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As he flew headfirst through the locker room’s glass shower door, his only thought was how he was surprised he hadn’t actually seen this coming.
“Holy shit! Peter!” He heard Ned yell a split second before he hit the tile floor amidst a torrent of glass.
Pieces of the door had scattered everywhere and the light streaming in from the windows made the floor look like it was covered in diamonds. Painful diamonds. Some of the tiny pieces cut into his palms as he pushed off the floor. Moving to stand, shards fell from his clothes and rained down onto the tile with a melodic tinkling noise. Thank god he’d had time to get dressed and put his shoes on before Jack had decided it was time for him to get up close and personal with the shower door. He stepped out of the stall, a handful of guys from his gym class watching him in shock. Jack was nowhere in sight. Maybe even he realized he’d crossed a line.
“Peter?” Ned asked quietly, taking a hesitant step toward him. “Are you okay?”
“Um, I think so.” He looked down at his body but he didn’t see anything wrong besides the tiny cuts on his hands that he knew would heal within the hour. Nothing really hurt, but it seemed like it should with the way Ned was looking at him like an accident victim. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“Uh…” Ned stared at him wide eyed.
Peter frowned and stepped around his friend to try to catch sight of his reflection in the mirror on the opposite wall, but Ned grabbed his arm and jerked him away. “Don’t look.” His friend said as he started guiding him out of the locker room. “Let’s just uh go to the nurse’s office.”
“Is it that bad?” He asked.
“It’s fine.” Ned said but his voice got all high pitched like it did whenever he lied.
Everyone that he passed in the hallway stopped and stared at him. Ok, it must be bad. Still, nothing really hurt, although he felt something wet dripping down the sides of his face, which was odd because he didn’t think he’d landed in a puddle or anything.
Ned glanced back at him and his eyebrows rose. “Uh let’s walk a little faster. You sure you’re ok?”
“Yeah.”
“Ok.”
They picked up their pace and made it to the nurse’s office in record time.
“Mr. Leeds, I haven’t seen you in a while. What brings you— Oh goodness!” Betty, the nurse covered her mouth with a hand the second she caught sight of him. “What on earth happened?” She asked as she led him to sit down on one of the beds.
“Jack Riley threw him through the glass shower door in the locker room.” Ned answered for him.
“He did, did he? And why would he do that?” She asked, already putting on a pair of medical gloves.
“I guess I said something he didn’t like.” Peter said, not really wanting to get into it.
“He’s a bully.” Ned answered at the same time.
“Mr. Leeds if you could be a dear and go get Principal Morita for me?” Betty asked Ned as she carefully moved his hair around. Ned took off like a shot.
“We really don’t have to—” Peter tried to protest.
“Now now dear, that was definitely not acceptable behavior.” She simply said, shutting him down.
Peter gave in with a sigh.
When he’d finished reluctantly telling the entire story to Principal Morita, with Ned adding bits here and there, he had to admit he was happy to finally hear there were going to be repercussions. Jack had started at Midtown a couple months ago and he’d spent the last six weeks making Peter’s life a living hell. Sure, he’d dealt with bullies before, like Flash, but Jack was on a whole different level. Flash said some annoying crap, but he’d never punched him, or held him up by his shirt against a locker, or threw him through a glass shower door. Luckily, he was Spiderman with the healing factor that came with that, but at the same time, that same healing factor ensured no one had noticed what’d been going on because the evidence disappeared so quickly, and he hadn’t told anyone no matter how many times Ned had insisted he should.
“Well Mr. Parker, we’ll talk to a few more of your classmates but if they corroborate what happened, then at the least, Mr. Riley is looking at a long suspension.”
Peter nodded.
“Try not to move dear.” Betty chastised as she continued to pluck small pieces of glass from his scalp with a tweezer. It had started to sting but still didn’t overtly hurt.
The secretary poked her head in the door and told Betty, “I got ahold of his aunt but she’s out of town, so she called the family friend he’s been staying with to come pick him up. He’s on his way.”
