Spying on Spider-Man

Chapter 22

The next day, Sunday, Peter and I called Lexi and Ned and invited them to lunch at my house. They both said yes, so at 11:30 Peter and I started making my homemade mac and cheese (the recipe originally came out of a children's cookbook, but my dad and I had tweaked the recipe a bit.) As we were cooking, I got a call from Tony. "Can you watch the macaroni for a sec, babe? I gotta take this," I said. Peter nodded, and I answered the phone and walked into my bedroom. "Hey Tony, what's up?"

"Happy told me about last night," Tony said. "That was some good work. Good teamwork with you and Peter."

"I sure thought so, but it's good to hear it from you too."

"So does this mean you guys are back together?"

"Yeah, we're actually cooking some mac and cheese right now. Lexi and Ned are coming over for lunch."

"That's good. Hey, I have a question for you."

"What's up?"

"I'm thinking of offering Peter a job as a full-fledged Avenger. You too, if you want it."

"And you want me to tell you what I think he's gonna say, huh?"

"No, I'm fairly confident he'll say yes. My question was whether or not you want the job."

"I do what Peter does. And honestly, I have a feeling he's gonna turn you down."

"What are you talking about? No one ever turns me down. Plus, he'd better not, because I have reporters coming."

I looked at Peter in the kitchen stirring the macaroni. "I think Peter would surprise you. Anyway, I need to go help Peter cook."

"Ok. And hey, as soon as you get out of school tomorrow, I want you upstate. I'm gonna have Happy grab Peter from Acadec practice and bring him up, and I want you to be there before him."

"Will do. I'll see you tomorrow Tony. Love you."

"Love you too."

I hung up the phone and walked back into the kitchen. "Who was that?" Peter asked.

"It was Tony. Hey, I need you to do me a favor tomorrow and cover for me at Acadec practice. Tony needs me upstate for something," I said.

"I can do that."

About twenty minutes later, the mac and cheese was ready, and at exactly noon the doorbell rang. I went downstairs and opened the door. Lexi and Ned were both outside, and both of them were holding a bottle of sparkling apple cider. "Wow, so fancy," I said.

"Well, it's not every day your best friends stop a bad guy from hijacking a plane full of powerful and dangerous things that could be turned into weapons," Ned said.

"Wow, and all Peter and I made was mac and cheese," I said. Lexi and Ned laughed. "Anyway, come on in. I'll get some champagne glasses from Tony's kitchen and meet you up on my floor."

"You have your own floor?!" Ned asked excitedly.

"That's right, this is your first time here. Lex, you wanna take him upstairs? Peter's up in the kitchen," I said.

"Yeah, I'll take him up," Lexi said.

I smiled and headed to the downstairs kitchen to get champagne glasses. As I climbed onto the counter to rummage around in the tall cupboards, I noticed a picture on the wall that I had never noticed before. It was Tony taking a goofy selfie with a very familiar lady. I hopped off the counter and walked over to the picture, tracing the outline of the lady's face with my right index finger. "Hi Mom. I miss you," I whispered.