[Are you enjoying the story? If so, and you'd like to give me a little extra motivation to keep writing or get access to upcoming chapters before everyone else, stop by my Patreon.
The next three chapters [A New Peter Parker – Part 5, Liz Allan – Part 1 and Liz Allan – Part 2] are already available.
LINK: patreon.com/Rudeus690
***
Peter felt the familiar sting of his spider-sense at the base of his skull and instinctively glanced over his shoulder, scanning the crowded hallway for the source of danger.
It wasn't hard to find.
The source—or rather, the sources—were Flash Thompson and Kenny Kong, who were running toward him, pushing their way through the students like two out-of-control bulls, both holding... pies?
Peter blinked. 'What the hell?' They were meringue pies, to be more precise. Covered with generous layers of white frosting that threatened to slide down the sides of the paper plates with every step the two of them took.
Peter froze for a second, his brain processing the absurd image while the students around them quickly moved aside, some already laughing. Flash was in front, wearing a wide grin, his arm already pulling back in a motion that was very familiar to Peter. Kenny came right behind him, heavier, but just as determined, holding his own pie as if he were about to use it like a melee weapon.
And then Flash threw his pie.
'Are you serious?' Peter wondered, watching the pie fly in a straight line toward his face. 'I thought we were past this phase already, man.' The thought came with a stab of irritation.
Because yes, until a few months ago, this kind of stupid prank had been almost a daily occurrence. Flash loved humiliating "Puny Parker" whenever he had the opportunity — in the hallways, in the cafeteria, in the courtyard, in the locker rooms, it didn't matter. But Peter thought that had been left in the past after everything that had happened over the last few months.
You could even say that he and Flash had been getting along lately, especially after Peter had kind of helped Flash win over Sha Shan Nguyen, his new girlfriend.
Buttt... apparently not. Some things never changed.
'Alright, if that's how it's going to be...' The next few seconds were, to his own surprise, completely automatic. Peter's body simply acted when his mind reached one very specific conclusion: he definitely wasn't going to let anyone dirty his father's clothes.
Peter turned in one fluid motion when Flash's pie was inches from hitting him. His hands rose, meeting the paper plate in the middle of its trajectory and absorbing the impact with a turn of his body that distributed the force perfectly so the pie wouldn't shatter. He then maneuvered the pie deftly with the tips of his fingers, managing to flip it and hold it by the base without spilling a bit of frosting.
Flash's eyes widened, his mouth opening in an expression of complete shock. "WHAT-"
Peter completed the turn and, without losing the rhythm, hurled the pie back with force.
The pie hit Flash square in the face with a wet and satisfying splat, spreading frosting all through his hair and dripping down his face. He staggered backward with his arms open, completely disoriented, and fell onto the floor, landing on his butt.
At that moment, Kenny attacked. But unlike Flash, he wasn't interested in throwing his pie from a distance. Kenny continued his clumsy charge, his arm already cocked with the clear intention of smashing the pie into Peter's face with his own hands — a somewhat disproportionate and personal approach, considering the strength and weight the boy had.
If Peter were a normal person, he would probably get hurt by that.
Good thing he wasn't a normal person.
'Did I do something to you guys?' Peter tried to remember if he had done anything that might have irritated the two of them before the school break while calmly watching Kenny's thick arm approaching. 'Whatever, actually. Doesn't matter.'
Raising his hand in an almost bored motion, Peter grabbed Kenny's wrist, his fingers tightening slightly — just enough to immobilize — and then he redirected the boy's movement against himself. Kenny didn't have time to understand what had happened before the pie hit his face with a splat even more satisfying than the first one, frosting spraying everywhere.
At the same time, with his free arm, Peter placed a hand on Kenny's broad chest, grabbed his shirt, and spun them both in one swift motion, using a bit of his enhanced strength along with the boy's own momentum to completely turn the situation around.
Before he had any chance to react, Kenny—who must have weighed three times as much as Peter—was slammed into the locker as if he weighed nothing. The impact rang out, dry and metallic, followed by the sound of a dozen objects rattling inside the nearby lockers.
Kenny stood there for a second, the impact making the paper plate slowly slide down and reveal his face covered in frosting.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you that it's wrong to play with food, Moby Dick?" Peter asked, keeping his hand firmly against Kenny's chest, pressing him against the locker.
***
For a full second — one of those seconds that seem to stretch on forever when reality makes no sense at all — Gwen's brain simply refused to process what it was seeing. It was as if the images reached her eyes and found a door firmly shut inside her mind.
Was she seeing things?
No, no — that could only be a dream. One of those strange, absurd dreams the brain comes up with after nights of poor sleep, when the line between reality and imagination becomes dangerously thin. Because there was no other plausible explanation for the absurd scene unfolding before her eyes. None.
Peter — the same Peter Parker she had known for several years, the same Peter she had lost count of how many times she had seen being humiliated by bullies — was pressing Kenny Kong against the lockers as if he were the bully all those years.
And Kenny — twice Peter's size im pure body fat, his entire face covered in a generous layer of white frosting that ran down his chin, dripped onto his shirt, and formed a puddle on the floor — was there, completely immobilized- no, worse than immobilized: he was struggling to break free.
