Extraordinaries • {Peter Parker}

Chapter 11

I sat at my desk a few moments longer, as everyone else hurried to their lab tables. Maybe if I stayed put, no one would notice me. Peter hadn't, he already moved on to the table in the back.

"Mrs. McLean, is there something wrong?" Mr. Drover asked, without a line of worry on his face.

I cleared my throat. "N-no, there's nothing wrong."

"Well then I'd appreciate it if you could move to your lab station," he said, eyeing me. I didn't waste a second before grabbing my backpack and walking to the back of the classroom. I wasn't one to get into trouble with teachers, I had lived my life following the Gray Man Concept, and I wasn't really interested in starting now.

I was grateful that Peter had chosen the table in the back, if something went wrong then at least only one person would see.

Luckily, by the time I reached Peter he already had our six tomato plants at our table. He didn't seem very interested in them though, he actually didn't seem that interested in anything, actually. Peter wasn't necessarily zoning out, but he was a little glassy-eyed. But I'm sure most kids looked that way during first period. I probably looked like that.

Noticing my worried face, Peter furrowed his dark eyebrows. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, not saying a word. He didn't seem to believe me though, so I forced myself to speak, my voice coming out rushed, "So, uh, what are we supposed to be doing?"

Peter looked down at our plants and microscope, putting two and two together. "I think... I think we're supposed to look at the xylem at each of the plants and then see how the xylem changes in different temperatures." Peter nodded and looked satisfied with his answer and spoke again, "So basically how temperature affects plant growth."

I just stared at him. How could he tell just by those two things alone? Sometimes, I forgot about how smart Peter was.

Since I had moved here, Peter had always been one of the top students in our class. Him and Megan had always gone toe-to-toe to be the top spot. But not many people knew the amount of his brains though, just the few people who had the same advanced classes as him.

Megan enjoyed the competition between her and Peter, she always loved friendly competition, because it made her strive to do better. Because keeping up with Peter Parker was no easy feat. But lately, Megan said that he stopped trying so hard. That he stopped caring about school as much as he used to.

She even said that he tried quitting Academic Decathlon, claiming that he needed to be available for the Stark Internship. It was around the same time the three of us received our powers. Megan didn't go to nationals for Academic Decathlon, because of how unstable she was at the moment. Megan said she was grateful she didn't go though, because of the events that happened at the Washington Monument.

I still stood there as Peter start fiddling with our packet of information, thinking about how smart he must have been. Sometimes, I wondered why I even came to this school. This school was a school of geniuses and I was no genius. I was above average and was pretty good at science, but I was no Peter or Megan.
Though, I didn't really apply myself to academics as much as I did music. That was what I wanted a scholarship for.

Gulping, I decided to join my partner at our lab desk, wary of the six plants set on top of it.

"Do you know if there are gloves anywhere?" I asked, sitting on my stool.

Peter looked at me weird, a small, amused smile on his lips, "No I don't think so, do you need gloves?"

I sighed, eyeing the plants. "I guess not."