Infelicity [P. Parker x Reader]

n i n e t e e n

I met up with Peter and Ned in the hallway after sixth period the next day. Even though things were awkward between me and Peter, I'm pretty sure he hadn't said anything to Ned. The halls, unlike normal, were empty in this section of the school and I think most were at a pep rally for the upcoming football game. Huge school rivalries and all that jazz.

"First, we put the glowy thingy in the mass spectrometer-" Ned started.

"We gotta come up with a better name than 'glowy thingy,'" Peter cut in.

"How about space rock?" I asked, trying to keep up with their faster walking pace.

"We- CRAP," Peter whisper-shouted and then jumped comically, might I add, to hide behind the closest wall. Ned and I stood there confused before I looked back down the hall and saw those dudes from last night in the school.

What the hell are they doing here?

I dragged Ned over to the wall and waited patiently whilst Peter tried to act stealthy and cool. It isn't working though. The dudes turn, heading for the basement, and Peter starts following them like a complete idiot. I start to follow, but Ned asks me why I'm doing that.

"Peter's an idiot and somebody needs to knock some common sense into him. That's why I'm going," I said, continuing after Peter.

We snuck down the stairs to see the two sketchy dudes talking about what would happen if their boss found them at a high school.

Peter finally noticed me and his eyes widened. Shaking his head, he tried to persuade me to head back up, but I firmly stood my ground. The other dudes, however, have decided they can't find what they're looking for and Peter has disappeared from sight. Time to sneak back upstairs and play dumb student.

Purposely bumping into one of the men at the top of the stairwell, I stumbled back, voicing multiple apologies before asking, "What were you two doing down in the woodwork shop basement?"

"Nothing much. Just looking for something he left after a presentation relating to. . . woodworking, yeah," the dude I bumped into fumbled out. Not bad.

"Oh, okay!" I faked a cheery tone, a bright smile plastered on my face, "Do you know your way out? The school's pretty big. . ."

"We're good. You should be getting back to class though, aren't you late?"

"Oh my gosh! Would you look at that! I am late to my next class. Well, I hope you guys find your way out okay," I finished, turning around and headed towards my next class. Hopefully Peter wasn't spotted.

Once I was a good distance away, my phone buzzed and I saw I got a text from Peter saying to meet afterschool at his place. He must have found some new evidence.

We were all gathered in Pete's bedroom that afternoon sitting around a hologram of some tracker bug that Peter had put on the guy's shoe.

"This is so cool," Ned said breathily.

"I know, right?" Peter asked, agreeing.

"Now it just needs to work for us to get whatever we need to complete," I add in.

The afternoon rolls by as we sit there watching to see where the tracker moves. Snacks were left everywhere and we all moved onto our own things to pass the time. The only words spoken to one another was when Ned would announce a new location.

Homework done and a book already read, I moved to fidgeting with a couple rocks I found around Peter's room. Holding them in my palm, I watched as they slowly began to move around each other, levitating slightly. Ned was too busy rebuilding the Lego Death Star to notice anyway.

"Leaving Jersey," Ned called out, breaking my focus from the rocks.

Peter, on the other hand, was more focused on fixing his spidey-symbol. It brightly lit up the door to his room, before disappearing again, and he got straight back to work on the small gadget.

A couple hours later, I'm jerked from light sleep by a beeping noise.

"They stopped."

Peter flipped down from the ceiling, where he was hanging, and said, "Maryland, huh."

"What's there?" I asked, drowsily.

"I don't know. Evil lair?"

"They have a lair?" Ned asked, muffled by the mask of the Spider-man suit.

"Dude, a gang with alien guns run by a guy with wings? Yeah they have a lair," Peter scoffed slightly, still hanging upside down.

"Badass," Ned nodded his head in approval.

Not something you should be approving, but whatever.

"But how are you going to get there if it's like 300 miles away?"

"And Stark is tracking your constant movements from your suit," I added in, being as unhelpful as ever.

We all looked at the poster above Peter's desk. There layed a poster for the Academic Decathlon we've been practicing all year for. Well, more like a few weeks for me.

"That's not too far from D.C."

We're all waiting outside the bus to load up and head out when Peter jogged up to the group. There were many mixed emotions towards his return, and most are of confusion. Flash, however, was not too happy about this.

"He can't just walk up and be welcomed back!" Flash shouted out.

"Hey! Welcome back, Peter!" Mr. Harrington clapped a hand on his back, smiling. "You're back to second alternate, Flash. (Y/N), you're first, but keep the jacket. You paid for the extra one."

"What?"

"He's taking your place," Abraham laughed. I laughed right along with him.

"Um, can we go already? I was hoping to get in some light protesting at the embassy before dinner, so," MJ butted in.

"Protesting is patriotic. Let's get on the bus!"

Everyone headed for the bus, and Flash angrily pushed the oversized yellow jacket into Peter's chest.

I have a very bad feeling about this trip, but I'm not really sure why. Eh, it'll be fine. What could go wrong on a trip to answer a bunch of educational questions?