The Stark Internship // Spider-Man [Book 1]

twelve {Peter's POV}

"Hey, it's Peter!" Abraham called as I jogged up to the decathlon team standing next to the yellow school bus. Everyone was already wearing their yellow jackets and they were ready to go. 

"Hey, guys," I greeted them. 

"Peter?" Liz asked, surprised, as she looked up. 

"Yeah, I was hoping maybe I could rejoin the team?" I said, more as a question than a statement. 

Flash stepped forward, pushing past Abraham and Cindy. "No, no way. You can't just quit on us, then stroll up and be welcomed back by everyone," he retorted as he stalked up to me. I automatically took a few steps back. 

"Hey, welcome back, Peter!" Mr Harrington called from behind me. He turned to Flash, saying, "Flash, you're back to first alternate."  

"What?" 

"He's taking your place," Abraham commented with a grin. Several teammates laughed as Flash shrugged off his jacket and furiously shoved it in my hands. 

"Can we go already? 'Cause I was hoping to get in some light protesting in front of one of the embassies before dinner," Michelle spoke up from the back. I spotted Arya, standing next to the brunette. She sent me a soft smile before averting her eyes to the ground. She had been awfully quiet since the incident with her mother a few days ago. 

"Okay, everybody on the bus," Harrington said, pointing his thumb at the bus behind him.

A few minutes into the trip, Liz whipped out her practice cards and started quizzing us. "Okay, let's move on to the next question," she said, flipping to the next card. Cindy, Abraham, Sally, Charles, and I had been answering Liz's questions, Michelle was in the seat behind me, reading a book, and Ned and Arya sat in the back, hunched over Ned's notes. Arya even smiled a few times at something Ned had said. 

I quickly shook off my thoughts and turned back around as I realised Liz had asked me a question. After answering it correctly, my phone started buzzing in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw that Happy was calling me. I got to my feet. "Can I take this? It'll be quick," I asked Liz. 

"Yeah, fine," she said before returning to her cards.

I pressed the green button on my screen and held my phone up to my ear. "Hello?" I said. 

"I got a blip on my screen here. You left New York?" Happy Hogan's voice sounded.  

I covered my phone with my hand and muttered under my breath, "Tracker." I uncovered the phone. "Yeah, no, it's just a school trip, it's nothing. Look, Happy, I gotta say, you tracking me without my permission is a complete violation of my privacy," I said as I sat down next to Arya and behind Ned. 

I saw that Ned had our tracker on his lap. I looked in confusion at Arya and she nodded. Ned poked my arm and pointed at something on the hologram. "That's different," I told him quietly. 

"What's different?" Happy asked suspiciously. 

"Eh, nothing. Look, it's just the academic decathlon. It's no big deal," I said quickly. 

"Hey, I'll decide if it's a big deal or not. Is Arya with you?" Happy asked. 

"Yeah, she's right here," I said. Arya raised her brows at me. 

"Give her your phone. I need to talk to her," Happy ordered. I let out a sigh before handing her my phone. 

"Happy?" Arya said. I heard Happy saying some things that I couldn't make out. "Yeah, he's fine. We're just going to the academic decathlon. Of course, I'll make sure he behaves. Yes, okay, bye Happy," She said before pressing the red button to end the call. She handed me my phone back.

"So you're helping us now?" I asked her, shoving my phone in my pocket. 

"No, I still think you guys are idiots for doing this. I'm just going on the Academic Decathlon because it'll look good on my school record," she said, crossing her arms as she slouched in her seat. "And I kind of want to know where those weapons that blew up Mr Delmar's shop came from." 

"Okay," I said slowly before getting back up and joining Liz's quizzing for the rest of the trip. 

We arrived at the hotel in Washington DC before dinner time and after Mr Harrington checked in at the front desk, he called us to him, holding up a set of keys. "I just got the keys to the rooms, but since Peter is back on the team, we have to form one group of three," he said. 

"Arya can join me and Betty if she wants," Liz spoke up. 

"Are you sure?" Arya asked. 

"Yeah, of course. It'll be fun," Liz said giddily and linked her arm through Arya's, dragging her over to her group of friends. 

I turned to Ned. "Hey, you brought your laptop, right?"

"Why?" Ned asked. I sent him a grin before taking one of the hotel room keys from Mr Harrington and leading the way to the fifth floor where Ned and I claimed the room furthest away from everyone else's.

Ned started up his laptop as I turned my backpack inside out of the bed. I took one of the cords I'd brought and plugged it into my suit before connecting it to Ned's laptop. Within seconds, the suit's coding appeared on the screen.

I clamped a small flashlight between my teeth as I used a tiny screwdriver and tweezers to find the tracker in my suit. "Peter, why are we removing the tracker from your suit?" Ned asked as I worked.

I took the flashlight out of my mouth. "Because I gotta follow these guys to their boss before they're moving again and I don't really want Mr Stark to know about it." I turned back to the suit.

"So you're lying to Iron Man now?" Ned asked. 

"No, not lying. He just doesn't really get what I can do yet." I shrugged.

A knock on the door made both of our heads shoot up. I quickly pulled a blanket over my suit and shoved the glowing rock back in my backpack. I jumped to my feet and straightened out my shirt. 

I walked over to the window and saw it was Arya. I let out a soft sigh before pulling open the door. I grabbed Arya's arm without greeting her and pulled her inside, shutting the door as soon as she stepped foot into the room.

"I'm going tonight, I know where they are and I know how I can find them. I just gotta remove the tracker from my suit," I rambled as I pulled my suit out again. 

"You've got a tracker?" Arya laughed. 

"Yeah, you don't?" I asked quizzically. 

"No, of course not. He got tired of me removing it every time he tried putting one in my suit," she answered as she plopped down on the bed. The springs creaked obnoxiously. "That's the tracker." She pointed out a round piece of wiring on the inside of my suit. 

I pried my tweezers under it and pulled it out, holding it up in the light of my flashlight. "All right, Happy. Enjoy tracking this lamp," I said, placing the tracker on the lampshade that was on Ned's bedside table. Arya just rolled her eyes at me.