[2020 Watty Award Winner!]
[BOOK 1 OF THE HAVOC SERIES]
❝you may be the best web-slinger
around, but you're terrible
at keeping secrets.❞
in which even though peter has a new,
high-tech suit, it doesn't stop a girl with
common sense from discove...
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PETER SITS ACROSS FROM Graham, his head in his notebook, eyes furiously scanning the same three sentences over and over until he must be dizzy. Ned tries to pretend that he doesn't notice. It's futile, though. How can the quietest person at the table somehow be so loud at the same time?
Lena taps her pen on the table. Her novel for AP Lit — Pride and Prejudice — is being held open by her other hand, highlighters sprawled out around her in a dizzying rainbow of color. Her sticky notes have started to escape to Graham's fourth of the space. He doesn't seem to mind, because he's trying to focus on AP Calc.
They're all tackling different subjects. Ned is attempting to complete an outline for AP Euro while Peter is tackling Physics— they have a quiz tomorrow. She's so shocked to see him actually studying and not blowing off something school-related that she's afraid to break the silence.
Soon, though, it gets to be too much for Ned to bear. "So, Graham, how's life?"
Graham's shoulders slump in relief at the ruination of the quietness. He looks up from his calculator, shrugging. "Alright. I've been working on this song for a few days, and I think it's going to be decent."
Lena fights the urge to scoff. Decent isn't in Graham's musical vocabulary. He's practically a prodigy. In the few songs he's sung for her, they've always brought tears to her eyes one way or another.
"Your mom told me you finally applied to Julliard," she mentions as casually as possible. The corners of her mouth tug into a small, proud grin.
Ned's eyes nearly bug out of his head. He slaps a hand on the table, causing several passerby to jump, but Peter stays intently focused on staring at his notebook. "Dude, you want to go to Julliard? That's so cool!"
"Thanks." Graham smiles sheepishly.
"I hope you make it, bro," Ned says with an intentional poke on Peter's arm. The pale boy jumps as if he had been zoning into a completely different world. "Did you hear? Graham applied to Julliard."
"That's cool," Peter hums with a nod. "Good luck."
He glances back down at his notes. Just like that, the tension in the air is back to its normal, palpable thickness. Lena's face falls as Peter rests his cheek on his hand and twitches his nose absentmindedly.
