Chapter Text
Peter Parker is a VERY good drum player thank you very much! He plays on his father’s drum-set that he and Ben have kept very well maintained since his death.
When Ben passed away, one of the hardest things was doing the simple things without him. Doing the laundry, cooking dinner, vacuuming the floors, the things he used to do.
He used to drumming to keep that in the back of his mind, after every practice he’d wipe the set down and move everything to their cases before putting them in a towel closet he and May keep at room temperature. He likes to remember doing that with Ben, how a younger Peter would whine and complain about not wanting to clean.
He finds himself now in AcaDeca practice, this whole rant in his mind spawned from the topic of instruments. The current people here are Peter, Ned, MJ, Jason, Sally A., Cindy, Betty, and Abe. Though Ned, Betty and MJ are all out running an errand for Mr. Harrington.
“I play the cello.” Cindy says, the group has meandered from topics like the cultural impact of pupina and Omegle to now what instrument everyone plays.
“Aren’t those like the big violins?” Sally Avril asks, sitting on the stage with her legs swinging. Cindy’s face screws together in offense from her place on a fold out chair, “No! Absolutely not!” She hisses.
Sally shrugs, “ I can play the triangle, don’t give high expectations for my instrumental knowledge.”
Flash pipes up then, looking slightly embarrassed, “I can play the violin, and piano, and flute, and clarinet… oh and guitar.. oh and viola.” The teen looks up at the gym ceiling slightly as he speaks and counting on his hands.
Various impressed or incredulous noises come hurled Flash’s way, the teen just shrugs, “My parents wanted me talented.” Which sounds suspiciously like ‘my parents wanted me out of the house’
Oh and if that doesn’t make Peter feel a little bad for his childhood bully.
“ I can play piano also.” Abe raises his hand slightly, “Jason’s mom is my piano teacher.” He gestures to the teen in question. Jason’s face scrunches together, “yeahhh that talent didn’t pass,
I think if I touched a single key the whole piano would shatter.” He visibly shudders which makes the whole herd of students chuckle.
Ned and Betty walk into the gym then, MJ trailing behind them. Peter can’t even remember whatever random charge Mr. Harrington sent them out on, something about the printer being broken? Yeah that was it, Ned went because he’s a tech wizard, Betty went because she wants to hang out it with Ned, and MJ went because she just likes wandering around when nobody’s in the halls.
Ned clocks the conversation and a grin bursts onto his face, “ Peter can play the drums! He’s like magic at it, want to see a video?!” His best friend (traitor) says excitedly, jogging to the mass of members and digging in his pocket for his phone.
“Yes!” Says everyone.
“No!” Exclaims Flash and Peter.
Peter darts forward, falling on his knees and clasping his hands together in a begging motion, “ NEDPLEASEIFYOUPUTYOURPHONEAWAYNOWILLFOREVERBEINYOURDEBTPLEASEPLEASE! IWILLLITERALLYDIEOFEMBARRASSMENTNED! DEAD!” He stage whispers pleadingly, desperation leaking through his voice much to the amusement of everyone else.
Ned hauls Peter to his feet and pulls out his phone anyway as the whole AcaDeca group squeezes around to look at the tiny screen. Peter buries his face in his hands as he can hear the video start to play. He’ll admit it’s a good session, he’s playing to one of his dad’s old CDs. (Yes his dad was in a band it’s very lame but Peter still likes it.) When the drum solo comes, the teen tries to plug his ears even more but with enhanced hearing of course that’s not gonna work.
He does do good, he actually does perfect. That was one of the few times he managed to do that solo, and was ecstatic Ned got it on camera. Now he’s not so sure about that. His friends must think he does good too because there are various impressed noises, a little wolf whistling, and a few people clapping him on the shoulder when they hear it.
Peter just finds a chair to sink into and accept that his life is ruined. The gym has gone mostly quiet, “ is it over??” He groans from his grave.
“Peter, where’d you learn to play like that!”
“Awesome dude!”
“light work, I could do it with a YouTube tutorial.”
“Shut up, Sally!”
“What song was that?”
“Do you take lessons?”
Peter reels from all the questions so he picks the easiest to answer, “uhm the song was from my Dad’s band. He used to play drums.” He says sheepishly, twisting the knee of his jeans in his hand.
Jason, the person who apparently asked the question, grins, “That’s cool dude, at least one of us can inherit awesome musical skills.”
Peter huffs a laugh when Betty pipes up, “Did he teach you? That’s real sweet,” She says tilting her head slightly.
Peter draws in a breath, “uhm kind of? He died when I was six, but I always used his CDs to learn, and that’s his old drum set. I guess you could say he taught me, even if he wasn’t here to do so.” He shrugs like this is casual information and not like telling the AcaDeca team that he kicked their puppy. (He has been called the puppy of the team several times and it’s a little infuriating)
Cindy makes a little ‘awww’ noise that makes Peter want to actually crawl out of his skin so he tries to salvage the situation. “No it’s like, fine it happened so long ago. Like I’m over it. I mean I’m not over my parents being dead but like I learn to deal with it. That makes it sound like I’m depressed or something. I’m not depressed. I’m just like… mildly sad all the time. Like you learn to live with it. Also please don’t like do that pity thing it’s really weird. You don’t have to feel bad because my parents are dead, they just kinda are. Now that’s not to say I wouldn’t feel bad if your guys’ parents were dead… agh this is hard! Just like forget everything I said! “ He looks around because he doesn’t even know half the words he said and a few of the members are looking at him with their jaws hanging open.
Betty’s on her phone, and her first words aren’t ‘I’d be so sad if my parents were dead’ so Peter counts that as a win. “I just sent this video to be posted on the Midtown Tech Baddies TikTok, we’ll see how it goes.”
Nevermind.
“Betty, WHYYYYY” He cries, hand clapped over his face once more.
Abe looks at Jason and nods sagely, “Crushes were made today.”