Gwen could see his right arm tensed, fingers gripping Peter's wrist in a desperate attempt to push away the hand pressing against his chest. And he couldn't.
Peter's arm, that same skinny arm she had seen being twisted by bullies on more than one occasion, was holding Kenny in place as if he weighed nothing.
Besides that… was that Flash on the floor with his face equally covered in frosting? Yes, it was. Flash Thompson, the king of bullies, the terror of nerds, the captain of the football team — sitting on the hallway floor with his legs stretched out, his arms braced behind him, and his blond hair completely covered in white frosting.
'What happened here?!' Gwen didn't realize she had brought her hand to her own mouth until she felt the light touch of her fingers against her lips. She blinked once, twice, and then three times, each blink a silent request for the scene to rearrange itself into something that made sense.
The scene didn't change.
Peter was still there, Kenny was still immobilized, and Flash was still on the floor.
And then, as if that wasn't already disorienting enough to completely scramble her sense of reality, Gwen finally noticed Peter's new appearance. Goodbye blue shirt, brown cargo pants, and his usual worn-out sneakers.
The Peter in front of her was wearing a fitted black pullover, one that highlighted his shoulders and chest in a way that made it impossible for Gwen not to wonder when he had started working out. The same feeling she had when she saw Peter in the Spider-Man costume on Halloween last year.
The sleeves of the pullover were rolled up to his forearms, revealing two metallic bracelets she had never seen him wear before. On the lower half, he wore gray dress pants and black shoes.
Yes… she had never imagined seeing him dress like that. Much less with that new hairstyle that must have required at least a good few minutes of work in front of the mirror... Gwen felt her heart give a small irregular jump. 'What happened to you these past few days, Peter?' The question echoed in her mind as her eyes traced every detail and change in his appearance.
It was as if months had passed instead of days.
At her side, MJ let out a loud, long, expressive whistle. "That's how it's done, Tiger," she said, her tone laced with a mix of admiration and amusement, her gaze fixed on the scene like someone watching a particularly good show unfold.
Gwen didn't react to her friend's words, her mind still trying to reconcile two completely incompatible images: the Peter she knew… and the Peter standing in front of her now.
Harry, on the other hand, didn't have that problem. His eyes widened. "Wait—" he took a step forward, leaning slightly as if that would help him see better. "Is that Peter?" The question hung in the air, heavy with disbelief.
Gwen couldn't blame him for not recognizing their friend. Because, honestly… he looked like a completely different person.
"You're not going to go over there and help them?!"
A loud, thin, shrill voice — the kind that grated on the nerves — cut through the murmur of the hallway and caught Gwen's attention, and for the first time, she looked away from Peter. She glanced to the side and saw Sally Avril, Liz Allan, and Randy Robertson not far from where she was, with two other students keeping them apart.
Sally was staring at Randy with her eyebrows drawn so tightly together they looked like a straight line, her hands firmly planted on her hips and her torso leaning slightly forward—the posture of someone about to explode with anger.
Randy, on the other hand, stared ahead with an expression of boredom, his arms crossed over his chest as if that conversation were the most irrelevant thing in the world. He didn't even seem to be paying attention to her. "Don't drag me into your stupid plan. I never agreed to this."
Sally's face turned red. "Stupid?! How dare you—"
"Wait, Sally." Liz cut her off mid-sentence, raising a eyebrow and shooting the blonde a deadly look. Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried a weight that made Sally shut up instantly. "What did he mean by 'your plan'?"
Sally paled, the red of anger giving way to a corpse-like pale that would make any horror movie actor proud. "Ugh… uh… it's just… heheh," she laughed nervously as a drop of sweat slowly slid down her temple.
"You have nothing to do with this, do you?" Liz asked, pointing at Peter.
"I… um…" Sally stammered, her hands now restless, "You… you have to understand me! How did that loser have the nerve to break up with you?! We can't let him get away with it!—"
"I don't believe you." Liz placed a hand on her face, her fingers pressing against her eyes as if she were bracing for an oncoming headache. "I already told you, Sally — more than once. I'm the one who broke up with him. Me! Not the other way around."
"I know that's not—"
Gwen couldn't hear what Sally was about to say because the crowd around them suddenly stirred, the voices rising several degrees.
"The vice principal is coming!"
Someone shouted, and it was as if someone had pressed a collective panic button. The students who had been standing around watching the situation unfold began to disperse quickly, a mass movement toward the classrooms.
"Gwen—"
Someone called out to her, but Gwen didn't notice. The voice was lost in the chaos, drowned out by the noise as she let herself be carried along by the flow, her eyes remaining fixed on a specific point in the hallway.
Liz.
Liz was walking in the opposite direction of the crowd.
While everyone ran to get away from the looming presence of school authority, Liz went against the current with steady, determined steps, the upright posture of someone who couldn't care less about the vice principal or anything else.
She was walking toward Peter.
***
Disclaimer: This story and its characters belong to Sony Pictures and Marvel Comics (Disney). This is merely a fanfiction written by a fan, with no intention of infringement.