Adventures in Babysitting ↠ Peter Parker [1] ✓

14 | Smiley Riley

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ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING
xiv. SMILEY RILEY

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  RILEY O'DAIR WAS A failure.

   That was the only word that could truly express who she was: failure. She was a failure. She didn't feel like one; she was one. How could she be given such an easy, simple mission, only to screw up in two months? Tony and Natasha would be so disappointed in her. 

   She couldn't stop beating herself up. She only ever wanted to help people. That was all she desired most out of life. She could save the world from alien invasions and rescue kittens out of trees all day long for years and years, but simply one screw-up made her feel horrible.

  "I thought you actually wanted to be friends with just some loser like me, you know. Like, you wanted to be friends with me because you actually liked me..."

   Peter Parker's words hadn't slipped out of Riley's mind since she heard them. She had betrayed him. She betrayed a friend. Was that why Riley was taking it so hard? Was it because for a split second there, Riley truly, whole-heartedly viewed Peter Parker as a friend? Was that why betraying him hurt her so much? That had to have been it.

   The worst part about it was that Peter didn't even believe that they were friends. He thought their entire friendship was a lie.

   She still hadn't told Tony, yet. How could she? What was she supposed to say? "Hey, pal, I kinda screwed up back there when you were depending on me. My bad!"

   Things had been rather tense between Peter and Riley at school. More than half of their classes were together, so avoiding each other wasn't exactly something they could do. Plus, they had mutual friends and people knew them as Riley and Peter, not Valor and Spider-Man. If they were to explain to everyone why they weren't on good terms, then that would mean revealing their secret identities. Honestly, as far as anyone was concerned: Riley and Peter were still friends.

   That just made everything a lot harder. Peter was used to lying to Aunt May and everyone else about his secret, but then again, no one had done to him what Riley did. It only made seeing her every day a bit harder than necessary.

   Riley stood before her locker, grabbing and trading out various items. The school announcements starring Jason and Betty were buzzing beneath the everyday commotion of the students of Midtown School of Science and Technology. A frown hadn't left her face in days. All Riley wanted to do was talk to Peter, but it seemed that they could never get a second alone. Perhaps her attempts were useless, for even Peter refused to speak to her.

   Her ears perked up when she heard Ned's voice from a few lockers down. "Join me, and together... we'll build my new LEGO Death Star."

   She glanced over to see Ned and Peter talking by the latter's locker. "What!?" Peter exclaimed in question, spinning around to see Ned, who had been holding a small LEGO figurine. "That's awesome. How many pieces?"

   Riley smiled at their dorky manners while Ned informatively said, "3,803."

   Her smile faded once again upon hearing the cheerleading team captain to the right of her say, "So lame."

   She snapped her head in her direction. Riley had never liked those girls. "I'm sorry, when?" she snapped.

  She shot Riley a look. "Um, when what?"

  "When did anyone ask what you thought?" 

   The cheerleader just scowled and turned away to talk to her friends once more, causing Riley to roll her eyes.

   "Ouch, what's with the 'tude, Smiley Riley?" a new voice asked.

   Shutting her locker, Riley looked up to see Warren staring down at her with a usual smug grin on his face. "Can I help you with something?"

   Warren placed a hand over his heart. "You know, if you keep that up, I might start crying," teasingly replied Warren. When she didn't reply, keeping an aggravated look on her face, he continued, "Look, I just want to know what's up."

   "Hm, I don't know, let's see," began Riley. "The sky, the sun, your ego..."

   "Very funny," said Warren. "I meant with you and Parker. C'mon, I know you're not that stupid. Are you two not friends anymore?" He mockingly pouted at her. "Did someone want to play Pokemon with someone else?"

   "I'm going to first period," she stated, ignoring his questions.

   "Hey, I just wanted to know!" exclaimed Warren, causing Riley to stop herself from walking away. "You know, I'm glad you got yourself out of that friendship. I was actually wondering if you two were even really friends in the first place. Was he a charity case?"

   He laughed loudly as she continued to blankly stare at him. The more he spoke poorly about Peter, the more irritated she became. Why did everyone just assume Peter was some lowlife nerd who didn't have any feelings? That had to have been one of Riley's greatest pet peeves by now.

   Warren continued to babble, despite the fact that she really didn't want to listen. "No way, are you gonna put that on your college applications? That's genius! He's always been such a loser. Why else do you think we call him Penis Parker? Frankly, I—"

  Pop!

  Smack!

   The hallway had grown silent once Riley brought her fist back to her side. It was still clenched from punching Warren square in the jaw. She watched with wide eyes upon realizing that she had punched him so hard that he had fallen onto the dirty hallway floor, nearly knocking him unconscious by the looks of it.

   She looked around at her peers who had been watching intently at the scene that had just unfolded before their very eyes. She spun around, seeing how Ned and Peter had been watching from down the hall.

   "Miss O'Dair," Principal Morita's voice came from behind her, "my office, now."