1 | ISSUES ( Peter Parker )

11

CHAPTER ELEVEN | THE DATE

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this is an elegy for all the things that we become before we're done becoming women.

-this woman, alysia harris

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Dressed in a black floral skirt with a white blouse tucked into it, Bella stood in front of her mirror. She had on red Converse and a pair of brown aviator sunglasses were tucked into her shirt.

"Alex!" Bella yelled.

"What's up?"

"My hair – ponytail or down?"

Bella gathered her thick red locks in one hand and pulled it up as if she were putting it into a ponytail and then she let it fall back down to her shoulders.

"Could you do that thing girls do when half of it is up? The way you wear it when you're looking professional at model un, debate team, and academic decathlon things. You look cute, by the way."

"Thanks!" Bella said brightly.

"What's the occasion?"

"I'm going on a date with Peter," she said giddily. "Well, I mean when I asked him to come see the Pompeii exhibit with me I said, 'cool, it's a date.'" Bella checked the time on her phone and looked up at her brother. "I gotta go. I'm late. See you tonight."

"Nope, working," Alex said. "I'll see you tomorrow afternoon around three."

Bella kissed her brother on the cheek and sprinted out of the apartment. She checked to make sure no one was watching as she teleported to an alley near where she was meeting Peter. She opened up Snapchat and checked her hair and makeup, applied some more lipstick, and sent Liz a Snapchat with the gold butterfly crown filter.

Peter was standing next to a tree, constantly shifting around. He had on jeans, red Converse, a blue long sleeved sweater.

"Peter! Hey! Our shoes match!" Bella said, jogging up to him. "Sorry I'm late, I hope you didn't think I was standing you up or anything."

"Bella, hi, you look—wow," Peter said, eyes wide. "And, um, no it's totally fine I was just stupid and got here like fifteen minutes early."

Bella laughed a little and looked over at the museum.

"I'm really excited to see this exhibit," she gushed, grabbing Peter's hand and beginning to walk. "I love ancient Roman stuff. I mean, I like ancient Greece a little bit more because, um, did you ever read the Percy Jackson books? About the Greek gods? Also, Nike is just... the coolest, you know?"

"Yeah," Peter said, scratching the back of his neck. "I love those books."

"Oh my God, me too. I read the sequel series too, with the Roman gods and stuff. I read Blood of Olympus in, like, four hours the night I got it."

Peter laughed and squeezed Bella's hand as they walked up the steps at the front of the museum. High school and college students were admitted into the museum for free on weekends, so Peter and Bella got inside relatively quickly. As they walked inside, Bella caught a glimpse of a statue standing at nearly fifteen feet tall of a woman she knew well.

"That's Nike," she whispered excitedly to Peter. "Man, I love her!"

"Aren't she and Captain America, like, a thing?"

"Yeah, I love them. Crime fighting couple goals, am I right? I told Liz that the other day and she was like, 'I prefer Poltergeist and Spider-Man.' As if, right?" Bella snorted.