golden | peter parker

thirteen

Peter glared at Penny from across the gym while he sat on the bleachers, his eyes red with anger. All she did was laugh at him, practically keeling over.

She held onto Michelle for support as she tried to stand back up, Michelle suppressing her own smile.

"I'm gonna kill her," Peter grumbled, eyes still glaring at Penny.

"Peter, calm down. It's dodgeball," Ned rolled his eyes as he sat next to Peter.

"We had a truce! And she hit me in the face!" Peter shouted, catching the attention of nearby classmates.

"Yeah, and?" Ned asked, unamused that Peter was taking it so seriously.

"And it hurt!" He retorted, rubbing his cheek in pain.

The last person on Peter and Ned's team got out so Coach Wilson restarted the game.

"Penny, I would hide if I were you," Peter taunted from across the court.

"I'm not scared of you, Parker," Penny challenged, not backing down. Peter had a slight smirk on his face, watching her every move. He waited until she had dodged some random ball before he threw his.

The ball connected right with the side of her head, causing Penny to stumble a little before falling onto her butt.

Peter burst out laughing as some of her teammates went to go help her out. He didn't feel bad for laughing though, as he could hear her laughing all the way from across the court.

"You're lucky these are made of foam, Parker!" Penny shouted as she walked to the bleachers, still laughing.

Peter rolled his eyes, his attention focused on the girl. His eyes shone with fondness while Flash, who was on Penny's team, saw the interaction and chose that exact moment to whip his ball at Peter. It hit him square in the gut and knocked the wind out of him.

Since Peter was pegged at the back of the court, no one noticed. He groggily sat up before making his way over to Penny.

"Flash is such a douchebag," She grumbled, "How's your stomach?"

"I feel like death," Peter wheezed out, still trying to catch his breath. Penny laughed and shook her head. She then took this time that they had together to go over what she wanted to do for their Bio project next.

"Okay so, we finished our paper. All we need to do is manufacture our 'simulated' super pill or whatever, and finish up the slides for our presentation. We can work on the pill today after my meeting with Mr. Jameson."

"Am I going inside with you?" Peter asked, rubbing his sore stomach.

"If that's okay with you. But I don't know what we would do for the pill, what could we possibly-"

"Sugar!" Peter cut her off.

"What?" Penny asked confused,

"Sugar! We create some sort of candy with like 20 times the amount of normal sugar and the effects of the sugar rush last like 20 times as long! It could demonstrate the effects of Captain America, and how they used the super soldier serum to enhance him. Except his changes were permanent, this is more of a long lasting sugar rush," Peter explained. Penny's eyes widened.

"Dude that's perfect! If we don't get an A on this project I will sue," She deadpanned.

Peter laughed and they watched as Flash was whipping balls at innocent kids. Penny sighed, she really did not like how cruel he was.

"The day I ever prefer Flash over you or anyone else is the day I die," Penny muttered, angry that he was still on the court.

"You know I don't even know why he hates me, he just decided one day to be like, 'him. That's the kid I'm gonna torment'. It just makes no sense," Peter slouched in his seat, clearly upset.

Penny stared at Peter, clearly dejected. Flash seemed to kind of like her, maybe she could convince him to stop?

Soon after gym was over, and as it was the last period of the day, it was time to go home. Penny and Peter made their way over to The Daily Bugle stopping to pick up some donuts while walking.

When they entered the building Peter started to walk towards the elevator, before he noticed Penny standing still. He quickly realized and held the door for the stairs open for her. Penny shot him a sad smile and started climbing the infinite amount of steps.

When they made it to the office, she was out of breath. Peter laughed at her, and Penny just shoved him. She then walked to Mr. Jameson's office, smiling at Andrea as she went in, Peter following her.

"Ah Penny! There's my number one photographer!" J said while puffing on a cigar. "Oh and you've brought a friend."

"Yeah, this is Peter. He's just tagging along so we can work on our project after." Penny explained. "Anyway, I um, actually I wanted to ask you about that article you wrote."

"Wasn't it fantastic? And the pictures you took, man, those really sold the story," He exclaimed.

"But, you took the interview out of context. You ignored all of Spiderman's good qualities and focused on the bad! That's fraud and slander, uh sir," Penny's voice was slowly rising, until she realized that this man was her boss, and also probably more heartless than Flash. It was a miracle he liked her so much.

"It is not. I resent that. Slander is spoken. In print, it's libel," J dismissed Penny with a wave of his hand.

"But sir! That's not right. Shouldn't the people have an objective view on Spiderman?" Penny countered, hoping he would come to his senses.

"My subjective view is treated as objective truth," Mr. Jameson said while leaning back in his chair, brows furrowing at the girls unwavering opinion. Peter shifted his weight, clearly becoming uncomfortable.

"How can you do that? When he is out there risking his life to ensure that everyday people are getting saved? The Avengers don't do that. It's just not fair," She continued. She wouldn't stop until she could get her point through.

"What are you his lawyer?" He retorted, becoming increasingly frustrated with Penny.

"No, sir. But that night I got the photos, he saved me from being hit by a drunk driver. No rhyme or reason to it, he did it out of the goodness in his heart," She urged.

"So that's what this is about. You're friends with the Spidermenace. Walk with me," J said as he stood up. She followed him to the big glass windows that overlooked most of Queens.

"Wanna know what I see in our reflection, kid? A successful man who has built up everything, and a whiny kid who didn't get what they wanted. Life ain't fair," Mr. Jameson said as he turned around and stared her in the eye. Penny's mouth hung open in shock, not expecting that. "Look kid, you're the best photographer The Bugle's ever had, but if you keep fighting this battle of yours, I will fire you. Now get out of my office, I expect more pictures by Saturday night. And one of them had better be of Spiderman."

Penny solemnly left his office, Peter at a loss for words for what just happened. They walked quietly down the stairs, neither one sure of what to say.

As they made it out onto the street Penny said, "Well I guess we better start making that sugar pill."

And so they began chattering back and forth about the different ingredients they could use, and how to make it actually taste good. Though they still had weeks to do the project, they figured it be best to get it over and done with.