Gift

      Peter is a small, inconspicuous boy from the seventh grade. Despite the outstanding characteristic and surname, he is quite inconspicuous in a huge and noisy class full of thirteen-year-olds. While everyone is asking the teacher about their new topic in specialized mathematics, Peter is looking for an error in the calculations of the power of his father’s blasters. But still, no matter how different he was, he was an ordinary child for whom any holiday is a miracle. Especially if this holiday is Christmas.       “That’s it, that’s it. Calm down, we’ll get back to these equations, I have an announcement.” All the children calmed down, hiding a little anxiety from waiting. “You all know that Christmas is coming soon, which means that everyone is waiting for gifts!” The eyes of twenty middle school students immediately lit up and they started talking enthusiastically. “And to get your gift!” Mr. Leith spoke again in a loud voice, muffling the children. “You need to take these pieces of paper to your parents.” The teacher went into the distance of the class, passing by each desk, and giving each little child a piece of paper.       When it came to Peter’s turn, he took a beautifully painted postcard that shimmered with blue flowers and began to examine it. The boy touched the 3D letters on the postcard, immediately reading them.       “A magnificent holiday is approaching — Christmas. And this means that every child is enthusiastically waiting for a gift. And we, the people that Santa contacted, want to help please the kids.”       A phone number was signed at the bottom, to which you need to send message (and, as Pete guessed, send money) to receive a gift. The text was written in a veiled way so that the children who read it could not understand that the gifts were not given to them by a pot-bellied grandfather in a funny red suit, but by their parents. And so that more than one parent would not refuse, the children were told this personally, so that they would be eager to receive a gift. That’s such a trap.       Peter slipped the postcard into his math textbook, immediately dropping it into his backpack. There were a couple of minutes left before the bell, and he already had a message from his father on his phone, so he was ready to go to him. As soon as the ear-piercing trill sounded, boy, along with all his classmates, rushed to the exit, immediately noticing a black car with tinted windows. The kid jumps into the car, buckling himself in and throwing the backpack on the next seat.       “Hey, buddy. How are things at school?” The driver immediately started off, and his father turned to him.       “It’s fine.” Peter handed a school note to his dad.       “Oh. Gifts… Do you want one for yourself?” Peter shook his head ambiguously, peering at the familiar neighborhoods. “Are you still offended that I ate pizza?” The kid furiously nodded his head, only later remembering that his father could not see his nod.       “No, it’s fine.” After that, the parent sighed heavily, addressing the driver.       At the same moment, the car stopped near the parking lot, and his father jumped out of the car, immediately sitting next to him. The car started moving again, and Peter now had to keep eye contact with his father.       “Tony, don’t scare the child, watch how he looks at you.”       “Come on, Happy, I just looked at him!” The kid snorted, looking at the adults with a laughing look. “Finally, my kid is back.” Stark leaned closer to the child, immediately starting to tickle him. “Where was you hiding my kid, huh?” Peter laughed, jokingly fighting with his dad.       “Enough, enough!” Little Stark burst out laughing, remembering the only way to get out of this situation. Attack. Peter rushed at his father, hugging him and Tony immediately stopped, pressing Pete to himself.       “So, what about a school gift?”       “I don’t know.” His father raised an eyebrow, as if demanding a more understandable explanation. “I don’t think I really need it.There will most likely be a package of not the most delicious sweets.” Tony smiled knowingly, ruffling the boy’s hair.       “Then you will have plus one more gift from me.” Stark winked at the child, offering to choose the desired one a little later. Peter smiled happily, showering his thanks.

