Discovering Fatherhood (Irondad / Spiderson)

Chapter 1: The Spider Bite

Peter, Ned, MJ, Flash and their other classmates were going on an excursion on a hired bus, under the supervision of a teacher, to a genetics laboratory, Peter and Ned were very excited, the rest of the students in their class not so much.

"What do you think will be in that lab, Peter?" Ned asked his best friend with a clear tone of emotion in his voice.

Peter and Ned were sitting in one of the seats in the back, Ned on the window side and Peter on the aisle side, the chestnut-haired boy shrugged, then smiled happily.

"I don't know, but we'll find out." Peter replied, leaving Ned very anxious.

"Yes, I can't wait to get there."

Peter laughed.

"Neither do I." He was honest, Peter suddenly remembered the miniature prototype of the Iron Man suit with which he had been working for the last few days. "Hey Ned, do you want to see how my prototype of the Iron Man suit turned out?" Peter offered while he reached into his jean pocket and pulled out his cell phone, unlocked the screen under Ned's watchful eye, then searched the photo gallery for the image and showed it to his friend. "How's it going?"

Ned's eyes widened.

"Wow, Peter is tremendous, it is very similar to Tony Stark, you have talent, dudde." He flattered him, impressed.

Peter scratched the back of his neck, suddenly embarrassed.

"You think? Does it look like Mr. Stark's?" He asked doubtfully, Peter had very low self-esteem.

Ned nodded with conviction.

"Yes dudde, it's the same..."

Suddenly Flash, who was sitting behind Peter and Ned's seat looking at the landscape through the window, heard the whole conversation and wanted to intervene, he put both hands on the leather of the seat, pushed himself forward and poked his head over the seat of Peter and Ned.

"Your silly toy suit isn't even up to Tony Stark's heels." Flash commented maliciously to Peter as he looked at the photo on the chestnut's cell phone screen, he smiled mockingly and added. "Nerd." No more returned to his seat.

Peter snorted, exhausted, he was tired of Flash's constant teasing but he couldn't do much to defend himself either because 1: he didn't like fights and 2: he didn't have much strength, he was skinny and small, in a fight with Flash he would lose without doubt.

"Hey, loser." MJ suddenly spoke, drawing Peter's attention, she was sitting in the front seat, apparently alone, she was kneeling on her seat, with her arm up on the leather backrest and her gaze fixed on Peter. "If you want you can sit here." MJ shrugged. "I mean... because there's one place left over, that way Flash won't bother you." She suggested, then added with a neutral expression. "You're welcome." Having said that, she turned around and sat back correctly in her place.

Peter blushed at this unexpected offer, he liked MJ a lot but he couldn't talk to her about his feelings, he didn't cheer up, Peter still didn't have enough courage to make a statement, he had to pretend to be her friend.

Peter thought "just his friend", he looked at Ned for help, he didn't know what to do, he was nervous, was he sitting next to the girl he liked or not? Ned patted his shoulder and nodded.

"Go, sit with her, no problem for me." Ned shrugged, took some headphones out of his jean pocket, connected them to his cell phone and commented with a smile. "I'll watch episode IV of Star Wars."

Peter smiled happily.

"Okay, thanks dudde." Peter pretended to get up but in the end he stayed seated and looked at Ned with an arched eyebrow. "What if...wait for me to see the V, don't leave me, I love the part where Darth Vader tells Luke that he is his father, is my favorite scene from Star Wars." He said and giggled.