Peter Stark

Chapter 15 - Friendly Spar

When we got back to the school, I rushed to my locker to get my stuff to leave until I was shoved up against the wall by Flash.

“You think you’re so special, just because you know the Avengers, huh? You’re just a charity case to them. I mean, why would they ever care about a loser like you?” he sneered.

I tried to ignore that and looked him dead in the eyes. “I don’t care if you hurt me, but I swear, if you hurt anyone else in this school, I will not hesitate to stop you,” I hissed.

He thought for a moment and must have decided it wasn’t worth the risk to test me. “Deal.” He let me go, expecting me to fall to the floor like usual, but I landed on my feet.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I apparently have plans tonight,” I said, walking away. When I got to my locker, Ned and MJ were there. I started packing my backpack while they waited.

“Peter, what the heck?” Ned exclaimed. “Why didn’t you tell me you could beat Black Widow?”

MJ nodded. “And how did you do it? You weren’t using webs.”

I sighed. “I’ll explain tomorrow. I don’t want to say it twice.”

They walked with me out of the school, where Dad was waiting for me. I did my special handshake with Ned, and a wave to MJ. I climbed to the back of the car, waiting for the lecture from Dad. He was silent for a bit, just driving, but I knew it was inevitable.

When it came, it wasn’t what I was expecting. “Why didn’t you tell me, Pete? We could have helped. We shouldn’t have had to do this on today of all days.”
I furrowed my brow. “What do you mean? What’s today?”

Dad looked at me in disbelief. “You don’t remember?”

Internally, I started to panic, running through all the holidays and my family’s birthdays. It wasn’t special, as far as I could remember. “Uh, no?”

Dad just shook his head. “Well, I guess you’ll see. We’ll talk about this Eugene kid later.”

I nodded, though I was still searching my mind for what it could be. It wasn’t the day Dad adopted me, or the annual training day. Ned knew about it too, which confused me even more. I spent the rest of the car ride ranting to Dad about the field trip, and how hard it was to not blow my cover. I then told him about an idea I had.

When we got back to the tower, Dad parked in the garage, and we got in the elevator. Instead of going to the penthouse like I expected, we went to the conference room that we never used. As soon as we walked in, everyone shouted, “Happy Birthday, Peter!”

I stared at them in confusion before looking around the room, noticing all the decorations. There were blue and red streamers, a pile of presents, a stack of board games, and a giant chocolate cake. A smile worked its way to my face. “Oh, that’s what today is,” I muttered under my breath. “Thanks guys.” I hugged them.

We had a great time, opening gifts and playing a very intense game of Uno. After, we cut the cake and ate it with some vanilla ice cream. My day suddenly didn’t seem so bad, and I was grateful for my family. After the cake, my sugar high crashed, and I was exhausted. We watched Star Wars and halfway through, I fell asleep on Dad.

I woke up in the morning in my own bed, having had a good night’s sleep, which surprised me after how many memories surfaced the day before. I got up and got ready, preparing for what was to come that day. I slipped on one of my SI T-shirts and went downstairs to meet Steve.

When I got there, however, I was surprised to see half the team there. Gamora, Natasha, Clint, Carol, Loki, Pietro, T’challa, Shuri, Hope, Bucky, Stephen, and Wanda. It wasn’t as unusual for Bucky to be up this early, but he didn’t always come down for breakfast. I checked the time again, but it was still 5:30. I narrowed my eyes at them before Steve slipped me my usual eggs and bacon and a cup of orange juice.