AN: This is a sequel to my first story 'The Aftermath of the Ferry Fiasco' and set a couple of months later. Although I loved it I am entirely ignoring Infinity War, hope you enjoy.

EmptyFridges

Peter mindlessly tapped his pen on the edge of the desk he was seated at as his Spanish teacher droned on about conjunctions. It was Wednesday and the school day couldn't end fast enough, Mr Stark promised him they could spend the evening in the lab tinkering with his webshooters and he couldn't wait.

"Peter….Peter! Are you even listening to me?" Peter was startled back to the present by the tone of his teacher, he looks down blushing as everyone turns to stare at him.

"Lo siento, ¿puedes repetir la pregunta por favor?" He asks cheeks burning as his classmates titter around him.

The teacher repeats the question and he mumbles back a response quickly to avoid further attention.

Minutes later he starts as his spidey-sense tingles then he is immediately hit on the back of the head with a ball of paper. Reaching down he picks it up surreptitiously to avoid another reprimand from his teacher and flattens it out. He is faced with a crudely drawn picture of a boy in frayed trousers, a slightly too short on the arms sweater and surrounded by books and crying. The words 'Poor Penis Parker' frame the drawing and he doesn't need to turn around to know it is Flash sniggering behind him. Flushing he angrily scrunches the paper back up and drops it into his bag to throw away later. Studiously ignoring the boy and his gang of morons laughing behind him he continues to note down his teachers words, determined not to let the boy see how it had affected him.

Only ten more minutes until lunch, he thinks to himself, then another two classes and I can go to the tower. His stomach is in pain from hunger and all he can think about is getting his lunch, breakfast seemed so long ago. As soon as the bell rings he grabs his bag and rushes out determined to meet Ned and join the lunch queue as quickly as possible. So focussed on looking for Ned in the sea of students crowding the corridor he is taken by surprise when a harsh shove pushes him sideways into some lockers. Shocked he turns to see Flash grinning at him and unconsciously curls in on himself slightly gripping his bag tightly.

"Please Flash I don't have time for this, just let me get my lunch, leave me alone" he says tiredly.

The boy's smile becomes predatory as he leers over Peter.

"You know, I don't think I will Penis" he replies and turning to address his friends continues, "You know what boys? I'm feeling really hungry today what about you?"

Dread pools in Peter's stomach knowing whats coming as they all agree with Flash. Quicker than Peter expected he is punched hard in the stomach and unconsciously drops his bag as he moves to grab his stomach. He knows any bruise will be gone within the hour but right now he isn't Spiderman he is poor, useless Peter Parker and has to act like he would have a year ago, before he was bitten. As he clutches his stomach he hears the others grab at his ratty bag and open it emptying the contents all over the floor. He sees his blue meal ticket which gives him a free lunch flutter towards the ground and reaches out a hand to grab it but is beaten to it by Flash.

"Oooh thanks Penis," he jeers. "I think I'll take this, you'll have to go buy yourself something."

That ass knows I don't have money for buying lunch he thinks furiously as he sits stewing on the floor surrounded by his things while the boy and his posse move away.

He flinches as a hand comes down to rest on his shoulder.

"Only me."

He turns and smiles up at Ned who quickly helps him pick up his things.

"Sorry I got held up in biology, you can have some of my lunch if you want" He offers.

Mumbling his thanks Peter pulls himself up self-consciously dusting himself off. He enters the cafeteria to a shout of thanks from Flash grinning at him as he bites into a burger.

"Ignore him, he's an idiot" Ned assures him as he pulls Peter towards their normal table.

Nodding absently Peter sits down as Ned walks away to grab some lunch for them both. He soon returns and Peter eats a few chips to stave off the hunger pains in his stomach and accepts a bag of crisps but leaves the rest for Ned. After all Ned wasn't the loser who let their meal ticket get taken by Flash and his friends.

