The Daughter of Iron Man

A Second Chance

-Peter's pov-

With everything going on lately, I struggle to pay attention in class.

Yesterday, a group of shooters made their way into the school. They opened fire at me after killing 4 administration members who tried to stop them. When Alice came in without any sort of armor, I thought she was going to die with them. No one is faster than a bullet, not even her. I just didn't quite expect her to catch every bullet, stopping them midair.

After yesterday, everything feels different.

At least a fourth of the school didn't even bother to show up today. The popular kids took no interest in attention, the jocks wore jackets hiding their usually exposed arm muscle, and even the bullies refused to say or do anything to hurt another person. Our school is no longer divided by social class. As far as anyone is concerned, we're all just equal human beings with shared trauma.

With Aunt May knowing I'm Spider-Man, I expected her to encourage me to go to school this morning to protect the other students. Instead, it was the other way around with me literally begging for her to let me go to school until she gave in and agreed.

When I saw Alice in first period, I was surprised that Mr. Stark would even consider letting her go to school today. Either she put up a pretty good fight and somehow won, or something else happened yesterday when the director of SHIELD took her away. Perhaps she has to be here for some sort of a mission, or just to help protect the other students.

My first three classes were challenging to get through. I don't remember anything the teachers taught, but it sounds as if they all gave up teaching and decided to just re teach the lesson when everyone gets back. However, this was not the case with my fourth and final teacher of the day.

My AP Chemistry teacher is very by the book. To her, the events of yesterday are to stay in the past and not interfere with today. So naturally, she taught a full lesson with the expectation that everyone would stay caught up.

"I'm assigning you all a project that will be due next Tuesday."

I stared at my teacher in disbelief, and half the class moaned. But no amount of moaning would change her mind, and she continued.

"Each kit in the front of the room has all the parts to one specific complex molecule. You are all to take one kit home, and figure out which complex molecule it is and build it with the supplies you're given. You can do this on your own but if you would like, you can work with a partner."

After what was probably the longest school day of my life, the final bell rang and everyone launched out of their seats.

Most of the students carelessly crammed their stuff in their backpacks, grabbing a kit from the front and getting out of there as quickly as possible.

I turned around to see if Alice, who was sitting a few seats behind me, was just as eager to get out of the classroom. Instead of finding her frantically running around like a chicken with its head cut off, she took her time putting her things away. I also realized that as usual, she had her earbuds in to block the sound of the bell and the trauma that comes with it.

Yesterday as they were evacuating the school, I caught up with Sarah who seemed unusually worried about Alice. When I asked about it, she explained that Alice was at Stonewall Academy the day it was attacked. I remember that day since it was all over the news. Sarah told me that Alice has PTSD from it, and suddenly I was just as worried about her.

Most of the kids were gone by the time I had finished cleaning up, and I finally got to my feet. I swung my backpack on, and started walking toward the door when I was stopped by the person I least expected.