the spider whisperer

Partners [chapter 2]

"Hey, um...?" a girl came up to their lab desk. She was next to Peter and looked down at him with a kind smile. He didn't seem to notice her at all. People usually didn't came up to him at school, so he just assumed it was somebody coming to bug his lab partner.

Y/n nudged him in the side with his elbow, "What was that for-?!" He was about to complain more but saw she nodded her head in the direction behind him. He turned and saw the girl finally. "Oh, hello. Is there something you need from me?"

"Um, yeah...?" she trailed off again, hinting she didn't quite know his name.

"Oh, um," Peter's usual flirty facade when it was just him and y/n disappeared. It was like the boy didn't know how to speak. When it came to meeting new people, Peter might've been one of the most awkward people y/n new. "I'm Parker— no, sorry. I'm Peter Parker."

The girl let out a small laugh at his mistake with his own name. She didn't know the reason he said his last name like it was his frost name was because of the girl who sat right beside him. The girl introduced herself, "Well, I'm Liz. I just moved into town, and I was wondering if maybe you wanted to be my partner for that upcoming science project."

"Science project?" he furrowed his brows and turned to y/n. She gave a disappointed shake of her head, "We have a science project?"

"That's what he was talking about, Parker. All of this hour," she rolled her eyes. "I got it covered though. We need to make and argument on which element is the most important on the periodic table. I signed us up for carbon since Flash got oxygen."

"Oh," Liz mumbled. "Are the two of you already partners? I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry," Peter apologized. He made a gesture in between himself and his lab partner, "We're just kinda attached at the hip because we've always been in the same classes. It's kinda known that we're always partners with projects. But you're new, so you didn't know." The awkwardness seemed to leave when he was talking about himself and y/n. But then he wasn't anymore, so it all came rushing back, "But you can, uh—" He scanned the room and saw Flash trying to get y/n's attention. So he pointed to the guy and drew Liz's attention to him, "You can pair up with Flash. I know he doesn't have a partner."

"Okay, thank you," she offered a smile, though y/n couldn't help but notice the slight disappointment in her voice from getting rejected. It made her squint her eyes as Liz walked away and over to Flash to go ask if he wanted to partner with her.

Peter grinned, waving his hand in front of her face and successfully bringing her attention to him, "Earth to my damsel. Don't get jealous over the newbie. I have eyes for you, and only you."

"Me? Jealous?" she scoffed. "Yeah, right."

"Hey! You were the one looking like you were ready to rip her throat out; not me," Peter put his hands up in defense. He slipped the finished container of web fluid into his bag and started putting the materials back in the cabinets under their lab station. "So anyways, how are we supposed to do this project? Do we have time in class to do it, or what?"

"Only tomorrow. The rest we'll have to do outside of school, or at lunch, or something," y/n answered, helping him put away the things that belonged on her side of the cabinets.

Peter hummed, sitting back up in his chair once he'd finished putting everything back in the exact same spot it was once in. He placed his elbow on the counter and cupped his cheek in his hand, "So what exactly are we supposed to do? I know we're making an argument as to why carbon is the better element, but how do we format it? Electronic, handmade— what?"

"You should really just start using lunch periods to make your web fluid," she sighed. "He said we can do it however we please, but we will be presenting them in front of the class." She glanced from the corner of her eyes, watching as his shoulders visibly tensed, "I'll do all the talking."

"Great," he grinned, pretending as if he wasn't about to fall to the floor crying because he might've had to speak in front of a class. "So I'll just web us to my house tonight. I guess I'm skipping out on patrolling."

Her brows furrowed, "You're not going to sleep when you get home?"

"Nah," he shook his head. "Sleep just means time wasted that I could've been doing something productive," Peter let out a yawn to show he was tired despite what he just said about sleep. He started to take something out of his bag, "I could spend that time doing schoolwork, working out... living a double life. Y'know, the usual."

"Too bad," she mumbled. "I'm not working with you on the project until you get at least eight hours of sleep. I don't want to do all the work on the project because your ass was too tired to type anything."

"Alright, alright," Peter set down a folder before holding his hands up in defense again. He ran a hand through his messy hair, "I'll get some sleep because the pretty lady is commanding me to." He looked at her with a kind grin that just meant he was about to ask for something. "By the way, do you have the math homework?"

"Parker."

"What? I was too busy saving lives to spend time doing it. My bad."