The world came into focus when his maths teacher slammed the textbook on his desk.

“Parker, wake up.”

Peter blinked, looking up to see the fierce face of Mr. Lowenthal looking down at him. Peter snapped upright.

“Mr. Lowenthal,” Peter said.

The class snickered. Mr. Lowenthal raised a hand. “Can you tell me what x is?”

“X… what do you mean…?”

Mr. Lowenthal pointed at the board where a series of formulas was spread across the board.

“Um… 25?”

“24,” Mr. Lowenthal said. “Still better than the answers half the class came up with but that’s the reason your marks have been dropping from A plus to B’s. Parker, see me after class.”

Peter groaned and slumped across his desk.

…

Barbara Gordon looked out the window, biting her fingers. The anxiety was killing her. Today was the last day of her physio and whatever the results were determined whether or not she would walk again or be stuck to this wheelchair for the rest of her life. Her father was in the lobby waiting for the therapist to come in but Peter was nowhere to be seen.

She looked out the window and back at the door and then the window when…

“Hey,” Peter said, crawling in through the window. She wasn’t startled at all. Peter walked over to her and kissed her on the forehead. “How are you, you look nervous?”

He looked breathless, like he was in a rush.

“I am nervous,” Barbara said. “If this doesn’t go well…”

“Hey it will go well.” Peter knelt down and placed comforting hands on her shoulders. “You’ve been exercising right? Massaging your legs and whatever. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

Barbara looked down at her lap. “I know. It’s just…”

“You’re the strongest, most capable woman I know…”

“You don’t know many girls,” Barbara said.

Peter ignored that and continued. “It’ll be okay. I believe in you.”

Barbara smiled. “Thanks, Pete.”

Peter smiled. “5:30 PM, right?”

Barbara nodded. “Yeah.”

“I’ll be there,” Peter said. “After this afternoon.”

“You really need to take care of yourself, I can see bags under your eyes,” Barbara said. “Three jobs in one afternoon and to top it all off, training with Bruce? Why don’t you do that Wayne internship Bruce offered?”

“You know how Bruce is,” Peter said. “If I work for him I’m sure it’d be part of his whole training program. I appreciate the training but Spider-Man isn’t all I am. I just want to train so Aunt May won’t wake up one morning to see that her nephew died doing something reckless.”

“It’ll make your life a whole lot easier,” Barbara said. “Maybe you should think about it.”

Peter shrugged, putting on his mask. “Eh. Besides I’ve managed to hold onto these jobs. How bad can it be?”

…

“Peter Parker…” started Mr. Hamdani at the TV store, his voice was sympathetic.

“… you are…” the head chef at the gas station said, his voice shaking as he flipped a pancake.

“… FIRED!” exclaimed the Mr. Aziz as Peter handed over his hat to him.  

In a deserted corner under the Gotham tram, Peter grumbled. He was bent down, surrounded by garbage and as if to add insult to injury most of the garbage were the pizza boxes from the Aziz’s Pizzas with flies whizzing around the pizzas he worked so hard to deliver.

On the road a black Roll’s Royce pulled over, the window rolled down and a petite man with a thin moustache had his hands on the wheel accompanied by a young boy with hazel eyes and a big grin on his face.

“Master Peter.”

“Hey Al,” Peter mumbled, getting up from his spot and opening the back door.

“Sup dork,” said the boy. 

“Hey Jason,” Peter said. “What are you doing here?” 

Peter opened the back door, throwing his bag inside the car.

“Master Jason said he missed you and wanted to see you,” Alfred said.

Jason reddened. “I did not say that.”

“Aww, Jason,” Peter said. “That’s so cute.”

“Shut up!” Jason exclaimed. “Dumbass!”

“I thought it would be good for him to get out and get some fresh air instead of being cooped up in the manor so here we are,” Alfred said. “What about you? You look under the weather.”

“Well, I just lost three jobs,” Peter said. “So not so good.”

Jason laughed.

“Does that mean you’ll be incapacitated for the upcoming training?” Alfred asked.

Peter sighed, closing the door behind him. “I wish.”