Chapter Text
It was a regular day in Queens, New York- or as regular as it could get. The rain had just let up for the first time that day and Peter Parker and his friends, Ned and MJ, were sitting at lunch talking about Spider-Man’s latest fight with Distructo, the dumbest villain on the planet, scratch that, in the universe.
“Seriously Peter, this is the third time this week… and it’s Tuesday!” Ned exclaimed.
Distructo was not a good villain, if he could even be classified as that. The only villainess thing about him is his mutant-ability. He can turn his arms into wrecking balls. He is completely, utterly stupid. The first time Peter fought him, he thought the guy was using some tactic to beat Peter, but no, he was just that dumb. Distructo once turned himself into the police and broke out 3 hours later on ACCIDENT. But if Peter were being honest, he kind of liked fighting Distructo, it gave him routine, a sense of control. After he got blipped, he felt as if he lost all of that control, he came back and everything was different. Not only that, Tony almost died, Peter couldn’t help but blame himself, he really had to work on that.
“So how did he even break out this time? I thought the police had set up special measures to keep him inside.” MJ questioned.
“I would explain, but I think it’d give all three of us a headache.” Peter said with a serious face. The cops explained what happened, but Peter didn’t really have the energy to pay attention, he was up all night on patrol because his brain wouldn’t let him sleep without having nightmares about the war. They stopped happening as often but yesterday was a particularly rough day as new information about Thanos rolled in. Bruce Banner, or the Hulk, had taken over the lab in the Avengers Tower as soon as he recovered from the battle, because… you know, aliens were on earth. He had made a breakthrough on Thanos’ species of alien a few weeks ago and it was just released to the public yesterday morning.
“Peter… you alright?” MJ asked while snapping her fingers in Peters face, she looked a little concerned. Peter was so tired from the night before that he almost fell asleep while mid bite of his sandwich.
“I’m okay, just didn’t sleep well last night” Peter replied after rubbing his eyes to wake himself up. “Anyways, have you found out anything between Lydia and-“ Peter was cut off by the sound of the speakers in the cafeteria.
“Peter Parker, please come to the principals office. I repeat, Peter Parker, please make your way down to the principals office!” Said Ms. Mandy, the secretary, over the loud speaker. The entire cafeteria went silent as people stared at Peter, some making ooooh sounds (mainly Flash).
Peter’s heart raced, he hated attention like this. He was also thinking of every possible thing this could be about, had he done something wrong? No, he didn’t think he did. Peter shoved that fear down, stood up, said bye to his friends, and started his walk to the office. His hands were shaking and he was forcing his brain to stop thinking about why he was being called to the principals office in the first place. He was a straight A student, and he didn’t have a single bad track-record that he knew of. (Other than that one detention, but it was just ONE time. How can you expect a guy to go his entire high school career without getting in trouble once, besides that, he was only absent too many times because he had just started taking the whole Spiderman gig seriously, cut the guy some slack).
Peter wasn’t even two feet away from the principals office, when out of nowhere, his spider-senses started blaring in his ears. He immediately tensed up, he was scanning everywhere but saw no immediate danger, which left him confused. That was when Principal Morita walked out of his office, looking around till his eyes landed on Peter. “Ah, Mr. Parker, there you are. You were taking quite a while, so I thought I should see if you were nearby. Come on inside.”
“Sorry, sir, I got a little sidetracked. I had to make a pit stop at the bathroom, when duty calls!” Peter said trying not to seem nervous.
“Of course, completely understandable.” Mr. Morita said with a small chuckle, while looking Peter up and down, “There is no need to be nervous, you’re not in trouble.” he said with a small smile. Peter immediately felt a sense of relief, letting go of a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
Peter was still on edge though, his spider-senses had not calmed down. They seemed to have only gotten worse, if anything. Mr. Morita was also being very nice, which, he wasn’t mean but wasn’t the nicest person ever. He was also really chipper. Despite that, he walked into the office and took a look around, he instantly noticed a very tall, kind of buff boy, slumped in a chair in the corner of the room.
“Take a seat, Peter.” Mr. Morita said as he sat down in his rolling chair. Peter flinched unnoticeably, as he’d forgotten the man was even there. His senses were still going off and the tall boy in the chair only made it worse.
“Why don’t you introduce yourself Mr. Jackson.” Mr. Morita said turning his head to the boy in the chair.
