LOUD MOUTH → PETER PARKER ✓

Chapter Four: A Game of Basketball

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑: A GAME OF BASKETBALL

Callie didn't hear back from Peter. Not that night, or the next day. She called him twice more in those two days, again getting sent to voicemail. Before she knew it, it was Monday morning and she hadn't gotten a single word of correspondence since Oscorp. And she wasn't too happy about it.

She walked to school that day alone, not caring if Peter had ditched her or if she ditched him. She knew that they both had a free period first, so he had to be somewhere on campus, and she had an hour and forty-five minutes to find him.

She found him in the first ten. In the gym, several things were going on at once: basketball practice, cheerleading practice, and sign painting for homecoming. She passed by the gym and stopped, recognizing one of the girls painting―Lizzy. She and Callie were in art class together. She went in to say hi and see if Lizzy she needed help, but stopped when she saw Peter sitting in the bleachers.

She started walking calmly. "Don't yell," she muttered to herself. "As much as you might want to, you cannot yell." But as she got closer to him, she felt a little bubble of rage in her chest ready to pop. 

He noticed her when she was a few feet away and smiled. "Hey," he said.

She smacked him in the back of the head, causing him to grimace. "What the hell, Guevara!" she exclaimed. "Did you not get my voicemail? Or the other one? Or the other one? You could've gotten torn to pieces by a freaking Oscorp lazer, but I wouldn't know you didn't unless you called me back." she said, annoyed. "But it's fine! Never mind the fact that I spent the entire weekend watching Criminal Minds with a dachsund and worrying about you." 

Peter grinned. "You worried about me?"

"Not the freaking point, Parker!" Callie said, hitting him in the back of the head again.

"Will you stop that?"

"The point is, I spent an entire weekend with a five inch tall noodle dog as my only company, and that really sucked. So next time you want to go AWOL, send me a text first, okay?"

Peter's smiled had faltered from seeing the worried expression on her face. "Okay, yeah. I will." he said. "Sorry."

"Yeah, uh-huh, whatever." Callie said, turning away with her arms crossed and pretending to be pissed off, which was harder than it seemed at that moment. 

Peter tilted his head, grinning. "You're smiling."

"Am not."

Suddenly Callie's attention was drawn to the basketball game, where Flash had just knocked some poor player to the ground. The ball rolled and knocked over Lizzy's bucket of blue paint, splattering it all over the yellow banner paper.

She stood up. "You did that on purpose, Flash!" she yelled, seemingly on the verge of tears. Callie got up to help her, Peter following behind.

"No, but I should've. You better watch your back." Flash threatened.

Lizzy clenched her fists but said nothing. Callie appeared beside her. "Hey, don't worry about him." she said with a reassuring smile. She bent down to put the bucket upright. "I'm pretty sure he has less braincells than a squirrel."

Lizzy laughed, but her face faded back into a frown. "I spent hours on the lettering." she said dejectedly, looking down at the poster. In fancy cursive she had written the dates of the homecoming dance in blue. Now there was a giant blue splotch covering a third of it.

"It looks great." Peter said. "And you'll have plenty of time to redo it."

Callie nodded, "Second time's a charm."

Lizzy sighed, "Thanks."

Callie turned her head to look at the part of the poster that wasn't covered in blue paint and read the dates. Geez, homecoming was coming up fast.

Peter suddenly reached forward and, without even glancing at it, caught a basketball flying through the air that was about to hit Callie in the head. Callie, who hadn't even seen it coming, looked at him with wide eyes. "Damn. Good catch." she said. "Really good catch."

Peter was looking at it with surprise, like he hadn't expected to catch it. "Y-yeah, no problem." he said.

"No like, scary good catch. Like how did you―"

"Give it up, Parker!" Flash yelled, wanting the basketball back.

Peter faltered for a moment, then nodded. "One sec," he said, handing his camera to Callie, and she wondered what crazy thing he was about to do next.

He walked into the center of the court, rolling the ball around in his hands. "Why don't you take it from me?" he asked Flash.

Callie's eyebrows raised. "What's he doing?" Lizzy asked.

"No idea, but it probably won't end well." Callie replied.

Peter and Flash walked to the center of the court and stood no more than five feet away from each other. Peter held the ball out. "Take it."

With his teammates egging him on, Flash shot forward to take the ball, but Peter switched it from hand to hand behind his back, so fast that Callie didn't have time to process it before she saw the basketball in his other hand.

"Holy shit," she murmured. "Since when was he good at sports?"

Now Flash looked confused, and a little mad. He reached to take the ball again, and Peter switched hands behind his back again, holding the ball at an angle above his head. Flash lunged for it again and Peter jumped, swinging the ball around Flash's head, causing him to turn around to face the other way, and then landed back on the ground. While Flash was turned, he bounced the ball off of Flash's back and right back into his hands.

He glanced at Callie, whose jaw was practically on the floor, and smirked. He turned back to Flash and pretended to throw the ball so hard that Flash ducked, but it never left his hand. Peter held the ball out at arm's length. "Just take it." he said.

Flash was nearly red in the face. "Alright, how about this?" Peter said, covering his eyes with one hand while the ball was in the other. Callie found herself smiling and shaking her head at him. He even turned to face away from Flash with his eyes still covered. "How about that?"

Flash walked up to take the ball and found that he literally could not take it out of Peter's hands. It was as if someone had stuck it there with a layer of superglue. He even put both hands on either side of it and pulled, but it wouldn't budge.

"Come on, Flash! Just take it." one of his teammates yelled.

Peter had turned back and uncovered his eyes. "Come on, Flash, just take it." he said quietly, probably just to mock him.

Finally, Flash let go and backed away, causing his teammates to yell at him. Peter dribbled the ball a couple times, a grin on his face.

"All right, bring it, Parker! Come on!" Flash yelled. Peter ran across the court, ball in hand. Flash lunged to grab him but Peter knocked him over like he was a hollow bowling pin, jumping nearly twenty feet in the air. Callie's hand flew up to cover her mouth as Peter, quite literally, flew through the air and dunked the basketball into the hoop with so much force that the backboard shattered.

The cheerleaders screamed, dropping their flier. Everyone collectively gasped as Peter landed back on the ground―on his feet―and shards of glass rained down around him. The metal basketball fell just inches away from him with a echoing clang.

Peter slowly looked up at the destroyed basketball hoop, and then back at Callie.

"What. The. Fuck." she mouthed.