Peter’s eyes widened and met Ned’s. Shit. He’d forgotten about that. May had gone on a girl’s trip with some work friends to the Bahamas and she’d left him with Mr. Stark. It’d been kind of a big leap in their relationship. After he’d turned the man down for a spot on the Avengers, Mr. Stark hadn’t continued with the radio silence like Peter had expected him to. Instead, he’d offered Peter an actual internship with him and they’d grown close over the past six months, but this was the first time he’d actually stayed over with him. And even though Mr. Stark had acted all nonchalant about it, it was a big deal to Peter. He’d tried to be on his best behavior and now here he was, causing trouble.
“Thank you Marge.” Betty said. “Do you know how long he’ll be? Because Peter’s definitely going to need to see a doctor.”
Peter groaned.
“She said around fifteen minutes.” Marge answered and then disappeared.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it. Oh, and Mr. Leeds, you should head back to class.” Principal Morita said as he walked out. Peter heard him stop and tell Marge outside the door, “When his guardian gets here can you send him to my office so we can talk?”
“Of course.” Marge answered.
Wonderful. There went any hope of Peter spinning this some other way. This day was just getting better and better.
Ned shot him a pitying look. “I guess I better go, but text me later.”
He gave his friend a thumbs up, trying not to grimace as he thought of the train wreck that was about to happen.
“Don’t worry. It’ll be ok dear.” Betty patted him on the shoulder in reassurance.
“Yeah.” He mumbled, not too sure, as he waited silently, listening to the ping ping ping as Betty dropped glass shards into a small metal basin. He hoped Mr. Stark wouldn’t be too mad.
Twenty minutes later, Mr. Stark arrived. Peter knew the exact time because he’d been religiously watching the clock on the opposite wall.
“Oh! Mr.— Mr.—” Peter heard the secretary stutter.
“Yeah hi. Where’s my kid?”
“Um he uh…”
“Or should I just find him myself?” Mr. Stark sounded pissed. Great.
“No, uh, I was just going to say, before you see him, Principal Morita wanted to uh talk to you.”
There were a few long seconds of silent before Mr. Stark said, “Fine.”
“Um, his office is just through here.” Peter heard Marge lead Mr. Stark away, so Peter was kept waiting, foot tapping the floor, his anxiety having no other outlet.
Thankfully, he only had to wait another five minutes before Mr. Stark swept into the room.
“Oh my goodness!” Betty exclaimed the moment she saw him.
“Jesus kid.” Mr. Stark said, ignoring Betty’s reaction to him as he took off his red tinted sunglasses. “You look like an accident victim.”
“Is it really bad? Ned wouldn’t let me look.” Peter complained, but given everyone’s reaction to him, he was curious.
“Probably better that way.” Mr. Stark said before finally acknowledging Betty, who stood in the corner of the room with her jaw practically on the ground. “Is he good to go?”
“Oh! Yes Mr. uh Mr. Stark. I tried to get most of the glass out, but he um he should probably still see a doctor.” Betty instructed.
“Of course. Let’s go kid.” Mr. Stark held an arm out and Peter stood and walked over to him. As soon as he was within reach, Mr. Stark wrapped an arm around his shoulders and guided him out.
“You ok to walk? Not dizzy or anything?” The man asked as they walked past the still shocked secretary and out into the hallway.
“No, I’m good. I’m totally fine Mr. Stark. I’m just really sorry you had to come all the way out here.” He said as they made their way to the exit. They only met a few stragglers here and there in the hallway along the way. Every single one of them stopped to stare, and for the first time Peter wasn’t sure if it was because of what he looked like or just because Mr. Stark was there. Peter was just thankful class was still in session so at least his entire school wasn’t gawking at them. Although now the whole fake internship thing should finally get put to rest. By the end of the day, he was sure everyone in Midtown would hear about how Mr. Stark led Peter Parker out of school.
