Just A Normal Kid

Chapter 35

PETER PARKER'S POV:

Peter was quite excited about his new internship with Stark Industries. According to a new program they had started, SI had conducted tests in all the high schools within New York without telling the students what the tests were for. Most of the kids in his class didn't even bother to try that hard at the tests as soon as the words, "-will not count for your final grade-" came out of Mr. Harrington's mouth.

Peter had been one of the few who'd taken the test seriously and he congratulated himself everyday for doing so. The test had been a rather unique one, longer than the ones they usually wrote, but more dedicated to logical thinking and deductions rather than rote learning. There had been a few advanced concepts mentioned in the paper, but Peter had been able to satisfactorily answer most of them.

He'd thought nothing more of it until he got an email from a woman named Mrs. Spencer who claimed to be an employee at Stark Industries a few days later. Apparently, he had won an internship at SI due to his extremely high score in the test and he was supposed to report to the Tower at 5 in the evening the next day if he accepted the position. He was about to delete it, dismissing the whole thing as a hoax, but then he saw the words, "Payment will be discussed upon hiring in person."

Ever since he'd gotten his powers from the spider bite, Peter's metabolism had shot up to the ceiling. He could now have second servings of everything and still feel hungry, but eating that much was not an option. Aunt May was working two jobs now, just to support them and pay for his school stuff and he couldn't expect her to do any more for him by eating her out of house and home.

Despite his best efforts, the only after-school job he was able to land was at Delmar's where he worked for two hours everyday. The pay wasn't very high, but it was something. This email had come right in the nick of time for the struggling Parkers and Peter was willing to follow a possibly fake email if there was the faintest chance of him getting the job. 

This was why he ended up walking into the lobby of SI at five minutes to five the next evening, wearing his best shirt and jeans, his hair combed for once. Praying that the email had been genuine, he walked to the Reception Desk where a young woman was typing something on a computer.

She smiled at him as he came to her desk. "Hello, how may I help you today?"

"I-uh-got an email about an internship?"

She looked sceptical at that, but asked, "The name of the employee who sent the email?"

"Mrs. Abigail Spencer."

There was a few seconds gap as the woman typed something on her computer before inquiring, "Your name and educational institute?"

"Peter Benjamin Parker, from Midtown School of Science and Technology."

"Do you have any ID proof?"

May had told him to expect something of the sort if the email was actually real, so he'd brought his school ID card along. The woman examined it thoroughly, before scanning the ID. She typed something else, before printing off a sheet of paper and handing both items to him. 

"Welcome to SI, Mr. Parker. I would like to congratulate you on your exemplary record and test scores. The rest of the interns are waiting for the orientation in conference room 1, where you'll be assigned to your respective divisions."

He walked towards where she was pointing, to find a door labelled Conference 1. Opening the door, he quietly slipped into one of the seats in the last row, still finding it hard to believe that he had an internship at SI; this was where he'd dreamed of working at when he was older.