The boy turned in his chair to look at Peter. Peter couldn’t lie, the boy was incredibly pretty, like… too pretty, he looked like a god. Peter was still intimidated, and his spider-senses were still going off like a ringing bell in the back of his head, he was hoping this interaction could be done fast. “Hey there, my name is Percy.”
The newly named boy said while giving Peter a small smile.
Peter stumbled over his words for a second, he didn’t know if he was supposed to introduce himself or let Mr. Morita continue speaking. After a beat of silence, he decided to introduce himself, “I’m Peter Parker.” He stated, trying to muster a small smile. “So why am I here?” Peter turned to ask the principal in front of them, he was still very confused.
“Oh! Right. You see, Percy here is a new student and he will be needing a little tour of the school, I was hoping you could take on that challenge. You just need to show him where his classes are located, the bathrooms, and the cafeteria.” Mr. Morita replied vigorously, “Then you can take him to his 5th period classroom. I will help you get out of gym the rest of this week if all goes well.” Mr. Morita said with a sly grin. Peter was always up for the chance to get out of gym, even though he was super strong now, he had to keep up his weak nerd persona.
Peter and Percy were now standing outside of Mr. Morita’s office, Peter looking at Percy’s schedule. Peter was a little surprised to see that Percy had a lot of low level classes, he knew where they were but never took them himself. Midtown was a very “nerdy” school, it was almost unheard of for someone to attend Midtown without being interested in science and technology.
Peter hesitated for a moment before looking at Percy, his spider-senses still blaring, “So what brings you to Midtown? Not in a rude way, but you are in lower level classes. Are you just getting into science and tech?” Peter said trying not to sound mean.
“I’m actually not suuuper interested in science, but I do like marine biology, so…” Percy said easily with a small shrug. “I also heard this place has a decent swim team, and they were giving out scholarships, so I decided to apply.” Peter was a little shocked, he’d never heard of someone coming to this type of school, mostly for sports. Peter was already sensing that the tall boy was quite weird though, so he didn’t think much of it.
“Well! Let’s get going, I really want to get out of gym.” Peter said with a giggle. His senses were still as strong as ever, but he managed to push them to the back of his mind. He couldn’t see any threat, he thought he may just be tired.
When Peter first got bit by the spider, he would get exhausted easily and his senses would act pretty weird. He didn’t think much of it, considering he basically hadn’t slept at all the night before.
“So for your first period class, you have Ms. Sanders. I never had her, but I’ve heard she is really nice!” Peter said, he didn’t want Percy to be nervous for his first day. Percy looked a little grateful, which Peter thought was odd. “Her class should be around this corner.”
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧
Peter and Percy had visited all of his morning classes, so Peter decided to show Percy the cafeteria.
“This is the cafeteria, it’s apparently pretty big compared to most schools.” Peter stated. He liked giving random facts. First lunch period had ended, so Ned and MJ were already in their 5th period classes unfortunately. “You got lucky, we have the same lunch period. You won’t have to worry about finding someone to sit with if you don’t make any friends…” Peter said while lost in his thoughts, he was wondering whether MJ would like him. Obviously Ned would.
“You don’t think I’ll make friends?” Percy joked. Peter choked on air, not realizing what he had said.
“Shoot! That is not what I meant, I meant because making friends isn’t the easiest thing so you may not make many friends for the first week depending on the type of person-“
“Do I look like the type of person that people won’t like to be friends with?” Percy questioned, he seemed to still be joking but Peter could hear the concern in his voice.
“NO! I meant that.. I really don’t know what I meant, it made sense in my brain at first. I’m not trying to be rude, I’m so sorry.” Peter was just full on ranting at this point, he’d noticed but couldn’t seem to shut his mouth.
“Hey, chill dude. I was just kidding around. I know what you meant.” Percy chuckled, but he was still trying to calm Peter down. “Let’s continue the tour, so you can get out of gym.” Percy joked.
“Yes please,” Peter pointed like a sergeant in the direction of Percy’s 6th period class, “this way soldier!”
Peter decided to take Percy to all of his classes and then show him 5th period, since that was where they were returning to at the end of the tour.
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧
“And here we are, finally, the end of the tour.” Peter said pointedly with an exaggerated yawn, as he knocked on the door.
