| sparks + butterflies | a peter parker fanfiction |

-04-

1245 words :)

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Thea spent the weekend struggling with her homework. The school week had her so exhausted, she hadn't had the time or energy to keep up with her combat training. It was odd; HYDRA had had her exercising for hours on end, but the type of energy Thea spent at school seemed to come from an entirely different place, and she found that just existing in the same space as other humans was draining her, both physically and emotionally.

Monday came around sooner than she'd like, and Thea found herself wondering if Peter really wanted to walk to school with her or if he just said it to be nice. Surely, he didn't actually want to get to know her.

Deciding to just begin her walk without him, Thea left her apartment, only to have a now-familiar voice call out her name.

'Thea! Wait up!' She turned on her heels to find Peter running down the apartment steps, his shoelaces undone and his hair a mess.

'I thought we were walking together?' He asked, catching up to her.

'Oh. Yeah. Sorry?' Thea nodded, folding her arms around herself. He didn't make any sense.

The two settled into a sort-of-awkward silence, falling into stride with one another. As they neared Midtown, an expensive-looking Audi pulled up beside the pair, the window lowering down to reveal the Draco Malfoy wannabe from Chem class.

'Oi, Penis Parker!' he called out. Thea looked to Peter, expecting him to say something back. Instead, the boy hung his head and continued walking.

'Get lost, Flash,' Peter mumbled half-heartedly. Thea clenched her fists. She already disliked Flash for making fun of her accent on her first day, but Peter was acting as if this- Flash picking on him, that is- was a regular occurrence. And that struck a chord with Thea.

'You heard him, Malfoy.' Thea called to Flash. 'Get lost.'

'What did you just call me?'

'Malfoy. Like your hair,' Thea responded. She was aware that a few other students had stopped to watch the confrontation. 'Draco Malfoy? First-year?'

Flash looked shocked. 'What?' Thea studied him, and the car. She knew exactly who Flash was. Rich kid, used to having everything handed to him on a silver platter. The Audi he drove probably wasn't even his.

'Don't you read? Or is that beyond your tiny brain?' Thea said, before following after Peter. Flash sped up the car, leaning out the window.

'I- I do read!' Flash retorted indignantly to the small crowd of students snickering at him. 'And, new girl, that's rich for someone who can barely speak English.'

Thea's face burned. The urge to set Flash's stupid hair on fire was almost overwhelming, but she kept her cool. She was about to respond when a girls voice interjected. 'Get a move on, Flash.'

'Fuck off, MJ. This doesn't concern you.' Flash yelled at the brunette from Chemistry.

'Uh-huh.' MJ continued walking, not giving Flash the attention he so clearly wanted. Thea admired her nonchalance whilst being watched by a progressively growing audience.

'My-'

'What are you going to say, Draco? "My father will hear about this!"' MJ flipped him off before quickening her pace to catch up to Peter and Thea. Laughter followed her, and Flash cursed before rolling up his window and driving away.

'Nice, new girl,' MJ bumped Thea's shoulder. 'He is a total Malfoy though.'

Thea nodded shyly.

'You should sit with us at lunch. It'd be nice to have another bookworm to talk to. Those two-' she gestured to Peter and Ned, who had just joined them at the school's gates, '- only ever want to talk about Star Wars. I'm a Ravenclaw, you?'

'Gryffindor,' she offered MJ a small smile, which she returned, before separating to go to her locker. The warm feeling from May's dinner had returned. 

Odd.

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Lunchtime seemed ages away. Thea struggled through double calculus and double humanities before the bell finally rang. Retying the end of her messy braid, Thea rushed to her locker, stuffing the seemingly endless pile of homework into her schoolbag before trudging to lunch. MJ had invited her to sit with them, but she wasn't aware of where they sat, so she ended up standing at the cafeteria's entrance like an idiot as she scanned the huge group of students for Peter, Ned, MJ, and whoever else they sat with.

Finally, she located them at the back of the hall, MJ sketching in a little book, whilst Peter and Ned talked excitedly about something. A blonde girl stood next to the table, seemingly trying to speak to Ned. Thea's eyes narrowed as she recognised her as the girl Flash was talking to about Thea on the first day.

Thea approached the table cautiously, not sure if the offer still stood. But Peter spotted her and waved her over. Relieved, she walked over to them, avoiding the glare Flash was sending her way from where he was surrounded by a crowd of jocks and girls in pink. The cliques in this school were obnoxious.

'Fellow sane human! Thank you for joining us,' MJ said dramatically, putting her pencil down. 'Welcome to the table of losers.'

'Hi.' Thea sat down, unsure of what to say.

Ned, Peter's friend, turned to her. 'Hey, new girl. Pete says that you haven't seen Star Wars?'

Thea nodded. 'So how is it that you've read Harry Potter, but you haven't seen Star Wars???' Ned looked genuinely concerned.

Thea tried to come up with a response that explained how she had never- excluding the half an hour of Star Wars at Peter's last Friday- seen a movie, and the only books she'd read were the few that HYDRA kept in her containment cell so she wouldn't go completely insane when they left her there for days on end.

Thankfully, MJ leant in. 'Isn't it obvious? Books beat crappy movies any day.'

Ned looked offended, but seemed to decide that it wasn't worth starting a debate with MJ over, and judging by what Thea had seen so far, losing it, too.

The others started their own conversations, so Thea took the opportunity to look over the assignment she'd been set in calculus. The jumbled mess of numbers made no sense to Thea, but she was determined not to let a few equations get the best of her. She managed to get through a few, before Peter looked over and pointed out how wrong each of her answers was.

She stared at him pointedly. He raised his hands in surrender. '-Look, I'm sorry, you just looked like you needed some help-'

Thea sighed. 'It's fine. I have no idea what I'm doing anyway,' She admitted.

'Well, it's not that hard,' Peter leaned over to see her homework. Thea instinctively slid further down the bench. Peter didn't notice and read through her equations.

'Right, so, you're kind of on the right track, you just have to multiply these two, when you did it, you divided for some reason,' Peter looked back at Thea, and slid back into his seat.

'Sorry.'

'No, it's fine.' Thea followed Peter's instructions and found that it did at least make more sense than when she'd done it. After completing the first page, she slid it back into her bag.

'Hey-If you want more help with maths- not that you need it-' He stuttered again. Next to Thea, MJ laughed into her hand. 'I could-'

'Thanks, Peter. Maybe sometime.' Thea put an end to his suffering. She appreciated his offer, but she didn't like accepting help. She would figure it out herself.

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