Parker's Partner

Chapter 1

It was a month after Aunt May found out Peter was Spider-Man, and now he was on the subway on his way to school.
She had taken it pretty hard at first, there was a period where she was in denial, then after was freaking out, but after a bit she got used to it, and only worried about him a little more than normal.
The last week or so, however, she had started acting a little strange, and Peter sat on the train wracking his brain trying to figure out why. But when the train stopped at the station for his school he lost all thoughts of his aunt and focused on the coming school day.
When Peter reached his locker he scrolled in the code and opened it to find all his books and notebooks exactly where he left them on Friday. It was Monday, the worst day of the week in Peter's eyes. He grabbed his English textbook and binder and shut his locker, turning around to find his best friend Ned behind him.
"Hey Ned," Peter slightly jumped to find Ned right behind him without saying anything. "What's up?"
Ned just shrugged, adding another piece to his latest ti-fighter.
"You're unusually quiet, what's wrong?" Peter started to get concerned because Ned was never this quiet.
"Nothing, I'm just exhausted," Ned just added another piece to his lego set.
"Why are you exhausted?" Peter's face turned to a frown.
"I just couldn't sleep, at all, whatsoever last night."
"Why? What happened?"
"I was just-"
"Hey losers!" MJ called, walking up to the pair, unknowingly interrupting Ned's explanation.
"Hey MJ," they both almost groaned.
"Aren't you both supposed to be in English? The bells about to ring," she studied both of their faces, hers forming into a frown to match both of theirs. 
There was a moment's silence before Peter cleared his face into a slight smile to mask his worry about Ned. "So are you, let's go."
Ned looked up at him with a grateful look in his eyes and Peter nodded at him.
All three friends headed off to English class, getting back into the normal swing of nonstop chatter between them. They reached the classroom and took their seats, Peter putting aside his ever present concern for the moment to listen to the teacher.
Peter pulled out his books and grabbed a pencil, prepared to listen to the teacher's lesson. But just as she opened her mouth to speak there was a knock on the door. A moment later the door opened and the principal walked in, followed closely by a tall-ish slim girl, with light brown hair that had blonde highlights. It was long but she had it tied up into a tight high ponytail. Her bright mercury sliver-blue eyes flashed in the fluorescent lights, displaying some nervousness, as well as a hint of curiosity and a bit of boredom, like she had done this one to many times. She was wearing a slim black leather jacket, dark blue skinny jeans, and a light gray tank top. A hint of silver around her neck showed to be a silver chain necklace tucked under her shirt.
When she walked in, a timid smile on her face as she looked down at the floor, Peter's world froze as he turned his head her way. His eyes opened wider as he stared, not hearing anything the principal was saying until he walked in front of the girl to go out the door. When his view was interrupted Peter shook his head and looked back down at his notebook, although he glanced back up at the girl just in time to see her take a seat at one of the desks closer to the front of the room.
Then Peter realized that he hadn't caught what her name was the entire time the principal was talking about her because he had been staring at her. He huffed in frustration and leaned over to Ned, "Hey, did you catch her name?"
"Who's?" Ned looked up from his own notes.
"The new girl's, who else's name would I not know and be asking about?" Peter became more frustrated by the second. He had no idea why this new girl got under his skin, but every time he saw her, even thought she looked amazing, he got this chill. Like she was hiding something.
Or maybe it was just his spidy-sense warning him that the spitball that just hit the back of his neck was coming. He looked behind him to see flash and his friends laughing so hard they almost fell out of their chairs.
"Weren't you listening to the principal?" Ned brought Peter back to the present with a reply.
"Uhhhh...." Peter glanced back at the girl.
Ned looked where he was looking and got the idea, "Ohhhh, I get it."
"Well?!" Peter looked back to Ned with an almost desperate look in his eyes. Almost.
"You can find out yourself, if you like her that much. It'll give you an excuse to talk to her. Not that she'll probably want to, since we aren't exactly popular," Ned went into detail, trying to keep Peter's attention on him instead of the girl.
"Ned!" Peter said, exasperated. "Seriously? Why can't you just tell me?"
"Because you can woo her on your own, Spider-man. You don't need my help."
"Keep it down, geez. And I'm not going to woo her, I just want to know her name!" Peter almost threw his hands up in the air, but stopped himself because he didn't want to get called on, or get in trouble with the teacher.
'Why is this girl getting to me, I've never been distracted by a girl before. Okay, that's a lie. There was Liz. But still, I need to just chill, I don't even know her.'
"No, find out yourself," Ned grinned.
"Why do you always do this to me?" Peter groaned.
"Mr. Parker? Is there something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?" The teacher suddenly said out of nowhere.
"N-no, sorry Ms. Prang," Peter stuttered as the whole class turned to look at him. He could hear Flash trying not to laugh in the back of the room.
"Well if not then I suggest you start paying attention," Ms. Prang looked sternly at him.
"Yes ma'am," Peter replied, giving up trying to pry the girl's name out of Ned, and started to take notes.
'I'll just have to find out my self,' Peter thought, drilling his brain for an idea that wouldn't make him look like a bigger fool than he already was.
'Why do I even want to know so badly anyway?' He asked himself that every five minutes until the bell rang and he packed up his books.
He stood up and started walking towards the new girl, determined to try and talk to her. As he got closer, one of Liz's old friends walked up to the girl and started talking to her, after a moment she stood up and went with her, heading out of the classroom.
Peter groaned internally.
"Pete!" Ned said loudly right next to him.
"Huh?!" Peter jumped. "What do you want?"
"Dude, you've been out of it all day, and it's only the end of first period, what is up with you?" Ned asked.
"N-nothing, I'm fine," Peter replied lightly, looking back to the door that the girls had gone out of.
"Yeah, uh-huh, sure. Get a move on, we have to get to chemistry," Ned lightly shoved Peter towards the door, MJ joining them after speaking to the teacher for a few minutes, as they reached it.
Peter was still spaced out a little bit, so MJ leaned over to Ned, "What's wrong with him?"
"I don't know, he just sorta' started acting weird when we started class," Ned replied, still half guiding Peter through the halls to their chemistry classroom.
None of them sat at the same table, so Ned went to his own, leaving Peter to wander over to his. MJ was at the desk in front of Ned, so she leaned back onto his and nodded toward Peter saying, "Are you sure you don't know what's wrong? Cuz he never acts like this."
"Positive."
Over where Peter had sat at his desk, he had always sat alone, but now as he set his backpack by his feet he realized there was another being next to him at his work table. As he pulled his note book up on his side of the table he turned his head to see who was sitting next to him. He had a double-take as he realized it was the new girl.
There were a few minutes before class started, so Peter quickly picked up the courage to start up a conversation.
"H-hi, I'm Peter," he stuck out his hand toward her. "Peter Parker."
Dang it! Why did she make him so nervous?!
She turned to him, surprised to find him sitting next to her and Peter realized that she had been reading a book and probably didn't notice that he had even sat down.
"Oh, uhh, Quinn. Quinn Carter," she replied, shaking his hand quickly and withdrawing it back to her lap where it had been before.
"So, you're new?" Peter asked, even though he knew the answer. He just wanted to break the ice with an easily answered question because he saw that Quinn looked uncomfortable.
"Yeah," she replied, avoiding eye contact with him, but relaxing her slightly tensed shoulders.
"Where are you from?" Peter asked gently, trying not to appear nosy.
She was about to answer, but at that moment the teacher walked in and she turned her attention toward him. Peter also directed his head toward the teacher, but sighed internally, because he was satisfied with getting her name.