Whatever It Takes

Chapter Eight

Two months later, Emma and Peter rode the crowded subway to school, and Peter opened his phone once again to send another hopeless message to Happy Hogan. Emma watched him type with one hand, wanting to tell him it was no use. He had called, texted, probably maxed out his voicemail box by now. All those times, she said nothing. This time, she said something.

"Its no use, Pete," Emma told him. "Stark saw use in us that one time. Theres nothing the Avengers or SHIELD wants with two teens."

"He'll answer," Peter insisted, trying to sound hopeful. His head turned to glance at her, "come on, Mr. Stark is nice."

"Nice enough to ignore you for two months. At least I told him not to call me." Peter's brow furrowed as his sister spoke. "What? Why not? Do you know what kind of opportunity this is?" Peter tried to keep his voice down while still trying to get the words through to his sister. In return, she scoffed. "Yeah, and I dont want it."

The two got off of the subway, leaving their large school in the distance behind them. Emma was the first to jump off the subway steps, and Peter tried to match her pace, like she was running from something. Most likely the coaxing from Peter she desperately didnt want to hear. As they crossed the football field, Peter kept his eyes on his sister who looked ahead of them, her face bored.

"I think you're being too harsh on him."

"He made us fight his stupid battles. He didn't want us to recruit us, just for his personal gain against his dumbass friends-"

"Even Black Widow?"

Emma adjusted the shoulder strap of her backpack, annoyed at herself having ever told Peter her favorite Avenger. She glanced at Peter who held a proud smirk, and feigned an offended look "how dare you use the most badass person I've seen in my life- aside from Aunt May - against me?"

Peter's eyebrows perked up, "you think Aunt May is more badass than Black Widow?" Emma half smiled. "Anyone that can deal with us without knowing about our powers is a badass amongst all badasses." Petter mulled it over for barely a second before agreeing, "true."

Walking up the steps, Peter barely noticed a car coming towards him, with a tug of his arm from Emma the two barely skipped away and missed the vehicle only to reveal a smirking Flash Thompson in the drivers seat.

"Sup, Penis Parker?!" He called as he drove away. Emma felt her fist ball and raised her other hand to flip the boy off, hoping he saw it in his mirrors. Not that it mattered. A kid like Flash Thompson was no one you could reason with no matter what method you chose. And Emma wasn't entirely the reasoning type. Peter pushed down a sigh and guided his sister along into the school. The morning announcements gave a Hallmark greeting to a sea of inattentive students. One of the school news anchors mentioning homecoming tickets to which Emma internally groaned. However, after watching one anchor reject the other after mentioning dates, she couldnt help but chuckle.

Emma and Peter's lockers werent far from eachother, only an empty locker apart since one student switched schools. As Peter and Emma began to pull their things out for first period, Ned bounced into sight, doing an imitation of a Star Wars character.

"Join me and together, we will build my Lego Death Star!" Ned smiled, holding a small Lego figure on Peter's shoulder as he turned. Peter's enthusiasm fused with his best friend's, "no way! That's awesome, how many pieces?"
Ned smiled proudly, "Three thousand eight hundred and three."

"That's insane." Peter mused. Emma rolled her eyes playfully as she shut her locker. "You two are cute," she said with a smile. How enthusiastic Peter got over things like this really was adorable. He always had this childlike warmth to him that made him so inviting and fun to be around. He even still watched Nickelodeon cartoon shows. Ned glanced at Emma with a twinkle in his eye. "I know! Do you guys want to build it tonight?" Peter shifted the strap of his backpack somewhat sadly at his friends invite. "We cant," he told him, "we have the Stark Internship."