I wracked my brain for the last time I had looked forward to a Monday at school as I caught glimpses of New York's denizens shake off the weekend's lethargy from my bus window seat. For a city that never sleeps, an awful lot of them looked like lifeless zombies without their first round of Starbucks.

Finally concluding that I had never actually felt that way, a rueful smile graced my lips. If it weren't for all that I lost to be in this place, I might have even felt grateful for my new, gloriously dull, life.

Moments later the bus went through the gates of Midtown High and stopped by the front entrance. I thanked the conductor as I hopped off, only to get a grunt in return as he attempted to wrangle the army of children off his vehicle.

As I made my way up the entrance stairs I noticed Flash and his goons loitering around the bus stop. They all wore yellow basketball jerseys with a large purple 'M' on the front. They looked like they had practice before school that day, but neither the lockers nor the court was anywhere near the entrance. I was worried that they might be planning to jump Peter as he got off his bus so I waited by the doors.

The next bus arrived and I watched as the group seemed to perk up. Fully expecting Peter to hop off, I was surprised when the last few passengers were a trio of girls who made their way to Flash and his friends.

As they approached, Flash raised an arm up towards the blonde, presumably in an effort to offer a hug. However, the girl dodged his arm and pinched her nose as she pretended to wave off a stink. Even from my distance, I could see Flash's head light up red, like a traffic light. He pulled her towards him roughly by the waist and attempted to lean in for a kiss.

I say attempted because the girl, once again, was quicker. She slapped him across his face and huffed away towards the school entrance, her giggling girlfriends following close behind. I couldn't help but laugh at the interaction.

"You think that's funny?!" Flash's voice boomed over the crowd of school kids. At first, I thought he'd noticed me or was fuming at his friends, who seemed just as amused as I was. However, following his line of sight I realised that the next bus had unloaded, unnoticed.

There, Peter Parker stood frozen on the pavement with an expression that said that his surprise was only eclipsed by his confusion.

Flash stalked towards him as I fought upstream against the crowd making their way to their respective classes. However, Flash swiftly covers the few paces between him and Peter, making the most of his momentum to shove him to the ground.

I reached him just as he crashed into the ground with a splat. As I put myself between him and the offender, I could hear Flash's buddies laugh uproariously. Peter took my stretched hand and I pulled him up as he muttered colourful expletives.

"Just fuck off, Flash," I sighed with barely a look behind me.

"Or what?" he said slowly, trying to come off as menacing.

I rolled my eyes and finally turned to his group, "Or you can embarrass yourself for the third time today."

The bully's face heated yet again and he sputtered, "Oh yeah, why don't you make me?"

"Make you embarrass yourself? That's the idea, blockhead."

It seemed like Flash was so used to people just telling him to leave them alone, he didn't know how to respond when someone actually confronted him. Like a broken record, all he could do was repeat the same cliched lines on repeat.

His friends laughed behind him and his agitation grew till it looked like his ears were venting steam.

His fist flew towards my face slowly, almost like he was underwater. It was fascinating really. I had never fought a mortal before I met Steve and had assumed mortals were physically capable of a lot more here than they were back home. That he was just well-trained and gifted.

But he was so dissimilar to Flash - who was also supposedly a gifted athlete - that I no longer knew what to think. Did this world have demigods after all?

But then why had the gods not answered my prayers? Or at the very least, smote me into ash for the numerous times I had lost my mind and devolved into cursing them for putting me in this situation.

I was so lost in thought that I forgot to duck away from Flash's right hook.

He made contact with my jaw, though not with enough force to make me budge.

"Ow," I drawled sarcastically and moved his fist from my face with a politeness that belied the circumstances, "That wasn't nice."

I copied his movements, returning the blow just a little faster than it came towards me. Thankfully, I did not have to make the decision to actually strike him since he fell backwards onto his ass before I could even get close.

Instead of staying to gloat, I grabbed Peter by his shoulder strap and yanked him to the main doors. "That was fucking awesome!" he gushed as we hustled our way through the crowd that had formed to watch the show.

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"No it wasn't," I sighed, "I shouldn't have done that."

Peter looked at me incredulously, "Are you seriously feeling bad for hitting Flash, right now?"

I rolled my eyes, "No, Flash can stuff it. It's just that, I'm sure all this did was ensure he only comes after you when I'm not around." I looked seriously at Peter and continued, "There's only one way to stop a bully, Peter. You fight back. No amount of protection from someone else will get them off your back. They find comfort in your lack of resistance. They do it because it's easy. But if you make them work for it, you'll find they no longer think its worth their time."

I took a measured breath and gripped his shoulder firmly, "They don't hate you. They hate themselves. Having power over someone else makes them hate themselves just a little bit less."

"Oh, shove off," Peter grunted as he shrugged away from me. "I've heard it all before. I can't fight him, Percy, he's way stronger than me."

"No, he isn't," I insisted, "Not where it counts. He does not have the strength to control his life or himself so he tries to exert control over you, it makes him feel powerful," I paused trying to find the right words. "This isn't about stopping some brain-dead jock from hurting you, Peter. There's always going to be another bully. This is about not letting someone else dictate who you are and who you can be."

