[2020 Watty Award Winner!]
[BOOK 1 OF THE HAVOC SERIES]
❝you may be the best web-slinger
around, but you're terrible
at keeping secrets.❞
in which even though peter has a new,
high-tech suit, it doesn't stop a girl with
common sense from discove...
┌────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────┐ chapter four AN UNEXPECTED SWIM └────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────┘
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───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
THE TEENAGERS JUST KEEP on arriving. Every time Lena thinks there can't possibly be more people, another car pulls up and six kids pile out of it. It's a good thing Liz's house is the biggest she's ever seen. If it was any smaller, it would burst at the seams.
Lena is perched on top of Liz's neighbor's house from across the street. She hasn't been to the suburbs since her childhood. Graham had nearly gotten them hopelessly lost on the way here, even with the help of the Maps app on his phone, and they're lucky they even made it at all. Out of the two of them, only he knows how to drive. They're just grateful that his parents had allowed him to take their car to the party.
Half-hidden behind the chimney and shrouded in darkness, Lena allows herself to marvel at the sheer size and architectural design of Liz's house. It's a very modern, two-story abode with the front nearly covered in floor-to-ceiling windows on each floor. People are gathered outside on the immaculate front lawn as well as swarming within the house. Even from where she is, she can see several grand chandeliers hanging from the ceilings as well as multicolored lights changing with the beat of the music she can hear pulsing from within.
Lena's phone chimes with a message. She digs it out of her bra to see a text from Graham.
GRAHAM CRACKER: spider-man better get here soon. flash decided to play DJ and i think i'm gonna faint from these lights. they're overkill
Just then, Lena hears a deep, electronic voice bellowing, "D-D-D-DJ FLASH." She rolls her eyes and types a reply, grateful that her gloves are fingerless.
LENA BENA: hang in there, bud
She looks up to see a small car pulling up to the house. Ned Leeds climbs out of the backseat (is he wearing a fedora?) followed loosely by Peter, who is busy talking to whoever had driven them there. Confused, Lena tilts her head to the side. Peter. Not Spider-Man.
Graham has texted her twice more within the time she's spent observing.
GRAHAM CRACKER: graham? graham? oh my fuckin' god he fuckin' dead
GRAHAM CRACKER: that's what you'll be saying when you find me on the floor of liz's kitchen even when i WARNED you
Like a good friend, Lena ignores him. Instead, her eyes follow Peter and Ned as they walk up the long sidewalk leading to Liz's front door. She can't figure out why Ned decided to wear that atrocious hat or where the hell Peter's costume is.
