Yet another field trip fanfic (Spider-man)

just a day at school

Arriving at school, Peter looked around for Ned. He spotted him by the lockers talking with MJ. He walked towards them.

From a distance he could hear Michelle talking. "-I'm just saying, at the rate society is going, late stage capitalism is gonna be the death of us all, y'know?"

"Um... alright," Ned said, clearly lost. He glanced over and noticed Peter. "Oh! Hey Peter!" He called out with a wave.

"Hey guys," Peter said, as he took his place standing next to them.

"Oh, hey loser," MJ greeted with a nod.

"Uh..." Peter briefly glanced at Ned, a silent plea for help in his eyes. Ned shrugged.

"You look like shit, what's up," Michelle continued, a slight look of concern on her face.

"Thanks," Peter said in a mildly sarcastic tone. "I, uh- I'm just pretty tired today, is all. Got to bed way too late," He explained, as he unlocked his locker.

"Were you... you know," Ned glanced around and lowered his voice to a hushed tone, "Spider-manning?"

MJ had known about his secret for a few months now, so it was now fine to talk about it around her. She had figured it out on her own, finally confronting him not too long after the disastrous events of homecoming night. Peter was surprised that she had figured it out, but Michelle had made a point to emphasise how painfully obvious it apparently was.

"Dude," Peter replied in a whisper-shout, fumbling with a science textbook. "You can't- you can't just say that. There's like a million people around!" Glancing around to see if anyone had heard, he noticed MJ had an amused look on her face. He returned to a normal speaking volume. "But, uh, yes. Yes, that is what I was doing last night. Doing that was the reason that I went to bed at 3 AM," he lied. MJ raised an eyebrow wordlessly while Ned looked delighted.

Ned opened his mouth, undoubtedly about to interrogate him on the details of last nights supposed exploits, when he was interrupted by the ring of the school bell.

Yikes, Peter did not like that bell. He only just managed to resist the urge to cover his ears, the shrill ringing combined with how noisy and crowded the hallway currently was (he was also fairly certain that someone had unloaded an entire can of spray deodorant into the air), it was really not sensory friendly, to put it lightly. Gritting his teeth, he fidgeted with the hem of his shirt (which bore a somewhat faded picture of the periodic table and the caption 'I make science jokes periodically'), twisting and rubbing it between his fingers.

His friends seemed to notice. "You alright?" Ned asked.

"Yea, yeah I-" Peter breathed a sharp intake of air. He waved his hand around vaguely, "I just- too much noise. Just. We gotta get to class. I'll be- I'll be fine. In like a minute." Ned nodded.

"You sure you're okay?" MJ asked.

"Yeah, yeah it's- I'll be fine, don't worry."

"Alright... well, I'm off to science class now, so I'll see you guys later," She said, before leaving.

Peter nodded. Ned checked his timetable, "Alright, it looks like we've got history class up first."

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Peter took a seat near the back of the class, Ned sat beside him. It was less noisy in here, thank god. He roughly rubbed at his arm, rocking slightly as the buzzing under his skin subsided and his anxiety faded. He took some deep breaths. Peter was certain a few people were looking at him strangely but he ignored it. He felt a buzz in his pocket and pulled out his phone to see he had a text message notification.