Spiderman Oneshots

The Phone Call (2)

It took Peter a long time to come back from May's death. To be honest, he wasn't sure if he was even fully back yet, or if he ever would be. But he had Tony, the man who had gone from a friend to a father in the space of days, and who was ready to fight the world for custody of Peter. He had Pepper, who was the one to actually win the custody battle despite only just meeting him, and the one who sent Peter a Big Brother T-Shirt before even telling Tony she was pregnant. And then along came Morgan, and Peter was part of a family again and he was loved.

Outside of the Tower, life continued as normal. For privacy purposes, they had agreed to keep the adoption a secret until Peter was eighteen, so for all intents and purposes he was an orphan at school. Ned and MJ knew the truth of course, but Flash had been insufferable, not seeming to have any shame about bullying a classmate about his family's deaths.

Obviously, the flaw in the whole keep-it-a-secret business was the legal side of things. The school had to know who Peter's guardians were, of course. They'd agreed to sign NDAs, but that still left Peter with the slightly uncomfortable situation of all the teaching staff knowing he had a dad who was a famous rich superhero.

On the plus side, this also had its benefits.

"Puny Parker can't even do a push up," Flash laughed during Phys Ed. "Is that why all your family is dead? Because you weren't strong enough to save them?"

Peter's arms gave out and he collapsed to the mats, face-down so nobody could see the tears he quickly blinked away. This display of weakness only made Flash laugh more.

"Thompson, cut it out."

"What do you mean, sir?" Flash looked innocently at the coach.

"Leave Peter alone."

"We were just having a chat, sir," Flash said mockingly. Usually teachers left it at this, feeling that they had played their part but not upset the school governor's son. But ever since the adoption, they'd started sticking up for Peter more. Whether it was out of genuine decency or some misguided hope of currying favour with Tony Stark, Peter didn't know, and he didn't particularly care.

"I struggle to believe that, Flash. Get on with your own exercise or it'll be a detention."

Flash gawked. "Do you know who my father is?" Flash's father was a wealthy man who owned a small business and was on the school board. In the past he had helped to fund several school projects, and Flash liked to lord this detail over people almost as much as Draco Malfoy. There was always the not-so-subtle implication that if anybody annoyed Flash he would complain to his father and the funding would be withdrawn.

Unbeknownst to Flash, the school had a new and very wealthy patron, and the teachers found themselves not much caring if Mr Thompson decided to resign from the school board, especially given how obnoxious his son was.

"Yes," the teacher replied. "I'm well aware of who both of you boys' fathers are, and I fail to see how that has any relevance to this conversation." That was the ironic bit, Peter thought, seeing as his new dad was the only reason this conversation was happening. Not that he'd ever say that out loud. That was the difference between him and Flash, overall. "Now get back to work, both of you."

Flash gawked at the teacher, looking like somebody had slapped him across the face with a wet fish. Then he scowled down at Peter. "He must have been mistaken about your father, seeing as you don't have one, and everyone who tries... oh yeah, they wind up dead." He aimed a short, vicious kick into Peter's side, and then stalked back to his own mat.

This wasn't the only incident like that. Flash had been bullying him for years, but now teachers were taking Peter's side. This only made Flash more bitter, but the teachers noticed that, too, and made sure the boy couldn't do anything to Peter.

After an incident involving the Literature teacher, Oliver Twist, and an orphan joke, Flash was slamming his hands on the desk. "Fine! You all want to defend poor puny Peter, that's fine! I'm talking to my father tonight and insisting he leaves the school board immediately, and cuts off all the funding he gives. Then we'll see how eager you are to side with a penniless orphan!"

Flash held true to his word and that night, Mr Thompson cut off his funding. But given that Tony Stark was now giving seven times the amount of the overbearing businessman with the self-important son, nobody particularly cared.

And this made Flash, very, very mad.

The teachers continued to keep the two boys from their conflict, so Flash ended up cornering Peter one day after school, and trying to beat him up as retaliation. Key word: trying.

Happy got the whole thing on video from where he was waiting in the car to drive Peter home, and with such solid evidence accompanied by a compelling letter from Pepper Potts, it really wasn't long before Flash was expelled from Midtown Tech.

And nobody particularly cared about that, either.