[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...
┌────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────┐ chapter one BEAM ME UP └────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────┘
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───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────
THE LIGHT IS BLINDING. Iridescent rays of color spill across the surface from the sun shining through the nearby window. For a moment, Lena allows herself to gape at the sheer beauty of the attraction as she cranes her neck to see the various colors shifting along the curves of the metallic wall like a moving rainbow right before her eyes.
"Lena!"
She abruptly turns to see Mr. Carter, the robotics club moderator, rushing toward her with a security guard in tow. For a moment, she panics. Had she accidentally lost her precious piece of equipment from Tony? A quick brush of her hand along her chest makes her realize that's not the case. Her shoulders slump in relief at the now-familiar weight of it on her chest.
"The bus is going to leave any minute!" the dark-skinned man exclaims, pushing his wire-rimmed glasses further up his nose as he guides her back toward the main entrance with a gentle yet urgent hand on her upper back. "We've been looking all over for you— we thought we'd have to make a phone call to your parents, and I'm sure they wouldn't like that. Where are your buddies?"
Lena refrains from informing the club moderator that she'd lost Peter and Ned an insurmountable time ago. How can she help it? The National Museum of Mathematics is too exciting for her to handle. Even though most of the people around are parents with their young children, it's still inspiring to her to see the impact that science and mathematics can have on their everyday lives.
That's why Mr. Carter has to practically force her away from the dynamic wall, an attraction in one of the corridors of the museum that features a bending structure made of some sort of reflective material. The colors that had spilled across it were so pretty, and if she could have taken just one picture—
"My parents are in the Philippines for their wedding anniversary," Lena explains, trying not to huff as she brushes her newly-cut bangs out of her eyes. She doesn't want to sound rude, and getting detention or a behavior strike for talking back to a teacher is not something she wants to do today. "I'm only supposed to contact them for emergencies because of our cell phone plan. It costs money for calls and texts."
Mr. Carter frowns, forming more lines on his brown skin. "All the more reason to behave. Come on, we have to run so we won't be late."
Sprinting around the National Museum of Mathematics alongside her club moderator is not something she planned on doing at any point in her life. She slows her pace as to not leave Mr. Carter in the dust, her long legs working in her favor more than his slight potbelly does. It's a bit embarrassing to see all the other students waiting in the mustard-yellow schoolbus. Her cheeks don't warm, though, and her head doesn't turn to face the sidewalk. She holds her head high as she climbs the three steps up onto the bus.
