••••••

I'm dreaming obviously. There's no way a girl like her could even want to talk to a guy like me. It was probably a prank played by someone who hates me. Jack and Flash most likely.

The rest of the day, the two teenagers went to their normal classes only this time, it felt different. They both expected to see each other again, they both hoped one of them could be sitting somewhere so the other could join them.

Madeline enjoyed Peter's company. Especially his stumbling of words and nervousness. It was one of the many adorable qualities she observed from him.

It was during lunch when they saw each other again.

But not in the best way possible.

Peter picks away at the lasagna the school lunch ladies made for today as he stares blankly down. Thinking about the girl he met 4 periods ago.

"Pete. Earth to Parker—Hello?" His best friend, Ned, waves a hand in front of his face.

"Hm? What?" He tries to sputter out.
"You weren't listening to a word I was saying huh?" Ned squints his eyes while taking a sip of a Diet Coke.

The boy clears his throat, trying to think of an excuse. "No, no, I was—um.." Ned raises his eyebrows, seeing through his friend's lies. "Sorry, what we're you saying?"

"I was asking if you thought we should group together for the physics lab but you clearly have something on your mind." Ned says matter-of-factly.

Peter shakes his head, "Nah, Im fine, just distracted. But I've already finished the physics lab, Ned."

"You what? My God you wizard—how?"
"Mrs. T let me get it out of the way. C'mon, you know physics is way too easy for me." Peter jokes.

Ned scoffs and rolls his eyes, "Clearly! Hey, do you mind if—"
"—No, I will not lend you the work."

Peter takes a bite of the lasagna but immediately gags in his throat due to the taste. He quickly swallows and opens up the soda he bought.

Ned laughs fondly at his friend with his hand rested on his chin, "Yeah, it tastes like gym socks. I was going to tell you to not eat it..."
"Why didn't you!"
"Well you know, there's a thing called karma." He gestures his hands like he's putting up a poster.

Peter gives him a Your-An-Idiot look and gets up to throw his tray away when he suddenly gets the wind knocked out of him.

The soda can spills all over his grey sweater and the beanie that he was holding in his hand.

He looks up to see the guy he bumped into fall backwards, knocking into a person behind him and smearing lasagna on the side of his shirt. The giant of a man with a light brown gelled hairstyle looks over himself with disgust.

"Oh God.." Peter says under his breath. He looks to Ned but he also has the same terrified expression.

Jack Zander becomes enraged as people stare at him with disbelief. His friends look blankly at him, waiting for what he's going to do.

"Parker..." His voice is low and has a warning side to it. He steps closer to Peter as he seems to be getting taller and more terrifying.
"Um—Jack, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean—"

"You..are so..dead."

Ned suddenly stands up from his seat at the bench. "Hey dude, he said he's sorry alright? Chill out."

"Chill out? Chill out?!" Jack now turns his evil focus on Ned. "If it weren't for his dumb clumsy ass I wouldn't be covered in pasta sauce."

Some of the bully's friends edge him on, especially his best friend Flash Thompson who records the scene with his phone.

"Tell 'em, Jack."
"Yeah man teach them a lesson." They only make this situation worse by the second.

"You don't tell me what to do," the bully gets dangerously close to Ned and points an ugly finger at him, "especially tiny puny dorks like you, Chum." Jack pokes Ned's shoulder hard enough for him to take a step back.

Peter Parker's hero sensibility kicks in; there's no way he'd let Flash bully his best friend when all of this was his fault.

"Jack, can we just—" He suddenly sees a pair of targeting eyes and a large hand come right to his face.

Being Spider-Man, he would block the attack with no question to it. But at school, he had to hide his reflexes from everybody's watching eyes, including their cameras on social media.

Peter takes the hit for the sake of hiding his identity and ends up getting knocked to the side of the fight, ramming his body on a concrete pole.

At first he couldn't hear a thing, nothing but an echoing sound of Flash's friends cheering for him and a person saying his name. But in a second, his fast healing gets him up and out of the daze.

He tastes a metallic liquid in his mouth and touches his nose. Drops of blood appear onto his hand and he groans, "Oh, yeah that's great."

Suddenly, a hand grabs onto his soda-stained shirt and pushes him down hard on the bench behind him.

A face comes into view, Jack with a pure expression of anger and hatred with Flash cheering him on the side. Flash never physically bullied Peter, it was always nasty words. Jack was the physical being of torment. What did Peter do to them that was so bad?

He grabs ahold of Jack's jacket to try and push him off and fight back but another strike of pain hits him in his left cheek. His friends have joined in the fight and everyone around them were starting to take videos and cheer them on.

Jack's friends hold Peter down by his arms on the bench but his enhanced strength almost pushes off. It was another punch in the jaw from Jack and the aching returned. The bully then grabbed his shirt collar and glared at him with menacing eyes.

Through the fist about to come at him, he sees his best friend trying to pry Jack off, "Get off of him man! Stop!"

The bully pushes Ned backwards and sends him stumbling. Jack lets out a small laugh and winds up to punch Peter again but someone stands up against it.

"Zander!" It's a girls' voice that steps in. Whoever they are, she grips Jack's wrist that's about to come in contact and pulls him back with all her strength. "Knock it off!"

He stumbles back and lets go of Peter's shirt. He spreads his arms at her, almost shrugging.

"What are you gonna do about it huh? Oh, Miss Perfect is saving the day—?" He gestures her. Peter's vision comes back into focus and sees Madeline Osborn standing up to the bully.

The girl suddenly slaps the side of his face, causing his friends and everyone watching to go silent. Jack raises a hand to his imprinted cheek and scoffs.

"I said to knock it off, idiot." She clenches her fists but Jack only lets out a laugh, his friends doing the same. He gets closer to the young Osborn with a devious smile. His big hand grabs at Madeline's wrist and in reaction, she tries to get away from him.

Peter's danger senses kick in immediately and all he wanted to do at the moment was rip off his bully's hand. "Let her go!!"

Jack's posse grabs the boy away from him, but ultimately ends up getting pushed backward when Peter suddenly gets his arms free. He was about to let all hell on Jack but a booming voice stood him from attacking.

"Mr Zander!" A voice echoes throughout the whole cafeteria and everyone looks to the man fast pacing towards the fight. "What happened here!?" He says angrily.

Jack lets go of Maddie and steps back in panic. But Principle Morita first notices the bloodied Parker and Jack's red-stained fist. "What have I told you about starting fights?"

"Man, he started it!"
"Do not raise your voice at me, go to my office now." He grabs Jack and leads him out of the fight circle with everyone staring at him.

Mr Morita stops then looks to the rest of the students. "In fact—everyone go to your next classes. Lunch is ending soon," groans and whines fill the room as everyone gets up to leave, "Miss Osborn I want you to take Peter to the nurse to clean up.."

Madeline nods and goes to his side, "Are you okay?" She asks.

Peter nods his head nonchalantly, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. That was nothing."

She watches him shrug but her worried expression doesn't change.

"C'mon, let's get you cleaned up."

•••••

I decided to change Peter's physical bully from Flash to Jack Zander. Don't worry, Flash is still going to be his #1 bully later on.

Idk what I was thinking having two Flash characters when I was writing this, I meant to change it but never got to it.

I'll be changing more chapters from Chris Zylka "Flash Thompson" to Ansel Elgort "Jack Zander" so it's not confusing.

Sorry!!