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After the events with Beck in Europe, my identity was outed to the world. He also framed me for his murder and the attack on London, accused me of being blinded by my need for power. Saying it was a complicated time in my life would be an understatement. Despite some people being sceptical about the veracity of the video, most of the world questioned their trust in Spider-Man. The trial eventually proved my innocence and the lies told by Mysterio; but my identity was still out there now and there was no going back. There was a lot of talk about whether I should be able to keep being a superhero or not, with me being so young and everything. But when I reminded the world that I fought during the battle on Titan against Thanos, which in the eyes of the world is definitely the biggest baddest villain out there, as well as in the war alongside the rest of the Avengers and heroes, they had to admit that I had the physical abilities to fight. The world also found out about my connection to Mr Stark, and seeing as the great Iron Man put his trust in me, they were inclined to as well. Once everything cooled down a bit, I could resume my usual patrol schedule, continue taking down villains, protecting the neighborhood and go back to high school.
Yeah school was definitely weird.
Everyone knew who I was now. I couldn’t just be invisible anymore. Flash stopped being a bully which was great but he didn’t change that much. He just realized it would’ve been bad for him. Basically he was scared and not entirely dumb.
I got a lot of questions the first week I was back and everyone was always starring. The teachers had no idea how to handle the situation. They were also curious about the whole ordeal as well as worried for my safety or how it would impact my studies -I had to remind them hundreds of times that I’ve been doing this for a few years now and the only thing that was new was that they knew about it.
After a few weeks though it mostly calmed down -Thank Thor-, almost like it had been before and sometimes it seemed like everyone had forgotten about it.
But today was not going to be one of those days.
I went to patrol at night yesterday and it was pretty calm now that I could patrol regularly again. Sometimes on slow nights, I expanded my area over other parts bordering Queens that didn’t have a vigilante or superhero active there. It was great because it kept criminals on their toes even out of my usual area, which helped greatly to diminish the crime rate there too.
So that is what I did. I continued my patrol out of Queens and found a couple of guys robbing a bank. They were highly surprised to see me which was hilarious. But even though I was able to web them up and leave them for the police to arrest, I didn’t come out completely unscathed. One of the guys was able to stab me twice in the abdomen before I took him down.
I webbed myself home and cleaned the wound, ate a little to help with my fast healing and went to bed because I was way too tired to do anything more and I think I would’ve passed out anyway.
That’s how I woke up this morning to find out that while my fast healing can take care of closing one stab wound overnight, two is a bit of a stretch. It’s honestly not that bad. I changed the cloth I put last night to cover the wounds with a clean one and get ready for school. I sure look sleep deprived with my pale skin, the dark bags under my eyes and my overall demeanour, but considering I got stabbed twice I don’t look so bad.
I head to the subway and take a seat -because stab wound guys, that shit hurts- and try to relax even with the eyes I can feel on me -my school mostly got used to it, the people that I often come across in the streets or my apartment building or the subway… have come to see it has a regular occurence and don’t pay me any mind. But there are still people who are not used to seeing Spider-Man in his not-so-secret-identity-anymore and tend to stare.
I make my way to school and to my first class of the morning. Everything goes smoothly there. Ned is in my second period so we meet in front of the classroom and I explain to him what happened because he knows what I look like when I get hurt -you know being a FOS and everything- and asked me if I was alright.
Halfway through the class, my thoughts drift a little and that’s why the teacher asks me to go solve the equations she has written on the board. Even if I didn’t really follow and I’m a little light headed I still get them right so she tells me to go back to my seat.
When I turn around though, I hear a few gasps and everyone looks at me weirdly. I look down to see my science pun shirt soaking with blood.
“Ah that” I say as I lift up my shirt a bit to see the cloth completely red.
“What do you mean ‘ah that’ ? You’re bleeding ! Are you okay ?” One of my classmates asks as I make my way back to my seat.
“Peter, you need to go to the nurse right now !” Tells Mrs Dwight
“No I’m good” I say as I sit back down in my chair “Ned could you pass me the first aid kit from my bag please ? Oh and my other shirt too. Thanks” I add
He hands it to me and I put everything on the table. I start by taking off my shirt to get better access to the wounds and also because I’m not gonna walk around wearing a blood-soaked shirt. Of course the reaction is instant because no one has ever really seen my muscles since I don’t like showing off in gym class even if everyone knows that every exercise is a piece of cake for me.
Some people are jealous, some think I’m hot and some are still disgusted by the fact that I’m massively bleeding.
I take the cloth off revealing the two entry points of the injuries. They all stare at me in shock for a moment while I clean them.
Someone breaks the silence by asking “What happened dude ?”
I decide that maybe I should put some stitches just to be sure there not gonna open up again -which I should’ve done yesterday but, c’mon, I was tired and I got stabbed, twice-
I answer his question as I get the needle through my skin, which does hurt quite a lot so I grit my teeth. “Well I was on patrol last night and I came across those guys that were trying to rob a bank, ouch; but anyway I took them down but one of them stabbed me twice, before I was able to web him up.” I move on to the next injury while they process what I just said. "Shit even after all these times that still hurts." I mutter under my breath.
“And so you just decided to walk into school bleeding out of two stab wounds ?” One of the girls deadpans.
“Well, yes, I wasn’t going to miss school for that. And also I wasn’t bleeding when I got to school. I just opened back up because I don’t usually leave two stab wounds to close up by themselves overnight.” I finish sewing up the second one and take the cloth to wrap around them.
“Uh ? What do you mean ‘Usually’ ? How usual is that ?” Someone else wonders.
This time Ned decides to answer. “I mean it’s pretty usual, it's just that he didn’t heal as fast as he does when he’s only stabbed once.”
And he starts a little reproachfully but ends his sentence excitedly “He already came to school dozens of times after having been stabbed, or shot, or you know, after having fought a badass villain and saving the city or even the world !”
The whole class is dumbfounded as they realize what kind of lifestyle their classmate is living and that he’s already come to school after having been shot, stabbed or beaten half to death.
I put the clean shirt back on and turn to Ned telling him “You know saving the world is not what I do, well I mean except when I don’t really have the choice or don’t really know what’s going on like for the infinity war. Otherwise it’s the Avengers’ job.” Even though I don’t say it very loudly, everyone can hear what I told Ned since their attention is so focused on me.
“Dude, what are you talking about ? Mr Stark literally made you an Avenger while you were in space !” Ned answers joyfully.
Their classmates are hanging onto every word they’re saying, because secrets and drama and information about the Avengers !
Hearing about Mr Stark makes me kinda sad but thankfully I don’t have time to dwell on that as someone exclaims “You’re an Avenger !?”
“Uh, yeah, I was made an Avenger when we first fought against Thanos.” Most of them shudder at the name.
“Anyway, can we go back to the lesson ?” While I ask the question I get a protein bar out of my back and tell the teacher while pointing at it “That’s just to kick start my super healing, can I, uh ?”
The teacher nods as she tries to focus back onto the lesson she is supposed to be teaching. I also turn my attention back to the board, though I still feel the stares of my classmates, and start taking notes on the subject.
Yeah right now, all the class wants to learn about is the exciting life of Midtown High’s own Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man.