SPIDER-MAN: MARK LEE

16

𝟭𝟲: 𝗗𝗘𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗗 𝗗𝗘𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗟𝗘𝗧𝗘𝗦

It was 7.10 am, 50 minutes away from the commencement of first class. I, along with the other Decathletes were perched inside an empty small classroom, barely awake, and attempted our very best to tune into whatever coach Harrington had to say. It surprised me that all these people even bothered showing up this early for the gathering. I was so close to skipping it. I guessed it showed how determined we were.

I was seated with Mark at the back of the classroom. Mark's head kept dropping due to the lack of sleep. I had to nudge on him several times.

"Wow," Expressed Coach Harrington, whilst standing by the desk with a suitcase beside him. "So nice of all of you to actually show up. You know, I was actually considering to just leave a text to all of you guys instead-"

"Coach." Jeno spoke, his eyes barely open. "May I just ask about the significance of this meeting, considering how early we had to wake up for this. What is this about?"

A bit worried, Coach Harrington sheepishly laughed and held on his suitcase's handle tightly. "Well, I have one message for you all. Just one." He cleared his throat. "Yesterday, it was my birthday and my wife surprised me with tickets to Hawaii. This means I won't be with you guys during your preparation for next week. And since you guys are big children now, I can trust that you can work together individually, without guidance for at least a week. I know you can, especially having Stacy and Loomes as Captain-"

"But Coach." Gwen interrupted and stood up. I could see concern drawn everywhere on her face. "The Nationals is after next week. That means we'll only have one day, where you're here. We can't possibly to that... Can we?"

Kiernan scoffed, her arms crossed against her chest. "It is a bit depressing, Coach. You get to enjoy the beach and sun, while we're here, completely unmonitored?"

With that, people started talking over each others mouths. They bickered, bantered, argued endlessly. Even Coach Harrington had no idea how to halt this chaos, so he merely stood there and watched people shout at each others faces.

"How brilliant." I mumbled.

"Everybody! Quiet down!" Liz's shout erupted the entire classroom, and sent everyone back to their seats with zipped mouths. "Arguing will not help us ease this situation." She said, clearly annoyed. "Look, I think we can manage perfectly fine by ourselves. I mean, we usually do practice sessions alone without Coach, so what makes the difference if he decides to leave and enjoy a bit of quality time with his wife?"

Satisfied, Coach Harrington smiled with an approving nod. "Perfect! Now, if you do have questions you can ask me right away in our group chat! Oh, and I'll make sure to send pictures too~" He snickered and grabbed onto his suitcase before hauling it across the room, towards the exit.

It was only 7.17 am. We spent only 7 minutes on the gathering.

"Coach," I stood up from my seat. "Is that all?"

Coach Harrington glanced at me, his eyes flickering as he nodded his head. "Yeah."

"What the hell?" Jack groaned loudly. "Why did we meet so damn early then?"

Coach Harrington pulled his blazer's sleeve to glance at the clock he had on his wrist. "Because my flight takes off in 15 minutes." He grinned and waved his hand. "Anyways, good luck you guys!" And with that, he slammed the door close.

"That's foul." Abraham said.

"Literally. He really should've just left us a simple message on the group chat" Cindy agreed.

Everybody stood up from their seats groggily, the screech of the chair scratching the floor, resonating in the room like chalk on blackboard. Angry about how the meeting went, I snatched my tote bag from the ground and wore the strap around my shoulder. "Let's go Mark." I mumbled and commenced pacing forward.

Everybody was heading for the exit, except for one person. Gwen Stacy.

Gwen was walking towards the back of the room. When we walked past each other, she sent me one of her friendly smiles, and I returned one too. I quickly turned around, and discovered that she was approaching Mark whom still had his head resting on the table. This caused to halt my tracks. Curiosity overflowed in me and I stayed to watch.

Gwen crouched down to the table's level. "You awake? Sleepyhead?"

Mark instantly jolted from his seat, now wide awake at the sight of Gwen smiling in front of him. Mark was still a bit confused of the situation, as he was positive that only a second ago, Coach Harrington was still here and I was the one beside him. "Oh, hey Gwen." He greeted awkwardly, though in a shyly cute way like he always did. "Umm, meeting's done?" He scanned the room and his eyes laid on mine.

I felt my heart skip a beat. I didn't want to look too desperately curious to watch them, so I quickly followed the others out of the room, but I stayed outside to eavesdrop.

"Yeah. Unfortunately Coach merely conveyed a brief message." Gwen explained.

"Oh man... I should've really just skipped the meeting then. It was pointless to be here." Although I couldn't see Mark, I could just sense how wide his doe eyes would look right now.

"Skipping gatherings? I think not Mark Lee." Gwen laughed. "You and Juliane really got a lot of catching up for the Nationals. If you want, we can study together. I'll assist you as much as I can."

"Oh really? Oh, thanks Gwen, I'd appreciate that."

He referred to her as Gwen. Not dude, not bro, but Gwen.

"Hey by the way Mark, I heard what you did to Flash yesterday. Flash really needed that humbling. You're awesome for that."

"Thanks, Gwen."

"Hey Juliane." Cindy called out. She stood just a few paces away from me, and behind her were the rest of the Decathletes, walking away. She cocked an eyebrow and waved her hand. "You coming?"

I pursed my lips together. "Oh, yeah, I am." I said and feigned a smile before jogging my way for the others.

NOTE: Yoo as I was reading some fanfics earlier I noticed that you could change the font? Huh! I didn't know that :D I want to change it but I'm so used to the original one now lol.