***

      Time passed pretty quickly and now, sitting on an independent course in biology, it dawned on Peter that Christmas is this weekend. And since it’s already Friday, it means that the gifts will be today. On math with their head-teacher next lesson. Little Stark quickly answered the tasks, because there were very easy questions, like: “What is photosynthesis?”. What could be easier? He glanced at his friend sitting at the next desk and smiled and gave him the answer to the last question. Ned is quite smart, but often confuses the answers. Ned is the most ordinary friendly chubby boy who is not shy at all and often gets into trouble. However, so is Peter. Perhaps that’s why they became friends.       “Peter!” Leeds said a little childishly, losing a tooth for the umpteenth time. “Get up, we have math right now, and you’re just sitting. Mr. Leith promised us linear equations! Aren’t you glad?” During the speech of a friend, the Younger Stark threw things into a backpack, grabbing it and gradually moving with a friend towards the exit. No matter how much Peter loved the exact sciences, he was still always far from loving lessons. He would have found something better to spend this time on if he were at home.       “Come quickly.” As soon as they approached the classroom, they heard the ringing voice of their teacher, who was calling them with a smile on his face. “Come on, come on, little chicks.” He called again affectionately. The children sat down in their seats, waiting for the start of their favorite lesson. Well, of course. They’re technicians.       The teacher waited until each child sat down, put a textbook with a notebook and pencil case on the table and finally began to speak.       “I believe each of you has considered, and it is no secret to any of you that Christmas is coming very soon!” The children hummed softly, filling the room with joyful expectation. “And Santa has entrusted us with a goal, to give you gifts.” The teacher looked at the children with a smile, waiting for the smart brains to realize what they were told. At the same moment, the seventh graders screamed, realizing that they were about to receive gifts.       In just a minute, their New Year’s gift landed on the desk for everyone, and all the friends passed their gifts to each other. The children opened each one with interest.       “Thanks, Ned. But you shouldn’t.” Leeds frowned.       “But, dude. You gave me a Lego set! I needed, no,” Ned shook his head. “I HAD to give you at least something! I thought it would be nice.” Peter twirled in his hands a small figure of Darth Vader, painted in the colors of Iron Man.       “Yes, it’s indeed very cool.” Ned opened his eyes wider, as if asking again. Peter put the toy inside his backpack. “I’m serious. Thank you.” The friends smiled, looking directly at each other.       “Wow. What is it?” A nasty, childish squeaky voice cut through the silence, forcing the guys to shut up. “Peter didn’t get a gift? How so, you’re Stark! Oh, I forgot. Your last name is completely different.” Stark Jr. frowned, glanced at Flash from under his brows. “Don’t stare like that, idiot.” Thompson tapped Peter on the forehead as he followed his friends to lunch.       “Are you okay?” Asked Ned. Peter nodded in concentration.       “Go have lunch, I’m not hungry, I’ll sit here.” Leeds moved to the exit and took one last look at his friend and left.       Peter is leaning back in his chair, closing his eyes and moaning softly from exhaustion. The most difficult thing in his life is, most likely, just being here. Stark jumped sharply when he heard the sound of a notification from his phone. Messager chirped, notifying about the message from his father. Dad How are you? What did you take for lunch today?       Peter quickly typed a reply, hiding the fact that he had missed lunch, and turned off his smartphone. The child, having nothing to do, looked around the tables, catching on a closed box lying on a chair next to the desk. The small white box was about the size of a phone and didn’t look like a gift. All the gift boxes were of bright colors, decorated with a ribbon and showed with their whole appearance that they were a gift. There was his strong desire to check the inner component of the box. Peter looked at the box for another minute, wondering whether to open it or not, and turned away, taking out his math notebook. Stark rewrote the equation and stared intently at it. Mentally, he quickly calculated his decision, starting to write. Once he had applied all the formulas and was finally able to get the answer through calculations, Peter froze, slowly turning his head back to the box. The white box seemed to glow with an angelic glow, inviting him to open it. Stark frowned and turned back to the equation. Peter pretended for a couple more seconds that he was thinking about how to count, and then abruptly stood up, approaching the box. Although it gave off some kind of anxiety, driving away and scaring the boy, but the interest was more than fear. Peter reached for the box with a shaking hand, carefully opening it. Seeing the contents, the kid froze in a stupor.       At the same moment, Stark Jr. jumped back with a quiet squeal, staring at the “miracle” with open eyes. A small fluffy ball with big eyes looked at the child, starting to crawl towards him with interest. The arthropod had the same fluffy striped paws and chelicerae. The spider crawled up the box closer to Peter, and he was able to see the presence of a red cross on the insect’s butt. Stark closed his eyes and counted to ten to calm down. When he opened his eyes, he realized that it didn’t help. The spider was gone.       The kid heard the voices of his classmates and hurried to close the box. At the same moment, he threw things from his table into his backpack and headed towards the needed classroom. Maybe if he leaves, the spider won’t touch him?       Peter headed into the corridor, walking in the opposite direction from the same-year-olds. After walking literally ten meters away, he felt a small bite and saw the spider on his hand. The child screamed, shaking his hand in all directions, so that the spider would fall down and run away. It would have been better if he had finished calculating the equation.

***

      Peter decided not to tell Dad about the spider bite. Well, what’s the big deal? It will pass. That’s what he thought before he caught himself walking on the ceiling. In general, he wasn’t going to tell his father now either, but only because he didn’t know how his father would react. The younger Stark carefully descended, fearing that his father would notice him in such a state.       The next strange thing was that after the glass fell due to Peter’s constant carelessness, he noticed that the glass did not break, but rested peacefully in his hand. He caught it. And he doesn’t know how he did it at all, Peter doesn’t even remember pulling his hand towards a falling object.       Even this was not the end of the oddities. Then, coming out of the bathroom, Peter stuck to the door, and when he hit the door, he noticed that the bruise was gone barely in time to appear. And Stark did not know at all, and did not think that it was worth doing something about it. But when Peter heard about the attack on the school on TV, he immediately knew what to do. And it seemed right to him. When he came up with the formula of the web, when he was training, making a suit, he felt that it was right. Something inside him seemed to be directing him to it. And so, after trying on his suit, Peter realized that he was, in fact, a little… too small for this. But who will think about it and postpone the situation to a distant box when they are already a step away from going out through the window? Stark asked FRIDAY again if his father was asleep and finally climbed out of the window.

