EYEWITNESS ↝ P. PARKER [1] [ON HOLD]

[2]

"It was an ATM robbery," Juliana was saying to Wren, Betty, and Liz as the four of them slid into their seats on the bleachers, next to where James sat with Flash, Jason Ionello, and Seymour O'Reilly. "Apparently, there must've been some explosive that went off and completely destroyed Delmar's across the street."

As the homecoming chat slowly began to fade into normalcy at Midtown Tech, the new subject anyone was able to talk about that day was an explosion that took place at a robbery foiled by Spider-Man the night before, resulting in a local sandwich shop burning to the ground. While miraculously, nobody had been hurt in the explosion, it'd be a while before Delmar's was up and running again, a local delicacy for the residents of Queens. 

"It's a shame," James chimed in. "I've been there a couple times with Peter, the owner's a nice guy. It's a good thing Spider-Man was able to save him and nobody was hurt, though."

Wren nodded as their gym teacher, Coach Wilson, turned on an old TV in front of the bleachers, causing all conversation to come to a halt as their class started for the day. The students all watched as an image showed up on the television screen, and James immediately stiffened next to Wren as a familiar red, white, and blue suit appeared.

"Oh no," James muttered, his face instantly beginning to turn red and Wren quickly reached up to cover her mouth with her hand to stifle her giggle.

"I'm Captain America," Steve Rogers spoke on screen, a background of a high school locker room behind him, and instantly a number of eyes trained on where James was seated, face buried in his hands. "Whether you're in the classroom or on the battlefield, physical fitness can be the difference between success or failure. Today, my good friend, your gym teacher," James's father spoke, pointing off screen to the opposite side of which Coach Wilson was standing, "will be conducting the Captain America Fitness Challenge."

"Thank you, Captain," Coach Wilson said as Steve raised his hand in a salute. "I'm pretty sure this guy's a war criminal now, but whatever, I have to show these videos, it's required by the state. Let's do it." he said, blowing his whistle to begin the class.

Wren's eyebrows furrowed together at his words as she looked back over at James, whose expression had instantly morphed from mortified to stony, fists clenching at his sides. "Just let it go." she whispered to him encouragingly, "It's not worth it. You know the truth, and someday they all will too." 

James nodded, taking a deep breath as the students rose from the bleachers, breaking up into smaller groups to go through each of their stations. Flash instantly jumped from the bleachers and ran for the climbing rope, while James looked back at Wren and Juliana, jerking his head towards the wall, where a makeshift track was set up around the gymnasium's perimeter.

"Starting with a run okay?" he asked them, and the girls exchanged a quick glance before nodding.

"Don't go easy on us, Rogers." Wren said as they jumped down onto the floor, walking towards the track.

"No, you can absolutely go easy on us, it's okay." Juliana corrected Wren, causing James to chuckle as the three of them broke into a jog, the supersoldier's larger strides and higher speed capabilities already leaving the girls to run faster in an attempt to keep up with him.

Wren's eyes narrowed on James jogging in front of them, and she tried her best to keep up with his leisurely pace, though a gap started to form between the girls and James, which grew gradually bigger the longer they ran.

"Sure you don't want me to go easy on you?" James called back, the gap between them already having widened to half of the room.

"Nope," Wren called back stubbornly, though despite her best efforts, it seemed to be to no avail as eventually James lapped them, first once, then twice.

Wren finally came to a stop in front of the bleachers, hands resting on her knees as she tried to get her breathing under control. Juliana stopped next to her, also trying to catch her breath, and James chuckled, coming to a stop, barely having broken a sweat and breathing completely under control. Betty, Liz, Jason, and Seymour all sat on the bleachers, and Wren nearly collapsed onto the seat in front of Liz, Juliana and James sitting to her right.

"Now, see, for me," Betty was saying as the three newcomers arrived. "It would be F Thor, marry Iron Man, and kill Hulk."

"I'm sorry, what are we talking about?" James asked, eyebrows furrowing together in confusion.

"It's a game," Juliana murmured to him, and he nodded hesitantly, still watching the others to see what would be revealed next.

"Well, what about the Spider-Man?" Seymour asked.

"It's just Spider-Man," Liz corrected him. "Did you guys see the bank security cam on YouTube? He fought off four guys!"

"Oh my gosh, she's crushing on Spider-Man," Betty teased.

"No way," Seymour said.

"Kind of," Liz admitted, and Betty sighed.

"Ugh, gross," she said. "He's probably like thirty."

"If it makes a difference, I'm seventy." James spoke up with a smirk.

"That's besides the point, you're technically still sixteen." Wren pointed out.

"You don't even know what Spider-Man looks like." Seymour circled back, looking over at Liz. "What if he's, like, seriously burned?" Seymour looked down at James. "Is he?" he asked, but James simply shook his head no in response.

"I wouldn't care." Liz said. "I would still love him for the person he is on the inside."

"Peter knows Spider-Man!" a voice exclaimed, and all noise in the gymnasium ceased as Wren looked over to see Ned Leeds on a mat, spotting Peter Parker doing sit-ups as they listened in on their conversation, the former having been the one to shout.

"Uh, no I don't!" Peter said quickly, shooting up onto his feet. "No, I- I mean..." he trailed off, clearly at a loss for words.

"They're friends," Ned spoke up again.

"Yeah, like Coach Wilson and Captain America are friends." Flash spoke up with a chuckle from the other side of the room, where he had abandoned the rope, causing a few of the other students to begin laughing along with him.

"I've met him, yeah, a couple times." Peter explained. "But it's, uhm, through the Stark Internship. Mhm. Like how I first met James." he said, gesturing to where the Rogers boy sat with the rest of them, and James nodded in response. "Yeah, well I'm not really supposed to talk about it." he hissed then, shooting daggers back in Ned's direction.

"Well, that's awesome," Flash said, stepping closer to where Peter stood. "Hey, you know what? Maybe you should invite him to Liz's party, right?"

"Yeah," Liz nodded. "I'm having people over tonight. You're more than welcome to come."

"You're having a party?" Peter asked, and she nodded again.

"Yeah, it's gonna be dope." Flash said. "You should totally invite your personal friend, Spider-Man."

"Uhm-" Peter started nervously, but Liz quickly cut him off.

"It's okay," Liz said. "I know Peter's way too busy for parties anyways."

"Oh come on, he'll be there." Flash insisted, "Right, Parker?"

The bell rang, echoing through the gymnasium and saving Peter from any more of the conversation he clearly hadn't wanted to have, and people began to clear out to head back to the locker rooms to get changed out of their gym clothes and get to their next class which, for Wren and her friends, had been lunch.

"Don't wait for me," James said to Wren and Juliana as they rose to their feet. "I need to talk to Peter about something, I'll probably be a little late, so I'll just see you guys in the cafeteria, okay?"

"Okay," the girls echoed, bidding him goodbye and heading towards the locker room.

"What do you think that was about?" Juliana asked Wren as soon as James was out of earshot. "Think Parker will actually bring Spider-Man to the party tonight?"

"Who knows?" Wren shrugged. "Either way, I'm sure it will be a night to remember."