death wish. || peter parker x felicia hardy
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Chapter II; Act I - New Beginning
In which Felicia adjusts to a public school setting.
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“Felicia, you’ll be late for school if you don’t hurry up!” Lydia Hardy’s voice echoed through her daughter’s large room.
Felicia spat out a clump of toothpaste into the sink. “I’ll be there in 5!” She brushed her unruly hair down while she washed out her mouth. She hadn’t gone to a public school in around four years, and she had forgotten that she actually had to go to school and not just start it whenever she wanted. Years ago, her father started homeschooling her in order to give her a more advanced education than the one she was getting from her old school.
That was a long time ago.
“Do you have everything, Fel? Textbooks, pencils, laptop-“
“I’m gonna be fine, ma. I’ve done this four years ago, how different could it be?” Her boots clicked against the marble stairs in the center of the manor, echoing through the large hall. She checked her watch and kissed her mom on the cheek. “Gotta go. By, ma.”
She strutted out the large double doors and to the large parking lot, where there was a row of cars and a helicopter, used by her father for business purposes. Now that he’s gone, the 14-year-old had the power to use it whenever she wanted. Her driver was standing in the sun, waiting for her. “Hey, Andy. Listen, I need to be at school in 10, do you think we can get there by then?”
They shook their head. “I don’t think so, ma’am, traffic flow in midtown isn’t great today.”
Fel beamed, innocently sighing. “Well, I guess we have no choice but to use the helicopter then..”
Felicia Hardy has always had a thing for dramatic entrances, just as her father had. So when she told Andy that they were taking the helicopter they didn’t even bother to argue. There was no convincing the young lady after she had made a decision.
Andy handed her the noise-canceling headset and she tied her long hair into a bun so that it wouldn’t blow in the wind. She made sure that she was buckled down properly, and Andy switched on her favorite radio channel to her headset.
Loose strands of hair flew across her face as the cool air entered the helicopter. The view of Queens from above was one she was used to seeing.
“Miss Hardy, where will we be landing?”
The young lady looked down and pointed to the large parking lot beside the school. “I’m sure they won’t mind if we take up a few slots, right?”
The helicopter landed, taking up five parking slots. “Thanks for the lift, Andy.” Felicia grinned, handing them the headset. “Have a good first day of school, miss.”
Ignoring the people staring, she saluted to them as a goodbye as the helicopter hovered in the air, before turning around and flying into the distance.
Felicia entered the school, and everyone was already on their way to class. She felt like she was swimming upstream against the other students as she desperately tried to get to her locker. Fuck it, I’ll just bring my backpack around and use that gravity thing that one of the guild members got me for Christmas. She read off of the small schedule she was given and headed to homeroom.
By the time she got to her classroom, the teacher had already started on his announcements. “Oh, here’s the new student I was talking about. Why were you late, Miss Hardy?”
“Air traffic, you know how that goes. Almost hit CNN on the way here.” She sighed, sitting in the backmost seat of the room.
The teacher stared at Felicia for a moment, then went back to announcements.
Felicia tuned him out, scribbling on the margins of her notebook. She noticed that a guy she saw in the hall was sitting in the row in front of her, sneaking glances at her every so often. There was something familiar about his brown eyes and curly hair…
“Alright, class dismissed!”
The bell rang, and everyone shuffled out of their seats. While packing up, she was approached by a girl with unruly dark hair. “Peter kept staring at you so I assumed you’d be cool. As annoying as he is, he has great taste in women.”
Peter. Was it-
She smiled at her and shook her hand. “My name’s Felicia.”
“Jones. Michelle. My friends call me MJ.”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, MJ. What do you have first?”
“Trig.” She groaned. “Great way to start off the day. You?”
“Uh, same. Eurgh, I hate math.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be like, a child genius or something?”
“Look, I may be smart but that doesn’t mean I enjoy it.” Felicia quipped.
MJ gave her a ‘smile’ (the corners of her mouth tugging up ever so slightly) and led Felicia out of the classroom, and to their first subject.
