go over there every Friday! What do you even do?"

"We just work on different stuff in his lab. I updated my web shooters last week and am going to start a new project this week. At least that's what Mr. Stark said. I think I might ask if I can test out some new web combinations,"

"So it's good for Spiderman?"

"I mean, yeah. I patrol a little less, but it's okay. I get better stuff to use on patrol and if I get hurt Mr. Stark makes sure I get the best care. So, yeah, it's good for Spiderman,"

Ned nodded. They walked out the doors into the crisp November air. Students loitered outside the school, some waiting for their parents, others for friends or siblings. Ned waved goodbye and walked over to his mom's car. Peter scanned the parking lot, looking for the typical black car that Happy drove. Spotting it, he walked over and slid into the back seat.

"Hi Happy," Peter said.

"Hey Peter. How was school?" Happy had been a lot nicer to him after the whole Homecoming fiasco a few months ago, but there were still only a few words exchanged between the two at a time. Peter was okay with it, if he was being honest.

"It was good. I still have some homework though," Peter said. Happy nodded and left him to his work.

Peter pulled out his math homework and began to work on it, which proved unsuccessful as he was already caught up in his thoughts.

After Homecoming, Peter was a little torn up about Liz moving away, but if he really thought about it, even if they did start dating, it probably would work out. Liz was a few years older than him and would be going to college soon. And, excluding the age difference, Peter couldn't keep a secret to save his life. He was half convinced that all of New York knew that he was Spider-Man. The fact that he was Spider-Man and Spider-Man got Liz's dad locked up probably wouldn't be a good thing if they were ever in a relationship. And the fact that Peter walked out of Homecoming probably wouldn't have helped him either.

And then May found out about Spider-Man. That was fun, to say the least. May had grounded him for two weeks, and Peter stands by his word when he says that was two of the worst weeks of his life. No Spider-Man, no Ned, no Delmar's.