Spider-Man? Who's He?

Ch. 6

Peter spent all Spanish, English, and History class on his laptop. It wasn't unusual; the school required each student have their own laptops and used them in every class. Thankfully they were supposed to be working on a research project in Spanish, a book report in English, and a presentation in History. He didn't work on any of them. Instead, he used his phone as a personal hot spot so he could access his private server and his teacher couldn't see his screen. He spent all morning writing up the code for Karen's update. By lunch, he was nearly done. He got his food then sat at a table, opening up his laptop to finish the update. It included a voice modifier, something that had taken nearly all of Spanish class to create as the Iron Man suit had a basic one. The rest he just copied down straight from the Iron Man copy. It was a lot of typing, but his teachers had thought he was working busily so he didn't mind.

"So, did your dad believe you?" Ned asked, sitting beside Peter. Peter didn't look up, saving Karen's update then search for his Spider-Man suit. It needed to be online for the update to work. "Did you hear me?" Ned asked, waving a hand in front of Peter. Peter batted it away, turning his mask on but keeping it in his backpack.

"Yeah, he did," Peter answered. He hit upload on the update and a loading bar popped up. Karen was being updated and was sure to be happy. "Yeah, I had to argue a bit, but they both believed me. Harley was no help." Peter glared at Harley as he passed their table. Harley shrugged and continued on.

"How's you voice modifier going?" Ned asked. Peter pointed to his laptop that was half way closed and sitting in front of him.

"Uploading as we speak," he answered. He took a bite of his tuna sandwich and grimaced. Cafeteria food really was the worst. "Karen is going to be thrilled." Ned gave him a look.

"Dude, you really need to stop treating your AI like a human," he said. Peter looked at him in mock offence.

"But she is! She's human at heart!" Peter declared. Flash walked by and scoffed at them, causing Peter and Ned to both drop their smiles and internally groan.

"Who? Your robot girlfriend?" he snickered. Peter rolled his eyes.

"Haha, real funny, Flash," he said dryly. Flash glared at Peter and walked off to his own table. Once he was gone, Peter and Ned went back to talking. Peter told Ned how he'd gotten his dad to tell him all about the Iron Man suit along with how he got the updates for Karen. Of course, Ned asked Peter to tell him all about the suit. Peter promised he would after school. He wasn't going to go out as Spider-Man today for nearly as long. He just wanted to go out for an hour or so and be seen buying something for a little kid. Theo would be thrilled to discover Spider-Man went shopping for a gift for him.

"You should get him a Spider-Man action figure!" Ned exclaimed. Peter looked at him in confusion. He didn't know they had those. "Yeah! They just started making them."

"Really?" Peter asked. He was sure his dad was getting Theo one if that was true. "Dad's probably getting him one, then. I'll just get him an Avengers t-shirt or something. He loves the Avengers almost as much as Spider-Man."

"Who doesn't?" Ned asked. Peter chuckled and grabbed his uneaten tuna sandwich. He stood up and carried his food to the trash and tossed it out. When he returned to the table, he grabbed his laptop to check how much longer the update would take. It was only 34% done and his next class was calculus. Using his laptop in calculus would be a lot more suspicious than any of his morning classes.

"It's taking forever," Peter groaned. Ned bit into his PB&J, glancing at Peter's laptop as well.

"It's a big update," he said with his mouth full. Peter knew that, but that didn't help him or make anything better. "Just put it in the desk and ignore it."

"I'll get caught," Peter said. Ned shook his head.

"Only if you're stupid," he replied. Peter rolled his eyes as the update went from 34% to 35%.

"Thanks, Ned," he said sarcastically. Ned grinned innocently as the lunch bell rang. Time to see if Ned's idea would work or not.