[ON HOLD] Mayhem| Peter Parker

two. spider-fan

•CHAPTER TWO•
spider-fan

WHILE REGAN ENJOYS the fast pace and sharp thinking required during Decathlon meetings, it's extremely boring when you're just sitting on the side.

She sits on one end of the cafeteria, near the stage, legs criss-crossed as she perches on her seat. Every now and then, she peeks down at the open book on her lap, but mostly watches the six people on stage: Ned and Charles, Cindy and Abraham, and Harley and Hazel. Ned and Hazel had been sitting together at the start, but as soon as Liz grew tired of their constant googly eyes at one another— and therefore their lack of concentration— she hadn't hesitated to move them to opposite ends of the stage.

"Let's move to the next question," Liz says wearily. "What is the heaviest naturally occurring element?" She stands behind a podium in front of the stage, and glances up from her giant stack of flashcards once the question is asked.

Charles is the first to ring his bell. "Hydrogen's the lightest," he says happily, before his smile slips and he adds, "That's not the question. Okay..."

While Charles is smart, it's pretty common knowledge amongst most of the team that he's only here because of his crush on Liz. He often takes any opportunity to ring his bell first in attempts to impress her, none of which ever really work in his favour, and often makes her slightly impatient though she's good at concealing it.

Another bell dings, and this time it's Abraham, who easily says, "Geranium!" as Cindy, who sits beside him, frantically searches through her binder for the answer. She looks at him in bewilderment for a second, his calm composition very different from her ruffled confusion.

"That is correct, thank you, Abraham," says Liz kindly, and Regan smiles to herself as Abraham punches his fist in the air in satisfaction. "Please open your books to page ten."

Regan flips back to her book to follow along— though a few seconds later, Flash interrupts the flow of questions by declaring, "You've never even been in the same room as Tony Stark." He sits on one chair by a table, his legs stretched out as he uses another to act as a footrest. Regan can't see what he's reading, but it looks like a magazine rather than a study book.

"Wait, what's happening?" Cindy asks, frazzled as she looks between Peter and Mr. Harrington, who have spent the entire practise so far talking to each other about something that looks pretty serious.

"Peter's not going to Washington," Sally responds from where she lays on the floor, looking up from highlighting her notes.

"No, no, no, no, no," Cindy protests desperately, shaking her head at Peter.

"Why not?" Abe wonders.