Infelicity [P. Parker x Reader]

t w e n t y

Happy Halloween! I decided to give y'all a treat and update two chapters. I hope you all had a great holiday and ate waaay too much candy.

The entire bus ride up consisted of us being quizzed on questions we had by memory at this point. I was mostly ignoring them, only chiming in when nobody else was as quick to respond. Most of my time was spent with a new book or scrolling through social media.

Peter got a call and finally headed back to where Ned and I were sitting. I'm assuming that it's Happy checking in as to why he left the state.

"It's not that big of a deal," Peter sighed in frustration.

There was some mumbling on the other end of the line and Peter waved his hands as if waiting for a response. Finally clicking off the call, his head rammed into the back of the seat, and a look of relief washes over him.

Not but maybe a minute later, I got a call. Instead of Happy though, it's the one and only Tony Stark.

"Hello?" I asked, even though I already know what's coming from the other end of the line.

"Why the hell aren't you at school? Why does it tell me you are out of the state?" Stark countered back.

"Academic Decathlon, don't you remember? I was asked to join after Peter bailed, but I was still invited to come when he showed up this morning. I asked you weeks ago and you said that I could."

"I didn't know it'd be out of state!"

"It was on the permission slip," I sighed. He doesn't listen to anything I tell him.

The other end of the line went silent for a couple seconds before I heard a muffled, "who reads those things anyways."

He continued, "Alright, fine. Just don't try and do anything stupid. You're pretty good at that when you and the kid are working together. I'm watching to make sure you stay with the group."

I really hope he isn't checking that often.

Arriving at a large hotel, we moved to sign-in tables and were able to get our room keys. Because of my last minute addition, I was put in a room by myself. I had no problem with it, considering I'd most likely be sneaking over to Ned and Peter's room anyway.

Most of the afternoon was spent settling in and getting some much needed food because tomorrow was the day of the decathlon. Mr. Harrington claimed we shouldn't be staying out late anyway.

That evening, I walked over to Peter and Ned's room to see that they were trying to hack into Peter's suit.

"Why are we trying to hack into your suit?" Ned asked.

"I have to follow those bad guys to get to their boss before they start moving again," Peter started, "and I don't really want Mr. Stark to know about it."

I laughed before saying, "Are you seriously going to lie to Tony Stark?"

"I'm not lying. He just can't see what I can do yet," Peter said before turning back to his suit to peel off a tiny tracker. "Alright, Happy. Enjoy tracking this lamp."

"There's a ton of other subsystems in here, but they're all disabled," Ned started. I perked up, curious as to what Peter's suit can really do. "by the training wheels protocol."

Ned and I started chuckling as Peter cried out, "What?"

We all jumped into view of Ned's screen to see multiple lines of code. I briefly scanned through to see Peter did, in fact, have a ton of features he just couldn't access because of this "Training Wheels Protocol."

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Ned hesitated.

"Yeah. If they were put on for a reason, maybe Stark has plans. Maybe he's going to teach you himself," I threw out.

"C'mon, man, I don't need training wheels! I'm sick of him treating me like a kid all the time! It's not cool!" Peter whined while jumping onto the bed.

"But, you are a kid."

"A kid that can stop a bus with his bare hand!"

"I don't know if this is such a good idea," Ned reasoned, "What if this is illegal or something?"

I watched the exchange closely as the two bantered back and forth. I had a feeling Peter would be heading out to find these dudes, but he really is going to get in a ton of trouble if he does. I was kinda just hoping to enjoy the trip like a normal student, but how could I with Spider-man as one of my best friends?

Ned tapped a couple of keys on his laptop and the suit laid out across the bed lit up with new abilities. You can tell Ned wasn't incredibly happy about what he'd done, but he wouldn't step in the way of Peter's missions.

"I'm going to head out into the hall now. I'm sure you probably need to get ready," I mumbled, moving towards the door.

A couple of minutes later, Peter opened the door, said something to Ned about the glowing rock, and faced me. We stood there in silence for a couple of seconds before Liz came over in a bathing suit, towel in hand.

"Oh! Perfect timing! We're going swimming," she whispered to us.

A second later, the rest of the team runs by and Peter was smacked in the ass by Flash as he passed by. I tried my hardest to contain my laughter, but was not doing a great job of it.

Peter sent me a quick glare before turning back to Liz, saying, "I was actually going to study in the business lounge."

"Come on, Peter. You don't need to. You're like the smartest person I know," she started, giving one of her famously sick smiles, "and, um, a bit of group rebellious activity the day before a competition is good for morale."

Am I invisible? Last time I checked, that wasn't one of my powers. . .

"Huh?" Peter asked, confused.

"Well, I read in a TED talk, I mean, um, I- I heard it in a TED talk. And I read a coaching book," Liz stumbled out. She nodded her head to agree with her own thoughts.

Is she seriously flirting with him?

"Wow, you really," Peter also stumbled out, "this is really important to you."

"Yeah, it's our future. I'm not going to screw it up. Plus, we raided these candy bars from the snack bar and they were like eleven dollars, so come get your trunks on and join us!"

She threw one at him and ran off to join the rest of the team, leaving the two of us in the hallway.

I don't even get a candy bar? That's sad. I was really hoping for a 3 Musketeers bar.

"So are you going to come with me?" Peter asked, turning in my direction.

"Do I have a choice in the matter? I don't think you'd make it out there without me," I joked, trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere. Sneaking out wasn't exactly something we enjoyed.

"Oh come on!" he said, lightly punching my arm. "We'll be back in time for the decathlon anyway. It's not like anyone will notice we're gone."

I nodded once, pulling up my own hoodie to reveal the rest of my suit. We both knew this was coming, we just didn't know the insanity soon to follow.