Mr. Greene opened the door with a deep frown. Peter knew all about him, Mr. Greene was not very liked amongst the students. He was very strict, and he was also known for being discriminatory towards people in poverty. This was the main reason why Peter decided to leave his class for the end, it worked out for more ways than one.
“Mr. Parker, what do you want?” The English teacher questioned with a scowl.
“I’m here to introduce your newest student. You are his 5th period teacher.” Peter said with a sly demeanor.
Mr. Greene hated Peter, even though he never taught him. Peter got into Midtown on a scholarship, same as Percy, which to Mr. Greene, meant he was a poor scoundrel who didn’t know anything. Yes, Peter grew up, and still lives, quite poorly, but he wasn’t dumb. He got that scholarship because he was smart, he deserved it.
Peter knew not to mention the fact that Percy got in on a scholarship, he didn’t want Percy to deal with the same problems he did. Peter couldn’t imagine having to deal with Mr. Greene as a teacher, especially if he knew you were like Peter.
“Your name?” Mr. Greene asked, still scowling.
Percy was hesitant, “Percy Jackson, it’s nice to meet you.” Percy put out his hand for the teacher to shake.
Mr. Greene looked down and scoffed.
“Come in, you can sit next to Sydney.”
Peter gave Percy an encouraging pat on the back and stepped halfway from the door. Sydney raised her hand and Percy made his way to the desk next to her, giving the girl a small wave. Peter noticed everyone staring at Percy, a lot of people swooned by his looks, others burning with questions but knowing not to ask in this classroom.
Mr. Greene rudely slammed the door in Peter’s face, knocking him from his thoughts. God he truly disliked that man. Peter started making his way to his own 5th period class.
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧
Peter was now sitting in his classroom. He could physically feel MJ’s eyes drilling into him. He’d managed to tell her that he wasn’t in trouble, but class resumed too fast for him to explain any further. He managed to catch up on what Mrs. Dulles was teaching.
After Mrs. Dulles finished her teaching for the day, she brought up college credits and how many people in the class still needed a lot of volunteering hours before they could graduate. Unfortunately she had a list, Peter’s name was, of course, at the top with a big. fat. 0 hours completed.
He truly had forgotten about the fact that no one knew he was Spiderman, so he actually had to put in extra work of helping the world.
“Here are some options to get some quick and easy hours, I’ll leave them on the back table. Some of you really need to start thinking about signing up.” Mrs. Dulles said while staring down Peter.
Peter got up from his chair and made his way to the back table. He looked at some of the sign up sheets, none of them really captivated him though. But he really did want to graduate, so he needed to stop being difficult and pick one. At some point he came across the mentor program that his school set up a while back. It was the only thing there that slightly peaked his interest.
Peter actually liked to teach, but it mostly depended on the subject. In the end he decided to sign up to be a student mentor.
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧
It was the next morning in homeroom, Peter had managed to give MJ and Ned the gist of why he was called to the principals office, he “forgot” to mention some main details though. He really didn’t feel like having them worry about him, they had their own lives and struggles. Peter didn’t want to be extra baggage.
“Peter, come up here please.” Mr. Grayson said placing his phone down.
“What’s up, Mr. G?” Peter asked. Peter and Mr. Grayson had developed a nice teacher-student bond since Peter started at Midtown. He somehow got put in Mr. Grayson’s homeroom every year. They were also very alike, which added to them becoming friends.
“I heard you finally signed up for the student mentor program? Took you long enough.” Mr. Grayson quipped, “I had a feeling you’d enjoy it, I was just waiting till you signed up.” the man chuckled.
“Yeah… I realized I haven’t done any volunteering, might as well get started now.” Peter voiced, “Is that the only thing you needed me for?”
“No, you need to head up to the library. You should be meeting your mentee today, that is what I was told anyway.” Mr. Grayson muttered the last couple words.
Peter thanked the teacher for telling him, he walked back to grab his bag and tell Ned that he had to leave to go meet his new protégé. He started walking to the library.
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧
It surprised Peter again, automatically making him stop in his tracks. He had just walked up to the doors of the library and his senses started roaring in his ears, just like yesterday. He looked around, and once again, saw nothing that threatened him. He slept fine last night, so now he couldn’t just put it off as being tired.
Despite this, he shoved it to the back of his mind and walked into the library, stopping at the front desk.
“I’m here to meet my mentee for the student mentor program. Do you know where I can find them?” Peter asked quietly to the librarian in front of him.
