Extraordinaries • {Peter Parker}

Chapter 17

"Be safe at school, honey," my mom called from her car. I stopped in my tracks to turn to her.

"I will, Mom," I replied, slightly rolling my eyes.

My parents let me take the rest of the week off to recover from my "traumatic experience" and my mother had fawned over me the whole time. It was strange. A year or two ago, I would have loved to have this kind of attention from my mother, and when her and my dad started having problems I almost prayed for her to pay attention to me, but it was suffocating now.

I had become independent and my mom's incessant pesters were driving me crazy. I was definitely ready to get a break and go to school.

"Call me if you need me," she said, giving me a small smile. I forced a smile and answered with a nod.

Although a week ago I would never have thought this, I ready to walk into the welcoming halls of Midtown Prep. Currently, Midtown was an escape where I could just focus on school and forget about everything.
Forget about the attackers. Forget that I talked to Spider-Man. Forget about the explosion. Forget that Spider-Man figured out I had powers.

That one had specifically bothered me over the weekend. I was hoping that since he also had superpowers that he wouldn't tell anyone about mine. Maybe there was a super-person code or pact that I didn't know about.

I was not looking forward to telling Jess and Megan either. Our powers had only stayed between us for so long, so I was afraid they'd be mad if they found out that Spider-Man also knew about them.

I figured that I would just keep that part secret until I could convince Spider-Man to keep quiet. I just had to get a hold of him.

Walking into the school, I felt everyone's eyes on me. I wondered if knowledge of my attack had spread around the school, and knowing Jess's mouth, it probably had.

Although I had no reason to be, I suddenly felt self-conscious. Felt like it was my fault that I was held at knife-point and almost turned into street-meat.

Over the weekend, I wondered what would have happened if Spider-Man hadn't shown up like he did, I also wondered how he knew where I was. I wasn't in a typical part of Queens, if anything, it was off the beaten path.

To me, the whole situation surrounding Spider-Man smelled a little fishy. And I had nno idea why, but I swear I knew him from somewhere. His voice seemed so familiar.

Shaking my head, I cleared Spider-Man, my mother, and my powers out of my mind. All I wanted to focus on was the boring day-to-day routine of school.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I reached my locker. I could put all the stares behind me and just think about my first class.

Honestly, I was surprised that Megan and Jess hadn't cornered me yet.  I half expected them to be waiting at my locker for me when I got to school, but there were no were in sight. And though I hated to admit it, I was glad that they weren't there. I just needed some time to myself. Just to think.

"Hey Kara," a voice said as I slammed my locker shut. Grabbing my heart in shock, I looked at who was leaning against the locker next to mine.

Peter's hands were hidden inside his sweatshirt pocket with his white headphones slung around his neck. He was the perfect image of ease and non-chalantness as he leaned against the lockers.

"Peter, you scared me," I replied, half chuckling.

Peter smiled sheepishly, brown eyes glinting, "Sorry, didn't mean to."

I waved him off as I slid my backpack onto my right shoulder, "Not a problem, don't worry about it. What's up?"

Peter cleared his throat then stood up, not meeting my eyes. "I just wanted to make sure that you are okay. You know after what happened."

I sighed, it was bound to come out eventually, and there was no point in fighting it.

"I'm okay," I replied, nervously placing a strand of hair behind my ear. "Luckily, Spider-Man was there to help me out." I whispered the last part to myself, not wanting Peter to hear it.

"Spider-Man was there?" Peter asked. I didn't answer before he spoke again. "You must be pretty lucky then."

"I hardly call being held at knife-point lucky," I snapped. Noticing my harsh response, Peter's eyes widened in realization.

"Oh Kara, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that—"

Feeling my bad for my curt response, I tried amend it quickly, "No, no. My bad, I'm sorry. I was actually very lucky that Spider-Man happened to be there. How'd you find out, anyways?"

"I uh," he stammered, scratching his head. He did that quite often, especially while coming up with something to say. "Jess told me."

I nodded my head, I guess it made sense. She'd probably told everyone by now.
"Makes sense," I chuckled to myself more than Peter.

He gave me a slight smile before clearing his throat again. "There was something I needed to talk to you about."

"Oh?"

"Maybe we could go some—"

I didn't hear the rest of Peter's sentence, mainly because Cole was walking up to me. Without even looking at Peter, he walked right next to me and stop halfway between Peter and I.

"Hey Kara, I heard what happened, are you okay?"

For a moment, I couldn't answer because Cole's bright blue eyes pierced into my own.
Catching myself, I straightened up and slightly shook my head. "Yeah, uh, I'm fine. Not a scratch."

"Well I'm glad to hear that, Jess told me and I had to make sure that you were all right," he smiled at me and I felt my insides melt.

And for a second it was just Cole and I. It took all my willpower to not grab his perfect face and plant one on him.

Then, the first bell rang, ruining our moment.

"Hey Kara, we better go. So we're not late for Bio," Peter said, peeking his head around Cole.

Seeing them next to each other was odd. It made. me realize how much Peter had grown within the last year. He wasn't as tall as Cole, but he didn't look short next to him either.

Realizing Peter was behind him, Cole turned to Peter, "Oh Parker, I didn't see you there."

"Hey Cole," Peter replied, taking his hand out of his pocket to give Cole a slight wave.

Cole nodded to Peter before turning back to me. "I should probably go to class."

"Okay," I responded, sounding a bit mousy.

"I'll see you later, okay?" He said, reaching up to give my shoulder a squeeze causing my breath to catch.

I gave one last mousy "okay" before he continued walking down the hall. Once he was gone, I looked at Peter, who was looking at me with eyebrows drawn.

"What?" I asked, my voice raising in pitch at the end.

Peter opened his mouth to reply, but was caught off by the tardy bell.

"We should go," I️ said, pointing in the direction of our class.

Peter nodded and we both headed in the direction of Advanced Biology.

A/N: Okay, sorry for taking an eternity to update. I guess it's a lot harder to keep up with college and update regularly. I'm gonna try and update soon, like within the next week or two! So stay posted!

Katharine