Blossom and Spider

Chapter Three

************Archieverse**************

They had put the project on hold for a few weeks after returning to classes. There were many things to do before working on their experiment. Also, the whole Sabrina and Archie drama had driven all of them mad, especially after they revealed that they weren't actually dating, which resulted in Veronica slapping Archie for a full minute. Great.The redhead had just laughed and asked her out, which gained him another round of slaps. Cheryl had really enjoyed the show. It was fun to see Veronica Lodge so pissed off and Archie Andrews so sheepish."I don't know how he can stand that crazy woman," Jughead commented while "helping" Dilton with some equations. He was mostly looking over the shorter boy's shoulder while eating chips."Come on, Juggie," Betty admonished him with a smile. "She can be nice when she wants to.""She almost forced me into an engagement and announced it on a podcast," the dark-haired boy said, shuddering at the memory of Archie and Betty joking about being engaged and him being a side effect of the consequences of said joke."She misunderstood what we told her," Betty justified her best friend's actions, smirking a bit at the memory. "Everyone can misunderstand." Then, with a bigger smirk, she added, "Also, you dated Cheryl by a misunderstanding.""I wanted to enjoy that cruise and the buffet," he shrugged dismissively. "The food was good enough. Also, it was just for a dating show."Cheryl scoffed and kept solving her part of the equations. She liked gossip, but they weren't offering new information, so she wished they would stop talking as it was distracting her. As much as she liked to trash-talk Veronica, she could understand why she was so pissed at Archie at the moment; she would have been too if she weren't dating Dilly. Or if Dilly's ex-girlfriend-not-his-girlfriend Danni Malloy started to spend time with him, but she wouldn't admit it out loud.She sighed and took another pencil from the pencil box Betty had brought. Apparently, they were breaking and using more pencils than normal. It wasn't her fault that sometimes they got too stressed. Also, Dilton's best friend Moose was... too much sometimes."Was that date before or after you moved to France?" Dilton asked Cheryl quietly, trying to sound disinterested.The redhead blinked and then almost laughed. "After, but before we really started dating."The shorter boy smiled a little bit, then turned to his board with a sigh. "We're never going to finish this thing.""We will," she said encouragingly, though she wasn't so sure."Yeah, we already built that thing," Jughead said, tapping the portal structure a little. "Also, here we have..." He looked quizzically at Cheryl. "Three, maybe four of the most brilliant minds in Riverdale and Moose," the black-haired boy finished as Moose entered the garage holding a shopping bag.Sometimes Cheryl wondered how Jughead knew the exact time when someone would come in, though the blond boy usually hung around with them when his girlfriend, Midge, wasn't available, which was every other Tuesday."What are you doing?" Moose simply asked while handing out some soda cans."We are still working on the same project.""Oh."After a few minutes of changing numbers and equations, Dilton started showing the portal to Moose, who didn't seem to understand but was listening attentively. That was until Moose started to play with the buttons on the side. Then everything started to get really flashy, and gravity shifted. Everyone tried to grab something until Dilton disconnected the portal.But Cheryl's hand slipped off.Then darkness.

***MCU***

A whole semester had passed.Peter had joined the band, apparently having a talent for it, and he had also joined the Academic Decathlon at one of his teacher's suggestions. Ned had also joined, but Flash did too, with the help of his father. At least Flash would leave them alone most of the time, but he would make snide comments occasionally, and that strange girl, Michelle something, would give him looks. Peter was looking forward to their trip to Oscorp for two reasons. One, he admired Norman Osborn's work and had once dreamed of working there when he grew up, though now he wanted to work for Stark Industries. Still, he looked up to him. Two, he could finally share some of his knowledge without Flash around, as Flash had been grounded for crashing his father's car again, so he wouldn't be going.(But probably would if he cried enough crocodile tears to his mother when she returned from her latest trip.)Peter rolled his eyes, thinking about all those years ago when he had been friends with Flash because May had worked for his grandma for a while. What had happened? Oh, yeah. Flash became popular when he was the first one in their class to have a cellphone.Peter stared down at his food, deciding he would have to start making his lunch before coming to school. Ben used to make him lunch until he was "released" from his contract and started working as a mechanic along with one of his friends from college, leaving him no time to cook. He wouldn't risk their stomachs by asking May to take care of it."You can have part of my sandwich," Ned offered, parting his Subway in half. "And I can take half of that...meatloaf.""Thanks," Peter said, cutting that thing that seemed to be meatloaf, though he was sure that Betty, whom he had been classmates with since kindergarten, said it was supposed to be lasagna. He liked Mrs. Thomas, but she was an even worse cook than May. Ned seemed immune to both cooking styles, so Peter didn't feel bad for giving him that...thing."Have you finished our Spanish essay?" Ned asked."I haven't," Peter admitted regretfully. "I wanted to write it about Stark Industries, but Mr. Pipps said I needed to write about something that wasn't science," the brown-haired boy snorted."I'm writing mine about Lodge Industries," the other boy said. "Mom used to work for a Lodge when we lived in Beacon Hill.""Aren't they the family that was caught in some embezzlement scandal?""The New York branch was...Hiram Lodge's. My mom worked for his cousin Burton back then.""Oh," Peter said and added, "I may do the essay about the Lodges too."They laughed, and then Ned asked, "Do you want to come over to my house and finish building our city? Mom is making nuggets."Both boys had been inseparable since they met and had the project of building New York City with Legos, though they had only built the Statue of Liberty and Empire State. It was an ambitious project that both of them knew they wouldn't finish, but it would keep them distracted until Ned's birthday came around, and he asked for the Death Star Lego set as a gift from his parents."Yeah, I'll text Ben and let him know that I'll be spending the afternoon at your house.""Great," Ned smiled.It was great to have a friend like him, and Peter was about to ask something when all the lights went off for half a minute before returning. The news reported strange activity in the forest between two small towns in upstate New York near Sweetwater River."Greendale and Riverdale," the brown-haired boy muttered. He had been to Greendale a few times as a kid since May had grown up there and had some distant family left around, though she was always uncomfortable when someone brought it up.Ben and Richard, Peter's father, had met her during a carnival in Greendale before they went to MIT with Mary, Peter's mother.Everyone shrugged off the incident in Evergreens Forest, assuming The Avengers would take care of it if it was something dangerous, but Peter had a strange feeling about it.