Peter glanced at Mr. Stark and he noticed his mentor’s lips were pursed together, a clear indication that something was irritating him, but Peter didn’t know what. Maybe it was because he was bleeding? For some reason Mr. Stark always seemed to get peeved whenever he got hurt.
“All this is really no big deal. It’ll be completely healed by tomorrow.” He tried to reassure him.
“Like all the other times?” Mr. Stark asked sharply.
Peter frowned.
“Because I’m guessing if this kid threw you through a glass shower door, this wasn’t the first time.”
“Are you mad?” He asked in surprise.
“Of course I’m mad!” Mr. Stark whisper yelled. “My kid just got thrown through a glass door! Why wouldn’t I be mad?”
Peter blinked in shock at the fact that Mr. Stark had just called him his kid, but the man didn’t even seem to notice as he continued, “How long has this been going on for?”
Peter shrugged. “A couple weeks.”
Mr. Stark pushed the school door open and as they walked out Peter noticed the man’s Audi was illegally parked in front of the school.
“A couple weeks.” Mr. Stark echoed. “So if I texted your Ted friend and asked him, he’d tell me the same thing?”
Peter looked up sharply at the man, brow furrowing. He wouldn’t really do that, would he?
Mr. Stark raised his eyebrows at him in challenge.
Peter sighed, “Ok fine. For six weeks. But it’s fine.” He added when he saw the thunder cloud that moved in over Mr. Stark’s face.
Mr. Stark opened the passenger car door and guided him in before slamming it shut behind him.
“Does May know about this?” The man asked as soon as he got in the driver’s side.
Peter licked his lips.
“Of course she doesn’t.” Mr. Stark muttered, shaking his head as he answered his own question. He started the car and the engine revved as they sped away.
“This is the kind of stuff you need to talk to someone about. You need to tell an adult.”
“Why are you freaking out? This is nothing compared to the stuff Spiderman goes through.” He didn’t understand what the big deal was. A few weeks ago he’d literally taken a bullet to the arm and Mr. Stark hadn’t seemed this pissy.
“Because you weren’t Spiderman when this happened. You were Peter Parker and you were at school, a place where you’re supposed to be safe!” Mr. Stark ranted. “You shouldn’t be getting thrown through glass and getting your head all cut up to hell.”
That reminded him. Ned and Mr. Stark had both discouraged him from looking, but he wanted to see what he looked like. He flipped the visor down and adjusted it so the mirror faced him.
“What are you doing?”
“I want to see how bad it is.” He looked into the mirror. “Oh wow. That does look kind of bad.”
His hair looked like he’d tried to dye it a dark red and rivulets of dried blood ran down the sides of his face down his cheeks and temples and over his ears.
“Yeah, well, head wounds bleed a lot.” Mr. Stark said.
Peter flipped the visor back up as Mr. Stark let out heavy sigh. “Why didn’t you tell me kid?”
He shrugged. “Because it was a Peter Parker problem, not a Spiderman problem.”
“Pete you’ve got to stop talking about yourself like that. Peter Parker is Spiderman and Spiderman is Peter Parker. They’re not different people. And…” Mr. Stark paused to clear his throat awkwardly, “I care about them both.”
Peter smiled.
“So next time I want to hear about this from you, not your principal. Got it?”
“Yeah.”
“And I got that little shit expelled so you don’t have to worry about him causing you anymore trouble.”
“You did?”
“Of course I did. Your idiot principal only wanted to suspend him, but I very persuasively explained all the reasons why that was a bad idea, and he agreed with me in the end.” Mr. Stark said.
“Um thanks.” Peter felt kind of bad he’d gotten one his classmates expelled, but at the same time he was relieved he wouldn’t have to deal with Jack’s abuse anymore, and honestly the jerk had deserved it.
“Don’t mention it kid. Or actually do mention it, but sooner next time, so I can fix things before you get thrown through a glass door.”
Peter let out a laugh. “Ok. Deal.”