Hero Business

Three

"Hey, Ned! Wait up!"

I jogged down the hall to where Ned had paused to wait for me. It had been a week since I first met him and we talked frequently through out the day. So far, I had gotten no where with the mystery. Peter was late for class three times in the past week and even missed school once.

"Hey Y/N/N, what's up?" Ned said, and continued to walk.

I fell in step with him. I had to ask him the question that had been pestering my mind for a while. "So, I was wondering about this Stark Internship..."

I heard him sigh and I glanced over at him. "Y/N, I've told you this before. It's nothing to worry about. Peter is just really busy with it."

"But what is it with the Internship? What does he do when he's gone!?" I threw my hands up in exasperation.

Ned stopped walking and turned to face me. "He goes to retreats and has a lot of school related stuff to do when he's gone. They're like field trips. Happy?"

I nodded and Ned smiled, walking off towards his next class.

Of course I didn't believe a word he said. Something was up that I didn't know about. They were keeping something from me.

Briiiiiiing

Crap, I'm late.

***

"Detention, now."

Mrs. Atle pointed a long, wrinkly finger towards the door. I walked out, my head down. This is what you get when you're late for class.

Mr. H would have let me off the hook.

I pulled my hoodie over my head and put in my earphones. It felt like protection almost. It was my armor, keeping me safe from the world.

I turned the corner and walked into the detention room.

Mr. Skeeve was asleep at his desk. In the corner, two guys, probably twins, were playing paper hockey with spoons and a paper ball. Michelle was in there, sketching in a notebook, and Peter Parker was pouting in the desk next to her.

I took a seat in front of Peter and got my homework out. At least I could get some done while in here.

"So, you got detention. You screwed up...."

I had barely noticed the TV in the front of the room. Captain America was on the screen, lecturing the kids who actually paid attention about their mistakes. I blocked out the noise by turning my music up louder.

As I was doing my homework, something small hit me in the back of the head.

"Ow!" I exclaimed, even though it didn't really hurt. I looked around to see what had caused the disruption.

The paper ball the twins were playing with was at my feet. I stood up and handed it back to them. "Watch it." I warned, before going back to my seat. My earphones had fallen out in the process so I started to put them back in.

"Hey, you're that girl that's been hanging around with us lately."

I turned around to face Peter, who was still talking. I've been hanging around them for a week and a half. However, most of the time he would leave for the internship.

"Are you still talking?" I interjected. Michelle snorted and flashed me an amused look before drawing once again.

Peter just sighed. "Look," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I know I haven't quite had the opportunity to formally meet you and stuff with the Internship and all, but I'm sorry for not really trying in the first place." He held out his hand. "I'm Peter."

I looked at his hand, then at his face, then back at his hand. He seemed sincere enough, so I shook it.

"Y/N." I said.

Peter gripped my hand a while longer before letting go.

"Great, now we're all friends." Michelle wasn't sketching anymore, Instead, she was holding up a drawing of Peter and I shaking hands.

She drew that fast.

Peter frowned and went back to pouting. I turned to Michelle. "Is he always like this?"

Michelle had started to pack up her notebook. "In detention, yeah." She stood. "Well, I gotta get to my next class. Peace."

Michelle left. She just left. Detention.

I stared at the door wide eyed, trying to figure out what just happened.

"She just comes here to draw people in distress. She doesn't actually have detention." Peter mumbled from his pouting position.

"But we weren't in distress." I countered, turning around in my chair and facing him.

Peter shrugged. "I'm not sure what that one was." He replied in his squeaky voice.

I rolled my eyes and went back to doing my homework. Science was too easy for me. Math was pretty easy too. I whizzed through all my papers and finally made it to the last one.

Halfway through my last paper, a soft beeping noise filled the room. I turned around to find it was Peter's watch.

Uh oh, he's gonna leave.

Peter quickly stood up and started to run for the door. I reached out and snatched his wrist. "You can't leave detention." I stated, pulling him back into the chair.

He looked at me in disbelief like why did you grab my hand? "b-but I have too!"

"No."

"You don't understand, it's important!"

Hmph, more important than school? "So the Internship is so important that you have to leave detention?"

"I never said anything about the internship." He said slowly.

I got mad, real mad. "But that's why you keep leaving, or why you're always late for class, or why you miss school, isn't it?!"

The teacher started to stir but I really didn't care.

Peter took a deep breath. "Look, I have to go, don't keep me here. This is very important."

I sighed, my sudden burst of anger disappearing, for now anyway. "Fine, sorry. I'll cover for you, since, you know, we're friends now."

I let go of his wrist and he nodded, giving me a funny but thoughtful look. Then he ran out the door. I heard a loud bang that sounded like a locker door closing but ten times harder.

I should have been worried about what it was, but I wasn't. I trusted this kid for some unexplained reason.

He would keep running off and I couldn't stop him. Next time, I thought to myself, next time I'll follow him.

Then I turned back to the tv where Captain America was still giving his lecture and tried not to die of boredom.

•••

Yeah sorry, this one's shorter, I just didn't feel like writing much today. I'll update later though.

Thanks for reading, bye bye!