Now standing by the door of our homeroom I pulled him aside ensuring he does not run away from the conversation, "You're brilliant, man. But I've been around you for only a week and I can already tell you're holding yourself back. And for what?" I glanced around us, "So you can conform to what these morons think you should be?"

I had never really considered myself to be a great orator but once I was done talking my heart was racing and Percy had a fire in his eyes. I gave him a firm pat on his back and an encouraging smile. "Aight, let's go. We're going to be late for class."

Peter and I entered the room just as Dr. Smith started her morning address to the class. She just smiled and beckoned us in, without so much as a pause in her words.

"Good morning, kiddos. Before I get started discussing the day's activities, I wanted to talk to you about why my name is being plastered all over the city news. There was an accident at the lab I supervise on Governor's Island. Now some of the more colourful press releases suggest we are weaponizing Tsunamis for the U.S Military and I assure you that is not the case."

The class laughed at her deadpan delivery and she continued, "For legal reasons, I'm not at liberty to tell you what exactly we are developing. However, I can say that it is a non-nuclear power generation platform. I can't stress enough how non-nuclear it is because our very non-nuclear reactor experienced a catastrophic meltdown. Damage control with the media has been painful as it is and we don't want to…blow things out of proportion."

She gave the class a pointed look but then smiled widely.

"Thankfully all damage was limited to Roxxon's very deep pockets and the careers of the quality assurance technicians on the site - no personnel were harmed in the making of this movie," she finished jokingly.

"Now to address the elephant in the room. 'Why did the Upper Bay decide to take a field trip onto dry land?' Roxxon's official position is that, 'We find the relationship between the meltdown at our plant and the baffling behaviour of the Upper Bay, several hours later, probabilistically minute' in other words, 'It wasn't me'," she laughed disparagingly, "In all honesty, we have no fucking clue."

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If this was any other day I knew that Peter would not have been able to shut up about Dr. Smith's announcements that morning. As it stood though, he was so absorbed in self-reflection that he never once brought up the numerous times Roxxon had lied to the public in the past. Not that I'm complaining, I'd heard enough of that to last a lifetime.

When we parted ways for our respective classes it was almost like he was in a trance. Throughout 'Greek History' I couldn't help but wonder if I had laid it on a bit thick. Perhaps keeping his head down until he was free of the expectations of this school and its students would be better for him. I didn't actually know what I was talking about and my own experiences might not transfer to his.

I had started to second guess my intentions for intervening in the first place. I think I wanted to help my friend, but what if I was just itching for a fight? After all, Peter had been satisfied with just keeping his head down - despite being pushed around occasionally.

When 'Chemistry' came around I waited by the door so we could find seats together. Only when the bell rang did I notice he was already seated between two others at the front of the class. The same seat he was in the day I'd first walked up to him.

As his warning of being friends only on, 'a trial basis', rang in my head, I took an empty seat at the back of the class. Morosely, I took out my notebook and started to doodle, anxious for the period to end.

As Mr. Roberts droned on about ionic bonds, almost like déjà vu, Flash tossed a paper plane to the front of the class. I watched in annoyance as it struck the back of Peter's head.

However, that's where the feeling ended. Unlike the last time, Peter picked it up, seemed to read it and scribbled something on the back. He then stood up and threw it right into Flash's stupid mug, hard.

The jock just sat there, stupefied. He only reacted when his girlfriend - who he seemed to have made up with - started bawling out in laughter. Flash snapped his head to the crumpled paper to read it for himself and lost his shit.

"I'll fucking end you, Parker!" he shouted.

Flash jumped out of his seat so explosively, it was impressive. Partly, because he managed to shift the row desk but primarily because he managed to attract Mr. Roberts attention away from his own soporific voice.

"Mr. Eugene Thompson!" Mr. Roberts voice strained in its attempt at authority, "Is there something you'd like to share with the class? If not, please refrain from disturbances."

Flash sat down quickly, clearly not wanting to share with the class. For the rest of the class, he attempted to stare a hole into Peter's head, ineffectively, and I couldn't stop myself from grinning like a lunatic.

After class, Peter rushed to my seat before Flash could untangle himself from his goons. We head out the door quickly and make for the lunchroom.

I found myself repeating Peter's words and sentiment from that morning, "That was fucking awesome!"

Peter laughed nervously, "Yeah, that was something, alright. My heart feels like it's going to explode."

As we entered the food hall to hushed whispers I noticed Peter was no longer shrinking when he got attention. He stood tall. He was still a scrawny runt, but for the first time, I noticed he was only a couple of inches shorter than me. Which put him exactly at Flash's height, his so-called arch-nemesis.

We grabbed plates and walked up to the line of food which oddly started with a stack of water bottles. Curious, I questioned the servers, "What's with the water bottles?"

"Oh have you not heard?" one of them replied, "The water fountains are all out."

"Actually," another joined in with the gleaming eyes of a serial gossiper, "All the water in the school is gone."

Peter's brows furrowed in confusion, "What do you mean, gone?"

And then all hell broke loose.