☦︎︎
Felicia couldn’t help but wonder if the ‘Peter’ that MJ was talking about was her one. The one who she never had a chance to say goodbye.
Lunch came along, so after they got their food MJ led Felicia through the filled cafeteria. “I don’t really sit with anyone in particular so I just take any seat that’s available.”
Felicia nodded in reply. They navigated to the corner of the cafeteria where two boys were sitting. MJ nodded at them as a way to say ‘hi.’ Of course. It was Peter Parker. The boy she’d been trying to avoid as much as possible for the past few years.
“Guys, this is Felicia. From homeroom.”
“Yeah, we know.” Ned smiled. “Hey, Felicia!”
She smiled and took a seat beside a flustered Peter. “Yeah, what’s your name?”
Their smiles fade slightly, and Felicia bursts out laughing. “C’mon, did you really think I forgot about you guys? Just because my schooling got ‘fancy’ doesn’t mean I’m any different, honestly.” Well, that was a fucking lie. She was way different now, ever since the incident.
“O-oh.” Ned immediately laughed along with her, but Peter, oh, Peter wanted to scream
no! You ARE different like what the hell you used to dress like a princess and now you look like a My Chemical Romance poster and oh my god why are you kinda hot now-
“Wait, you guys know her?” MJ flipped open her book and stabbed her carrot with her fork.
Felicia suppressed a laugh. “Yeah, we used to be your classic trio: two boys who like running messing shit up and one girl who’s actually smart-“
Peter punched her arm. “Hey! We’re smart!”
Felicia snorted in reply. “Yeah, sure.”
Ned continued to catch her up on everything that had been happening when she was gone, and Peter just nodded along to everything he was saying.
“What about you, Felicia? What’s been happening with you, we haven’t seen you in years!”
She pondered for a moment, carefully constructing what she was gonna say in her head so that she didn’t give anything away. “Nothing much, really. I learned a couple of languages, mastered a few martial arts, yadda yadda. Mom set up a couple of charity galas over the years that I had to attend but other than that, not much.”
MJ spat out a bit of water. “E-excuse me, you learned a couple of languages?!”
“Yeah, Spanish, German, French, the works.” She shrugged nonchalantly. Her friends’ jaws were hanging. “Is Flash Thompson still a little shit?”
Peter groaned. “Yes, very much. He gave me the title of ‘Penis Parker’ last year.”
“Sounds like him,” she cringed, picking at her food. “Heard Harry Osborn studies here. How is he?”
“How are we supposed to know?” Ned laughed. “He’s a senior, none of us talk to him.”
“Good. Don’t. He’s an ass.” Felicia rolled her eyes, earning another shocked look from her friends.
“You’ve- you’ve talked to Harry Osborn?!” Peter looked at her, bewildered.
Felicia nodded. “Yeah, he’s been to a couple of the galas. Tried to get up my skirt more than once. As I said, he’s an ass.”
“He brought home another girl last week. A blonde with green eyes and a bad nose job” MJ butted in, her voice as monotone as ever. When she noticed that everyone at the table was staring at her, she shrugged in defense. “What? I’m observant.”
“That doesn’t make it any less creepy, MJ,” Ned replied, scrunching his nose up.
She raised her middle finger at him and continued to read her novel.
The rest of the lunch period was spent by Ned and Peter trying to explain how school works nowadays, and that she was, in fact, not allowed to bring her switchblade to school as protection.
Felicia breezed through Social Studies, Statistics, and Biology with ease, and during the end of school, she slipped out of the school unnoticed by her friends. Going to in-person school frustrated her a lot since she could no longer interact with her sector whenever she wanted, so she had to make it up by setting a fixed time for her to communicate with them. Once she arrived at the back of the school, she turned on her communicator.
“Cat. You’re late.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She rolled her eyes. “At least I am here. Send me the brief.”
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lmao this took so long to get out forgive meeeee
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[peter tags: @6r4cie]
[death wish tags: @l--a--u--r--e--n @essencee @swiftasrollingthunder @gynv ]
