Book of One Shots

The Menace (MCU)

Peter hated his seventh period debate class with his entire being, something he quickly learned from the moment he stepped foot in the door.

He could deal with Mr. Harrington's boring lectures, Flash's endless taunts, and the mindless droning of the rest of his teachers, but Mrs. Sullivan really took the cake in making Peter's life at school the absolute worst.

"If you are not in your seat at the precise moment that the bell rings," Mrs. Sullivan began, shooting Peter the stink eye as he hurried into a seat, cursing his Parker luck as his books spilled all over the floor, "I will mark you tardy without any exceptions."

"I do not accept passes from other classes," she continued, earning groans from many of the students. "Nor do I allow you to leave my room for any reason unless you are summoned to the front office. That means no bathroom breaks, no running to your lockers, no idle chatter by the door. Understood?"

Peter mumbled something akin to assent under his breath, trying his best to kick his books into a somewhat neater pile by his desk, deciding that he'd pick them up at the end of class.

Not only did he know that Mrs. Sullivan's tardy policy would be extremely problematic for him, but since debate had been the only elective that worked in his schedule for this period, he had no friends in the class.

Not that he had many friends to begin with – only Ned and MJ. And even then, the latter of the two perpetually confused Peter, unsure if she actually liked him or if he just so happened to be one of the few people in the grade that MJ tolerated.

For the first few weeks, Peter really did try to be the best student he could be in Mrs. Sullivan's class, somehow making it on time and managing to keep many of his quips to himself as the older woman ranted on and on about how much intelligence had been wasted on what she declared a, "Sorry excuse of a generation."

"Geez," the girl next to Peter muttered under her breath, scribbling something absentmindedly in the corner of her notebook. "What crawled up her butt and died?"

Peter bit back a laugh, making sure to adjust his posture in such a way that his hand covered his mouth, hiding his smile as the girl shot back a smirk, her attention quickly returning to the board afterwards.

Mrs. Sullivan had already given out the course syllabus and schedule for the entire semester, so it didn't make sense to Peter why she dedicated so much class time to discussing upcoming debate topics instead of allowing students to, he didn't know, work on their debates.

By the end of the first four weeks in the class, Peter wanted to bash his brains out from sheer boredom. He'd even tried spending more time out on patrol at night to ensure his exhaustion by the time he reached debate, granting himself full permission to doze off in that class without the slightest amount of guilt.

But whenever his eyes closed for a moment too long, Mrs. Sullivan whacked the side of his desk with her meterstick, sending Peter into overdrive, his spider sense tingling like crazy as he sensed the meterstick rapidly approaching his desk, the crack then reverberating around his head from his too sensitive ears picking up on the harsh noise.

The girl next to Peter, whose name he eventually learned was Aria, soon picked up on Peter's plans and quickly agreed to be his lookout. He lost track of the amount of times she saved his butt, as she'd tap out SOS in Morse code on her desk, and Peter would act like he was paying attention until Mrs. Sullivan turned her back, eyes on the move for another student she could lash out at.

"I don't know how much longer I can put up with this class," Peter told Aria one day after class, the both of them heading towards their lockers with the rest of the juniors. "Everything we talk about in there is pointless. I mean, mustard or mayo on sandwiches? Whether it's acceptable to wear white after Labor Day?"