𝑆𝐿𝐼𝐺𝐻𝑇𝐿𝑌 𝐵𝐸𝑇𝑇𝐸𝑅 𝑇𝐻𝐴𝑁 𝐶𝑂𝑂𝐾𝐼𝐸𝑆 | 𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐄𝐑

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐈𝐗

𝐏𝐀𝐖𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐀𝟓

—♟—

"𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐀!" 𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐄𝐗𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐃 eagerly as she walked into the chemistry classroom. "You're back!"

"Hi, Ned," she chuckled tiredly as she took her usual seat between him and Peter.

Kara was beyond exhausted. As soon as she had gotten home from the Mansion, she immediately continued to work on her school work and hadn't gotten a wink of sleep ever since then. It had gotten difficult to stay awake on Sunday, but the five cups of coffee she had drunk really helped. Also, she might've had three separate mini heart attacks, but whatever.

She turned to the boy on her right. "Hey, Parker. What's up?"

"Not much." Peter shrugged, nervously running his hand through his hair. "I started the project, by the way, it's on Amadeo Avagadro. I'll add you to the Google Doc now."

He fished his phone out of his pocket and did just as he said, giving her a small nod and smile once he had finished.

"Thanks." She grinned, feeling her phone buzz with the notification in her pocket. "Ned, who are you with?"

"Sam." Ned beamed, pointing to the boy who was sitting a few seats away with his eyebrows furrowed as he hurriedly scribbled down some answers for the homework. The two of them were quite good friends, and Sam was who Ned usually turned to for projects, knowing that Peter would always want to go with Kara.

"Did you manage to finish everything?" Peter asked worriedly as Kara looked back towards him. "And study?"

She nodded. "Everything's go—" She was cut off by a yawn, using her hand to cover her mouth as she did so. God, was she tired. "—od. Good."

Peter then narrowed his eyes. "Did you sleep last night?"

Damn, he knew her well.

She was about to answer yes before having to stifle another yawn, and instead just gave him a timid nod. Maybe if she didn't look at him, then he wouldn't be able to tell.

He narrowed his eyes further. "Did you . . . sleep ever since you came back?"

Damn, he knew her too well.

She blinked. ". . . Yes?"

"Kara, I told you I could help you," he groaned, letting his head fall back. "I could've come over and given you the answers or something."

"It's fine," she dismissed, waving a hand in the air as she shrugged. "I got it all done anyway. And I'm ready for the test tomorrow."

Not that she really needed to study for it.

"Yeah, except now you're going to be tired all day," Ned pointed out, his eyebrows raised.

Kara scoffed, "Oh, please, I'm not tir—" Another yawn. "Okay, fine, yes, I'm a little sleepy. But who isn't, it's eight in the morning!"

"Then again, everyone else has actually slept!" Peter threw his hand out, gesturing to 'everyone else' with an expectant look on his face.

"You don't know that," Kara mused, raising her eyebrows and folding her arms to try proving the point she was failing at making.

Peter huffed. "I—"

Mr. Cobbwell walked into the room before Peter could continue, hushing the class from the loud chatter. He soon began the lesson, and Kara pretended not to notice the worried glances Peter continuously made toward her while she copied down the notes into her book.