𝐏𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 (marvel fanfic)

Chapter 7 🎄⛄

In the dim lighting of the morning sun, Sarah turned a copy over to put a striking red F on it-just trying to decipher that kid's handwriting hurt her eyes. After resting her eyes and stretching, she continued her gradings, only to curse as she came across a copy with a neatly handwritten name, 'Peter Parker'. He was a good student-no scratch that, he was her best student. He always got near-perfect grades in maths.

His thought process was always a bit fumbled but he inevitably found the right path to the correct answer in the end. She found fascinating how easily she could see his process in the way he crossed a calculation, and when he finally found the correct path his writing grew more pronounced.

With an almost resigned sigh, she wrote A on his copy and went on to the next ones.

Without her awareness, the sun got up and the light streaming through her glass panels got brighter.

She was late but she didn't find it in herself to bother. She had a perfect record and she knew how troublesome it was to find clean teachers-they wouldn't fire her for being late.

Therefore, she took her time walking down the streets, enjoying the normalness of the situation, the rugged pavement under her feet, the busy life surrounding her, the toxic pollution, and the rude people. It felt normal. This was her new routine as a normal citizen of a perfectly normal world-save for all the heroes versus villains stuff.

Cold wind rammed into her face with all the harshness of the coming winter. Her breath came out in short puffed smoke. Chill engulfed itself through her clothes to directly bite her skin.

She knew her skin was red and she couldn't feel her frozen feet but she didn't mind, the cold sharpened her mind and left her brain with a certain emptiness that felt good to her normally overworking mind.

So when she walked past a certain red-haired woman, she didn't react. And when it finally registered in her brain, she heaved a sigh-something she seemed to be doing quite often these days-but this time in relief. When her brain was on autopilot, it was better to not nudge her too much lest she reacts strongly-her reflexes were too honed for her own good. Something she certainly didn't want happening after she had finally settled in a somewhat nice apartment and got a decent job at a decent high school that was most definitely not linked with the heroes. She would have to be more careful.

Ah, she just seemed to have an affinity with creating troubles for herself. She could only curse her lack of interest in fantasy-related things in her previous life, if only she had had a larger interest in it, she would at least have enough information to not constantly dig a pit for herself.

As she ignored the eyes she could feel surveying something or someone she thought that what she needed right now was a hot bath, something to relax and drown in-as if she could actually drown anymore. Anything to keep her mind off the fact that she could practically feel eyes watching. She hated the feeling, being observed, scrutinized like laboratory rats.

With a wave of her hand, she felt her vision widen, she could now see that several flying cameras were carefully hidden throughout the streets, but what reassured her was that they weren't watching her specifically, they were surveilling the area. With another hand wave, her vision returned to normal as she continued walking like a perfectly normal, innocent, and unaware citizen.

Now she just needed to mind her own business and act normal. She was good at this, acting.

"Ms. Cano!" She winced internally as she turned around to see a panting curly-haired boy. Of course, it had to be the one person she least wanted to see.

"Good morning, Peter."

She waited for him to catch his breath as she watched him. He was sweating a bit, he had a half-eaten bread in his hand while his bag rested on one shoulder. The inner scientist in her wanted to berate this bad habit of his but months of forced self-restraint taught her better so instead, she waited for him to express himself.

Sarah wondered if he had been bitten yet. She had yet to hear about a flying spider saving the day in the district.

Maybe her stare was too blatant because almost immediately, she saw him look at her intently. In a show of goodwill, she extended her hand towards his and pulled him straighter. When she saw him frown heavily, she smiled innocently, he was sharp, she would have to keep an eye on him. No better way of knowing the truth than to investigate herself.

"You're late to school, Peter," she commented shamelessly.

"As are you, Ms. Cano," he muttered back.

Sarah let out a chuckle, "You caught me red-handed." They had class together in their first period too.

Peter started asking questions about the lesson and Sarah answered like the good teacher she was. And along the way, she started genuinely enjoying conversing with the bright young man whose thirst for knowledge reminded her of the one she once owned-when life held an interest for her, one that wasn't trying to not stand out.

She felt like she was living under a mask that blended in so well with her own that she started not being able to differentiate. Sarah the teacher was a dull person that was perfectly normal, too normal. A perfect record, some would say. Sarah the scientist, was a crazy woman that stopped at nothing to achieve her goals, she had a boyfriend, she was angry when she found out she was being cheated on and her problems didn't go beyond that. As a scientist, she still felt a thrill when she made a discovery, when she made a breakthrough after days of sleepless nights.

Now she was a teacher who wasn't supposed to know anything beyond what they taught in the curriculum, sometimes it felt frustrating, to have to set restrictions on yourself. To not feel that thrill anymore. To be stuck in a persona.

That's why when Peter asked questions beyond his age, she felt happy, so she answered with a smile and her shackles disappeared for the span of a moment, just this morning, she told herself.

He was curious to know more and she was eager to free her knowledge so they got along just fine. With one asking questions and the other answering, their conversations never strayed from being scientific, as Sarah's answers slowly went beyond the field of maths, Peter was thrilled to find such a knowledgeable teacher, and his respect for her grew as did his number of questions.