Seeing Peter is brooding, most probably about Flash's actions Ned tries to distract his friend. "So, what's the plan with Mr Stark tonight?" He says knowing asking about Stark would cheer his friend up, it always does. He grins as his friend's mood does a total 180 and he starts to babble about the changes they were thinking of marking to the web grenade feature of his suit.

The rest of lunch passes quickly and Peter is considerably happier by the time the bell rings for the start of afternoon classes.

The two friends quickly make their way to their computer class and drop down into their usual seats towards the back of the room. Within five minutes the classroom is full and the lesson begins.

Peter finds computer class fine, it's fairly easy and he never really has to do much revision for it, but it is Ned's favourite class by far. After hacking into Peter's suits all those months ago the boy got really into coding and now regularly codes in his spare time now determined to work in the field after school.

The class is fairly loud as everyone chats while doing their work. Staring at his screen Peter listens with half an ear as Ned prattles on about his new Lego set…"yeah so we could make it this weekend? Are you free?" he asks.

"Can't do this weekend I'm at my internship. Mr Stark said he would take me…" he starts before being rudely interrupted.

"Ugh Penis stop this lying!" Comes Flashes voice from behind him, he had been walking back to his seat and overhead Peter's words. "No one believes a loser like you actually knows Tony Stark? You only have that internship because it's good publicity to hire poor losers." He says cruelly "You just make coffee and take calls, stop lying for attention. Why would anyone care about you anyway?"

Why would anyone care about you? The words rattle round in Peter's head and he hardly notices as Flash moves away. He ignores Ned's worried looks and turns back to his screen to look busy as the words keep going round and round in his head.

Maybe he was just a pity project. He thought to himself. Why would Mr Stark care about Peter? But that can't be right Mr Stark has told him he cares about him before. But that could be lies? He lies to the press all the time he could lie to me too. Maybe he just likes Spiderman and Peter is the unfortunate cost.

Wallowing in his misery his earlier excitement for working in the lab after school fades away. The rest of computing and the following chemistry class fly by but Peter knows he will be asking Ned for his notes later as he has been preoccupied the entire afternoon Flash's words still in the forefront of his mind. Luckily Flash wasn't in his chemistry class and he thought if he rushed he would be able to go to his locker for his books and go out the front of the school to meet Happy without running into the boy. With this in mind he practically ran out the classroom as the bell rang.

Unfortunately Peter's day could get worse than hunger, a punch and verbal abuse as Flash appeared round the corner just as Peter pushed his locker closed. Peter turned ready to walk away but saw two of Flash's friends coming towards him in the opposite direction.

"Oi Penis, what are you doing here?" his tormentor calls.

Realising he has nowhere to go he stops and turns to look at Flash. "You know I think I get why you are alternat for decathlon Flash" he replies, "I'm standing here in front of a locker with my name on the front, full of my things, holding a school bag full of textbooks from this school, it's almost as if I go to school here."

Others in the vicinity laugh quietly around them and Flash flushes in a mix of anger and embarrassment.

"Shut up Penis" he shouts back getting up into Peter's personal space and promptly shoving him hard. Peter puts on the stumble back as he could have easily stood his ground as Spiderman but of course Penis Parker could not. Flash sneered down at him and pushed him again making him fall to the ground.

"That's where you belong Penis, remember that. No one cares about you. You are nothing." He snarls spitting on the fallen boy before walking away.

Ashamed and uncomfortable with the others in the corridor staring at him Peter stands up avoiding eye contact and jogs away just as his phone beeps.

Where are you kid? – Happy

He doesn't bother replying but speeds up and waves half-heartedly as Happy's car comes into view. With a mumbled hello he climbs into the back seat throwing his bag down forcefully.

"Good day?" Asks Happy eyeing him in the rear view mirror.

"Hmmm? Yeah fine Happy" he sighs as he turns to look out the window Flash's words still repeating in his head.

Why would anyone care about you? You are nothing.