The Fraud: a Spider-Man fanfiction

//21- THE PAYMENT//

When Rose finally got her phone back from security, she found out she had more than five missing calls from Norman, she ignored them and put the phone again in her pocket, not before sending a text to Peter to see if he was alright. The girl followed the rest of the team outside the business center. Liz was carrying their trophy: it was a big golden cup with handles that read 2017 ACADEMIC DECATHLON CHAMPION.

"So, kids, the day is still young," Harrington said, putting his hands on his hips. It was true, it was barely three in the afternoon when they had wrapped everything up, and besides, it was on the plan to stay one more night on Washington so the students could explore or take a tour or whatever around the capital, "what do you guys want to do next?" Rose had always found it funny how close that teacher was with that group. Every professor always was extremely professional, calling their students Ms. Chandler or Mr. Parker, but Harrington treated them like casual kids, even calling Flash and Ned by their nicknames instead of their actual names.

The kids turned around to the Washington Monument, which was right across the street. "Why don't we take a tour of the Washington Memorial?" Cindy said, the rest of the group agreed, but Ned looked hesitant.

"Right now?" Ned asked, the professor looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "I mean, I just want to check on Peter- and Flash-, see if they're okay and want to come with us, maybe change clothes?"

"Yeah," Betty agreed, "I could totally use a shower right now."

"Well, I guess I could give you a couple-ish of hours, the monument closes at ten so you guys can chill out for a while," Harrington said, "guess I'll see you at the hotel lobby at six." The students nodded and followed the professor back to the hotel.

"I still can't believe we did it," Liz said as they entered the hotel room, she threw herself excitedly to the bed just like she did in her house, while Rose just sat quietly on her own bed. "It was crazy."

Rose received a text from Norman, she checked her phone while taking off her shoes. "Totally nuts," she answered with her mind only focusing on the screen and waiting for the right moment she could call Norman.

"What's wrong?" Liz asked.

"About what?"

"You," she pointed at her, "you're acting weird. Is it about your spy thing on the paper?"

"What? No," she giggled. "It's just that I feel like I didn't do a good job back there," she lied.

"That's not it," Liz sat up, "you're worried about something. Is this about Peter? Because I know that he's going to be just fine."

"No, it's not Peter," she had texted Peter after getting out of the business center to inform him about their triumph and asking him if he was okay or wanted her to give him a visit. He answered that he just felt like shit and didn't want her to visit him since he looked like a total mess and didn't want to stress her out. She didn't agree at first, but he ended up convincing her that he was fine and probably would go with them to the Monument. "I'm not worried about him, it's my mom."

"What happened? Is she okay?"

"She's sick," that wasn't a lie, but her mom wasn't what was bothering her right now, and that was the only thing she could think of that could make Liz leave her alone for a while so she could talk to Norman, "I'm just going to call my grandmother to check on her."

"Oh," Liz breathed out, "do you want some time alone? Because I could go to Michelle, Cindy, and Betty's if you want," Rose nodded, Liz gave her a half smile, grabbed her purse, and left the room.

Rose let herself fall to the bed and she stared at the brown ceiling for a couple of minutes. She looked for her suitcase and took out her computer, she placed it on her lap and sat on the bed. The girl called Norman, who, of course, probably had something more important to be doing and took forever to answer, finally, the wrinkled pale face of her uncle appeared on the screen.