Benefits ━━ PETER PARKER

21. PLAN

BENEFITS — CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE!

THE MIDTOWN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Scholastic Decathlon team was gathered around the yellow school bus, waiting to get on. They all had their yellow blazers on and were chattering amongst themselves. "Hey, it's Peter." Abraham called, pointing to the brunette boy who was jogging over.

[Y/N], who had been talking to Harry, snapped her head up to look. "Guys..." Peter said nervously, tugging on the straps of his backpack.

"Peter?" Liz asked questioningly, turning to face him.

"Yeah..." Peter scratched his neck awkwardly, "I was hoping maybe I could rejoin the team..."

Flash, who standing at the back, pushes through the group angrily. "No," he announces. "No way. You can't just quit on us, stroll up and expect to be welcomed back by everyone."

Just as Flash said that, Mr. Harrington stepped out of the bus. May had called him on Peter's behalf and gotten his permission to allow Peter back on the team. The bearded man smiled at Peter, "hey welcome back, Peter." He said, before turning to Flash. "Flash, you're back to first alternate."

Flash's jaw drops. "What?"

"He's taking you're place." Abraham says, a big grin on his face.

Stepping forward without her uniform on, Michelle let's out a fake cough. "Excuse me, can we go already?" She says, closing her book. "'Cause I was hoping to get in some light protesting in front of one of the embassies before dinner, so..."

Mr. Harrington shook his head, "protesting is patriotic... Let's get on the bus."

Flash sullenly shrugs of his jacket and thrusts it into Peter's arms before climbing onto the bus. "Hey," [Y/N] calls out to Peter as he lines up to get on. "What made you change your mind?"

Peter shrugged, "I decided that Mr. Stark could manage a couple of days without me."

—•—

[Y/N] leant into Harry's shoulder as Liz read off practise questions. "Focus up, everyone." She calls out, eyeing [Y/N] and Harry. "Our next topic is the moons of saturn."

"Hope you studied hard," Harry joked as Liz asked a question.

[Y/N] rolled her eyes, "of course I did, who do you take me for?" She said as Cindy Moon frantically called out the answer, "The second law of thermodynamics!"

Harry laughed. "Fort Summer." Flash called out at the same time, answering another question.

Abraham chimed his bell, "Flash is wrong!"

[Y/N] couldn't help but chuckle at Abraham's constant targeting of Flash. To her, it felt like he was getting revenge for Peter. Speaking of which...

"Uh, strontium, barium, vibranium." Peter says, chiming his bell.

[Y/N] can't help but notice the way Liz smiles at Peter. "Very good, Peter." Liz praises, "Glad to have you back."

"Glad to be back." Peter mumbled, making direct eye contact with Liz. [Y/N] looked away.

Just as Liz begins reading the next question, Peter feels his phone vibrate. He quickly pulls it out and sees Happy calling. "What is the current standard unit of radioactive—"

Interrupting Liz, Peter holds his phone up. "Uh, can I take this?" He asks her apologetically. Liz lets out an annoyed huff before agreeing.

Peter shuffles towards the back of the bus, passing [Y/N] and Harry. He nods at them before answering his phone. "Hello?" Peter says into the phone.

[Y/N]'s gaze flicks over to Harry but he was paying attention to the practise. Straightening up in her seat, [Y/N] attempts to listen into Peters conversation. "Tracker." Peter groans, looking at Ned, [Y/N] couldn't see him because he was turned around but he looked like he was fiddling with something.

"Uh, yeah. No, it's just a school trip." Peter says, "It's uh, nothing."

[Y/N] frowns confusedly as Peter sits down, "Look, Happy." Who's Happy? [Y/N] thought to herself. "I gotta say, you tracking me without my permission is a complete violation of my privacy." Now [Y/N] was concerned as well as confused. Why was this Happy person tracking Peter? "That's different." Peter mumbled to Ned, who was pointing at something in front of him.

"Nothing." Peter says quickly into the phone. "Look, it's just the Academic Decathlon. It's not big deal."

Peter looks annoyed and mouths "what" as he listens to the response on the other end. "Got it, sir." Peter replies, hanging up the phone.

"What did he want?" Ned asks him curiously.

"He was just asking why I left the state, god I hate the stupid tracker." Peter grumbles, "don't worry, I told him it was just a school trip. He doesn't suspect anything."

"Thank God." Ned huffed, messing with whatever he was holding, [Y/N] couldn't see. "He would put an end to our plan."

"That's what I'm worried about," Peter sighed, slumping into his seat. He looked around suspiciously. "Let's not talk about this here, someone might overhear."

Ned nodded, slipping a small device into his bag. "That would be bad."

[Y/N]'s head spun as she recounted the whole conversation over again in her head. What the hell were they up to? Everything about those two conversations sounded highly illegal. She attempted to push all her theories, some of them quite crazy and other made Peter sound like a super villain, to the back of her head.

Peter would never do anything evil, right? He was just her dorky friend.

No matter how many times she repeated this to herself, she couldn't help but feel like she didn't even know him anymore. Every time she tried not to think about her theories, they just pushed their way back to the front of her brain — 100 times worse.

One thing was for sure, something was up with Peter and Ned. She was determined to find out what.

—•—

WRITTEN: 28/07/19
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WORD COUNT: 961

[y/n] don't jump to conclusions! you need to know the full story!!!!

lol bye
hope you enjoyed the double update x
they are rare.