Peter’s academic record was not exactly impressive.
Okay, it was a total shit show. He barely even shows up anymore, not seeing much point. Marwood high school didn’t exactly have a stellar reputation for producing high achieving students and Peter didn’t care about getting good grades anyway.
His plan was always to get a third shitty job as soon as possible so that he could pay off some of May’s medical debts.
He didn’t even really understand how the letter arrived in the first place, inviting him to an interview at Midtown School of Science and Technology. All he knew was that his engineering teacher gave him some test and he answered the questions. Mr Ackle said he answered some ‘impossible question’ from Tony Stark’s research into the arc reactor but Peter was sure he was lying until about a week ago.
The interview itself didn’t feel like it went particularly well. The only part that was good was the tests where he was surprised by how simple the content was. He must have done better than he thought though, because the acceptance letter came through a week later.
And sure, he could have said yes, but the school wanted a minimum of 95% attendance and Peter just couldn’t commit to that between his jobs and May needing him.
So he declined.
And maybe he wouldn’t have, if he’d have known. Maybe if someone had told him that Tony Stark would somehow hear about his test scores, he would’ve thought twice about making himself stand out.
Because sure, a genius in Midtown was something Tony Stark might be interested in.
But a genius who declined their full ride scholarship? A genius with shoddy attendance and an extensive behaviour record?
Peter really shouldn’t have been shocked when Stark showed up at his house.
