TROUBLE, peter parker

iv. cat killer/two ships

The weekend passed as all weekends do.

It was a blissful bore of doing research for work for hours on end, feeling like a morally terrible person for snooping into things people have been so desperately trying to cover up, realizing they're morally terrible for doing said things and covering up, thinking you're in the right for uncovering them, and thinking about if you're just sinking to their level.

Oh, and waiting until the last minute on Sunday night to do homework.

Monday rolled around again as quickly as it always does, though this time she forced herself to go to journalism club. Classes were boring as ever, and nothing interesting happened until she arrived at Mrs. Clarke's room again for detention.

This time, she took the liberty to label their seats with post-it notes, and Maya found her seat in the front middle seat, with Flash—who had arrived earlier than she had—on her left and the bright yellow post-it note on the desk left of her with the name Peter Parker written on it.

She quirked her brows up in curiosity before pulling her backpack off and sitting down. Maya snuck a brief glance towards her left and noticed Flash looking at her intently.

Maya had to spend the last few days in detention with him because of the incident at lunch with Gordon (Big Brother indeed was watching), but they always sat apart.

Occasionally they would glare daggers at each other just for kicks, but it was only for a second or so.

The only talking they did was when she asked why he was actually there rather than skipping, to which he would grumble a non-answer.

"How can I help you?" she asked.

He took off his hood and settled even further into his seat. "Nah, I was just observing the way you stared at Parker's name."

"Curiosity."

"Curiosity," said Flash, the word dancing on his lips. "You know, that's what killed the cat."

"I heard it was brought back."

"Heard you're hanging out with Gwen again."

"Sure," said Maya. "Why do you care?"

He gave her a look that made her feel guilty for being short with him.

"How have you been then?" she asked. "Aside from your typical school antics. Like with home stuff. Or—well—you don't have to tell me obviously, but ... everything's okay with you, I'm hoping?"

Flash opened his mouth before quickly shutting it again. He looked at Maya with curious scrutiny that left her awkwardly adjusting in her seat.

Flash, Maya, and Mrs. Clarke all whipped their heads to the door at the front of the right wall of the room upon hearing a loud slamming sound. Peter Parker was there, wincing from how hard he had closed the door behind him. Maya swore he mumbled an apology to it before making his way to his assigned desk.

"You better not break my door, Peter," Mrs. Clarke said.

"Sorry."

Maya looked back at Flash, tilting her head in the direction of Peter. "And satisfaction brought it back."

"Right on time," Clarke said.

She walked around her desk to collect the post-it notes for the names of the people not showing up to detention.

"One hour," she announced to the grand total of three students.

She sat back in her chair, propping her feet on the desk, and put on headphones before being utterly captivated by whatever was playing on her screen.