1 | ISSUES ( Peter Parker )

02

           

CHAPTER TWO | PARTNER UP

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careful. she crumbles empires with that laugh.

- excerpt from survival of the richest || k.k.

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Bella sat in her AP Bioengineering Seminar, wishing Liz was in the class with her. But Liz wasn't. In fact, Bella was one of four sophomores in the class that was meant for seniors. No matter what, Bella knew she would enjoy the field trip, but having Liz with her would make it all the more fun.

Bella scolded herself, reminding herself that the nerves she had were just her anxiety and OCD talking. Well, maybe this issue exactly wasn't caused by the OCD... but it was definitely playing a part of it. As the thought rolled through her brain, Bella typed down a reminder on her phone to ask her therapist about the OCD. Bella was definitely a hypochondriac and she was constantly diagnosing herself with things. The OCD diagnosis came about four months ago, when Cara made an offhanded comment about Bella's need to be exactly twenty minutes early to school each day, or the fact that Bella would have full on panic attacks if they weren't walking into a movie theater ten minutes before the previews even began.

The OCD thought stuck in Bella's brain (probably a byproduct of the anxiety and depressions, things Bella had actually been diagnosed with) and she had been convinced of such ever since.

Bella was jerked out of her spiraling thoughts when Mrs. King began speaking.

"All right, class," Mrs. King said, clapping her hands together and grinning. "Today, we're going to OsCorp. Who's excited?"

The class grinned, and one of the senior boys whooped loudly.

"That's the spirit, Dan!" Mrs. King said, laughing. "So, here's the deal, cherubs, I want you to partner up. I know, I'm letting you choose your own partners for once. Wild, right?"

The class laughed a little at Mrs. King's joke. She had a habit of making sure that people didn't just group with their friends.

"Today during the trip, I want you guys to take notes on all the things you see. The cool stuff, the weird stuff, the confusing stuff. Anything that catches your mind. For the next two weeks, following this trip, I want you guys to construct a PowerPoint on these things, figure out what you find the most interesting," Mrs. King explained. "And here's where it gets cool. You're gonna make a prototype of your own. Use the science at OsCorp for reference and then branch off. Got it?"

The class murmured back their acknowledgment.

"Great. Love the enthusiasm. You guys have five minutes. Partner up, and then I want one of you to come grab a notebook from my desk. Groups of two, mind you."

Bella sighed and looked around the room. None of her friends were in the class. She glanced at the boy to her left. Peter Parker. He was a sophomore like her, and they had been sitting next to each other in classes for years due to her name falling right after his in the alphabetical order teachers loved so much.

"Hey, Peter," Bella said.

The poor kid practically jumped out of his skin. He seemed confused that Bella was talking to him. Peter wasn't exactly popular at Midtown High, and even though he and Bella had been going to school together since they were six, he never seemed to remember that she knew who he was. It was like he expected her to have no memory of him, even though he had spilled lemonade all over her white dress at her eighth birthday party.

"Hey, Bella," Peter said, flushing red.

And, so maybe his obvious crush on Bella was another reason why he always got so flustered when she acknowledged him. He was definitely cute, Bella had to give him that.

"Do you wanna partner up?" Bella asked, flashing him a pretty smile.

Peter's face lit up and Bella couldn't help but grin. He pushed his glasses up on his face, still a little flushed, and scrambled off his seat to grab a notebook. Bella watched as he walked away.

Cute butt, she thought, unable to help herself. As soon as the thought entered her brain, however, she cringed a little. Bella had kind of been a hormonal mess lately – probably because she was currently the only one out of her friends to have never kissed someone. Abby had even gone down on a guy before. Bella was a little skeeved out by the idea of a blowjob, but she at least wanted the opportunity to deny giving a guy one.

Ten minutes later, her whole class was sitting on the large, yellow bus. Though neither Bella nor Peter were all that bulky, they were both long and gangly. Their long limbs made the ride somewhat uncomfortable and they ended up being pressed pretty closely together.

"Damn it," Bella muttered, sifting through her backpack.

"You okay?" Peter asked her, taking out one of his earbuds.

"Yeah," Bella said, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. "I just forgot to bring my earbuds."

"Oh, uh, do you want to listen with me?" Peter asked her, a nervous grin on his face.

"Sure," Bella said, biting down on her lip. "What are you listening to?"

Peter looked a little embarrassed. "It's, um, a podcast called Our Heroes. They've, ah, got a segment on Poltergeist. Last night she took down this attempted rapist."

"Did she?" Bella said with a small grin. "That's pretty awesome."

"Yeah, she's great," Peter gushed.

Pride surged up within Bella. Oh, if only Peter knew he was talking to Poltergeist right now, sitting next to her on a bus as they travelled to a field trip. Of course, he would never know that Bella was Poltergeist. Only Alex knew. Well, and Nick Fury, but SHIELD was done with after the whole HYDRA debacle so Bella tried not to worry about that. Bella and Nick had poured through the records the Black Widow had released after SHIELD shut down and the Parsons were nowhere close to being mentioned anywhere in those records. So, Bella didn't worry about it. Or rather, she attempted not to worry even though paranoia caused her to glance over her shoulder every time she turned a corner.

"I mean, any badass lady is great in my book," Bella said, taking the offered earbud. "I've got a major girl crush on Nike."

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peter's such a little bean, oh my GOD i love him

NOTE "Nike" is Ashara King who is mentioned later in the film, she has a backstory coming really soon

-bleuseys