Some Things Never Sleep

Chapter Twenty Eight

Emma was now into her third week of school and she was starting to feel like she might've been relatively normal. Actually that couldn't be anything further from the truth. Just when Emma was given mundane tasks to do just like any teenager, she remembered that she wasn't a normal teenager...she wasn't like any of the others sitting around her. Tony could pretend that she was like them but in reality she wasn't anything like them. There were times that Emma caught herself staring at the others. A girl chatting with her friend when she was really supposed to be doing her classroom assignment. A boy discreetly watching a YouTube video while peeking every once and a while at the teacher's desk to make sure he was safe from getting a detention. Emma finally analyzed Betty Brant who concentrated very seriously on the assignment she was working on. Emma knew then that she could never be like them.

The blonde secretly wondered if any of them knew someone like her was in their midst. Probably not. Still...didn't they get the distinct feeling that there was someone very dangerous in their proximity? The same feeling prey like zebra got whenever there was a lioness stalking them in the distance. It was truly sad how oblivious her fellow classmates were to her presence. A few years ago she would've made no hesitation in killing or harming them if they got in her way. Of course, things were a lot different now.

It was then that Emma allowed herself to look at Peter who was sitting next to her. She didn't turn her head to look at him like he normally did when he would glance at her. No, she looked at him from the corner of her eye very discreetly as he concentrated on his classroom assignment. She noticed the way a small crease formed in between his eyebrows on his forehead as he furrowed his eyebrows in concentration. Emma could've laughed at the way his tongue poked out of his mouth as he erased something furiously. He was a strange boy, that was for sure.

She assessed his appearance carefully and wondered if there was anything different about him today. He still looked the same. The same somewhat neatly kept brown hair. The same navy blue hoodie. The same worn looking converse. He still looked like the same dorky Peter Parker she had seen the day before. Yet...there still seemed to be something different about him than before. Maybe he used a different soap or shampoo than before. Using her enhanced senses, Emma discreetly inhaled the air around her to see if she could smell anything different but there was nothing different at all. Emma was suddenly disgusted with herself. Did she really just smell him? She wasn't normal but even that was going a bit too far. Emma was beginning to feel very frustrated as she normally did whenever she was around Peter.

Emma didn't know why she found him so interesting. Probably because he acted so strange and nervous all the time. Something told Emma that wasn't all there was to it. She started finding herself wondering what kind of books he read...what music he liked listening to...what was he doing with his life when he wasn't being Midtown's boy genius. Emma told herself that she only wondered about those things because she found him to be very suspicious but deep down she knew that wasn't true. Why did she concern herself with such an idiotic teenage boy? If Emma was being honest then she was absolutely positive that Peter Parker would never be a threat to her. How could he be? She was the Viper Assassin. Even if whatever Peter was hiding was remotely dangerous, he would never pose any threat to Emma. So then why was she so hellbent on finding out what he was hiding?

For a moment Emma considered what Darcy kept teasing her about. Did she feel some sort of attraction for Peter? Emma assessed his appearance once more. She supposed he was cute in a dorky way. His complexion was oddly clear for a boy his age. His eyes were also a lovely shade of brown that practically lit up in excitement whenever he was happy about something. Peter seemed to be a very positive and upbeat person which was the opposite as to how Emma always felt. Peter was good looking...Emma would give him that but she didn't know if she could be attracted to someone like that. She wasn't even sure she was capable of ever feeling that way about someone. Hydra and Rumlow had done a really good job at beating and torturing feelings like that out of her.