Little Spy | Peter Parker ✓

[11]

"UM, HEY."

His voice surprised me, not in the case of a legitimate shock for I knew he had been standing there, but a confusion at his almost daring approach. Normally, I had to be the one to initiate conversation, not the Parker boy. It was odd, to see him stuff his hands in his jean pockets and tilt his head shyly, offer up a greeting with little hesitation for the syllables. Strange, but not at all unwelcome.

My smile grew naturally. I carefully placed down my pencil and folded my arms up to support my chin, fists holding my head up as I grinned up at him. "Hello, Peter."

The boy seemed uncomfortable approaching me, but that was not much of a surprise; he always seemed somewhat unsure of what he was doing. However, that did not stop him from hesitantly taking a seat across from me when it was offered. His movements were stilted, awkward but there was a security in the way he placed his bag down and looked back my way. Clearly, he was not just there to exchange pleasantries and leave. "What are you doing...um, sitting here alone...?"

"I was just catching up on homework; I had been...busy last night, so I didn't have the chance to finish it." Busy. That was a common excuse for high school students, and one I would employ readily, even if the work meant nothing to me and I did not care about the answers being scribbled down. "This room - the library, I mean - seemed like the best place to do it."

He nodded, eyes trained and focused on my messy scribbles all over the page. One side of his lips quirked up. "You, um, made a small mistake here, actually."

"What?"

"Uh, it should be a positive instead of a negative. You just forgot a step here."

I started at his words, glancing it over to realise that he was right; I had messed up my multiplication and ended up with the wrong number. A sloppy mistake, considering I had the answers displayed on the paper right underneath that one. Still, I continued to smile and quickly scribbled over it, scratching in the correct answer. "Thank you; I cannot believe I missed that!"

"S'nothing, I do it all the time." His fingers tapped against the table, drumming out a quiet beat as he considered his next words. Tap, tap, tap. He hesitated a moment longer, then licked his lips and leant forward a bit. "I heard about what happened yesterday? With Sally?"

"Well, I am pretty sure everyone heard about it," was all I muttered back. A bitter flare hit the charming smile and replaced it with a thinly pursed grimace. Discussing the events of the strange girl that was Sally was not something I had much interest in, and certainly not when there were much more important things at hand. Still, I had to be natural with my conversation as Inga had implored from me. Americans liked the small talk, and he seemed curious about something about it; he had a note of question in his tone and was seemingly waiting for some sort of leeway for his next request. 

And so, I played along. "Why do you ask about it?"

He shrugged, only meeting my eyes for a second before focusing his attention back on the table. "I just wanted to see how you were after that."

So the Parker boy was worried about me. The warm feeling that flooded through my bones for a split second was far from welcome and caused me to startle, my heart beating a little bit faster and fingernails digging crescent moons into my palm.

However, the strange feeling was quickly replaced with a sly joy and satisfaction. I was beginning to intrigue him and appeal to his own morals and interests, even if it were not in the same way he might imagine it to be. That was something I sorely needed at this point. It meant progress, and that I could soon try to get answers about him and progress forward. It meant that Emily Newman meant something to him - if only a small concern in his life.