Ardent [PETER PARKER]

FOUR

FOUR.

( A PLAN TO CEASE ALL AFFECTION )

• Never speak to Peter 

• Avoid any and all contact with Peter

• Don't find out anything personal about Peter (What if he has a dog or tutors orphans in his spare time?)

• Never speak to any of Peter's family

• Never let Peter take off his shirt (Physically incapable of handling such a situation)

• Avoid situations where Peter talks about his passions and his eyes light up and his nose scrunches up a little bit and he smiles wide enough to see the crooked tooth at the bottom of his mouth.

NOTE: Am now picturing said situation. Somehow more in love with him than before.

NOTE 2: Will Allan, you absolute fool.

• Convince self that I am not in love with Peter

THE NEXT WEEK slipped through her fingers like smoke. It crept past her without Will even realizing, her grip on time loosening. Suddenly, it was Friday, and she had lost another week to physics lectures, homecoming announcements, and hours in the library spent thinking about Peter Parker and wishing a bookshelf would collapse on top of her.

She hardly had time to wish for her freedom before she was granted it, the afternoon bell ringing and releasing them for the weekend. Students flooded out of their classrooms, forming a mob headed out the doors. The hallways filled with enough noise to make her head shudder and split, a hundred voices talking over one another. Will had to duck aside to avoid being trampled by her classmates.

She pulled her notebook close to her chest as she leaned against the wall and waited for the halls to clear. She thought about the words written on the last page and she hugged it closer. Her plan was well hidden behind pages of equations and formulas, but Will could almost feel it burning through the paper onto her skin.