You've got the wrong number

13 - Nintendo Birthdays

PETER'S POV:

"So Natasha put it together." Kate says, sliding into the seat across from me. "Apparently your voice gave it away."

"Oh." I whisper. "So we're not the only ones who know now. Okay."

"I'm sorry, did you not want her to know? I could have denied it. Damn it."

"No it's fine. I just wasn't expecting it to happen this quickly. I knew she was good at that, but not that good."

"I think Clint might put it together when you come over later." She pauses. "You're still coming early, right?"

"Yeah!" I say. "It'll be really fun."

"You like pancakes and waffles right? Bucky and Pepper wanted me to ask all of you guys. I asked MJ in A2PCH and Ned in US History."

"Of course. I love food."

—

"Peter!" Someone says behind me. "Petey!"

"Never call me that again." I say. "I'm not five Katie."

"Oh, how the turns have tabled." She gasps. "I'll get revenge on you later anyway. I'm gonna beat your ass at Mario Kart later."

"Don't count your chickens before they hatch." I jokingly snap.

"That is such an old saying!" She laughs. "Sounds like something Steve or Bucky would say." She laughs and looks up. "71st floor FRIDAY. Anyways, as I was saying, I'm going to beat all of you later in our epic Mario Kart tournament. You don't even have a chance."

"You are literally proving my point." I sigh.

"What point?" She asks sarcastically and smirks. "I'll go set up Mario Kart and find everyone. Do you wanna come?"

"No!" Someone behind me yells. "We need Peter's help for a top secret prank!" He says and I turn around to find Clint and Sam smiling.

"Suit yourself!" She yells and runs up the stairs.

"Who are we pranking?" I ask and Sam chuckles.

"That's a good question." Sam says. "I was thinking about my boyfriend since he takes jokes well and he'll be jet lagged so he won't see it coming."

"Your boyfriend?" I ask.

"T'Challa. He and his sister will be here about an hour."

"Oh!" I exclaim. "Shuri's brother." I say and they both start laughing their heads off.

"That is the best description of T'Challa I've ever heard." Clint laughs. "Even better than birdbrain's boyfriend." The

"Oh he would hate that." Sam giggles. "I'm going to call him that when he gets here."

"Maybe that's what we could do." Clint perks up. "You call him that instead of your boyfriend or whatever stupid pet names you guys have for each other, and we smash a whipped cream pie in his face."

"Isn't it supposed to be shaving cream?" I ask.

"It's supposed to, but we used all the shaving cream in the tower a couple days ago from another prank."

"What'd you do?" I ask.

"We filled up balloons with the shaving cream and popped it over people's heads." Sam explains. "I also did it to Clint and he did it to me so it didn't look like we were the pranksters."

"That's smart!" I marvel. "Did they find out?"

"Well Nattie found out first, but then she decided to help out and drop more balloons."

"It seems like you guys do a lot of pranks involving balloons."

"I've noticed that too." Sam says. "But I feel like we're overlooking the fact that Clint just called Natasha 'Nattie'."

"It's just a nickname." Clint defends.

"I understand you calling her Nat, because it's not inherently feminine, but I feel like she would murder you if you called her Nattie."

"Oh she's threatened me multiple times." Clint laughs.

"Okay!" Kate says, pulling me away. "MJ and Ned are here, so now we can have our Nintendo championship." She says. "And I finally rounded up everyone."

"Who's playing who first?" MJ asks.

"I wanna play Ned or MJ." Tommy says. "I've never played them before."

"Okay." Kate says. "Ned and Tommy can play each other on one, and I'll play Pietro on the other. Once we're done with our games, Peter and Wanda can play, and Billy and MJ." Kate explains. "I even got-" She pauses, walking over to a giant handing sheet. "A bracket, so we can track who wins."

"Wow, that's a lot of preparation." Wanda laughs. "How long did that take you to make?"

"I'm afraid that information is classified." She smiles and we all laugh.

I make it two rounds in before I barely lose to Tommy after winning against Wanda and MJ. I was about to play a side game against Billy while Wanda and MJ chatted, but Clint poked his head into the room, causing us to all slow to a stop.

"Hey Peter, do you think you could help me with something?" Clint says and I follow him to another room.

"What's up?" I ask.

"Can I have your aunt's phone number? Just in case I need to call her or something."

"Sure," I say, plugging the number into his phone. "She barely picks up for me, I highly doubt she'll answer if you call."

"What if there's an emergency?" He asks. "Like you get hurt or sick?"

"She says that I'm 'heading off to college soon'." I quote. "And 'need to know how to deal with emergencies like that'."

"And there's no one else that you can call during those times?" He asks. "Like another family member or someone?"

"It wasn't like this before my uncle died. She didn't need to work as much since there used to be two adults incomes."

"Kate told me that you usually don't have a lunch. Is that true?" He questioned and I nodded. "Okay, from now on, when you walk by the tower on your way to school, you go to the front desk and tell them that they have a package for you. They'll hand you a paper bag with a lunch and a snack."

"No, no, no," I say. "My aunt is responsible. She packs me lunch money."

"Still buy your sandwich from Delmar's. Have that for dinner." He pauses. "Peter, you're still growing, you need to be eating every meal."

"You're not my parent!" I protest. "Or my guardian! There's no need for you to do all of this! I've got it all handled myself."

"But who is your guardian?" He questions. "We both know that your aunt isn't doing much parenting or guardian-ing." He pauses. "I want you to know something Peter." Clint says. "If anything ever happens and you call your aunt and she doesn't pick up, you call me. It doesn't matter if yoou think it's not necessary, you call me. Do you understand?"

"But what if-"

"You call me Peter."

————

I know I said I'd update more often, but its hard to find time to write. It'll be even worse once school starts, but I would just want to mention that I will never give up on this book. No matter how shitty I think it might be, or how long it takes for an update, I will always finish it.

On a lighter note, I wrote nearly this whole thing while waiting in line at Disney, so 😁