“Oh, Ms. Sanders should be around that bookshelf at the big table. Good Luck Peter!” The librarian said with quiet enthusiasm. Peter came to the library quite often, so he knew the older lady pretty well.
Ms. Sanders was the one to originally come up with the idea of the student mentoring program. She thought it was a good way to help students bond, and it was an easy way for kids to get extra credits to graduate. Peter thanked the librarian for the help and started walking towards where he was pointed to.
“Hi Ms. Sanders, I’m here to meet my mentee.” Peter told the teacher. He looked around till his eyes landed on Percy.
“Ah! Peter I believe, glad you could make it.” Ms. Sanders said with the bubbly personality that Peter was always told about.
“Yes! Peter Parker, Mr. Grayson told me I was meeting them here?” Peter said questionably, still eyeing Percy.
“Great! This is Percy Jackson, he is going to be your mentee for as long as you both may choose. We just wanted a small meeting for you two to talk and see if you can bond, then you can officially start the mentor program. We need to be sure we have a good match!” Ms. Sanders spoke, trying not to be too loud in the library.
“Take a seat Peter!” She whisper shouted while pointing to a chair across the table from Percy.
“Alrighty, I have to go and set up another pair. Introduce yourselves and talk a little, I should only be gone for a little over ten minutes…” the woman said while looking at her wrist watch, “I’ll get going now!” And Ms. Sanders left.
“Nice seeing you again, Peter, was it?” The tall boy, Percy, asked.
“Yes, Peter.” He said, trying not to sound as exhausted as he felt. His day was actually going well, now he felt like throwing himself into a wall. He didn’t not like Percy, but he was very socially awkward and always seemed to embarrass himself when meeting new people.
“So how was your morning?” Percy asked slowly.
“It was decent, you?” Peter asked, he was trying to keep his answers and questions short, he didn’t know why, but he was scared to embarrass himself in front of Percy. Obviously he wouldn’t want to embarrass himself in front of anyone, but Peter actually kind of wanted to be friends with Percy. Though he wouldn’t admit that to himself, or anyone for that matter.
“It was as good as it could get.” Percy said with a huff.
“How are you settling into Midtown?” Peter asked.
“I think I am going to do well here, I mean, nothing has blown up yet so…” Percy said in a joking manner, but for some reason Peter thought he was being serious. His thoughts were cut off though, as Percy continued speaking, “It’s a nice school, and most of the teachers are really nice,” he emphasized the ‘most’ when he said it. Peter knew he was directing that towards Mr. Greene. “I saw there was a tutoring program thing, and since I decided to come here for a fresh start- wait, did I already tell you that? Hmm..” Percy looked like he was thinking.
“Well, even if you did, I don’t remember. I was a little out of sorts yesterday.” Peter said.
“Oh, I could tell.” Peter choked at how straight forward Percy was, “My attention span is terrible, I have ADHD, tell me if I ever start repeating stuff please.” Percy asked with a serious look, then cracked a smirk.
“My guardian has ADHD, though she’s told me that men and women can have different traits of it. I’ll still try as much as I can to help you out though!” Peter said, he finally found a small connection with Percy, although it was not ideal, it could work.
“So… does that mean you will stay as my tutor?” Percy asked with a little surprise in his voice.
“Of course! I wasn’t even planning on switching in the first place, why do you ask?” Peter questioned, also surprised by the fact that Percy thought Peter would just leave him like that. Especially considering they seemed to be getting along.
“Well, you seemed a little eerie of me, I thought you wouldn’t have liked to. When you came in earlier and saw me, you didn’t look exactly pleased to see that I was your protégé.” Percy said making air quotes when he said protégé.
“Oh… sorry about that, this week has been pretty rough. Even if I didn’t like you I wouldn’t drop you like that, please don’t take that the wrong way.” Peter said making prayer hands towards Percy.
Percy’s eyes widened then, seemingly remembering something, “Uh, I also have dyslexia, so…”
“That’s not problem! I will do my research. And on our first meet up, we can do some stuff to get the gist on what you need help with.” Peter said smiling.
Peter mentally punched himself for thinking that Percy was going to hate him or be big and scary. He was excited now that he knew it was possible to actually become friends with Percy. All the nerves from before had been gutted and ripped out of Peter, but… something was still… off?