      No matter how scary it was, Peter broke away from the wall of a tall building and immediately released a white liquid, which he called a spider web. He liked flying, that feeling was breathtaking, the wind blowing right into the masked face. Peter could feel like himself here. And he immediately realized that this was not his last flight.

***

      The seventh grader was sitting on a bar stool, watching his father tossing around the kitchen. Tony was actively looking for a lost wooden spoon that his child should eat soup with. No matter how he tried to force the child to eat with other spoons, the younger one completely refused, so finding the device became a matter of universal scale. He was already ready to call for help from anyone— Rhodes, Happy, Pepper, even Avengers. They all know how important this spoon is, but Peter squeaked, pointing with his finger at a stick sticking out of an open drawer. The kid immediately swung his legs, reaching for the device that his father was holding out to him.       Tony breathed a sigh of relief, sitting down next to the kid, and watching him happily eat pea soup. Stark looked him over again, noticing a small, almost healed bruise on his arm. He immediately frowned, reaching out and grabbing the child’s hand. Peter looked at his hand and trying to see what his father was looking at.       “FRIDAY, check my toddler’s health.” The AI immediately responded, issuing a certificate of his health. “Peter, what the hell, why didn’t you tell me?” Tony looked puzzled, not understanding why the kid was hiding this from him. They’ve always been pretty close, but apparently only he thought so. Pete immediately made a sad face, lowering his gaze to his knees in shame. “FRIDAY, check his body completely.”       “The check will take 3 minutes and 38 seconds.” Peter winced, realizing that this action would not save him from being checked.       Tony was trying to catch his child’s eye, more upset than angry. And, of course, worried. Because his child worries him. No matter how irresponsible he is, he still loves his child.       “There are toxins in the body of the mini-boss, the cause of the appearance is unknown.” Peter was scared, recoiling from his father, Tony, at the time, let out a disappointed, sad sigh, taking the child by the hand and taking him to Helen and Bruce.       “Tony?” Bruce immediately turned around, not expecting a visit. “What happened?” Banner waved a greeting to the child, who was sadly hesitating on the threshold, still holding his father’s hand.       “FRIDAY, get Bruce a certificate of Peter’s health.” A hologram appeared in front of Banner, showing both simple external injuries and toxins in the body. With each line read, the scientist’s face showed more and more surprise.       “If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to take a sample of his blood so I can examine it myself.” Banner rolled up the hologram and, receiving a nod from Tony, led the kid to a chair. Peter climbed into it, rolling up his sleeve and offering his left hand to the doctor. Bruce carefully finds a vein and quickly takes the right amount of blood. When the scientist covers the place of withdrawal with cotton wool, the child jumps up and goes to his dad, clinging to his hand. Tony pulls Peter closer, putting him in front of him and wrapping his other arm around him.       “I do not know when it will be ready approximately. Definitely more than ten minutes.” Tony nodded and still hugging the child went out into the corridor.       “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on?” The child hesitated again, fiddling with the edge of the jacket with the fawn. “Hey, kid,” Tony squatted down, comparing himself with the child and took his hands. “I won’t scold you. Speak with me.” Peter shook his head. “Won’t you tell me?”       “I… I don’t know why.” Tony arched an eyebrow.       “Is it so?” The child lowered his head even lower, muttering softly. “What? Repeat it louder.”       “The spider bit.” Tony was even surprised at himself and how he could make out these confused mutterings, but at the same time he was glad.       “A spider?” The kid nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me? I wouldn’t blame you for that.” Peter shrugged and threw himself into his father’s arms. “That’s it? No more secrets?”       “One more…” Peter wasn’t happy saying that. But it was much sadder for him to see his father’s doubts and the disappointment that he saw on his face. And, what can I do?       “I’m Spider-Man.” Peter said it at the edge of hearing, but he knew Tony would hear him. His father moved slightly away from him, still weakly putting his arm around his shoulders, and looked into his eyes, trying to figure out if this was a joke or not.       “FRIDAY?”       “That’s right, Peter was leaving the tower at a time when you were busy or at rest.” FRIDAY was able to understand from one word. The child’s eyes began to fill with tears when Tony was silent for a long time and the parent hurried to hug his child.       “What else could my child have grown up.” Stark said it gently, stroking his kid. “It’s okay. We’ll do it together.”

***

      Peter is an inconspicuous guy from the ninth grade. He doesn’t stand out from the crowd of fifteen-year-olds. Only now he and his father have one little secret. And Peter is very glad that they have this secret in common.