venus ⋮ peter parker

4.

F o u r

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Calliope woke up the next morning, unsure if what she witnessed last night was some sort of bizarre dream. Then, she saw her shattered window, and Calliope had to come to realization that everything the previous night had happened. That Spider-Man had really crashed through her window, and she had a full conversation with him before he jumped out her window again.

Calliope was thankful that her parents had left early for work that morning, and she got a little more time to come up with an explanation about how her window had been broken. She wasn't sure how she was going to explain it all away, but she figured that would be a problem for future her.

The first thing Calliope noticed when she walked into Chemistry class that day was the brand new seating chart up on the projector. She scanned the list for her name and silently cheered when she saw herself assigned to a station in the second row with Peter Parker. While she would miss being partnered up with MJ, Calliope knew he was actually good at the subject and a reliable partner.

"Hey, Peter!" She greeted happily, not noticing the panic in Peter's eyes as she sat down at the lab station next to him. "Guess we're partners for the rest of the semester."

Peter was already an anxious mess when he stepped into Chemistry class that day, but the simple seating change was about to cause him to spiral and become a disaster. He wasn't just dealing with the events from the night before, but also Ned blurting out in the middle of gym class that he knew Spider-man. It didn't help that he normally would've been able to avoid Calliope at school, considering the two ran in different social circles, but he was now being thrust into a situation where he had to talk to her.

He knew he had to be extra careful about what he said around Calliope today. He didn't want to let anything slip and give some sort of hint that he was the one who had crashed her window last night, and she healed him.

Oh, yeah, and that Peter had a whole secret identity as a guy who dressed up in a spider suit and fought petty crimes around the city.

Their teacher gave a quick explanation about the day's experiment before setting her students loose. As Peter leaned over to grab a beaker of chemicals, the hem of his sweater lifted in the process, revaling a small patch of skin partially covered by a large bandage. Before Calliope could think about it too much, however, she quickly got distracted by the experiment.

The two set into a comfortable routine, with Calliope reading out the instructions and helping him when he needed a second set of hands, and Peter took care of doing most of the tasks. Calliope knew for a fact that Peter was one of the strongest students in the class when it came to Chemistry, and she was more than happy to let him take the reins.

As they sat there, waiting for the chemical solution to heat up, Calliope attempted to start a conversation and asked, "Are you going to Liz's party tonight?"

Peter nearly winced when he had a flashback to his terrible gym class only a few hours beforehand. "I think I am," He eventually said with a terrified look in his eyes

Calliope couldn't understand why he seemed to sound so pained when he told her that. "Think so? Do you have the Stark tonight? The party will probably go late, so you could easily stop by later on."

"No Stark internship tonight, actually. It's just..." Peter certainly couldn't admit the truth, so he settled for, "I haven't been to many parties in high school."

Well, Peter hadn't been to any parties in high school.  But, he would rather crash into Calliope's window a second time rather than admit that aloud to her.

"I wouldn't worry if I were you. Liz's parties are a good 'beginner' high school party, if that makes sense," Calliope reassured. "They're a lot more chill, and she's a really nice host. You'll have a good time, promise."

Before he could even stop the words from pouring out of his mouth, Peter found himself joking, "So no one climbing on a roof naked?"

For a moment, Peter wanted so badly to stop pouring the chemicals into the beaker and instead into his mouth. Why was that the first thing that popped into his mind? Who even jokes about stuff like that?

He was thankful that instead of the strange look that he would have likely gotten from most of the people he knew at the school, Calliope began to laugh. "Nothing like that, promise," She said, and Peter let out a breath of relief that he didn't even realize he was holding. "If you spot me, come up and say hi."

"You sure it's alright for me to come up and talk to you?"

"You're allowed to say hi to me. It's not forbidden." Calliope then suddenly remember all the rage her best friend currently held towards her lab partner and added, "Although, Penelope might beat me up if I'm nice to you. She's pretty pissed about you dropping Academic Decathalon right before Nationals. Just to keep you in the loop, she did ask me to pour hydrochloric acid down your back."

Peter's eyes went as wide as the watch glasses he was currently working on. "You're not actually going to do that, right?"

"Help me get good grades for these labs, and I definitely won't," She teased. "But if we get any bad grades...I'd probably keep all the acid locked away if I were you."

"I promise I won't get us a bad grade." Peter gave her a small two-finger salute and grinned, adding, "Scout's honor."

"I'm sure you will. You somehow manage to do that Stark internship but also have the best grades in the class. I wish I was that good at Chemistry."

"Well, I think you're really good at Chemistry," Peter said with a squeak, the sound making him internally cringe. "We're only one experiment in, and you're a lot better than some of my other lab partners in the past."

"That's because I'm following all of your instructions. Chemistry is definitely not my area of expertise."

"It's animation, right?"

Calliope blinked in surprise. "Yeah...how'd you know that?"

"Ned mentioned you were in a computer software class he took and was a whiz at it," He explained. "And I feel like you've mentioned it in passing before. I don't even know the first thing about animation. It's really cool what you're studying."

Calliope beamed and was just about to thank him when suddenly the test tube began bubbling and nearly spill over the sides. As Peter frantically moved the test tube away from the heat using the tongs, Calliope commented, "We should probably pay more attention to this so we don't cause a chemical spill."

"Yeah, yeah, that's a good idea."

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a/n:

hi guys !!

peter parker is an absolute Mess around calliope liu and it brings me so much joy to write about.

i'm doing a road trip with my friends tomorrow to a concert and i'm so stinkin' excited !! i'm not the biggest fan of the band (just haven't listened to much of their music), but they're all huge fans so i'm tagging along and am just ready to have a fun time HAHA !! my university classes also started up this week so it's been kind of crazy but i guess i'm pushing through.

i hope you all have a lovely day and that you enjoyed the chapter !! i'll see you at the next update !!

- g ♡