home ; peter parker

chapter three

     ⚠️ trigger warning; violence/abuse

Thursday
     Peter woke up in the middle of the night several times. He always jerked awake and shot out of bed before he remembered where he was. Who he was. After the fourth time, he gave up. He glanced over at the clock.

3:42 AM

It was going to be a rough day tomorrow. He was sleep deprived and had a burning headache. He sat on his bed and held his head in his hands, rubbing his temples in an attempt to soothe the headache. With a sigh, he stood and walked over to his desk, grabbing his phone. He turned back around and looked down at the notifications, before he tripped. He hit the ground in a loud thud that echoed throughout the silence. Panic swirled inside him as he jerked his head to look at the crack at the bottom of the door. It was dark. Then a light was turned on. He quickly stood and brushed himself off, sliding his cracked phone into his pocket.
"Keep it down in here," May grunted as she walked in.
"S-Sorry ma'am, I just t-tripped," Peter ducked his head. May narrowed her eyes at him before closing the door and leaving, making Peter let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Peter was still shaken up, so he got into bed and decided to try sleeping again, despite having just given up. He put his phone by his bedside table and curled up under his rough blankets. At last, he fell asleep.

***

     Beep! Beep! Beep!

     Peter sat up and rubbed his eyes groggily, clearly running on only a few hours of sleep. He didn't have any money to buy coffee, and he knew May wouldn't let him have any of hers, so he started planning out which classes were the safest to fall asleep in. 'Math is just going to be a work day so I can fit some sleep in there, maybe English? I'll have to ask the first period English students what we do so I can be prepared. The rest of my classes...' He frowned. 'Unless a substitute shows up, no sleep for me.' He slammed down on his alarm clock to silence it, and stood. He quickly got changed and combed his hair, and zipped up his backpack. He grabbed his phone and shoved it into his pocket. Walking out the door, he ignored his growling stomach and headed off to school.

***

     He finally arrived after a bus ride and a lengthy walk. Opening the doors, he walked into the school, where students swarmed the halls and the stairway. He slithered past them and reached his locker, opening it. He put his backpack in and grabbed his books, before a hand tapped his shoulder. He turned around with a smile, expecting Ned, but his smile faltered when Flash was standing there with his arms crossed. Flash said nothing, only sticking his hand out, clearly wanting something. Peter stared down at his hand and then back up to Flash, slightly tilting his head in confusion. Flash rolled his eyes and huffed a sigh, tapping his books.
     "Oh!" Peter said quietly, opening his binder and giving Flash his math homework. 'I almost forgot, with all that happened last night...' he thought. Flash turned and stalked off to class, and Peter gently closed his locker before going to his own first period.

***

     Peter sat down at his lunch table with a relieved sigh. It was finally lunch. Ned hadn't been in any of his classes, so he was probably sick. Peter looked over at MJ, who was reading while occasionally tossing grapes in her mouth. He looked back down to his own food as his stomach growled, and started to eat his grilled cheese. Eventually, he finished and wiped off his greasy fingers onto his napkins. His head still burned and he was still really tired, but at least he wasn't hungry anymore. He moved his empty tray aside and rubbed his temples again, sighing quietly. Suddenly a hand slammed down on the table next to him, making Peter jump.
     "Penis! You got two wrong! Aren't you supposed to be a genius or something?" Flash yelled.
     "C-calm down Flash!" He said quietly, his face flushing as everyone turned their attention to them.
     "Why aren't they all correct?" Flash crossed his arms.
     "Well... l figured you weren't getting good grades in math so that's why you made me do it, so I wanted to make it more believable that you're getting better but not suddenly getting 100%'s." Peter explained honestly. Flash just narrowed his eyes.
     "Whatever. Here's an English project, it's due on Monday." Flash threw a crumpled up paper at Peter, who resisted the urge to catch it. He let it hit his face and caught it as it dropped down. He unfolded it and smoothed it out, looking at what it said. It was just directions for the project. It was... to make a project on a book. 'What? Does Flash expect me to read a book and do a project on it by Monday?!' Peter just sighed and crumpled up the paper. 'I wonder what would happen if I didn't do it... Probably nothing good.' Then the bell rang, and Peter headed to his next period.