venus ⋮ peter parker

1.

O n e

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In the eyes of Calliope Liu, New York City in the morning was vastly underappreciated.

Many people had said before that the big city never slept at night, and that was true. If anything, New York City would become even more active once the sun went down. However, Calliope loved mornings in the famous city. She loved the bustle of people getting started with their days, and the people who were heading back to their homes after an eventful night out. She loved the way the sunrise would peak through the buildings, painting the skyline in ways that Calliope had spent years trying to replicate in her drawings. Calliope loved grabbing a coffee from the bodega next to her apartment and walking through the streets with her music playing through her earbuds to the subway, catching whatever glimpses she could of the fascinating people around her. She rarely ever saw the same person twice on these morning walks.

When the city wasn't being attacked by some variation of a murderous alien, New York City was truly glorious to Calliope.

Wednesday mornings, however, were Calliope's least favorite time to ride the subway.

Normally, she didn't mind the subway. Calliope liked the ease of being able to get around the city without a car, even if it took a little too long sometimes. However, every Wednesday afternoon, Calliope had to be cheering at some sort of Midtown Tech sports game, which meant that she had to be wearing her bright blue and yellow cheerleading with the tiny pleated skirt on the subway.

Since joining the year before as a freshman, Calliope had been trying to convince Coach Ainsley if there was any way they could extend the skirt length by at least an inch. If anything, she kept trying to push her coach to not make them wear the outfits to school. But each time she did, Coach would double down on it and Calliope would be left dealing with leering men on the subway and freezing legs in cold months.

Calliope was thankful when the train came to a screeching halt only a block away from Midtown Tech. Getting to her high school after that was a short walk, and soon enough, she found herself sitting at a small table outside the school's entrance, desperately trying to complete a final few homework problems. Calliope was so invested in her Physics homework that she didn't notice a blonde girl in an identical outfit approach her from behind and smack her on the shoulder. "Didn't text me back last night, you bitch."

Rolling her eyes at Penelope, Calliope rubbed her now aching shoulder and shot back, "Not everyone is a vampire like you. I actually need sleep to function on a daily basis."

"Foreign concept, don't understand it," Penelope said, brushing Calliope off with a wave of her hand before remembering, "Hey, I already told her, but can you make sure that Coach Ainsley knows that I have an emergency Academic Decathlon after school and will be at the game as soon as I can but might miss some of the warm-ups? She's forgetful, and I can't miss these practices ever since that little bitch Peter–"

"Don't call Peter Parker a 'little bitch'–"

"I can call him whatever the hell I want after he ditched Nationals for his stupid Stark internship! I heard him talking about it with Ned the other day in World History!" Penelope practically spat. "Nobody knows Physics like him! I certainly don't, and neither does stupid Flash, who's probably going to have to replace Peter because he's our only alternate! I swear, if I get a hold of him, he's going to end up at the bottom of a ditch–"

"While it's awful that Peter had to ditch you guys last minute for his internship, you can't threaten bodily harm. Not out loud, at least. Someone could totally overhear and report you, and I'll have to be used as a witness in a court case."