Light & Dark // Spider-Man: No Way Home [Book 5]

chapter ten {Third Person POV}

Rain hammered against the windows as Arya, Peter and Morgan stood in the kitchen of the Starks' apartment. Festive Halloween music played in the background. Arya stood wrist-deep in a bowl of cookie dough while Peter and Morgan made orange and purple frosting. Morgan was standing on a stepstool, stirring the frosting and somehow getting it everywhere except where it was supposed to be, inside the bowl. The front of Peter's sweater was mostly covered in purple and orange, and so was the countertop.

"There," Arya said, scraping off most of the cookie dough from her hands before washing them. "The dough's all done. How's the frosting coming along?" 

"Great!" Morgan said, flicking up the spoon she had been stirring with and launching a dollop into the air and making it land in Peter's hair. Arya snorted out a laugh.

"Great..." he repeated, looking up as he plucked the frosting from his hair. His eyes went a little cross-eyed.

"Come here," Arya said, still laughing a little. She fetched a paper towel and helped Peter get as much of the frosting out of his hair. "Yeah, you're gonna have to shower to get that all out or your hair will stain orange." 

"Sorry, Peter," Morgan said with a pout. 

"It's okay. It's just frosting," Peter said, ruffling her hair and making her giggle. 

"Let's finish up these cookies while Peter washes his hair out," Arya said. She handed her sister the cookie cutters before she rolled out the dough. Peter went to the bathroom and returned a bit later with damp hair. 

Arya couldn't help but smile at the sight of his curls. He usually wore quite a bit of product in his hair to keep it somewhat contained, but usually, after he'd showered or it was humid or rainy outside, his curls would appear. Arya really loved them and she had often tried to get him to keep his hair curly, but he claimed to hate it. 

Arya put the baking sheet with the cookies in the shape of pumpkins and bats into the oven, set a timer and joined the others on the couch. Peter had put on The Nightmare Before Christmas. 

A little over an hour later, Morgan had fallen sound asleep and while Peter took her to bed, Arya put the fresh cookies in a container. Peter returned to the living room and grabbed a pack of cards from his backpack before sitting cross-legged in front of Arya on the couch. She turned to him after switching off the TV. He set up a game of Rummy and handed her a set of cards. 

"Okay, so for our applications," Arya spoke up after a few minutes of comfortable silence while they played. 

"Ry, we already went over this five times. We sent in our applications together," Peter said with a laugh. 

"I know, I know," she said with a small pout. "I'm just stressed out because sending in our applications means there's a chance we won't end up in the same city and that really terrifies me." She sucked in a shivery breath. 

Peter reached out and took her hand in his own. "Okay," he said softly. "So our top pick is MIT, obviously." 

"Obviously," she said with a smile. 

"Then there's Stanford and Berkely," he summed up, not breaking eye contact. Arya felt her heartbeat slow down. "And as a last resort, the University of Texas."

She nodded. "We picked the right ones, right?" 

"Yeah, totally. MIT's the dream but these other schools are really good too. We'll get where we want to go. I promise." He gave her hand a small squeeze and she smiled. 

"Can you imagine if everyone got into their dream schools? How crazy would that be?" she said with a chuckle. 

"Crazy," he agreed, laughing. "My mind keeps putting on this image of the six of us living together in Boston."